So I've finally started reading Manga again... Man am I late on my list! So first time reviewing something: Kimiiro Focus, or Focus on Your Color!
Photography is the art to grasp beauty with the one and only tool, a camera. Oji's dream is to become a photographer that photographs at the front lines of war, to take pictures of historical events taking place in front of his eyes. However, his childhood friend, Sumire, doesn't think that he is capable of becoming one. In his photography club, Oji shows his photos to the group, and his upperclassman, Ran, points out that Sumire is a good target to photograph. Oji manages to get permission to take photos of Sumire, and during his shoot, Sumire notices that Oji is acting differently than before. Later they find out that one of Oji's pictures won an award! Sumire congratulates him, but Oji sees beyond his award. He claims that he learned that he has much more potential than he thinks. Ran, overseeing this, plans to take Oji to the next level so he can capture true beauty through the lens of a camera!Source
"A picture is worth a thousand words" as the saying goes. When I stumbled upon this and read the summary I quickly delved into it. For better or for worse. Photography + Romance in a Manga is spot on for me.
As the summary above said, Oji, a first year high school boy, decides to take it seriously in the photography world. It takes an amount of dedication and hard work to go somewhere and that is something he lacks as noted by his 'childhood friend' Sumire. Events and opportunity along the way shows that the dreamer actually has more skill than he imagined. So with the help of his club mates, shall he rise to glory?
Personally, I found the manga to be quite enticing. Gave me a few ideas for my model shoots too! I was reluctant at first to read this as I honestly did not know how the protagonist would end up being like, but whatever. I know if it ended bad, I have read worse anyway!
Genre Check
It's listed mostly as Comedy, Ecchi, Romance, School, Shounen, Harem.
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Comedy wise, it is there. The scenes where comedic actions happen are present, but it could have been better. It's either that or I'm just really easy to amuse. The way characters react to certain events that happen in the story is quite amazing at times too.
Ecchi wise, you have a lot. When I say a lot, I really mean a lot. The fact that Oji enters his God Mode (spoil spoil) then orders his models to do the deed (what is it? read and find out don't want to spoil too much!) makes to a bunch of pretty ecchi scenes.
Harem + Romance. Well what do you know, the lame boy that only a few know about suddenly rise up in popularity and fame. Much to his work obviously. Romance is about and his personality during his shoot enters him in the typical Harem situation we find these days in Manga.
School + Shounen. School is pretty obvious. As it is set up in high school and it all happens in a club. The target view is debatable. Shounen is an obvious answer as it probably was an aim towards males of ten and above, but I can see girls getting into it too. Either for the pose ideas for cosplayers or just for people who admire work of art. Nevertheless, it has been defined as a Shounen Manga and I say that it passes!
Character
Character wise the cast isn't all that unique. Oji is a so-so character. No awesome features, not bishounen, not godly in stature or much. Photo-Oji (as I have just dubbed him) is the one that comes out when Oji is in God Mode! Complete character change in persona mind you as he gets more confident and bold.
Your cast of girls vary from the typical Tsundere to the shy and meek girl. There are a few special cases here and there, but nothing really much that leaves and everlasting impact.
Score: 7
Story
The story? Um... yeah... Premise was ridiculously awesome and the foundation could have lead to great heights. Sadly, it gets pretty repetitive! I have not seen much progression in the story in terms of character development. There's a few here and there, but they're pretty subtle and not that very changing.
The scenes after the first few ends up becoming "girl is cute/hot, but when is this going to progress?" type of thing. For me anyway...
Score: 5
Art
The art is AMAZING! The top pictures he takes are breathtaking in terms of composition, emotion, and art. It feels weird saying his pictures are awesome when you know it's the drawer that made it awesome. So uh, in Manga world perspective, his photos are amazing, and in Human world perspective, the drawings are sick!
Enjoyment
So I'll probably be biased here and say that I did enjoy it. I'm an ecchi fan, what can I say? Story wise is so-so and forget about the romanticism. It rarely appears and when it does, it gets blown away like a leaf in the middle of a raging hurricane. Kind of excessive, but whatever!
Still, it is pretty enjoyable for the Shounen audience and its acceptable in my books as a read through. Maybe not something I'd have in my real life collection but more in my virtual collection and read once in a while when I have nothing else to do!
Score: 7
OVERALL SCORE: 7
Up to you if you want to pick it up and go through it. I suggest it only if you have nothing else to do or just into looking through ecchi shots!
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