Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru

May 6, 2010

Riffs

Recommended

The prequel was amazing, but this installment blew my mind away. All the angst, melodrama, and character complexity from the original is there, but its even better. Not to mention one of the most wonderful endings in the history of yaoi manga (that I've read at least). Its painful, fluffy, and bittersweet all at once. You feel for both characters so deeply. The female lead is also an example of a wonderful character. There are no stereotypes for a typical yaoi manga. Honest, endearing, well written, at times funny, and a perfect view of the bare human spirit. It shows us selfishness, immaturity, and indecisiveness ...

Open

Gift

Apr 8, 2010

Nia9001

Recommended

The relationship is more tense than before. It’s now vulnerable and weaker than ever, He is defenseless. He is flustered. Everything is now a mess.

The suspension bridge is about to break.

To be more precise, Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru is the sequel of Kyuuso wa Cheese no Yume wo Miru. It’s now more concentrated on the strengths and weaknesses of the relationship and the thoughts of Kyouichi. Another rival has arrived for Imagase and the pressure between the two is unsettling. Kyouichi stays the same. He still lacks too many puzzle pieces for him to complete the jigsaw of his true feelings. He ... is still unable to see awareness. Weak as ever, he commits the same deranged mistake, twice.

If you thought the prequel had exquisite dialogues and character portrayals, you better think again after reading the sequel. It digs more unto the fine angles of the choice of words. It’s specifically breathtaking.

The character progress focuses more on Kyouichi rather than Imagase. He now takes the spotlight and is more contemplative compared to the prequel. He becomes more sensitive and affectionate. A total different Kyouichi we have seen from its prequel.

Imagase, on the other hand has less development. Not that his caliber hasn’t been improved but it’s more like his character stability suits the flow well. He’s dependent on unrequitingly loving someone willingly instead of being loved by someone who he doesn’t have feelings with. It’s realistic and painful but love is fine just the way it is. It takes someone out of his league.

Tamaki is one of those a little above average women you can find in this genre. She is more composed and decent compared to the prequel’s lady. She knows well Kyouichi’s outer feelings. She knows Kyouichi’s affections towards her isn’t as deep as his so-called previous lover. Their relationship has lots of faults and limitations. Her thoughts of making Kyouichi happy isn’t enough to let Kyouichi be happy. It just isn’t enough to budge Kyouichi out of his zone. He was never hers from the start.

They’re both in love. One is a mass of desire, one is a regretful gentleman. It’s not all about sex. It’s about them. Them being painfully in love. It was so painful, that it’s considered as a divine punishment.

The internal part of the sequel is more on confusion and second thoughts. Imagase’s acceptance of his lost is one of the biggest turnarounds of the story and so was Kyouichi’s bewildering decision. If you were to look up to the face of the story, a dense reader would simply see two men, misunderstandings, sex, sex and sex. With this I’m telling you, you’re getting it all wrong dear.

Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru’s scenes has more impressive feelings in it. The dialogues and emotions were perfectly in sync. It’s either you end up in awe or you end up in awe. You have no way to get out of the story’s quicksand.

At the end of the series, I ended up in tears. To depart from someone who has treasured you and to hopelessly return to your fated someone. One has come a long way in order to find his own happiness, his own self, his own feelings.

But once he turns his back again, he might never have something to return to.

Open

Gift

Sep 8, 2011

dandelion02sky

Recommended

So far and til this day, this is one of the most heartbreaking, beautiful stories I've ever read...The prequel is amazing, but the sequel is outstanding. If you read this story you'll never forget it.
After reading half of it I found myself bursting into tears, for half and hour, it had such an impact in my heart and mind. You can relate to the characters because they show the real nature of most humans when dealing with love and relationships.

Open

Gift

May 13, 2013

Etoile_sama

Recommended

If you're thinking of reading Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru it's probably because you finished reading the prequel and you enjoyed it. Trust me, this sequel will not disappoint. (If you stumbled upon this first and you haven't read the prequel, you really should, it's great and will provide a lot of the back story for this sequel).

This story gives you a look of how a relationship that started out of seduction progresses. More importantly, the seduction of a straight man by a gay one. We get to feel the confusion, the mixed signals, the feelings, and the build-up of love through both the ...

Open

Gift

Mar 21, 2015

Aseret

Recommended

This will be a review for both the prequel & sequel for this series.

Story: Kyouichi is an indecisive man who frequently commits adultery. His wife hires a detective named Imagase, to investigate. However, Imagase tells him that he won’t tell Kyouichi’s wife the truth in exchange for his body. From there, they descend into a downward spiral filled with bittersweet pain.

The manga centers around the relationship between a straight man (Kyouichi) and the homosexual man (Imagase) who is utterly in love with him. There is no real seme or uke here; they interchange the roles often throughout the chapters, and that was a great ...

Open

Gift

Dec 30, 2011

Yunaladylesca

Recommended

The thing that drew me to this story and kept me from leaving it is the passion. The two main characters are so passionate about one another is such a realistic way. They show how easy it is to love someone and how painful it is at the same time. How love can make you fickle, confused and changed.

Even though its a one shot, character development is there, and it grows with the story. this is a really great story with great characters. their passionate relationship with make you reevaluate your love life whether your homosexual or straight.

Open

Gift

Oct 26, 2014

Bambikill

Recommended

This is not a yaoi, this is a love story.

*Might contain very, very slight spoilers (not IMO really, though)*

I seldom give out tens, especially in a genre like Yaoi, where the stories are seldom deeper than knee high and are sweet as candy, but this story goes above head height and leaves you treading water.
I rate a manga after the genre it belongs to - a 10 in a comedy means that it's a qualitative comedy even though a drama might be of a higher all in all quality as a work.
"Sojou no koi wa nido haneru" is a ... brightly shining star in both the category yaoi as well as in drama. Because it doesn't really matter if you're into boy-on-boy-love or not - the topic of love is universal and anyone with a romantic view on life and experience of a broken heart, would be able to relate to the struggle between Kyoichi and Imagase to make their relationship work. Because it's a struggle between them, not by them - and it hurts - boy does it hurt. I AM a crybaby when it comes to romance, but it has to be believable, otherwise it won't touch me.
This touches me.

Mizushiro Setona has created a painful slice of life which really goes deep under your skin and affects you. I was impressed already by the prequel "Kyuuso wa cheese no yume wo miru", where the couple met and developed their relationship, but this is even better.
The story starts out clichéed but quickly turns into a deep view into a complex relationship. Not at all like all the stories where everyone brushes off homosexuality as "nothing" and completely acceptable.
This portrays the struggle in questioning oneself regarding sexuality and societal acceptance of homosexuality - something that is truly taboo in many cultures and very much still so in Japan. Coming out and even realizing one's feelings towards someone of the same sex, must be tough even when living in a country where it is common and pretty much accepted and even tougher in a country where it's looked upon as abnormal and shameful.
I live in Sweden and here it's not a big thing at all, it's almost fashionable being gay and HBTL-culture is common in media and society as a whole. Gay people are able to get married, even in church nowadays. They are allowed to adopt children and they live their lives openly and without persecution or prejudice (of course some individuals are always opposed). I have a lot of acquaintances and friends who are gay, lesbian, bisexual (I am Bi as well and don't regard it as a big deal at all and have been completely open about it since I was 14 or so - my parents haven't cared about it all, neither have anyone else I know, it's no more weird than having... dyed hair or a piercing or glasses or whatever) and transsexual as well and I have never thought much about it.
I am a strong advocate for global HBTL rights and I don't think at sexual orientation as more than a personal trait just any other, BL is just my personal kink.

With all this, I am trying to put words on what I feel in reading something that takes homosexuality on and emphasizes the stigma and fear of being ridiculed, avoided, despised and not accepted.
The manga even mentions the unability to list a gay partner as a beneficiary in Insurances - a very real problem. Japan does not recognize a same sex relationship as any more than a friendship and gives no rights to a partner who in every aspect of the word is a spouse, other than by paper.
How is it to try to come out as living with and loving a man, in a society like that? It has to be hard. Very hard.
Still, Kyouichi's feelings for Imagase are strong enough for him to try to take wobbly steps towards that goal.

Their characters are well drawn out and complex -they feel like real persons with all their good and bad sides - the story woven carefully to tell an angsty and bittersweet tale of love and life.
A rather slow paced journey with twists and turns that still goes it's route - I am amazed at how the author manages to tell so much in so little space as two single tankobons - I feel like I've witnessed a long piece of someone's lives, not just a tiny glimpse.

The art is not all that good in the first volume, but it increases remarkably in quality in the second one - I guess she got used to drawing them.
Then it ends up rather nice. Some scenes are drawn very nicely throughout the story, in both books. So maybe the first book was more rushed in development. I'm usually extremely picky about art styles and simply can not read comics that are drawn in a style not to my taste, but in this particular story I actually don't care either way.
The sex scenes are not abundant but quite a few of them are present - these are always steamy and hot and well drawn.

I absolutely love this story (with this, I mean both volumes but especially this one, but the story really gets even better when reading both so I recommend that) and consider it to be one of the absolute best mangas available in the BL genre. (I do, however, recommend this story to anyone who likes romance, BL fan or not). It truly is, a masterpiece.

Open

Gift

Jan 13, 2013

xche

Recommended

This is one of the best yaoi mangas I've read by far. The most impressive elements were 1) the very well written and thought out dialogues 2) the plot, with just the right balance of foreshadowing, suspense and twists.

As many of us would know, yaoi mangas have involve quite a bit of explicit scenes have a tendency to just become smexy and illogical. I feel that in this manga (and its prequel) almost every sex scene is justified and either 1) contributes to the emotional build up or 2) propels the storyline forward.

I've read many other great bl mangas such as Fake, the ...

Open

Gift

Oct 31, 2016

SincerelyShania

Recommended

This is the first time I have given a manga so many 10s across the board. I literally just finished Sojou No Koi Wa Kido Haneru a couple of minutes ago, and I knew that I had to write a review encouraging others to read this beautiful story right away. Of course, read the prequel (Kyuuso Wa Cheese No Yume O Miru) first because you have to have the backstory to fully appreciate this sequel, not to mention that the prequel blew my mind as well, but wow... Sojou No Koi Wa Kido Haneru literally left me crying and my heart pounding. This story is ...

Open

Gift

Jan 5, 2019

pomegranit

Recommended

"Love is a divine punishment." - Sojou no Koi wa Nida Haneru

I'm going to be honest, this was definitely not what I was expecting. This was raw, this was honest, this was realistic, and this h u r t. I'm going to tell you straight up: this is not what you are expecting. This WILL surprise you, and perhaps not in the best ways. All that being said, let's get into the specifics.

If you're here, it's likely that you're at least somewhat of a yaoi fan-- fujioshi, fudanshi, whatever be the case. I don't expect to see many yaoi newbies over here. However, ... there are ways in which this would be a good thing for non-yaoi fans to read. In fact, if you're into seme-uke dynamics and predictably sappy storylines with more than their fair share of sexual assault and other nonconsensual acts, this is not your cup of tea. This story is painstakingly adult and it is unapologetic being as heartbreaking as it is. It's a story of the real world: homophobia, societal expectations, the temptation to just "be straight", forget about love, get married and settle down... it details the choices that adults have to make. It's not longer just about a cute love story where the only things the main characters have to fight against is their refusal to admit whether or not they like each other. It's a butterfly effect and the way even choices like who you fall in love with can fundamentally change many people's lives.

I have to be honest, the story and characters consistently made me want to bang my head on a wall. Every character is layered and deep. None of them are perfect. They are essentially all flawed, selfish, terrible people. But aren't we all? It was fascinating to watch characters that were essentially toxic and harmful to eachother to twist themselves up in this dark romance that doesn't sit right for anyone. It's so fragile, so twisted: their problems only continue to pile up and no matter what they do, it only leads to more insecurity and depravity than it did before.

I think I've ranted enough. Overall, without spoiling anything, all I can say is that the story and characters are all the most I've seen in any yaoi (or romance, now that I think about it) and the author does a great job of exploring the ambiguity of human morality.

As for the art, I'm very pleased with it. I was expecting the classic "seme and uke chins", among other things. I was happy that both of the main characters looked like actual men and roughly equal in stature as well. It leveled the playing field between them. It focused less on the fact that one of them was a 'forceful alpha male' and more about the pitfalls of their relationship with each other.

Why did I rate this an 8? I'm going to be honest, this usually isn't my cup of tea. I read this purely because it was recommended to me and no other reason. I do indulge in yaoi here and there, but romance saturated works without any humor or subplots just don't appeal to me very much across the board. There is nothing wrong with the work to explicitly deserve the points off, but it's more of a personal issue. :)

I would recommend this if you like: realistic works, reading about adult problems, romance-centered things, toxic relationships, mutual tragedy, this is the end of all the endings, love so deep you feel like you're drowning and hurting yourself, like bittersweet things

I would NOT recommend this if you: are here for seme-uke yaoi, want something light-hearted and cute, are expecting a completely happy ending, don't like romance-centered things

Have a great day everyone!

Open

Gift

Jul 28, 2021

annacarabuena

Recommended

I'm probably in the minority here.

Am I the only one having a hard time wrapping their head on this on and off relationship. I get that this story tells a very realistic scenario of love among homosexuals and heterosexuals, but the drama was just too confusing for my pea sized brain to comprehend. I could probably say they have a very toxic relationship that should've just decided to move on rather than being together. Imagase is such a manipulative and push over man and inflects his deep love to a confused straight man who has a hard time catching up on how to ...

Open

Gift

Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru
The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Write a Review
Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Sojou no Koi wa Nido HaneruThe Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Write a Review Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Sojou no Koi wa Nido Haneru
The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Write a Review
Reviews