Yami no Purple Eyes is a pretty good Shinohara manga, I read it shortly after stumbling across Red River and Ao no Fuuin.
The artstyle is still great, though here and there, you can see differences - but that makes sense, Purple Eyes was created about 20 years before Red River.
The characters are believeable, interesting, though it does involve character deaths where I couldn't care a whole lot, because I didn't know said character very well.
But I think the second half of the manga, after the Time Skip, has suffered a bit. Shinohara admits herself that she originally planned Purple Eyes to only be about 6 volumes long and likely planned it to end with Rinko and Sonehara falling over a cliff in their struggle, but was then told to add to the story and get more out of it.
The second half isn't necessarily bad, but it certainly feels not as well thought out as the previous parts of the manga. The new characters are okay, though Akio feels like a(n admitted) rehash of Odagiri, but friendlier.
It's still a good manga overall, but does suffer a bit halfway through.
Manga Interesting, For The First Half
Yami no Purple Eyes is a pretty good Shinohara manga, I read it shortly after stumbling across Red River and Ao no Fuuin.
The artstyle is still great, though here and there, you can see differences - but that makes sense, Purple Eyes was created about 20 years before Red River.
The characters are believeable, interesting, though it does involve character deaths where I couldn't care a whole lot, because I didn't know said character very well.
But I think the second half of the manga, after the Time Skip, has suffered a bit. Shinohara admits herself that she originally planned Purple Eyes to only be about 6 volumes long and likely planned it to end with Rinko and Sonehara falling over a cliff in their struggle, but was then told to add to the story and get more out of it.
The second half isn't necessarily bad, but it certainly feels not as well thought out as the previous parts of the manga. The new characters are okay, though Akio feels like a(n admitted) rehash of Odagiri, but friendlier.
It's still a good manga overall, but does suffer a bit halfway through.