Thanks for the recs — I’ll definitely keep my eye out for those works!

(And I’ll let you know what I think of V2!)

Heh heh heh. V2 has a spot of unnecessary melodrama that you’ll just have to ignore, Kento and Akira as Crotchety Old People (in Kento’s imagination), massive cohabitation anxiety complete with disapproving grandparents, and a deeply confusing summary of the closest approximation to same-sex marriage that Japanese law allows. It rocks.

So…. are there other Saika Kunieda books you’d recommend?

She’s done a lot of shojo/josei as Kunie Sakai; most of her BL work to date has been short stories. I love angst, so I have a soft spot for Like as the Time Will Come When it Will Rain (short-story anthology full of dark angsty twisted-relationship melodrama), but I’m hopeful for her currently-serialized title 50 x 50, which has your basic “coworkers who fall into bed together, but they’re not gay, they’re just in denial!” setup, but looks to be entertainingly screwball in execution.

If I’m thinking about what you’re thinking about, I never thought for one second that *spoiler* was dead. Half of the Official Couple killed off halfway through a BL manga? Nah.

Indeed – one of the reasons I forgave it. I actually did find the gag interrupted the narrative for me, though — for a little bit I was confused because of the timejump and, IMHO, the digression didn’t really add a lot to the work. But it took up all of what, 5 pages? And then we were right back on track. So no hard feelings.

And I appreciate the rec of Volume 2. Since I wrote the review, several people have been telling me I have to read the next volume. Amazon says it’s now on its way to me as I write…

So…. are there other Saika Kunieda books you’d recommend?

It looks like the series is doing well (it’s certainly getting a lot of very positive reviews), so perhaps it will motivate Deux or others to pick up more Saika Kunieda (she has a number of books out in Japan).

there is one huge scene of false drama, but it’s essentially a practical joke on the reader, so we’ll forgive it.

If I’m thinking about what you’re thinking about, I never thought for one second that *spoiler* was dead. Half of the Official Couple killed off halfway through a BL manga? Nah. In the Grand Tragic 70s sure, in the Dark and Angsty 90s maybe, but not nowadays. The worst that could possibly happen is that he comes back as a ghost and paranormal shmoopiness ensues.