(From Be Beautiful)
“When Takaba Akihito, a young freelancer photographer, caught a business transaction on camera, he never thought it would change his life forever. Being thrown into the world known of yakuza and its’ dark business.”
I stumbled upon ViewFinder by accident and read the first chapter, and I got hooked immediately.
It’s well drawn, and the characters do have a deep and interesting background story which ties them to each other in one way or another, and it’s not a typical “cheesy” yaoi manga either, which made me like it more.
I’m not a fan of when the manga is all lovey dovey, I need a manga like ViewFinder for me to be satisfied, ViewFinder have everything I could ask for, evil guys which is portrayed to be a bit of the “good guys” in the end.
And I like the love/hate relation between Asami and Akihito and before Akihito realizes it he starts to fall little by little for Asami, the unstoppable yakuza boss.
ViewFinder is full of those moments you hope there’ll be a happy ending, when it seems hopeless, and tragic.
I strongly recommend it to who ever likes some action as well as drama, and not knowing what will be happen, and be surprised.
Enjoy the ViewFinder!
I believe that this manga is one of the best I ever read.I like the fact that the rape doesn't turn into love overnight but instead the transition is gradual and even so it's not the type of love where they do anything to please the lover, this is a rough love and I like this.I have to say that this is among the firsts mangas I read and I really loved it, moreover I recently read this manga again and I realized that I love it just as much as the first time, in fact after I read this manga I realized that I love the way Yamano sensei draws and makes the plot as well as the characters and I started reading more manga by her, currently I'm reading Crimson Spell, another amazing manga.My favorite character is Fei Long because I love a man with long hair and a sad past but I'm a bit upset that he doesn't get a lover, I was hoping that he'd remain with Yoh who was really faithful to him
In my opinion, this is one of the best BL series around. Period. A lot of this, however, has to do with my enjoyment of the subject matter in the series than with the fact that it's BL. I've always been a fan of noir, detective and gangster fiction and so enjoy the Yakuza aspects and its darker themes. Throw in Yamane Ayano's beautiful character models, interesting characters who develop nicely throughout, a great (if somewhat twisted) romance, and some of the best-drawn smut scenes you'll find in a BL manga and you have something really incredible.
Viewfinder doesn’t escape from many BL tropes that I sometimes find annoying, but it does handle them a little better than some other BL mangas I've read. At the beginning of the series, for example, Takaba Akihito, a photojournalist attempting to expose Asami Ryuuichi's criminal activities, is one of those resistant ukes that I tend to dislike in other series. In my opinion, however, this has more to do with the nature of his relationship with Asami than it has to do with Asami being a man. Their first sexual encounter, an attempt by Asami to "punish" Akihito's meddling in his business affairs, is a fairly brutal rape/mindfuck. To a character like Akihito, who seems pretty sexually inexperienced, it's easy to understand why he would be hesitant to engage in some kind of a relationship with Asami, male or not. The development of the relationship between Asami and Akihito after this first encounter, to me feels more like a tale of sexual awakening and the difficulties inherent in handling something like that (especially in this world of underground crime) than anything else -- at least on Akihito's end of things.
Viewfinder definitely isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s an incredible series that deserves attention from BL fans.
Personally I have a long list of yaoi mangas I've dropped reading right in the beginning or somewhere midway because of their complete lack of plot. It doesn't matter if a manga has boatload of sex in it, if there's no plot nothing else counts! The finder series, I thought will come across as another disappointment but to my surprise the story had what I was looking for so long. A sensible -and- captivating plot, awesome characters, realistic art, plenty of sex and action; in other words everything you need to keep you hooked.
The series, as explained in synopsis, is about a young struggling photographer Akihito Takaba who gets caught up in a strange mess he would have never imagined in his wildest dreams when Ryuichi Asami, the big shot mafia businessman whom he was trying to expose, develops an interest in Akihito and leaves no stone unturned to win him over. Suddenly becoming (not yet gay but) uke of a sadistic man, Akihito was still trying to get a grasp of reality when Fei long shows up and makes things messier. Liu Fei Long, is another big shot in the mafia world, although more traditional in his ways, who has a history with Asami and decides to use Akihito as the tool to settle past scores.
Revealing much would be ruining the story, but all I can say is this is no regular lame sex with cherry on top yaoi manga, and so, for those BL fans who yearn for something more meaningful this is where you'll get it all. There's hardly any dull moment throughout. Just about right amount of sex, action, character development and a unique story is what makes Finder series one of its kind. A must read, I say!
Warning: Not recommended to people who are not comfortable with SM
The Finder Series is a love story that resonates in both the heart and the crotch. There is a wonderful balance between angst, suspense and love which is both mental and physical.
The art was beautiful as with all Yamane Sensei's work (clean lines, just the right amount of shading, fantastic style). The sex was quite graphic which is fantastic for hard-core yaoi lovers but perhaps not so much if you're new to yaoi, so be warned.
The relationships and connections are all really quite intricate in its details. ***SPOILER (POSSIBLY) GO TO NEXT PARAGRAPH NOW!!!*** However, I really do question the existance of Tao (besides serving Feilong and kinda sorta stopping Akihito from trying to swim all the way back to Japan from Hong Kong) and would have liked to see a little more development between Feilong and Yoh (I there's some underlying hint that Yoh likes Feilong. Why else would he serve Feilong so loyally despite Asami being his boss?).
Plot-wise, I have nothing to complain about. It really isn't just another typical yakuza-boss-rapes-cute-boy story. There is a lot of hard and concrete plot and you do see relationships change and evolve.
It's definitely recommended. As is all of Yamane-sensei's works. And Oh my it seems I'm the first to give this a 4/5 for anything. Please don't hurt me xDD