I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #drama(235)

An old-school compilation of mainly PWP yaoi short stories drawn in a dated style. The stories aren't bad: (1) A rickshaw driver runs off with a client who turns out to be in denial about having a crush on him for years, (2) Just as a gay Tokyo-based hairdresser fears he's falling too deeply in love, his father dies, prompting a mad dash to Okinawa after turning off his cellphone and hiding his contacts, (3) A series of afternoon delight trysts between a Japanese salaryman and an American GI stationed in Japan turns out to mean more than either wants to admit, (4) A highschooler seme wants to make graduation as special as possible for his uke, and (5) A boy becomes inspired to learn piano after being relieved from a shock and fright by a dancer.

Rip-roaring suspense thriller and urban detective drama as a blackmailer saves a smelly derelict from some hoodlums and, recognizing him as someone from high school with whom he has a score to settle, takes him home. But who is this man, really?

Prequel to Rouge. The electrifying story of how Yamato, a waka, nurtures fealty from his fellow yakuza, then saves the junior student, Kaga Ai, from sexual exploitation at the hands of a gang of senior toughs. This explosive story treats sexual assault fairly realistically—no subliminal codification for ravishment fantasies here. But the cruelty is redeemed by heroism. Another great story by Katsuro Komachi. READ THIS!.

Katsura Komachi's amazing story of the romance between Nagato, a tough transfer student who ends up leading a gang of delinquents at the rough-and-ready high school he now attends, and Kaga Ai, a yakuza henchman whose loyalty to the waka, Yamato, is unshakeable after Yamato saved him from white slavery. The story is slow-paced and surprisingly authentic given the volatile subject matter and how gangsters tend to be tarted up into Cupcake Yakuza Brigades when yaoi gets through with them. It also treats sexual assault and exploitation fairly realistically (not the slightest subliminal codification for the purpose of fetish gratification at all.) In all, it's a sweet, incredibly fluffy tale of first love. One of my favourites.

Youka Nitta's sweeping soap opera about Katou Youji and Iwake Kyousuke, two AV actors who risk everything to be true to themselves and each other. This story starts at the beginning of their relationship while they still work as porn actors, through negotiating their places and integrity in Japan's Byzantine entertainment industry, until they emerge with the approval of families, friends and colleagues; live together in their own home; make the movies they want, and eventually take responsibility for a production company, enduring treachery, censure, humiliation, attempted murder and even a huge earthquake in the process. The boys get a little overwrought at times, and ending feels a little truncated, no doubt in part to Youko Nitta's scandal, but the sex is hot and the overall arch is absorbing. A yaoi classic.

Post-Earthquake sequel to Haru wo Daite ite.

Monden Akika loves scruffy oyaji-sans, and Detective Yagi is one scruffy old gay detective nursing a guilty conscience for feeling aroused at the sight of Amemiya, his kouhai, being violated by a psychopath, even though he put the man behind bars. Other stories in the series include a timid and straight-laced reporter who never owned up to his crush on a less inhibited colleague and the heir to a yakuza family and his very scruffy bodyguard.

Nishida Higashi hit the ball out of the park with this one. Usually her yaoi, with its bickering McBickerson idiot couples and oneupmanship pissing contests, irritates me like chewing on food with eggshells in it. But I have to hand it to her, she kept her style but sanded off all the gritty edges. The men are still "all-male". The star baseball player Hidaka still thinks he's hot stuff as he plays around on his girlfriend and then, blames her when she dumps him for another guy at the start of a cruise. He still acts like a bear with a sore paw, aiming to make everyone around him as miserable as possible in order to punish HER. The ship's captain, Matsudo, pulls some really, really stupid stunts in order to protect his crew and, in his unreliably skewed eyes, his kid. But there's that kid, Yuuto ... soft, shy, wanting to make his friends happy. The things that Yuuto brings out of these men and the things these men bring out of each other, changes everything. It's so against Nishida Higashi's usual storyline and default characters, and it's so GOOD. Stick with this one, even during the goofy parts, because it's worth it.

A beautifully crafted story about a prodigal's return, male lover in tow, to the rural home he left years before, the process of reconciliation between he and his family, his former neighbours and classmates and their families, and the deepening love relationship with his partner. The art is beautiful. The characters and stories are authentic and touching. An enormously satisfying read!