User Reviews For: Embrace of the Beast

I am not a huge fan of the art at all, but it's definitely not the worst I have seen. That said the story line is ok, but I would not really keep reading this over and over.

Not a totally typical gangster debt story. I really like this kind of sketchy art style, and the characters were interesting. The story is a little shallow, but I enjoy it all the same. I also appreciate that the top isn't some gorgeous impossible gangster. He actually looks like a normal dude. A totally psycho violent dude, but a normal dude. There's one panel where he smiles and it's like watching a snake try to laugh, but in a cute way.

The art reminded me of 90's manga with its great detail in shading, which can seem a little creepy at times, and makes some of the action scenes hard to see. My biggest complaint has to be the ending. The climax was difficult to follow, and the end leaves a major question pertaining to the plot (the debt) that should have been answered. Also, it has a weird flash-forward at the end, and doesn't provide much explanation of how they got to that point, which irritates me. Still it has a happy ending, a detailed story, and plenty of hot sex scenes. Not a bad yakuza story, if you're in the mood for one.

Brutal and excellent storytelling, no punches were pulled, if you will forgive the pun. Would be more perfect without the lightsaber dicks, but that's a minor nitpick, I'm definitely going to re-read this one, I'm glad I bought instead of renting.... I want a sequel soooo bad, though I don't expect one, that's for sure.

I liked this, but the entire thing was shallow, I don't think it a good idea to have characters who are meant to be emotionally complex if you're not going to flesh them out for us. There were plenty of smutty scenes (which we love) but a few of them lacked heat; maybe I'm just over reliant on sound effects? But if you're not going to use them the artwork needs to be completely enthralling, which it wasn't. I also think there was too much that was just left unexplained. The flashforward at the end was really abrupt but perhaps the mangaka wanted to let our imaginations fill in the blanks. Great premise for the story and all interesting characters just not enough of everything really.

Art's not bad, story is hard to follow at times, there isn't too much development in either the story or the characters, and I don't feel too much for any of the characters. I still didn't really dislike the manga, but probably won't read it again.