Yaoi manga reviews and fujoshi ramblings
Continuing to read through Deux Press collection and today we have a title from Yuuya, who did a pretty wild title called Endless Rain from DMP. FreshMen wasn’t bad but it was much more restrained in terms of content, and someone hoping for a title like Rain might be disappointed. However, there’s still pretty men, decent art, and a ton of sex, so plenty to feast your eyes on in here.
Continue reading “FRESHMEN (Yuuya)”
I thought ‘Close the Last Door’ was the last Yugi Yamada in my collection yet to be read, but this one snuck under the radar. This makes what, at least six or seven individual titles she had localized in English? Those ain’t rookie numbers. I do think her work we have is a bit of a mixed bag (worth mentioning that we don’t have any of her newer stuff, which is more polished), but I thought Spring Fever was one of the better ones in that group. This comes with the ‘Yamada caveat’ though – she’s got a weird art style that doesn’t vibe with everyone, me included – but I can look past that for great stories.
Continue reading “SPRING FEVER (Yugi Yamada)”
If you love nothing more than the idea of hot salarymen smoking cigarettes plus smoking each other’s poles, Deux Press has a manga for you. Maybe the only manga for you, at least in English. Cigarette Kisses may *seem* like bad BL trash, but let me subvert your expectations: it’s good BL trash. Totally different thing! It’s not really that trashy though, it’s actually a serious drama, with gay sex. Let’s go with that.
Continue reading “CIGARETTE KISSES (Nase Yamato)”
You may have noticed I’ve been reviewing a lot of Yamada titles lately, in fact I think I’ve pretty much reviewed all her stuff we have in English at this point except for Close the Last Door. The second volume of that is sort of valuable so I’m saving it for last, because that means it might actually be good. Not that the rest of her stuff I’ve read is awful, it’s turned out to be a pretty mixed bag – generally she has good characters and thoughtful stories, but not super appealing art (It is worth mentioning again though that her more recent work is decidedly better-looking, although we don’t have any in English).
Continue reading “GLASS SKY (Yugi Yamada)”
I picked this one off my shelf because it was raining. I guess there’s no better time to read it?
I was fooled by the cover and title of this one. I thought there would be sweetness and romance, but instead there was…rape and murder. Close enough?
Continue reading “ENDLESS RAIN (Yuuya)”
After the death of their parents, Kohei became an overprotective brother to his younger sister Chieko. But when she got married against his will and brought her husband Shingo to live with them, Kohei had trouble letting his sister go and mostly avoided the newlyweds. Then tragedy struck – Chieko was suddenly killed in a traffic accident and now Kohei is stuck sharing both his personal tragedy and his living space with Shingo, the brother-in-law he hates.
This is a really, really good BL story idea, no? With such a great concept, what could possibly go wrong?
Continue reading “SWEET REGARD (Juji Fusa)”
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)”
As soon as I finished this book I yelled to my fiancee in the other room ‘babe, you wouldn’t believe the premise of this yaoi I just read,’ and when I told him, I heard a a hearty chortle in reply. It’s so ridiculous I just can’t believe it was a serious story and not a comedy: three high schoolers are all dating the same girl, and when they lose her they all start fucking each other instead. (Just to reiterate, this is NOT a comedy). And when I imagined where I’d come across the first honest-to-God threesome in a physical title, I certainly didn’t think it would be in an old June book drawn by the same artist who did ‘Rin!’ Well, here we are.
Continue reading “THIRSTY FOR LOVE (Honami/Takaguchi)”
I need to start by mentioning that there is a hand job on page 2 of this book. Now THIS is my kind of yaoi! If only all books were like this. Think how much better Harry Potter would improve if Harry and Malfoy just whipped their “wands” out and got it over with in the first book. “That doesn’t make any sense, those characters weren’t gay,” you may be thinking. Well, a lot of fanfiction would disagree. See, you just have to read between the lines! Try it the next time you watch a Marvel movie, you’ll get all kinds of plot points…
So uh, this is basically gay softcore PWP ninja porn for girls. And call me a sucker but I might as well have a bullseye on my back in terms of the people who make up the target market for this sort of stuff, so naturally I loved it and was inclined to ignore some of its flaws (“some” being the keyword). What can I say, I am an easy customer when it comes to hot bishies porking each other in ninja garb despite what might be something like a 25+ year age gap in the first story with dubious consent. ✋ Ay-yai-yai…
Continue reading “SHINOBU KOKORO (Temari Matsumoto)”