''Level C'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by

Futaba Aoi is a manga artist (born December 19). Part of a duo including herself and Mitsuba Kurenai. This is the pen name used for writing extremely adult-oriented yaoi-stories. Real names are Masaki Sano (佐野真砂輝 ''Sano Masaki'') and Kyou Watan ...

and Mitsuba Kurenai. The manga is licensed in North America by

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

. It has also been made into an original video animation by

J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...

. It is the dramatic tale of a relationship between a

salaryman In Japan, a is a salaried worker. In Japanese popular culture, this is embodied by a white-collar worker who shows overriding loyalty and commitment to the corporation where he works. Salarymen are expected to work long hours, to put in addit ...

and a high school-aged male model.

Plot

Mizuki Shinohara is a male

teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

fashion model who lives on his own in a very nice apartment and is still in high school. An adult business man named Kazuomi Honjou had just broke up with his girlfriend and had been kicked out of her house leaving him homeless and having nowhere else to go, then he sets out to find someone new to live with and sees Mizuki on the street. Kazuomi thinks Mizuki is cute and asks to stay with him in exchange for great pleasurable sex. Mizuki thinks he is joking until they are at his apartment later that night and Kazuomi makes good on his promise.

Characters

*Voiced by: Akira Ishida *Voiced by:

Shinichiro Miki is a Japanese voice actor from Tokyo.Doi, Hitoshi.Miki Shinichirou. ''Seiyuu Database''. July 13, 2010. He is a member of 81 Produce. Miki is known for his distinctively smooth voice and often calm delivery in the roles he has landed. He often ...

*Voiced by:

Takehito Koyasu is a Japanese voice actor from Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.Doi, Hitoshi"Koyasu Takehito" ''Seiyuu Database''. January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. He is affiliated with and representative of T's Factory, a voice acting agency he founded ...

*Voiced by:

Rica Fukami is a Japanese voice actress, narrator and singer from Saitama Prefecture who is affiliated with Vi-Vo. She made her voice acting debut in 1982 with ''Tokimeki Tonight''. Fukami is best known for her role in the '' Sailor Moon'' series as Sailor V ...

Media

Manga

''Level C'' is written and illustrated by

and Mitsuba Kurenai. The manga is licensed in North America by

Biblos Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 88 ...

released the manga's three ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' between August 1993 and January 1996.

released the manga in six ''tankōbon'' volumes between March 15, 2005 and May 31, 2006.

OVA

Directed by

Yorifusa Yamaguchi was a Japanese anime director. Life and career After graduating from Chuo University's Animation Resource Group, Yamaguchi pursued a career in anime directing, with his debut being the anime production which was released August 8, 1992 by Shoc ...

the OVA titled was released by

in 1995. The OVA has been licensed in North America by

Kitty Media Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

and in Germany by Anime-House. The ending theme of the series is "Only Two Men's Eternity" by Yasuhiro Mizushima. The OVA was originally released in Japan on May 24, 1996 in VHS format. It was released in DVD format on March 25, 2005.

Production

''Level C'' started as a

doujinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created by ...

in 1989. The individual chapters were compiled into six ''

'' volumes in 1993. Frank Panonne of Media Blasters said that "''Level C'' will be uncut, all characters portrayed having sex or in the nude will be depicted as aged 18 or older." The original Japanese version depicts the protagonist as a high-school student. ''Level C'' will be

shrink wrap Shrink may refer to: Common meanings *Miniaturization *Shrink, a slang term for: ** a psychiatrist ** a psychoanalyst ** a psychologist Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Shrink'' (album), album by German indie rock/electronica group The Notwist ...

ped when released. The bankruptcy of

on April 5, 2006, will not affect the production of ''Level C'' "at least until the contracts expire".

Reception

Mike Dungan of Mania.com comments on the varying styles of art in the manga since the chapters were not written in order. He commends the art by saying "the art reproduction is more than serviceable, with some nice detailwork making the transition from tankouban to graphic novel, and nicely done reproduction of the screentoning." Chris Beveridge of Mania.com comments on the hard subtitling of the OVA and lack of a menu "forces them to front-load the trailers for other shows". He also comments on the "auto-repeat mode" when the end of the last chapter is reached. THEM Anime Reviews criticises the OVA for a lack of plot.

References

External links

* {{J.C.Staff OVAs 1993 manga 1995 anime OVAs J.C.Staff Josei manga Media Blasters Yaoi anime and manga