StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: Reviewing the Finder series by Ayano Yamane

Review of the Finder series by Ayano Yamane

Buy it Now: on Amazon

Description: While on assignment trying to document the illegal activities of the Japanese underworld, photographer Takaba crosses paths with the dark and mysterious leader Asami. Asami takes Takaba captive, in an attempt to subjugate and possess him. But when the son of the Chinese mafia enters demanding evidence that Takaba may have, will Takaba be able to survive being caught in the crosshairs of a deadly underworld feud?

This review is based upon copies the author bought.

Before you read ahead, visit my previous post, StrangenessAbound’s 見 & 漫 Page: On Sexual Content in Anime and Manga.

StrangenessAbound’s Review: Ayano Yamane’s Finder series (ファインダーの標的, Faindaa no Hyouteki) is perhaps one of the hottest yaoi series on the market in Japan and in the United States today, and for good reason. The art is well drawn, the story is addictive, the characters are three-dimensional and dynamic and the sex is explicit and uncensored in both Japanese and English releases. Finder had licensing issues outside Japan for several a few years before Digital Manga Publishing’s imprint, June, picked it up and began publishing it in the United States in September of 2010.

The art in Finder is, to put it plainly, exceptional. Every single emotion on every character’s face – pain, love, pleasure, fear, anger – is depicted with such subtle strokes of Yamane’s brush that it’s easy to glance over at first, especially when one is reading “for the good parts” (i.e. the sex). The men’s – specifically the seme’s faces – are so sexily drawn that it takes my breath away. I think it’s their eyes and their smug smiles as Asami, a powerful and well-connected black market drug lord, and the son of the Chinese mafia, Fei-Long, capture Takaba Akihito over and over and over.

Part of what sells the Finder series to me so strongly is the fact that Yamane takes the time to flesh out each main character and several of the supporting cast members. You understand why they are doing what they are doing – they’re not necessarily doing it just because they can. Of course, the exception comes when Asami captures Takaba just to have sex with him. ;) By the time I was finished with the the first and second volumes of the series, Target in the Viewfinder and Cage in the Viewfinder respectively, I already cared about what would happen to Takaba, Asami and Fei-Long. I wanted to read more about their stories and how their conflicts would end.

Of course, the primary sell for the Finder series is the frequent, explicit, kinky and uncensored sex that goes on between Takaba Akihito, Asami and Fei-Long. Just a few pages into first volume, we see Akihito naked and trussed up in black leather for Asami’s viewing and screwing pleasure. Akihito also spends a great deal of his time being caught in Asami’s trap (First Volume: Asami – “I just want to come into your house to get out of the rain. Wait, no – psych! I want to screw your brains out.” :D ), Asami allowing Akihito to wriggle his way out of his trap, and then, Asami catching Akihito again to start the cycle over. It’s not even remotely boring. I found myself cheering Asami on, consuming pages as quickly as possible to get into Asami’s and Akihito’s next encounter. Think the Marquis de Sade’s Justine as far as Takaba Akihito’s situation/relationship between Asami and Fei-Long. I (and apparently many other readers) find this crazy hot – I understand that other readers of yaoi will not find the rape-y aspect of the Finder series so appealing.

With that being said, if you’re a yaoi fan and you don’t mind and even enjoy explicit manga, you have no excuse not to at least investigate the Finder series for your own personal library.