I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #cupcake yakuza(13)

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?

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.

Nagai, a detective with the organized crime unit of the police force, suddenly acquires a roommate in his feckless former schoolmate, Kitihara, just as he cracks a bank book fraud ring. Kitihara comes and goes, building up anticipation and longing in Nagai, but he is full of secrets and some of them don't look very savoury. It will be interesting to see if Norikazu Akira takes this into suspense thriller territory, not just police procedural with a side of fluff.

Hot shot cupcake yakuza waka #4, Tatsuyuki, is unwillingly sent to Fukouko to assume his duties, gets dead drunk in the midst of a set-up by subversive henchman, Rogi, is rescued by a playschool teacher, Minori, with whom he unknowingly shares a secret from the past. Eventually all these chaotic and seemingly random incidents join together in a surprisingly suspenseful and interesting plot. The villain is definitely a Boo!Hiss!Bad guy, but he has his own treacherous secrets and nothing in this strange little tale is what it seems at first glance. I certainly misread it. Now, I'm all "Read it! Read it! Read it!"

Series of vignettes based around the unlikely romance between cupcake yakuza loan shark enforcer and hetero, Asahi, and Kanna, an old schoolmate who ended up as a male prostitute in Soapland. Loneliness is the key to their cohabitation, but there isn't much indication of it, or why it draws them to each other. It's a premise I enjoy, and it would've been nice to see more of it in the story prior to their getting it on.

Mainly cupcake yakuza stories with predictable plots where the yakuza had nothing to do with anything ... except decorating the scenery. One archery club story where the archery had nothing to do with anything other than exercise. No plot. No conflict. No connection point for the reader to buy in.

Everybody is gay and more than a little dim in Abe Akane's cupcake yakuza universe, the boundaries of which extend between ground central for the Sakura group's extortion racket, a traditional restaurant and a takoyaki stand. But it does allow for some of the funniest lines I've read in yaoi, like the guy buried in his sempai's rump declaring that his universe has expanded. There are some unexpectedly sweet moments.

Hot Love in Cold Russia. Sensitive special ops spy meets cupcake yakuza for kidnapping and captivity sex. Scratches the uniform fetish itch.

Story 1: Dissolute second son in a yakuza family is whisked home and placed under the care of a servant with a secret. The whiff of family intrigue isn't sustained long enough to build suspense. Story 2: His father, who has put aside his own desires in order to serve his family, rekindles a long lost connection with his own servant. Both stories have interesting elements that could've been developed further to give them a sense of authenticity, but the author flinched too soon. Still, there are some nice comic touches and the story is not bad.

Iwami and Takaoka are a classic idiot couple, until Takaoka presses the issue. I love the art. The story has a very earthy approach, especially with Iwami's sisters, and that third chapter is perfect.