Tag Archives: Boys’ Love

   Banana Fish by Yoshida Akimi

I have to apologize for being gone for so long.

The biggest hold up has been that I managed to spill coffee on my computer and, though it briefly seemed like my computer would pull through, it ended up failing more and more. Eventually, I simply had to finally break down and replace it. In the meantime I was borrowing my wife’s computer, which is fine for a lot of things, but I’m not sure how happy she’d be to discover all of the various screenshots of yuri and yaoi in her pictures folder, you know?

On top of that, I’ve been reading a lot of things lately that have multiple volumes and it’s sometimes difficult for me to know how useful it is for me to review only the first few. 

And then…. 

I fell into Banana Fish.

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If I had found Banana Fish when I was 15 years old I would have thought that I’d died and gone to heaven.  

As a friend of mine said, this story is made of my id. It has everything my trashy, perverted younger self secretly wanted… well, to be, but at the time I would have said in the man I wanted to marry. Our hero, amazingly named Ash Lynx is a  literal genius with an IQ of over 200, a martial arts master, a sharp shooter with insane accuracy, has a tragic backstory that includes male prostitution, is physically based on River Phoenix, and… is gay AF (at least for Eiji Okumura.) 

The tag line alone would have sold it to me–”Nature made him beautiful, nurture made him a killer!”

I will say in advance of talking too much more about it, this manga series is somewhat difficult to find. Even though Banana Fish was first published in the 1980s (specifically from 1985-1994 in Bessatsu Shoujo Comic), it is still in print. At least, my Barnes & Noble had it on the shelves when I was there a few weeks ago. The link above points you to the Viz Media page for it, which only gives you three chapters for free before they put the screws on to get you to subscribe. There are bits and pieces of it uploaded on Internet Archives, but I couldn’t find anything complete out there for free. So, if you are on a budget, you might want to stop reading now, lest you, like me, find it compelling enough to consider blowing your budget over.

If you already subscribe to Netflix, there is, at least, reissue of an old anime series available for you to watch. That’s how I ended up first consuming it. 

So, the story. The whole thing is so deeply improbable in the most fun way. The larger plot involves a mind-control drug invented by the Chinese mafia (maybe) with ties to the US government. Ash’s connection is through an older brother who served either in Iraq (the updated version) or Vietnam (the original) who was tested on against his will and has since become deeply disabled. And, also the evil kingpin, Dino Golzine, who picked Ash up off the street and Epstein filed him, as it were, while also grooming him to one day take over as head of the Italian mafia. This plot is truly ‘gonzo,’ and just science fictional enough that I stayed hooked despite some real doozies of “random” coincidences. 

The romance end of the story starts when we begin to follow our other main, Eiji Okumura, yaoi’s first perfect cinnamon bun of a boy, into the dark underbelly of America’s gang scene in the 1980s. Eiji is an assistant to a photojournalist who has come from Japan to document the crime and lawlessness that is America. (I mean… fair.) However, while it is true that guns are everywhere in the US and the gangs of 80-90s were BAD, there were times when even I–who had very purposefully removed my suspenders of disbelief and set them aside–had moments of, “Uh… I’m pretty sure you can’t actually get away with THAT much gun violence??!!?” 

But, luckily, the cops are bumbling idiots. (Again, fair.)

In the first chapters, Eiji manages to impress Ash with a daring pole-vaulting escape, and thus an OTP is born.

The story of Banana Fish is only very lightly a Boys’ Love. In the anime, the only kiss we get is when Ash, who is in prison, wants to pass a secret note to Eiji. What I’ve seen from the manga, there is a little more titillation here and there with implied sexual situations/sexual assault. But, don’t read or watch this one for the sexy bits. The romance is pretty strong, though I will warn that Banana Fish goes the way of Cowboy Bebop. So, it’s also probably best if you don’t attach too much to either of the two mains–or many of the side-characters, honestly. I got burned by caring a bit too much for “Shorter,” Ash’s bestie. 

It’s far too complicated and messy to give you all the various turns and twists, but, for me, it was an absolute delight to watch Ash Lynx be everyone’s “hellcat”/problem and Eiji be the comfort of home for Ash to fight his way back to. 

The manga’s art is very much a product of its time, but, for me, there is an elegance in Yoshida-sensei’s line art that makes me accept that Ash and Eji were seen as “bishonen” back in the day. I’m not quite sure I can explain it, but some of her art is just full of a kind of sensuality that draws the eye in and causes it to pause.

10/10 would again. In fact, I will probably be wasting a lot of money on collecting this manga series over the next however many years.

The Song of Rainfall / Ameoto no Uto by Inoue Nawo

The Song of Rainfall is a short story collection. The manga opens with a fun little metaphor of a story about how lucky a person feels in love. It’s called “The Man Wearing One Sock.” This was my favorite story in the collection, which is probably why I ended up feeling over all dissatisfied, as I felt it peaked early.

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“The Man Wearing One Sock” is a cute, little one shot about how lucky it feels to be in love.  The story follows the hapless Irou, a guy who just can not seem to get it together. Until one day, when Aoi moves in next door. Aoi is a cheerful, helpful sort who always just seems to be in the right place at the right time to help out Irou. For instance, Aoi discovers that Irou’s missing socks are being stolen by the neighborhood cat and is able to return them to Irou. Life is just better with Aoi in it. Apparently, this is enough for Irou to be like, so maybe also sex?? Which, I mean there have likely been dumber reasons to hook-up?

The second story is the titular “The Song of Rainfall.”  This story also is the bulk of the collection, coming, as it does, in several parts. This is one of those that I wanted to love … and then incest gets introduced. In this case we have a morose, heart sore professor, Amamiya, who both pines and feels guilty of lusting after his step-brother. Along comes Naruse, a dead ringer for the step-brother. Naruse is caught out in the rain and, classically, Amamiya invites this handsome stranger in to dry off. I don’t know, it kind of just gets weird from there because Naruse is also maybe looking for a father figure? They sort of work it out over time, but I am not convinced it’s healthy.

The third story is called “In First Love’s Midst,” and follows two brothers Shin and Take that the translator insists in their notes are “step-brothers.” I mean, sure, but it’s not like we haven’t seen straight-up incest before. Take is the older brother who is always there for Shin, until it’s time to move out. Shin seems to like girls, but likes Take better, so they conspire to live together in the future. If you find this sort of devotion romantic, it’s nice enough. 

As discussed here before, I find the step/brother stuff to be a bit off-putting, but I understand that it comes from a Japanese ideal of “those who know you best.” The whole thing would work so much better for me if the new lover just looked like an ex, but what can you do? I was surprised to discover that this collection isn’t all that old, having come out in 2010. I always think of these incest kink stories as belonging to the previous century, but 2010 is 16 years ago, so close enough I guess.

The art in this one is also somewhat… funky. It’s a little on the crude side. So, maybe with all of these strikes against it, it will be a miss for you. I only stumbled across it because I am still working through the free manga on Comics Plus, though my library subscription. As always, if you are okay reading the pirate version (or want to try before you buy) it is linked above. (Actually the above link only has the first of the short stories, sorry. This one is hard to find online.)

My Lover is Just Too Innocent to Handle / Koibito ga Ubu suite Komaru (Vol. 1) by Hirota

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this title but ‘lover’ seems a little strong of a word here given just how innocent the story is… at least so far. And maybe that’s the joke? Once again, I must confess: sometimes I just don’t get humor. 

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My Lover is Just Too Innocent to Handle / Koibito ga Ubu suite Komaru is a very light comedy about a popular high school jock who falls for a shy nerdy twink. The story opens with Hiyama, the popular boy, handing Hasegawa an exchange diary. If you’ve never come across an exchange diary, feel free to click the link to read the official Wikipedia entry, but in a nutshell it’s a journal or notebook that is passed around between friends. You write about your day or whatever and the next person does the same. It can be between two people or a whole group. Sometimes it’s for deep thoughts, but mostly it’s a more personal, intimate, and tactile way to write letters (or email or social media without the internet part?)  I actually did one of these with adults during the pandemic and they can be a lot of fun because you’re encouraged to decorate them, etc. They pop-up in manga from time to time, most notably in Wandering Son and, of course, My Solo Exchange Diary.

The story immediately goes into a flashback to explain how this unlikely couple formed. Hasegawa immediately assumes that Hiyama’s love confession must have been something he was dared to do–they don’t know each other and they’ve hardly spoken. Turns out, Hiyama has been admiring Hasegawa from a distance and just realized how happy he was to discover that they were in the same class again this year.

What follows is a lot of Hiyama trying to figure out what it means to be dating a boy… or really, anyone.  The exchange diary started because Hiyama realized that he had all these physical feelings about Hasegawa, but knew very little about him as a person. And, you know, he is very sincere and genuine in his desire to properly court Hasegawa. 

All the same, they seem to mostly use the diary to plan dates in secret. 

Hiyama is the “just too innocent to handle” half of this couple in part because he is clearly attracted to Hasegawa and absolutely DOES NOT know how to deal or what to do about it. 

It’s pretty wholesome and cute.

I enjoyed the art. There’s a very wholesome-yet-somehow-erotic moment where the couple meets for lunch and Hasegawa has forgotten his and so Hiyama feeds him? It’s done very well and…there are moments like that, throughout. 

The story is complete in two volumes and, while I found the story compelling enough, I didn’t feel a burning need to run out and read the second. As I noted in the opening, there’s a light humorous thread that goes throughout that mostly works for me. At one point Hiyama is hurt that Hasegawa doesn’t pick him as the most popular during sports day or some such and it’s very over-the-top in a way that’s actually quite funny, but you know me. I’m not as invested when the stories are largely silly, especially since I’m not great at getting the humor a lot of the time. 

That being said, would I recommend it to you? Absolutely. It’s cute and innocent and funny. What’s not to love?  

I got mine through Comics Plus, so there is an official English translation available through Yen Press, but you know how to find the link to the pirate version if you want to just a taste before buying (hint: linked in first paragraph below ‘spoilers.’)

Kimi ni Ienai Koto ga aru / There Are Things I Can’t Tell You by Edako Mofumofu

I’m not sure that Kimi ni Ienai Koto ga aru / There Are Things I Can’t Tell You  was to my taste, but it might be to yours.  And, since I have decided to try to review everything I read, here goes…

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I’m going to start by saying: Yes, I can see that it’s right there in the title. This manga (which is complete in one volume) is, in fact, called There Are Things I Can’t Tell You. 

Yet, what didn’t I like? 

The not talking.

I think I was expecting that the thing that they would struggle to say to one another would be “I love you” and that the story was thus going to be a slow burn, which is the kind of not talking about things that I tend to actually enjoy. But, that’s not the problem here. In the first chapter, one of them says, out loud, that he loves a certain aspect of the other’s personality. They actually confess to each other kind of regularly.

What apparently they suck at saying is that “when I seemed horrified by your confession, I was actually into it, but decided, based on an assumption I made, that you are not as gay as I am and so decided without actually checking-in that I would ghost you and act like I was not at all into you and thus fuck up our entire adult relationship. All because I think it’s what’s best for you.”

It’s not an uncommon trope? It’s just not one of my favorites.

At least this one has some on-screen, uncensored sex, however. Not, in my opinion, enough of it to slog through all the drama and a strange amount of job-related stories, but again, maybe angst is your thing?  

If so, let me introduce you to Kasumi and Kyosuke, childhood besties, that are, according to the back matter, “polar opposites.” I would say that they have a lot in common, but more on that in a bit. Kasumi (the dark-haired one with glasses, naturally) is shy and reserved and Kyosuke (lighter-haired, of course) is the out-going jock type. 

The story largely follows Kyosuke’s point of view, even into his daily adult life as a graphic art designer. As I noted, we follow him into his office and watch him try to win various bids, etc. I’m not sure what this adds to the story? Maybe his long hours focused on work is supposed to explain why he doesn’t notice that Kasumi is always finding reasons to sleepover at his? 

Despite their otherwise very intimate life–they go to movies and dinner together regularly–Kyosuke is convinced that Kasumi is as straight as they come, despite all of the mounting evidence both in the present and past. This misconception, we discover, comes from a moment in high school when Kyosuke accidentally read the shrine wish that Kasumi made for a “future happy family.” 

Kasumi has always had it rougher than Kyosuke, it seems. He was praying for “happy families” because before his parents divorced, his father was a real piece of work. This past trauma has led Kasumi to choose closed-off, unavailable romantic partners, including the one he has at the beginning, a married woman. Kyosuke absolutely hates this relationship. Because he has all these unspoken feelings towards Kasumi, he kind of acts like a dick a lot, which then further pulls the two apart.

Somehow they still end up screwing around. Even this isn’t a solution because now it’s Kasumi’s turn to make stupid assumptions about Kyosuke’s wants and desires. Basically, because of how Kyosuke has had a tendency to “rescue” the shy kid from being a loner in middle and high school, Kasumi figures he’s a pity fuck and breaks things off. 

In my opinion, it takes way too long for these two numbnuts to get it together, but obviously they manage it five chapters (which is faster than some!) so I guess I shouldn’t complain. 

I think more than anything I just wasn’t in the mood for what I got? The art is quite decent and, they do get it on, so *throws up hands* I GUESS it’s fine.

So, do I recommend it? I mean, it does say exactly on the tin what it is. It’s about two guys who just can’t talk about some things and, maybe knowing more about the exact problem will be the trick for you to enjoy it. As I said, I would have been fine with this as a slow burn and I think I just got frustrated that wasn’t what it was. So, I can’t give it all the stars, but maybe you could.

Dirty Darlin’ / Don’t Call Me Dirty by Kanbe Gorou

You can blame Anoka County for its promotion of Comics Plus for the in-coming flood of yaoi reviews. 

Dirty Darlin’/Don’t Call Me Dirty is a love story between a homeless guy and a liquor store attendant who self-describes as having terrible taste in men. There is a weird amount of plot in this, and so I am not at all surprised that it spawned a spin-off called Daddy Darlin’/Don’t Call Me Daddy. 

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We are introduced to Shouji Mita when some neighborhood kids complain about the fact that the old man who runs the next door candy store is sundowning again, and they can’t rouse him.  Being the grumpy but kind-hearted guy Shouji is, he goes over and rings up the kids. All the while he complains that his current lover–a married man–is not answering his calls or texts. Even the five year olds are like, “Dude. You have got to pick better men!” 

While everyone is giving Shouji crap, a big hulking homeless guy appears at the door. The homeless guy wants to know what’s the most filing thing he can buy for what looks to me like a five yen coin. Shouji, despite being horrified by how dirty and smelly the man is, not only helps him out with a cup of ramen, but immediately kind of falls for him.

What follows is both pathetic and sweet. 

Shouji ends up noticing the homeless man around town, a guy who he thinks is named Hama, around more and more. They get up to a bunch of antics together, some serious–like when Hama is falsely accused of stealing candy bars from the candy story–and some light. Eventually, in a surprise to no one but Shouji, his married man dumps him and then Shouji is faced with untangling his burgeoning feelings towards Hama. Is it true love or is it just pity?

For his part, Hama would mostly just like to be left alone. Also, he seems to have mostly been straight before watching some gay porn after Shouji starts hitting on him.

Hama has, of course, his own tragic backstory of how he ended up on the streets which, by the end, is resolved by the weird amount of plot previously mentioned, specifically the candy store’s old man’s son (who I’m sure is the love interest along with Shouji’s blogging dad in the “Daddy” spin-off.) By the end he has cleaned-up but good and the two end in an HEA.

The manga goes to some length to underscore the metaphor–Shouji has been told by many of his terrible lovers that anal sex, specifically, is unclean and that gayness is “dirty.” Hama, meanwhile, represents the unclean of society in a more literal sense. Both of them are considered dirty, but are actually deserving of our sympathy.

It’s a nice sentiment, if a bit heavy-handed. The manga sort of tries to parse out some issues around homelessness and personal autonomy, but honestly Shouji is so clingy that he basically inserts himself and “saves” Hama, kind of whether or not Hama really wants to be saved.

I enjoyed it. The art is decent and the kids who hang out at the candy store are kind of worth their weight in comedy gold. The story is largely plot-driven and sweet and the only sex we get is implied with the addition of a totally safe-for-work post-coital scene. 

Shouji really does have terrible taste in men, however, because it’s clear that even with Hama he hasn’t really figured out how to make anal sex not painful. First of all, my dudes, there are so many more things you can do! Second, go slow! Take your time, stretch things out. No need to go from zero to sixty… or ever! You don’t need to ape the patriarchy, Shouji! Penetrative sex is not the only real sex!! Have sex in a way that is fun and painless for both you and your partner OR FIND A BETTER PARTNER! 

/rant

Anyway, the story is complete in one volume. It has been officially translated into English and you should be able to, as I did, find it in your local library or via the Comics Plus app.

Kanojo ga Suki na Mono wa Homo de Atte Boku de wa Nai/ She Likes Gays, but Not Me by Asahara Naoto/Hirahara Akira

Oh boy. 

Another complicated one. 

Content warning: homophobia, pedophilia, suicide, and suicidal ideation. 

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This manga is based on a novel by Asahara Naoto. Note: not a light novel, a novel. The manga retelling is complete in three volumes (all of which I was able to get from my library, but you can also find it here on Mangadex.)

I don’t know anything about Asahara-sensei, other than that Manga Updates thinks he is a man. Conflictingly, when reporting on Asahara’s death at 38 in 2023 of malignant lymphoma, Anime News Network uses they/them pronouns. That might just be because there is simply not a lot about Asahara to be found in English. Since most other sources that I checked use he/him, I will as well. If someone knows for certain that Asahara-sensei is X gender, please drop me a comment and I will correct.

What I really wish I knew is whether or not Asahara-sensei, himself, is gay. Wikipedia never directly confirms or denies Asahara’s sexuality. However, they cite an interview in Japanese and indirectly quote him as saying, “…because the novel is centered on people with incompatible attributes coming to an understanding, namely with Jun’s sexuality and Miura’s interest in yaoi, it can be enjoyed by people who are not sexual minorities as well.” That sort of implies that he wrote the novel for gay people, perhaps because he is also gay. 

Whether or not Asahara is gay only really matters when I get to the parts of the story that I found somewhat problematic. 

The manga She Likes Gays but Not Me is part of a whole bunch of alternate media that Asahara’s novel inspired. There was an eight episode 2019 live-action TV show (Fujoshi, Ukkari Gay ni Kokuru/ A Fujoshi Thoughtlessly Confesses to a Gay Man), as well as a live-action film in 2021 entitled Kanojo ga Suki na Mono wa/What She Likes Are. (Which is awkward in English? My Japanese is juvenile in comprehension, but just looking at that title, I’d have translated it to something more like Things She Likes, but… what do I know?)

The manga was serialized from February 2019 to March of 2020 as a kind of accompaniment to the TV show.

It’s got a clever opening that hooked me right away. Our hero, Andou Jun, a closeted high schooler, is shopping at a bookstore in Shinjiku one day and runs into a girl from his class, Miura Sae. Miura is shopping in the BL section and randomly blurts out that she’s a fujoshi. Realizing her awkward mistake, she immediately runs after him and begs Andou to keep her secret. Of course, Andou has a secret of his own. He’s gay.

Miura sort of attaches herself to Andou and, when he asks her why she likes stories with gay men in it, she fan girls at him about the universe of BL and how she knows it’s fantasy but that’s okay because it’s not like she’s ever going to know a real gay man.

Thus begins the grand irony of the manga and, in many ways, its theme. Andou Jun is everything hero BL heroes are not. His life is objectively terrible. His secret keeps Andou very socially isolated. He’s regularly hooking-up with an older married man he thinks maybe he’s in love with, but he feels it sort of doesn’t matter because what he’d really rather be is straight. Androu wants to be “normal” and grow up to have a wife and a kid and make his family proud and all those sorts of things that seem to be really ingrained in Japanese men, particularly only or eldest sons. But, as Andou says several times, his dick just doesn’t agree with this plan. It only gets up for men twice his age.

Andou has an online mentor/friend whom he only knows as Mr. Fahrenheit. He and Mr. Fahrenheit share a love of older men and the music of Queen. We learn that Mr. Fahrenheit is HIV+ and that his older lover has recently died due to complications of full blown AIDS. Mr. Fahrenheit’s story is pretty harrowing, as his HIV status outed him to a family that then denied him access to his lover’s funeral. 

Meanwhile, in high school, Andou is getting pressured to date the obviously smitten Miura even though his very straight (though crotch-grabbing) childhood bestie has been attracted to her for some time. In a classic ferris wheel scene, Andou eventually caves and kisses her. They start dating.

Next comes the pressure for sex. Andou gives it the old college try, but he just can not perform. 

There’s a whole bunch of other high school drama that I will let you experience for yourself if you decide to give this one a go. 

The thing I mostly want to talk about is Mr. Fahrenheit and Andou’s older lover. 

In one of their late night, online discussions, Mr. Fahrenheit asks Andou to do him a favor. Should he die, he wants Andou to collect his favorite Queen CD from his parents and place it on the grave of his lover, the one his family refused to let him mourn properly. Andou agrees, but tries to reassure Mr. Fahrenheit that being HIV+ is not an automatic death sentence. He could live for a long, long time!

However, Mr. Fahrenheit takes matters into his own hands. It’s only days later that, while on a trip to a hot spring, Andou receives an automated text message from Mr. Fahrenheit. He never planned to wait to die naturally. He killed himself in order to be with his lover. 

When, in the third volume, Andou goes to collect the CD, we discover that Mr. Fahrenheit is actually a middle schooler. We don’t know what grade exactly Mr. Fahrenheit was in, but that means he’s 11 to 14 years old. 

That stopped me hard. 

Add to this revelation that, all along, from the very start, we know that Andou’s older lover has a daddy kink. Specifically, he wants Andou to call him Daddy during sex. This initially rolled off me because, hey, no kink shaming, right? You know, it’s not for me, but some people like this sort of thing. Go for it.

 However, later, when Andou decides to make a clean break from everyone and breaks up with his lover, we learn that his lover’s kink was literally because he has the hots for his own son. Like, there is a very explicit moment when Andou’s lover talks about having come across his kid’s porn stash and suddenly realized his kid was a man and he was turned on. Since then, he sought out young men to LITERALLY REPLACE HIS OWN CHILD in bed.

These are the only two gay relationships we see in the entire manga, y’all.

The only ones.

There is not a single healthy, happy, non-pedophile relationship in the entire three volumes of this manga.

The only other queer person we meet is a big-breasted femme lesbian who runs a gay bar that apparently serves minors and who fully supports Andou, an underage high schooler, hooking up with a married man in his 40s.

This manga and the book it was based on was praised for its “realistic depiction of gay people.”

I sure hope not?!

Like, I get that the premise of this manga (and its other supporting/original material) is, at its essence, trying to draw a hard line between the fantasy that yaoi fans have about queer life and “real life.” I am not trying to imply that gay men–or queer folks of any stripe–have it easy. I certainly didn’t, coming of age as I did in the late 1980s. I get that lots of folks may have fallen in, their first time, with questionable lovers because there weren’t a lot of other options for them for whatever reason. Had I stayed in small-town Wisconsin, that might have been me. Especially in an era where age gaps just didn’t hit like they do now. And, I don’t know how this is viewed in Japan. Different cultures and all that. I try very hard not to judge.

But 14 at the MOST? That’s not a relationship, that’s predation. I fully believe that Mr. Fahrenheit might have felt that he was in love, but he was 14 or even younger and having unprotected sex with a grown man. I would feel a whole helluva a lot better about this story in general if Androu wasn’t also not somewhere between 15 and 18 and getting fucked by someone in his 40s who wants to pretend he’s doing it with his own biological child.

Once again, I don’t know what to tell you all. The novel is clearly for adults, but the manga was serialized in a josei BL magazine, Comic Bridge (Kadokawa). So the audience was mature women… but, of course, I found this in the teen section of my library. I’m also not against teens reading about this stuff? But I sure hope it’s not anyone’s first exposure to manga or gay men since it highlights the most destructive and harmful stereotypes–that us queers are literally predators preying on children. 

Holy shit, y’all this was a tough ride. Especially since it is very much sold as a story based on that meet-cute at the bookstore. 

I guess, read at your own risk?

I have good things to say about it, too. The story is compelling!  I read the whole thing in a matter of hours! The art style isn’t my favorite, but it did not detract from the story in any way. I really liked Muira’s character? She was complicated in her own right and not sidelined in any way. I would even go so far as to say that Mauira proved to be a sincere friend to Andou all the way through. 

I was also intrigued by the fact that the concept that there is a separate BL World from our own came up again in this manga. I had literally never heard the idea that all BL exists in another dimension that has different rules before reading A Man Who Defies The World of BL. I mean, I know A/B/O is its own world? But all BL? Never heard of it.

Apparently, I am a fake yaoi fan.
If you read this (or chose to do so now) let me know what you think of She Like Gays, but Not Me!

Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naranai Koukousei Katsu / A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici

I am prepared to be hated because while I found the send-up of all the Boys’ Love tropes in this to be quite funny, the humor runs on homophobia… at least so far. So, I am hoping for this series to end in a romance for our romance-resistant hero to make up for all the “ew, gay!”

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The premise of this book hooked me immediately. It’s so meta!  Our unnamed hero realizes that he’s in a manga, and not just any manga–a BL (Boys’ Love or yaoi)!  He then goes on to explain that he’s not worried about losing his virginity because he comes from a long line of background characters. He’s a Mr. Average surrounded by stunningly attractive men and strangely indistinct women. 

I will admit that I laughed through much of the manga because Konkici-sensei very much nails all of the various BL romantic cute-meets, highlighting how ridiculous so many of them are. 

It was only when I decided to track down and watch the first episode of the live-action adaptation on Viki that I started to realize the extent to which I was being asked to participate in some fairly obvious homophobia. The manga and the TV series do expect the reader to root for our unnamed hero as he evades hooking-up–and in some cases, actively sets-up his friends to take his place. It lands much softer in the manga, at least for me. There’s a scene where our hero is stuck at an overnight/late night drinking party with people from his college who have secretly hooked-up. There are a lot of late night sexual shenanigans that happen, as they often do in these sorts of things and the protagonist is unable to sleep thanks to all the goings-on. It’s funny!  But, in the television series, the actor demonstrates his inability to sleep by making faces, “ewww” faces and, honestly? Until I watched that, it never occurred to me that the protagonist would be awake because he was disgusted by what happened. I just presumed he’d be mildly annoyed and possibly titillated, in the way that one is when you are accidentally overhearing someone else having sex.

In the TV show, there’s also just generally a stronger impression left with the viewer that gay men are predators that you have to, for instance, protect your younger brother from… 

…which does happen in the manga and now my whole experience with the live-action has completely screwed up my ability to separate it from my feelings about the manga.

I’d say that my first impression was that the manga was written with the nod and a wink of an insider, playfully poking at a genre they read and enjoy. So, you should probably approach this manga the same way and see what you make of it.  For that matter, you’re welcome to watch the TV series and come back and tell me what a humorless old bag I am and that I should learn to lighten up. 

You might be right about me? I will say that I very much DID want to enjoy the Man Who Defies the World of BL. I love the art style and, of course, the author makes some very pointed commentary about what women like to see in BL/yaoi, particularly the feminization of the “uke”–all of which is very worth examining.

So, as usual, here I am at the end of the review being inconclusive. If you are a long time fan of yaoi, you should 100% see if this works for you. 

I think I am, in fact, very likely being overly sensitive, but, you know, I always root for the gays. My queer heart is honestly far more invested in the people our unnamed hero is mocking. It’s just who I am. 

Also fair warning: there is a trans/female presenting character portrayed as a “trap.”

Machigitsune to Hito no Ko / The Yearning Fox Lies in Wait by nmura

I would have sworn that I read and reviewed another manga by nmura called Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! (Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita), but I can’t seem to find it. This bugs me because I know I read a lot of it.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about nmura-sensei’s other work. I’m here to tell you about four-tailed foxes and love in the 1920s, aka The Yearning Fox Lies in Wait.

SPOILERS
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Our hero, Kiyo, is a nerd. He’s, of course, described as weird, but basically he’s the kind of kid who will spend hours watching the natural world and will study during his free time for fun. Eventually he wins a spot at the Imperial University in Tokyo.

On his way to student housing, he gets lost. Or maybe fate draws him down the wrong road. Regardless, he ends up at the door of Ozaki, a strange and beautiful man with white-gold hair. At first, Kiyo assumes Ozaki must be foreign, but it turns out he’s just a yokai. A fact that Kiyo discovers after he agrees to live in Ozaki’s mansion as a servant.

If you’re thinking, “Whoa, wait, how did we get here so fast!?” The truth is Kiyo is just that trusting. A total stranger says, “Hey, you want to live here instead of at the terrible student housing? You can do the cooking and cleaning?” Kiyo is just like, “Yeah, hell yeah.”

So, I kind of love Kiyo.

He’s the perfect candidate for a house boy too, since he really likes caring for Ozaki. In fact, he’s a bit fussy, always insisting that Kiyo take better care of himself–especially to stop wandering around the house, naked, and dripping from the bath.

At any rate, over time the two fall in love.

It’s a little time-skippy for me? You know I like my romances to be romance-y and this one really isn’t? There’s a couple of hurt/comfort scenes and one moment of misunderstanding/jealousy, but we’re left to fill in a lot of the gaps.

It works? But, it’s a little light on the ground.

My favorite running gag is that Kiyo is so curious about the world that he’s far more fascinated by cataloging the lifestyle of the yokai than being all that shocked to discover Ozaki with his tails out.

Kiyo spends a lot of the story worried that Ozaki was more in love with his grandfather than he is with him, but that was clearly “the misunderstanding” that they had to get past.

Would I recommend it? I don’t know. I found it at my library, (where I would have sworn I picked up the first volume of the other manga!), and sometimes I read what I read because it’s available and in front of me. This one is solidly okay. The art is fine. The romance is fine. The smut is non-existent (even though it’s shelved in the adult area of the library,) but not every yaoi needs to be extra smutty and sexy for me to enjoy it. I guess if you’re in the mood for something lightly fantasy and lightly historical this might fit the bill.

Urekko Model to Kaseifu-san / Popular Model and Housekeeper by Origami Chiyoko

I’ve been feeling like it’s been too long since I reviewed anything even mildly juicy, so I went looking for an entertaining yaoi. I don’t know if I found exactly what I was looking for, but there is definitely something distracting in Urekko Model to Kaseifu-san / Popular Model and Housekeeper.

SPOILERS

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Fair warning, this manga is a 4 choma/yonkoma. These days, a lot of Westerners seem to believe that yonkoma represent some kind of archetypal Eastern storytelling style (kishotenketsu), and maybe it is, but, for me, this format has always just been “gag comics.” So, I mean, feel free to study this for your masters degree in Creative Writing, but this particular one is also just vaguely funny smut.  

As an aside, seriously. Try to imagine me having a friend of mine who has just been to a workshop about “Writing the Other,” excitedly explaining to me the mysteries of these four beats in “Asian” stories–how mysterious and strange and non-Western they are!!  And me, after listening intently, blinking in confusion and saying to my friend, “Wait. Did you just describe yonkoma to me? Are we talking about manga?” It was a very weird and unsatisfying conversation all around. I think my friend was very disappointed that his highfalutin concepts were also common in “low art,” like manga.

But back to the story at hand. 

Urkeko Model to Kaseifu-san is an original webcomic about a delightfully simple himbo supermodel named Iori who has the hots for his “uncle-type” housekeeper, Kaoru.

There is not a lot of this scanlated to-date, so the mangaka has not yet fully exhausted the humor to be found in the fact that the housekeeper is really just entirely baffled by Iori–both his interest and his intentions.

The two are an odd couple, in fun ways. 

As the chapters progress, Kaoru ends up agreeing to “date” Iori sort of under the mistaken assumption that he’s been offered an odd and confusing set of “other duties as assigned,” especially since Iori has agreed to pay for this extra time.  So, going forward, many of their interactions are almost lewdly transactional. 

Although, so far, taking money for a date is about as lewd as this yonkoma gets. 

I found it charming, though? 

 I have a fondness for May/December romances and, if, at some point, Kaoru gets into it, so will I. As far as the English scans have gotten, Kaoru still seems entirely clueless. That’s still funny? It’s just not yet terribly hot or even romantic. 

Still, who doesn’t want a rich himbo showering you with both attention AND extra hours of work?

Two Sizes, Too Small by Mizore

I have to apologize for being absent again for an extremely long time. All I will say about it is that I’m an American….

Unfortunately, I have to return with Two Sizes, Too Small, which, while I really liked, I also found myself feeling deeply uncomfortable with from time to time.

SPOILERS

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The manga starts out with a very cute premise. In the zero chapter, our main character, Keaton, explains that a lot of the time having a stature smaller than that of the average woman has it’s advantages…..

As someone who is 5’2″ on a good day, I fully appreciate stories about the hardships of being crowded subway–face to armpit–with most of the rest of the crowd.

Naturally (and honestly, just like I did in Real Life,) Keaton falls for a taller than average guy. In my case, my wife is 6’1″, which yes. makes her almost exactly a foot taller than I am. This is about the height difference between Keaton, a vetrenarian student, and Ben, a game designer.

I will say that even at the very end of chapter one, I got an inkling of the problem that would haunt me through this entire manga.

Ben had been reacting to Keaton’s cuteness throughout this first chapter apparently under the assumption that Keaton was a middle schooler. A lot, in fact, is made of the fact that Keaton doesn’t look his age. So, it’s not only that he’s short and cute, but he’s short and cute and looks… 12.

And therein lies the problem.

Let’s just say it out loud. The pedophilia is just right there, just BARELY under the surface. Keaton is legal, so a person can tell themselves that they are enjoying this story of two adults where one of them just happens to look like a twelve year old. Until we get to the sex scene in chapter 49 “Let’s Get Inside,” where the way things begin to unfold feels very…

I mean, it’s uncomfortable.

It’s technically full of consent, but the whole “can I touch you here?” starts to feel like an adult talking to a child?? And the images of their size differences….

I’m so sorry, but it’s really not okay.

Which is a shame because this romance is absolutely adorable and I love Mizura-sensei’s artstyle. There’s even a really interesting subplot about Keaton’s older brother, Karl, who is super overprotective. Though, when we are first introduced to Karl, even the reader is uncertain who Karl is to Keaton and so, when Karl announces to Ben that he’s Keaton’s boyfriend, even the reader is like… “Oh, oh well, I guess that’s the complication!” Especially since Karl is kind of a snack….

So, a big part of Ben and Keaton’s relationship actually begins as friends. They have video games in common and so Ben and Keaton just start hanging out regularly to play. Keaton forms a relationship to Ben’s cat, Mr. Smith, who, thankfully Karl is allergic to.

We get to know the other people in Ben’s life, too, some of his co-workers, and, in the way of such things, fate continues to push Ben and Keaton together. Eventually, Keaton is able to explain that Karl is not his boyfriend, but his brother. They also talk about the reason that Karl is so over-protective, which is that Keaton once made friends with a homeless man and his dog. The homeless man went on to be involved in a murder, and this convinced Karl (possibly correctly? The jury is still out as far as I’m concerned) that Keaton just doesn’t have a good sense of people.

We meet Ben’s mom, who runs a bakery, and who is rooting for her son to find a nice young man. Even though a lot of this feels very Japanese, the attitudes towards queerness are very open. Like, people on the street will say “Aw, what a cute couple” and Ben and Keaton will openly hold hands in public, even kiss. So, I *think* it’s supposed to be taking place in the US, because at one point Karl has a movie shoot (did I mention that he’s an actor?) in “another state.”

If you can ignore the underlying pedo vibes, this story is actually very sweet and wholesome. I really rooted for Ben and Keaton to get it together.

But, I mean, the whole thing is a lot of this…

Where, visually, it’s just hard not to go to very weird, uncomfortable places.

So, do I recommend? I mean… no? But, also, I wish I could?