Hinako Takanaga is one of the most well-known BL mangaka in North America, thanks to the huge success of the Tyrant Falls in Love in the 2010s, as well as the more recent Finder series – whether you got into BL then or more recently, she’s probably one of the first artists whose work gets in your radar since it’s so widely recommended. She had a strong debut in 1996 with the four-part series Challengers, which the long-defunct publisher DramaQueen released here. Her super talent for great characters and stories gave her a rather fast rise within the fandom, of which she is still a fixture today. Sadly The Tyrant Falls in Love, probably her best work, is stuck with DMP here in North America, the ultimate tax writeoff zombie of BL pubs that keeps coming back to life no matter how dead it is.
In case you’re unaware, here’s a short summary of the DMP drama: After getting hooked on crowdfunding to try to bring some Osamu Tezuka titles over in the 2010s, they started using that money to keep the lights on and not delivering on their promised rewards, which got them embroiled in an endless shitstorm with fans that persists even today (if you go on their social media accounts, you’ll see salty comments from people still complaining about not getting their rewards, 10 years after the fact). Shortly after this, DMP lost their contract with Libre, the Japanese publisher who they got most of their BL titles from for their June imprint. Their relationship with them had deteriorated so much that they apparently found out about this from Libre’s official press release (ouch), which will never not be funny to me. But they were for some reason allowed to keep their license to Tyrant – likely because they already had 9 or 10 volumes out – if they promised to reprint it. So they reprinted the first four volumes, which quickly sold out, and never reprinted the rest. The situation is such that full sets are going for $1000+ on eBay, an honor amongst BL that previously only Ai no Kusabi could claim. Yes really, that’s how much people love the Tyrant series. Oh yeah, DMP also lost their business license in California at some point. But like a cockroach, they just won’t die, and I fully believe if all the manga publishers got in a fight to the death that DMP would be the last one left standing by virtue of hiding in a crawlspace, eating Cheetos, slurping Capri Suns, and coming out when all the fighting is over.
So anyway, now that I’ve taken up half this review shitting on DMP – Takanaga had a few other works licensed in English that are spread about between a couple publishers and imprints. Love Round!! is one of these, one of her earlier works. It was done in 2003 but it wasn’t licensed and released by Deux Press until 2009, likely to cash in on the popularity of some of her other work that was selling well in English like Challengers and Little Butterfly.
Love Round!! is an excellent one-shot sports comedy that Deux was wise to pick up, and it makes me wish that we had even more of her work in English because I don’t think she has any actually bad work. It stars Kaoru Komatsuna, a small and cute high school boy who is self-conscious about his girly face and weak body. His looks betray the strength of his punch though, which comes flying at anyone who makes fun of him. When school boxing champ Kubo accidentally finds himself on the business end of Kaoru’s fist, a mutual admiration is born – Kubo convinced Kaoru to join the boxing team, and Kaoru, wanting a strong and masculine body like Kubo’s, agrees.
Kubo and Kaoru form a super sweet friendship and have many comedy moments through funny misunderstandings and Kubo being lovably naive, which often sends him flying with Kaoru’s punch (the story has a “KO count” of how many times this happens, and the final count is 18). Kubo develops feelings for Kaoru but Kaoru rejects him; however, as the story goes on he starts to feel the same way, but is too embarassed and doesn’t want to admit it since he’d already rejected Kubo earlier.
This couple is sooo easy to root for, they have really cute chemistry and Takanaga is amazing at building the tension until the climax at the every end. It’s rated M, and as the pages started to thin I got anxious being like, “Omg, do they get together? Do they have sex? Takanaga-sensei what happens?!?!?! I need to know!!!” She really makes you wait for it, and the suspense is pretty driving. Deux has been known to falsely rate shounen-ai as M so I really didn’t know what was going to happen (I won’t spoil it, because the book really makes you earn it). The ending is both sweet and funny and I just all-around loved it. Takanaga is a fantastic artist and is just great at bringing BL characters to life. Her art style is nostalgic without feeling dated, and as a bonus, the characters are often shirtless in this story too.
Overall, this is a super cute BL that both new and seasoned fans alike can easily enjoy. It’s not particularly innovative or anything but as a wholesome comedy it stands out. I really have nothing but good things to say about it, and it can also be found online for cheap still so I’d highly recommend checking it out!
TL;DR Memorable, wholesome, and heartwarming will-they-won’t-they high school boxing comedy BL. Both characters are really funny and you just can’t help but root for both their boxing aspirations and their relationship. Although it’s one of Takanaga’s earliest works, from 2003, it absolutely still holds up in every way!