Sometimes reading these random older yaoi titles feels like a whats-behind-the-door game in terms of what you may get. Sometime you get eyeball licking. Sometimes Osama bin Laden appears. Sometimes a guy’s asshole gets used as a flowerpot. And let’s definitely not forget that sometimes you get a story where a guy pleasures himself with a corncob and suddenly it turns into a man that he has a magic orgy with in the clouds along with a goat boy who sticks a harp up his ass, followed by tentacle monster kemonomimi rape.
I guess every now and then you get like, a normal school romance or something. Or, if you’re reading Duetto, you get…biological son x father noncon. Yup. I mentioned all that other stuff to soften the blow.
This book is by male yaoi mangaka Aoi Kujyou – who could get all kinds of pussy assuming he’s not gay – and who has two works total on the June imprint. The first was Love Share, and this one was done shortly after. I did a more detailed write up about Kujyou on my Love Share review and talk about some of his other work, where I mention the later stuff is what you want to check out – and this early title Duetto definitely cemented that sentiment. If not for the super uncomfortable rapey incest story, it would be about the same level as Love Share, but due to this, it’s definitely a peg lower in my book.
I guess I should talk about the positives first before we break open the stink bomb. The first story is the “main” one, and it’s decent, definitely the highlight although that isn’t saying much since there’s only three stories, with one of them being cursed and the other one being short filler. Kujyou tends to begin or introduce stories in a confusing way with this one being no exception, but once it gets going it’s cute enough. It stars photographer Eiichi and salaryman Shinobu, who struggle to keep up a long-distance relationship with one traveling for work a lot. It also has a sweet happy ending, in more ways than one. Heyooo! badum tisch
Kujyou excels at drawing kissing scenes so that was one thing I was looking forward to in this book. They don’t quite shine as much here, but there are a few nice ones. He usually has interesting paneling too.
I could just tread water now trying not to talk about the elephant in the room but it’s past my bedtime so I might as well get to the main attraction. The incest story – which I won’t tag spoilers for because I feel like anyone wanting or about to read this should be aware – introduces a teenage boy named Taka and his dad, who looks younger than him. It is revealed that they are 16 years apart, and look nothing alike. Taka, in fact, looks older than his dad, and has a burning crush on him. Taka proceeds to kiss his dad while he’s sleeping, then proceeds to tie him up and force himself on him. The next morning, they’re having breakfast like nothing happened. Right about now I was expecting Kujyou to wink and pull the not-his-actual-dad card. But nope, he does not. Kujyou seals this shit with a big wet kiss. So I guess the reason they looked nothing alike and that Taka pointed this out no less than twice was an attempt to justify a son hooking up with his dad? I have no idea. I guess the one silver lining is that there’s no penetration. Never thought I would type those words in any context talking about BL, but here we are.
You may be wondering right about now if I’m gonna post pictures. Worry not your pretty perverted little head, dear reader, that’s as sure a bet as Epstein not having killed himself. Let it be known that the BLacklist has the medium-quality BL incest manga cellphone pics you crave. Tell your friends!
Call me a prude, but any pairing of blood siblings or parents/children is a particular bowl of mashed potatoes that I’m happy to pass right along down the table. I assume there must be people out there who are into this, and far be it from me to kink-shame when I’ve got a few gigs of omorashi porn. I’m fine with stepbrother or even cousin pairings though, hence why I have a wincest tag on this blog. Those two are both fairly common in yaoi, and are a happy medium because they mimic the naughty forbidden ‘incestuous’ element without the immediate-blood-relation one – I think this is actually the ‘hardest’ incest story I’ve read in an English license so far. I know that at least two titles with bio-incest are lurking in my collection that I have not read yet, but I did not know about this one and I’m somewhat surprised to see it in here and from a 2007 June title no less. This is a rare trope to show up in a licensed title here, and one where they show the sex no less – quite the shiny Pokemon.
This last story is some short filler, which is kind of a shame since it has a pretty cute uke. But it basically ends as soon as it starts so there isn’t much to say about it, and most readers will probably still be traumatized over the plate of ickiness that was served a few pages before, if they are indeed still reading at this point.
TL;DR The main story was decent and cute but completely average, and the whole book would be fairly forgettable if not for a cursed story featuring biological son x father noncon that frankly I wish I could forget. Kujyou’s later work is better and worth checking out, but you can probably safely skip this one unless you’re really into the idea of a high schooler tying up and jerking off his dad.