Invisible love more like invisible weiners badum tischhh
This is compilation of six one-shots and most of the guys are college-aged with like a couple salarymen thrown in for good measure. The first one is about two college best friends named Senou and Inori who like to drink together, and evidently also have unspoken feelings for each other (you know exactly where this is going). Senou often falls asleep, is out of it, or passes out while drunk and this starts to lead to…Inori playing with his penis while he’s passed out of course, and Senou just chalks this up to “good dreams.” I’m not sure how realistic it is that you could think someone physically sucking your dick is a dream but hey, yaoi logic.
There’s usually not a whole lot to say about each story in compilations like this so I guess I’ll just blow through them all and post some sex scenes because I know what the people want and I give it to them unlike those useless teint lickers in Congress (forget student loan forgiveness, imagine instead an uncensored dick on every page of manga. Vote yours truly!). The next story is about two retail employees, manager Goichi who becomes instantly attracted to new trainee Jinryou. Goichi learns that Jinryou confessed to a guy in middle school and was rejected, which makes him crave him all the more. This leads to a scenario I liked, which was a hand job in the stock room as they were closing up. Something about the loss of control, desperation aspect, and being clothed.
Number three stars a guy named Hoshizono, manager of some kind of boy prostitute bar, who runs into his high school flame Kure in the city. He invites Kure to his bar, and he goes, not knowing what kind of bar it is but also not seeming to care. At the end of the night, Hoshizono asks him if he wants to “buy” anyone, but Kure only wants Hoshizono, who agrees. You get the feeling Hoshizono likes the idea of being in control of this situation after helplessly pining after Kure in high school, but quickly loses this control when Kure flips their positions, gets on top, and Hoshizono can’t help but willingly submit. I really loved this dynamic reversal and moment of submission (you guys know I love that “loss of control” thing).
The next one was like a designer and a younger lover who apparently are living together 1 month after meeting, and the highlight is they have sex while one of them is wearing an apron. Number five is a boys dorm story and it has a clothed mutual masturbation scene hell yeah brutha!! I liked the idea of it more than the actual scene but another personal-favorite-scenario win. Honjyo, my homie, you and I seem to have similar tastes.
The last one was a bit confusing, it was like two guys in college united by a childhood tragedy, but only one of them seems to remember it. The tragedy had to do with one of their brothers dying in a snowstorm but I guess the details aren’t really that important. Finally they recognized each other (I think?) and this leads to sex because I hear nothing gets you horny for someone like when they trigger you into recalling the painful repressed memory of your brother’s tragic death.
I liked Rie Honjyo’s art pretty well, it has this clean and sharp look to it and I like how she draws “cute men” with longer hair. I could really take or leave the stories, they’re sort of boring and none of them really stuck out to me, but it had pairings and scenarios that personally appealed to me and that combined with the art made me thing favorably of it. I’m guessing I probably liked this one more than most people would for that reason, but I also think it’s a good one for genre beginners because it has wide appeal – decent art, an easy read, on the wholesome side, and a decent amount of sex. The crappy censoring is a bit of a shame but it was done in 2005 so I guess that’s par for the course.
This book has a sequel apparently called “Tomorrow” that continues at least the first story that sadly we don’t have licensed but heyyyy it was scanlated I know what I’ll be reading later. She also has work from as recently as 2023 so I’ll try to hunt down some of her later stuff too.
TL;DR Wholesome and cute one-shot compilation. I could take or leave the stories which are all pretty whatever but Rie Honjyo’s art, pairings, and several of the sex scenes appealed to my personal tastes, so I probably liked it more than I think most people would.