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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 love

Soundtrack: Sekaijuu de Ichiban Taisetsu na Mono
Artist: Charlotte
Album:

(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36182496-would-it-be-okay-to-love-you)