Yaoi manga reviews and fujoshi ramblings
This was an early title in my collection and I read like part of it or something and remember liking it ok. Reading it again I’m not sure it’s so good that I have to hold onto it still but it’s a cute one-shot compilation for 2008. I guess nowdays we’re just spoiled with such super good BL that this older ‘ok’ BL just pales in comparison.
Continue reading “BAREFOOT WALTZ (Romuco Miike)”
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…
Continue reading “MELTED LOVE (You Takumi)”
I don’t think I’ve ever read a single vampire yaoi I liked and this one makes me even less hopeful that I’ll be finding one anytime soon. It’s…bad. Remember that weird fanfiction you wrote in high school that you and your friends thought was hilarious but you find it as an adult and cringe so hard your skin crawls and think “oh my God this needs to be burned, it should never see the light of day?” (Er, not that I’m speaking from personal experience or anything…) Well, that’s this manga….Except your high school fanfiction could have been better than this.
Continue reading “NECRATOHOLIC (Maguro Wasabi)”
…in which two teachers hook up in an empty kindergarten classroom. Do you think that’s a themed room option at love hotels?
Continue reading “EVERLASTING LOVE (Ryoko Chiba)”
This story exists in a reality where if you’re an attractive young man, every single rich old man wants to have sex with you. This is also a completely normally occurrence to close business deals. Uhh, alrighty then! Let’s dive into the world of Hollywo-*cough* Hot Limit!
Continue reading “HOT LIMIT (Kanbe/Shima)”
This is essentially a 3-volume love pentagon soap opera rife with lying, cheating, confusing drama, sex, and…no romance. You perhaps would assume from the title that this is a romantic BL. I did, at least, and I was very wrong – there is about as much romance in here as the Saw movies. But there is…boys and men having slutty sex with each other, arguably something that could vastly improve a bad horror franchise on life support…not that I have one in mind or anything…
I’m not really sure how to segway from that so I guess, uh…let’s talk about Prince Charming!
Continue reading “PRINCE CHARMING (Akemi Takaido)”
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a Naduki Koujima title, the last one was Naughty but Nice which was another of her early works like this one. Our Kingdom is one of her most well-known manga despite being sort of incomplete, and it embodies all the things you can usually find in her work – school settings, rapey semes, cute little big-eyed ukes, and uncomfortable power-imbalanced relationships between them. Oh yeah, and crotch grabbing and forceful handjobs. She really, really loves crotch grabbing and forceful handjobs…
Continue reading “OUR KINGDOM (Naduki Koujima)”
You would think by the title that this would be your average vampire yaoi, but you’d be wrong. It’s your…below-average 10-volume isekai trap yaoi featuring vampiric half-dragons (how many of those have you read?) that I originally dropped around volume 3 because it was so bad that I couldnt see myself getting through the whole thing. But after exiting the mudpit I decided to take a deep breath, rinse myself off, and promptly and regretfully get back in. Why in the name of red hot scaly dragon dick did I pick it back up? I’m still asking myself that question and I’m not sure actually…maybe I’m just a masochist, or I thought it would get better (spoiler: it does not get better). But really, it’s probably because it’s one of the things I’ve had in my collection for ages; it was one of my first manhwa. Those bright red spines have stared out at me for years…I had to do it justice by at least finishing it. A totally unnecessary sacrifice? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Not at all.
Continue reading “SWEET BLOOD (Seyoung Kim)”
This is one of those yaoi that’s not necessarily bad but it’s the sort of pairing/setting combination that I’m not personally into, so I didn’t enjoy it very much. For one, I dislike the ‘perfect in every way’ character type in yaoi. The one on the cover who would be Hitler’s wet dream except for the fact he’s gay is Prince Willis – rich, royalty, and impossibly good looking – and, to me anyway, incredibly boring as a fictional character. I know this is supposed to be like the ultimate female fantasy or whatever but it’s just so uncreative and overdone to me. You could probably throw a dart blindfolded in the 50 cent romance paperback section at Goodwill and hit a book that stars this exact character without even trying. He also looks too much like a woman for my tastes, but that is secondary to his other qualities. And who does Prince Willis chase after in this literary flight of fancy? A completely normal and even more boring ‘regular’ guy who is totally below his level – a type of pairing that I can’t stand. So, not off to a good start here.
Continue reading “TRICKY PRINCE (Yukari Hashida)”
“Waru” means bad in Japanese, and I wouldn’t be so unfunny as to pluck the low-hanging fruit of they named it really well huehuehue. Nah, I can make better jokes than that, of course. Also this one actually isn’t that bad. Let me just take a couple sips of wine and I’ll come up with something better in 20 minutes. Hmm. Any minute now….actually you know what, I’m just gonna leave this really great panel here, which will hopefully entice you to read the rest:
Well, hopefully now you know the kind of noble, high-quality literature we’re dealing with here.
Continue reading “WARU (Yukari Hashida)”