So, I read this book on a six-hour plane ride. I happened to be sitting next to an elderly couple and the woman wanted to make small talk with me, and asked what I was reading (the dreaded question). “Oh, this?” I nonchalantly flipped it shut so that the back was facing and realized it had ‘Angelic sex or demonic sex?’ emblazoned on the back in large and bright enough lettering that you’d half to be half-blind not to notice, so quickly turned it over to the front instead. I studied the cover to buy a few seconds to think of something, which I later realized made it look like I had no idea what I’d been reading for the last 20 minutes. I almost went with that, actually, maybe something like, “oh, I found it in the back of the seat pocket in front of me,” but that would have made her more curious. Damn, X, think think think….ok, so the cover makes it look like it might be a nice story about three brothers that got turned into a made-for-TV movie on be Hallmark channel in the 90s, I should say that.
“Oh, it’s a…romance novel.”
She looked at the cover again in this new context. She frowned. The flight is almost landing and she hasn’t said anything to me for the last five hours.
I guess that’s one way to end small talk with elderly strangers…
Thus begins this review, which I am currently typing into my phone’s notepad on the plane, mostly to make sure I’m awake when the flight attendant comes around with more wine the beverage cart. Ah yaoi, what a twisty road we travel together. Along this particular road we encounter a demon and angel attempting to keep the earth from erupting into all-out warfare through sex of varying degrees with a random human teenage Japanese boy, competing for his affections. ‘What other way could possibly exist?’ I pondered to myself while sipping cheap Chardonnay. No other way, obviously. What a dumb question.
Kanzaki stories have been fun to review lately, each one I read seems to be more ridiculous than the last. Here we have an angel named Luke and a demon named Ray – complete with wings, fangs, swords, and all the other proper accouterments of otherworldly beings – masquerading as exchange students in mega-uke Hazumi’s house.
Earth hangs in the balance (which I must say is an unusual feature of a yaoi plot) while they each fight to win Hazumi’s affections through mostly one blowing him every morning while the other just tries to be charming. Eventually another angel named Azriel enters the fray by doing the same thing of course – blowjob as an alarm clock, I mean – while pretending to be his dad.
Will Hazumi pick a winner or will Earth be consumed by the Thirteenth Heavenly War and the entire population be enslaved in the winning side’s harem? I think I speak for everyone when I say this is clearly the epic superhero summer blockbuster plot we need, someone get Michael Bay on the line.
For no reason at all I happened to review two Kanzaki titles in a row, this one right after Double Trouble. I mentioned in that review that her stories have very similar themes and plot progression, like two semes fighting over one uke through manipulative sex – actually, that description covers almost her entire body of work. Still, for having such similar elements under the hood, she’s great at making them all feel different, and no two settings are really the same. Her stories may be questionable, but they are always paced well and for how silly they are there many more general ‘wtf is this story’ moments rather than ‘wtf is actually going on in this story’ moments. So there’s that.
My main gripe with most of her work is that she sucks at endings. Rather than any real resolution to her stories she usually just opts for a sex scene and then it’s curtain call. I mean, most mangakas at least try to resolve the plot, however halfheartedly, before greasing the anal sex wheel. I have mixed feelings about this; on the one hand it’s not like most people picked up one of her books (or possibly any M-rated yaoi book) for Pulitzer-Prize-winning-storytelling, and one could argue a good ol’ drive up the hershey highway is preferable to a serious plot resolution for a Deux Press title (the latter of which also means one should expect a certain base level of trashiness) – but on the other hand it’s kind of annoying when an ending is so bad that you wonder if it was actually finished. This book doesn’t necessarily fall in that category but some of her others do – though I did feel the ending was weak overall. But tbf, I don’t even know how one would truly tie up a yaoi plot with the gravitas that heaven/hell/earth/humanity being on the line entails.
There are two short side stories in this book, the first one drove me nuts because they use the characters’ first and last names interchangeably and I couldn’t figure out who was who. It’s a dorm story that centers around a devious, wavy-haired aggressive uke named Tono who likes to handcuff his partners during sex. He’s definitely untraditional, Kanzaki’s favorite kind of uke, and I love the role-reversal play.
His boyfriend Kiyoto becomes uncomfortable with this kind of roleplaying and has the brilliant idea of breaking up with him while tied to the bed (protip: poor decision) He then realizes his true feelings while they both fuck other people. It also features this line: ‘I’m not a toy!’ ‘I know, you’re a boy.’ Really, those words are said.
The second story is called ‘Beloved’ and it’s about a school counselor using a prostitute as a sexual substitute for his brother (boys I’m sure you can relate). This is a great little gem of a one-shot because it’s comprised of probably between 40%-60% just pure sex while still having a decent story that also has an actual ending, which is not an easy recipe to whip up in 10 pages – but Kanzaki is no amateur cook, metaphorically speaking, and she finally puts the finishing stack on this layer cake in the form of an actual great ending. Kudos!
Kanzaki is a pretty consistent artist and this book doesn’t feel too dated, even though it’s – in this case – 15 years old. This doesn’t seem like a story that could be anything besides love-it-or-hate-it, yet I’m a bit on the fence about it. This mostly has to do with the ridiculous amount of censoring present and Hazumi being so much of a wishy-washy victim that him practicing even the slightest amount of self-assertion comes off as out of character. Thankfully the nice art and sheer amount of sex scenes makes up for this. If you can get on board with the so-over-the-top-it’s-funny nature of the story but care less about that overall than just hot manga dudes getting it, this is a title that fits that description. And when you’re done with it, you can be a real saint and donate it to the shelves of your nearest Christian Book Store. 😉
(TL;DR) ‘Angelic sex or demonic sex?’ asks the back cover, and I guess it’s the shortest way to sum it up. Amusing story that falls in the comedy-fantasy category about an angel and a demon fighting a proxy war over earth by competing for a teenage boy’s affections through either sucking his dick or trying to keep the other one from doing so, made funny and enjoyable by virtue of the fact that Kanzaki clearly doesn’t mean for this story to be taken seriously (thank god). Sex scenes = fairly plentiful, though way over-censored. PS reading yaoi on a plane is a great way to avoid small talk with strangers.