Loveless
A while ago I watched Loveless. Despite its title, I had quite a bit of love for this anime. (Forgive my tasteless puns…)
Loveless follows Ritsuka and Soubi as they unravels the mystery behind the death of Ritsuka’s brother. After the brother has died, Ritsuka is sought out by Soubi, who claims to be a friend of Rituka’s brother. The pair are soon drawn into various battles. Together, Ritsuka and Soubi fight in spell battles, with Soubi acting as the fighter and Ritsuka as the “Sacrifice”.
Ritsuka actually looks kind of cute in this scan. Actually, in many scans, Ritsuka looks really very cute.
I thought the series is a rather nice watch. The pacing is quite slow, but that does set the tone fairly. Further, Soubi and Ritsuka are both really lovable characters. I especially like Ritsuka. The interplay and the development of the relationship between the couple are quite interesting as well.
Although the series does an amazing job with the characters, the plot certainly does get a bit convoluted at times. However, beneath all that are some really subtle complex themes and a touching story.
Anyway, since I am not watching that many series this fall, I decided to to take an opportunity to write some posts I did not got around to. Further, I recently read a review on Antique Bakery, and realizing that I actually read/ watch quite a bit of yaoi, I decided to write a review for a series I recently watched. With all the yuri on this blog, I hope this is a nice change of pace.
Must. Check. Out. I’m following too much anime at once right now. Like 10 series, gets confusin’
Thanks for the review, motivated me to watch xD
lol is this post inspired by blur’s Antique Bakery entry?
I like Loveless. It doesn’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth despite the yaoi theme.
The pictures I love. The puns I Love less.
blar, yaoi, one of the one or two odd fetishes that aren’t in my cup of tea…
imo, the charas here aren’t feminine-looking enough to warrant the dress. ahwell.
@moelitist: Yea, I have a bunch of shows on queue too… Need to get through them one at a time.
@kluxorious: Yep yep. I suggested briefly Loveless, and then thought that I should write a quick review. Anyway, I’m planning to watch Antique Bakery as well. I actually read quite a bit of yaoi or borderline boy love manga, so Loveless was kind of nice. I don’t mind yaoi themes unless it’s super hardcore.
@Baka-Raptor: Well played. I love puns.
@Ningyo: Haha, to each his own. I actually thought Rituski looks quite feminine.
Are these things men or women? I CANNOT FUCKING TELL.
@Snark, androgynous FTW? hehehehe
Fun fact I learned from a panel where the author was answering questions: Originally, all the characters had cat ears. She decided that Soubi and the other older characters didn’t look very cute with them, but she needed to figure out a reason why Ritsuka and co. would still have them. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a blatant message about sexuality, but I still enjoyed Loveless anyway.
Haha, interesting change of pace~^^
To be honest, I never got past the first episode of Loveless. It’s probably the pacing and the cat ears. …Okay, maybe not the cat ears but it didn’t exactly reeled me in… unlike Gravitation. That one was my first brush with yaoi anime and I remembered enjoying it quite a bit. It’s apparently quite a famous series with the yaoi fangirls. I can understand why…heh. The main pairing probably aren’t that much different with Soubi and Ritsuka…or any other yaoi pairings at that. =P But their occupation and situation does make things more interesting.
Antique Bakery is pretty good. I rather enjoyed the mood and the pace of the series. The cakes are mouth watering…don’t watch it with an empty stomach. Hehe, they were pretty realistically rendered for an anime…The Korean live-action adaptation was entertaining too. Nice looking bishies~ =3
m..is this BL?
@Snark: They’re both men. In fact, one of them is very underage too.
@klux: <3 androgyny.
@2DT: I didn't know that. I had thought it was some sort of sexuality thing too, with only innocent children retaining nekomimi.
@Fujii_Itsuki: The pacing is a bit too slow in Loveless; the cat ears I don't mind. Anyway, Gravitation is also nice. I need to watch antique bakery sometime too.
@G: ^ ^
If I am not wrong, Loveless it’s the only yaoi that I have watched in all my life, I have seen some other scenes of other animes, but since I don’t like yaoi I just watched some minutes, and never bothered myself to watch the whole thing…anyway, Loveless it’s not bad, but the real reason why I watched it was because of the zeros…
No… i cant stand BL……….
@Yuri DL: Haha yep yep. I liked them too, for obvious reasons. ^ ^
@razrig: Try some; you might end up liking it.
Gawd, I remember when I went to the AX panel with the Gundam 00 character designer who is also the mangaka for Loveless. Too many Loveless fans at that panel.
BL, ughhh.
I think I wil need to see it for myself. Didnt know about this show until now.
@Reltair: Hehe, I guess you don’t particularly like BL. ^ ^
@phossil: Yea, definitely check it out.
I quite liked the art of Loveless.
Thank you for the great pics again. =)
@shijima: Yea the art is definitely nice. For the pics, I just download them and upload them. Really not much to thank there…
Clearly a series I’m not after.
It’s a definite pass for me.
@Optic: Because of the yaoi?
Ah, Loveless. My first shounen-ai.
…And ironically, I ended up liking the lesbian story between Yamato and that other chick a lot more. I mean, Ritsuka x Soubi is fine, but it seemed kind of forced at times.
Oh, and Michiyuki is a beautiful song.
@saturnity: Well, I like Ritsuka, but I have to agree that Ritsuka x Soubi feels quite tense and strained for the majority of the series.
Of course, I like yuri more than yaoi, so agreed with you there on Yamato and Kouya.
MMMMM! Boy love *^___^*
This was my first manga in the life ha-ha-ha =)
@Akira Eshi: Glad to see a guy enjoy a healthy dose of BL now and then.
EEE! I am invincible Dulk =)
@Akira Eshi: hehe.