Art and Character Design: This is Yukine Honami’s artwork and I’ve always found her sweet, sketchy style appealing. No real surprises here, though, except that her boys look a little older than usual — and by that I mean late as opposed to early teens. Their appearance really doesn’t seem all that different from the characters I’ve seen in her other books — they, in fact, could easily be older versions of those characters, so it doesn’t feel like she’s really stretching herself here. And again, there is little in the way of background or other details, with almost all of the attention being focused on these sweet looking guys.
Characters: The male characters are all three dimensional, each with complicated layers of depth. Our hero is uke-to-be Mizuho, who is a self-pitying, over-reacting, passive blockhead, but other than that he’s a nice guy. His cousin En-Chan, is suitably grumpy for his seme role, but the reasons for his crankiness are ultimately understandable and a vulnerability is shown often enough so that he doesn’t seem one-note. (Quite the opposite, actually — we get a full range of emotions and he seems like a believably conflicted, if taciturn young gay guy.) Best friend Issei is level-headed enough to help these two star-crossed lovers get past their internal drama without seeming like a mere device of the author’s when it’s his time to do so. Full-on adult and openly gay Yoshimi serves as a believable rival — and a subtly creepy one to boot. So subtle was his toying with the innocence of the younger guys around him, that I wondered for a time if the authors actually realized that he was behaving rather badly. But in the end, I felt assured they knew what they were doing. Only the women characters (and there are actually a lot of them for a yaoi book) come off as simple and familiar types — which is a bit of a shame given how present they are .
Plot: Remember how I said our protagonist Mizuho is a passive, self-pitying blockhead? Well, it’s his astounding levels of density that drive much of the conflict, so I spent most of the book waiting for best friend Issei to find out what was going on and deliver the smack-down on his buddy’s head so we could have our happy ending. There were definitely a couple of chapters that tried my patience as I watched Mizuho so clearly miss and misunderstand romantic overtures and feelings that would be painfully obvious to most other human beings over the age of 12. But unlike in other, lesser yaoi books, our authors are quite aware of their protagonist’s shortcomings and, in fact, his developing of a clue and a spine is the real character development of the book. In addition, the manipulative wrenches that rival Yoshimi throws in the works feel believable, motivated and, for me, fresh — if not, as I said before, more than a little creepy as well.
Romance: It doesn’t get too deep — these guys remain stuck in their own internal drama for so much of the book that all we really have time for in the romance department is a mutual admission of love, a quick roll in the hay and a hope for the future. Besides a common love of the starry night and shared childhood memories, we only get glimpses of them really connecting with each other as young adults — and that mostly consists of longing looks, brief exchanges and a first-person narrator reminding us that this relationship is important. But this is a love that first took seed when they were little boys, and here is where Honami-sensei’s sweet art works its special magic. After seeing them in flashback, it’s hard not to want those two adorable kids who loved each other so much as children to find their way back to each other as young adults. The love we do see in the present always seems sweet and kind-hearted — in part because the characters are just drawn that way. And what the book delivers when all is said and done doesn’t feel overpromised.
Sex: There’s only one real sex scene at the very end that’s just suggestive and long enough to earn this book its 18+ rating, but you don’t get to see much, so sex ain’t the reason to buy this book. It is kinda sweet, though, and feels narratively satisfying. There’s also one scene previous that veers dangerously towards gratuitous non-con territory, but thankfully it pulls away at the last second and feels at least somewhat motivated as we learn more about the characters later on.
Overall: It’s an enjoyable if sometimes frustrating read. Writer Chisako Sakuragi is skilled enough to give us believable characters and avoid cliché. Artist Yukine Honami’s art is as sweet as ever. Had the protagonist been less passive and a little smarter, this story of kissing cousins could have been a lot more fun. As it is, it’s a pleasant diversion. A must for Honami-sensei completists; one the rest of us should buy only if you can’t borrow it from a friend.
Rated by the publisher “For Mature Audiences 18+”
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(Very, very Not Safe For Work, but you knew that, right?)
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