Boys Next Door Reviews

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I’ve been waiting so long for this volume, that I pretty much forgot what had happened in the first two volumes.
Thankfully, I caught myself up pretty quickly. This isn’t one of those deep thought mangas that has lots and lots of complicated plot twists. No, this is pretty straightforward, boy meets other boy, boys boink, and then complications arise to keep boys from boinking.
Just to catch all of you up, we have Tokumaru and Hasune. Tokumaru is good at anything athletic, but is a dismal failure at almost everything else. Hasune is the head of his family’s tea house, and his charged with trying to teach Tokumaru some grace and manners.
Cue some hilarity with Tokumaru being a klutz, and winning over Hasune with his bubbly personality and we’ve got a relationship.

In this volume, it’s summer break, and Tokumaru is faced with trying to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. Nothing like putting the pressure on! When he’s given the opportunity to look into attending a sports college, where his lack of book knowledge is not going to be held against him, Tokumaru thinks that he’s got it all figured out.
Hasune takes this as an opportunity to tutor and molest Tokumaru at every possible opportunity. Now, the question is if Tokumaru will be able to stay with Hasune or will his future plans pull them apart.

You know, if this wasn’t so well drawn, and so charming, I don’t think I would care for it as much. It’s really nothing special, when you look at the basic plot, but, there’s something with the quality of the art, and the situations the characters find themselves in, which turn this into a series that I’m happy to wait for.

I have volume four pre-ordered on Amazon.com, and it’s slated for delivery in April. Let’s hope that the release date doesn’t get pushed back too far, now that I’m remembering how much I like this series, I don’t want to wait too long to read the rest of it!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I have waited a long time to hold a book by Becca Abbott in my hot little hands. She was always one of my favorite Gundam Wing authors that we archived here at BND. Her stories were always filled with pain and heartache, yet tempered with passion and sweetness.
SL Publishing Group has picked a real gem to be their first foray into print books. This is going to appeal to the yaoi fans, as well as to fans of m/m fiction who want a good dose of high fantasy with their relationships.
I happen to be a sucker for high fantasy, so this book pushed all of my happy buttons.

Stefn is a sin-eater. Sin-eaters are humans who are born with a deformity and everything that goes wrong is laid to blame at their feet. Despised by his family because of his deformity, Stefn spends his days wrapped up in ancient histories and books.
There’s a revolution brewing. The church, which Stefn’s family owes full allegiance has grown corrupt and power hungry. The king of the land is in a drug addled haze. The king’s brother will do everything in his power to save the kingdom of Tanrin; even if it means bringing back forbidden Naran sorcery.
A coup is staged, and Stefn is the only male member of his family left alive.
He’s left alive for one reason, to serve as the conduit of power for Michael Arranz, who’s descended from the demon race of Naragi. Michael’s blood is one of the purest left, and he needs a conduit if the plans to save the country are to be fruitful.

Enter in Stefn – abused, sheltered and believing fully that the demon race is evil, and that he must do everything in his power to thwart Michael’s plans.
Yet, it’s hard to rebel when you’re very being is tied to what you hate most in the world - When it holds you in a web of pleasure and friendship, greater than anything that Stefn has ever known.

This book too me to a place that few books are able to bring me to. A place where you don’t even notice that time is passing, yet you’re spending hours devouring every word on the page. I was sad when I found that I only had a few chapters left. I wanted the book to keep going, to spend more time with these characters.
I knew I was going to like this book, based on the strength of Abbott’s previous writing, but I wasn’t expecting to like it quite this much. If this is the quality of work that SL Publishing Group is going to be releasing, then we’re all in for a big treat.

Rating: ♦♦

I wasn’t that familiar with this artist, but, I was pretty impressed with the quality of the artwork.
Sadly, the story didn’t live up to the promise of the art. The only thing I found myself really enjoying was the lead characters pet cat, Matsumoto. I’m a sucker for cats in manga. Good artists always manage to capture the essence of cats, in all of their cranky, snobbish, silly glory.

It still doesn’t redeem this release, but it did inspire me to finish reading the release, just so I could see more of the cat.

New teacher Kurashina is assigned to teach Japanese History at the same school he graduated high school from. Given the fact that he still looks like a pre-pubescent teen, the students at his school have a hard time accepting him as being a teacher.
Kurashina gets roped into being the gopher for the Events Organization Committee, and roped into the Committee’s unusual requests and the lives of the members. To top things off, he’s constantly being rattled by the Student Chairman of the Committee, Asano.

I guess it’s cute, and it is well drawn, but I just can’t get into it. Now, if this artist did a manga just revolving around a cat, I would be first in line to buy it.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I really enjoy Hinako Takanaga’s art.
This is a very good thing, because her art saved this release. It’s a cute story. It’s fluffy and light, and something that pretty easy to forget, five minutes after you’ve read it.
It’s no where near as good, or as madcap as some of her other releases.
Maybe I’m just cranky because this release is void of almost all physical interaction between the two male leads.
I like my boys, I like them to be humping. One chaste kiss does not make me happy.

There’s Itaru, who’s running away from his problems, and Kouki who keeps coming to his rescue.
Kouki finds Itaru after he’s passed out drunk in a garbage strewn alleyway. In the process of coming to Itaru’s rescue, Itaru manages to destroy Kouki’s video camera.
This being manga-land, Kouki takes the drunken sot to his apartment to sober up. He then informs Itaru that he now has to give Kouki money to replace the camera.
Now, Itaru, being unemployed, and on the run from his problems, has no way of repaying Kouki.

Itaru, trying to find a way to repay his debt, starts following Kouki around like a little lost puppy dog. We then find out that Kouki works for a struggling local TV station.
Throw in a transvestite news reporter, and things get interesting.

It’s cute, but there’s no real substance. I didn’t get sucked into the mental state where I believe in the characters and all of their impossible situations. I found myself just flipping through to the end, and enjoying the art.

I’m all for bringing over all of the manga that we can, but I don’t think we should bring over everything a popular artist has done, unless the quality of the release is as high as the works that made them popular in the first place.

I guess it could have been worse, they could have been school boys.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I keep forgetting that Doki Doki is DMP’s tame line. Logically, I know that it’s supposed to be for readers that are just looking for pretty boys, with no other interaction, but when I encounter a release by Makoto Tateno, that knowledge flies out the window.
I guess I’ve been so spoiled by her other works, that I have a hard time associating her with anything else.
From my understanding, Happy Boys is based on a TV show in Japan, revolving around gorgeous men who run a tea house, and treat all their guests like royalty. Kind of like a host club, without the sex.
Now, this being Makoto Tateno, the boys are pretty beyond compare.
There are many slashable situations, and I’m sure that the fans of the show already have their favored pairings, hell, if this gets big in the US, I’m sure that the fangirls will be slashing this one all over the place. Right now, the only thing I can say about it is that it’s gorgeous, and it’s reasonably entertaining.

There isn’t too much of a plot. It’s just a vehicle for pretty boys to interact with each other. There’s the stand-offish one, the funny one, the one with a mysterious background…
We all know where this is going.

It’s cute, it’s definitely eye candy, but there’s no real substance to back it up.
In a way, it reminds me a little bit of Weiss Kreuz, where the character designs were amazing, but the series was kind of silly. What made that series such a guilty pleasure was the fandom, and the stories that the fans created around the characters.
I can see the fandom getting a hold of this Happy Boys and making it into something that’s more than the sum of its parts.

Rating: ♦♦♦

I really enjoyed this one. Aesthetically, it’s just what I’m looking for in a release - slightly sketchy, with extremely emotive facial expressions.
We start off with Akira, the manager of a successful restaurant and bar. Things are going fairly well, or at least as well as a chaotic kitchen can ever run, until Akira gets a confession of love Torihara, one of his young employees.
This is all well and good, but Torihara is six years younger than Akira, and Akira has never considered a same sex relationship before. Now, this being the wonderful world of BL, these little complications won’t stand in the way of getting the two pretty boys in bed together. It’s just a matter of applying the right amount of angst and seduction to get these two to see that they really need to be together.

This release is really about its gorgeous art, and some wonderfully comedic perving and angsting behind kitchen doors. This is a real treat for manga lovers.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦

I have been waiting for this one! I had forgotten just how gorgeous Modoru Motoni’s artwork is. Her boys seem so real–awkward and over-emotional. Their feelings are screaming at them to do one thing, yet they’re pushing away to protect themselves.

I really surprises me how much I like this series when I hated her other release, Poison Cherry Drive with the burning fire of a thousand suns. I guess it just goes to show you what you can do with a coherent plot line.

Now that Teru and Miki have settled into a strange sort of routine, of course, things have to come in to pull them apart. This wouldn’t be BL with out a boatload of problems keeping our heroes from committing to each other, right? Posturing, violence and remnants from their pasts keep our heroes in a state of flux until they start to smarten up and realize what’s really important.

It’s hard to pair violence and a bittersweet romance together, and have it work, but that’s what this series has done. I’m going to miss this series. I’m hoping that there’s going to be more from Modoru Motoni, but only if it’s of the caliber of Dog Style. Life’s too short to waste my time on crappy manga.

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Rock star boys always make me happy. Throw in the angst that Est Em is known for, and I’m madly in love. Manga doesn’t get much better than this. I need to remember that when I get burnt out on the genre that reading Est Em is a surefire way of reminding myself why I like this damn genre in the first place.

We start off with the story of Nick and Billy, a singer and a guitarist. They’re being torn apart by addictions and their attraction to each other. They’re no good together, but they’re even worse apart. When the band starts to take off, Nick’s free-wheeling ways wear thin on the other band members, but Billy can’t see himself without Nick at his side.

It all manages to make me happy and break my heart at the same time–something Est Em has always been able to do. I go into her releases knowing that I’m going to end up crying, but look forward to them anyway.

Do not miss this one. Rob your piggy banks, put off buying something else this week, but pick up this release. It will bring you back to your first days of reading scanlations–the first thrill of the wonderful combination of angst and boys in love–that got you into this genre in the first place!

Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦

Yuki Shimizu isn’t on the top of most people’s list of favorite manga artists. Heck, she don’t even get on my top ten list most of the time. That’s a shame because the art is amazing and the stories always suck me in.

Her work isn’t as flashy nor as graphic as some of the artists and that’s the only reason I can think of why people aren’t clamoring over her work. I just know that every time I get done reading one of her releases, I’m happy and left counting the days until the next volume will be mailed to me.

This series isn’t quite as crack-like as Love Mode, the series that Shiumizu is really well known for, but I’m finding it to be just as addictive as my beloved Love Mode.

In this volume, we’re exploring what happens to a kami-sama when their kotodama-sama dies. Normally, the kami-sama chooses to die as well–reverting to a blank state. In the case of Himi, when his master passed away, his sense of obligation forces him to become a kami-sama for his old masters estranged son, Genma.

Gema has a different way of showing his affection than his father did. The physicality of Gema’s affection is something foreign to Himi. At first, Himi wants nothing to do with this brutish new master, but, of course, he starts to see the good in Genma and begins to fall for him.

I’m happy to see backgrounds for more of the Mitou family. I’m happy to have this series in print and in English. I can’t sing the praises of this one highly enough. It’s just wonderful on all levels.

Rating: ♦♦♦

It’s hard to get cranky with a release when it’s just over-the-top fun. Oh, there are things that drove me crazy about it, especially Kitty Media’s continued elimination of the honorifics, but I’m going to push that aside and concentrate on what I did like. This is not a release for those of you who want a serious, complicated story. This is fluff with a dollop of censored penis with a touch of uke-boy saying that they don’t want it, when in reality they’re gagging for it.

There’s nothing new in this–it’s something we’ve all seen over and over again. Yet, when it’s done with such light-hearted fun, I have a hard time remembering that stories like this annoy me.

The first set of stories revolve around Motonari Tsuda, a surgeon, who teaches physician Tomoki Shirashi the joys of male on male sex. Of course, Tomoki swears up and down that he hates Tsuda’s attention and doesn’t want any of this. However, circumstances lead to Tsuda leaving Tomoki. Tomoki just falls apart only to have Tsuda rush in, re-introduce him to the wonders of his penis and things are back to being happy and lovey-dovey.

It’s just kind of silly, but it’s a well drawn kind of silly and for some reason makes me really happy to read.