Dec 5, 2020
Why is it, that when I put porn on my list for a laugh, at my partner's request, I end up finding stuff I'd consider absolute gems? And when I go looking for BL that isn't basically porn, I find only disappointment and sadness? Why does this manage to have better character writing and romance than nearly anything I've seen from the BL mangaka community? And the Bara community, for that matter? Why, Japan?
I wasn't expecting it to hit me in the feels. I wasn't expecting it to have small interactions that make the romance vividly believable and wholesome. The men are so expressive, in
...
everything they do, and also quite funny. When they're together, they talk like people who are intimate with each other, and before they're together, there's a believable romantic tension to their interactions. Even when they're having sex, they communicate constantly, make little expressions, think about each other, and show really well-written affection for one another. It's heartening to see, when gay manga seems torn between the extremes of hypermasculine, big chungus Bara archetypes and stick-like, lanky Yaoi archetypes. The characters are expressive in an unguarded way that most works about men usually don't do, without lapsing into 'trap archetype' territory. They can admit they like mascots, or unironically wear a bunny suit, or think a guy is 'cute' without it compromising their identity as a man. To me, accepting oneself like that is the height of manliness, tbh. It's nothing to be ashamed of, no matter how much people will judge you for it, and the manga goes out of its way to talk about that. It also calls out sexual assault in an author note. In BL? Crazy, I know.
And somehow the scenes themselves are amazing.
Small, cute guys are allowed to top. Big, buff guys can stammer and blush like crazy. They can ask the other 'are you okay?', or ask the other to do something they find hot, or even say stupid/funny stuff that makes the other laugh in the middle of sex. Everyone is shown using lube. It's just... so nice to see it, you know? This mangaka makes some authors I don't care to mention look like goddamn virgins, and not the nervous-but-painfully-eager, blushing kind seen in this manga. The art is stellar, and very, um... edifying, at times. It's nice to see some soft features on guys, like lips and butts, getting the kind of detail one might see in straight manga. Some people really are muscular but also soft-looking.
If I could fault it for anything, I didn't particularly like the side story 'Kokuhaku shitekita Yatsu no Seiheki wa', mainly because I didn't like the characters compared to the main story, or the other side story. One of them is kinda... wooden(with some exceptions)? And the other one basically comes off as a sex pest for half the story. It was still better than average, but kind of boring compared to the author's other stuff, and way more stereotypical of BL.
Basically, if you're tired of tropey BL and want some wholesome fluff and smut to tide you over, I can't recommend this highly enough. Finally, some good fuckin' food.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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