I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Fuwa Shinri(9)

Tamaki loves Tomoyuki, a professional photographer who suddenly disappeared from his life three years prior. Now that Tomo has returned to Japan, Tamaki wants to renew their friendship, but Tomo avoids him. Tamaki thinks this is because he was too much of a child, but there is a tragic event in his past which precipitated Tomo's desertion, and it hasn't been resolved. This story is included in a three-part series of yakuza-themed manga: 1) Zetai Unmei Houteishiki 2) Tsumasaki ni Kiss: a story about Tamaki's oldest brother, Homura 3) Gravity Eyes: a story about Homura's rejected suitor, Kyouya.

Yakuza politics feature largely in this story about two lovers who are also members of rival yakuza factions. Homura and Touji have been secretly involved since university. Their secrecy and the difficulty of their situation means that Homura has attracted a very persistant suitor in his employee and number one host, Kyouya. When Touji manipulates his newfound power as head of his faction, it appears that he and Homura must part, but has Homura read the purpose of his actions correctly?

This two-volume manga is related to Fuwa Shinri's series, which began with Zettai Unmei Houteishiki and evolved into Tsumasaki ni Kiss. In this spin-off, Kyouya has abandoned his infatuation for Homura, the yakuza boss of the host club where he once worked, and has now fixed his sights on Kiriya, the emotionally distant assistant professor of cultural studies at the university Kyouya now attends. At first, the pair antagonize each other, and some of the blows they come to (both emotionally and physically) are a bit over-reactive, but Kyouya's openness and "glue-like" perseverance have ways of warming the hardest hearts.

This one is all over the place. It starts off with brother love, then does a quick palm off to UFOs, conspiracy theory stuff and alien possession. Right now, it's in the middle of a scary boil-the-bunny-type of family rivalry. Even so, it's still hugely entertaining, but definitely whack. It's been 3 years since anything happened with the manga, though, so I think that's all we're going to learn about it.

Rare breed, but country hayseed, white werewolf comes to Tokyo, works at a host club and attracts the attention of a mean old vampire, in spite of Mama Werewolf's best warnings.

Touma doesn't want to make traditional sweets and inherit his father's shop. His father, a Japanese sweet-maker, is offended by that and won't talk to him. French loverboy follows Touma back to Japan and asks to be taken in as an apprentice.

Fuwa Shinri is great at yaoi soap operas. In this series of short stories, we read about gay men who stay closeted for the sake of family, pesky fan girls who want to out them, divorce and child abuse, rape and the odd ways survivors punish themselves for having been raped ... They are generally quite authentic apart from some of the outward emotional reactions which seem a bit overt, but still within plausibility. One very realistic element is that not all the conflicts are resolved or the injuries healed. Fuwa Shinri is good at this sort of story.

Another slice of life drama from the Queen of Yaoi Soap Operas, Fuwa Shinri. This time stepbrothers, Sora (5 years older) and Tatsuki, love each other in every sense of the word, but they will never say it. Noooo .... instead they have to take each other and everyone else they love on a long and torturous journey that includes Tatsuki moving out, psychotic fans (Soru is a popular mystery novelist), stabbings, aggrieved girlfriends (and rightfully so), a miscarriage, runaway avoidance crap, incensed editors (and rightfully so), a near-death accident and drama-rama-rama! It's a darned good thing Tatsuki's ex-girlfriend isn't the stabbing sort, because in her case, he deserves it. Instead, he gets stabbed for something else. It's also a good thing that the relative who Tatsuki hates so much is so plain-spoken, or these two jackasses would take their closeted gay secrets to an early grave. In Sora's case, he nearly does anyway. So, yeah, it's a ride on the tearjerk express, but Fuwa Shinri does that so well, and even when the story's just too much to qualify as realistic, it still feels like it could happen.

Baba Takaaki is a real piece of work, a womanizer, liar and unreliable narrator in his own inner dialogue, but he falls hard for Aoyama, a first year student at his college. Too bad he can't keep his pants zipped. Even worse, when he's caught, he doesn't fight for Aoyama, and so begins a five-year love drought for both of them. Fuwa Shinri has crafted another yaoi soap opera by homing in on emotional pitfalls. I am not completely convinced in the reconciliation process, but it still exists within the realm of plausibility. It would be more satisfying to see "Baba-san" work a little harder..