Deep Love: Host · review
This review is not only about Deep Love: Host, but also about deep love Ayu story, Pao story and Reina, unfortunately I haven't read Real yet because I couldn't find the full english/russian version if anyone can please tell me:) So I had really high expectations of this because I really like tragedies and drama stories, when I asked about this manga everyone said it is the saddest thing ever so I was really excited. I will not get into spoilers at all, feel free to read. The story consists of tragedies, something bad happens, then feel ready that something even worse will happen. Something good happens, nowfeel ready that that good will go to waste and something horrible happens. Of course I understand it is a drama it has to be that way, but we don't even have time to get attached to characters, the only thing happening is tragedy after tragedy and the reader gets used to it extremely quickly, this is where most drama stories fall flat. Something good like Higurashi, where you also expect something bad to happen, takes it's time to develop, the tragedies don't just happen but they are built throughout the story, so when the things fall apart, you can see exactly how to first cracks where formed, but in deep love things just happen, like I don't feel shocked or devastated when tragedy occures, I am more annoyed than sad. I know if feels like I just can't handle sad stuff but it really isn't it, it is just poor story telling. though I will say that it still has good elements, I really like it's style, it is nothing unique and you've probably seen it multiple times, but I really enjoyed it and it fit the story really well, the characters are not really deep or greatly written but some of them are enjoyable and you are really rooting for them. The sad parts don't hit like in the beginning, but sometimes they still are really heavy and you actually might get emotional. I would say that it is still a decent manga especially if you are into this kind of stories, but I feel like it is really flawed, eventhough it has it's strong parts. I will now make the order in which I've read it and give it my ratings:))))
Deep Love: Story of Ayu - probably the best one from the four I've read, also since you are not ready rightaway the sad parts hit even more, I won't write too much because I've already said most of the things I wanted, but Ayu's story is pretty good, so I would say about 7/10.
Deep Love: Story of Pao - I think I didn't really get attached to this part, it already gave a feeling of tragedy after tragedy after tragedy and also the second part is the retelling of Ayu's story, but there are cool details which I liked, because it is told from dog's perspective and not Ayu's so there are stuff that Pao and Ayu see differently, but the moment might be the exact same, so that was good. Overall I would say 5/10
Deep Love Story of Reina - I liked this one the most maybe? Not sure, it was still the same idea, but even worse, I read it late at night so maybe I don't remember it that well, or maybe I overrated it while I was sleepy, because it was the most tragedy filled, it is literally 1 volume but author somehow managed to put every tragic event inside. 6-7/10
Deep Love Story Host - I wasn't really a fan of it, I barely remember most parts, of the story, which is weird because I read it just now and it is literally 2 volumes, but I would say that this one is also nothing really special, the first half was boring the second part just trying to be sad but I couldn't care for the characters that much. 5/10
So yeah, overall I still enjoyed it, wouldn't say I recommend but it was a decent read.