Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Kyouji is just your average, amazingly buff, long-haired, monk-in-training, exorcist, who just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous. Yu is his childhood friend and lover. Everything is going along swimmingly, except for the fact that they can’t consummate their relationship because Yu has super-human strength and every time he gets excited he ends up practically maiming Kyouji.

So, we’ve got our basic high school angst with some nice bits of freaky paranormal things going on and making things interesting for the boys.

No matter what, Kyouji is always kind and patient to his impatient, over-enthusiastic lover. It’s just all-around sweet how devoted their relationship is. There’s never any question as to whether or not these two love each other. It’s just a question of how they’re going to be able to fuck like bunnies without needing trips to the emergency room afterwards.

One of the things that amused me most in this book is the fact that the character designs were taken from a series of Gundam Wing doujinshi that Takakura Row did featuring Duo and Heero. Picture Kyouji with a braid and you’ve pretty much got what her version of Duo looked like. Of course, her Duo had his hair down an awful lot because that’s just all kinds of hot.

This is just a fun series. While it’s not as plot heavy as some of the more popular series out there, it’s very endearing and the art is just top notch. Oh, and did I mention that the smut is hot? Not just kind of hot, but “oh my freaking god will you two just fuck now” hot.

While Kitty Media did a great thing in bringing over Row Takakura’s works, I just wish that some more effort had been put into keeping the original feel of the manga. Leaving in the honorifics, including the full-color front insert and keeping the printing out of the binding would have been nice touches, but I’m just really glad to have her stuff available in the US any way I can get it!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

So, when we last left this impossibly pretty pair, there was some tension going on between Yu and Yu’s cousin, Kaoru. Kaoru has his sights set on Kyouji, and we all know that Yu’s not going to stand for anyone or anything getting in the way of him and Kyouji. Yu’s wicked plans of ravaging Kyouji are disrupted when Kyouji’s sent into the mountains to train. Pure mind and pure body to do good on college exams and stuff like that.

Understandably, Kyouji’s not thrilled about going. He’s not really into the whole meditation thing, and when he was younger the place where he’s lodging used to really creep him out. The only thing that made it bearable at the time was the fact that Yu would always find a way to sneak along to keep him company.

So, of course, Yu finds a way to sneak along this time as well. There’s a case of disappearing girls and a murder and intrigue that the boys find themselves in the thick of and manage to prove, as is the usual, that together they can get through everything.

And then have really hot sex afterwards.

The book also includes the short story “The Best Place,” which is a showcase of one of the things that Row Takakura does best. She’s great at creating tales of outsiders who manage, through the power of sex, to find happiness.

This story focuses on Toru, a disinherited son who has returned home for his father’s funeral to collect the money that he’s sure his father has left him. There’s a slight problem with this in the fact that Toru’s father has adopted Kenji in his absence and has left everything to him. Kenji offers to split the inheritance with Toru if Toru will sleep with him. But of course Kenji’s got other plans, aside from just screwing Toru into the mattress.

It’s a lovely little bittersweet story, the kind that are my favorite from Row Takakura. She does sweetness and light like in I Can’t Stop Loving You! amazingly well, but it’s the darker stories that really suck me in.

Let’s hope that with the success of the Row Takakura books, that Kitty Media has brought over so far that they will continue bringing over more great work from her. I know she’s got a few more anthologies out there. I’ve got them in the original Japanese. I know I can’t be the only Row Takakura fangirl out there who would be squeeing with glee to find that there was more of her work available in English!