I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Beautiful Art(114)

The backdrop of a bunny shop sets the scene for a love story between two men, one of whom believes he is suffering from a terrible allergy to bunnies.

Beautifully drawn, tentative shounen ai stories which address the issue of men coming to terms with taboos. The first deals with an age-gap that requires the boy and man to restrain themselves. The second is about autonomy and vulnerability to harassment. The stories deal with the subjects in a well-reasoned, calm and mature slice-of-life fashion. There is nothing unsettling or surreal.

Beautifully drawn shounen ai oneshot about a man who, upon return to his childhood hometown, finds himself couch-surfing with the man who, as a schoolboy, rejected him many years before, but who has changed and offers him a new chance. I don't know why Rocky's stories get such low reviews. They are interesting, mature slice-of-life glimpses into the lives of authentic-feeling characters, and they usually require a bit of thought, but they are well worth the investment of time and contemplation.

Senior high school teacher Kasei Shinichi has his hands full with Katou Reiji, a star basketball athlete sidelined by a knee injury who has developed a serious infatuation for this teacher. But where most yaoi stories take this as an opportunity to push toward sex, Yuki Ringo recognizes and respects the moral and legal boundaries that these situations present. There is no question, in her story, that a teacher would dismiss a confession as impossible on the basis of professional misconduct, and discourage a minor from harbouring any sentiments. Kasei is left with only fond memories and a smoking habit until Katou returns as an adult and fully credentialed teacher in Kasei's school. From there, the story really embarks on a near-Odyssean world of pain as Katou gently struggles to overcome each obstacle between him and his beloved, moving it forward from fond affection and collegial companionship. And the obstacles are doozies. For one thing, Kasei isn't gay. For another, Katou tried to numb his pain and confusion with some pretty reckless behaviour before he thought he might have an atom's chance of success. This is a rich and rewarding soap opera, well worth the effort of reading.

Kai has an incestuous passion for his older stepbrother, the ultimate Owarai boke, Riku, but for the sake of a convival home tries his best to keep his lust in a family friendly context. Only Kai and Riku are fooled by this double act, of course, but that turns out to be an impediment when romance encroaches from outside and Kai reacts by overstepping his very carefully laid boundaries. The ending is not a surprise, but the way in which the ending is reached is a very welcome and very sweet surprise! Story #2 deals with Chidori and Shin, Kai's younger twin stepbrother and stepsister, who are in middle school, and who attract attention from an ardent customer at their family's donut shop. The Manzai comic technique is a little overplayed at times, but funny all the same.

Iga, deprived of his dreams of corporate success when his father passes over the directorship of his landscape architecture firm to his younger, married, heterosexual brother, is banished to the boondocks of a smaller urban region in order to complete a primary school garden. There, he meets Asakura, the son of florists and an amateur photographer, who reminds him of the joys of gardening and slowly warms his cold, unused heart. Beautiful art, great supporting characters, fun story, especially whenever the small children come out, the only thing that is a drawback to this story is how long it takes to get to rumpy-pumpy.

There isn't a socially awkward situation that Tsuchiya can't aggravate by making it even more socially awkward, but Serizawa does himself no favours by holding his cards a little too closely to the chest. Serizawa wants Tsuchiya to help out with planning school field trips to a region of Japan he seems to know intimately, but that's a cover for his real feelings, and Tsuchiya knows it and throws it back in his face. Asou Mitsuaki has a great sense of drama and can make the unlikeliest characters seem alive and in the moment. It helps that her artwork is so beautiful too.

A gorgeous retelling of the Romeo x Juliet romance trope with two boys from very different backgrounds, one an onnagata at a traveling traditional theatre, the other the overburdened son of an arrogant and fearful doctor. They meet up in the doctor's small town where he holds too much power, recognize the same struggles in each other and reach a fateful decision. The ending surprised me. Quite an inspirational and happy-making story.

Inspired by ante-WWII western domestic architecture and gardens, Kinoshita Keiko daydreamed up a story about Yukiyo, the gay man who inherited one such home, where he lives with Takashina, his lover, and Yuuta, the son of his ex-wife and the man he once loved, who suffered from depression and commit suicide many years previously. Filled with remorse for confessing to his late friend, and muddled by disappointment and unresolved grief, Yukiya swings wildly between seducing and rejecting Takashina. Things remain in stasis until Yuuta makes a confession of his own, summoning Yukiya's protective instincts. A slow building emotional simmer with some very beautiful watercolour drawings.

A company president courts a fickle and seductive bartender.