Rival actor co-stars getting it on is up there on my list of favorite yaoi plots, shortly behind high schoolers getting it on, hi FBI nothing to see here, guys in period costume getting it on, business/work rivals getting it on, and powerful fantasy kings or demons getting it on. You can’t say I don’t have diverse tastes, I guess.
As far as the rival-actors-turned-costars theme, Double Cast doesn’t quite do this as well as Hero Heel or Embracing Love, but it’s still a solid entry in this category. The story is a good mix of salacious and sincere, such that it satisfied my inner trashy gossip mag fantasies without reading like one.
Really, my main gripe is that they never fuck in costume.
Yuki is an older actor who feels his star is fading and Mitsuru is an energetic up-and-comer, and they both swap roles in a stage play as well as co-star in a TV drama. Professional jealousy and confusing emotions create a rocky and complicated relationship between them, offstage and on. It was a compelling, fun story and I read it all in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down.
In my opinion, this book is a step up from Alley of First Love. This one was created more recently and it shows, the art feels more polished and confident, and I felt the plot was solid – Mizuhashi’s writing shined here. Yuki had good character development (the story is told from his POV, Mitsuru is a bit more enigmatic) and the secondary characters didn’t feel like afterthoughts; they all served a purpose.
I loved Yuki’s character, he was multi-dimensional and I think the scenes where he is soul-searching and struggling with his worth in his career are very relatable. To that end there is a bit of a poetic thread that weaves its way through the story with the line, ‘all flowers eventually wilt,’ and is a strong metaphor that effectively comes into play throughout the plot.
Art-wise, Mamahara’s distinctive style – lips and long, lanky limbs – feels a bit more refined here. I actually didn’t notice the lips as much, the character’s faces seemed more successfully formed, their features better balanced, and the expressions more varied. Yuki and Mitsuru looked fairly hot, especially when they were in costume.
Double Cast is a 16+ rating so nothing explicit in the love scenes, but I was invested in the story and characters enough for them to be titillating. There was a pretty steamy (!!!) clothed shower scene, which was a creative way to get a bit kinky without being explicit.
There was a good amount of ‘love’ scenes spread throughout (not really sex but just physical intimacy, I guess), which I usually prefer as opposed to unloading all the juicy bits on 10 pages at the very end. Overall this was a pretty enjoyable title with a strong, magnetic story and sexy, multi-dimensional characters who also happen to also be hot actors, so in my book (no pun intended), that means there’s no real reason not to check it out!
TL;DR: A fairly solid entry in the rival-actors-turned-costars-turned-lovers category. Mizuhashi’s story was a good read and holds attention throughout; Mamahara’s trademark pouty lips and lanky limbs lean more towards the sexy side rather than awkward. A good selection of R16+ love scenes sprinkled throughout (including a pretty hot clothed shower scene) were the cherry on top.