Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

You know, I never thought I would find a story that deals with a split-personality disorder interesting. It just seems like a slightly clichéd plot… Wait. This is a BL series. BL series thrive on clichéd plots.

Atsushi Ikeda has a soft spot for things that need to be taken care of. Everything from stray kittens to the battered and confused boy that he finds out in front of his apartment. The boy claims to be Riya Narukawa and the only thing he has on him is a violin that he claims belonged to his twin brother. His violin prodigy twin brother. His twin brother who is now dead and whose spirit can inhabit Riya’s body and impart to him the skill to play the violin.

Something about Riya brings out Atsushi’s protective streak and he gives him a key to his apartment. Just in case he ever needs somewhere to go to get away from everything.

Now for those of us who haven’t figured this out yet, Riya has a split personality. He’s got one personality who’s rough and tough and can deal with the pressures of being a prodigy and with the pressure cooker environment that is his high school; the other personality is the shy, uncertain, completely lacking in manners that began to get under Atsushi’s skin.

Atsushi finds himself getting drawn into Riya’s life, like it or not, and Riya’s softer personality keeps running to Atsushi for shelter.

This series seems like it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun if you just suspend your disbelief and everything you know about mental disorders and just kind of go with the flow. I know it’s completely unrealistic, but the story keeps sucking me in.

June, as always, did a lovely job with the presentation. The art is in the sketchy, slumpy style that I’ve always loved when it comes to presenting high school boys and the story, while inherently confusing, just flows gracefully from front to back.

Don’t let the impossible plotline stop you from picking this one up if you’re the kind of person who’s a sucker for some good, angsty, romance.

Rating: ♦♦

I was very disappointed in the second volume of this series. The first book had so much promise, I was just waiting for Atsushi to run in and sweep Riya off his feet and make everything all better. Instead, we have the characters nattering at each other for most of the book and very little plot progression.

We do have Atsushi moving in to keep an eye on Riya on the request of Riya’s cousin, Saki. Saki is a musician just like Riya and knows some of the details of Riya’s abuse as a child. Atsushi is supposed to report to Saki as to the mental state of Riya on any given day. Atsushi calls the quiet and easily flustered personality “White” and the aggressive and self-assured personality “Black”.

It seems that Atsushi is equally attracted to each personality, but Riya’s black side seems to have no interest. And let’s not forget Kousaka-sempai who slept with the Riya’s “White” personality and is doing his best to get back into his pants.

It just feels to me that the plot is going in circles. Maybe it’s going to spiral down to a conclusion in a few volumes, but right now it just feels stagnant to me. It’s sad that a series that had so much promise has such a disappointing second volume.

June’s presentation was stellar and the art is still fantastic, I just wish I could get excited about this series. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that things pick up in the third volume. It really can’t get much worse than this.