The author calls the main couples in this story a ‘yuri-ple’ and I’d never heard that term in my life so I’m glad she explained it – my idea of yuri is lesbian manga but apparently she means it to be ‘the pairing of two uke-like characters.’ Ah, so that’s why they both act so dumb! It’s like a wall meeting a wall despite them dating on page 1, neither will take the lead and their relationship just sort of stagnates until one of them finally grows a pair out of sheer horniness and tries to get things moving. Hey guys, I know you want to jerk off alone and wax poetic about your inner feelings but we’ve got a page limit so piss or get off the pot…
Setting-wise this is your typical two-roommates-in-an-all-boys-dorm BL. Shy Hiyori confesses to his (also shy) runner roommate Kaname, who verbally accepts his love…and with that out of the way, Hiyori spends the rest of the book frustrated that he and Kaname haven’t gotten it on yet.
Many things seem to get in the way of their sealing the deal – everything from Hiyori’s habit of barfing when he gets nervous to his older brother Nakatani trying to give Kaname sex advice, to Kaname wanting to wait until after a big running event so that he can continue to let sexual buildup mentally fuel him. However, Itsuki-sensei doesn’t leave you high and dry – there’s lots of masturbation scenes, and if you know anything about my perv fujo mind you know I love a good masturbation scene. The heavy censoring kills the fun a bit though.
The first of these scenes I found really funny even though it was supposed to be serious and dramatic – Kaname walks in on Hiyori masturbating and as he awkwardly turns to leave, Hiyori calls out to him like a fucking shonen rival with ‘if you love me, you’ll face me!’ which made me actually lol…confrontational masturbation? Is this a new thing? C-Can it be a new thing?
Don’t worry, they do eventually have sex though, and I’d say overall earns its M rating which is not something that be said for many of these older titles.
At the end there’s a side story with Hiyori’s brother Nakatani, a notorious playboy and teacher at the school, and a student he grows close to named Kusakabe. It had a bit of a ‘rapey teacher’ vibe but there was some setup to convince you Nakatani actually cared for Kusakabe, and I guess it could have been worse. Not as good as the main story but it was nice to have an adult character in the mix.
The book is cute enough, but I found it a little boring overall – both characters are introverted and shy so the whole time they do the will-they-wont-they thing despite the fact they are indeed dating, until Hiyori starts thinking with his dick and gets a little more forward with his feelings. The main story is really wholesome and sweet and the art has a nice delicate touch to it but I wasn’t a super fan of it personally, just thought it was fine…it’s a little stagnant and still, but hey so is the MC’s relationship so I guess it works.
Kaname Itsuki was a pretty prolific BL artist and had at least one other work in English, Lost Boys, a Peter Pan themed shounen-ai that I remember liking more than this one because it had a pretty unique flavor. She also did, among other things, a 12-volume shotacon (12! shotacon!) and an…Anpanman BL doujin. Which I am definitely not googling as we speak….
TL;DR Wholesome and fluffy for sure, but a little on the slow side since both MCs have a shy personality and are kind of dumb; I think I enjoy these types of will-they-won’t-they plots more when they’re true comedies. Had a load (!) of masturbation scenes though which I liked, including one of the most shonen-coded jerkoff scenes I’ve ever read in a BL in which the seme accidentally walks in on the uke beating his meat and as he awkwardly goes to leave the uke unironically throws him the exit line, “if you love me, then face me!” I’m sold guys, we need more confrontational masturbation in BL…