Finder

Well, I like it, but I see it as more of a kinky fantasy (lots of stuff about ownership and domination) than something that's actually ideal. In fact, I will be terribly disappointed if it ends with Asami seeing the error of his ways and deciding to treat Akihito like an equal. I like that there's action and plot, and the characters actually care about their jobs (oh how yaoi lowers your standards...)

A few things about it irritate me though, like Feilong's long backstory (and just Feilong himself), and how often there is blood when they have sex? (come on Asami, go buy some lube already) The dialogue is still yaoi dialogue, unfortunately.

I don't know why do so many people hates Asami??
Oh..well..Asami is handsome, rich, royal, POWERFUL. I don't think he's like to flirting with other people..oh..well..he's just a workaholic and...a lil bit sadistic at first.okay 😕 at first!

So...I think he's an ideal man for a woman XDDD

I didn't like the whole S&M thing...totally made me cringe in beginning...but! it did get interesting after. I was attracted to the whole Feilong and Takaba thing...people hated it, but I found it kind of nice? Lol, it's not everyday you see the uke getting screwed by another seme and getting a good thing out of it. They actually talked! and Feilong was pretty nice after wards to Takaba (well kind of)...well I stopped at vol 4 and went ooohh noz!

We all love AsamixTakaba together 🙂 but sometimes I go for the other couple lol
Definitely worth a read, if you like action and yaoi together.

Asami is a dick in my opinion. I had a hard enough time getting through the first half, but then Feilong thing just... Quite frankly, I think that the story would have been just as interesting without those particular "encounters." Asami is an arrogant prick, and Feilong was a whiny little drama queen that wouldn't have lasted five minutes in a real triad storyline.

Maybe he should have gotten raped by his 'brother' after all. I probably would have actually given a shit about his character once he humbled himself.Good grief... Sorry, but I think the seme's in this story suck ass in a major way and were a complete and total waste of space. I don't care what anyone says.

This is also my first (and will also be my last) full out yaoi. But I am not newb when it comes to yakuza, triad, action, sex, rape, and violence. I've read so much horror, seinen, sci-fi and smut that I've basically become immune to every bizarre art form on the planet. Nothing shocks me any more, so nothing about this series shocked me in the least. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

There were a few things that I believe Asami should have been castrated for...namely the whole "people touching my belongings" thing that one user commented on. Even if that's just how he is, that was still a bit much. You don't have to be a push over to know that you should seriously layoff sometimes.

Seriously, who needs to be forcefully screwed right after being raped? That's fucking stupid.

Ugh. This series is just...

It gets a 1/10 for the art work alone.

I can't believe there's a yaoi manga that stays in my mind for every aspect that I want in a yaoi manga. There's a lot of smexy action and real action enough to grip you till the end. I love the uke's character and the way the main seme falls for him bit by bit with every interaction. It's not a perfect story and I've seen a lot of better seinen plots, but as a yaoi, this series has soul.

Awesome!

It’s been some years since I read Viewfinder for the first time. I decided to re-read it and now I just love it even more.

I gotta say that, at the beginning, I didn’t like how Akihito didn’t take seriously the fact that he was RAPED by Asami. It’s not something he should be able to ignore as simply as that, especially since he was cruelly treated. He just went along with it, and from that point on, he was already shaken by Asami’s presence. I know he liked it ‘cause he’s the uke, of course, but even so, he started liking Asami right on, and usually the characters take some time to get used to the idea – even if he denies it, when can easily see he loves Asami right from the beginning.. Akihito desires Asami pretty fast, but takes a long time to realize it. Then it was only a matter of time before he really did fall in love.

What started my love for it, though, was Akihito’s face whenever he sees Asami. It’s like he’s about to cry every time. Akihito pretends he doesn’t like anything Asami does, but yet he is so dependent on him when they get together.

But Feilong just pisses me off. His past is way longer than it should be. I didn’t wanna read a whole volume about him, ‘cause I simply DON’T CARE. That helped making the story a little to long, actually, because of the parts where they were bitching over simple stuff.

As for the characters, it’s my perfect combination: strong and short-tempered uke who gets miserable because he suffers too much; and tough, sadistic, jerkish seme that actually really love his uke. What I like especially about Viewfinder is that we can see just when they fall for each other. Also, Akihito doesn’t cry about being “Asami’s belonging” as ukes usually do. He just assumes Asami has to save him, has to help him as if they were lovers already. It’s cute!

Their suffering is so long that I even think it’s funny. I may seem like a sadistic, though. As a result, this is the only manga where the neither of them had to say “I love you” in order to demonstrate love. It was just perfect and got me satisfied – though they’ll probably admit itin that last chapter we’re all waiting for. The emotional weight was so big that it was almost like we’re inside the manga!

Oh, and as for secondary characters, I love Yoh too! -
He’s SUPER HOT and his love for Feilong is just too cute. He’s also brave, lovingly and strong…they made him a bishie already so when Yamane-sensei decides to make a sequel about him and Fei, we already like him =P

Mikhail also got to me in a positive way. It’s possibly my crazy imagination, but I sensed something between him and Yuri…is it only me?

Anyways, Viewfinder is the kind of manga that gets you so involved that you’ll start wanting to see each of the characters pasts and destinies. What surprised me, though, was that this was a lot of people’s first yaoi. It’s so graphically intense that I kind of feel bad for you, remembering what I was like the first time I read my lemon, haha. Also, you’d better enjoy it, because you will have a hard time finding a next one as good as this.

The development of the story and the characters themselves is marvelous. Asami doesn’t turn from a cold and cruel guy to a nice and caring one. If you read it carefully, right from the beginning he already cared for Akihito. He raped him to punish him, yeah, but he could as well have killed him. Also, he wanted to have him since that time already, it was almost like love at first sigh. You can see it when he says he feels like hunting a wild animal when he’s after Akihito. And it’s just cute how he lies to Akihito about it by pretending he’s only a toy or something.
How can someone not understand how much Asami loves Akihito, when he trades BILLIONS (the deed) for him and even risks his life several times?! He wouldn’t do that for just a property, he would do that for someone he loves. Especially since every time Mikhail says they’re fighting over love, Asami doesn’t disagree or anything, and, otherwise, just keeps telling Feilong that Akihito’s his.

I have no complaints about the sex parts. But all that raping that gets going really irritates me. Feilong probably had sex with Akihito more times than Asami himself! It’s absurd! And not only him, but everybody else in the manga either rapes Akihito or wants to do it. Mikhail touches him, Yuri tries to, the owner of the host club…and Akihito’s reaction is not very pleasant to see. We expect him to hate it, but instead he just thinks of Asami in order to take away the pain, but still don’t fight the rapist as hard as he should. Especially that part where he sees Feilong’s aroused face and gets excited too, that part gets on my nerves. It’s like cheating if he enjoys it! Akihito has some SERIOUS Stockholm syndrome regarding Feilong!
But about bondage…how can people dislike it?! It’s way too sexy!
I don’t think one thing is more important than the other. Of course we need to have a good plot in order to keep reading and wanting more. But if it didn’t have sex, it wouldn’t be as great.
This is also the only manga where I love the jerking off scene. It’s usually not my favorite part of yaoi, but this is so utterly adorable!

And the artwork, especially to me, has to be the most perfect ever, otherwise I don’t even bother to read it. Character’s personalities are also very important, and they have strong ones. It’s brilliant. What I think it’s awesome too is that Asami’s subordinates really don’t care if he’s gay and help him get Akihito back without asking anything.

But there’s are questions for me that remain unanswered. For instance, did Asami love Feilong back then, seven years ago, after all?

It’s after mangas like this that I say: I can’t read shoujo anymore. It’s way too childish for me, while I seek for the kind of mature story Viewfinder provided me.
I does have bad points (such as someone said, about all that blood mixed in the sex, which I also hate), but it’s still on my top 5, therefore I give it a ten and a SUPER recommendation.

Before I start my review, I just want to say that I'll refrain from making comments like "I don't know why people like this series." Because this is a review of the series, and not a review of other people's reviews. I'm not that kind of reader.

Anyway, a friend of mine suggested that I give this series a try. As someone who wouldn't normally touch yaoi with a 10-foot-pole , this was a huge deal for me. But since she chalked this series up as so "interesting, action-packed, and full of suspense", I decided to give it a try. This was the first yaoi series that I've ever attempted, and I tolerated it (just barely) until Feilong's character was introduced. Especially when

Feilong started forcing Takaba to perform sexual favors for him (i.e. blow jobs, sex, etc.), then tried to act all remorseful and friendly after making him do all that crap. He obviously didn't want to have sex with that asshole, because he clearly said 'I don't want to' to himself right before they were about to do it at one point. Takaba is such a cool, likeable character, but was forced to become a freaking blowup doll for some insecure, immature, half-assed sleazebag with a chip on his shoulder. And Asami doesn't even have any sympathy for the f****** kid during all this. He just commences to being a possessive dick. The first assault with Asami almost made me drop this series, but the second one and Asami's increasingly annoying attitude just took the cake. I couldn't do it anymore.

Feilong's character really irked me and I did not sympathize with him one bit. After reading his back story, there were many people who said that they understood him a little better. The only impression that his back story left on me was that Feilong was supposed to have become more of a man (having finally grown a backbone and all), and deal with his adversaries head on. He could have even faced Asami from the very beginning had he not opted to be such a little drama queen. But no, instead this asshole proceeded to abduct and torture someone who he himself admitted had absolutely nothing to do with anything. So yeah, reading his back story just ended up making me wish that he'd been ass-raped by not only his 'brother', but also every inmate that he encountered when he was incarcerated.

I didn't really like Asami either. He's a possessive ass. Seriously. He forced Takaba to have sex with him right after he'd been raped (for Pete’s sake) by Feilong the first time. 'I don't like other people touching my things' is kind of a crappy thing to say to someone who's just been sexually assaulted. I understand that Asami's character and personality is supposed to drip macho sex appeal or whatever, but he's just kinda.... Well, considering that their relationship was built off of sexual assault, then I guess I shouldn't be the least bit surprised. This is not an attractive series at all. Sorry, but it's just not.

I may be new to yaoi, but I've been reading manga for a long time (since I was like 6 or 7). I mainly read sci-fi, horror, and smut, so rape and sex don't exaclty shock me at this point. I just couldn't get over the Asami, then Feilong, then Asami (again) debauchery.

I'll be generous and give this series a 5 if for nothing more than the fact that I really liked Takaba's character (despite him being a complete dumb ass). It was indeed interesting at times (namely when clothes were on and no touching of any kind was involved), but the majority of this series is just disgusting.

I guess most of this stuff is just not my kink...

I have to say, that in my opinion, this is the best yaoi manga ever made. It has everything I look for in a manga; plot, action, interesting characters and beautiful art. I hope that it will run for many years more!
My only problem is, that it has been licenced and I won't be able to read it anymore, since I don't have the means (not the money) to order online...

I remember writing a previous "review" for this series but then later deleted it because to my displeasure, I found it too "gushy gushy fangirly".

Well, the story has a decent storyline which tends to vary a lot in terms of quality because the stories are quite episodic and thus, are not very connected. Some of the "episodes" have a lot more plot than others while some... well, you can see that they are filled with almost nothing but sex. Regardless, some of the plot elements are quite interesting though they could do with far more "fleshing in" to really tell us far more about the ongoing plot: the circumstances, the intrigue, the motivations, etc.

The characters are kinda likable and interesting. Their pasts all sound kinda fascinating and I'm sure that the story has far more about all the characters to show. And therefore, I'm quite sure that the Viewfinder series will probably run for many more years.

However, at times, it feels like there is some disjointedness in the characters' interactions and at other times, their speech feels a little forced or too flashy. Like

when Mikhail gestured that his uncle/relative abused him... that was kinda "forced" and instead, it could have been referenced in a flashback or far more naturally as part of the dialogue.Their motivations also seem a little "forced" or if not obvious at times.

Regardless, there is just something "interesting" in the interactions between Asami and Takaba or even much of the cast. There is this tension that makes you realize that often, there is far more to the eye than hinted within the plot or dialogue.

And one thing Viewfinder could do without is that soppy, melodramatic tone the plot and characters tend to assume from time to time. Sorry folks, but the more I have to read those moments, the more I want to shudder. Or perhaps it's some of the translations which make the characters sound far more "feminine" than they're supposed to be? I wouldn't know.

Anyways, Viewfinder's got a very hard-edged seinen style to the action and it doesn't seem afraid to mix violence with glamour(when depicting the yakuza/mafia). The knife and gun fights actually feel slightly realistic because they do involve a little strategy and none of the characters feel like some sort of "crazy ultimate commando" who's got unstoppable stamina and firepower.

And finally, the art itself is marvellous and the character movements have lots of fluidity, tension and other elements that hint at various thoughts, emotions and so on. Many of the weapons, backgrounds and so on... are depicted accurately and are awesomely drawn.

That said, Viewfinder's quite enjoyable as long as you don't think too much about the plot, the writing and so on. Also, I wonder if some of the plot and characters are inspired by Banana Fish? At least 1 of the characters in Finder feels very close to

Yau-Si in terms of intentions, motivations and so on. A shame that though he's supposedly vicious, he's just not as cunning and ruthless as the other character.

From the plot to the character, I have to say that this manga is awesome XD
The art is beautiful <3
I love this manga very much. I wanna read more XD
Rating: 10/10.0

Up to now still my favorite of all time. It's got everything I look for in a great yaoi. Oh sure, there's tons of kink - but it all adds to the story.
Ayano Yamane is a true master!

I want to said this to those who think Vf as a yaoi with no plot.
Dude,, D.O.N.T judge it if you didn’t read a whole chapters. Okay. I admit on the first chapter, its alil bit too much. When I read it, I’m shock by saw the SM parts and said “Eeeeww…WTH is this!” Yamane had said that at the beginning, Vf was an SM one shot. She didn’t know that it has many good responds and made it into a series. She said if she knew she wouldn’t make it that rough. But as the story flow (especially since Naked truth arc), action, drama, and characters development mixed into one that sure makes me wants to read and read again (but no lovey-dovey scene -.-, but HEY! Since when Vf has that type?) It makes me think “what will happen after this chapter? I’m curious!”.
I have read a lot of good yaoi manga since 7 years a go. But I can say Vf is one of the great manga I’ve ever read because I rarely seen an interesting plot like this with an amazing art in yaoi manga. As you know, there’s no “I love you” word in ALL volume which is we can easily find it in most of yaoi. But Asami and Takaba no needs this word, esp Asami. We will know that he loves and cares about Takaba through his action. And you’ll only find it if you read a WHOLE chapter. (Btw I’m not a type who likes seeing someone say I Love you to his partner. But for this one, I REALLY REALLY want to see!!! I just want to know what kind of face that Asami will do when he say it. XD).
I highly recommended it to read. Though it has a rape scene, don’t skip chapter 1 because it’s the story about the first meeting of AsaBa (you’ll know why Asami is sooo Obsessed with him). Just skip the rape part, kay? Haha…

Sorry for the looooooooooooong opinion >.<

Btw, thank god, it's not the end of Vf. I just don't like the ending of NT. not Vf style. haha~ but I love the end Nt xtra. it's soo typical of Asami and Takaba ^^

Btw, THIS IS NOT YAKUZA STORY!!!! Asami is not yakuza! Please understand that mafia japan is not only a yakuza BUT yakuza is a part of mafia japan. yakuza has a clan, and ASAMI IS NOT A CLAN. he's a businessmen who doing an illegal works too. sadly I don't know how to change the category of this here -__________-