is a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 anthology written and illustrated by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki

Eiki Eiki

is a Japanese manga artist who has been creating manga since 1998. Most of her manga are written under the yaoi genre. One of her good friends, also a fellow manga artist, is Mikiyo Tsuda, otherwise known as Taishi Zaō. They often co-author manga together, display their art together, and have...

. Color was serialized in Dear+, a magazine known for its romantic and non-explicit boys love manga published by Shinshokan

Shinshokan

is a Japanese publishing company. It was established on June 14, 1961. In April 2009, the US publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced a co-branding operation with Shinshokan, to license yaoi and shōjo manga from Shinshokan's Wings, Dear and Dear+ anthologies under the DokiDoki imprint .-Manga...

, and a tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

 collecting the chapters released in February 1999. Color is licensed in North America by Digital Manga Publishing

Digital Manga Publishing

Digital Manga is a company that licenses and releases, in English, Japanese anime, manga, and related merchandise. The company has several subdivisions: Digital Manga Publishing, which publishes Japanese manga, novels and instructional and illustration books in North America with multiple imprints,...

 which released the manga in June 2009. It is licensed in France by Asuka

Asuka (publisher)

Asuka is a French publisher of Japanese manga in translation. In 2009 its parent company, Kaze S.A.S., was purchased by the Japanese manga publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha. Prior to the purchase, the company's manga was published under the Asuka imprint...

 and in Germany by Egmont Manga.

Reception

Courtney Kraft, writing for Graphic Novel Reporter, felt Color was a "rather endearing piece about two boys who develop genuine love that leads to physical attraction", which she felt was the opposite to how relationships are usually depicted in yaoi. Holly Ellingwood, writing for Active Anime, enjoyed the parallels between the two characters' meeting and friendship, and the artists' meeting and friendship. Danielle Leigh, writing for Comic Book Resources, noted that the characters' relationship was "based on equal parts affection, respect and interests", which she felt was lacking in other yaoi

Yaoi

In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...

. Connie C., writing for PopCultureShock, felt that although each chapter of the manga was good, that they did not connect enough to each other, leaving the story feeling disjointed. Namtrac, writing in Homosexualité et manga : le yaoi, felt Color was only of interest for those new to boys love, due to its "light" and "gentle" story, "all but memorable" characters, "comedy that doesn't hit the mark" and "lukewarm sex scenes". Namtrac felt the "most interesting" part in Color was the bonuses. Faustine Lillaz, writing for PlaneteBD, described Color as "nice but the quality is still average", but enjoyed the growth of the "rapport" between the characters, which felt unforced to Lillaz, and how acutely and subtlety the emotions are depicted. However she wrote that sometimes the plot felt rushed due to the one-volume space of the work. NiDNiM, writing for Manga-News, felt the story was "well-constructed despite its lightness", and wanted to know more about the characters, expressing frustration over the one-volume space of the manga.