Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I always enjoy Makoto Tateno’s work. I’ve really been happy with this series, and it’s follow up, Steal Moon. There’s something about this dystopian society, with assassins and cabals that just pushes all of my buttons.
Plus, there’s angst and pretty boys screwing. Hell, throw in some Mecha and some teenage pilots, and this would be my version of Gundam Wing.

I love the tension between Kai and Lahti. By now, I shouldn’t be all impressed with Tateno’s deft handling of angst, and longing, but she still manages to get me every time.

Kai wants Lahti, but Lahti is giving off mixed signals. Then there’s the underlying drama of Lahti’s assassin sister, Maria, who captured Kai’s heart - and his conflict with his perfect image of Maria, and the truth of the assassin that she really is.

What drives me crazy is that I shouldn’t like this as much as I do. In one scene, Lahti hauls off and smacks Kai across the face, and Kai goes crawling back to him, like a puppy dog who doesn’t know any better.
My femmi-nazi self is screaming that I should be offended by this, not turned on and enthralled, yet, I’m sucked in and left wanting more.

That’s the talent of Tateno. This is old-school, stereotypical BL. The stuff that normally makes me cranky. Yet, when presented this well, I find myself remembering exactly why I like the genre in the first place.

I’m just in it for the angst.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 8:31 pm and is filed under ♦♦♦♦, Blue Sheep Reverie, Tateno, Makoto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.