Manga 87180 Cocytus

I don't' write reviews often, but seeing there's only one by a person who doesn't really like GL/Yuri, I felt like I should the other side of the opinion.

Anyway, Cocytus is actually broken up into two stories, A and B.

Story A is about a popular girl who befriends a loner. It's two chapters, so the plot is not very elaborate. It's an archetypal schoolgirl lesbian story with a bit of bullying involved.

Story B is about two college friends. Girl 1 has feelings for Girl 2. Girl 2 knows this and actively tries to make Girl 1 confess for the first two ... chapters. Overall, Girl 2 is very manipulative and almost evil, but both girls are aware of that. Girl 2 also knows that she can't reciprocate Girl 1's feelings, which makes it even crueler. There's really no conclusion to story B in Cocytus.

The art is fine, it's your typical art. I enjoyed both stories, A more than B, but they were both pretty nice. If you like Yuri, you'll like this. If you don't like Yuri, you won't like this.

Anyway, it's a pretty decent and short read. It's not a masterpiece, though, especially with 5 chapters divided between two unrelated stories.

"Why is living so hard?"
Cocytus, a GL manga which gives you an in-depth view of a girl's thoughts and daily life. To be honest with you, I was careless and didn't check the tags. What I ended up with was a GL manga, which I always avoid. But I had found out half way through reading it, so I though, why not just keep reading it. Now, even though it is classified as a GL manga, it really only has 3-4 pages of actual GL, just keep that in mind. (Spoiler Free)
(I will be focusing on the one-shot Cocytus for this review)

Story - 7/10

The story ... was actual really deep, which I did not expect. It gives you a sneak peek of a schoolgirl's thoughts and actions when they interact with their friends and classmates. It seemed to be quite unrealistic at first, but the more I read it, the more truthful it seemed. Though this may not apply to western girls, it sure as hell applies to Japanese schoolgirls. Spreading rumours and pretending you don't know someone is only a small part of their daily lives.

Art - 5/10

At first sight, I loved the artwork. I enjoy this type of art style and found it really nice to read. That is until I found the mistakes. Tons and tons of mistakes, such as eye displacements, limb displacements and messed up proportions. The background had a style so simple that it made the manga-ka look lazy. Or maybe she really was just lazy.

Character - 6/10

The characters were interesting, but I have seen all of their personalities a few times before. The socially inept one, and the normal one who (plot twist) isn't really normal. Their personalities weren't that bad, but there sure was room for improvement. There was also character development, but a lot of that occurred awkwardly and wasn't fluid to be that good.

Enjoyment - 6/10

I thought this series was quite decent, and the drama it had going on in 60 pages really got the pages turning for me. The downside was the GL. As I said before, I was not a fan of Gl, and I am even less of a fan for it now.

Overall - 6/10

The series could have used more work on perfecting its art and deepening the characters. But overall, I thought it was a decent manga. (And thank goodness there weren't that many GL elements invlolved.)

COCYTUS PART
Cocytus has 2 chapters. The main characters are Shiina and Kurosaki Mineko. In her school, the students there have unspoken rule to not befriend with persons who are considering as weirdos. Alas Shiina is asked by the teacher to help the class representative, Kurosaki-san, who's belong to the weirdos-that-shouldn't-have-befriended list.

Starting from the art, this manga has very simple art. I couldn't find the background to support my poor imagining capability is decent. In so many cases, the background of it left blank with only sparkling effect to maximize the aura between the characters interaction. I can agree with the characters parts, their illustrations looked ... cute.
Similar to the art, the development too, is simple. It's not complex even though it can be explored more depth, the story itself and characters development. For 2 chapters, the rushing part still I could tolerate at that time because somehow I enjoyed the puppy love in the pages.


MORATORIUM PART
Moratorium part has 3 chapters, 2 main chapters and 1 chapter from another character side (still the character in this part). There are Itsuki and Mao who've been friends since so long and currently living together in a rented apartment. This part might be not too common like other yuri manga because it has less lovey-dovey scenes which is should be interesting to read since it's unique.
However, I am rather disappointing at it. The communication between those two are lack of passion and not much explained. On the surface we get the information we need about what's up. but not about what's really happening between them, that's what I felt. The timid Mao and bold Itsuki has tight connection shown in this manga that I couldn't get what kind of feeling it really is. Is it just desire to keep each other for themselves or deeper than it...still wondering.
The art itself is somewhat the same with Cocytus part. Fortunately, this school life babes (Itsuki & Mao) got their part to hang out around the city. So, we have more background than just house or school building.


Glad that I could still enjoy overall this manga that I could bravely give it 6.5 for rating.