Love Circles is another GloBL manga by an Italian mangaka (Laura Carboni aka Laura Zel). This is one of her older works as it was originally published in Italy in 2001 and then printed in the U.S. in 2007. Like Anima, this one runs on the short side as well at only 107 pages with the remaining pages provided by Yaoi Press as a preview to their other works.

Love Circles is a fun read. The story takes place in Italy and is comprised of our main character, Davide, who is desperate to get a female college classmate’s attention (enter Catia) and Valerio, who helps Davide to do just that. Davide’s problem is that he is a loner and MAJOR geek. He parts his hair on the side, wears his pants too high and tends to wear clothes that are baggy and ill fitting. Valerio on the other hand is the campus stud (think metro with skin tight clothes and lots of hair gel). The plot is pretty straight forward with the question being: Will Davide find out that sometimes what you want isn’t really what you want at all?

As I read this short story, I found myself chuckling out loud all the way through. It really is quite funny. What made it so funny are the chibi like versions of Davide ranging from his frustrated expressions when it appears he is invisible to everyone to the even smaller chibi’s showing him with his “devil” hair (on one corner his tiny chibi version points at Valerio’s butt and says “That’s mine!”).

The illustrating style may not be to everyone’s taste. It is definitely different from the Japanese style but this isn’t meant to be an imitation work. The guys are totally beefy and if I had one complaint it would be the horrendously bad fashion by today’s standards but since this is now eight years old I’m willing to look past it. J This isn’t a barn burner as far as plot goes and the sex (one scene) is pretty tame but it is cute, funny and different from the norm. If for no other reason, get it for Valerio’s gorgeous ass. Here’s another one of her hotties from Roulette, which has nothing to do with this review but is well worth ogling. Yum!

Characters = B+

Plot = B (cute but short)

Book Design/Illustrations = B+

Sex = B (not a hard yaoi)

Translation = A-

Overall Grade = B+

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