I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #unrequited love(68)

Natsuno and Ui used to be inseparable friends through school, though this ended at graduation when Ui made a heartfelt confession. Now, years later, after a breakup in which he lost everything, Natsuno is looking for a place to live and Ui has a huge apartment. Trouble is, Ui has lost all memory of him. At this stage, I don't know if I like Natsuno and admire him for his guts, or despise him for toying with Ui so heartlessly.

Yaoi double-feature. The first story is about a friendship between a young man, a pair of twins and a strange, somewhat twisted, ritual where every time the young man is rejected in love, the male half of the twins consoles him. The second story is about an innocent young man who is targeted by the school gigolo. Katsura's stories have an authenticity that takes the strangeness out of some fairly twisted situations, grounding them in realism.

Recently divorced salaryman, Tooru, is courted by his ex's nephew, Masachika, as he moves into his new apartment. Flashback to a scene in a gay bar where Tooru hesitates over his decision to marry Masachika's aunt as he is confused over his sexual preferences. Back in the present, Masachika presses him on his reasons for divorce and makes the first moves.

Childhood friends Sumiyoshi and Shinomoto appear, from Sumiyoshi's somewhat blinkered perspective, to cruise together through life side by side, even while he goes through girlfriends like a box of tissues, until realization strikes along with the full consequences of being a feckless, callow and self-absorbed jerk. Then it's all about the changes. Slow-paced and authentic, this story doesn't flirt with any emotional or psychological danger zones, but it's not bad—just a bit dull, like housekeeping.

Beautifully drawn shounen ai oneshot about a man who, upon return to his childhood hometown, finds himself couch-surfing with the man who, as a schoolboy, rejected him many years before, but who has changed and offers him a new chance. I don't know why Rocky's stories get such low reviews. They are interesting, mature slice-of-life glimpses into the lives of authentic-feeling characters, and they usually require a bit of thought, but they are well worth the investment of time and contemplation.

Here is a sad tale about obsession and grief. If Natsuke could rewind the years back to high school when he rejected an ardent confession from Haruomi, the boy he led on, would he? Haruomi hasn't moved forward, instead numbing his pain in masochistic encounters with anonymous men, all strangers upon whom he projects Natsuke's face. When Haruomi uses the occasion of the marriage of a mutual friend to engage at long last in a similar sort of cold, painful sex with Natsuke, he is still unfulfilled. Natsuke remains obstinate and unmoved, even through a clumsy blackmail attempt. What will it take to break through this emotional stalemate?

Araragi Toumi and Tetsuo are stepbrothers since Toumi's parents—distant relatives of the Araragis—died and the other relatives refused to adopt him. His home with the Araragi family has been so warm, loving and welcoming that his loyalty to them suppresses his erotic passion for Tetsuo. Tetsuo, on the other hand, is frank and accepting of his homosexuality, but all his love affairs have come to sad endings, so he will not risk another painful breakup with someone he loves as deeply as his stepbrother, especially after the trauma which preceded Toumi's adoption triggers seizures when he's away from their family. How long are they supposed to carry on in this holding pattern, and what does it take to finally break down the barriers?

Shortly before high school graduation, Hanatarou fucked himself on his childhood friend, Ikkun, disappeared for a few years, then suddenly showed up again completely transformed as a gorgeous transvestite. The gorgeousness is just skin-deep, though, since Hana-chan romps around Osaka (probably), playing at image clubs and leaving the bewildered and agitated Ikkun in the dust, until, at last, enough is enough. This has all of Akane's signature earthy goofiness without the usual side-helping of menace and sadism. Both Hanatarou and Ikkun are adorkable, and the intrusive "Master" is pitch perfect.

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.

A thwarted love affair between an oyajiisan and someone from his past is transposed onto the grandson of his beloved, who is, in turn, loved by the oyajii's grandson.