Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦

I have to admit to liking salarymen more than I like schoolboys. Even though the angst and the drama is just aged a few years, workforce romances ring a bit more true to me than tales of blushing first love. Of course I would have enjoyed it more if the story was better, but I guess I can’t ask for everything.

It’s your typical straight-man rapes gay-man and finds that he likes it kind of story. I always want to shake the poor ukes in stories like this and yell at them to stand up for themselves. However, if they were standing up for themselves, they wouldn’t be moaning and mewling in bliss, so it’s a trade off I’ll have to live with.

Our uke-boy, Takayama, has done a pretty good job of hiding the fact that he’s gay from his co-workers until the night that his co-worker, Ishikawa, catches him in the embrace of another man. Ishikawa decides to use this knowledge to his benefit and screws Takayama silly when he decides that the pressure at work has become too much. Eventually, as could be expected, they find that they’re better together than they are apart and ride off into the happy yaoi-land sunset.

I just keep wanting manga with some meat in it. Something that’s going to make me think and get me involved mentally instead of just showing me pictures that get me kind of hot. I need my brain to be involved to get really hot and this manga just didn’t do it for me.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I want to like Nase’s work. When she’s good, she’s hysterical. My issue with her is the fact that her ukes look like they’re all of five years old. I got into this genre because I wanted to see men humping, not prepubescent boys. She’s only done one series that didn’t have this shota style and that hasn’t gotten a US release. Add in the fact that this concept has been done much better before–Takakura Row’s I Can’t Stop Loving You comes to mind–and I’m kind of cranky.

So, there’s Fumiya, a high-school student with the ability to see ghosts. Poor Fumiya is scared of these supernatural beings, so he runs to his childhood friend, Shogo, the son of a temple priest, for help. Shogo isn’t much of a priest. He wants nothing to do with chanting and the family tradition. He just wants into Fumiya’s pants.

Still, a scared Fumiya isn’t a horny Fumiya, so Shogo does do some priest-like things to try and keep Fumiya calm. There’s a series of silly adventures where Fumiya gets scared and runs to Shogo. Finally, the boys realize that they need to be screwing and end up doing so. The end.

Yeah, that’s about all there is. Maybe if it wasn’t for the apparent age, I would be more forgiving of some of the manga’s weak points, but the entire thing just left me feeling like I wasted my money. Nase Yamato has a lot of devoted fans who will snap up this release–just don’t count me among them!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Est Em seems to be the breath of fresh air that I need to keep me interested in this genre. I’m sorry. I do love my boys humping, but there are only so many tales of school-boy angst that I can take before my brain feels like it’s leaking out of my ears. However, I pick up a release like this and it reminds me of just why I do this and why I love this genre. I like the fact that her works make me think, don’t always have a happy ending and skillfully handle subjects that some people might not think would be friendly for happy, hot boysex.

The title story revolves around a matador and the butcher who takes care of his kills. Bullfighting has never been sexy for me, but I can see the fascination. It’s not a truly happy story and you’re left wanting to know exactly what happens to these two characters, if they’re able to salvage their relationship and still able keep the important parts of who they are.

There are stories about love that is lost, love that struggles and love that is just warm and accepting. These stories feel more real than anything I’ve ever read before.

Buy this one. I don’t care if you ignore the rest of the suggestions that I’ve made or am going to make. If you’re tired of the constant parade of fluffy stories with no substance and are getting tired of the whole damn genre, this one will remind you of why this genre can be great.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I keep forgetting how much I like this artist. It was a nice treat for me to pick up this volume and rediscover her high quality art and quirky story lines. And, by quirky, I mean completly out in left field. Some of her other releases have had at least a passing acquaintance with logic, but this one seems to have thrown all of that out the window.

That’s okay though. After reading about sentient, humanoid cats who can fish in the desert for pieces of living room furniture, I’m about ready for anything.

Prince Willis has decided to go slumming and spend a year attending a public college. Eugene is an impoverished student who’s attending the college on a scholarship and has no time to waste on frivolous things like a prince. So, of course, Prince Willis is completely enthralled with Eugene and will do everything in his power to get Eugene to admit this as well.

Kidnapping, paparazzi, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, family drama and pervy teachers. It’s all here. Now, normally, something this wacky would have me bitching and moaning, but this release is so lighthearted and silly that it’s hard not to get sucked into the madness.

I don’t think I would have liked it as much if the art was crap. You really need gorgeous art to sell a story this insane. Maybe, I’m just happy that for once I’m not reading a school-boy romance from DMP.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I like cats. If a story has a cat in it, I am most likely going to find something charming and endearing in the story–even if it is just the cat. So, a series like this with chibi cat boys and girls is something that I was able to find amusing. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever read, but any release that has the sentence “Be still my restless weenie” has to have a few good points.

In all honesty, this is just a light and fluffy fairy tale with two male characters who happen to be in love at the center of it. There’s no sex to speak of. Sorry to disappoint you all. What it does have is some slightly surreal imagery and a good sense of humor. Deux is billing this release as ‘Yaoi in Wonderland’ and I guess that’s as good of a way to describe it as anything.

Anyway, Mao works for a local pizza shop. After some run-ins with the mysterious ‘men in black’ he ends up meeting his future love, the silent Tora. Tora lives with a bunch of humanoid cats of varying ages. After one to many run-ins with the ‘men in black,’ they decide that they need to flee the city. Koyuki, one of the kittens, leads them to a forest in the middle of a desert. There’s already a few humans living there, as well as a whole bunch of humanoid kitties, so they decide to settle there.

Their adventures include Koyuki being able to make anything appear out of the desert sand, a cat-god who no one believes is a god and the misunderstandings of a pair of black cats who, like real cats, are convinced that they are always right.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this one. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked how silly it was without going over the edge into being outlandish. It’s just light and sweet fluff. Every once in a while, I need to get some fluff in my life.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

Every time I think that I’ve had it with this genre and its asinine plots, I find a release that reminds me of why I like it in the first place. Which, of course, is why I bother writing these damn reviews in the first place. For all of its plot cliches and formulatic themes, there’s something new and fresh about this release.

Kento is a teacher whose only goal in life is to get married and have lots of babies. In fact, when we first meet him, he’s getting dumped by his girlfriend because he made those wishes clear. That’s when he runs into Akira. Akira is drinking at the same bar that Kento got dumped in and the two of them decide to spend the evening getting completly trashed. Now, Kento wasn’t planning on sleeping with a male but, that’s what ends up happening. After his night of drunkenness, he wakes up in a hotel room to find Akira gone.

Okay, well, it’s just one night. Something that our intrepid hero can blame on the amount of alcohol he’s consumed. Kento just goes on with his life, trying to figure out how he can get back into his ex-girlfriend’s good graces. Of course, it’s at this point when Akira walks back into his life. Akira’s the new art teacher at the school Kento teaches at.

They both decide to forget that the night ever happened, but you know it’s not going to be that easy - this is a BL manga, after all - and they end up in bed again. Eventually, they decide they’re better together than they are apart and the real problems start.

I can’t say that this release is realistic or that it’s something new and different, but the quality of the storytelling makes the whole thing seem fresh and new. The art is nice and the facial expressions for the characters are fantastic. Again, Deux is proving that their releases are some of the best out there. They’re one company that I have no qualms about buying from.

Rating: ♦♦

I have some kind of mental block when it comes to this artist. I got some books from DMP last week and I grabbed this one to review because the art on the cover was the most appealing. I read it, thought it was utter crap, then put it down until it was time to write the review. Today, I go to add the artist’s name to our tag list and I find that the name is already listed. So, I start searching to see what else this artist has done.

That’s when the cursing started. For those of you who have the same mental block that I do, this is the artist who brought us Love + Alphα and Heavenly Body. This release is more of the same. Same crappy story telling, same pretty art. The only thing that the other releases have that this one is missing is some graphic sex. In fact, the plot line in this release is close to incomprehensible.

We have Kou, who’s moved away from home to attend high school and to avoid forcing his advances on his step-brother, Naruki. This oh-so-clever plan is foiled when Naruki decides that he misses Kou and to attend school with him. Now Kou is faced with keeping the horde of horny teenaged males away from Naruki’s sweet ass. Everyone seems to be attracted to Naruki’s innocence and naivete. To help combat this, Kou’s roommate, Yoshino, comes up with a plan. He will hypnotize Naruki into being someone who can stand up for himself. Well, things don’t work out exactly as planned and they end up turning meek little Naruki into uber-seme boy every time he gets aroused.

Just to make things even more crack-tastic, seme-Naruki’s favorite source of relief is Kou. Kou isn’t too pleased as he was planning on being seme and he’s not sure of Naruki’s true feelings. Throw Yoshino into the mix with the fact that he wants into Kou’s pants and you’ve got something that is definitely not easy to follow.

I like my plots to be a bit crazy, but I also don’t want to feel like I’m watching a bad 80’s soap opera when I’m reading my manga. I need to figure out a way to embed Takashi Kanzaki’s name into my head, so I can avoid all of her works in the future. I don’t need to get this cranky when I’m writing reviews.