Tag Archives: humor

The Vacation in Love / Yuge to Yuuwaku no Vacation Kari Sumako

I mentioned having read The Vacation in Love when I reviewed Since I Could Die Tomorrow, and I am only now getting around to it. My apologies!

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

Apparently, for Kari-sensei exhaustion is a personality trait. I mean, I’m not sure she’s wrong? In 2026, I absolutely feel this might be a significant portion of my attitude about everything and, believe me, I am pretty worn out by *gestures at everything.* 

This guy is so tired he walks right out of the panel….

In The Vacation of Love, we meet Suzaki, a salaryman who is completely worn out. All he wants at the end of a long day at the office is to sit and soak in his bathtub at home. Only, when he sinks into his tub, he discovers that his hot water heater is busted. He puts in a call to get it fixed, but he’ll have to do without for several weeks.  Suzaki suddenly remembers he has all of these fliers for a bath house down the street and decides to finally go check it out.

The irony that I did not catch the first time I read this manga is that the person who sent all these bath house fliers to Suzaki in the first place was his now ex-girlfriend. She really loved Suzaki, but longed for him to learn to relax enough to one day realize he should quit his job. The ex gave up and finally moved away (though they had been together for five years), and now, having basically just missed her last day at work at that very bath house, fate leads Suzaki into the arms of another person who was rooting for him (and secretly longing for his attention)–the bath house attendant named Ken.

I was on a panel this last weekend at Convergence entitled “Life Lessons That Anime Taught Me,” and I feel like it could have a corollary panel just called “Stuff I Learned from Anime.” For instance, unless Kari-sensei is completely making this up, apparently, some bath houses in Japan will let you sleep on the premises. You have to pay extra if you stay longer than a certain number of hours, but, luckily for Suzaki, Ken decides to become a personal wake-up call.

There’s a kind of implied slow burn in the manga. Suzaki is becoming a regular while he waits for the maintenance to be done on his water heater. He gets to know the other people who frequent the place.

This is also where he discovers that the other attendants call him by his nickname, Su-kun, because his ex used to talk about him all the time. And, slowly, being awakened by handsome Ken has Suzaki starting to wonder what it would be like to share a bath with Ken.

Short story even shorter, eventually, Suzaki asks Ken out for a meal. It’s sort of a date, not a date, and basically wants to know why he never sees Ken in the bath, since surely that’s a perk of the job. Suzaki has already imagined tattoos and scars, but the truth is simpler. Ken is gay and is worried that, well, he might reveal himself if he’s naked in a room with… Suzaki.

Suzaki decides, in the way of yaoi, this is “not gross” and so, when the chance to join some of the regulars on a vacation getaway, he quits his job, and joins them. Suzuki and Ken agree to be hotel roommates and you can probably guess the trajectory of the rest of this story. 

I still maintain that Kari-sensei is probably a better writer than the fan translations (and official ones) can convey. There’s a vibe from the art (and the reactions of the characters around him) that Suzaki is maybe the sort of guy who, because he’s just kind of done giving any craps due to his constant state of exhaustion, is blunt in a hilarious sort of way. As I’ve discussed a lot before in the past, comedy is one of those things that isn’t as universal as we think it is. So much of some kinds of comedy depend on a deep understanding of lived culture. And I can kind of squint and see that shining through? 

As I noted in my previous review of Kari-sensei’s work, I find her art style kind of fascinating. Like, Suzaki shouldn’t be cute? Yet sometimes he totally is. 

Do I recommend this one? I’m a little more on the fence about it than I would be most others. It is short and complete in one volume, but it isn’t smutty enough to be worth the somewhat convoluted plot that it takes to get our heroes to their first kiss. Obviously, you can decide for yourself. If you like sweet think-pieces, this might be right up your alley!

Suzuki-kun no Teinei na Seikatsu / Suzuki-kun’s Mindful Life (Vols 1 & 2) by Fujimoto Yuuki

Rejoice! I have started a job at a library. You’ll probably see a lot more manga reviews from me, since I won’t have to go out of my way to pick-up volumes.

Suzuki-kun’s Mindful Life is a lightly humorous manga series which depends, almost entirely, on the visual pun of a straight, cis, strongly-built, tough-looking guy enjoying home ec. projects like cooking, gardening, and sewing.

The series is cute and funny! 

But, boys? This is why y’all need a revolution.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

Everything you need to know about this series to enjoy it is above the spoiler line. 

Our hero, Suzuki Kaoru, is a big guy with a “scary” tough-guy face, but his personality is very soft and kindly. His trauma is that he was bullied for being a softie in middle school and now that he’s at a new school for high school, he’s just trying to get through without making too many waves, like so many Japanese students in manga stories across all genres and sub-genres.

Of course, immediately, on the train on the way to school he gets harassed by a drunk guy who sees his tough-guy face and starts doing the “whatcha lookin’ at!” thing. Gigantic Suzuki is rescued by tiny very pretty boy Haruna Arata, who is secretly a tough guy despite his pretty looks. You can see the theme here, yes?  

Naturally, Suzuki and Arata are in the same class and become fast friends. Heartwarming hijinks ensue.

I didn’t even ship these two because the humor really only works if Suzuki is failing gender norms. It’s not funny if a gay guy is into gardening or sewing. It’s presumed, in fact. If you are queer in any way, of course, you can do what you like outside of gender norms. But straight, cis boys gotta color within the lines. When they don’t, especially if they look tough, that’s HILARIOUS. (It does seem to be less true when women are tough/outside of the gender norm? Like a woman can be a fighter in a lot of fighting manga and no one finds that essentially humorous or transgressive. Super Cub, for instance, has a very feminine lead who also does her own motorcycle repair.)

It’s actually kind of surprising that no one immediately assumes Suzuki is gay, though I do think there’s a brief moment when it is suggested by dismissed because he’s so clearly in love with his little sister’s preschool teacher. 

However, this isn’t necessarily a dis (I mean, outside of the fact that makes it clear that men are still deeply in need of a widening of their gender norms). After all, the nice thing about Japanese male friendship is that the two boys are still very affectionate with each other and Suzuki even goes with Arata to visit Arata’s grandfather who is suffering from dementia. And they both have a good cry about it. 

This manga series was notable for a couple of things. This is the first time I’ve seen the effects of the pandemic talked about straight-forwardly. Arata’s grandfather was mostly doing okay before the pandemic, but when visiting was restricted and Arata and his younger sister couldn’t stop in regularly, grandpa slipped deeper into dementia and lost their names. Arata knows that would have happened eventually, but he feels very much like it was accelerated by the isolation of the pandemic. 

The other is the discussion around Suzuki’s bullying. As you all are well aware, we see middle school and high school bullying a LOT in manga. It’s sometimes even the hook-up in yaoi, if the yaoi is dub or noncon. My personal sense of middle school in Japan is that people are lucky to make it out alive (and that some people don’t–there is a LOT of suicide in manga, often due to bullying), but, on the flipsided, bullying can also just part of someone’s backstory like it is in this otherwise extremely light-hearted manga.  The sense in this manga is that it made Suzuki sensitive about not being too open about his softer side, even though Suzuki does not forgive his abuser when given the chance. Because, he says, “What you did was awful.”

So the implication is that maybe there was physical abuse.

BUT, that’s not even what makes this particular manga notable. What’s notable is that the abuser/bully? His reason for being so awful? He has a Pinterest Mom. 

Seriously. We are told that the reason this guy give Suzuki such a hard time for being into making cute baked goods, lovingly making bento, growing plants and sewing dresses for his little sister’s dolls is because the bully’s mom keeps a terrible house, barely feeds her kids, but is internet famous for her “cute hobbies.”

This drives the bully into obsessively tormenting Suzuki all through middle school. Okay, I mean, on one hand having a mom who is focused on being “an internet mom” could absolutely send someone into therapy. I mean, I know I was supposed to feel sympathy for the bully when we see the bully’s house stacked with garbage, but, my dude. You’re not trapped in a house full of rot. You’re a strapping young man capable of beating up a guy as HUGE as Suzuki, why the f*ck don’t you just take out the garbage yourself instead of hating your mother for not doing it and then going to school and violently taking it out on Soft Bois? Get some therapy and take some responsibility for your own part in cleaning and maintaining the household, you absolute sh*t of a human being.

Meanwhile, we find out that Suzuki’s mom and dad are divorced because his dad cheated on his mom, but the family is still close enough that Dad zooms in from a business trip to Singapore. Suzuki clearly sublimates his trauma response by baking apparently! Clearly, someone needs to teach the bully to find joy in cleaning and keeping house and then maybe he can forgive his mom for not wanting to do all of it all the time. Maybe that will be volume three? One can live in hope.

I’m clearly not supposed to be thinking this hard about gender roles, etc., and, to be honest with you, I mostly didn’t while breezing through this manga (it was only afterwards that I was like… huh.) I really enjoyed the chill vibe and am always, ALWAYS heartwarmed by friendship stories where people help each other make friends, hang out together, and become more themselves. That gets me every time and is probably why I read so much slice-of-life manga.

And? I love Suzuki. I like his “scary” look. In another type of manga, he’d be my type. But, give him a couple of “girly” hobbies and a kind heart and I’m fully sold. The woman who marries this man has it all as far as I’m concerned.  If I needed another anime/manga “husbando” and Suzuki was of legal age (and had a couple tattoos), he’d be top of my list. 

In a lot of ways, Suzuki is a lighter, high school version of The Immortal Tetsu from The Way of the House-Husband. So, if you like that, you’ll like this. 

Do I recommend it? Absolutely. Even if you’re mildly annoyed by the “oh look a boy who does girl stuff!” humor, I dare you not to be charmed by Suzuki’s mom-friend energy. 

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!”

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

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.”

Tokyo Alien Bros by Shinzo Keigo

I was a big fan of Shinzo-sensei’s Hirayasumi, which is a quiet story about the meaning of life and second chances. Though there’s a little of that here, it’s almost hard to believe that the same author wrote Tokyo Alien Bros…. especially since this one starts with a golden shower.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

What’s funny about that scene is that I forgot it was there. I was reminded by a commenter at Manga Updates, when I was there looking up to see what else this author had written. The thing is, while sex and sexuality come up throughout the three-volume series, it’s not the main focus. In many ways, that particular moment of kink has more to do with just how weird and alien the Alien Bros are because what we learn after the golden shower scene? Fuyunosuke finds human waste products delicious.

I sort of enjoy that Shinzo-sensei never lets us forget that Fuyunosuke (and later, once he arrives, Natsutaro,) are aliens. If I felt the need to talk about the genius of this manga, it would be to say that it tells us a lot about human diversity that despite some very unusual, truly alien moments both brothers seem profoundly human. But , as I noted, also very relatable.

Okay, so how do I explain this series to you?  Fuyunosuke has been sent by his home world as an advance scout. His mission is to infiltrate human society and assess our readiness for invasion. This stealth mission is aided by the fact that Fuyunosuke’s people are shapeshifters by nature. In their innate form, they look like jelly blobs. Because of this they are impervious to harm; their only weakness is salt. They also have the ability to read human thoughts with a touch.

The problem? Even when we meet Fuyunosuke it’s clear that he’s enjoying life pretending to be a college student. He’s naturally popular—actually, supernaturally so. Almost everyone is charmed by him.

Then, the home world sends his brother, Natsutaro. His brother is a known f*ck-up. He’s clumsy, awkward and not likely to have as easy time passing. That’s the point we find out from Central Command. If Fuyunosuke’s loser brother can get along in this world, anyone can. In fact, in order to successfully meet mission parameters, Natsutaro needs to get a job and a “mate.”

You’d think that this is what it would become—wacky Hijinx as the brothers struggle to get people to accept Natsutaro—but this is where the story turns a bit dark, actually? Natsutaro is better at humaning than Fuyunosuke. Fuyunosuke is breezy and easy, but he fails at making real connections with people. Natsutaro is straight-forward and maybe a little simple, but he cares. This starts to cause Fuyunosuke to be deeply jealous and unhappy. It starts with Fuyunosuke sabotaging Natsutaro’s budding romance and ends with a murder.

Because Fuyunosuke is unsatisfied once he realizes he’s missing a key component to being a perfect pass as a human, he insists that the two of them spend some time as women. This goes moderately well, until Fuyunosuke—always the cute and charming one—ends up “scouted” by a talent agent (who is actually a rapist.) After that experience Fuyunosuke wants out. He wants to destroy humanity and burn it down to the ground.

Which is a helluva insight into being a woman. Because, yes.

The difference being, of course, that Fuyunosuke could do it. Fortunately, Earth is spared this fate by the fact that the home world has discovered an unoccupied planet that better suits their needs, so the boys are recalled. Natsutaro can’t leave the pets (and the people), so Fuyunosuke goes home.

Eventually, he comes back, but, wow, this series was a ride.

Would I recommend it? I feel like a lot of Shinzo-sensei’s work has an underlying sadness to it—a sadness tinged with hope. So, I guess read it at your own risk? As noted, too, there is implied (off-screen) attempted rape, and both brothers are very casual with their ability to memory wipe people. So, even the woman that loves Natsutora ends up not able to remember him. I ended up liking this? But, I feel like I would not argue with anyone who was completely turned off by all of it.

Neko no Massageya-san / Cat Massage Therapy by Hisakawa Haru

I do this thing whenever I’m at a bookstore that sells manga that’s kinda BAD–like, I feel a little terrible about it.

I pick up anything I think I’d enjoy, make a pile, and then try to figure out what I can afford. I mean, that part is normal behavior, right? But–and here’s where I feel guilty–before putting everything back on the shelf, I take a quick look to see if anyone has scanlated the titles I wanted but couldn’t afford.

That’s how I discovered Cat Massage Therapy.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

The whole manga is full color, which is pretty unusual… and the entire thing is so adorable, that, I mean, if you can afford to buy this, I would?

The basic story is exactly as it says on the tin. There’s a massage parlor run by a cat. She seems to communicate telepathically, but, you know, don’t think too hard about the world-building, just enjoy the ridiculously cute art.

I mean, there are trainees.

WHO ARE KITTENS.

Honestly, the entire manga is based in the idea that there is nothing more relaxing in the world than a basket full of kittens purring on your chest. In many ways, the manga works on this same principle. There is nothing more wholesome and chill than an entire manga devoted to just showing pictures of precious smols doing cute things.

Read this manga.

The pain will melt away.

There’s kind of nothing to spoil. You’ve seen it. This is the whole manga, except with more. I mean, there is a small plot revolving around this human character and how he helps drum up more business for the cat masseuse by bringing the cats into his super stressful/oppressive office (and, by doing do, melts the heart of his boss.) But, like, really, we are all just here for the cuteness, so gimme.

Please enjoy responsibly.

But do in enjoy. You know it’s what you need in your life RIGHT NOW.

I (♂) Cross-Dressed for the IRL (♀) Meetup) /  Josou-shite Off-Kai ni Sanka Shite Mita by Kurano

I’m probably going to have a bunch of odd manga showing up here in the next few days because in one of those “wow, I’m really down a weird rabbit hole” moments, I found myself trawling Wikipedia’s List of Japanese Manga Magazines (by circulation) webpage. It was there that I came across I (♂) Cross-Dressed for the IRL (♀) Meetup) /  Josou-shite Off-Kai ni Sanka Shite Mita, as it was originally serialized in Monthly Shōnen Sirius, which ranks 51 in the list of most popular manga magazines, by circulation.

If you can’t tell, I’m going through these backwards.

It’s a weird way to discover manga, but I’m curious to see what sort of stuff is published by the people scraping the bottom of the circulation barrel, as it were.

That being said, this one wasn’t that bad…. maybe (see: caveat at the end of my review.)

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

According to the Wikipedia article for this manga, Kurano-sensei really wanted to write a manga about a cross-dresser because they met someone at a doujinshi convention who was an exceptional cross-play cosplayer.

I was initially very concerned when I started reading this because it can be extremely hurtful to the trans community when the entire schtick of the humor is, “ha, ha, ha, a MAN!” But, I feel like Kurano-sensei tries very hard to thread the needle here. Not being a trans woman, I can’t really speak to how successful they are, but I can tell readers that Kurano-sensei does have a canonical trans woman as part of this Meet-up, who is treated with… well, initial confusion, but eventual acceptance and respect.

The reason the other two people pictured are saying, “C’mon, not this again,” is that they’re quickly discovering that by chance all of the women in this group (with the exception of Kanentarou (often just ‘Tarou’), pictured above) are crossdressing men. At least the author seems to be saying that the only woman in the group is Tarou.

So that’s something.

Why the remaining three members cross-dress and their complicated feelings towards their gender is the subject of a lot of the rest of the manga.

Our main character is ostensibly, Cocoa (Morinaga Satoshi). When asked, Cocoa/Satoshi says that he feels more “me ♀” (<–how it is often written in the manga, completely with female symbol) when in women’s clothes. When he’s out in the world in men’s clothing, he lacks confidence, etc., even though when the reader finally sees him not as Cocoa, other characters all react as though, as a guy, he’s a total hottie (by which it is implied that his appearance alone should impart confidence, but of course that’s not at all how it works. If you’re not a guy, being an especially conventionally attractive one actually makes things worse, I’d imagine.). Cocoa apparently has some kind of corporate job because at one point in the story Cocoa gets roped into helping plan Satoshi’s surprised office birthday party, as s/he says, “This is probably the first time someone has been asked to help plan their own surprise party.”

I have to wonder with the addition of Tarou in the case, if part of Cocoa journey will be becoming herself.

This Meet-up very quickly pairs up, too. Cocoa had initially been coming to the group for the desserts, but she’s fallen for another member, Opera (they are all named after desserts, and Opera is short for Opera Cake.) Opera says he started crossdressing to “get along,” in his all-boys high school. This is one of those “what the f*ck goes on in Japanese high schools??” moments for me, because you actually see this a lot? Nitori Shuichi from Wandering Son also ends up having this happen as part of this plot, were the class has to pick a “boy” (Shuichi is a trans girl) to play a girl’s part in some gender swapped play. I feel like we see this in an episode Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, too?

At any rate, Opera more often than any other character shows up in his guy-persona (shaggy haired guy pictured above). Yet, when in his Opera mode, he’s often the most “girly.”

In a set of chapters that unfortunately keep showing up out of order in the scanlation, we find out that Lemon and Tarou also become a couple–Tarou having the perhaps ironic realization that she is bi (having previously thought she was a lesbian), when Lemon confronts her by saying, “So, you were only into my gender, not who I am?”

Between Opera’s tendency to end up in his male persona and the fact that we learn that Lemon is only 19 and hasn’t had his growth spurt yet (and seems to want to be loved as a man), I kind of fear that the resulting end parings will be heteronormative, if not fully hetero–with two trans (one bi, one straight) women hooking up with two cis, straight guys.

It is perhaps most telling that while there is an official English publication, you can ONLY buy it in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Cross-Dressed-IRL-Meetup-1/dp/1646517830, which, given the state of British so-called “feminists” and trans issues, is NOT a good sign.

So please read this, if you chose to, with that in mind.

Fujimoto Tatsuki Tanpenshuu / Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man 17-21



My dream is to be so famous that publishers will print literally anything I wrote, ever, including my juvenilia. I guess this means that my dream is to be Fujimoto Tatsuki, the author of Chainsaw Man.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

I should start this review with a confession, however.

In January of 2021, I reviewed the first volume of Chainsaw Man and basically panned it. I have since watched the entirety of the first season of the anime and have been made to realize the error of my ways. Denji won my heart over with his ridiculous hero speech about how it’s okay to fight for no reason. He’s dumb and brave and I love him.

There you go. Proof that people can change and grow.

None of my new found appreciation of Chainsaw Man, however, precludes me from being deeply jealous of Fujimoto’s fame and by the concept of Fujimoto Tatsuki Tanpenshuu / Tatsuki Fujimoto Before Chainsaw Man 17-21 which appears to be a print version of the Netflix algorithm: “If you liked that, you might also enjoy this!” or maybe, more precisely: “we knew him back when.”

I should be so lucky.

Collected in this manga are four shorts. “A Couple of Chickens Were Just Kickin’ in the Schoolyard” about two kids who are hiding from an alien invasion by dressing up like chickens, “Sosuki Stopped a Bullet” about a high schooler who performs a miracle either by the power of puppy love or possibly due to divine intervention, “Love is Blind,” about the most intense love confession, ever, and “Shikkuka” about love that springs up between a sociopathic killer and a vampire.



This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is vampire1.jpg



Of the four, my favorite is probably “Love is Blind” because the sheer absurdity. Ibuki, the incredibly driven and focused high school student council president keeps being thwarted in his love confession to Yuri. First, his own awkwardness is a stumbling block, but then more and more outrageous things try to come between Ibuki and Yuri, culminating in an actual alien invasion. Long time readers of Mangakast know that I sometimes have trouble with humor, but this story worked for me. I actually laughed out loud.

The chicken one had some good world-building, but was actually, otherwise, a bit grim-dark for me. The basic concept is that most of humanity has been wiped out because the aliens that invaded Earth found humans, in particular, to be delicious. They basically ate all of us. But, for some reason, chicken is off the menu. The part I liked was the moment when one of the aliens reveals that they can’t actually tell the other animals on the planet apart very well, so even though the two humans are dressed in what are basically mascot outfits, the aliens are convinced that they’re real chickens. This one has a surprise ending that… didn’t entirely work for me? Not because of the surprise, per se, but because it doesn’t work.. as in, they don’t get away with it, no one wins. No one lives through this one. On the other hand, it was probably Fujimoto’s first ever completed story, and who among us hasn’t considered, “and then everyone dies” as a desperate, running-out-of-better ideas ending?

The vampire one was just silly. Plus, because the humor was so broad, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Again, though, the concept intrigued me: “What if a murderous sociopath met up with an unkillable vampire?” It is telling, however, that Fujimoto confesses in his author’s notes on this one that he wrote it while suffering from a fever of 102 F.

Probably my second favorite short was “Sosuki Stopped a Bullet.” It was also absurdist, but the story is framed around a fairly interesting philosophical question: can we really know another person’s reality? Several times this is used to clever advantage, while also leaving the possibility open that maybe “I am secretly a God” is, actually, someone truth.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is bullet.jpg

Would I recommend this? It’s short, free, and my public library had it, which is how I ended up reading it, so sure, why not? I mean, it’s not the kind of manga I would ever suggest to someone whose never read a single one before in their lives, because it is, ultimately, VERY WEIRD. But, the art is decent, and if you’re already a fan of Fujimoto, I say, go for it.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is chickens.png



Dakishimetakunai / Don’t Wanna Hold on to You by Naono Bohra

I don’t even remember what I was looking for when I stumbled onto this collection of short stories, Dakishimetakunai / Don’t Wanna Hold on to You.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a collection and so I will warn you that these can some times get a bit long, since I like to talk about each chapter’s story in-depth–or at least in full. I like to consider each story on its own merits.

Dakishimetakunai / Don’t Wanna Hold on to You has six chapters (technically, five with an omake, so the typical 5.5.)

The first chapter, felt familiar. I would have sworn that I’d already read once before. It’s called “Denki” (“Electricity.”) I may have started it and bounced out of it because the conceit here is a bit odd–on two different levels. First, you have a high school student, Kouza, who is cursed with a scary face. Having a scary face is apparently a problem you can have in Japan (in the manga ‘verse) because I have seen this trope a surprising number of times. Poor scary-faced Kouza has no friends because not only is his face scary, but his older brother has some kind hold over Kouza’s fashion sense so he’s forever making him MORE scary by piercing his ears and dying his hair “for” him.

This would normally be enough to get a story rolling because, of course, there’s someone who can see past all that, Touru.

Here’s where the story kind of goes in a direction I don’t think anyone is expecting–it turns out that Touru has a secret all his own. Having been hit by lightning when he was a child, he now produces his own electric field whenever he’s agitated–either angry or excited. So, of course, the first time that he and Touru touch, sparks LITERALLY fly.

Even though Touru explains some of this to Kouza, he leaves off the “excited” bit and so it seems from Kouza’s point of view that he’s really unlucky. Other people don’t get zapped by Touru, only him. So, probably, you know, he should stay away from Touru and not touch him.

Yeah, you can see where this goes.

Luckily, Kouza decides a little pain is worth the gain… although, apparently, sex is a bit numbing? Which might be where I quit, if I tried reading this before. They do work this out, but there’s at least one scene that implies that lightning in general turns Kouza on now, and so rainy season is going to be rough on him….

Okay!

The next chapter is the title chapter, “Dakishimetakunai” (“I Don’t Want to Hold on You”) and it follows a middle aged salaryman named Masoto, who gets laid off. A young man, Tatsuya, comes across Masoto moping in a park and offers to “buy” his services–by which he seems to initially mean, “As a housekeeper.” Except, of course, he also demands other services of the sexual variety, which, if you are sensitive to such things, Masoto very distinctly says ‘no’ to and they happen anyway. This one is a bit rapey, despite trying to be very cute.

Masoto might not like the rape, but he apparently likes the housework.

I will say that I think that a man who wants to do housework in exchange for sex (or money) is a fantasy a number of working women (and men) might actually be very into.

The schtick here, however, is that Tatsuya doesn’t THINK he wants a househusband, he just happens to find older men hot and his life has been “boring.” Turns out, Tatsuya is making his money as a host in a host club and is very popular thanks to his brooding good looks. Women always want to do extras with him, and he likes having the excuse to not bring them home.

Eventually, Tatsuya feels some remorse. He decides to send Masoto back to the wife and kids he imagines he has.

Of course, Masoto is actually single.

Tatsuya doesn’t find that out, however, until he’s applying for school and discovers Masoto working in the admissions department. Confessions are made and consensual sex begins!

Woo.

“Yokubou no Riyuu” (“Reason For Desire”) is the third chapter and probably my least favorite.

A vagrant named Takagi gets in a random scuffle with a skinny pretty boy who, much to Takagi’s surprise, knocks him flat. The pretty boy takes pity on the fact that he seems to have given a stranger a concussion and takes him home. When Takagi wakes up he’s in a strange house with a senile old man. He considers leaving, but the old guy is kind of feeble and so he ends up staying out of kindness.

Turns out the old man is pretty boy’s grandpa, and seeing that Takagi is decent enough to take care of grandpa, asks him to stay on as a housekeeper. He introduces himself as Yuuichi Matama.

Naono-sensei has a lot of fantasies about having someone as a live-in housekeeper, me thinks.

I think what I don’t like about this chapter is that, while Yuuichi’s offer seems sincere, when Takagi says no thanks, he’ll just take the money to cover the injures he’s already sustained, Yuuichi beats him up again… and ties him up.

While stuffed in another room, Takagi watches Yuuchi beat himself off–it’s after this that Yuuchi decides to let him go… except this confuses Takagi (and me, frankly,) and so Takagi jumps to the conclusion that maybe all of this was a set up for Yuuichi to get off… AND YUUICHI BEATS HIM UP AGAIN and throws him out.

At which point I started skimming.

I guess they both have abandonment issues and when Takagi finds this out from Yuuichi’s ‘gramps’ things turn around?

I was not invested.

Ironically, I found I enjoyed the art in this short the best. I don’t want to say that Naono-sensei’s art is inconsistent, because it’s not. She just seems to like to pair pretty boys with less pretty boys and this chapter both guys were equally hot for once.

I will say, though, I kind of liked gramps.

The fourth and fifth chapters were the reason I decided to try this manga when I came across its description. They’re called “Himitsu no Naifu” (“Secret Knife”) and “Bara to Naifu” (“Rose and Knife”) respectively…. and they feature a shinigami.

Of course, I blame Bleach and Death Note for my interest in shinigami. I am always on the look out for them in manga, but especially yaoi.

This one does not disappoint.

The two chapter story follows a nameless hitman who gains the attention Hell because he’s been killing too much and too indiscriminately. Hell dispatches a shinigami, Kamui, to take his soul to Hell as punishment. But when the hitman shows no fear and tries to kill Kami, Kami decides he’s interesting.

One constant about shinigami seems to be that wherever they’re from? It’s not as interesting as the Human World.

So, Kamui decides to try to reform the hitman, whom he names ‘Yato’ (blade, supposedly,) and things don’t go according to plan. Of course, things happen so that other shinigami show up and Kamui is forced to make a trade (his own eye) in order to keep Yato.

It’s just sort of weird and fun?

The redemption arc is okay? I just really liked the design of this particular shingami. There were a couple of visual images that I found very striking–one where he protects Yami under his cloak.

And the general weirdness that tends to happen whenever shinigami get involved in yaoi. Plus, Kamui is generally fabulous in a way I don’t feel like we get often enough in yaoi.

But would you enjoy it? It’s hard to say. It will really depend on your tolerance for brutality in your yaoi. Even these last two stories have their share of violence, since it’s Yato’s business. The art, while generally good in my opinion, does hop back and forth between more cartoon-y and serious, so that’s another thing to consider.

However, you can always just skip to the chapter that interests you, too. One volume of short stories is not a huge commitment.

The stories do all have explicit sex in them, though the version I read was censored in places. I didn’t find any of the scenarios particularly hot, myself, but again mileage varies.

For me it was worth it for the shinigami chapters.

A Story About an Otaku Saving Jeanne d’Arc (and Other Stories) by Maki

So, original Twitter comics seem to be a thing in 2021. I guess mangaka got bored at home on lockdown as well?

I got turned on to a series of mini one-shots by a Twitter mangaka known as Inkoshimi/Maki. Baka-updates tell me these were “published” by Twitter, but I scrolled through a lot of inkoshimi’s Twitter feed and never found the originals. They may be there, somewhere? (I did find the other project that Maki is associated with, The Mutant Wants to Kiss His Human Girlfriend., which I have not read, though it is being/was serialized in Shounen Jump+)

However, the shorts are weirdly fun. The ones I found include: “A Story About an Otaku Saving Jeanne d’Arc“, “

However, the shorts are weirdly fun. The ones I found include: “A Story About an Otaku Saving Jeanne d’Arc,” “A Story About a Kitsune Summoning a Devil for Marriage,” and “A romantic comedy about a brother and sister who discover that they are not blood related.“

My favorite might be the romantic comedy, since it is one page and is an entirely visual joke. If you click-through, you will wonder, as I did, how these two EVER thought they WERE blood related, given that one of them is a demon. But, you know? How many manga are there where this sort of thing does exist??

So, it made me laugh.

If you are willing to hunt around, there are quite a few others. There are several collected at this site: https://hachirumi.com/read/manga/maki-s-oneshot-collection/ (I did, at least, see the post of one of these lion vlogger ones on Maki’s Twitter feed–so it is probably correct to attribute all of these to the same person.)

At any rate, not much to spoil here, since most of them are not longer than a couple of pages at most. Feel free to click-through, if you are so inclined. The jokes aren’t complicated, but still very entertaining.

Enjoy?

Mazu wa, Hitokuchi by Moto Haruko

You know what I’ve always said: any romance can be improved by FLYING PIGS!

Actually, no. Not only did I never say that, I’m not sure anyone, anywhere has ever said that, much less thought it. No, wait, apparently that’s EXACTLY what Moto-sensei said when she sat down to write Mazu wa, Hitokuchi.

SPOILERS

.

.

.

.

So, yes, Mazu wa, Hitokuchi is a Boys’ Love romance story about a pig farmer, Oda, and his childhood friend, Hasegawa, where the conceit is that the secret that Oda and Hasegawa share is that Oda’s pigs FLY. I mean, they are both also harboring a secret crush on each other, but, yeah, the big drama revolves around the fact that Hasegawa might have spilled the beans about the flying pigs to a reporter while drunk.

I briefly thought things were going to turn sexy when the reporter shows up at Hasegawa’s office and shows him what amounts to a blackmail photo (Hasegawa and the flying piglet that has attached itself to him.) At that point in chapter two, I thought, “Oh, okay, it’s going to get hot because the reporter is going to be all ‘have sex with me or I expose your friend’s secret!'” But, that’s not how it goes? In fact, the threat gets dropped and then nothing much happens. The set-up seems to be an excuse to have Oda worry about what’s going on with Hasegawa and maybe cement his feelings towards him? When the final conflict comes and the reporter kicks Hasegawa’s little piglet, it seems like the solution will be that Oda is going to punch the reporter’s lights out. Except, that’s when Oda’s mom shows up, drops some sage wisdom about how love is part of raising and the reporter…. walks away?

I suspect we were supposed to make a connection to the fact that the reporter has a daughter and maybe Oda’s mom put some thought in his head about that? Like, maybe he should go take care of his own instead of picking on the boys and their pigs???

It’s not really clear.

Then, despite love confessions having been dropped in the previous escapade, we do not get sexy times, but instead get a whole other plot involving a girl who is a fan of Oda’s mom????

I do like the art, quite a bit–the boys and the piglet are awfully cute, but I am a little unclear, by the end, if this relationship is actually going to work out. Oda is VERY into it, and Hasegawa is NOT. They never seem to resolve this? I guess they’ll get it together WHEN PIGS FLY. (Ha, ha. GET IT??)

But, in all seriousness, I suspect there’s some kind of humor thing going on here that I am completely missing. This is clearly meant to be a silly story with a romantic backdrop.

It’s complete in one volume, though. There’s not a LOT to recommend about it, from my point of view, but there’s also nothing awful about it. If the silly concept amuses you and you can roll with plots just fizzling out, then I say check it out.