Manga Review: Black Sun

This is one of those manga that keeps coming up in rec lists for BDSM themed manga, but one that I had been unable to find until a friend pointed me to Akadot. So I bought it, especially since I'd been seeing how much everyone loved it for so very, very long.

Right. Well.

First off, I found the art to be uneven. Meaning, sometimes it was very pretty and other times, especially when Leonard was in his Crusader helmet I hated it. Especially his face. It became the cliche shojo face of doom.

The storyline was predictable and nothing special. Admittedly, I will happily read the trope of captive falling in love with captor all the live long day, assuming that the story is well done. And this wasn't. Heck, I can even read a mildly well done plot if the sex is really gorgeous or well done. This wasn't. And that's one of the things that people kept saying, that the sex scenes were so explicit, so 'hot'. These people have clearly not been reading the things that I have been reading if they think those scenes were a) well done or b) explicit and hot.

And there were random things that completely threw me out of the story. The slip of the author, or perhaps the translator into calling Jamal, 'Jamal-sama'. Last time I checked Muslims in, well, let's face it, any time period at all in the Middle East, didn't use the honorific 'sama'. And the freaking mitten things that they apparently use on captives hands.What the hell are those? What? That's how much they bugged me, or maybe that just shows how little the story dragged me into it.

Everyone in this story felt like a cardboard cutout. Nothing special. Nothing to draw the reader in and make us care about the characters' lives. It's unsuccessful as a story and it's unsuccessful as pwp.

The single best part of the manga was the little side story at the end with one of the other characters' pet panther.

A second volume as just been released and I will definitely not be getting it.

2 out of 5

If you're looking for a *good* manga with BDSM themes, gorgeous artwork, and a well put together and thought out storyline with fleshed out characters, allow me to point you to the Finder series. My love of which has nothing to do with the hot mob boss trope. Nope. Not one little bit.

a flaw in the plan

I get orders shipped to my work because someone is always here and I live out in BFN, with a fence/gate around the property. So my options are to either leave the gate open, thus defeating the purpose of the gate, or let the boxes sit there all day. Neither of which I like, so I have things shipped to work.

The problem comes when people have this habit of looking at my things when I unbox them. Which is normally fine, except when what I'm unboxing is yaoi manga. Like, hardcore yaoi. As in, Viewfinder. Yeah. Brush it off as you turn the cover away from them, 'oh, it's just a comic, nothing you're interested in.' Code for, 'it's gay porn. go away.'