let’s get this ball rolling, shall we?
We’ll start with the book that has the cutest cover GOOD PLAN
it’s hereeeeeee, Ogawa Chise’s latest book!!! *A*)/
just from flipping through it I can already tell I’m going to love it
(*´д｀*)ハァハァ so many pervy scenes fsd;ljhgs
finally finished working for the day and I am currently in the period where my dad naps off the stress and I wait for a good time to wake him to leave so. I remembered I brought this and a bunch of other comics with me so I decided to read it!
actually I was horrified/excited to find the scanlated chapters (the ones I was able to read at least) take up only like… half?? of the book. So after the candy apple scene there’s a bunch more build-up and drama before we even get to a resolution. HUH.
re: Hana no Miyako de
behind a cut because I figure there are some people who don’t have their copy yet and don’t want a bunch of spoilery stuff idk. But I am so full of FEELINGS!!!!! and twitter can’t contain me so—! orz
ok yeah I am only like ten pages into this book so far but I LOVE IT IT’S SO CUTELY PERVERTED
so sometimes I just like sit on eBay under ‘yaoi manga’ because every once in a blue moon someone will like post a bunch of recent stuff for a REALLY GOOD PRICE. Like I just got volume three of Kono Yo Iibun and some recent Kamon Saeko book and this for super cheap. (Legit the Kamon Saeko one was $2.50 even counting shipping.)
I posted the cover of this one when it came out in like… late December?? I think? But I had too much other stuff to buy that month and saw this one got some iffy reviews so I decided not to get it. But then it got posted to ebay for $.99 and I was like CHANCE and I ended up winning it for like $3 or something idk. For that price I can easily resell it and recoup my money if I just found it incredibly ‘eh’ so WHY NOT.
I was surprised to find the inside art is actually super cute uwa. Like just as cute as the cover art. And the story is fairly lackluster (about a lord and his butler idk it’s really not my cup of tea considering I’m a modern slice-of-life gal) and there are three stories in all but somehow I found it super endearing…?? ? ???
though there was a lot of “I take you by force because I love you but you don’t realize your feelings for me yet/are just being insincere about wanting my dick in your bum” which I’m usually not so keen on. But the kind of overt sex scenes mixed with the cute art style has always been a thing I’m a big sucker for (hey Patriciana Kikuchi and Junko and Ootsuki Miu and Yamada Maya) so idk. Plus the modern oneshot at the end where he is like “I am going to give you a blowjob because I saw you kissing a guy so you must be ok with guys don’t even lie and say you aren’t!!!!!!!” only to find out it was a drunk joke!kiss and he gets so flustered and embarrassed and ashamed with his face right in front of this other guy’s crotch and I was like “HAH YOU ARE VERY CUTE” because I am weird like that idk.
reread this last night before bed! Well, actually I read half in the break room at work and then the other half in bed. Ahhh I really love it so much—knowing their personal struggles and how they got together really adds so much to Kei and Mii’s relationship. (Which I’ll hopefully be able to do a blog post about later idk idk.)
Today and tomorrow I want to reread the original Itoshi no Nekokke books just to see how much reading their ‘before’ changes how I feel about certain events and ideas later in their relationship. ;A;)
okay this was the cUTEST BOOK??
I will describe it for you: stupid boys being stupid and adorable and in love along with their super lovely fluffy adorable female bff ahhhh CUTEST EVER.
so cute—I’m really enjoying Totem Pole’s book so far. I love how the cat is just like Yano-san lmao Miyasaka loves it and it seems to love him back but every time he reaches out it gets angry and runs away.
he is just SO EXCITED when it actually comes up and rubs on him I just df;gks’dg
been reading this—Ibarame Hisa’s Himitsu wa Yoru ni Umareteru—last night and while on break today. The first story was kind of bizarre and depressing even though the ending was supposedly Good End, about two people who feel secluded by society and thus start a connection with each other but one of them slowly starts becoming more comfortable around others and making friends while the other really just doesn’t… seem… capable?? idk it hit a little too close to home for me on a personal level so it made me weirdly upset.
I REALLY LIKED THE SECOND STORY THOUGH WAHHH it’s about some dude who gets drunk and stumbles into some ~bishounen strip show~ and finds himself drawn to this really gorgeous performer named Margaret. PLOT TWIST THOUGH Margaret seems to know who he is and was evidently in love with him long before he was ever saw Margaret perform. Except the guy never knows this. And then it just ends. orz idk the scenes with Margaret stripping were so wonderfully coquettish sd;gls;ggd I really liked the plot idea.
except I was on this scene—
—when suddenly I heard “WHATCHA’ READING?” and looked up horrified to see Deb striding right toward me ahhhhhsaf;ks’dg I closed the book as quickly as I could and squeaked out “a comic!” and hopefully she didn’t realize I was trying to hide something because then she just started talking to me about books in general and getting bed bugs from library rentals PHEW.
JESUS CHRIST THIS SCENE I just cannot deal with it.
Numajiri shows up to school with his face bruised and beaten and later that day Kazuya figures out through their conversation that it was his dad who beat him because if his sexual orientation, and then Numajiri starts getting down on himself for pressuring Kazu—who was straight when they first met—into their relationship and down this scary path and says maybe they shouldn’t be together and then Kazuya’s reply is pretty much (excuse my shitty translating skillz):
“It’s fine! I’ll make your parents understand! No matter how much we have to beg. I… I’m not scared. I’m not gay so I may not understand completely. But I won’t be scared! All the ‘things’ we did together, I did them with you because I wanted to! So don’t go deciding things on your own. Together… We’ll do this together!”
I am just sitting here trying really hard to hold back my tears because the whole scene is so beautiful. Initially they part after saying that, and Kazuya starts crying because he is scared—he’s terrified of the repercussions of being in a relationship rejected by society—but more than being scared he just wants to be there for Numajiri. And suddenly Numajiri embraces him from behind and just holds him and says there is no one in the world he loves like he loves Kazuya.
And then Kazuya gets home to find his dad came back from work early, and he takes a deep breath and goes over to his dad and—true to his word—comes out about their relationship.
GOD MY EXPLANATION DOESN’T GIVE IT ANYWHERE AS MUCH POWER AS IT HAS IN THE ACTUAL BOOK but oh my god this chapter is so beautiful and Kojima Lalako is the most wonderful perfect artist ever and I love BL and I am crying all over myself now ahhhhh.
ahhhh Hirakita Yuya’s Bokura no Heart Slope was really adorable. ;; Huge reminder of just why I love Hirakita’s stories so much. Initially I was worried I was missing something since it’s so slice-of-life that I was thinking maybe there was some big underlying plot I was missing. But no I just think I forgot how to properly appreciate Hirakita’s writing style for a while there. Everything has such a soft flow to it.
the story is essentially about a young man named Hirohiko who transfers schools and intends to have his ~high school debut~ so this time he can go from being the shy nerd with no friends to maybe… a slightly less shy and slightly less nerdy guy who hopefully has friends. And this time he does make friends, but it’s not really thanks to his own efforts—no, it’s thanks to the adorable yankee boy Saneya who is outgoing and shameless and decides to befriend Hirohiko before they even get to school.
Saneya stands up for Hirohiko to prevent him from getting bullied in his new school, and brings him into his circle of friends and family. As Hirohiko bids farewell to his lonely life of only ever studying quietly by himself, he can’t help but fall for the gentle, kind Saneya. But Saneya was never a smart guy and Hirohiko was never particularly courageous so the path to love won’t be easy.
There’s also a story of Saneya’s older brother that I enjoyed with mixed feelings, since it had the theme of one person constantly cheating on the other out of supposed loneliness. I liked Araki and Ibuki’s persistent, mature relationship but kind of hated Ibuki for constantly hurting the person he loved only to go on and blame Araki for his unfaithfulness because Araki couldn’t satisfy his needs 24/7. 8| At least he knocked it off with the unfaithful relations near the end.
ANYWAY I really really enjoyed the first story in particular! It was just so sweet and lovely and it had just the right touch of sad moments to force the characters to grow a bit. Another really great book by Hirakita Yuya. ;;
