Review 56: Un Carnet de Bal

Art: 8.5
Plot: 6
Characters: 7
Sex: 7

When I saw the cover of this, I immediately thought, 'oh, yes!' Elegant men in refined clothing, sitting in front of a vast estate... beautiful. Unfortunately, I was highly disappointed with the lackluster storyline, and it left me a little depressed.

The art is very sophisticated. It's just a shame it couldn't have been put to better use...

The plot is saddeningly full of corruption. It follows a young man who teaches ballroom dancing. He uses this ploy to seduce another young nobleman, who naively falls into the trap. This young nobleman is the younger brother of the man controlling the ballroom dancing instructor. So basically, once the older brother returns, the younger brother gets tossed out with the garbage. Poor guy. But the whole thing is so... dark... it even has a depressing narration going, usually with the thoughts of the dancing instructor, who is a complete hedonist (in a bad way).

The characters are not likable. The dancing instructor only wants sex (which he soon gets, and then gets bored of), the naive younger brother is pure but can't see how he's being manipulated, and the older brother is a sadist without any interesting features.

The sex is ruined by the narrations of the dancing instructor, and/or the sadism of the older brother, depending on the scene.

All in all, 28.5. Sigh.

Recommendation: I guess if you're into scandalous ballroom dancing parties and manipulative, conniving characters with no redeeming qualities... then yes, this is a good one.