Loveless

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About this title

Synopsis

Aoyagi Ritsuka is one troubled 6th grader. Two years ago, he mysteriously lost his memory and developed an alternate personality. His mother constantly berates (and occasionally beats) him, asking what happened to the "real" Ritsuka, and his only defender and friend, his older brother Seimei, was recently killed. Suddenly, Seimei's apparent "friend," Soubi, appears. Soubi tells him that Ritsuka's true name is "Loveless," and that Soubi was assigned by Seimei to take care of Ritsuka and protect him. Ritsuka soon gets sucked into a bizzare underground society where teams of people, a "Fighter Unit," and a "Sacrifice," battle using elaborate and beautifully-phrased spells. He seeks both acceptance of himself, and the answer to the mystery of who killed his brother and why. (Source: TokyoPop)

Publication notes

Loveless was published in English by Tokyopop for 8 volumes from February 7, 2006 to September 1, 2008 until becoming defunct; VIZ Media later gained rights to the series and began publishing since September 11, 2012. The series has also been published digitally by Kodansha USA since April 28, 2020. It has also published in Polish by Studio JG since July 11, 2014.

Published

Nov 17, 2001 to Jul 28, 2017

Authors

Kouga, Yun

External links

MyAnimeList page KodanshaKodansha USA Wikipedia

MAL rank: #2409
Members (MAL): 29,287
Favorites (MAL): 1,537

Related titles

Adaptation

Loveless (anime)

Spin-Off

Alternative Version

Loveless

Main characters

Ritsuka Aoyagi890 fan favorites
External profile
Is twelve years old, and the protagonist of the story. His "true name" is Loveless. Two years ago, he had an abrupt change of personality and became the opposite of his former self. Before, he was a popular, average grade student; now, he doesn't get along with his classmates, but he gets perfect scores. Along with the personality change, he suffered a loss of all his memories. The cause of these drastic changes is still unknown, although he has regular therapy sessions to determine why. Ritsuka, on his first day at his new school, meets Soubi Agatsuma for the first time. Soubi confuses him with his sudden intimacy and puzzling claims that he was Seimei's fighter. As Ritsuka discovers, Seimei's impromptu will dictates that Soubi shall "become Ritsuka's" upon his death. Ritsuka deeply admired and idolized Seimei, and to discover later there were many things kept secret came as a great shock. It further poisoned his difficulty in trusting others, particularly Soubi. Despite his young age and inexperience due to his amnesia, Ritsuka is very intelligent and approaches things with startling maturity. The circumstances of his life encourage his lack of innocence; however, there have been notable incidents that bare his still-strong naivety, particularly in sexual love and dating. Despite this, he still has firm opinions and unrelenting ideas about those subjects. It is these opinions that clash dramatically with adults and authority figures around him, most notably Soubi. Ritsuka is a pacifist, and strongly opposes violence under any circumstance. Soubi has remained fairly silent on the issue; however, he seemingly doesn't object to pain and punishment under certain circumstances. Love is an uncomfortable subject for Ritsuka. He is wary of compliments, and doesn't like hearing phrases such as "I like you." Early on in the series, Soubi says "I love you" frequently, which Ritsuka doesn't believe is true. Because of Ritsuka's cynical reaction, Soubi stops saying it altogether after volume 2 of the manga. Still, Ritsuka's inner conflict over whether he believes what Soubi says becomes a source of great tension and bitterness in their relationship. (Source: Wikipedia)
Soubi Agatsuma862 fan favorites
External profile
A twenty-year-old art student. He is a former student of Shichisei Gakuen (often translated as Academy of Seven Voices), a school for fighters where Ritsu Minami was his teacher. As ordered, Soubi contacted Ritsuka after Seimei's death. He introduced Ritsuka to the world of fighters and sacrifices, and told Ritsuka he would be his fighter. Although Soubi's "true name" is Beloved and Ritsuka's is Loveless, they fight as a pair, which is considered taboo. There is also a severe loss of strength, and in Soubi's case, his marking bleeds in battle. Since meeting Ritsuka, Soubi doesn't operate under the Beloved name, and effectively abandoned it altogether. Soubi appears to know much more about Seimei and his cause of death than he will divulge. Despite Ritsuka's insistence that he tell him everything he knows, Soubi refuses. In volume 4 of the manga, he even says, "Seimei is my God." He openly declares that he lives his life by Seimei's orders, but still says he obeys Ritsuka's every order. Many readers and characters in the story itself label Soubi as a masochist. He is extremely contradictory, and says conflicting things on pain and control, making his true feelings unclear. A popular theory among readers is that Soubi is selective, and only desires punishment from those he deems worthy and strong such as Seimei and Ritsuka. In support of this theory, Soubi shuns Ritsu's offers to control his life. In addition to the masochist label, Soubi is often described as having a shotacon complex. Despite the clamor to label him as such, it is also claimed by some there is no evidence of this within the canon. Though, at least in the anime, it must be noted that Soubi is recurrently fondling and kissing the 12-year-old Ritsuka. It is difficult to explain the sexual connotations of their behavior without resorting to a shotacon-relationship; at the very least one can say their relationship is sexually ambiguous. Whether this is part of a broader complex, is unknown, though in the anime, Soubi also showed a certain infatuation with the male Zero's. (Source: Wikipedia)