MELTED LOVE (You Takumi)

This is a one-shot compilation with what feels like a super random mix of stories, and despite them all being technically short about half of them managed to drag somehow. Don’t worry, I posted all the good sex scenes though…

There’s six stories in here: one good one, one ridiculous but memorable one, one decent one, two boring ones, and one terrible one. There’s wide variety in the settings and pairings and the relationships range from extremely toxic and uncomfortable to lovey dovey. As usual in these compilations the first is the title story, which was the boring one. Young model Juzo likes older partners because they aren’t clingy and don’t nag, and is dating a doctor named Mitsuya who is happy to give him space. When Juzo gets his space though, he is kind of a dick and starts drama over nothing, and is just an annoying character. I’m not really sure if they have a good relationship or how the reader is supposed to feel about them, the story is basically one drawn out passive aggressive tiff between them and then they fuck. Well hey, at least they do that.

Story #2, “Lovely Stubborness, “I fucking hated. Like seriously this is one of my least favorite BL short stories I’ve ever read and my count in that department is pretty high. The pairing is a rich asshole heir named Kazusa and his childhood friend Tetsu. Tetsu cares about Kazusa but is having trouble actually having sex because they had such a long and close friendship. Kazusa is a spoiled and controlling dickhead, treats him like shit, and cheats on him with a woman which Tetsu sees and then listens to Kazusa lie about it, but it’s all…some kind of secret plan just to get Tetsu to have sex? Yeah, just force yourself into his butthole by pretending to cheating, great fucking idea bro! Also doesn’t change the fact that he’s a lying asshole. I don’t even know what Tetsu sees in this guy and I just felt so bad for him, he was sweet and deserved better and really needed to break up with this nasty fucker, childhood friend or no. Similar to the first story I’m not sure what the reader is supposed to be feeling about these characters’ relationship, all I felt was bad for Tetsu.

Kazusa devises a plan to pretend to cheat on his boyfriend Tetsu with a woman, in order to…coerce him into having sex? That’s some 4D chess there bro

Moving on we have the ridiculous but memorable story, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Dentist Nakagawa.” So this one is basically that sadist dentist from Little Shop of Horrors who loves to torture his patients in a BL plot (I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the idea was inspired from that movie).

Nakagawa starts seeing teen Wataru-kun for cavities, and is frustrated that Wataru doesn’t seem to be anxious or feel any pain. Nakagawa wants him to feel pain. Needs him to. One night Nakagawa sees Wataru for a late appointment but sends the dental assistant home beforehand, so they’re alone. Nakagawa’s sadist tendencies go out of control and then he wants to fiddle something more of Wataru’s besides his teeth.

When you go in for your dental appointment to get a cavity filled but the dentist wants to fill your asshole instead
Yaoi World doesn’t care about frooty tooty nonsense like patient ethical violations

Call me a pervert (I know I am), I actually loved this scene. It’s just so ridiculous and Nakagawa is so intense as a character, I couldn’t help but laugh. Wataru is not amused and threatens to change dentists and go to the police, so Nakagawa “promises to be nice to him from now on” and then they start dating or something. Lol. Lmao even. Roflcopter even. Feel like I got whatever laughing gas Wataru got.

Story #4, “False Rumor,” is the other boring one, it’s a childhood-friends-turned-salarymen-coworkers pairing. Director Kazutaka has always been taken care of by his longtime childhood friend Fumihito, who is now his lawyer. They never officially dated even though everyone at their office thinks they are, but when Kazutaka starts getting pressured into an arranged marriage, Fumihito has to discern his true feelings. I thought this story just dragged, both characters are snoozy and they don’t even fuck, but they do have a really fun relationship dynamic. For what it’s worth my friend Shinami who read this book liked this story the most, she enjoyed the humor in it.

#5 is “Unparalleled Service” and it’s a hotel guest with a crush on the concierge. I thought this one was ok, and I liked seeing the concierge character get seduced against his will and be forced to drop his super polite facade and give into his desires. I really like that loss of control element in fiction in general and this one kind of hit that button for me. I also really like undress foreplay and clothed sex (there’s two of those scenes in this manga, yum). A lot of people would probably find this one boring though.

Concierge Morio and hotel guest Kamiya

So by process of elimination, we haven’t talked about the good story yet! This last one is “Tattoo” and it was my favorite because of its all-around uniqueness. I think this one is set like the late 1800s to early 1900s because all the characters are in traditional dress, and it opens with a man named Yu lamenting that his once-illustrious samuari family name has been swept into obscurity and poverty with Japan’s changing times. He slowly starts to gravitate towards a tattoo artist named Seiji, who eventually asks Yu to be the ‘canvas’ for his greatest tattoo. Yu decides to agree to this radical idea, wanting to make a radical change in his life to reflect the one both his family and Japan itself has undergone. Eventually Seiji notices that Yu starts getting turned on by the needle touching certain places and their tattoo sessions become a little more intimate.

Seiji saved the biggest needle for Yu’s asshole huehuehue

It’s not often you see a tattoo-themed story in BL unless it’s yakuza-related much less a historical one, so this was a neat idea. Seiji and Yu made a hot pairing and honestly I wish this was a full-length story.

The art is pretty average overall, and You Takumi has some trouble drawing heads and particularly necks in a three quarters view – for some reason a lot of them end up having giant necks

I think they’re doing this guy’s workout:

I do sort of like this mangaka’s sense of humor and story ideas though. This is the only English-licensed title she has, but she has a couple things scanlated and is still active. Some of her newer work looks pretty good so fingers crossed we can get another license by her one day.

TL;DR Really mixed bag of six one-shots. The highlight was a historical story about a tattoo artist and an impoverished former samurai he makes his “canvas,” and there’s also a memorable and ridiculous one about a sadist dentist who gropes one of his patients while torturing his mouth. The other four were either ok or boring and somehow dragged despite their short length, and two of those featured relationships that were icky to read. The stories don’t really have a single theme in common except for the fact that the mangaka has trouble drawing heads in a 3/4 view and sometimes ends up giving them giant necks. Has a handful of good scenes or characters but also a lot of bad, so it’s a bit of a mishmash and hard to rate, feels like it will appeal to certain tastes and turn others off.

TheBL Rating: 4/10