Art and Character Design: Manga-inspired and appealing. This is GloBL — so despite the large eyes, you should be prepared for the artwork to feel fairly Western (preview pages can be found here). Artist Amelie Belcher’s characters are wonderfully expressive which makes it easy to understand and share the emotions of this lively bunch. She has mad skills with the adorable: both man and beast look downright huggable in these pages. There’s some native-peoples-inspired art used during a story-telling section that was quite well done. And the leads are both attractive. (Although it must be said that the way love interest Abalu is drawn, he is completely indistinguishable from a woman, at least while clothed. There are even some panels where the light hits his coat such that it looks like he has breasts and an hourglass figure! Our protagonist Anituk consistently looks like a boy, though, and a cute one at that, so at least there’s some eye candy for all of us.) Overall, I found the art both pleasing and compelling.

That said, according to writer Tina Anderson’s end note, this was artist Belcher’s first “entire manga” and there are places where that shows. The action scene in the first eight pages is utterly confusing and I had to re-read it several times to suss out exactly what happened (and where that attacking shark came from!). I had a similar reaction to a scene showing a battle between seals later where there simply weren’t enough panels of art to coherently tell that story. Also, character art wasn’t always distinct enough to avoid confusion, particularly for a black and white comic. (In close up framings, I sometimes couldn’t distinguish bearded brother Nifu from Anituk’s bearded father and, more disturbingly, love interest Abalu from Anituk’s mother.) Things improve greatly as the comic moves along, so I would encourage readers who are feeling impatient with the first pages to continue — the emotionally spot-on and humorous artwork in later pages is worth the bumpy ride through the early action scenes.

Also, I should note here, that the lettering is very present — especially the sound effects — and not always to helpful effect. More on that later.

Characters: Likable and memorable. Every male character has a distinct personality with clear motivations, and while there are a few disposable female love objects for Anituk’s brother to respond to, Mom feels three-dimensional as well. (And the overall tone is certainly woman-positive, even feminist, which is refreshing in a yaoi book.) Our hero, Anituk, starts off sulky, but his intense compassion for all living things, strong need for love and excitable nature soon overwhelm his pouting around so by page 30 we are left with an adorable, boyish goofball to root for. (He actually reminded me a bit of Ryoga with how strongly he felt everything — and that’s a good thing.) Love interest Abalu is optimistic and sweet with plenty of humorous quirks; I looked forward to his appearances. And Anituk’s lusty older brother, Nifu, provides some pleasant comic relief — as well as serving as an antagonist of sorts, but only to help give contrast to Anituk’s personality. There are no bad guys in this book.

Plot: The high concept here is “Boys Love during the Ice Age” and it’s definitely an intriguing hook. We start right in the action with toddler Anituk surviving a shark attack and pick up with him a legally convenient 16 years later as he struggles to prove himself a capable hunter. And that’s when he meets a mysterious and tremendously upbeat stranger who “comes from lands far south”, who seems to take an immediate liking to young Anituk and who won’t take “Stay away from me — you’re weird!” for an answer.

There are some complications touched on here and there, but this is essentially a story of true love overcoming inexperience. And thus, while there aren’t many surprises or obstacles, it’s a sweet ride. There was a fantasy-magical component that I wasn’t expecting — and won’t spoil here — which was fun and added to the prehistoric myth vibe that infuses this work (as well as offering an opportunity for some circle-of-life messaging which seems appropriate for younger readers.) And, while there was some bodily function humor that also made me think this might be intended for younger readers, there were a number of laugh-out-loud visual gags and clever dialogue wise-cracks that had me chuckling, a rarity. Once I got past those first pages, I was engaged and looked forward to finding out what happened next.

Romance: Sweet. Writer Anderson gives us appealing leads and takes the time to make us believe that these two would really like each other, so we root for them. There’s a hunting expedition and a nice scene of poetic storytelling along with other bits of alone time that create a believable bond. I found the thoughtful way Anderson unfolded the love story a pleasant break from the usual forced angst of other yaoi books.

Sex: You don’t see wee-wees or pubic hair, but it’s surprisingly explicit (at least in terms of what happens) for what otherwise feels like a yaoi book appropriate for readers in their early teens. The characters are often naked and the sex they engage in is believable for first-time encounters. Particularly refreshing is that they don’t immediately go for anal-intercourse which in real-life is rarely a guy’s first experience. The sex scenes were too brief to get my motor running, but they did add to the overall sweet and charming tone of the romance. So, at the very least, they consistently gave a rise to the corners of my mouth.

Overall: Not without its flaws, this is a sweet and engaging yaoi comic by independent Western creators that delivers laughs and warms the heart. If you like your guy-on-guy romance to be cute and fun with strong characters who get adorably worked up and deserve to be together, it’s definitely worth the Kindle price of $4.99 and even the $8.00 pre-order for the print book. You won’t be disappointed.

Not age-rated by the publisher. Content-wise, I think many young teens would find it a good fit. With (albeit brief) scenes of oral sex and naked frottage, however, I would imagine many parents would prefer them to wait. Other publishers would probably rate this 16+. This publisher wishes publishers didn’t have to guess at such things…

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Romantic ice-age hilarity ensues as young whaler Anituk’s miserable life with doting parents and an oversexed wife-hunting brother is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Abalu, a tall handsome stranger who delights in encroaching upon Anituk’s angst.

So, Tina Anderson is a fellow Western yaoi creator and up to now, I’ve been hesitant to review her works. Partly this is because she has chosen subjects I know aren’t going to work for me — namely, stories of priests with nazis not to mention romances with mentally-challenged prostitutes (the latter book being, I’ve been told more than once, actually quite excellent). But mostly because she is an online friend and a good one. For my pals, unless I’m their “beta reader”, I really just want to offer encouragement, nothing more, and, in my reviews I can be, well… critical.

And there were things I found to be critical of in this book. In addition to the hiccups in the artwork, there were some logical glitches that gave me pause. On one page, our hero, Anituk, expresses extreme disbelief when Abalu claims his family has seen a land with warm water. He exclaims “They’re full of it! Because without snow and ice, there can be no life!” But, later when telling a beloved story about his family history, Anituk talks about his people coming from a land where “grass grew green… and snow only came when it was cold.” Doesn’t really track. Likewise, we clearly establish that the entire family shares a bed together each night (Abalu actually joins them to get close to Anituk), but when the time comes for our heroes to have sex, they seem to have a tent all to themselves. All nice and toasty and ready for them. In a sudden snow storm. Um, don’t those things take a little while to set up?

But let’s face — these are nitpicks. (And frankly, as a reader, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief quite a bit if it involves cute guys dropping trou.) A bigger concern has to do with the lettering of this comic.

Let me first say that lettering is hard and good lettering is very hard. I letter all the Yaoi 911 comics, it takes me many, many hours and, after those many hours, I’m still not 100% satisfied with the results. It’s an art as much as drawing and writing are — and it’s crucial because, much like sound in film, good lettering is invisible, but bad lettering will distract from the art and take you out of the story. Creating the individual balloons and tails using software is fiddly and there are elaborate conventions you must follow if you don’t want to confuse your reader. Frankly, it’s a bitch. So I have a great deal of sympathy for any creator saddled with this duty. Not easy.

Still, I found the the lettering in Loud Snow more distracting than it had to be. Right off the bat, I was put off by the font choice and large balloons — the typeface felt large and horsey to me and, as a reader, I prefer to see a lot more art and a lot less balloon and type in each panel than what I saw in this comic. My understanding is that the balloons were added after the art was created, so I wasn’t sure why they had to take up so much space and found myself wishing they weren’t covering up so much of the art.

Of course, your tastes and eyeglasses prescription may vary, so such aesthetic quibbles may not matter to you. A much bigger concern is that the balloons have no tails. (You know, those pointy things that are supposed to extend from the white circles to indicate who’s talking? Not there.) When there was more than one character in a panel, this presented a serious problem because I often couldn’t tell who was speaking. And that meant I had to re-read pages to understand the story (and there are some pages where I’m still not 100% sure who said what.) Not ideal. Moving a balloon closer to one character helps — and writer Anderson in her role as letterer does this — but sometimes it’s just not enough.

Now, I understand that there are Japanese comics that do not include tails, so perhaps it’s a stylistic choice. But many do and isn’t the advantage of GloBL that we can take the best of both worlds? I don’t care if it’s a proper curved tail or a simple black line pointing at a character — we need to know who’s saying what. Always.

Another concern with the lettering is, what feels to me anyway, an overuse of sound effects. Now, let me say that writer Anderson makes a manga-inspired choice with the sound effects I actually prefer over the Western approach — instead of struggling with onomatopoeia, she often simply uses descriptive words. So, rather than trying to come up with whatever mystical set of consonants would evoke the sound of dragging a dead seal (“SHhwweth”, perhaps?) she merely uses the word “DRAG” superimposed over a blank space in the panel. Very clear and to the point — as a reader I get it immediately and the story flows uninterrupted.

Descriptive sound effects can also be handy in a pinch where an action might not be clear in the art. Let’s face it, it can be tricky to show a physical movement in a single still panel, so sometimes it helps to throw in a “BRUSH” or a “RUB RUB RUB” to, again, keep the story flowing.

But there’s a fine line between making things clear and not trusting your artist. And when you are using sound effects for actions like “SEES”, “SMILE” and “FALLING”, you’ve definitely crossed that line. If you really can’t tell that a character — even an animal — has noticed its prey, the panel or page needs to be redrawn. And if that’s not possible, as the letterer, you just have to suck it up. Reading “SEES” or “SULK” or some other descriptive word for something in a panel that the reader knows should be clear in the art just feels intrusive.

I will say this is another thing that improves as the comic goes along, but it was something that took me out of the story on more than one occasion, even on later pages. As a writer, I am tremendously sympathetic to the temptation of going overboard with the sound effects– my most visible contribution are my words and this is my last chance to make things clear! — but a lot more restraint here would have made for a much more seamless reading experience.

In terms of the gay stuff, Anituk’s explanation for how he figured out he wasn’t like the other boys — that he really liked his own body more than the bodies of girls — also felt a bit off. In my own experience and those of my friends, it wasn’t the superior sexiness of our own bodies that we found compelling, but rather the superior sexiness of the bodies of other cute guys that caught our attention. As narcissism has often been cited as a cause of homosexuality, part of me bristled while reading that dialogue. But other than that one strange note, I should say everything else felt realistic, respectful and believable. Writer Anderson knows real, live gay people, thinks of them as real people instead of objects and it shows. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to a library section for gay youth.

So… after all that — do I think you should still get this book? Absolutely. Because despite these flaws, Loud Snow is just a darn good time. And that’s really what matters.

Unlike a lot of yaoi from the “mainstream” publishers, I found I actually cared about the characters in this book. Artist Belcher has taken the best of manga character conventions, namely cuteness coupled with clear and passionate emotion, and used it to great effect to illustrate writer Anderson’s likable and humorous goofballs. Even now as I flip through the pages of this manga, I continue to stumble on a facial expression that Anituk pulls as he reacts to some craziness around him that just makes me grin. And writer Anderson infuses these adorable sweethearts with motivations that are both understandable and compelling, something that 90% of other writers get dead wrong. This isn’t a complicated story, but neither were episodes of Ranma 1/2 or Tenchi Muyo or any of those other “regular clueless guy being pursued by a hottie” stories that are so entertaining to watch. Ultimately, I was charmed in the same way.

Loud Snow may have its rough edges, but here’s the thing — it’s gets all the important stuff right. Compelling characters, good humor, pleasing art and an hour of very pleasant yaoi reading. And if I’m paying money for a book that matters a hell of a lot more than production value. Yes, Loud Snow is an independently produced graphic novel and it feels that way. But it’s an entertaining and engaging independently produced graphic novel and that makes all the difference.

So, full disclosure: Tina’s an online pal, she’s the one who sent me the review copy and she’s a fellow Western creator, so I want to root for her. But here is my honest take — you should expect a few bumps, but if I’d have paid $4.99 for the Kindle edition or even $8.00 for the hard copy, I would feel it was money well spent. I think you will too.

Want a sweet story of boys living in the Ice Age that offers some good chuckles and leaves you with a smile? Then, yep, you should buy this book.

**************

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So on Saturday, TheYaoiReview (recently moved to San Francisco) took me to a BBQ at Deb Aoki’s house. It was a delightful time with tasty food (chicken and edamame rice!) and fun, geeky conversation that lasted several hours. Gia of AnimeVice was there — as vivacious and trenchant as I remember her being from previous YaoiCon encounters — as was Jason Thompson, author of the must-read Manga: The Complete Guide, who greeted everyone, including yours truly, with an enthusiastic and sincere “Wow! You’re the one responsible for (the Yaoi Review/Yaoi 911/Kasumi/etc.)?!” (Very flattering — must remember to invite Jason to all future BBQs I attend…)

The ride up with TheYaoiReview — quick-witted, insightful and stylish as ever — afforded the opportunity to deepen a friendship with my new neighbor while opening up my mind to stunningly novel uses of cream cheese (and I thought it was just for bagels!). Once arrived, I sat next to the delightful Surt Lim, writer of the Del Rey fantasy-shojo manga Kasumi, and swapped stories about the benefits and pitfalls of being a Western writer working with foreign artists — a rare and validating experience. And I finally got the pleasure of meeting About.com’s Deb Aoki in person and discovered she is a wonderful, generous host with a private manga library whose bookshelves rival those of Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco’s Japantown. So generous a host, in fact, that she wouldn’t let any of us leave without placing some personally-selected manga choices into each of our hands and thus I wound up leaving the party four mangas richer than I came. (Thanks, Deb!) So, I thought I might take a few moments to give some quick reactions to a couple that I’ve read during my Sunday recovering from all the fun and food.

Once Upon A Glashma was the first book I sunk my teeth into — the tagline of “Before wizards or magic, the world was filled with girls. But one day, the girls disappeared and only wizards remained…” was intriguing and the art was just too adorable to resist. Alas, adorable art is all this book has to offer. First of all, despite a cover that screams taciturn seme and cuddly uke and a premise of “a world without girls”, this is not BL. Rather, it is what I what I like to call faux-BL: a completely slashable premise with no sex, no kissing (of other men, that is) and only the vaguest, most easily deniable innuendos that some guy-on-guy loving might be occurring somewhere far, far off-stage.

Second, the story is a confusing mess with cliché relationships. The first chapters throw us in the middle of the action with little explanation — our heroes, magic-investigating government agents, are seen fighting a dragon, wrestling with an exploding man or fighting a trash monster with almost no set-up — and the resolutions that are offered to these crises feel rushed. The artwork, while beautiful, unfortunately makes the action difficult to follow and the characters’ behavior — mostly consisting of hot-tempered “sempai” Gotanda bullying wimpy underling Nippori — is consistently baffling. (Why exactly does Gotanda treat Nippori this way? He’s seems to have done nothing to deserve it. I constantly had to refer to previous, better written works in my head for an account of why these characters would treat each other as they did. ["Oh! I bet here she's going for an Roy x Ed dynamic but with a bit of Al thrown in..."]

This manga has a ton of great ideas and intriguing characters, but creator Kumiko Suekane just doesn’t take the time to flesh them out. Even the obligatory humor chapter — where a bunch of frat boys try to convert our heroes into beautiful girls complete with maid uniforms — feels perfunctory and rushed. Only in the second half, when we start to learn the reason why all the women have disappeared, does some form of coherent storytelling start to take hold — but even in these final pages, the answers feel hurried, one-dimensional and cliché. I would love to read a well-written fantasy-yaoi with clean-lined characters as cute as the ones depicted in these pages — and perhaps if this had been three volumes instead of one, that could have happened here — but I can only recommend this book to you if don’t have to pay for it and you are desperate for reading material. As one reviewer put it, “read it at Borders.” (For other takes, the author of MAYBE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BLOG… finds the book “craptastic… in every sense of the word.” Otaku News has a bit more patience with it.)


Chocolate Surprise, on the other hand, is very much true BL where the seme is always the dark-haired one and the ukes always, always cry out “No!” during sex (no matter how much they were begging for it in the beginning). A collection of nine short comics, the character art is nowhere near as good as Suekane-sensei’s Once Upon A Glashma — not only is the linework somewhat dull and predictable, the ukes are very, very feminine, often chicks-with-dicks level feminine which kind of makes you wonder why Lily Hoshino bothered telling these as yaoi stories at all. (As one woman at the BBQ put it, “Hoshino-sensei should just throw a skirt on the uke and be done with it!”)

That said, the sex is as explicit as I have ever seen in yaoi, in all senses of that word — not only do you get hard-core activities, but what’s happening is always clear and almost nothing is obscured. You get to see it all — including pubic hair, a rarity in my yaoi journeys — while the sex still manages to hold on to the delicacy and sweetness we would expect from a yaoi work (with these tender first encounters, no one would ever mistake this for bara…) I have to admit it — despite the feminine (and often very young) depictions of some of the characters, I did find many of the sex scenes actually hot — and if it’s enough to get my motor running, I would imagine that hard-core yaoi fans will need to keep some extra heart medication on hand, just in case. Finally, the storytelling itself, while not especially memorable (each of these stories are first-time love encounters involving one very interested boy and one not-so-interested-oh-I-guess-I-really-am-interested boy) is solid with often quite satisfying endings (narratively as well as romantically).

I wouldn’t buy this book for a night of great literature, but if you can get past the feminine character art and are looking for a little one-handed meditation, it’s definitely worth your $12.95. Gay boy Alex says “Check it out.” (That said, while it got my boat afloat, Connie C. of Manga Recon was “singularly unimpressed” with the book, finding it “explicit in a way I was not comfortable with”. [Perhaps highlighting a gay boy/fangirl divide?] Read her short take for a different perspective.)

Ultimately, I found myself wanting the best of both books — the lovely artwork and cool ideas behind Kumiko Suekane’s Once Upon A Glashma coupled with the more accomplished restraint and actual guy-on-guy loving found in Lily Hoshino’s Chocolate Surprise. Who knows — perhaps I’ll find what I’m looking for in the other two books Deb lent me: Saemi Yorita’s Brilliant Blue and You Higuri’s Ludwig II.

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Art and Character Design: Very skilled and compelling. While keeping true to yaoi conventions, Kunieda-sensei shows a very strong sense of anatomy and layout and moves from a semi-realistic shojo style to fun and cute super-deformed and chibi depicitons seamlessly. Her semes look convincingly masculine and handsome and her ukes have the expected bishonen feminine beauty while still looking like dudes. It’s always easy to follow the action and understand what the characters are feeling. And the sex looks believable and hot. This is top-notch yaoi art.

Characters: They’re definitely yaoi characters, so there is some simplification of motivation going on here (i.e. they want the gay sex and go all the way immediately and frequently) but despite that, in the first, much longer story, our heroes feel exceptionally believable. A big selling point of this book is the sensitivity and skill Kunieda-sensei uses in introducing us to two very different gay men: one is ostensibly straight and dreams of pleasing his grandparents by finding a wife and creating a traditional family; the other is moody, flamboyant and openly gay. Neither are angels, but they are very likable. And both have strong and weak points that complement each other. You could easily see meeting them in real life and thus the story itself feels credible and the plotting natural. Secondary characters likewise have depth and I’m happy to say that the female characters are consistently strong, wise and appealing.

In the second story, though, while the characters are certainly cute — and I’ll admit I’m a sucker for little lost lamb ukes — the sense of realism suffered from the shortness of the story and perhaps some timidity in showing us what a relationship between two teenage brothers would actually be like. The interactions rarely felt honest. Unlike in the first story, I had a hard time believing these boys were anything other than figments of Kunieda-sensei’s (skilled) imagination.

Plot: The first and longest story follows the relationship of two high-school teachers who find themselves co-workers after a drunken, anonymous night of sex. The central question is: can these two overcome their differences and find love?

One of the great pleasures of this book is that Kunieda-sensei avoids false drama. (O.K. — there is one huge scene of false drama, but it’s essentially a practical joke on the reader, so we’ll forgive it.) When the characters are in conflict, their actions and reactions are completely believable for guys their age — nowhere does it feel like a character is freaking out just for the sake of the plot. This lends a feeling of realism to the work that’s refreshing and keeps you from feeling like your time is being wasted with contrived misunderstandings and hurt feelings just to fill pages. This is the story of two guys with very different personalities who fall in love and the conflicts they have with each other stem believably from those differences. Overall, their love story kept me wanting to turn pages to see what would happen.

The second story in the book feels much more pedestrian and familiar. It concerns two teenage brothers (one’s adopted, thus offering the obligatory “real incest” escape clause, though technically they are at least half-cousins — phew!), three years apart, who fall in love and hide their feelings until eventually everything comes out one night when they are forced to spend time alone. While their chibi versions do summon up the adorable, I found their actions not very believable, especially the younger uke, who is calmly and casually aggressive about wanting sex with his older brother. Unlike the first story, this felt more like fetish yaoi (albeit very sweet fetish yaoi) than an honest take on their relationship. There are some clever bits — including a baby rabbit made out of snow theme — but it all felt fairly contrived after enjoying the natural arc of the previous story. And there’s some false drama about an abortion of all things. Pity…

Romance: In the first comic, you like the characters, they seem right for each other and yet nothing is a foregone conclusion — this is a fun, believable love story.

The second story is definitely high on the adorableness factor — had the characters been believable, it might have moved me more than the first. But as I said, things feel rushed and contrived and, seeing as the heroes have been living as brothers since they were very small, it’s hard to believe that they really have any chance of living happily ever after now that they are acting on their feelings. Some sweet scenes to inspire your fantasy life, sure, but little more.

Sex: A few brief but definitely hot encounters. Despite the glowing cones of light (sorry ladies, no actual weenies here), I found the posing of the sex more realistic than what one usually sees in yaoi and, more importantly, the passion of the encounters felt palpable. Also unlike a lot of yaoi, nothing was confusing — you always knew what these guys were doing — without the sex ever becoming truly explicit. I personally need more than a few pages of sex — and a fair amount of set-up — to really get my motor running, but since 7-page-and-under sex encounters seem to be de rigeur for yaoi books, if you usually find yaoi hot, this book definitely delivers.

Overall: Likable, non-cliché characters with real depth, great art and an exceptionally solid and credible love story make for a great read. Despite a somewhat weaker, more conventional B-story, this book is definitely worth your $12.95.

Rated 18+ Mature.

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Kento Kumagaya wishes for just one simple thing: to have a happy family with the ideal housewife, loving kids, and kind grandparents all living together, happily ever after. Life, however, has other plans. Enter Akira Kazuki, a smart, beautiful and unrestrained gay man who shatters Kento’s dream with a single night of wild and passionate homosexual sex. This is a romantic, sweet and funny story between two different people (in more ways than one) who unexpectedly find the same future together.

So I picked up this book because it has an excellent reputation for being great yaoi storytelling and I’m pleased to say it didn’t disappoint. Yes, I might be hating on the second story a bit in my summaries up above, but that’s mainly because it pales in comparison to the first story. (And, like other “brother” yaoi stories I’ve read, it felt like it failed to live up to the potential of its provocative set-up. That said, unlike Brother which used the sibling relationship as purely fetish, Kunieda-sensei mostly uses it as a vehicle for a type of sweet protector-innocent dynamic which is actually far more compelling.)

The first story, “Memories of the Future”, starts out with a straight-guy seduction scene which certainly has the feel of traditional yaoi — the guy is swept away with the gay passion nearly immediately which as we know from (very NSFW!) amateur porn ain’t really how such things happen. (It actually takes more than a few great kisses to overcome years of internalized homophobia.) But that nod to convention aside, from a gay male perspective, these characters felt quite real to me as did their sex and romance. The openly gay character, Akira, utters the occasional self-loathing statement such as “A gay man like me can’t even dream of a normal family” but such bitter words make sense based on who he is and what he’s experienced and I never felt like they expressed the author’s personal view.

Also, as I said above, the women and girls in this book, while being secondary characters, don’t get short shrift. Kento’s “girlfriend” Yukie, while only seen in a few scenes, is nobody’s fool; his grandmother is as wise as we’d expect for her years — even the high-school student “rival” is at least as put together and level-headed as our heroes while still having an independent and vulnerable emotional life. It’s refreshing to find female characters in yaoi who are more than obstacles or set-dressing, but rather feel like real people.

Finally, I found the creator’s little “Assorted Ramblings” comic at the end to be charming and funny. She apologizes to the reader for her “shortcomings” in Boys Love art — not at all necessary, of course — and then goes on to discuss the challenges of drawing pubic hair and underwear. Cute! Despite her “inexperience” in the Boys Love genre, she seems very likable. That little peek into her psychology alone makes me want to read more of her work.

All in all, this book is definitely one of the good ones and thus joins Little Butterfly, Rin and Seduce Me After the Show as yaoi books I would recommend without hesitation. If you haven’t already read it, it should be the next book on your list.

(Other reviews of Future Lovers: Deb Aoki over at About.com is less charmed than I was by the first story, but still finds it to be fairly solid and superior to the second story. Julie over at Manga Maniac Cafe loved the book [but gives some spoilers in her review]. Kuriosity’s Lissa Pattillo, writing for Comic Village, found the book “refreshing” and a “pleasant surprise” and especially liked the humor and pacing [and she does an excellent job of explaining what's great about the art]. Finally, Melinda Beasi writing for There It Is, Plain As Daylight blog, finds Future Lovers to be “one of the most engagingly natural boys’ love stories I’ve read” and offers some nice insights into the characters.)

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Learn More!

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• Looking to see how Japanese gay male creators depict hot man-on-man sex? Take a look at How To Find Bara In English!
• Wondering what some of our work looks like? See a selection by clicking on Yaoi 911™ Art!

Art and Character Design: Not surprisingly for a book that arose from the “zine” movement, the art is very, very indie. While occasionally there are some panels that look accomplished (notably by creators such like Steve MacIsaac and Craig Bostick), most of the art in these strips look like something your best friend in High School could’ve come up with when he was working on his comic, with only a cursory understanding of anatomy and perspective. While I tend to prefer more naturalism and polish, I found this style actually made the stories more approachable and believable. Because most are essentially first person accounts of what it’s like to be young and gay, the raw art style added a layer of authenticity. I often found myself believing that the person who was drawing the story actually experienced it — or, at least, could have.

The character designs, while often simplistic, depict young boy-next-door types, most between the ages of 16 and 25. No hyper-masculinity or femininity here, just a bunch of regular guys leading regular lives — which also lends authenticity to the stories we are reading.

Characters: Believable and compelling. I found myself surprised at how accomplished the writing was in this book (especially being written by a number of different authors — kudos to editors Kirby and Kelly!) — and how refreshing that was in a gay comic. We meet guys just coming out, young punks at their first job, a guy crushing out on the Jamba Juice boy, a boy who tricks with a cherub and many other boys experiencing their first, requited love. With only a few exceptions, I found myself identifying with all the characters and most definitely cared about them and what they wanted.

Plot: These are all short comics (I think the longest is 10 pages) so the stories are more vignettes than anything else. But again, the writing is exceptionally strong and insightful. Even though I myself came out some time ago, I still found myself engaged in these young men’s stories and feeling like I was learning more about the human condition. From the first story (written in the 2nd person, revealing its intended audience) about an underage guy’s first experience in a sex shop back room to the (next to) last story about a young punk who gets stalked and used by an older photographer (and is kinda flattered by it) – the motivations of the characters are complex and human, so none of what I read felt trivial. And even though some of these comics come from the 90s, the writing still feels fresh and exciting. The book is engaging from start to finish.

Romance: Interestingly for a collection of comics with a punk, indie pedigree, most of the stories revolve around sweet, requited love. (I suppose even at the beginning of the 21st century, two boys loving each other for real is the most transgressive act of storytelling there is.) Even the one drama-couple gets interrupted mid-fight by an older man with his own very romantic story involving the love of a Middle Eastern king. While there are a few stories of love-from-afar pining, the impression you’re left with is of one of sweetness… and the possibility that you too could find real love.

Sex: Often quite explicit but rarely prolonged. And, of course, a bit hampered by the artists’ own limitations in linework. There were moments that were kinda hot, but they were so brief, it’s unlikely you’ll find the need to read this book one-handed. Food for future fantasy at best.

Overall: This is a great book of short comics — especially for young guys in the early stages of coming out. It pulls no punches when it comes to the realities of sex and drugs and feels totally real, but the overall tone is light, hopeful and full of energy. You aren’t going to hang any of the art on your wall, but you will definitely want to read each of these stories more than once. Even more authentic than Max & Sven, it should be part of every gay youth’s library. If you like comics of guys who fall in love with other guys, you should buy this book.

Not age-rated by the publisher.

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

From its first photocopied edition in 1994, Boy Trouble: Gay Boy Comics with a New Attitude emphasized personal stories and viewpoints outside the mainstream, with subject matter that ranged from sex, love, and longing to porn, drugs, and punk rock. The Book of Boy Trouble compiles the greatest hits from the zine’s first ten years, including favorites like Michael Fahy’s “Valentine’s Day Love Poem,” Andy Hartzell’s “Dinner at Achmed’s,” and Anonymous Boy’s “The Non-adventures of Wayne,” plus 24 pages of spanking new work from both regular contributors and up-and-coming talents.

Something you hear again and again in comic book retailing is that an anthology is only as good as the weakest story in the collection. After having read this book, I don’t think that’s true. Yes, there are a couple of stories in here that were perhaps less than engaging, but when 95% of the content is absolutely outstanding, the few minor misfires just don’t matter. Particularly when those misfires are 5 pages or less.

This book really shows the advantage of the democratizing “zine” movement — now living on in blogs throughout the Internet — and that advantage is authenticity. Stories about young gay men in search of love have an inherent marketing appeal — and established publishers like Class Comics and Bruno Gmünder certainly provide much more polished looking work — but those stories don’t have anywhere near the authenticity these stories do. The stories by pro-publishers show young men as objects of sexual appeal — these stories written by the young guys themselves show us what actually matters to young gay men — and because of that perspective, that honesty, they are 100 times more compelling.

And while the art in this book is amateurish, the writing is anything but. More is said in one of these short comics than in the entirety of a book like Side by Side — and it’s said eloquently, with wit, humor and poignancy. The publisher’s blurb says they took the “greatest hits” from the zine for this collection and all these stories do in fact feel quite well-chosen, truly the cream of any crop of short story writing. I tip my hat to editors Kirby and Kelly.

To be honest, I was surprised how solid a book this was — and how thoroughly I enjoyed reading every story. If you care about more than pretty pictures in your gay comics — or if you’re a young gay man trying to figure things out for yourself — you should absolutely buy this book. It gets my strongest recommendation.

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Learn More!

• Want to read about other guy-on-guy romance comics? Click on over to our list of Reviews!
• Looking to see how Japanese gay male creators depict beautiful men? Take a look at How To Find Bara In English!
• Hey, all this manly art freaking you out? Then soothe your fevered brow by reading a review of some more traditional yaoi over at Yaoi Review: Empty Heart by Masara Minase!
• Wondering what some of our work looks like? See a selection by clicking on Yaoi 911™ Art!

Art and Character Design: Anatomically correct, black-and-white newspaper cartoon style — think For Better or For Worse, but with explicit sex. (Shout out to all Michael and Lawrence shippers!) This style of art is completely appropriate for the format, which while often poignant, is mostly light-hearted and jokey. Characters are expressive (although not much caricature occurs) and, while simply drawn, I had no difficulty distinguishing who was who or what was going on.

Characters: Believable, three-dimensional and very sympathetic — in many ways, the opposite both in art and depth to the characters of Side by Side. While Bouden is not above going for a cheap laugh at the expense of realism, the characters feel real. As a gay man, I saw myself and my friends in them throughout the book.

Plot: The story is one that a lot of gay men will be familiar with — the intense crush on your best friend, fueled by your own silence and not knowing whether he might feel the same as you. It is an almost universal experience among gay men who were closeted for some time in their teens and one which will resonate with anyone who has ever had a secret crush on someone very close to them. In first person, Max narrates for us his personal discovery of attraction to other boys (starting in his early teens) and how the entrance of transfer student Sven Smulder into his high school class changes his world forever. With both art and words, Bouden does a great job of recreating the feelings of an instant crush that only deepens when the two boys discover a profound liking for each other.

Max falls head over heels in love, the question is, does Sven feel the same way? You will believe — and you will care.

Romance: The friendship is believable as is the attraction — and Max is so likable, you want things to work out for him. When reading this, you are routing for them as a potential couple. Whether that actually works out, though — well, you’ll just have to read to find out… (although the publisher’s blurb below and my comments underneath them will spoil that for you — fair warning)

Sex: Very explicit and, within the confines of the cartoony art style and the jokey punch lines, actually fairly realistic. Most of the more erotic sex — including some underage sex — takes place in the first 20 or so pages. Although the book continues to be explicit throughout, most of the sex in later pages is used for humorous, satirical or educational effect. That said, I cared about the characters, the tone is fairly joyful and loving and so I actually found more than a few pages hot.

Overall: An often funny, truly poignant and honestly illuminating view of what it is to grow up gay at the turn of the millennium. Despite its cartoony art and occasional comic misfires, this book has characters you care about wanting things that matter. Out of all the books I’ve reviewed so far on this blog, this graphic novel does the best job of sharing what it is really like to be a young gay man — and it does so in an entertaining and engaging way. If you are looking for a good story with many good chuckles and some hot, cartoony sex, you should buy this book.

Not age-rated by the publisher.

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Max and Sven are childhood friends who maintain their friendship into adulthood despite Sven’s being straight and Max’s being gay. With equal doses of laugh-out-loud humor and wry insight, artist Tom Bouden highlights and dispels many misconceptions about gay and straight culture. Created in 1990 as part of an advertising campaign for a gay youth club, Max and Sven quickly rose to stardom with leading roles in their own comic.

One of my favorite manga series is Genshiken, a study of Japanese otaku culture where the boys talk about their attraction to “2D women” — meaning an honest and real sexual and romantic attraction to, let’s face it, not very realistically drawn anime characters. While many of my friends scratch their heads when I discuss it, I too have strong attractions to 2D characters — in my case, it would be 2D guys.

It started with the fox from Disney’s Robin Hood when I was a very little kid and continued on through adulthood with characters like Ryoga on Ranma 1/2. Now, I find it very interesting that I develop feelings for characters drawn in a cartoony style, especially because I prefer a more naturalistic style with my own erotic work. Scott McCloud offers a potential explanation of this in his must-read book, Understanding Comics, where he states that the more cartoony and less realistic the character art, the more universal that character will feel to readers — which he argues makes that character easier to sympathize with. When I think about the 2D guys that have turned me on — Ryoga, Tenchi, Kanji Sasahara — I have to think at least some of that universality is in play for me — that my own mind is filling in the blanks to create the kind of guy I am really attracted to in the real world — because if I look very closely, I see how simple the drawing truly is and the “illusion” of an actually date-able guy will disappear.

But whatever the reasons, for me, the emotions are very real and very strong. (So strong I decided to create my own yaoi — “buying the company” as it were!) And if you are also capable of crushes on 2D guys, then this book will have erotic appeal to you in addition to being a satisfying coming-out story. As I’ve said the sex (while never gross) is absolutely explicit with full on views of naked, erect penises and young guys engaging in the full spectrum of mainstream homosex. In addition to making us laugh, Bouden definitely wants to turn us on (and in a later book, he tries to do so exclusively). For me, in this book, that was successful — you’ll have to look into your own heart to decide whether cartoons can do that for you.

The main goal of the book, though, is to make you laugh and, for the most part, this was successful for me as well. While the desire for a punchline felt occasionally a bit forced, a lot of the humor is truly funny and I chuckled out loud more than once. As a gay man, I found this book to be an very accurate depiction of the feelings of growing up gay — dead-on accurate, really — and the humor certainly helps make even the darker parts of that experience entertaining and light. The one caveat I would offer to the straight reader would be that Bouden overplays the in-joke gay stereotypes for humorous effect — the gay characters Max meets are completely poly-amorous, have sex constantly and, for the most part, are fickle and shallow (if never mean-spirited). I personally have only encountered the hyper-sexual, never monogamous gay guy in movies, books and “friend-of-friend” stories, never in real life. But when I was coming out, I remember believing very strongly that that is what the gay community I was about to enter was really going to be like — and as these comics were written for gay youth, I can see why Bouden chose to satirize this view. And our protagonist Max himself certainly doesn’t live up to that stereotype, which makes all the difference when comparing this book to the much more shallow Side by Side.

Another thing I really liked was the depiction of Sven as Max’s straight-but-not-narrow best friend. His character really felt true to the open-minded straight guys I’ve been close to over the years — sweet guys who, in the interest of being accepting, sometimes even put up with too much. (There’s a scene where poor Sven cheerfully attempts conversation with Max’s roommates who are in the middle of having anal sex because he needs to borrow the honey they are using.) There were a lot of moments with Sven that just felt very real to me — including the fact that, before Max comes out, Sven is much more accepting of gay rights and relationships than Max appears to be. Which makes sense, because the whole issue just isn’t as charged for him. As a teenager in the 80s/90s, Max is growing up among the first generation of young straight guys comfortable enough in their sexuality to not feel threatened at all by gay guys. Max & Sven does a great job of showing the kind of friendship that can blossom between a young gay man and a young straight man — and that alone is worth the price of admission.

Published on thick white paper, I would say the printing quality is only so-so, with the ink looking slightly faded in places and the lettering occasionally a bit off-center. Considering the black-and-white cartoony style of art, I did not find that to be a big deal. And, originally published in Dutch, I found the translation to be excellent — including some impressive translation of the word play and puns Bouden appears so fond of. At $13.95, it might feel a bit steep for a 96-page black-and-white comic, but with an average of 16 panels on each of its magazine-sized 8.5″ x 11″ pages, I found reading it to be the proverbial “satisfying chunk” one looks for in a graphic novel and completely worth the money I spent.

In short, I think you should buy it. It’s a good time, it’s exceptional as a gay comic both in its choice of topics and their treatments and you’ll be the wiser for it.

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Learn More!

• Want to read about other guy-on-guy romance comics? Click on over to our list of Reviews!
• Curious to see how Japanese gay male creators depict beautiful men? Take a look at How To Find Bara In English!
• Hey, all this manly art freaking you out? Then soothe your fevered brow by reading a review of some more traditional yaoi over at Yaoi Review: Empty Heart by Masara Minase!
• Wondering what some of our work looks like? See a selection by clicking on Yaoi 911™ Art!

Art and Character Design: The art is full-color and naturalistic with clean lines and plenty of detail. While very occasionally looking a little mechanical, overall the linework is quite pleasing and impressive. The coloring is well-rendered, with appealing color-choices. My one real complaint with the artwork is the use of black ink (the “K” in CMYK) to darken the skin tones — something that is best avoided in color comics as it gives a muddy, smudge-like color-cast to otherwise nice shading.

The character designs are straight from the pages of Freshmen magazine. Avoiding the usual muscular exaggeration of Western gay comics, our heroes are all mostly-hairless, athletic twinks with David-like proportions– if David had 5% bodyfat and worked out with a professional trainer three hours a day, five days a week, that is. Towards the end of the book, when some of the characters are joyfully having sex for money, we get to see characters who are older and overweight — those would of course be the johns.

As with other Bruno Gmünder books, you can view 30 (tiny but completely uncensored) preview pages of this graphic novel on their Web site. As the art is the real reason to get this book, I highly suggest you do so.

Characters: Total himbos. Wikipedia defines a twink as “‘memorable for his outer packaging’, not his ‘inner depth’” and that is definitely true of the four young gay guys we meet in these pages. What do we know about them? Well, there are two main characters — our narrator, Rick, and his ostensibly straight best friend Evan. Both play sports (basketball, gymnastics, football, swim team, wrestling and snowboarding — not respectively, the two main characters actually participate in all those athletic activities), both want to get out of their small town and both like sex — lots and lots and lots of sex. Evan leaves for the big city first and Rick can cook. That just about covers it.

In the big city, they meet two other young, perfect looking white gay guys named Bill and Charlie who enjoy going to museums (to look at the naked male statues), who earn their living as go-go boys in an exclusive gentleman’s club and who also like lots and lots and lots of sex. Oh, and we know from two caption boxes that “Charlie had intimacy issues” but that “Charlie’s not a snob. He’ll date just about anybody who can afford it” — so I suppose there is some extra depth to good old Charlie…

All four of our heroes seem good-hearted — or at least cheerful and not mean-spirited. And they like hanging out naked. A lot.

Plot: Plot? What plot?

No, really. This is a 119 page book with hardly any conflict. What starts off as a classic coming-out/yaoi conflict — “I’m in love with my best friend and he’s straight!” — is resolved by page 22 (or if you’re a total stickler who needs it all spelled out, page 52, I suppose). Another conflict — will Rick escape his domineering older brother and bitchy older sister? — lasts 8 pages (27-35). And then that’s pretty much it for conflict — after that, everyone gets what they want nearly instantaneously.

This lack of conflict was so eerie that I found myself wondering what the author’s intentions were — why were we actually still following these guys? Everyone’s got what they wanted — isn’t the story over? (Not having any plot to distract me gave me time for quiet reflection.) His note at the end is telling:

I’m lucky. I got to say, in print, that sex is great and should be fun and that real friends and (dare I say it?) love can make the hassles and disappointments of everyday life seem less significant. I got to say it in print, so I don’t forget. I got to say it in front of you, so I can’t deny it later.

So that’s the point of the book. Sex is great and fun and, I must agree, the hassles and disappointments the characters experience do not seem very significant. I suppose that does make for a feel-good story — whether that makes for compelling reading depends how much you like flipping page after page of well-drawn sex.

Romance: Rick loves Evan. SPOILER ALERT: Evan loves Rick. They’ve known each other since “grade school”. Both are young and stunningly beautiful. Both are fairly nice guys. Both are tremendously shallow. They wind up living together and having lots and lots and lots of sex. Need more than that? Look elsewhere.

Sex: Explicit, detailed, joyful and clean. There are a few shots of spurting fluids, but nothing unrealistic and certainly nothing gross. If you’ve been looking for explicitly-drawn idealized gay sex that leaves nothing to the imagination and has not a hint of mean-spiritedness or dirtiness (in any sense of that word), wait no longer — this book delivers 120%. I didn’t care enough about the characters to be turned on, but I’m strange that way — if you like to read your romance comics one-handed, have mainstream Western tastes and are turned off by the physical and sexual extremes of both yaoi and Western gay comics, this book delivers like no other.

Overall: A full-color, nearly plot-free, 119-page graphic novel with very beautiful and very shallow young, white twinks having explicit, clean, joyful and idealized sex for love and money. If you need actual plot and compelling characters to enjoy a romance comic, this book will disappoint. If, however, you like the kind of guys depicted in Freshmen magazine and your needs can be satisfied mostly visually, you should run, not walk, to pick up this book.

Not age-rated by the publisher on the outside of the book or on the publisher’s website — however if you read the fineprint on the copyright page inside, it says “You must be of legal age in your area to buy this” and “It is for mature readers only”, so there. (Oh, and this page also says in boldface that “All models or characters portrayed are 21 years of age or older.” which is just not true, unless as “high school seniors” we’re supposed to assume Rick and Evan were held back several years. I’m not sure if the publisher believes that this disingenuous disclaimer will actually offer some legal protection or if it’s just boilerplate they forgot to amend.)

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Side by Side is the story of Evan and Rick. Fast and close friends since their kindergarten days in a small town, their friendship evolves into the love of their lives. They move to the big city where they meet Billy and Charlie and these four friends are soon inseparable. Mioki presents a moving portrait of gay life with all its highs and lows.

Drawn in a sure style and masterfully incisive, Mioki’s comic is a joy to read, is moving and the sex also doesn’t get short shrift. A charming comic for the young and the young-at-heart.

This description, much like the cake, is a lie. This book is not “a moving portrait of gay life”, it is not “masterfully incisive” and it does not even begin to glance at all the “highs and lows” of being gay. It is what the author says he set out to create — a well-drawn, feel-good book about the joys of sex and friendship and sex with friends. Expect more than that and you will be tremendously disappointed.

Now, I have often wondered, if I were straight, whether I would find Playboy Bunnies (or their equivalent) to be, well, hot. Obviously, right now they leave me frosty cold, but is that just because girls just don’t do it for me? Books like this give me my answer as the young men in these pages are the closest male equivalent to a Bunny as you can get. And my personal verdict? Meh! I might have a cup of coffee with them if I had nothing more interesting to attend to (like, say, alphabetizing my soup cans), but if I’m going to swim, I want deep waters and a distinctive look and this type of guy doesn’t do a whole lot for me.

I say this as a way of giving you some context into what I need to really engage with a gay romance. But as I’ve said again and again on this blog, I realize that my tastes are very much in the minority. And so I would imagine that the vast majority of those who find guy-on-guy sex hot will be very pleased with what they see in these pages. So what if all the bodies of our heroes are essentially interchangeable — they’re perfect! So what if the dialogue seems fairly insipid — “Will you love me when I’m old, ugly, and hairy in all the wrong places?” “Probably not… I’ll just keep on loving you in all the right places.” “That was SO the right thing to say, but do me again while I’m still hot…” — we’re not going to hang out with these boys for the conversation! Jeez, Alex — get a grip!

(And I think we all know to what kind of grip my worthy counterpart is referring… To which I say, fair enough.)

In terms of production quality, the book is hardcover with nice, thick paper stock. The color art within these hard covers would have been better served with glossy or matte-finished pages, but it’s a workable compromise and consistent with other European color comics. The one black mark in terms of overall finish would be the lettering that uses cookie-cutter-like rectangular word balloons with too much “air”, a rather inexpensive-looking digital font and a consistent misspelling of the word “separated” (what? no spell-check?). On the plus side, there is a very cute disclaimer in the fine print on the copyright page which (much more cleverly than the bold-faced [and bald-faced] boilerplate age-disclaimer below it and along with other humorous statements) assures us that “All the cartoons in this fictional story were twenty-one years or older when they were drawn for this artwork” — this is something I’ve been tempted to add to my own books and I suspect the author’s hand in its writing. Overall, the quality of this graphic novel is worth the twenty bucks you’ll pay for it on Amazon.

What you get in this book are four beautiful white guys having beautiful sex — nothing more, nothing less. The author is on a personal mission to brighten our worlds with these images and if that’s what you’re looking for, you will not be disappointed. If, after reading this review and reviewing the preview pages, you are at all tempted to buy this book, then you should.

Want to read more reviews like this? Don’t miss out! Subscribe and get them emailed right to you — for free!

Psst! Want to get one of our free full-color guy-on-guy comics? Just sign up over at our Free Comic page and we’ll send you the download link!

Learn More!

• Want to read about other guy-on-guy romance comics? Click on over to our list of Reviews!
• Curious to see how Japanese gay male creators depict beautiful men? Take a look at How To Find Bara In English!
• Hey, all this manly art freaking you out? Then soothe your fevered brow by reading a review of some more traditional yaoi over at Yaoi Review: Empty Heart by Masara Minase!
• Wondering what some of our work looks like? See a selection by clicking on Yaoi 911™ Art!

The Newbie and the Hot Librarian

Art and Character Design: Amy Colburn’s art uses a very clean line and is easy to follow — there is never any confusion or hesitation for the reader in terms of what is going on and where to find the next panel. Dominic Cordoba’s coloring, while simply rendered, is bright and pleasing.

The character design leans towards the cartoony and, interestingly enough, is quite similar to what one usually sees drawn by Western gay men. There are all the usual “enhancements” to the male physique — huge cut muscles, perfectly shaped bubble-butts, extra large “packages” bulging in the pants. As I’ve said before, these enhancements aren’t really my cup of tea, but the look is so predominant in gay Western comics, I imagine I’m in the minority.

Colburn’s characters are expressive, often charmingly so — and her skill in making the inner life of the characters clear through those expressions is what keeps the conceit of using no dialog for the entire book afloat.

Characters: Well, none of them are allowed to talk, and they are mostly having sex, so don’t expect a lot of nuance. That said, all of them are good-hearted without a lick of meanness in them. There’s an older boxer and a younger boxer, a shy bald guy and a “hot” librarian, a clean-cut middle-aged cop and a blonde civic-minded bystander with a mane of golden hair.

We get hints at some deeper inner life, mostly as context for the way our couples couple — the cop and the blonde guy both seem closeted and approach each other indirectly; the bald guy is clearly new to the gay scene and has to learn to navigate it in pursuit of a guy he likes; the older and younger boxers have each fantasized about each other for some time, even though this is clearly their first meeting. But with the exception of the “hot librarian”, there is only so much depth to them — they all feel like types you’ve seen a fair number of times before. And I can’t really tell you what the librarian’s deal is, just that it seems like he’s got layers. I might have liked to explore them some (in a purely literary way, I assure you), but alas the need for immediate sex left little time for that.

The Cop and the Bystander

That said, all the characters are likable and have their own distinct personalities — and the fact that they’re “types” makes this dialogue-less story easy to follow (and perhaps adds to the hotness for some).

Plot: The three titles of the three short stories are “Busted”, “Clinch” and “Hot Librarian”. Can you guess which characters appear in which stories? This book is essentially porn, so there is a level where plot is just a set-up for the sex. That said, there is time for a few surprises along the way — and it is here where writer Dale Lazarov offers us something a bit more enjoyable than your typical porn comic. As I mentioned above, the characters do feel like they have an internal life. And how the actual sex begins was not something I could have easily predicted. Again, due to the restraints of the author’s porn-with-no-dialogue conceit, the plot can’t get too complicated, but within those restraints Lazarov does a fine job.

Romance: Everyone likes each other. Everyone is sweet to each other. There’s kissing. There’s cuddling. There’s a real sense of equality between the partners. Due to the shallowness of the material, you aren’t going to get swept away with the romance, but there were definitely moments that made me smile. And the warmth between all the characters was frankly very refreshing.

The Boxers

Sex: Very explicit. You see everything and pretty much everything is licked or penetrated, usually both. Some guys are furry. Some are not. They all have large penises. Whenever there is anal sex, quite responsibly there is a visible condom. (And when a condom isn’t available, the guys play it safe.) Everyone takes turns doing everything — no one’s a top or a bottom (which I also found realistic and refreshing). And there are fountain-like cum shots so elaborate and copious they could serve as architectural decor.

Overall: This talk-free graphic novel clearly intends to be both hot and sweet. So far as porn goes, it is definitely sweet — and I found that pleasing. Whether you find it hot will depend on how much you like the character design, how much character development you require to actually want the characters to have sex and how much enthusiasm you have for explicit cum shots. It struck out for me on all of those accounts, but I know my tastes are rather singular. On their website, the publisher lets you review the first 30 pages of the book. This is a well-constructed, well-endowed and good-hearted porn graphic novel — if you like what you see in those first 30 pages, you won’t be disappointed with the rest.

Not age-rated by the publisher.

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Three stories intertwine, observing men doing what they love to do best!

Dale Lazarov’s sensual-sexual storyboard combined with Amy Colburn’s brilliantly drawn masculine figures result in a celebration of carnal desires! These stories get by without words—which allows the fantasies of the viewer to take flight.

Oh, us men — how we best love to have the sex…

Unfortunately for this man, I need a fair amount of character and relationship development for my fantasy to “take flight” and the constraints of this book offer only limited amounts of both.

The “no word balloons, no captions, no sound effects” format is an interesting one and, as a lover of words, I was curious why Lazarov made that choice. (And this is not the first work he has written in this style. Both STICKY and FANCY are written this way as well.) In email, he answered my question:

Even though the decision was made out of the necessity of marketing to multiple audiences who don’t share a common language for erotics, writing gay erotic comics scripts without captions or dialogue had a really powerful impact on both the process and the final scripts. It pushed me to write stories based on actions and gestures that reveal character as well as sexuality. Also, it saved me from having to invent sound effects for gay sex.

As a publisher, I certainly can appreciate the international appeal such a format offers (and it is kinda cool to think that a Chinese reader might enjoy the book the same way that a Canadian reader might). And, as a writer of erotic fiction, I have occasionally also wished for deliverance from the chore of penning sexy sound effects (there really aren’t any, btw.) Lazarov does come up with inventive and successful ways to reveal character through actions and gestures — his experience with this conceit shows.

And yet, it always did come off as a conceit to me. There were moments where there clearly was meant to be talking, but instead we get pantomime. It takes a skilled writer to pull this sort of thing off at all — Joss Whedon’s Hush comes to mind — so Lazarov is to be commended. But I found I missed the words. It did make for a quick read (I was able to read the book twice in under an hour) — whether that is ultimately a good thing or not depends on how deeply you want to immerse yourself in the world of a book.

I like to be fairly immersed. This is one reason why video porn does almost nothing for me and why I can find multi-volume yaoi series so appealing. How much you will enjoy this book will depend on where your tastes lie. For what it is, it’s fairly well done. I’d just be curious to know though how much more Lazarov could have achieved had he been allowed to let his characters speak up.

For another view, Tina Anderson, who turned me on to the pre-release copy of this book, has a very balanced positive take over at Guns, Guys and Yaoi. (Oh, and she has pics from the book that show penis, if you’re into that sort of thing…)

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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+”

Read the full review below the fold:

Plot summary from the publisher’s website:

Enji is moving on to college and it turns out he’ll be living with his cousin Mizuho, who he hasn’t seen in seven years. Enji, once the younger cousin that Mizuho thought of as a cute little brother, is now a tall, handsome man practically oozing with cool. And yet, despite how close they used to be, Enji’s giving him the cold shoulder. Has Enji simply grown out of being Mizuho’s surrogate younger brother, or is he trying to hide his true feelings?

Gosh, after reading that description, what do you think? Could it be possible that the cold, handsome, dark haired boy in a yaoi manga might actually have some feelings of attraction for the emotional, cute and light haired narrator and that that might explain his treating this boy different than everyone else on the planet? Could there be a safer bet?

The answers to those questions are obviously a very strong “yes” and “no” respectively and that’s just one problem with the set-up of a book that keeps an otherwise lofty execution very much earthbound. The vast majority of Constellations In My Palm is devoted to our clueless hero trying to solve this “mystery” and we, as the readers, have had it all figured out before we even open the covers. As such, it’s hard not to find yourself silently egging on the creators to just get on with it, and as misunderstandings continue to drag out the inevitable, a definite impatience begins to set in.

It would be one thing if our hero Mizuho were trying his best to get to the bottom of it all, but he so readily assumes the worst, is so quick to concede the game, that it is ultimately difficult to root for him. He doesn’t feel unrealistic — we’ve all had our moments of emotional lassitude and certainly we know of those who seem to make a life of that as well — it’s just that such a protagonist rarely makes for compelling drama. He clearly is awash in feeling, so we can’t say he’s apathetic, but his main response to these feelings is to lie around in bed and on the floor of his family’s home consumed with rumination. It is left to others — his mother, his girl schoolchums, his best friend, the rival — to push him into action and, until the very end, he does the bare minimum with the momentum those other characters give him. When the main thing a reader is left rooting for is that the protagonist get a clue and grab the low-hanging fruit right in front of his nose, the conflict needs work.

What saves this piece is solid character portrayals and, of course, Honami-sensei’s appealing art. Through flashback and those ruminations, we get a fairly thorough and believable picture as to why our protagonist is the way he is. In particular, the reason our leads’ friendship ended as kids has the ring of truth to it and says volumes about the kind of young man Mizuho will become. Sakuragi-sensei also makes the most of the creepy older rival’s limited screentime — this is no mustache twirling villain, in fact he’s rather charming, but a villain he is. Taking advantage of the inability of young people to set good limits (or even know what those limits should be), he tries to “jokingly” tease a humiliated En-Chan out of his clothes in front of an obviously embarrassed Mizuho. Why? Because this twenty-something doctor wants to assert his ownership of this much younger boy in front of his far-more age appropriate competition, because he wants to humiliate that much weaker rival and make him concede the day, because he wants to start something sexual with this high schooler who so far has not returned his feelings, because he’s got both these boys alone in his apartment so maybe he can manipulate *both* of them into sex, because it’s a laugh, but mostly, because he’s sexually frustrated and because he can. I’m sorry to say I’ve seen it before and it feels real here.

It is the machinations of this rival that keep the inevitable delays of our heroes’ consummation from falling into banality. That he is behind much of the misunderstanding keeps at least some of that delay from feeling like the authors are merely vamping for time — and again adds some credibility for why it takes these boys as long as it does to finally wake up and smell the pheromones. In addition, the best friend character is likable and clear-headed enough as he wades through his pal’s cluelessness that it gives the reader someone to identify with and thankfully we see him fairly often.

In terms of the gay stuff, we have the openly-gay rival who, while the villain of this piece, still feels credible. And that best friend is fairly clearly portrayed as bisexual, thus adding a note of tolerance in with his voice of reason. It is the sex scene at the end — inevitably and predictably one-sided anal intercourse — that hits the one completely trite note in what otherwise feels like a fairly nuanced dynamic between the leads. As such, it wasn’t super believable or hot for me — which is a shame, considering that all that great characterization leads up to it. But, bearing in mind the shallowness of the romance, it did feel like an appropriate climax of that arc.

In the author’s note at the end, writer Chisako Sakuragi states “Because I wrote this story wholly according to my own tastes, I am sure it must have been very trying at times for Honami-san and editor Mitsuhiro-san…” As those tastes seem to comprise passive boys consumed with self-doubt, it’s a bit trying for the reader as well. And yet, the creators behind this work are skilled enough to make this a pleasant way to spend a rainy couple of hours and the skilled characterization makes it feel at least somewhat worthwhile.

You probably won’t remember much about this book a week after reading it, but you won’t mind having read it either.

(Ginger Mayerson of Lincoln Heights has a very similar reaction to this book, although she seems particularly taken with Honami-sensei’s cats, which I failed to discuss here. ComicMuse over at Boys on Boys on Film finds more variation in Honami-sensei’s art than I did, but likewise felt frustration with the density of our protagonist. And a more charmed reaction is offered by Holly Ellingwood over at activeAnime.)

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Art and Character Design: The kind of art my good pal Bill S. loves to pieces, yet most often leaves me frosty cold. Sketchy, ragged, messy are all the unfair words that spring to mind when I gaze upon the pages. And yet, even though I much prefer clean lines and naturalism, I can’t discount that the artwork is striking. This is not your traditional Tezuka-sensei inspired art: huge swaths of black take over the page, lines around the eyes seem to vibrate with energy and nothing seems solid or reliable — all of which is completely appropriate for the scenes that Est Em-sensei is shaping. Storytelling is for the most part easy to follow and compelling. And even I have to admit some of facial close-up are downright beautiful. What looks like amateur-hour at first reveals itself to be skilled and interesting work. And definitely the right choice for this material.

Characters: These are the protagonists that a far lesser work like Say Please pretends to promise, but can deliver only mere shadows of. These are truly complex and often difficult characters, who also always feel completely human to the reader and thus never feel unsympathetic. I throw around the words “credible” and “real” a lot when discussing characters in my reviews, but these characters are the first I’ve read for this blog that actually, truly seem like they could be real people. Real people who in a few words say the perfect thing to capture the mood or to comment on the interaction, but real none the less. In these five short stories, the characters’ motivations are as clear and understandable and messy and conflicted as yours and mine are. The dialog is natural everyday speech, but laden with meaning. And the characters are smart and insightful enough to always have something interesting to say, if perhaps ultimately not wise enough to actually find the love they seek.

Plot: So, you say you want something different than your “happy, pretty high school BL”? Then this is the real deal. Reading this book after coming from traditional yaoi is like walking into a Cassavetes film from an all-day Julia Roberts marathon. These are stories for grown-ups, my friends. Most of them concern hook-ups, but the sex is besides the point — it’s about the connections imperfect humans form: the ways we’re able to see each other, be with each other, and the ways we still always, ultimately remain alone. They’re pithy — volumes of character development are contained in just a few panels and one of the great pleasures of Est Em-sensei’s writing is the delightful contrast she creates between what the characters say and what they are thinking. Both sides of that coin have depth and both are used to help us fully understand who these people are. There are no huge payoffs for these stories, no big dramatic endings — just scenes of interesting people coming together and drifting apart. At the risk of overstating things, these stories have something to say about the human condition that is both subtly and compellingly executed. And most importantly, none of it feels contrived. (Well, actually one of the stories is tremendously contrived, but the payoff is so cute, you don’t mind being played with a bit.)

Romance: Sweet, wistful, sad — these stories evoke a variety of emotional responses, most of them ending with “alas!”. They’re too short and too raw for you to get swept up in the magic of love, but the humanity of the characters always makes you care. And overall, there is the mood of the book which you feel at the conclusion of each story — that to walk this earth is to be lonely but that none of us walk this earth alone.

Sex: Yes, there is sex. Yes, it feels necessary to the stories. Some of it is interesting. None of it is really hot. The sex is about the possibility and failure of human beings to connect, it’s not supposed to turn you on.

Overall: Well, hell, finally an 18-and-over book that you might honestly need to be over 18 to fully appreciate. These are thoughtful stories for grown-ups that subtly and compellingly share moments of human connection. It’s a book that you’ll read through and then immediately read through again just to savor the nuances. If you think that yaoi has the potential to be great literature as well as a great time, you need to buy this book. Hell, even if you don’t give a damn about great literature, buy the book anyway — it’ll be the best yaoi book you’ll read this year.

Rated by the publisher “Ages 18+ Mature” — motivated, one can only imagine, by the maturity required to truly appreciate this fine, tasteful work. Smut this ain’t. (This review is based on a complimentary copy supplied by the publisher.)

Read the full review below the fold:

Plot summary from the publisher’s website (where you can also find 10 preview pages):

Seduce Me After the Show contains five short stories which take place in the artistic worlds of dance, painting and music, the overall theme being a dichotomy of hope and despair as well as passion and anguish. In the title story, devastated by the death of his world famous dancer mother, Theo Galland abandons his own dancing career to become a Hollywood actor and meets the famous Hollywood actor Daren Ferguson. What should have been a joking kiss shared between them takes a sudden turn, however, when Daren asks “So what comes next?” Theo answers “That depends on the scenario.” As lustful passions boil over, will Theo be able to regain the fire that he once possessed and return to the dancing world?

Boy, that description makes this sound like a boring time, huh? A much better cue for what’s inside can be found in supervising translator Matt Thorn’s blurb on the back of the book:

Though I may be biased, I believe est em is to Boys’ Love what Ursula K. LeGuin is to Science Fiction and Fantasy. She is not a good Boys’ Love artist. She is a gifted storyteller who happens to tell stories about men in love.

While I personally believe that someone can be a great writer of genre fiction while at the same time being a gifted storyteller, I get the distinction he is trying to make here. When one is a writer of genre fiction — be it a detective, sci-fi or Boys’ Love story — there is a temptation to be lazy. So much genre fiction is just meant to entertain, so much of that entertainment seems to come from superficial factors (“Oooh! Such great special effects!”) and so little respect is granted by the greater artistic community, that much of what is offered to readers and viewers consists of recycled plot lines, narrative cheats and stock, “straight from central casting” characterization.

And producers of that level of work get away with this because we as consumers of genre stories for the most part accept it — tolerating the schlock to get to a few moments of promised satisfaction and clapping our hands enthusiastically when a writer merely transcends cliché.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. A writer who loves genre fiction can work in within their favorite category — for example, David Simon with The Wire; David Milch with Deadwood; Ron Moore with the 1st Season of Battlestar Galactica — and still create great art. Est Em is one of those writers.

If you are truly looking for satisfying, thought-provoking manga of male-male love, then look no further — this is it. And that this is her debut work, only makes the accomplishment that much more impressive.

In terms of the gay stuff, this all feels real to me because the characters all feel real. There are no actual ukes or semes here, except perhaps in the first story, and only if you’re a stickler for who’s penetrating whom. Really it feels like just a bunch of different guys trying to find love with other guys.

In terms of production values, they are for the most part fine — although this interesting art with its pools of black and expanses of white would have significantly benefited from superior paper stock. Many of the word balloons lack tails, which creates some occasional confusion. And while the translation is overall excellent, there is one story where they give some characters what I assume is supposed to be an American Southern accent to account for a Kyoto dialect. This is never a good idea. It makes the dialogue hard to follow — there is no standard way to write the various American dialects so it’s difficult to know which one exactly the translator thinks she’s using and frankly, even if we could suss that out, our personal associations with that way of speaking certainly won’t map to what the author originally intended. Just translate it clearly into standard English and give us a note if you think it’s very important that these characters are speaking in a special way, please. Really, trying to translate Japanese dialect into some American dialect is just trying too hard…

Because the truth is, the words in these stories can speak just fine for themselves — they don’t need any dressing up. Boys’ Love fan or not, this book is absolutely worth your time. Buy it. Read it. Hope for more.

OTHER REVIEWS: Danielle Van Gorder from Anime On DVD also finds the art challenging, but ultimately is very impressed with the work as well (giving some spoilers along the way). Jukebox of Boys on Boys on Film, on the other hand, is much less impressed (and reveals even more spoilers, including some biggies, so beware.) The Yaoi Review, giving away just one really important spoiler, rates it an “eight”. And now Deb Aoki over at About.com has a similar take to mine and, saints be praised, no spoilers!

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Art and Character Design: The character design is a bit more Western and naturalistic than some yaoi, and while not outstanding, was compelling enough to get me to pick this book up out of a sea of other titles sent to me by the same publisher. Every now and then, the eyes look a little wonky and uneven, but overall the expressions are compelling and the action/drama is easy to follow. The publisher provides preview pages on their site, so you can check it out for yourself.

Characters: Well, they’re all flawed and, from what I understand, that’s the point. Other reviews of this book stress how it isn’t “standard happy pretty high school or college BL” — which, yes, is true — and yet, I found the characters more unpleasant than complicated. The seme Sakura’s continual hostile and aversive comments to the uke Ryoichi soon felt one-note to me and Ryoichi’s subsequent proclamations of love likewise felt unmotivated. We never get deep enough into the background and minds of these characters to really understand them and I found myself drawing upon memories of similar characters from other authors to fill in the blanks.

Plot: Two stories here. In the main one, we watch a relationship between a john (high-school teacher Sakura) and a hustler (uke Ryoichi) develop from a one-night paid-sex encounter into a live-in romance. While that’s certainly not new ground, it’s an interesting enough set-up to offer an opportunity for some good character conflict, moral reflection and insight into the human condition. But don’t expect much of that here. We get very little feel for what it’s like to be a hustler in Japan (other than that it’s “boring” when there aren’t many clients), only the most obvious take on being a closeted gay teacher and almost no clue about what these guys really see in each other other than the physical. Sakura eventually (and predictably) wants Ryoichi to quit being a hustler — which seems like it would be a good source of conflict or at least an opportunity to explore what the two characters really think about the oldest professon — but turns out Ryoichi was ready to do that anyway, so no biggie. The best source of drama comes from an unbalanced high-school girl who has a crush on Sakura and who makes trouble for him with the school administration. When that plot point started to unfold, I found that I turned those pages with eager interest. But the rest felt fairly paint-by-the-numbers, “you know they should love each other so I don’t have to explain it” storytelling. The second, one-chapter story concerns a high-school student with a troubled past and a 27 year old man who seduces him. Just realistic enough to be troubling (it does feel like the adult is taking advantage of the loneliness of an outcast kid here), the relationships felt more believable and nuanced and thus the story was more compelling.

Romance: At best, the relationship between Sakura and Ryoichi could be called co-dependent. Hard to get behind that. And, as I said, the relationship between former Marine Stephan and high-school student Ryu feels more exploitative than sweet, so it’s also hard to get behind. At best, you’ll find these romances “interesting” — don’t expect to get swept up with the love. (Oh and Sakura roughs up Ryoichi, hitting him full on the face with no regrets, and Ryoichi, although upset, stays with him. True to life, maybe, but again, do you really want to root for these guys working out?)

Sex: Yep, there’s a fair amount of it. Wee wees are obscured, but you almost always know what’s going on, if not who’s doing what to whom. There’s the use of a vibrator at one point which a big deal is made over. And there’s of course the obligatory non-consensual sex that becomes pleasurable but still makes the uke angry when it’s over. None of it felt hot to me because I didn’t care about the characters — but, of course, your mileage may vary.

Overall: I kept on reading it, straight-through. That says something. But this book shows more promise than actual skill. The art is competent and the author’s interest in complex relationships might pay dividends in future works but, despite the more ambitious material, overall the experience of this book feels like the same-old, same-old. From what I understand, this is not the strongest of Miyamoto-sensei’s works. There’s enough here for me to be willing to give another of her books a try, but I really can’t recommend you putting down hard earned cash for it.

Rated by the publisher “Ages 18+ Mature.” This review is based on a complimentary copy supplied by the publisher.

Read the full review below the fold:

Plot summary from the publisher’s website (where you can also find 10 preview pages):

Sakura meets first Ryouichi [sic] at a male brothel and buys him for the night. As their supposed one night stand ends up becoming a somewhat stable monetary based relationship, feelings start to change. Can these two awkward people garner the courage to admit that their true feelings run deeper than merely sex and money?

So, one of my personal blogging rules is that I don’t review a book I haven’t read through more than once. I find that there are nuances that can be missed on a first read and I want to give as competent a review as possible for my readers, But the truth is, I’m breaking this rule here because if I follow it, this review will never get written. Once is enough for Say Please.

It’s not a terrible book. It didn’t make me angry like White Guardian. It didn’t bore me to tears like Your Honest Deceit. There’s just not a lot that feels very new here. And the characters left me cold. So there we are.

The characters are clearly gay and identify as such and thus there is some perspective on what it’s like to be gay in Japan: It’s hard. Folks don’t accept it. But it’s not the end of the world. None of it feels false to me, nice to have gay characters who are actually gay, but there are certainly no surprises.

In terms of publishing quality, the book feels well made. The translation is effective. (Although with the balloon placement, it occasionally is a bit difficult to tell who is speaking at first glance.) The one thing I really missed, though, was an author’s afterword to these stories — I really wanted to get know her and her thinking with these works. Alas, there’s an ad and a credit page and that’s it.

The reviewers over at Amazon are much more enthusiastic about this book, so maybe it’s just not my cup of tea. But for now, while I respect the potential Miyamoto-sensei hints at in this book, I have to recommend you look elsewhere for a satisfying read.

(For other takes on this book and Miyamoto-sensei’s work in general, check out the thread over at AnimeOnDVD. And now a couple other reviews have come in: The Yaoi Review gives it a “five and a half” while Wiggle at Boys on Boys on Film believes you should just skip it altogether.)

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Learn More!

• Looking for something a little more satisfying? Take a look at the 18+ Yaoi Review: Empty Heart by Masara Minase!
• Do you actually want the “happy, pretty, high school BL”? Then take a look at Yaoi Review: Sweet Revolution by Yukine Honami and Serubo Suzuki!
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