Yaoi manga reviews and fujoshi ramblings
Now here’s something interesting: a kendo BL. Want to see two guys working out their relationship issues through crossing long hard swords which is not a euphemism for anything? I am pretty gutted about this one being a shounen-ai though, ngl I wanted to see some hot kendo dojo sex just for fun.
Continue reading “DOST THOU KNOW? (Satoru Ishihara)”
This story stars a 25-year old former boxer named Sohei who was originally inspired to become one after he read Ashita no Joe as a teenager. As far as boxing manga goes I haven’t read Joe (which recently got licensed in English) but I am currently reading Hajime no Ippo which is I am enjoying, although I don’t really know anything about boxing despite this. This manga was so boring it made me want to read that instead though…or anything else…insurance paperwork or algebra would have been more entertaining.
Continue reading “LAUGH UNDER THE SUN (Yugi Yamada)”
Tfw you were raised as an only child by your grandfather because you dont have any other family and he dies but turns out he was actually lying to you about not having family it’s just that your parents were pieces of shit who left your six younger brothers to raise themselves in poverty in a hovel somewhere and you finally go to meet and live with them but they all hate you and one of them always has to suck the neighbor’s dick for money.
After the death of their parents, Kohei became an overprotective brother to his younger sister Chieko. But when she got married against his will and brought her husband Shingo to live with them, Kohei had trouble letting his sister go and mostly avoided the newlyweds. Then tragedy struck – Chieko was suddenly killed in a traffic accident and now Kohei is stuck sharing both his personal tragedy and his living space with Shingo, the brother-in-law he hates.
This is a really, really good BL story idea, no? With such a great concept, what could possibly go wrong?
Continue reading “SWEET REGARD (Juji Fusa)”
Yugi Yamada’s work echoes Fumi Yoshinaga’s – quiet and serious slice of life dramas and art that has a comfy vintage feel to it no matter when it was drawn – but her work never reached the same level as the great Yoshinaga, whose stories were usually more thought-provoking, unique, emotional, and mature. Still, Yamada was a prolific mangaka who was semi-popular in the late 90s and early 00s, has a lot of work in English, and carved out a niche of her own drawing realistic BL dramas. Don’t Blame Me definitely comes off as rough in places, but it’s mostly ok for being done in 2000 and I’ve read a lot worse.
Continue reading “DON’T BLAME ME (Yugi Yamada)”
This is essentially a 3-volume love pentagon soap opera rife with lying, cheating, confusing drama, sex, and…no romance. You perhaps would assume from the title that this is a romantic BL. I did, at least, and I was very wrong – there is about as much romance in here as the Saw movies. But there is…boys and men having slutty sex with each other, arguably something that could vastly improve a bad horror franchise on life support…not that I have one in mind or anything…
I’m not really sure how to segway from that so I guess, uh…let’s talk about Prince Charming!
Continue reading “PRINCE CHARMING (Akemi Takaido)”
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Naduki Koujima title, the last one was Naughty but Nice which was another of her early works like this one. Our Kingdom is one of her most well-known manga despite being sort of incomplete, and it embodies all the things you can usually find in her work – school settings, rapey semes, cute little big-eyed ukes, and uncomfortable power-imbalanced relationships between them. Oh yeah, and crotch grabbing and forceful handjobs. She really, really loves crotch grabbing and forceful handjobs…
Continue reading “OUR KINGDOM (Naduki Koujima)”
You would think by the title that this would be your average vampire yaoi, but you’d be wrong. It’s your…below-average 10-volume isekai trap yaoi featuring vampiric half-dragons (how many of those have you read?) that I originally dropped around volume 3 because it was so bad that I couldnt see myself getting through the whole thing. But after exiting the mudpit I decided to take a deep breath, rinse myself off, and promptly and regretfully get back in. Why in the name of red hot scaly dragon dick did I pick it back up? I’m still asking myself that question and I’m not sure actually…maybe I’m just a masochist, or I thought it would get better (spoiler: it does not get better). But really, it’s probably because it’s one of the things I’ve had in my collection for ages; it was one of my first manhwa. Those bright red spines have stared out at me for years…I had to do it justice by at least finishing it. A totally unnecessary sacrifice? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Not at all.
Continue reading “SWEET BLOOD (Seyoung Kim)”
This is a very early June title, among the first releases on the imprint in the early 00s after they smelled the success of Tokyopop’s gamble on Gravitation and decided they wanted a hot slice. Similar to their other multi-volume early titles like Il Gatto sul G, Our Kingdom, and Gorgeous Carat, they weren’t really ready to license anything all that raunchy yet – at least until Tokyopop put out Junjo Romantica on their BLU imprint and all bets were off. And, at 7 volumes, La Esperanca tied with Our Kingdom as the longest series on the June imprint for about a decade – until they did Ayano Yamane’s Finder and The Tyrant Falls in Love much later on, unfortunately for both series (Finder was license-rescued by Sublime and no one really knows what the fuck is going on with Tyrant yet).
Why the dearth of long series between this time? The first reason is obvious, they present more upfront commitment and expense than one-shots, and the 2008 economic downturn didn’t help things. The manga industry in general also came to realize that the sales of manga series, especially longer ones, largely ride off the back of an anime, and the BL category has scant entries in that regard – so, one-shots and the shorter series (under 10-12 volumes) are definitely safer bets. This is starting to change and there are exceptions, but by and large, BL series in the west are ‘short and sweet’ and longer ones are not gambled on unless they have an anime to help sales. Back in the early 00s though, the Western market was horny for any BL and DMP wanted to filled that hole (!). How has this series aged and is it still worth reading so many years later? Let’s find out!
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This is one of those yaoi that’s not necessarily bad but it’s the sort of pairing/setting combination that I’m not personally into, so I didn’t enjoy it very much. For one, I dislike the ‘perfect in every way’ character type in yaoi. The one on the cover who would be Hitler’s wet dream except for the fact he’s gay is Prince Willis – rich, royalty, and impossibly good looking – and, to me anyway, incredibly boring as a fictional character. I know this is supposed to be like the ultimate female fantasy or whatever but it’s just so uncreative and overdone to me. You could probably throw a dart blindfolded in the 50 cent romance paperback section at Goodwill and hit a book that stars this exact character without even trying. He also looks too much like a woman for my tastes, but that is secondary to his other qualities. And who does Prince Willis chase after in this literary flight of fancy? A completely normal and even more boring ‘regular’ guy who is totally below his level – a type of pairing that I can’t stand. So, not off to a good start here.
Continue reading “TRICKY PRINCE (Yukari Hashida)”