Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Oh, Makoto Tateno, how I adore thee. Your art is beautiful, your releases have graphic sex scenes and you suck me in with your convoluted plot twists. I’m always sad to see one of your series end, but I take comfort in the fact that you’re a fairly prolific artist, so I’ll always have something new to look forward to.

So, we’ve come to the last volume of Hero Heel. In this volume, we’ve got the series that the boys are acting in coming to a close. They’re getting ready to film the two-part series finale, but our main actors don’t seem to want to let it go. As you may remember, our two leads are really good at transforming their feelings for each other into meaningless sex and fake relationships with others while trying to keep the other one from knowing their true feelings.

Okay, lust like this has always been one of my buttons. I love the angst that’s involved with two characters wanting each other, but taking out their frustrations and wants on surrogate bodies. Don’t ask me why, but it just does it for me.

During the filming of the finale, Sawada is injured on set and does his best to hide the extent of his injury. Minami, being highly attuned to Sawada, because of course, Sawada is the one that he wants to be screwing, goes to make sure that Sawada is really okay. This prompts the guys to really examine their feelings and evaluate what it is that they’re hiding from.

There’s a happy ending and things all work out in the way that BL novels usually do. However, it’s a fun ride getting there and a ride that Tateno can take me on any day!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

I love Duo Brand. The art is gorgeous and the stories, while not always being graphic, are always full of great emotions and interesting plot twists. It may be a generic love story that she’s telling, but she always makes it seem fresh and interesting. This is something that I greatly appreciate because after reviewing manga for this long, the banal stories just seem to blend together and make me cranky. It’s so nice to have something that sparkles and makes me excited about writing reviews.

This release opens up with the story of a priest and his assistant charged with exorcising demons. The priest has a sword that helps him in his exorcisms, but they still leave him feeling weak and drained. His assistant, and his lover, wants him to take more care and to make sure he protects himself.

Don’t worry too much about the priest; see, there’s something that they don’t know yet and this is the thread that ties all of the stories together. Inside the sword is a spirit that isn’t going to let any harm come to the priest. In fact, there’s a whole brotherhood of spirits, living in swords, fighting and loving amongst themselves in the downtime they have between doing the jobs that they were forged to do.

The rest of the stories follow in the same vein, showcasing Duo Brand’s stoic semes and gorgeously vulnerable ukes. While I’m not always fond of the stereotypes being so well defined, there’s something about her characters that makes me accept it–even look forward to it.

Now, I vaguely remember reading scanlations of this a long time ago and thinking what a cute idea it was. June has kept the sweetness that I remember from the scanlations and has improved upon it. It’s actually pretty amazing how far June has come from their first releases with their fairly painful translations. While I still think they release too many school-boy romance titles, I’m pretty pleased with them as a publisher. I’m hoping that we get more Duo Brand stuff released here and soon. We need more quality stuff like this!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Again, that faint squealing sound you hear in the distance? That’s the sound of me letting out a fangirl shriek for getting a copy of this in English. What can I say? Toko Kawai just does it for me. Sweet angsty stories, gorgeous art and bits of humor sprinkled in to keep me grinning, even while the characters are suffering.

Now, this isn’t one of her really angsty series, but it does have its moments and they strike me hard. If you’re not a Kawai fan already, you should be. She’s not as graphic as some of the other artists I sing the praises of, but the sheer quality of her work makes up for any lacking in smut.

When we last left Nishioka and Matsukawa, things seemed to be going well. They had started to admit their feelings and were well on their way to falling into bed on a regular basis. However, because this is the wonderful land of boy smut, things don’t always work out the way we want it to for our intrepid heroes.

Work pressures and rivalries throw obstacles in their way, making the path to a happy-ever-after seem further and further away. Of course, we’ve got a happy ending in there. This is the wonderful world of yaoi, but Kawai really makes them work for it.

I can’t rave enough about this artist and this series. She always goes directly to my keeper shelf.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

It makes me far too happy to be able to hold a copy of a work by Sadahiro in my hot little hands. She’s one of the artists that I swore up and down that we would never see in this country. Now, I’m pretty sure that we’re still never going to see stuff like Rub in Love or Under Grand Hotel over here, but at this point, I will be very happy to be proved wrong!

As I stated in my review for Pathos 1, part of the beauty of this series is that it’s really not graphic at all. Vampires can’t get it up, so they get their sexual release from drinking blood. What makes this series unbelievably filthy is the subject matter and how Sadahiro handles it.

Come on! It’s vampires! By their very nature, it’s erotic. Throw in a heavy dose of melodrama, teenage angst, jealousy and you get something that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Is it cheesy at times with that heavy dose of melodrama? You bet. Am I complaining? Not a chance in hell.

At the end of the first book, King made a deal with Ace. If he waits four years before coming home again, until he’s eighteen, King will not stand in the way of J and Ace’s affair. So, Ace returns from his exile to awaken his brothers from their sleep and to see if he can be brought over to join them. J and Ace then spend the next few days doing the vampire equivalent of screwing each other blind until their carelessness leads to J being injured.

King then rejects Ace’s bid to become a vampire. Well, Ace isn’t going to stand for that, so he forces King’s hand and kills himself. Surprise, surprise, they end up bringing Ace over to save him. Now the question is, is there room for King in the obsessive relationship that Ace and J have forged or is their love going to destroy all three of them.

I want more quality stuff like this from June. They’ve shown us what they’re capable of and it’s not just school boys.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Anything Shuiko Kano does I love. I don’t care how weird and odd the stories are; I always find something about them that makes me really and truly happy. See, I don’t want to like Tetsuo. He’s pretty much a rotten guy whom I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw, but because he’s so unlikable and goes through so much angst, he becomes real to me. I find myself sympathizing with him even as I want to smack some sense into him.

After some deep soul searching and numerous masturbation scenes, Tetsuo has come to the realization that females just aren’t doing it for him. What he really wants is the one thing that he shouldn’t be lusting over–the male object of his teenaged son’s affections, Tamaki.

Making things even more complicated is the fact that Enomoto returns the feelings for Tetsuo, which has them both afraid of breaking Haruka’s heart. It all works out and of course there are happy-ever-afters abounding, but it’s a rocky road to get there and Kano’s pulling out all of her tricks.

I’m not sure if Kano is my all-time favorite manga artist. I think that position is still firmly held by Mamiya Oki and Ayano Yamane with some Mika Sadahiro, Kazuma Kodaka and Masara Minase thrown in for good measure, but I think that she’s right up there on my list of ‘must-buy’ authors.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

We’ve come to the end. As I said in my last review, I’m happy to finally have all of Love Mode in my hot little hands. Yet, I’m kind of sad, because I won’t have it to look forward to. I’m happy to say that the last volume was charming, sad, sweet, and full of what makes Love Mode one of my all time favorite series.

This volume is mostly a flashback. We go back in time to where Aoe was traveling the world, trying to escape his troubles with his family. While in England, he runs into an oddly dressed street performer who fleeces him out of his money. Aoe then runs into Takamiya, who uses him to fend off an amorous suitor. Now, keep in mind that at this point Aoe doesn’t know Takamiya at all. This is all making Aoe very cranky and the hotel he was planning on staying at losing his reservation just feeds the flames of the level of crankiness.

So, Aoe’s miserable and has no place to go. To make up for using him as a human shield, Takamiya invites Aoe to come and stay with him. Aoe, seeing no other recourse, accepts. Much to his surprise, Takamiya’s roommate is the street performer who made off with his money. Shiki is Takamiya’s uncle as well as his roommate and the atmosphere of welcome and relaxation they have in their house starts to thaw out Aoe. Shiki gets under Aoe’s skin, so much so that he and Aoe develop a relationship. One of the only healthy ones that Aoe has ever had.

Of course, this bliss can’t last for long and their peace is shattered when Aoe hears that his father was killed in a plane crash, leaving Aoe as the head of the family.

Like all Love Mode stories, this one broke my heart. I really couldn’t ask for more in a volume. As much as I would like more of this series, I’m happy that they ended it so well and left me wanting more of it. If you’re not already a fan, this series should definitly be on your must-buy list!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Oh, Shiuko Kano, you provide me with the best crack-like manga. I knew that I was going to enjoy this release, but I didn’t realize just how much and just how wrong and filthy it was going to be.

So, when we last left our heroes, Junki had been kidnapped by a rival gang and was facing all kinds of unpleasant things. Things start off quickly in this release with the Flower gang rushing in to save Junki. Now, Chihiro goes a bit nuts after he sees a video Junki’s captors have sent them of Junki being raped and tortured. Chihiro’s been hiding his feelings for Junki under the veneer of brotherly affection, but this is enough to bring his true feelings to the forefront.

What amused me the most was not the happy-ever-after ending, but the fact that Kano included an alternate ending that was just hot, dirty and all kinds of wrong. I must really have my wires crossed when I find Chihiro all half-naked, bleeding and getting his brains fucked out to be really hot.

Kano is one of my favorite artists because she does not take herself or her art too seriously. It’s a treat to have something that’s absurdly hilarious on one page juxtaposed with something that will pull on your heartstrings on the next page.

I’m going to miss this series. I don’t know if it’s one of my all-time favorites, but it’s right up there with series like Yellow and Our Everlasting that I want to read over and over. I’m hoping that some of the other new releases that Deux has up their sleeves are going to be as addictive.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Okay, anything by Ayano Yamane makes me happy. This release makes me especially happy with the fantasy setting, magical creatures, cursed swords and pretty boys banging each other’s brains out. What more could a fangirl ask for?

Now, they did change one thing from the first release. They changed the spelling of the main character’s name. In the first release, his name was spelled Bald. This lead me to picture things other than a pretty bishy-boy with soft, flowing hair. In the original scanlations, the name was translated as Val. When I sent my review of the first release to Kitty Media and voiced my complaint about the translation, they responded back that they had checked with Yamane and that she prefers the ‘Bald’ translation of his name.

So, after all that, it kind of came as a surprise to see the name changed to Vald in this release. I’m happy to see the change as now I’m not reminded of a bald, sweaty, salary-man when I’m reading. However, given the fact that the change was made without any explanation, I feel it may confuse some readers. I know that I would be confused if I opened a book to find that the main character had a new name.

In this volume, we have more magical creatures and more of demon-boy Vald being banged by Havi. We’re still searching for a way to break Vald’s curse, but there are forces scheming to make sure that Vald stays cursed. Making things more interesting is that Vald is starting to crave Havi’s touch without knowing why. The demon’s wants are starting to break through to Vald’s human psyche and confusing the hell out of him.

I’m hoping that the next volume will be out quickly. Boy-smut fantasy is hard to come by. When I find it, I only want more of it.

__________

UPDATE:
At a recent anime convention I was attending, I found out that they re-released the first volume of the series, with the name change. I went to their website to see if Kitty Media had made any announcements about the change in printing, but I found that their website had not been updated since 2007.
The announcement was made at their E-bay store. Which, if you ask me, is a pretty silly place to be making announcements about things like this. On the back of all of their releases, they list their website as kitty-media.com, not their E-bay store.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

I love Clare London’s characters. They’re always so vivid and leap off of the page. You find yourself cheering them on, just waiting for the happy ending that you know is lurking out there for them. This story is no exception.

First, we have Nic, a bright, young, entrepreneur who has, along with his lead programmer, Aidan, created a dating agency which is just about to go public. The site is quite successful, but Nic has an idea that is really going to revolutionize the online match-making world. He wants to remove the gender matching questions to match people up with their true soul-mates. After all, if you’re closing yourself off to half the population, you may be missing something really special. Aidan is just the man to get this programing right. He and Nic worked well together when they were getting the site off the ground.

This all sounds good, but add in the fact that Nic is starting to crack under the pressure of living in the spotlight, the danger of a hacker trying to take down their system and then throw in Nic’s attraction to Aidan. Now, Aidan is not the best when it comes to interpersonal relations. He’s much better with computers than he is with people. Especially with people like Nic, who he’s attracted to, even though he’s fighting the attraction with all that he’s got. Sparks are definitely going to fly when these two clash and get together. Friction creates sparks and there’s plenty of friction between these two.

I really enjoyed this story, mainly because the characters were not perfect. Give me flawed characters any day. Nic is far too stubborn and Aidan’s anti-social tendencies made them that much more real to me. London has created a true jewel with this release. Anyone who enjoys male/male erotic novels is going to find a lot to like with this one!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Even after fourteen volumes, I’m still amazed by just how gorgeous the art is in this series. I’m still madly in love with Dai and Jaehee. I’m still convinced that they’re going to break my heart. I should not be as in love with this series as I am. It doesn’t have anything in common with the other series that I obsess over, except for the pure emotion that the characters display.

After a night spent celebrating their feelings for each other, the boys fall asleep at Dai’s summer house. Their peace is shattered after Dai’s father finds out what the boys are up to. Dai is dragged away by his father’s bodyguards and his father is bound and determined to permanently separate the two.

Now, Dai’s father has been trying to do this for the past few volumes, but this time he’s managed to do it. He uses his power and his money to get Jaehee transferred to another school. This sends Dai into another cold and destructive cycle. Dai takes all of his feelings and shoves them deep inside, only to have his anger and frustration burst out, causing him to lash out at those who care for him the most.

Add into the mix, the brother of one of Eunhyung’s rapists, Dai-Oxin, who has been wanting to take Dai down as a way of getting revenge for his brother, and it’s a volatile combination. His revenge backfires in a tragic way, hurting guilty and innocent alike.

There’s only one volume left, and much like Love Mode, I’m really going to miss the anticipation of waiting for the next volume to come out. I always try to take my time and read through it twice so I can savor all of the nuances. The only good thing about the series ending is the knowledge that I will be able to re-read the series for pure enjoyment without making reviewer’s notes in my head as I read.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

The key to a good story for me is whether or not I want to sink back into the story to find out more about the history of the world and how it works. I want to know more about Derr’s world. I want to know what makes its leaders tick and, most of all, I want to know what happens to the characters after this story.

Dieter is the general for one of the Sacred Four armies of Kira. The surrounding countries tremble with fear at the very mention of his name. One night, his army is attacked by a brother from the country of Salhara and taken prisoner. The prisoner claims to have no name and refuses to give a name, or take the name that Dieter tries to force on him. After saving Dieter from an attack from another country, Illussor, leaving the rest of Dieter’s army dead, the prisoner is weak and near death himself. Dieter lets him know that he will save his life if he will take the name that he is given, Berhat. Berhat still does not want the name, but it’s the only way for him to survive.

Now, the Salhara people drink a potion called Arcen to gain their magic. Arcen comes in different colors, depending on its strength, and leaves a taint on the body in the form of changing the user’s eye color. Kiranians view the people of Salhara as being poluted by their use of Arcen. The people of Kira shun magic and rely on physical strength and weapons. Illussor uses a different form of magic, the most powerful of which is called a Scream. It was a Scream that destroyed Dieter’s army and only Berhat’s use of Arcen saved them from being casualties as well.

So, Dieter is taking Berhat to the capital of Kira to face his punishment, but there are other forces at work which will try even the fragile bonds of prisoner and captive.

This world is so richly textured and lush that it would take me forever to go into details about the politics, people and the reasons for their behavior. Suffice it to say that this is an example of fantasy world building done well. The magic systems are logical, there’s a consequence for each action and the whole thing just flows wonderfully. Once gain, Derr has proven to be a master at what she does. It’s hard to construct a world that is so rich and lush that works on all levels. Fantasy fans should not hesitate to add this one to their collections.