🌶🌶🌶🌶 🥵🥵🥵🥵

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).

CW: Discussion of non-consent and spiked drinks

There are some major issues with this book, the first being some hiccups in the translation and localization that make some of the lines awkward to read. For example, a character from this city is continually referred to as a "city-slicker" which strikes me as a very outdated term. Certain cultural touchstones are not properly explained, either. For example, one food item is simply referred to as "fried dough," leaving me with no clue as to which Japanese food is being talked about. One character from Kansai talks about how people stereotype him as a comedian, without any context provided as to why Kansai is considered a center of comedy in Japan.

Secondly, both plot and characterization feel extremely flimsy. There's not much substance to hold on to in this book, not even any particular chemistry between the main two characters. Everything feels surface level. There aren't even enough interesting gimmicks to keep me wanting to read more. The concept behind the book is that a boy from the country and a boy from the city fall in love, but that dynamic isn't explored in any interesting or meaningful way.

And, finally, the sex scenes are a major detriment to this book. This book contains multiple scenes of Takara touching Kyouhei while Kyouhei is either resisting or heavily intoxicated after drinking a spiked juice. All the while, Takara and Kyouhei both seem to write these instances off as not assault because Takara didn't penetrate Kyouhei. Takara even insists that he would "never" assault someone, while touching an intoxicated Kyouhei. The fact that Kyouhei was given a spiked drink is also brushed aside as a simple plot device, rather than addressed as a potentially traumatic event. Unfortunately, scenes of non-consent are still prevalent in the Boys Love manga genre, but that doesn't excuse it.

Overall, there is very little to redeem this book. Most of it was simply boring, with the sex scenes being particularly difficult to stomach. I only gave this book two stars because: 1) The art style was very nice, so I consider that a redeeming quality, and 2) I reserve one-star ratings for books that I truly despise, whereas this book merely felt boring and misguided.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Edit: The rape elements got worse as I continued to read, so I'm changing my rating to one star.

The art is the best thing about this manga. When it comes to manga of this genre (shounen ai/yaoi), the art here is better than most. It's not top end like TogaQ, but the style is appealing and approachable, without any stylistic quirks that take some getting used to. Those who are looking for explicit/graphic content will find what they're looking for in this manga.

In my opinion, everything else in this manga falls short, it's really the art that's doing all the heavy lifting. There are some really problematic themes that are disguised and/or glazed over, which may be due in part to traditional tropes in yaoi manga. I've never been a fan of dubcon (dubious consent), especially when it is very dubious. The uke ("bottom") character is subject to multiple instances of sexual acts without his explicit consent, in one case with him being totally drunk. These situations are passed off as being ok because he either enjoyed them and/or they were "helpful" to him. It doesn't help at all that his older "childhood friend" was in effect grooming him when they "played together". The end pairing feels more similar to Stockholm Syndrome than anything else. The ending was also super abrupt, which really didn't help the entire impression that the manga is targeting those that get a thrill from problematic themes.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review:
I was not expecting this manga to be graphic, but honestly, that's fine, I still liked the story. This story starts us off with Kyouhei, a first-year at a nearby university visiting his next-door neighbor to introduce himself and to give him a gift. What he finds instead is 3rd year Takara, who had a one-night-stand over. Talk about awkward. The two immediately clash and the story continues from there. Although I really liked this story, I found it a bit rushed in some parts, mainly leaving the two characters with many things unsaid, and really had me wishing they would communicate more. Other than that, I really liked this and I hope to continue reading this story!

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I had a really hard time reading this in this format. Apparently ebook manga just isn't my thing. I won't give this a real review. And will have to grab a copy of this in physical form later on.

Rating: 2 out of 5
-Characters: 1.5/5
-Cover: 4.5/5
-Story: 1.5 /5
-Writing: 0.5/5
Genre: Boys Love (Yaoi)/Romance
Type: Manga
Worth?: Eeehhh

WARNING VERY 18+!!

I want to thank the publishers and Netgalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review. I think anyone who has read my past reviews know I am brutally honest with my reads. What I got from reading the description is not entirely what I got in this book. Yes it does touch base on what it says but what I thought would be a slow burn more than one in the series turned out to be one quickie and go.

Could this have been a cute, realistic, and loving manga series? Yes, but what Shoko gave was borderline rape and when I finished I just felt dirty. I don't know anyone who would be okay with someone whacking them off when they are drunk and when the best friend came over he had recorded the guy and basically raped him to... only for the main guy to forgive him.

I don't know why this is getting such high rating and seeing it makes me concerned. The only reason this got a 2 star was because the cover was so nice. I am really disappointed in this author and in this book.

Cute manga. I would have more if
the issue of consent is given more importance at the beginning of the story (even though ecchi manga is usually like this). The characters were cute, although I felt they needed some more development and interactions with each other.
Overall, short, cute and enjoyable.

Ohh man, this was so cute!

Kyouhei was just the most adorable hot-cold bottom and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect playboy than the one in Takara. Kyou's innocent demeanor and the way he got embarrassed at the slightest touch had me smiling quite a lot, and Takara's fear of bugs was hilarious lmaooo. As much as I would have liked a slow-burn with these two, I think Shoko Rakuta still pulls off their character development nicely with these subtle things in this first volume for the readers to want more.

The panels took me a while to navigate but eventually I learnt to appreciate the detail. However, Rakuta could afford to make the smut a bit more graphic 🤭

I thought I'd have to read this longer manga in shifts, but I couldn't stop! Thanks to Netgalley and TOKYOPOP for my e-arc <3

Thank you, Tokyopop, for the advance reading copy of the manga.

I really like the dialogue presentation and the art sequence.

However, I would have loved the manga much better if the issue of consent is given more importance at the beginning of the story. I would have liked the characters more if there was more character development and more wholesome interaction between the main characters.

The first volume is fairly easy and enjoyable to read. Short and real young adult vibes throughout.

I hope I get to read the next volume soon and I am expecting more wholesome character development and a better plot for the same.