Things that happen in this book, in ascending order of interest:
1) Features a story about a teen falling in love with his stepdad, and also fucking his stepuncle
2) There is a shoe-licking scene
3) 19 pages in, the author has an illustrated page about how it was so hot in the summer while working on this book that she shaved her privates.
Well then.
This book is made up of several one-shots, and the first is the title story. Here we have a gender-bending boy named Yoh who’s secretly in love with childhood friend Tomoki, your standard tall and handsome temple-priest-to-be. Yoh has a twin sister, Kana, who Tomoki is going to dance with at an upcoming festival. Lamenting the fact that he has a cock and balls unlike his sister (we assume), Yoh fingers his asshole while in the bathtub while calling out Tomoki’s name. Tomoki overhears him of course, and then they fuck. Aaaaand that’s all for the first story.
Shape of Love
I’m not going to summarize all of these plots but this one is the special sauce: Hikaru’s mom died 10 years ago, and he has been in love with his stepdad, Toji ever since. When Toji isn’t around, Hikaru’s been sleeping with another of his mom’s former lovers named Akio, a situation which works for both of them because Akio looks like Toji, and Hikaru looks like his mom. Oh, Akio is also Toji’s brother. At one point they all sleep in bed together for some inexplicable reason, in which Hikaru has sex with his step-uncle next to his stepdad.
The story is needlessly complicated for being so short and I couldn’t keep track of who everyone was, it took me like three reads to figure out how the hell all these people were related and who was fucking who and why
Ropes of Love
Say what you will about having rope bondage sex in a condemned elementary school, but you can be as loud as you want without upsetting the neighbors. Also, gotta hand it to Asia for not bothering with superfluous plot elements and going straight for the sex. I mean there’s what, five stories in here, not *all* of them have to have a plot…
Lion on Friday
This was perhaps the most romantic story of the bunch. I mean, it centers around piano, which is always romantic, right? When Sakurai plays piano in the school music room on Friday, he imagines a lion in a desert staring at him. Symbolic, of course, of the feeling he has when jock-ish Azuma comes to hear him play while waiting for his girlfriend after school. Eventually things get hot and heavy while Sakurai is hunting sheet music for a Beethoven sonata. See, I told you it was romantic!
I think Sakurai is my favorite uke in the book. I mean, his story had more depth than the others so maybe it’s largely due to that, and probably also the fact that when he wears glasses he kinda has this Austria from Hetalia thing going on.
Sheep and Bandage
From a story standpoint, this might be my favorite one in the book, but a think a lot of people would disagree. The reason I like it is mostly because it’s a teacher x teacher story and there really aren’t enough of those (technically school doctor x teacher in this case, but close enough). At an all-boys school (of course), biology teacher Mr. Miura walks in on school doctor Dr. Okitani railing a student. Deciding this is not cool and taking it upon himself to prevent student/teacher sex, he follows Okitani around to try to prevent it. This turns out to be harder than it looks because the students practically try to dry hump the doctor wherever he goes. Okitani explains to Miura that it’s ‘ok’ to have sex with students because ‘once you produce sperm you have to clear out the plumbing once in a while.’ No explanation for how ass-fucking them exactly accomplishes this. You’re supposed to be unclogging the drain not plunging the toilet, doc.
Of course, Miura falls prey to Okitani’s charms and they end up together. Save a student, fuck a teacher.
It’s through this story that we learn the censoring scheme of this book. Apparently, penetration in any form is fine, but dicks are a no-no (?). Which is interesting. You hear that, boys? Get busy,..
Show Me
A somewhat rushed-feeling story about an artist (Sou), and his model (Hanao), the latter falling for with the former and then declaring his love to him while raping him (why waste time?). But of course Yaoi Logic dictates that the uke likes it and then they end up together.
As someone with an art degree (*hork*), and having a lot of painting hours under my belt, one (admittedly stupid) thing that kinda bothered me about this story is the way in which they squirt paint everywhere as if that shit is free. If you’re a professional artist like Sou, not only do you probably have the kind of paint that’s $30-90 a tube, but no matter what kind it is, you won’t see it coming off a wood floor in a Swiffer commercial – that stuff stains. And getting it in your HAIR? Don’t get me started. Jesus, I’m surprised they didn’t use it as lube.
Candy and Whip
The back cover summary mentioned a ‘sexy S&M bonus manga,’ and I was waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.
Asia clearly likes bondage, and informs us all that when she ‘sees a strong-looking man, she wants to tie them up and whip them with a horse whip.’ Don’t we all?
The jist of this story is that the uke, Kiri, gets dressed up as a maid by his seme, who doesn’t have a name. They are getting hot and heavy when Seme With No Name suggests rope bondage, and Kiri gets upset and runs outside where he has a flashback that SWNN tied him up with a jump rope and jerked him off in middle school (boys will be boys!), but remembers that he secretly liked it. They proceed to fuck against a tree. It’s pretty slutty and even includes a facial, but – curiously – there is no actual bondage.
Idk, the rough art and weird censoring kinda put a damper on it by this point. I’m also not really into crossdressing unless you can clearly see the outline of dick. This realization literally just dawned on me, so there’s something.
Oh wait, there is also randomly a scene where – really – the uke licks the seme’s shoe. This seems to be a normal occurence between them, because Kiri seems to know exactly what he is expected to do. To each their own I guess.
…But don’t worry, that’s not the only thing he licks! They both blow each other, which is nice. I mean, not ‘nice’ like “awww grandma, it was so nice of you to get me fruit-shaped socks for Christmas again,” but nice as in, “aww, nice of him to reciprocate.” But unfortunately our Nameless Seme here seems to be gnawing on that thing like a 3am Taco Bell chalupa. Probably just the way it was drawn combined with dumb censoring, but in no way does this look pleasurable to me:
TL;DR: I guess I can give Asia a bit of a pass since it’s her first manga, but it’s still pretty rough. The art is kind of inconsistent but mostly ok, especially if you like Hoshino-esque ladyboy ukes (I don’t, but they somehow seemed to dance on that line without crossing it), but the awkward flow of the storytelling definitely needs work – I got completely lost in several parts and kept having to flip pages back. The title story also had pretty bad dialogue, but it’s hard to know if that’s just the translation.