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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZY0ztwkPA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
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Would it be Okay to Love You? – Amy Tasukada
A robot fanboy. An erotic voice actor. When love comes calling, will they shed their armor?
Sato’s only long-term relationship is the one he shares with his Gundam collectibles. He dreams about the kind of unconditional love his parents enjoy. If only he could break out of his shell, he might find his special someone…
Outgoing playboy Aoi has sworn off relationships. He knows they only distract him from his budding voice acting career. He’s earned a few loyal fans, and if he keeps at it, he may even earn enough to never worry about being evicted again…
When Sato meets Aoi at the local anime store, there’s definitely a spark. But even as they tread carefully, their commitment issues and Aoi’s troubled past soon muck things up before they can start. In order for Sato and Aoi to have their happily-ever-after, they’ll both have to take a leap of faith… and hope to be caught.
Would It Be Okay to Love You? is the first book in a gay romance series set in Japan. If you like original characters, nerd culture, and simmering chemistry, then you’ll love Amy Tasukada’s charming multicultural love story.
If Blood Stained Tea was a homage to everything BL, Would it be Okay to Love You is a bombastic overload of everything Japanese pop culture from Gundam kits and VK to seiyuu in-store meets and megane moe. I love everything Japanese but I couldn’t help but find the whole thing cringy as it was so tropey and weaboo-ish. Maybe it was meant as a tribute to everything the author love about Japan (the kind of Japan you see on the internet) but a little subtlety and sophistication can go a long way.
Heavy-handedness aside, the romance was sweet and fluffy and the couple was adorable. Aoi is a smol power topper whose every other line was an innuendo but he didn’t come across as a sleaze. Sato is a virginal, number crunching geek who won trophies for pen spinning. It’s the opposite attracts kind of thing that came together in a delicious slow-burn process. The secondary characters were all likable and I have a special shoutout to Michiko, a girl after my own heart.
The writing is still amateurish, the plot was pretty much standard but maybe the author was going for less high brow, more fanfiction-y, fan servicey anime-ish kind of story. I have come to the conclusion that it’s Amy Tasukada schtick so I just need to get over it and think of it as a BL manga in prose form. With that in mind, I’m just going ahead and see if I could get my hands on book 2.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and loveSoundtrack: Sekaijuu de Ichiban Taisetsu na Mono
Artist: Charlotte
Album:(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36182496-would-it-be-okay-to-love-you)
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We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.
Robert Fulghum -
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Soundtrack to Would it be Okay to Love? You by Amy Tasukada
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Umibe no Etranger – Kii Kanna
Three years ago, Hashimoto Shun, a gay novelist in the making, met Chibana Mio, a very quiet high school student, in Okinawa. Mio had lost both of his two parents and was often seen sitting on a bench until very late, watching the sea, near Shun’s house. They slowly grew closer to one another, but Mio suddenly had to leave the island, to pursue his studies… Three years later, Mio returns to Okinawa: “I’ve been thinking a lot these last three years… Even if he’s a man too, I love Shun.” Will these two finally be able to take a step forward together?
My second Kii Kanna manga. I’m still trying to get use to her writing syle. I like the artwork but the story is unnecessarily complicated.
