Review: Vibrant, daring, wonderful story!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2013
I feel bad I can't draw manga. Blood Red Butterfly is such a visual story and the rhythm is so delicious that I would love to see the whole novella illustrated -- or even better, animated. Josh Lanyon is giving the reader so many wonderful details about everything! I especially love the way Kai is described: his untroubled, slender figure and his bitten black fingernails. There is something utterly charming about that... and very complex too!It's almost unbelievable how only in less than 90 pages the main couple became so alive to me. I guess I'll never stop being amazed how Josh Lanyon manages to do that only with a handful of pages. What a remarkable skill he has.I loved the atmosphere of this story and the fresh, vibrant feel of it. I also liked the juxtapositions in it: honour and dishonour, fake and real, success and failure, love and hate... Torres' character brought a nice third dimension to it and I'm sure I didn't catch all the nuances during the first read. Blood Red Butterfly certainly deserves to be re-read as soon as possible.Another thing I loved about the story was the constantly changing dynamics between Ryo and Kai. The way Kai seemed to be at Ryo's mercy during the first chapter while under Ryo's interrogation and how their roles kept changing after that when the story continued. The power play between them was utterly intriguing. They had some hostile, downright aggressive encounters with each other and those were the points I (surprisingly) enjoyed the most. Thinking about it now, I suppose those were the moments that made the story very cinematic, very dramatic. Overall I liked the pacing with the fast and slow scenes taking turns quite rapidly.And I have to say that the sex scenes were... refreshing and very energetic. The story had unquestionably the best use for the little word "Oh" that I've ever witnessed... anywhere. ;)I'm no yaoi expert, but to me this story was a successful hybrid of vivid beauty and some darker, murky tones. I was so pleased that it all sounded like Josh Lanyon himself with only a slight, exotic and daring difference to the writing -- like a lingo (I hope this is a correct choice of word). And I bet the author had a lot of fun with some of the most vibrant moments and the most lively word choices! I certainly did enjoy reading them! Also the apparent amount of the research the author has done on Japanese culture makes me humble.Thank you for challenging yourself and us readers, Josh! I loved it. You are more than welcome to challenge me again any time you like.