Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦

I’m really tired of anthologies, yet I’m still happy when I find one that doesn’t totally suck. This one has the usual conventions that make me cranky–angsty school-boys and misunderstandings abound. However, it manages to transcend the bits that make me cranky and turn it into something that I may just read again.

Top that off with some lovely, expressive art and I find myself unable to be cranky at this release. Hell, I’m hoping that this artist is able to produce a full volume of manga and not just a collection of short stories because I would love to see more from her.

We start off with the story of Abe, an author, who wants nothing more than quiet and solitude so he can write. The problem is that he’s unable to put pencil to paper and write. That is until a blast from his past shows up on his doorstop and asks for a place to stay.

Two years ago Abe took advantage of a young intern at his publishing company, Katsumi, starting a brief affair with him. Part of Abe’s doldrums is remembering his time with Katsumi.

So, when Katsumi shows up like a stray cat looking for a pet and a dry place to sleep, Abe can’t find a way to reject him. Of course, this means that Katsumi starts to twine around Abe like ivy. This makes it so Abe can’t imagine living without him.

It’s sweet and slightly hot. What really charmed me was the slightly different twist on the stories we’ve seen over and over again. It’s really nothing new, but it’s fresh enough that I enjoyed the reading.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I’ve been off of June’s paperback releases for a while. I don’t have the loathing for them that a lot of people have, but they’re not the easiest reading. This one, though, sucked me in by virtue of the fact that I’m a huge fan of the illustrator, Hirotaka Hisaragi. This is the artist behind the series Innocent Bird, which I found to be visually stunning.

Now, this book is based on the series of the same name that Kisaragi wrote. Only, Kisaragi didn’t write this book and new characters were invented. So, you could look at it as a bit of AU fanfiction. That being said, I did find a lot I liked in the book–and not just the illustrations. The idea behind the world is that certain people can fall into an alternate world, the Depths of Dreams, and there they can fight demons who want nothing more than to go to the human world and feast on humans.

The humans who have the ability to fall into the Depths of Dreams are called Dark Walkers. Dark Walkers also have the ability to fight the demons, though it’s a perilous task. See, if they kill too many demons, they run the risk of turning into a demon themselves.

One of our main characters, Yuugo, gained his wings in this way. He defeated a crow demon and stole the wings. This makes me very happy as I have a bit of a kink for boys with wings.

So, there’s this shadow world that our main character, Tomoki, knows nothing about. All he knows is that when he falls asleep, he’s taken by a mystery lover, someone who’s face he can’t see, but someone who begs Tomoki to remember him. This confuses the hell out of Tomoki, who’s pretty sure that he’s not attracted to guys, but is dreaming about being screwed six ways to Sunday.

Of course, this means that Tomoki’s a Dark Walker and his lover is charged with keeping him safe as he grows into his powers. It’s just getting Tomoki to realize who his lover is in time and learning how to harness these powers to keep them both safe that is going to be the challenge.

All in all, it’s really not a bad read. It’s just kind of stilted and of course having bits that make me cringe, what with the lack of lube and all, but that’s something that I’ve come to expect from BL novels. However, it just registers as a minor irritation now.

While I can’t say to run out and buy this one, I will say that it’s pretty as hell. It is something that I will probably read again the next time I need to scratch my itch for boys with wings.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I don’t know that much about the Crusades. Oh, through my love of history, I may know more than the average person on the street, but this really isn’t my favorite time period to study. I think my lack of knowledge helped me in enjoying this release because this is the Crusades as seen through a BL filter, so it’s twisted beyond recognition.

There’s Leonard, a monastic knight, charged with protecting Gerun fortress. They’re fighting against the infidel Turks lead by General Jamal Jan. The monastic knights are vastly outnumbered–their defeat and destruction is guaranteed. Well, that is until Leonard gets an idea of how to save the villagers in the fortress. He gives himself over to Jan. Okay, prisoner of war. Got it. Makes sense. They could ransom him off for a boatload of money.

Except, that Jan has other things in store for Leonard. This is where it gets interesting. Jan orders Leonard to strip, not just down to his tighty-whites, but completely bare-ass naked. He then proceeds to bring Leonard off in front of all his troops, then takes him on the floor of the fortress.

Jan then brings Leonard back to Turkey with him to account for his actions to the sultan. The sultan isn’t too pleased with Jan’s actions, but leaves Leonard to make his own choice. He can either be treated as a true prisoner of war or he can become Jan’s sex toy.

The whole thing is well done and very well drawn, but very silly. In fact, my favorite chapter was the last chapter and told from the point of view of Cerberus, a black panther, who is a pet of the sultan. Anything told from a cat’s point of view is instant hilarity to me. It just sums up how silly the whole thing is.

I didn’t think I was going to be able to say this, but I really am looking forward to the next book to see what happens to these characters. I say try this one–just don’t expect anything that even remotely resembles historical accuracy in it.

801 released this one without the dust jacket, though. While I’m kind of sad to see it go, as it added a nice touch to the books, if they need to do it to save money and keep quality smut coming out to us, then I’m all for it.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I do love vampire stories. Vampires are erotic all on their own, so throw in some BL touches and I’m in heaven. This is such a nice change from the schoolboys and saccharine sweetness that I’m used to seeing from June. This vampire isn’t a fluffy bunny. No, he’s angsty and tortured and seems to have a rich back story that’s going to get revealed in future volumes. Our willing victim, Lou, finds himself caring for the vampire after he’s asked to paint a portrait of his true face. In Kusumoto’s mythology, vampires can not see their reflections. Vampires also seem to have the ability to transform into a winged demon when weakened or angered.

Our vampire, Sein, also has a history with a young man named Adam whose family is the keeper of some esoteric secrets. Secrets that can bind Sein or set him free. Throw in another vampire who’s got it in for Sein, has a kink for interesting torture and you’ve got something that draws you in and keeps you interested.

The relationship between Lou and Sein is complicated. I’m still not sure the depth of Sein’s feelings, though Lou has fallen under Sein’s spell. Sein was first attracted to Lou because Lou looks exactly like his grandfather, whom Sein used to spend time with.

It leaves you asking questions. Just what exactly was the relationship between Lou’s grandfather and Sein? What does Adam know that he’s not telling? What’s going to happen to our sweet, innocent Lou who is dragged into something far beyond what he was expecting when he took the vampire’s commission?

This release is extremely well drawn and sucked me in from page one. I can’t sing the praises of this one enough. It’s got everything I want in a BL release. Sadly, it’s going to be far too long before they can get the next volume to me. I want to know what’s going to happen! I haven’t been this excited about a series in a long time!

Rating: ♦♦♦

I like Hinako Takanaga. I’ve liked her ever since I read the scanlations of The Tyrant Who Fell In Love. While she’s not out and out raunchy, she does have a nice bit of filth in her stories, and there’s a nice thread of lunacy running through her works.

Now, given the fact that I’m really sick and tired of anthologies, I was of two minds going into this one. I was looking forward to seeing new stuff by Takanaga, but I wasn’t looking forward to short, quick stories with little character development.

The first set of characters proved that my reluctance was well founded. I just didn’t give two shits about what happened to these guys. Shingo has always liked men who were exceptional. His best friend, Koji, has devoted his life to making himself exceptional, so Shingo will pay attention to him. When Shingo’s cousin, who is an exceptional man, comes back on the scene, Koji feels threatened. In the wonderful world of BL, a threatened potential seme when faced with an emotional uke, turns into a full-out seme with the power to force his reluctant uke into the world of pleasure. Yeah. It’s the same contrived plot that we’ve seen over and over again.

Thankfully, the other stories in the release were a breath of fresh air. I particularly liked the ones about the teacher and his student, and the teacher’s non-behaving hair, and the chef and his apprentice who develops a masochistic fetish for his sempai.

While I can’t recommend this one wholeheartedly, it is good enough to say on my keeper shelf. As always, BLU did a very nice job of presentation. I’m pretty sure these are early works of Takanaga, so it’s easy to see the glints of quality that can be found in her later work.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I didn’t hate this one, but it did suffer from the common problem of having the secondary story being a lot more engrossing than the main story. The main story revolves around Shindou who is transfered to a school that is literally falling to pieces. While there, he meets a group of ill-mannered toughs lead by Yousuke. When Shindou realizes that there’s a soft side to Yousuke’s tough exterior, he’s hooked and has informed Yousuke that they’re going to be in a relationship.

After that, it’s just a matter of showing Yousuke how to behave as a proper boyfriend in a BL manga and getting him over his fits of temper. It’s cute, but there’s nothing really exciting. Oh, I did really like the way the other members of the gang were drawn, but it’s nothing to start jumping up and down in excitement about.

The secondary story revolves around a teacher and his student. The teacher is very gruff and stern–always walking around with a pissy expression on his face. After the student sees him with his eyes red, he wants to see what would be effecting his teacher.

It turns out that under that gruff exterior, the teacher cries at the drop of a hat. Now, this fact makes our young student fall instantly in love with the teacher. It sounds silly, and it is, but it was done really well in the book.

I think I would enjoy seeing more of this artist. I would just hope that she would expand her stories and try to do something other than school boys!

Rating: ♦♦

There’s really nothing wrong with this release. I just don’t care for Kanzaki’s storytelling. She’s a talented artist and if she ever released an artbook, I would most likely buy it. I just want to look at the pretty pictures, not suffer through her attempts at stringing a story together. I’m going to guess that she’s popular somewhere for June and 801 to keep bringing her stuff over, but in all honesty, I’m tired of her and I’ve only read three or four releases by her.

This is an anthology and it’s pretty predictable. School boys with impossible romantic entanglements. Sex scenes that are only tepid and no emotional hooks to make you care about the characters.

The first story is about Hisashi, a amateur model, and fan of the supermodel Tomohito. Tomohito is nothing like Hisashi imagined and a surprise kiss leaves Hisashi questioning whether or not he really wants to get involved with a business that has people like Tomohito in it. He doesn’t wonder too long, though, because the limp sparks fly between these two and they end up in a relationship. It’s hard to care about the fact that they have a happy ending when you really don’t give a shit about what happens to the characters.

Now, I know 801 is better than this. Most of their releases are things that I’m really excited about–things that go directly to my keeper shelf. I’m going to hope that their next release is something better, something that’s hot enough and engaging enough to erase this release from my memory.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

It makes me far too happy to be able to hold a copy of a work by Sadahiro in my hot little hands. She’s one of the artists that I swore up and down that we would never see in this country. Now, I’m pretty sure that we’re still never going to see stuff like Rub in Love or Under Grand Hotel over here, but at this point, I will be very happy to be proved wrong!

As I stated in my review for Pathos 1, part of the beauty of this series is that it’s really not graphic at all. Vampires can’t get it up, so they get their sexual release from drinking blood. What makes this series unbelievably filthy is the subject matter and how Sadahiro handles it.

Come on! It’s vampires! By their very nature, it’s erotic. Throw in a heavy dose of melodrama, teenage angst, jealousy and you get something that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Is it cheesy at times with that heavy dose of melodrama? You bet. Am I complaining? Not a chance in hell.

At the end of the first book, King made a deal with Ace. If he waits four years before coming home again, until he’s eighteen, King will not stand in the way of J and Ace’s affair. So, Ace returns from his exile to awaken his brothers from their sleep and to see if he can be brought over to join them. J and Ace then spend the next few days doing the vampire equivalent of screwing each other blind until their carelessness leads to J being injured.

King then rejects Ace’s bid to become a vampire. Well, Ace isn’t going to stand for that, so he forces King’s hand and kills himself. Surprise, surprise, they end up bringing Ace over to save him. Now the question is, is there room for King in the obsessive relationship that Ace and J have forged or is their love going to destroy all three of them.

I want more quality stuff like this from June. They’ve shown us what they’re capable of and it’s not just school boys.