This manga is not for everyone. There are many triggers within this volume: dubious consent, date drugging, sexual assault.
Kyouhei is from the countryside. He moves to Tokyo to attend university. Kyouhei is having a difficult time adjusting. His neighbor, and upperclassman, is not making it any easier.
Takara is Kyouhei’s neighbor. He is a blatant womanizer. Takara cannot help teasing his innocent, country-bumpkin neighbor. However, things take an unexpected turn when he rescues Kyouhei from a situation.
I absolutely adored this manga! It starts out on the cute side. However, further into the story, things start to mature. The ending gets raunchy and steamier.
There are some funny parts. Kyouhei and Takara compliments each othere. Takara’s experience balances Kyouhei’s inexperience. Kyouhei even balances out Takara’s insect phobia.
I cannot wait to add this title to my collection. I hope there is going to more to come.

This was funny and cute and a little bit sexy at times, but the consent bit fell into the grey area of dubious behaviour a little too often for me to recommend this 100% to everyone.

Despite the very cute concept for this manga I couldn't bring myself to like this at all.

I thought that this would be a pretty solid read but I just couldn't get past the non consensual scenes and just the general sexual assault. One of the characters ends up with a dude that literally SA''d and I hated it so much.

I went into this with only the context of the cover and the NetGalley description, and did not read any other reviews or looked up any content warnings. I was thinking this was going to be typical spicy opposites attract adult romance, but what threw me off was the lack of consent before particular activities. It made me incredibly uncomfortable to read this. At the end, you are able to see the back cover and the content warning, one of which is ‘dubious consent’. This is something I had to look up as I did not know what that meant.

After doing some research, it is not something I agree with and support. Therefore I personally would not recommend this.

The only thing I liked was the character Kyouhei, who I thought was witty and sweet.

Thank you TOKYOPOP and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

↠ 𝑩𝑳. 𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔. 𝑶𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕.

"I'm Looking for Serious Love" is a light and very entertaining manga to read. I found it incredulously funny and humorous. Both of the main characters are extremely cute and lovable. They are completely polar opposites which made their interactions and banter even more amusing. Kyouhei is hesitant and socially awkward where Takara is full of confidence. They balance each other well.

The romance is very adorable. The starting of it, is a bit messy. But later on, I loved the romance very very much. It was cute, hot and swoony. There are some explicit scenes. That may bother some poeple. So, I am giving you a heads up.

The art style is just gorgeous. I loved how simple yet detailed it is.

I am not sure if this manga will get a sequel or not. But I really do want more of it. There are some contents and dialogues which could have been better. Still, overall I really liked it. Highly recommended if you love Yaoi.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me an arc of this manga.

I did not like this at all sadly enough.

I did not like that all the horrible things that the main character went through in this manga where just kind of brushed over. They did not address how the main character felt experiencing all this traumatic stuff. I mean the dude got sexually assaulted multiple times and they barely acknowledge it?? The people who sexually assaulted him get away with it?? One of them even ends up as his boyfriend?? Why??

I think partially the reason why he ended up forgiving those guys who hurt him because he thinks it wasn't actually assault. The main character seems to think that just because there was no penetration, that there was no assault, which just isn't true. I hate how both their actions get brushed off. I really hate it.

"There's nothing worse than a guy who takes advantage of others." is literally the line that the "love interest" says as he takes advantage of the main character... Like dude.

Anyway to conclude my review. I sincerely hope the main character is okay after all of that and gets the therapy he probably desperately needs. I feel so bad for him. Let's hope that if there is gonna be a second volume of this, the love interest is nice and sweet to him and spoils him to death. That's the least that kid deserves.

This manga is HOT. *fans self* Like, if you're buying it in a physical bookstore it's going to come wrapped in plastic hot, haha. I also really liked the storyline. Kyouhei moves to the big city from the country, and he's got a bit of a chip on his shoulder about it. When he meets his playboy next door neighbor, it's enemies at first sight. But wait! There's more to his senpai Takara than it first appears...

The chemistry between Kyouhei and Takara is so great. VERY steamy but also sweet and sort of innocent at the same time. I love Kyouhei's reluctant change to the big city, and the friendship he builds with fellow country-boy (sorry, I don't remember your name, friendly side character!) Kyouhei's buddy and his granny are a total hoot! I would read a manga about them going to concerts - if that's all the manga was I'd be happy, haha!

Fun story. Pretty basic and simple, but good MCs and funny moments. Would read more from this author, even about these MCs.

3.5 stars. This was a fun manga and not much else. I thought the drawing style was well done and it definitely captured the spark of the moments. There was virtually no character depth or change. Just pure lust and rivalry. This part was well done and you could feel the chemistry between the characters but besides that, there was not much there. I did like the cute side story of the grandmother and the friend but the main characters had no story. If you want a sexy BL manga that is well-drawn, you might enjoy this. if you want character development and a good story, this may not be for you.

I'm Looking for Serious Love! is a pretty standard bl about two next-door neighbors, Miyazawa Kyouhei and Takara Tomohiro. At first, Kyouhei is wary of Tomohiro's big city ways, but when Tomohiro reveals his fear of bugs, Kyouhei realizes that his neighbor might be different after all.

Because I read a digital ARC, and I didn't see the back cover until I finished the book, I didn't realize it came with specific content warnings. Had I seen the content warnings, I would not have read this book. The art and story flow well, but I'm not a fan of some of the tropes employed in this book.

Content Warnings from the back of the book: Nudity, Explicit Sexual Content, Drugs/Aphrodisiac, Dubious Consent, Stalking, Voyurism


Writing and Art: Shoko Takuta

Editor: Lena Atanassova
Translator: Christine Dashiell
Copy Editor: Tina Tseng
Graphic Designer: Sol DeLeo
Editorial Associate: Janae Young
Retouching and Lettering :Vibraant Publishing Studio
Licensing Specialist: Arika Yanaka
Editor-in-Chief and Publisher: Stu Levy

While I thank Netgalley for the ARC, I was completely blindsided by how gross this book was going to be.
I had an expectation that anything that came from Tokyopop would be friendly, nice and a really cute read. The cover sure reflects that with the nice art and fun design. But after reading not only had I changed my mind, I would warn people off even thinking about reading this book.
One of my biggest issues was the amount of sexual assault they managed to cram into one small manga book that took me about half an hour to read. I'm not going to act like it added to the plot - it was simply disgusting. First, his neighbour sexually assaults him, then someone at a party is slipping drugs into everyone's drinks which once again leads to his neighbour sexually assaulting him, and then his friend from the country visits him who... also sexually assaults him.
It was like a Series of Unfortunate Events but with sexual assault and we were somehow meant to find a romance story mixed in here somewhere??
Now, I'm not someone who disagrees with the topic being brought up, but what I disagreed with was how it was used to further a 'romance' plot and how creeps are treated after.
For example, the guy at the party spiking the drink was used to create a sexual scene between the two protagonists (which was just super uncomfortable because one of them was DRUGGED). Then the country friend comes and attempts to rape the protagonist and they find out he's set up cameras in the protagonists house because... content? After this, for some reason the rapist gets to go to a fun concert with the victim's grandma because he 'looks sad and this will cheer him up' and the neighbour is like 'let's be boyfriends' because... creeps get rewarded and normalised in this book?
Not only was it a super gross read, but it normalises the idea that gay characters are predatory. That the 'nice guy' he chooses had put him in awful situations where he has to accept whatever this man is going to do with him because his other option is an even worse predatory man. Congratulations on the homophobic trope.
I expected much more from Tokyopop which has created some of my favourite mangas, but I'm honestly shocked at what I read and rethinking whether or not I'll trust this company for my reading from now on.

Yeah it's basically just hentai, definitely not for YA if you're looking to add it to your manga collection. It doesn't even have plot and the one character just touches people without their consent.

I'm Looking for Serious Love! is one of the better boys' love series actually as it portrays the guys in a more realistic manner. Kyouhei is from the country side now living in Tokyo. He meets his new neighbor, who's a womanizer called Takara. The two study at the same university and bump into each other all the time. These encounters with bickering and humor soon grow out to be something more. In a sense the plot isn't all that wondrous, but the heart of the manga is surely the relationship and how these two interact with each other. I love it how the guys are so normal and even when they eventually date, they don't act like lovestruck teenagers. This is hard to find in BL, really and thus made the manga refreshing.

The art is OK and the facial expressions are very lively, which great. The title isn't the best though, since it makes this sound your average boys' love, when this is not. If you want your guys to be actual guys, then this is for you. Perhaps I'm Looking for Serious Love! isn't amazing, but very nice still indeed.

🌶🌶🌶🌶 🥵🥵🥵🥵

Kyohei, born and raised in the countryside, recently moves to the big city of Tokyo for college. While being neighborly, he meets an outgoing and playboy Takara. They immediately clash, a country bumpkin versus a city-dweller, with nothing in common aside from being neighbors and going to the same school. However, one day, Takara makes a move and Kyohei - and now Kyohei cannot get him out of his head. What happens now?!

AHHHHHH!!! I honestly did not expect NetGalley to have arcs for this kind of manga so I was so surprised. But boy did this bring 0ut the fujoshi in me!!! I’ve always loved BL, even more so when it’s SPICY, and this manga did not disappoint! This is a one-shot, so it does end up filling like it was too shortm, especially with the end chapter, but this had more than enough plot and the spice was meant to move the story along. I mean it did catch me off guard at first but after the initial shock, I was living for it. I kind of wish it wasn’t a one shot so that there was more to look forward to!

Unfortunately, this type of story is not for me. While the concept, art, and characters are cute and appealing, I don't like to read stories with dubious consent/non-consensual content. Especially when that behavior is excused and treated as normal. I've read a lot of BL and that type of content is prevalent so I guess most readers don't have an issue with it. I also felt it was lacking in character development and overall story. The one character I wholeheartedly liked is Kyouhei's granny who is really out here living her best life and going to concerts, dancing, and bonding with the gay boys.

The premise of this sounded cute and fun, but things feel underdeveloped with regards to the relationship between Kyouhei and Tomohiro, especially with how a lot of their early sexual encounters are heavily dub/noncon. It was an enjoyable manga and read, but didn’t give enough of the romance for my personal tastes.

I should preface this with, I absolutely adore a little reluctant romance and there’s a lot of that going on here... This is super cute and I really enjoyed the humor. The characters were just funny and cute. Kyouhei is just too adorable and I love how hesitant he is. Then there’s Takara and he’s the complete opposite, confident and take charge. They balance each other well.

Don’t even get me started on Granny!! She’s hilarious!! The art is good too, and the characters don’t all look alike, which can sometimes happen. There are some explicit scenes, so if that bothers you then you better steer clear. Otherwise, I highly recommend this to those who love lgbtqia+ manga!! This one is light, funny, and oh so cute!!

Thanks so much to MetGalley, Tokyopop, and Shoko Rakuta for the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion!!

nope.
are we all just going to ignore the fact that he tried to sexually assault him?
just a huge no.

CW: Explicit steamy scenes, dubious consent, attempted sexual assault

In terms of yaoi and BL content this volume definitely could have been a lot worse in terms of consent, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't aim to improve how that was tackled and address it rather than brushing it off. The strong suit of this book was the comedy, but unfortunately that came at the expense of consent and the opportunity to seriously discuss trauma and what happened to the protagonist. However, I think the intended audience for a large part (since this is a common theme in yaoi) will almost expect this? It's a little sad to say that.

The art was beautiful, the plot was fun and had a little bit of discussion in terms of judging people based on stereotypes and generalizations along with providing foreigners a peek at some regional differences within Japan. It's a fun read, but not something that would be deemed a high quality yaoi by most as it doesn't distinguish itself from the rest of the genre very well.

This is a typical hentai yaoi manga. With an innocent boy and an older (bad) seduser. It follows the traditional lines. It is well drawn, but never gets really intense. It is nice to read (it will take you about an hour).