Yaoi manga reviews and fujoshi ramblings
This was one of the first BL titles I ever read, and I remember really liking it. I even replaced my crappy used faded copy that looked like a dog had chewed on the dust cover with a nicer one. However, now that I have hundreds of BL under my belt and I just read another title by this mangaka, I decided to see if it still held up.
Continue reading “LOVING GAZE (Akira Kanbe)”
…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)”
One of the first BL I ever read was Same Cell Organism, also by this mangaka, and I was struck by her unique stories and soft artstyle. Having a lot more BL under my belt now, I was curious if I would still like her work. I can happily say that even after becoming considerably more jaded about BL, Yumeka is like a soft, fresh breeze in a world of lightsaber dicks, oversized hands, dorito chins, and rape tropes.
Continue reading “THE DAY I BECAME A BUTTERFLY (Sumomo Yumeka)”
The back of this book actually says, ‘Cute Beast is sure to please the most jaded of yaoi fans.’
Ohhh boy, I can’t wait to put *that* statement to the test. Feels like a challenge! I’d put on some brass knuckles except that would make it hard to type…
Continue reading “CUTE BEAST (Amayo Tsuge)”
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.
It’s not often that I get my hands on a truly obscure English BL – as in, something so obscure it doesn’t even have an ISBN. My friend Shinami let me borrow this one; it was an exclusive release as part of a BL-subscription box called Yaoi Crate that was around in the early 2020s. Despite its obscurity it’s probably not all that rare yet since it hasn’t been too long since it came out, but no doubt it will be one day. Shall we…start with pudding? *badum tisch*
Continue reading “LET’S START WITH PUDDING (Yosono Yosomi)”
This story takes place in a reality in which there are humanoid robot ukes that look like cute little “teenagers.” I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a brilliant idea coming on, which is: we can give them to pedophiles to keep them from hurting real kids! Just let them diddle androids all day! Unfortunately our real world technology hasn’t reached the level of this manga but I believe in the future, guys. A future of sex androids for pedophiles. Well, and the rest of us too, obviously. Because I want a Giyu Tomioka android who will fuck my brains out and I don’t care what strangers on the internet know it (mom? you haven’t found my blog yet, right?). Seriously, why is Elon Musk screwing around with social media and electric cars and rockets when he could be making sex androids? Talk about wasting your time…
Continue reading “LOVE MACHINE (Amayo Tsuge)”
Are you in the mood for cute, sexy, lighthearted BL? Well hopefully not because this one is… dramatic, emotional, and tragic, so I guess the total opposite. But when it comes to those kinds of stories, Kano Miyamoto really knows how to wring the emotional washcloth and make you feel for the characters, so if you want to get the feels you’re in good hands.
Continue reading “LOVERS AND SOULS (Kano Miyamoto)”
When I first got into the world of bishounen buttsecks comics, I was looking around on online for recommendations and distinctly remember Kirepapa being on several people’s lists and referred to as some kind of scandalous age gap romance. It was already older by that time, having been done around 2003, but it got an OVA in 2008 and thus Deux Press licensed the manga. Whether it’s actually the manga or just the OVA they remember, the crowd who came of age with Junjo Romantica seemed to remember it fondly. I would have been the right age to be included in this group, but I didn’t really get into yaoi until later than most people. Before that I only watched anime or played video games and mostly imagined Fire Emblem characters hot anime guys naked but not with each other. The angel of yaoi hadn’t come to me and pointed me down the path of light yet. Wow, it’s so bright! Look at all the trees and clouds shaped like dicks! And all the unrealistically beautiful 2D men having hardcore sex! Waaaaaiiit a minute…are you really an angel?