I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Incest(27)

The artwork for this manga is gorgeous and delicate, as are the stories, although their threads are so subtle and character-centric, they can be a bit tricky to follow, all interconnected by a common character or precipitating event in common. (1) Sunose, a straight university student falls for his cat-like and uncommunicative gay professor, Yukimura, who is too bashful and insecure to admit the love is mutual, even after a frank conversation behind closed doors with former lover, Kitakami, reveals Yukimura's true feeling and is overheard by his beloved, Sunose; (2) Backstory: it seems that Kitakami, a renowned painter, makes a habit of revealing, too intimately, the inner souls of his models, who usually also become his lovers, just as he paints their nude bodies too explicitly. Although the hitherto heterosexual, Yukimura, is forewarned of this propensity, he throws caution to the wind and agrees to be both Kitakama's model and lover, although he refuses to promise his heart or his fidelity. (3) Seiji, Akira's stepbrother, invites himself into Akira's workplace, a mahjong gambling parlour, to coax him into returning home, unleashing a storm of feelings that Akira has never been able to resolve about being abandoned, first, by his mother and, then, by his lover. A small cameo by Kitakami, in high school, links this story to Yukimura's. (5) Sarashima Satoshi, Akira's co-worker, also happens to be his roommate. He is blessed with above-average intuition and discovers, through the slightest sign, one of which Akira cannot possibly be aware, that Akira is depressed because he was abandoned by someone with whom he once regularly slept. The main plot engines are driven by abandonment, loneliness, recklessness or subconscious signals which reveal too much, followed by feelings of being overexposed and too vulnerable, withdrawals, inadequate communication and misunderstandings. One of my favourites!

Kinky yaoi involving sounding, urethral stretching, intra-urethral insemination, and other toys, public sex at the workplace, attempted blackmail and brother x brother incest.

A teacher is drawn to a quiet, over-dressed young man in his class who seems to be enduring abuse by fellow classmates. The reality is much, much worse. In fact, it's so bad, pity overwhelms any other feelings at this stage and the cross-dressing aspect feels wrong for all the wrong reasons.

What appears to be a standard half-brother x half-brother incest story acquires suspense when it looks like Masayuki, the heir to his father's company, is being deliberately targeted and sabotaged.

A failure to be honest and straightforward about their feelings of love and longing shifts a spontaneous sexual encounter between two stepbrothers into a set-up for darker sex, and just when they start to be honest, guilt and other social pressures interfere.

Ever since he failed an academic achievement exam, Kazushi spends his time farting around with friends, girls, at karaoke and restaurants, any place but home where he has to face his disappointed parents and younger brother, Keishi, who keeps trying to reach him. One day, at an arcade, Kazushi forfeits his lips to a boy's kiss when he loses a wager, and Keishi catches sight. Kazushi learns what Keishi thinks of that after a stolen kiss when Keishi assumes Kazushi is fast asleep, and ths is, in turn, followed by one of the flattest conflict resolutions I've seen in a manga, a clunky scene which just doesn't fit with the realism of the initial chapters. It was as though the editor told Cam to wrap things up now and end this on a happy note, but I'm ambivalent about the way she did it.

It's Souya and Kazuki against the world, or at least against Kazuki's nasty, mean, horrible, no-good, prestigious and ancient family. Souya, who's one of those supermodel novelist types, is determined to look after his poor, oppressed, ordinary Joe of a part-time wine-shop waiter stepbrother, in exchange for loads of bottoms up. That's got Daddy and real brother in a tizz. All we need is Queen singing in the background, "Mammaaaaa, I just killed a man ...."

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.

A tragedy places orphaned Tooru in the home of his grandfather and Uncle Yukihiko who has secretly nurtured a forbidden love. Shame and despair suppress the honest communication that needs to happen in order to sort the same feelings rising between Tooru and Yukihiko years after the grandfather's death. There are emotional casualties, but the story is sensitive and shows awareness, even if the subject matter is unusual.