Ichi Ni no San!
Switched from four stars to five by the end. This was super sweet. I want to read more about these boys. And the other two! And the three friends in general. I just love that mixed gender friendship stuff. I'm sad this is over. It had several elements that are sadly a bit rare in BL manga.
Seishun Otome Banchou!
Mostly confused by the fact that she's only ugly when she's making a weird face. Is her normal face supposed to be ugly? I don't get it. Is there something I'm missing? She looks just like the other girls. That aside, I like her personality, and I'm eager to keep reading this. I'm only on chapter two at the moment, though. More notes added later. ETA: Finsihed chapter nine, looking forward to more. The manga isn't without flaws, and I don't like how much everyone gets away with, being so cruel to Mihane. I really want Touma to stand up for her already. I know she's tough and doesn't need to be protected, but us tough girls need someone to stand up for us, too. Maybe I'm taking this a little too personally. XD Looking forward to more, regardless of my issues with it. ETA 2: Wait, why does it say it's complete now? It can't be! I'll cry! I hope there's more of these characters. I'm happy with how it turned out in the end, and this is a very unusual manga. I sure wish I could find more stories where the female lead is unattractive or overweight and stays that way through the whole story. I don't typically like shoujo, but I really loved this.
Are You Enemy?
I'm finally getting around to re-reading/fully reading all of Miyamoto Kano's work, but I'm pretty confused by some of the order here. This particular manga was oddly ordered on the site. I'm hoping I didn't miss anything. Maybe I should just find the DL to be sure. Anyway, this is her early work, so it didn't have some of the same emotional impact that I can usually find in her work. Still, it's a nice start, and I love how she has stories that span over multiple characters, etc. Not Love up next...
Hydra
Bittersweet as usual. It irks me how much Miyamoto Kano loves to establish OTPs and then have years and years pass between them seeing each other. She does that ALL the time, and it drives me nuts. But whatever. I think it's obvious how they all end up, even if it's years down the line. Kinda stupid how some of it goes down, but I do love the complex relationships she builds. And I love when exes can stay friends. Off to start Rules now.
Raising a Bat
I really like this so far, even though it's like, just get on with it already! I get that it's one of those stories where the entire plot is about the chase, but it's so annoying when they won't just communicate with each other. Either way, good art, interesting story, hot guys. I'm sold.
Yami Bl
Very depressing but in a satisfying way. That's all I can really ask. I'm eager to see the other stories, so I hope they're translated soon. ETA: I was surprised, at first, that chapter four wasn't as fucked up as the rest. After a second read through, I really like it. I think cheerful creepy is some of the best creepy, that moment when things seem okay, but we know they're not. Chapter five was quite morbid and hilarious. It's nice to have a little dark humor in there to even out the soul-crushing stories.
Blue Sky Complex
Very sweet, pretty art (though not perfect, which is fine!), but the endless misunderstandings always kinda rub me the wrong way. I like where it went, though, and I love that the one character was actually gay from the start, like it wasn't a huge surprise for him, and it wasn't one of those "it's okay if it's you" BS moments. I wish more yaoi would experiment with that, what it's like to be young and realize you don't like girls the way that the other boys do. Anyway, I love this story so far, so I hope whatever follows is sweet, too.
Ore no Doukyuusei ga Binkan sugite Yabai
Very cute little short. It isn't dark and depressing or heartbreaking like most of Harada's stuff, haha. It reminds me of when you fool around with your friends when you're younger, and I like that it didn't immediately turn into them both loving each other, like it really started as them just being horny kids. The fact that feelings developed later makes more sense than them secretly wanting each other all along. Either way, cute, but a little too short. ETA: I was excited for the continuation, but the dubcon nature of so many of her sex scenes bums me out a bit. I love Harada so much, but she has a clear kink for the seme hurting the uke and pressuring him during sex, then the uke is just like, "okay, cool," despite the fact that he was just crying and telling the seme to stop and saying it hurts. Annoying, but at least their relationship was sweet outside of that. I wonder if it'll continue, since that sad little end about them not being able to tell anyone about their relationship. I appreciate that both parties are clearly invested by the end, so it isn't just constantly one person pursuing and the other caving.
Owaranai Fukou Ni Tsuite No Hanashi