SCARLET (Hiro Madarame)

I had planned to finish and review the small pile of Studio Kosen titles I have all in a row so that I can get it over with, but reading that last one was like chewing on a dung-flavored stick of Juicy Fruit and I’m not sure I can handle another one just yet. I need some mouthwash for the brain, if you will. Brainwash I guess? So I picked a random M-rated one-shot off my shelf…I mean, there’s no guarantee it will be good or anything, but it would have to be, idk, fingerpainted by a drunk or something to be worse than Kingdom of Selfish Love.

Scarlet is Hiro Madarame’s debut work, though not the first of hers to be licensed in English (it was preceded by Cute Devil). It has a title story and two side stories, one of which I enjoyed far more than the main story, incidentally. To say the title story is ‘kind of fucked up’ would be one way to put it, as its main plot points include bloody anal rape followed by attempted murder. And they say romance is dead…

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JAZZ (Maeda/Takamure)

This series made me genuinely curious if, in ‘real’ doctor/patient romantic relationships, the ‘patient’ continues to call his partner ‘Doc!’ during sex even after they’ve been together for years, like the couple in this book. I’m just wondering if it’s an anomaly. I would think that’s something you’d get out of your system relatively quickly if you date them long enough (and thus presumably care about them as a person enough) to call them by their actual name when balls deep in their asshole. Granted, when I fantasize about [entering serious judgment-free zone] General Hux from Star Wars, in my head I mostly call him by his title, but that’s a fantas- well…ok, maybe I answered my own question.


I’m not sure if Jazz was ever a super-popular yaoi series (if it ever had momentum it’s most likely because it was in the right place at the right time) but it’s certainly a widely circulated one, in that if you are new to the genre and discovering what’s out there you will probably come across this one sooner rather than later. It’s a four-part patient-x-doctor story that manages to overcome its flaws by the end – if the backwards seme/uke age dynamics don’t bother you that is, and gratuitous rape in the first two volumes notwithstanding (more on that later). The art is lovely to look at and the story runs the gamut of emotions from happiness to hopelessness, silliness to seriousness, and heartbreak to healing. Don’t tell me that alliteration didn’t excite you.

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NAUGHTY BUT NICE + SPICY BUT SWEET (Naduki Koujima)

Shotacon and non-con are like cheese and chocolate. Some people think they shouldn’t be mixed at all, because it tastes gross and makes you feel gross. Some are warmer to it but definitely think there’s a real art to accomplishing it in a way that makes it tolerable much less enjoyable. The third group is spraying Cheez Wiz on Hershey bars as we speak while calling groups 1 and 2 politically-correct pussies in between chews.

The first group probably shouldn’t bother with this series, but it might as well be a Sunday School book to the third group, who think ‘Boku no Pico’ is shit because it’s mainstream shota. That leaves the second group, who will be largely divided because for many palates, the mess of cheese and chocolate mix in here is not always the tasty kind.

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THE INCREDIBLE KINTARO (Naomi Guren)

I may or may not have gotten this title just to review it. And holy fuck am I glad I did. ‘Speechless’ is a word that often gets attached to a greater number of things than it’s truly worthy of describing, but I think this manga checks that box.

Things That Grow and their Practical Applications: The Christian Summer Camp Middle School Reader, 6th ed.  (alternate title idea) 

VERY NSFW pictures after the jump, even by BL standards.

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CAN’T WIN WITH YOU (Honami/Takaguchi)

That awkaward moment when you try to get a kid of questionable age to do something by tying him down and giving him a hand job while making out with your friend but it doesn’t convince him to do what you want so you get forced to blow the school director’s son while his brothers watch and then the same annoying kid starts going to your school and becomes resident advisor and makes rules against no gay stuff but starts to like gay stuff because you kiss him once but really you like your roommate Miku and you get pissed because you get forced to suck that same guys’s dick again while Miku and your other friend drug the annoying kid with spiked hot chocolate and dress him up like a slutty girl while he’s unconscious complete with shampoo dripping from his mouth for blackmail and then later everyone tries to rape him and you’re like wtf all I wanted was to get my asshole rammed in peace by my roommate without getting forced to blow people as punishment for shit I didn’t do. I think we can all relate.

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A KING’S LESSON (Futaba/Mitsuba)

…in which I learned that apparently Japan isn’t really familiar with Christmas lights. I know they don’t really celebrate it like we do but I definitely saw them on the trees when I was in Japan around November, maybe they just don’t associate them with the holiday? Hmm. Oh, also, there’s a weird weiner in here. Like, not that I’m a professional, but I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to look like a wet finger.

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