I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #age gap(47)

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.

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.

It's the rich and powerful against humanity and the planet in this story about gods sent to earth to heal, inspire and bring joy to everyone else. Unfortunately, these special "Spec" are targeted for experimentation and corruption, until a very special little boy who is later named "Cheese" meets a local fast-food outlet trash-handler named Shin aind wins love and powerful enemies. Here's a trick: if you ever want to feel like a first class idiot, give a pet or someone you love a name like cheese. That way, whenever you have to call out the name in public, nobody will think you're calling after something other than food. Cute story, so far. Some sinister bits.

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.

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.

Boke and tsukkomi comedy duo deliverymen get all hot and bothered in the cab of their truck, exchange some cheesy dialogue which wouldn't work in real life, then explode in a frenzy of splooge. Ride 'em cowboys.

Easy paced love story between Ryuuta, an accountancy student, who spends his summers surfing and falling in love with Naoki, the owner of a small beachside pub where Ryuuta works. For Ryuuta, it's an unrequited love as Naoki is married, but there are personality problems between the Mister and Missus of which he is unaware until he discovers that Naoki has been abandoned. Now Ryuuta faces the difficult task of wooing a much older man with a painful past and a character that subconsciously armours himself against rejection. This is a lot to ask for a young man with relatively little life experience or wisdom. Instead, he must call upon a leap of faith. Unohana has crafted an interesting and insightful story with believable and entertaining side characters in a resort village setting far from urban distractions.