I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #yaoi(950)

(1) Innocent young man staves off extortionists by prostituting his virginity with a scruffy stranger.

There are a lot of preposterous notions in this manga, almost enough to make a reader yell "Rubbish!" and hurl their tablets across the room. Take the nonsense that any client who presents enough of a security risk to be stationed on an actual secret floor in a legitimate luxury hotel would be referred to as Mr. Secret Floor instead of the Japanese equivalent of Mr. Roberts or Mr. Jones, like everywhere else in the world. Or the idea that a writer, even a bestselling one like, say, Stephen King, would have enough clout or power to demand that their business partners either abase themselves, or go back to the office empty-handed. Setting aside the wealth-porn and power-pandering to concentrate on the story, it turned out to be a much better read than impressions left after the first couple of chapters. It really did. So, if you can grit your teeth for a little while, stick to it until the end, at the very least you won't feel uncontrollable rage. Probably. The romantic trope which drives the story along is whether Yagami, the diva-like best-selling writer, is exploiting first-time editor and wide-eyed man-child Aiba. They're certainly having sex. And a whole lot of it. But because the readers, like Aiba, can't tell if (a) Yagami demands humiliating sex from everyone in a business relationship with him, (b) the collection of pretty boys cluttering up his reception room comprise an actual sex-harem, or (c) one manipulative rival, in particular, out-foxes Aiba for Yagami's heart, let alone his business, most of the sex turns out to be unsettling instead of hot. Aiba, though still not as independent as I like 'em, turns out to be pluckier, more positive and more in possession of a spine than all earlier indications, and Yagami isn't quite as much of the obnoxious, self-centred and toxic boor as he first comes across. This is what makes this story worth reading until the end.

Anthology of risky kink stories. (1) Emotionally needy childhood friend stalks boy who doesn't object as much as he pretends. Train groping. Sex recording.

Multiple stories of standard cute yaoi scenarios. (1) Cupcake yakuza, (2) Misunderstanding about purity, (3) Prodigal returns to now-legal adult. Not bad, but mostly forgettable.

A sweet but insecure assistant shopkeeper struggles with communicating his true feelings to his lover.

A traumatized accident survivor deals with his night terrors by losing himself in casual sex until one of his encounters refuses to be treated like a tool. In order to make his case, he employs actual tools ... a vibrating sounding tube, in this case. Sexy and hot.

Story starts off with a bang as Takiya Kippei, who slogged and hefted through hard graft during the height of summer just to scrape enough yen to buy his lover a birthday present, discovers that his lover is unfaithful. Fortunately, he has some consolation eye-candy in the form of his new supervisor, Honjou, who seems to have his number sooner than Kippei does.

Two students, hot-shot first year, Sekiya, and the lesser talented, Nagashima, who have been vying for the attention of their popular sempai, Tatsumi, at the archery club, stir up some school daze drama and are forced to hold hands in public to make up for it. This has the side effect of making them fall for each other. Interesting side story about Tatsumi's attraction to the faculty member who supervises their club. Not bad stories.

Mitya, isolated as a "gaijin", and Asahiko, orphaned and beaten by his previous lover, Mika, meet, fall for each other and begin a torrid affair that blocks out the existence of everyone and everything else. They finally heal each other enough to start opening up to more friendships when Mika returns just to mess things up.

A short story about time travel used to avert a tragedy. Nowhere close to the quality of Ike Reibun's Not Equal, but not an awful story either. The lack of conflict and stock supernatural plot structure takes away from the romance, and got in the way at times.