I had had this title kicking around for ages; it was one of the first in my collection. I don’t know why it took me so long to finally read it. I think because usually I’m either in the mood for either a good yaoi’ or ‘bad yaoi,’ and didn’t know how to categorize this one, because I’m a weirdo and didn’t want to take off the shrinkwrap until I committed to it – but then of course I couldn’t flip through it to find out. I am fully aware that’s a stupid as hell reason but gotta preserve that new book smell, ya know?
I read this all in one sitting, around 6am listening to rain and traffic in bed and waiting for the sun to rise, possibly under some insomnia-induced delirium (my sleep schedule is FUBAR due to Black Death 2020) and trying to wash my brain out after Poison Cherry Drive – which was so incomprehensible that even fairly mediocre yaoi like this one appears near-Shakesperean in comparison.
Here we have your standard yaoi love triangle. Blood relatives? Check. Rich? Check. CEO/powerful businessman involved? Check. Student council president involved? Check. ‘B-b-but we’re two guys!’ Check. Uke is a weak helpless walking stereotype? Check. Yaoi Hands? Check. Ah, all the ingredients we need for Generic Yaoi Stew.
But, idk, predictability in a yaoi story just doesn’t bother me. People complain about generic yaoi all the time, saying it’s all the same schlock, etc. And they’re right, but I mean, welcome to BL – they’re romance stories, what do people expect? I mean, guess since we all know what yaoi stories are going to be about, what’s the point of reading them? Even though many yaoi stories are predictable and full of genre tropes, they can still be good and fun to read. The bulk of yaoi does not reinvent the wheel. Or maybe I just haven’t read enough of them to be jaded yet and I can unlock that achievement when I have read 200 If them or something.
I have begun to notice a pattern with June books, at least the oversized ones from around this time – the story tends to be pretty strong, but the art moves on a wide sliding scale of quality and there isn’t usually a lot of sex. I think this one fits that pattern. The story was the best part by far, the pacing was excellent and the characters were sweet. Our star is uke-errific Yuuki, whose life changes when he gets ‘adopted’ by his two gorgeous stepbrothers he didn’t know he had from his estranged and deceased father’s wealthy family.
You probably don’t even have to be a fujo to pretty much know what’s going to happen from here on out. I have a weakness for powerful tsunderes so Gai was my favorite. I found Yuuki to be more annoying than anything but I dislike the ‘poor widdle baby uke’ stereotype. Masami was the least developed character and came off a bit wooden.
The art kinda fluctuated between ‘oof’ and ‘ok.’ There were some noticeable amateurish drawing issues that went beyond stylistic touches, but for the most part it just felt like it needed more polish. Agawa is a clearly a capable mangaka who seemed like she was still trying to develop her style at this point. The paneling and tones were pretty good though, clearly an effort was made there.
One really annoying thing about this book was how seemingly random words were italicized in the dialogue, sometimes outside of where the conversational cadence would have naturally fallen.
This book probably should have been a shounen-ai. I go into M-rated books expecting a sex fest even though that’s almost always a letdown. Like I just wanna see some weiners goddamnit, is that too much to ask for an M-rated yaoi book? IS IT? APPARENTLY IT IS. WE JUST WANT TO SEE THE PEEN OK?
Ok, goos frabba…you know what, maybe it’s just because I’ve been reading a lot of hentai lately so am just used to seeing M-rated books have enough semen squirting around to frost a cake. Meanwhile in this book, we get a guy plucking a plant leaf.
But you know what, I still liked it I guess? Maybe I’m just a sucker and haven’t become too cynical yet, but I thought the story was cute and I liked the characters. For those who like fluff, school stories, or tsundere semes, this is a nice fast read and pretty easy to find for cheap as well.
TL;DR Quite predictable yet enjoyable and cute, this trope-y stepbrother love-triangle story moves along nicely which is just as well because the less you linger on the awkward art, the better. Might as well have been a shounen-ai for how soft of an M rating this is, but the story had a tense enough buildup that I was ok with having the emotional payoff over the physical one.