Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

Angst, guns, violence, sex and a computer on the moon set on destruction. Oh, and bastardized Egyptian myths. I don’t think they could have fit any other plot devices in this series if they tried. You would think with a mix like this, the story wouldn’t work, but it does. Just like every other story by Tateno. I get pulled into the eroticism of the story and it all works together.

Nozomi’s on the run after Coyote’s betrayal, but ends up getting sucked back into the intrigue and mystery surrounding Isis–the computer on the moon I mentioned. Nozomi believes that Coyote didn’t feel anything for him, but we all know that’s not true. Throw in an extremely hot sexual torture scene and you’ve got a confirmed couple ready to take on anything to save the other one–even if it means sacrificing one them to save the other.

I can’t say enough good things about this series. Like all of Tateno’s works, it grabs you viscerally and doesn’t let go. One of the best things that June has done has been to license and bring over her works!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Let’s hear it for sci-fi stories and boys in impossible outfits! The only thing that could have made this story better would be to throw in an apocalypse or two, but hey, the series is still young. There’s still time for the world to end. Hell, with the way this one ends, there’s a strong possibility that I may get that!

There’s Nozomi, who is the reigning street fighting champ, who gets defeated by a stranger named Cyote and ends up forfeiting his freedom. Nozomi ends up locked in a ‘peeping tom’ room where people can tune him and watch him 24/7. The only chance Nozomi has for escape is to earn enough money from his page views to pay for his freedom.

Things aren’t what they seem. There’s a mysterious plot involving computers that are sleepin, the moon, and a whole other set of watchers that end up using Nozomi and confusing the hell out of him. Then there’s Cyote who’s involved with the conspiracy, drags Nozomi into it without explaining anything and ends up worming his way into Nozomi’s affections. As a reader, you go between wanting to see the two consummate the heat that’s been building up between them and wanting Nozomi to punch his lights out and make his escape.

This is over and above Tateno’s usual standards of greatness. The story is fully engaging, the characters are well formed and the whole thing is completely addicting. I’m just hoping that I won’t have to wait another year and a half for the next volume like I did with Hero Heel.