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.
If you couldn’t gather all that from my meme summary, Happiness Recommended – which sounds like some engrish youd see on a tshirt in China – is about a boy named Yukiharu Hiraga who was raised as an only child only by his recently-deceased grandpa only to find out as a teen that he has six estranged younger brothers. Upon their joyous reunion, he quickly discovers why his grandpa took custody of him as a child – they’re all living in squalid conditions in a run-down house in the countryside and his parents have been off doing who knows what. Not using birth control, that’s for sure.
This story is just barely a shounen-ai at all, it’s mainly a dramedy with a theme about family poverty that seems like it’s supposed to be funny and ironic in the ‘secondhand cringe’ way that British comedy is. Usually in yaoi it would be like, MC was raised dirt poor but discovers he has six beautiful rich handsome brothers, instead of the opposite – but maybe this irony is exactly why Himari did it, who knows. Either way, it’s a family drama first and foremost, with some very light shounen-ai thrown in.
The Hiraga family’s landlord neighbors, the Otonaris, have two twin teen boys (who are of course good-looking), Makoto and Minori. Makoto is Yuki’s age and they both have some very early fond memories as childhood friends before Yuki was taken away. Yuki then quickly discovers that his second-oldest brother, Mizumo, is “servicing” Minori for money to feed the family.
Makoto quickly comes onto Yuki to pick up their childhood friendship where it left off (with his penis), and thus the story has two sets of brothers who not only look alike but are both paired off. This made for a bit of a confusing reading experience. Himawari notes at the end that her editor told her that the characters too much alike and also wondered “is this even a BL?” as well as “why is there no sex?” but Himawari summarily ignored all of this advice. Listen to your editors, kids.
Himawari was in a notable doujin circle called M2Company along with CJ Michalski and Naduki Koujima, and is a name you’ll see Yuki wearing on a shirt throughout in this manga. The fact that she works with Koujima (notable for “Our Kingdom“) in this capacity should surprise no one considering their art styles are nearly identical, the biggest difference being that Koujima goes really heavy on drawing uke eyes. Himawari’s style is pleasant to look at though and was probably the highlight of this manga if I had to pick one thing.
Really though, it’s a cute story I guess but there is very little BL in here. The main story has only one kiss scene I could remember actually. There is a second separate story at the end about two college students that has more kissing I think, but it’s really super short. Basically, don’t read this for the BL bits. Why should you read this then? Well, you probably shouldn’t really – this is the sacrifice I make for you guys – but these same characters make a reappearance in a later linked manga called Temperature Rising, also put out by June. I haven’t read Temperature Rising yet but a flip through it tells me that there’s 1) a decent amount of sex and 2) You don’t have to have to have read this to read that. So basically…just read that instead.
TL;DR: A family slice-of-life dramedy with a shounen-ai bone thrown to the hungry fujos as an afterthought. The art is cute but the story has two sets of look-alike brothers in the same sort of relationship (not an incestuous one), making it a bit of a confusing read in parts. Himawari reused some of these same characters in a linked story called Temperature Rising also put out by June, which is a true yaoi that most who read titles from this imprint would probably enjoy more, unless just a wholesome family drama with a BL sidedish is indeed what you’re after.