I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #BDSM(23)

Historical fantasy as a thinly veiled excuse for BDSM, slavery, torture, humiliation, etc.. A king slaughters all the people of a neighbouring kingdom whose king murdered his family, except the son who he takes as a slave in order to humiliate and torture him, presumeably as an example to anybody else who gets ideas, but maybe for the shits-and-giggles. So far the aggressive king is straight out of the Snidely Whiplash school of villains, all grimaces and "grr-grrrr-grr", while the enslaved prince is a po-faced trampled blossom who is pitiful, not just because of all the spectacular bad treatment he's been dished, but because every character tells him he is. Because of this, the story tilts into bathos and is very amusing example of popcorn yaoi.

Amagi Reno, ergo crack.

Wolf in sheep's clothing story about a reunion between neighbours from childhood. Not sure what the theme is meant to be: needless cruelty? Disappointments? "How DARE you pity me?!?" Seems a bit excessive.

Arata, a partial clone/android hybrid sex-bot created in the form of a dead man and programmed with his memories, is given by an officer who deals with the rehabilitation of abused bots to its new owner, the dead man's former lover, Maki. Is a programmed doll capable of human feeling? Maki dismisses the android's appeals to his emotions as "imprinting", but during sex, Arata shows a sweetness that Maki's late lover, Ren, could never fake. A tragic backstory emerges involving Maki's twin brother. Will Arata's feelings leave Maki lonelier and more empty than when Ren was alive, or will he be able to dance with this new creation's feelings and develop something new? As always, an edgy, riveting story, beautifully drawn men and arousing sex scenes.

A self-proclaimed "hardcore BDSM" fetishist is courted by his puppy dog neighbour, who he watched grow up and is, therefore, not attracted to at all. But after a gripping confession, he decides to give Young Sprout a chance. The BDSM is vanilla and the D/s power dynamic is upside-down.

Double feature: first story is about a sadistic actor with a fetish for asphyxiating his partners, and the manipulations his producer goes through behind the scenes to satisfy his kink without attracting unwanted attention from the press, and where that leads. The second story deals with a young man who falls for the jilted lover of his best friend, a man who is now married and expecting a baby, which appears to take its inspiration from the single Alexander Pope line of poetry about "Who breaks the butterfly on the wheel?" The first story has an ironic ending. The second is lovely.

Nope, no WTF!Japan moments here. No bird-luvin' or eating of eggs that may contain the embryoes of your half-chicken children like in one manga which will remain nameless. Here, chicken means wuss in the wateriest sense of the word, and Tatsumi is one gay stalker who can't even talk to his prey without dissolving into tears. When Queen of the BDSM Floor Show, Rai, gets the handsome bouncer/receptionist Taira to look after his stalker problem by teaching Tatsumi a little discipline, has he chosen the right sadist for the job? Takarai Sai can really lead readers into some strange back alleys in the city of yaoi, but this hasn't turned out to be one of them ... yet.

Dystopian vampire-dominated society where humans are farmed and taxed for blood, controlled by pheromones, until an unlikely Romeo and Juliet transform the entire world.

Umm... yeah. Sort of a roll-call of kink and fetishes from spanking with buttplugs to bondage with sounding, all based around a plot involving high school delinquency, inappropriate use of the nursing office, and an aggressive female colleague, all to a cringe-worthy pillow-talk soundtrack. The second chapter is an improvement, but I've seen better, and the fluids! You can't even see their bodies. Blech.

Alternate reality in which dragons were used in a battle which seems to be styled on the Siege of Leningrad circa 1944. Like most of Inariya's work, this story is geared to meet the fetish for smartly tailored military uniforms on a burly, blond, wild-dog giant paired with a cold, cruel and dainty smaller man, along with BDSM in which the uke is Dominant. Like most of her stories, even when the relationship heats up with sex, there is always a violent and hostile undercurrent to the relationship. It's interesting, but cold.