Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I have been waiting for this one! I had forgotten just how gorgeous Modoru Motoni’s artwork is. Her boys seem so real–awkward and over-emotional. Their feelings are screaming at them to do one thing, yet they’re pushing away to protect themselves.

I really surprises me how much I like this series when I hated her other release, Poison Cherry Drive with the burning fire of a thousand suns. I guess it just goes to show you what you can do with a coherent plot line.

Now that Teru and Miki have settled into a strange sort of routine, of course, things have to come in to pull them apart. This wouldn’t be BL with out a boatload of problems keeping our heroes from committing to each other, right? Posturing, violence and remnants from their pasts keep our heroes in a state of flux until they start to smarten up and realize what’s really important.

It’s hard to pair violence and a bittersweet romance together, and have it work, but that’s what this series has done. I’m going to miss this series. I’m hoping that there’s going to be more from Modoru Motoni, but only if it’s of the caliber of Dog Style. Life’s too short to waste my time on crappy manga.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Rock star boys always make me happy. Throw in the angst that Est Em is known for, and I’m madly in love. Manga doesn’t get much better than this. I need to remember that when I get burnt out on the genre that reading Est Em is a surefire way of reminding myself why I like this damn genre in the first place.

We start off with the story of Nick and Billy, a singer and a guitarist. They’re being torn apart by addictions and their attraction to each other. They’re no good together, but they’re even worse apart. When the band starts to take off, Nick’s free-wheeling ways wear thin on the other band members, but Billy can’t see himself without Nick at his side.

It all manages to make me happy and break my heart at the same time–something Est Em has always been able to do. I go into her releases knowing that I’m going to end up crying, but look forward to them anyway.

Do not miss this one. Rob your piggy banks, put off buying something else this week, but pick up this release. It will bring you back to your first days of reading scanlations–the first thrill of the wonderful combination of angst and boys in love–that got you into this genre in the first place!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Yuki Shimizu isn’t on the top of most people’s list of favorite manga artists. Heck, she don’t even get on my top ten list most of the time. That’s a shame because the art is amazing and the stories always suck me in.

Her work isn’t as flashy nor as graphic as some of the artists and that’s the only reason I can think of why people aren’t clamoring over her work. I just know that every time I get done reading one of her releases, I’m happy and left counting the days until the next volume will be mailed to me.

This series isn’t quite as crack-like as Love Mode, the series that Shiumizu is really well known for, but I’m finding it to be just as addictive as my beloved Love Mode.

In this volume, we’re exploring what happens to a kami-sama when their kotodama-sama dies. Normally, the kami-sama chooses to die as well–reverting to a blank state. In the case of Himi, when his master passed away, his sense of obligation forces him to become a kami-sama for his old masters estranged son, Genma.

Gema has a different way of showing his affection than his father did. The physicality of Gema’s affection is something foreign to Himi. At first, Himi wants nothing to do with this brutish new master, but, of course, he starts to see the good in Genma and begins to fall for him.

I’m happy to see backgrounds for more of the Mitou family. I’m happy to have this series in print and in English. I can’t sing the praises of this one highly enough. It’s just wonderful on all levels.

Rating: ♦♦♦

It’s hard to get cranky with a release when it’s just over-the-top fun. Oh, there are things that drove me crazy about it, especially Kitty Media’s continued elimination of the honorifics, but I’m going to push that aside and concentrate on what I did like. This is not a release for those of you who want a serious, complicated story. This is fluff with a dollop of censored penis with a touch of uke-boy saying that they don’t want it, when in reality they’re gagging for it.

There’s nothing new in this–it’s something we’ve all seen over and over again. Yet, when it’s done with such light-hearted fun, I have a hard time remembering that stories like this annoy me.

The first set of stories revolve around Motonari Tsuda, a surgeon, who teaches physician Tomoki Shirashi the joys of male on male sex. Of course, Tomoki swears up and down that he hates Tsuda’s attention and doesn’t want any of this. However, circumstances lead to Tsuda leaving Tomoki. Tomoki just falls apart only to have Tsuda rush in, re-introduce him to the wonders of his penis and things are back to being happy and lovey-dovey.

It’s just kind of silly, but it’s a well drawn kind of silly and for some reason makes me really happy to read.