I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #mature(23)

Tanihara owns and runs a shabby corner smoke shop and confectionary and takes care of Chisuzu, the very cute daughter of his ex-wife. Older, careworn and hemmed in by responsibilities and circumstances, Tanihara has no hopes for the future, no dreams left, no thoughts that there may be someone out there who could love him. That is, until he meets Dr. Takafumi Saji, the physician who has taken over the local pediatric clinic, who happens to be gay and who is attracted to Tanihara's 'type'. A mature and easy-going story about real adult men. I liked it better than its prequel, Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi.

A humiliation kink story about the downfall of a proud young aristocrat, Shingo, who is forced, by inherited debt, to become a male prostitute, and is trained into this service by Zen, the brothel's enforcer, who has suffered at the hand's of Shingo's father.

A young man has a sexual relationship with his cram school teacher in order to explore the meaning of 'like' and 'love', never realizing that this teacher was in an intimate relationship with his regular high school teacher. His intervention provides a means for both teachers to connect with their feelings honestly. An exploration of emotional detachment and the toll it takes on the heart, rendered in beautiful line drawings by Yamagata Satomi.

A cinematic treatment of a story about an aging actor, his last chance for a successful career with a film about gay men in Monte Carlo, and the young actor coaxes and seduces him into taking that very risky role. The characters fit so comfortably in this story, even the humorous sex scene was naturalistic and believable.

Dark oneshot about a BDSM encounter with knife slashing, drugging and rape-play. The final scene makes it clear that consent was implicit. Although this is framed as a one-off, there is more that hasn't yet been translated. This is a good story for people looking for hardcore kink.

Recounts a sexual tryst between a homosexual archeology professor who is in a long-distance open relationship and a very proud, but previously straight, male artist who has completed some renderings on behalf of a female (married) lover for a restoration project in an Eqyptian necropolis. Kabra Kare provides us with stunning graphite drawings and strong visual references to classical western art, history and architecture, including some lovely images of Romantic Germany. The interesting character-driven plot asks whether pride, stubborness and integrity are character virtues or flaws. I look forward to seeing where this story takes us.

Youka Nitta's sweeping soap opera about Katou Youji and Iwake Kyousuke, two AV actors who risk everything to be true to themselves and each other. This story starts at the beginning of their relationship while they still work as porn actors, through negotiating their places and integrity in Japan's Byzantine entertainment industry, until they emerge with the approval of families, friends and colleagues; live together in their own home; make the movies they want, and eventually take responsibility for a production company, enduring treachery, censure, humiliation, attempted murder and even a huge earthquake in the process. The boys get a little overwrought at times, and ending feels a little truncated, no doubt in part to Youko Nitta's scandal, but the sex is hot and the overall arch is absorbing. A yaoi classic.

Post-Earthquake sequel to Haru wo Daite ite.