A protective sister tries to stop a group of homophobes from harassing her gay brother. Little does she know that the object of her brother's affections is none other than their leader. Meanwhile, slick young student Kanome finds his crush studying in the library with no one else around and he decides that now is his moment. All he has to do is say the right words to score a little bit of action. Another teenager named Minori anguishes over whether to reveal his lifestyle to his family. He decides no one is ready for that, but his sister jumps the gun and outs him at the dinner table. Will the family be able to accept him or has Minori forever torn his family apart? These are but a few stories in this fascinating compilation of shorts featuring flirting, heartbreak, unreciprocated devotion, unfulfilled sexual passion, and more.
(c) 2008 Tomoko Yamashita. All rights reserved. Online transmission rights for English language version authorized by Tokyo Mangasha through Nihon Manga Gakuin.
- Total 11
reviews Avg. rating
(10.0)
Exceptional with moments of exquisite heartbreak and others of heart-warmth
AnimeOkay
02/16/10 16:42
I really love this mangaka. It's a refreshing change to see people who aren't bishies having less-than-perfect relationships that capture those piercing moments of keen disappointments, hollowing grief, confusion, misunderstandings, and kind surprises that, if you live and love enough, you come to experience. Story one is painful to read. The cruelty of the possibly closeted boy against Motohisa, who so abjectly confesses his deep feelings, well, if you don't feel like crying for him at the climactic moment of brutality--then you have no heart. The second story gives us a respite from darkness, and yet we see how difficult it can be to be part of a huge family while keeping a secret, and how we can underestimate the love our siblings and parents have for us. The third story is fascinating as it's mostly a conversation between a yakuza leader's daughter and the man who has, essentially, raised her, a "thug" who seems gentle until a moment of understandable violence--given what we learn about his feelings for his yakuza superior. The moment where he calls the dying man and expresses his grief--egads. Wow. To a certain extent, each of those stories speaks of how we let ourselves become utterly unselfish, become used--even abused--for the sake of love. Not healthy, but realistic, as many have done, do, or will do so. The title story is especially interesting in how it shows us the inner desires of a genuinely perverted guy--and I won't give away his thoughts, as I think the shock value is best if less is said. But the true feelings of this deviant is genuinely appealing and affecting, except every time he shoots his own foot when he admits his deeper, darker desires that overly, like black wings, blocking out the light of his pure love. We kinda hope he has a happy ending, is ultimately understood as much as possible, even if we never hope he gets his darkest wishes. The mangaka has melded the appeal of genuineness and vulnerability with total whacko sexual impulses in a character the likes I've never seen in Boys Love. We kinda hope and are given some encouragement even--and man, I hate saying it--that object of his love sprouts his own sadistic wings to suit our lil masochist. Literary references in the title story are followed by other lit references in the happier little tale of two boys in a library. It's kinda sweet. The sixth tale continues the strong theme of miscommunication, and what a relief when the misunderstanding is cleared up. Having these two happier-ending tales after the great pain of the opening stories helps the heart ease up from clenching. It's nice to see the serious guy get his idiot-dude. :) The last original tale, very brief, is played for laughs based on, yes, a misunderstanding/miscommunication. Funny. Then we get some "short cuts" of 1. "deleted scenes" from previous stories and 2. a couple of epilogue-y feeling scenes. All in all, very much worth reading as long as you can take both great angsty and painful scenes and can enjoy some weirdo characters. :)
lately the dude i like dwont even look at me and when read this i cried like a baby i was so sad tthat the guy he like was being hella rude and mean i was ready to hit him then realized its a book but still i balled my eyes out just thinkin about how much he hurt when he saw that this guy didnt like him back
I scanned the previews and read the reviews and chose not to read all the chapters but the ones I did look at (2,4,6) I enjoyed. And ditto on what the other reviewers said: the introduction is not an accurate depiction of the stories. Read the previews and look at the reviews to get a better picture. Chapter 2, very cute.
Ah, I love Tomoko Yamashita's work. The way that she writes relationships is believable and beautiful. Her characters always feel real to me, but they're never boring. My favorite chapters are chapters 1, 2, and 3.
The description given by Net Comics isn't very accurate as other reviewers have pointed out.
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