hime speaks: Koi wa Itsumo Arashi no Youni

Alternative Title: Love is Like a Hurricane

Mangaka: Tokiya Shimazaki

Status: Complete 5 Volumes

Genre: Comedy, Romance, School, Yaoi

Synopsis:

Mizuki gets molested on a train bound for school, and the perpetrator is none other than the school president, Azuma! Mizuki gets called to the student council room, where Azuma confesses his love for him. So begins the tale of this wacky, school story.  -801 Media

My Take:

I'll say this straight out, this is one smutty manga. Is it hot? Well, yes I guess 'yes' since it is smutty. Is it worth the read? Well, read on...

Being a short manga series with only 5 volumes, the manga centers on short stories revolving around three couples who all are in high school and happen to know each other.  They do have their own sub-story where it concentrates on one couple per chapter, but you can't really expect much from a manga that has a lot of sweaty men... uhm, pleasuring each other out.

The main story of this series is, of course, called Koi wa Itsumo Arashi You ni (Love is Always like a Storm) which centers Sakaguchi Azuma and Hasegawa Mizuki. Mizuki is a character who deeply resembles Honey-sempai from Ouran and with all his cutesy-act, I really can see the resemblance of the two. There are a lot of factors that would differentiate them from the other, though.

For one, Azuma as Mizuki's partner is manipulative in a very possessive way. Truth be told, he's the only character in the manga that I seem to like really well. I like how cunning he is towards Mizuki in a way that would steer Mizuki in his direction. Mizuki minds but likes it in an annoyed way. I just love it when Azuma's plans unfold rofl.

There are two side-stories which are connected with the AzumaXMizuki pair. One is called Wagamama na Koi Dakedo (It's a Selfish Love but..) which revolves around Takazawa Akira and Takizawa Izumi, half-brothers that have been bitten by the brother complex bug. Akira is Mizuki's classmate and Izumi is also part of the student council so this pair is pretty good friends with the first pair I've mentioned.

The other side story in connection to Azuma and Mizuki is Maji de Koishite (Love Me, Seriously) with Inoue Kazuomi and Koyama Minato in tow. They're not really that connected with the main couple though (only one chapter!) but I suppose they're somewhat connected since they go to the same school. Simply put, these two have a Senpai-Kohai relationship which makes me think of NowakiXHiroki from Junjou Romantica. Like JR, the younger guy is the seme and the older guy is the uke. Their personalities are more or less the same compared to Nowaki and Hiroki from JR as well, but, comparing the two, the adorable JR couple wins hands down for me.

There is this one last side story that isn't connected to the Koi wa Itsumo Arashi You ni setting, but is still worth mentioning since they are part of the manga series. Yappari Kimi ga Ai sa (I Love You After All) revolves around Fujinema Yuki and Sakakibara Taiga and they're basically childhood friends where the young Taiga fell in love with the young Yuki when they were still children  and promises to marry Yuki when they grow older not knowing that Yuki is a boy. They meet several years later when they're in high school where Yuki wants Taiga to uphold his promise.

If you're the type who looks for a yaoi manga with a good, in-depth story, you're looking at the wrong manga title because this is one shallow and smutty manga that's purely fanservice and no character development at all. (Almost) Every 'all-boys-high-school-yaoi' cliche is in it, so expect to see a lot of sex scenes every chapter.

Even though this manga is shallow, you have to give credit to the author, Shimazaki-sensei, for her cutesy artwork. Her background art is a bit messy for my taste, but yeah the art is great. Shota fans may like to read this, but if you're looking for something that's easy to breeze by, then I recommend reading Love is Always Like a Storm as well.