Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Before I start this review, I want to point out that Games With Me 1 is only available for Kindle right now. I think with enough interest though, a hardcopy will become available. So, if you’ve read this already, spread the word, do a review, do something, to get this great GloBL manga published!

I think Games With Me is great. This is Tina Anderson and Lynsley Brito I’m talking about. No one should be surprised. As to why Games is great: The atmosphere is just right. It plays out like a movie with quick-moving scenes with intriguing characters.

We are first introduced to Dr. George Callahan. George is a Civil War veteran/surgeon running from his past. He takes care of the men and women in the brothels of San Francisco’s Chinatown. When not making the rounds, George is smoking opium. George is no angel, but he’s a good man.

While working, George comes across the beautiful Jun. Jun is a mentally-handicapped Chinese prostitute, but he’s more child-like than anything. After a couple of meetings, George begins to suspect he knew Jun when they were children. If they did, what is George supposed to do with Jun?

There is more to this story than I’m telling. I don’t want to spoil it, though! There are more great characters besides George and Jun. There are subplots which really give a depth to Games With Me. The sex scenes are not explicit, but actually further the story.

Anyway, I can’t praise this volume enough. When I first sat down to compose this review, I was too caught up in the story to write. For me, that is saying something.

Rating: ♦♦♦

Again, I’m faced with a release where it’s not really bad, but it bores me to tears. It’s another anthology collection. A well done anthology collection–one with nice art work and fairly good stories, but it’s an anthology collection. And, I’m heartily sick of those.

This artist is quite good. I spent a good amount of time admiring how she drew feet, as there were a couple of good scenes of boys humping with heels turned up to the ceiling. Feet have always been something I failed at drawing, so I notice it when someone manages to get the curves and the shadows drawn properly. I’m just slightly disappointed in a manga when the best thing I can say about it is that the artist can draw feet well.

It is cute. It’s sweet and some of the stories are very well done. But, like a lot of releases from June, we’ve all seen this before. I’m tired of twenty-page stories. I want a story that takes up one full book. Hell, get crazy and release something that has more than one volume, so we have time to get some character development in.

It’s a shame that this comes out when I’m so sick and tired of releases like this because the art really is pretty good. It’s something I would have liked more if I wasn’t so sick of seeing similar releases. I really enjoyed the anthology of her earlier work, Manhattan Love Story, but that had more to do with the nostalgic charm of the release and the fact that the stories were all interconnected, outweighing my bitch-fest over anthologies.

Rating: ♦♦♦

While we’ve seen this type of anthology before, and I’m pretty bored with it, there are elements in this release that makes it worth reading. I enjoyed the art. The stories, while predictable, were cute. Just about everything that could be done well was done well. It’s just that this kind of anthology is a dime a dozen with 801 Media. Cute boy #1 meets up with cute boy #2. There’s some angst and misunderstanding, then POOF! It’s happy buttsex time.

So, it’s really hard for me to get all excited about this release when there’s nothing to get excited over. Now, if they wanted to bring over something this artist has done that had a bit more of an in-depth plot line, I would be all over it.

The opening story was kind of cute. It revolved around a leader of a foreign crime syndicate, his bodyguard, who has been in love with him forever, and how they got around to admitting their feelings for each other.

Then, there was the story about the doctors who were carrying on a relationship during work hours. That is until one of them decided that he had enough of screwing in the hospital and then starts angsting because the other doctor won’t talk to him.

Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s just different costumes on practically the same characters.

If it wasn’t done so well and with so much lightheartedness and joy, I would really be cranky with this release. Yet, in reading the author’s notes, her joy in the characters and the fun she had while writing the stories shine through. Honestly, I can’t get too angry with it.

This is an artist I’m going to keep my eye out for more of. I just hope I can get something more in-depth than a boring, old anthology.