Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

For a series that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get into, I’m really enjoying how the various Junjo couples can make me smile. It’s insanity and sweetness all tied up with a bow made of cute. I’m still not sure how long they’re going to be able to maintain this level of goodness before it’s pushed over the edge, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

In the Junjo Terrorist camp, Miyagi and Shinobu are fighting. Shinobu is jealous of Miyagi’s ex-lover. Of course, the fact that the ex-lover is dead has no bearing on Shinobu’s feelings.

On the Junjo Romantica side, Misaki gets a confession from an unexpected source which causes him to show his true colors. Usami reacts with his normal lack of emotion mixed with his overblown, over-dramatic actions.

Then there’s the Junjo Egoists who turn everything into a battle of wills, even with something as simple as planning a date.

As I’ve said before, it’s hard to write a review when we’re so far into the series. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but I also don’t want to confuse the hell out of people who may just be tuning in.

It’s a fun series and a relief to read after some of the crap that’s been inflicted upon me this week. I’m so happy that BLU is going to keep releasing the series.

Rating: ♦♦

I wanted to like this one. Nothing makes me happier than angels and devils copulating with humans. I just like boys with wings. Sadly, this release didn’t hold up to the promise of pretty boys with wings banging other boys’ brains out. I spent the entire time I was reading this trying to figure out what was going on and just why this sucked so badly.

It’s the mix of bad plot and bad art that really did this one in. Now, this one was done by the artist who drew Love + Alphα and if you remember, I liked the art in that one. This must be an early work by the artist because all it reminded me of was some of the craptastic stuff we saw coming out in the 90s. Big-eyed uke-boy with no brain in his head and nary an expression on his face. The whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth because I was so disappointed.

Someday, some artist will do a release that has gorgeous angels and demon boys banging. It will have a plot that is hot enough to soak my panties and it will have art that will leave me drooling. Innocent Bird doesn’t count because it wasn’t nearly graphic enough for me.

There’s Hazumi, who’s roommates with Luke and Ray, two foreigners. Things are going well aside from Luke and Ray competing for his affections. Hazumi’s in for quite a surprise when he finds out that Luke and Ray are from a much more exotic locale than he expected. Luke is an angel and Ray’s a demon.

The only thing that amused me about this release was the fact that it was the angel who was doing his best to get into Hazumi’s pants and not the devil. I like the idea of horny angels. It makes me happy. There’s a deeper meaning to the erotic battle that Ray and Luke are waging. The person who gains Hazumi’s heart will win control of Earth for his angel or demon brethren.

It sounds more interesting than it really is. In all honesty, I’m very tired of scenes of blowjobs sans penises. I know there’s a lot of censorship and that Deux is presenting the manga in the format that they got it in, but I am really, really tired of the glowing cones of light.

I would say to avoid this one. Deux has a lot of other releases that are more deserving of your funds.

Rating: ♦♦

Oh, this one was bad. It wasn’t bad enough that I wanted to throw the book across the room in a rage, but it was bad enough that I would put the book down and glare at it for a while, expressing my extreme displeasure, before I would be able to go forward with my reading.

This is a collection of shorts revolving around the trials and tribulations of young love, which should be cute if it didn’t involve such outlandish plot twists and over the top drama. But, Cyn, this is BL! Shouldn’t you be used to outlandish plot twists and over the top drama by now? Yes, indeed! And, a lot of the time I embrace the crack that spews out of the BL genre, but there has to be some substance to back up the crack and this is sadly lacking.

Ryu and Sakura are classmates and rivals. When Ryu meets his classmates apparent twin, who makes advances towards him, Ryu gets seriously confused.
Come on. Evil twins and/or split personalities? I thought we got rid of those plot contrivances when we said goodbye to the 80s. So, Ryu now has to figure out which is the true Sakura and how to break through to win his heart.

I don’t want this in my BL. I want plots that are far-fetched, but believable. I want sex that makes me hot instead of bringing out my inner femanazi. I want characters that make me want to cheer instead of making me want to shake some sense into them.

I really didn’t want to get this cranky with this release, but in going over it again to write the review I’m just getting fed up with the whole thing. June has a lot of good, quality releases that are available for purchase. This is not one of them.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I am still lusting over the character designs and the art in this series, but the story is starting to leave me a bit cold. I want to see more random insanity and some plot development that makes sense. However, I am still enjoying this one for the plethora of pretty boys.

So, Mookyul’s boss walks in on an intimate moment between Mookyul and Ewon, causing Ewon to start to question his place in the world and his relationship with Mookyul. As an escape, Ewon tries to return to normality by hanging out with his friends, but Mookyul does not handle Ewon being away from him well and gets himself invited along. Now given the fact that Mookyul has a short fuse and a quick tempter, this is a disaster waiting to happen, and of course it does.

Their obsessive relationship would be toxic, but because this is BL, it works. Everything is forgiven and they spend the rest of the release rehashing their obsessive commitment to each other.

I would like to say that I’m still totally captivated by their story, but I’m feeling like the characters keep falling into the same trap, making the same mistakes and covering the same ground. If it wasn’t so pretty, I would have given up on this one by now.

Rating: ♦♦♦

This manga is done by the artist who brought us The President’s Time. This release is cute, but it’s not quite as good as Man’s Best Friend by Kazusa Takashima. I don’t know about this one, really. I get slightly skeeved out at the thought of a guy having sex with someone who has a tail and floppy ears. What saves this release for me is the fact that it’s a very sweet story and very well drawn.

Shiba was the beloved dog of Taketora’s grandfather. Shiba comes back in human form, wanting to take care of Taketora’s grandfather. Now, by this time Takatora’s grandfather has passed away, so Shiba decides to repay his debt of gratitude by serving Taketora. Shiba, though, is a walking disaster and is constantly making a mess or getting into trouble. For some reason, Shiba’s clumsiness endears him to Taketora and a physical relationship develops.

Problems arise when another dog/human hybrid shows up, Akatsuki. Akatsuki was a stray who was saved from an angry mob by a kind priest. The priest promises Akatsuki that they would stay together, but soon after that promise the priest passed away. This caused Akatsuki to grow jaded and bitter, and he wants Shiba to join him in his misery. It’s Akatsuki’s comments that lead Shiba to believe that it’s his fault when Taketora falls ill. Since Shiba is taking the blame, he leaves Taketora to save him.

This being a BL release, there’s a wonderfully happy ending for all of the characters, including Akatsuki. It’s a sweet story and very graphic, but I just can’t find the dog/man hybrid to be erotic. Still, the art is good enough to make me a very happy girl and the story is cute. I just don’t feel comfortable with anything that even gets close to furries.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Okay, anything by Ayano Yamane makes me happy. This release makes me especially happy with the fantasy setting, magical creatures, cursed swords and pretty boys banging each other’s brains out. What more could a fangirl ask for?

Now, they did change one thing from the first release. They changed the spelling of the main character’s name. In the first release, his name was spelled Bald. This lead me to picture things other than a pretty bishy-boy with soft, flowing hair. In the original scanlations, the name was translated as Val. When I sent my review of the first release to Kitty Media and voiced my complaint about the translation, they responded back that they had checked with Yamane and that she prefers the ‘Bald’ translation of his name.

So, after all that, it kind of came as a surprise to see the name changed to Vald in this release. I’m happy to see the change as now I’m not reminded of a bald, sweaty, salary-man when I’m reading. However, given the fact that the change was made without any explanation, I feel it may confuse some readers. I know that I would be confused if I opened a book to find that the main character had a new name.

In this volume, we have more magical creatures and more of demon-boy Vald being banged by Havi. We’re still searching for a way to break Vald’s curse, but there are forces scheming to make sure that Vald stays cursed. Making things more interesting is that Vald is starting to crave Havi’s touch without knowing why. The demon’s wants are starting to break through to Vald’s human psyche and confusing the hell out of him.

I’m hoping that the next volume will be out quickly. Boy-smut fantasy is hard to come by. When I find it, I only want more of it.

__________

UPDATE:
At a recent anime convention I was attending, I found out that they re-released the first volume of the series, with the name change. I went to their website to see if Kitty Media had made any announcements about the change in printing, but I found that their website had not been updated since 2007.
The announcement was made at their E-bay store. Which, if you ask me, is a pretty silly place to be making announcements about things like this. On the back of all of their releases, they list their website as kitty-media.com, not their E-bay store.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this release. The first volume was so sweet and funny that I found myself completely hooked. I’m happy to say that the second volume continues with the sweetness and inspired lunacy that made the first volume such a treat.

So again, we have Ozawa, who is very earnestly giving his all to the publishing company. He’s determined to be the best editor that he can be. This is all well and good, but it doesn’t leave him much time to see his lover, Kakyoin. Now, if you remember from last time, Kakyoin is a BL artist, working under a female pseudonym. The only people that know he’s a male are Ozawa, the head of the editorial department and Kakyoin’s devoted team of Gothic Lolita assistants.

When Ozawa and Kakyoin manage to be alone with each other, it’s explosive, but it’s really hard for them to find that time. Things get even more strained when the head of the editorial department sends Ozawa on an interview to judge a new artist.

This new artist just happens to be a gay man. When the new guy shows promise, the editor-in-chief is no dummy and wants to see if she can make magic happen twice. She wants Ozawa to work with this new guy, to see if he can inspire him the way that Kakyoin does. Ozawa’s game as long as he doesn’t have to sleep with the new guy. His ass belongs to Kakyoin.

Then, the editor-in-chief gets the bright idea that Kakyoin should mentor the new guy. That would work, except for the fact that no one knows that Kakyoin is a guy! Ugh! What a mess.

It all works out in the end, but it’s quite a ride getting there. I love the humor and the tone of this series. It pokes fun at the BL industry without ever being mean-spirited. It’s just all-around cute and wonderful. The only thing that I don’t like is the length of time between releases!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

I love Clare London’s characters. They’re always so vivid and leap off of the page. You find yourself cheering them on, just waiting for the happy ending that you know is lurking out there for them. This story is no exception.

First, we have Nic, a bright, young, entrepreneur who has, along with his lead programmer, Aidan, created a dating agency which is just about to go public. The site is quite successful, but Nic has an idea that is really going to revolutionize the online match-making world. He wants to remove the gender matching questions to match people up with their true soul-mates. After all, if you’re closing yourself off to half the population, you may be missing something really special. Aidan is just the man to get this programing right. He and Nic worked well together when they were getting the site off the ground.

This all sounds good, but add in the fact that Nic is starting to crack under the pressure of living in the spotlight, the danger of a hacker trying to take down their system and then throw in Nic’s attraction to Aidan. Now, Aidan is not the best when it comes to interpersonal relations. He’s much better with computers than he is with people. Especially with people like Nic, who he’s attracted to, even though he’s fighting the attraction with all that he’s got. Sparks are definitely going to fly when these two clash and get together. Friction creates sparks and there’s plenty of friction between these two.

I really enjoyed this story, mainly because the characters were not perfect. Give me flawed characters any day. Nic is far too stubborn and Aidan’s anti-social tendencies made them that much more real to me. London has created a true jewel with this release. Anyone who enjoys male/male erotic novels is going to find a lot to like with this one!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Even after fourteen volumes, I’m still amazed by just how gorgeous the art is in this series. I’m still madly in love with Dai and Jaehee. I’m still convinced that they’re going to break my heart. I should not be as in love with this series as I am. It doesn’t have anything in common with the other series that I obsess over, except for the pure emotion that the characters display.

After a night spent celebrating their feelings for each other, the boys fall asleep at Dai’s summer house. Their peace is shattered after Dai’s father finds out what the boys are up to. Dai is dragged away by his father’s bodyguards and his father is bound and determined to permanently separate the two.

Now, Dai’s father has been trying to do this for the past few volumes, but this time he’s managed to do it. He uses his power and his money to get Jaehee transferred to another school. This sends Dai into another cold and destructive cycle. Dai takes all of his feelings and shoves them deep inside, only to have his anger and frustration burst out, causing him to lash out at those who care for him the most.

Add into the mix, the brother of one of Eunhyung’s rapists, Dai-Oxin, who has been wanting to take Dai down as a way of getting revenge for his brother, and it’s a volatile combination. His revenge backfires in a tragic way, hurting guilty and innocent alike.

There’s only one volume left, and much like Love Mode, I’m really going to miss the anticipation of waiting for the next volume to come out. I always try to take my time and read through it twice so I can savor all of the nuances. The only good thing about the series ending is the knowledge that I will be able to re-read the series for pure enjoyment without making reviewer’s notes in my head as I read.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I’m torn on this one. On one hand, it’s really pretty and parts are kind of hot. On the other hand, the story is nothing I want to write to you all about in gushing terms. It’s just kind of so-so. One of the hardest parts about writing reviews, is trying to find words when something is just mediocre. Words are easy to come by when I love a release or when I want to warn you away from one, but when I don’t feel much of anything about a release, writing a review starts to feel like a book report. I always hated writing book reports.

So, this is a BL twist on a ghost story. Yuuya is caught between Kyosuke, a former classmate who is now a ghost, and Katsuki, a childhood friend who on top of wanting to get into Yuuya’s pants and has the ability to be possessed by ghosts. Kyosuke wants Yuuya, but being a ghost, he can’t touch him. Then Kyosuke takes over Katsuki and finds out that he can touch Yuuya. This equals much happiness for our ghostly friend.

Katsuki doesn’t care for being possessed, doesn’t care for Yuuya being friends with Kyosuke and is just all around cranky with the situation. Poor Yuuya. He’s getting molested every time he turns around. This is what makes the story slightly hot. What detracts from the hotness is the lack of character development and the fact that I really don’t care about the characters motivations.

This is one where I would just skim through the pages where there was a semblance of a plot to get to the smut scenes. There’s a definite market for a release like this, but it’s not quite my cup of tea.