Alley of First Love (Japanese: 初恋横丁, Hepburn: Hatsukoi Yokochō, billed as "Ellie Mamahara's Alley of First Love" by Blu) is a Japanese boys love manga written and illustrated by Ellie Mamahara. It was released in English by Blu Manga, the boys love publishing division of Tokyopop, in July 2008.[1] It is about a young man whose high school crush returns from studying abroad for six years, and the healing of the rift between them.

Alley of First Love
Cover of the Japanese version
初恋横丁
(Hatsukoi Yokochō)
GenreYaoi
Manga
Written byEllie Mamahara
Published byTokuma Shoten
English publisher
PublishedAugust 25, 2006

Reception

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The endearing awkwardness of the couple was remarked upon favourably by Leroy Dessaroux.[2] Danielle Van Gorder enjoyed the boldness of the artwork, but found that the characters looked alike except for their hair. She felt that their expressiveness made up for this.[3] Katherine Farmar praised Mamahara's realistic secondary cast, neither detracting from the main couple, nor making it seem as though the couple exist in a vacuum, and not being simple plot devices to generate conflict. She also enjoyed the "bold" artwork.[4] Katherine Dacey regards their consensual and comparatively tame relationship to be refreshing from other licensed titles available in English, but found that at times the dialogue was unrealistic.[5] In an About.com poll for 2008's best yaoi, Alley of First Love placed seventh out of ten entries.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Ellie Mamahara: Alley of First Love Volume Summary". Blu Manga. Archived from the original on November 8, 2010.
  2. ^ "Ellie Mamahara's Alley of First Love (Boys' Love)".
  3. ^ "Alley of First Love Vol.#01 | Mania.com". Archived from the original on 2008-12-06. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  4. ^ "Comics Village - Alley of First Love Volume". www.comicsvillage.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-20.
  5. ^ "Manga Recon » Blog Archive » Super-Sized Manga Minis, July 2008". Archived from the original on December 11, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ "Anime Manga". Archived from the original on 2009-05-23. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
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