Unbalanced Heat

Unbalanced Heat
By Minase Masara

Overall: Pretty Much Awesome
Smex Factor: Modest
Art: Generic+
Status: 1 Volume; Complete

Review: Unbalanced Heat is pretty damn impressive for a 5-chapter story. And by story, I really mean story. It actually has a plot that functions well.

Basically: Ryuu is caught in a familial struggle between his friend/classmate, Yoshito, and Yoshito's brother, Shinya. A lot of the story is focused on Shinya, who initially comes off as a psychopath, but is revealed to be, as the author puts it, someone who "can't do anything right."

Initially, Ryuu is kind of a dumbass. He isn’t careful, doesn't look for explanations, and acts recklessly out of curiosity. However, further in the story he shows that he's actually quite clever. Not only is he clever, but he uses LOGIC! And REASON! It's all quite impressive. Not to mention that despite being the uke in a generic art style, he actually looks kind of masculine.

The relationship isn't romantic. In fact, it's kind of awkward and clumsy, but it's exactly what it should be, and it's perfectly portrayed. Ryuu doesn't enter into a relationship with Shinya until he deliberates long and thoughtfully. The reasons that he decides to date Shinya (who, despite being kind of horrible, isn't THAT horrible?) are both incredibly mature and also just...make sense. It's well thought out where so much manga fails.

The whole manga itself actually reads well too. All events follow logically and emotionally. (Emotional logic is ignored even more frequently than regular logic in these kinds of stories.) My only complaint is that the manga-ka didn't get enough time/pages to build up and elaborate the story. I think that with a lot more time and room, she could have fleshed out the characters and story even more than she already did. Not that I'm complaining; it's not often that you see character growth in BL outside of, "Fuck a man?! That's gross! Oh wait, this is actually pretty nice. I'm gay now." (Except they wouldn't say they were gay, because there's only ever that ONE MAN that they would sleep with.)

Which leads me to another point: Ryuu says flat out that he's gay. It's nice to see that acknowledged, since an unbelievable amount of BL completely overlooks the term like it doesn't even exist. I would say that it's funny that gay manga won't even admit it's gay half of the time, but it's just sad. However, the modern stories are using the term "gay" more frequently, which is nice.

Also, Ryuu's dad is damn cool, and I wish he was in the story for more than three pages in the extra.


(As always, your Mileage May Vary as to the rating. I've heard some dissenting opinions on this one, but I stand by my original overall.)