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MANGA: Ishibashi Defence Corps Individual
Ishibashi Defence Corps Individual – Unohana
Kokubunji, a Uni student with a rugged face, endures harsh training everyday in order to protect his friend, Ishibashi, who has an angelic smile and a supple body.── During class, club activities, and on holidays, he must carefully observe Ishibashi, so that he does not face danger! For his beloved Ishibashi, Kokubunji must struggle on a daily basis! He is tested to act logically, constantly! He is in defensive war for his best friend, with the Uni’s top student (with a dirty mind).
Ishibashi Defense Corps Individual is a funny, hopelessly in love with your best friend story about the super athletic Kokubunji whose sole purpose in life was to protect his beloved best friend, Ishibashi.
Ishibashi is a cheerful guy who is passionate about protecting his country. He and Kokubunji have been friends since middle school. Unbeknownst to him, his grumpy friend only joined the defense academy just to be with him.
The two friends navigate freshman and senior year. Being a natural athlete, Kokubunji excelled at everything effortlessly. The only thing he struggled with was hiding his true feelings towards Ishibashi.
I really liked the manga’s military navy setting. The story itself is light-hearted and cute. Kokubunji’s total adoration for his friend was super sweet and pure. I loved how the two friends progressed into boyfriends. It just felt natural. The scene where Kokubunji fried his brain when Ishibashi kissed him was hilarious!
The artwork is not that unique but I loved the way the mangaka drew the expressions. Especially Kokubunji’s. The man has an epic resting bitch face. His going-gaga-over-Ishibashi-while-trying-to-keep-it-cool face was super funny. He gave off this intimidating aura but he’s really just a big dork.
Bonus here was Sakura-senpai, Ishibashi’s roommate. He is a great character. Kokubunji thought their senpai was after his best friend so his hackles were up. Later, it was revealed that their senpai was actually, quite sneakily, working to turn the friends into a couple. They also learned that Sakura has a boyfriend. I’d love to read their story too!
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MANGA: Kemonomichi wo Tadotte
Kemonomichi wo Tadotte – Satsuki Yuki
One full moon night, a man suddenly meets the werewolf “Kuro”, hiding in the back alley. Immediately fascinated by the werewolf’s overwhelming presence, all reason is lost in the face of pleasure.
Kemonomichi wo Tadotte is a rare werewolf manga with actual knotting. Beyond the smut, this is really a tender kismet romance between two werewolf breeds. In this world, werewolves who stayed in the forest are called ‘kuro’ while those who decided to blend with humans are called ‘shiro’.
One day, a shiro found a kuro on the streets on a full moon night. He convinces the wolf to stay with him for the night. The kuro found it difficult to accept such kindness until the moon compelled him to take the shiro.
What I liked best was the twist later on. It’s the typical childhood connection plotline but it gave the story weight. And elevated what would have been nothing but more than an excuse for some knotty sex into a compelling love story that made me want more of this couple.
This oneshot has great potential! Turn this into a series please.
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MANGA: Coming
Coming – Niyama
Closeted middle-age man logs in on an site to find a friend. The man who turns up was…?!
Coming is an age-gap romance of a 45 year old salaryman, Shouichi Koga, who was inspired by a celebrity who recently came out about his relationship. He used a certain website for gay men to find a friend.
Poor Koga. When he said friend, he really means an actual friend and not a code for something. Lucky for him, the man who turned up was Rei.
This is a super cute one-shot. Koga is adorably pure and shy. Rei is a younger, very toppy guy who was eager to show him the way. I love their kind of younger seme x older uke combination. My favorite part is Rei going, OMG Koga is so cute! I can’t even!!!!
I really want to read the sequel and see where this inadvertent hookup is heading.
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MANGA: Ikigami to Donor
Ikigami to Donor – Yamanaka Hiko
Yuki Yoshino, a junior high school teacher, is informed that he’s an “Ikigami donor.” Ikigami are the strongest military-operated human beings, and the treatment for these super humans requires body fluids from their unique donor. As Yoshino is about to learn what it means to be an Ikigami donor, Kido storms into the room and demands for his donor. Kido, a super famous Ikigami, is told that Yoshino is his donor and Kido orders Yoshino to treat his open leg wound with his saliva. In disbelief, Kido and Yoshino both witness the leg wound heals in front of their eyes.
Ikigami and Donor is a dystopian story with an interesting and kinda gross premise. Ikigami are supersoldiers who fight for their country in a world where military might is based on the number of ikigami they have. These superhumans can only be damaged by their fellow ikigami and they cannot be treated by ordinary medicine. Instead, each of them has a specially matched donor whose body fluids can heal their assigned ikigami. This can be as simple as licking a wound to extreme such as donating the entire skin off your back or giving up multiple organs.
Which is what happened to middle school teacher Yoshino, who suddenly found himself a donor and assigned to an asshole ikigami named Kido. Said asshole demanded he lick the open wound on his leg upon their very first meeting without so much as a hello, nice to meet you.
This manga can be quite emotional and thought-provoking as it touches upon human rights, war, and the intensely codependent relationship between donor and ikigami. A pair does not necessarily becomes emotionally involved with each other. More often than not, it’s a cold, efficient transaction of harvesting blood or body parts. Yoshino and Kido is actually a rare case.
Kido is a man-child who does what he wants with Yoshino to the point of almost raping the guy. He doesn’t really have anyone to protect, merely fights simply because he’s an ikigami. Yoshino felt protective of his ikigami almost immediately. He is a mild-mannered man who was fast learning the kind of damage the supersoldiers had to endure.
The story is mostly from Yoshino’s POV but we also see Kido’s thoughts and history. As the story progress, Kido’s character grow and learn the most important lessons in life. Their bond grew stronger, the longer they were together. The war continues, and soon, ultimate sacrifices had to be made.
There was a part where he and Yoshino talked about what they want to happened 10 years into the future. It was a such a poignant moment that showed the kind of empty life Kido was living all this time. Later, he told Yoshino his dreams for the future. I was teary eyed.
Yep, this is one of those manga that can break your heart to pieces, then put it back together again.
There’s a bonus mini-thread between the sunshine-y ikigami, Taki, and the stoic ministry official, Shibata. I love this pair! They need their own story.
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MANGA: Pause
Pause – Sosso
A couple reminiscing about how their relationship started while having sex.
This is a beautifully drawn manga about an established couple. It’s a classmates to lovers story told in flashbacks while they were having sex. It’s nothing new but it’s still cute and sweet with some socks kink to spice things up.
I also liked how they shake the dynamics up a bit. I was expecting the nerdy guy to be the uke but he was actually the dominant one. For a one-shot, it did a good job showcasing both characters’ personalities.
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MANGA: Oh My Hero!
Oh My Hero! – Cocomi
This Boys Love story is about Inui, a guy who works part-time dressing up as a tokusatsu hero (think Power Ranger) in shows for children. He meets the Mugita family, a father and his son who have a lot of love for one particular ranger. As the Mugita family is always watching his shows with great passion, he got interested in them and is happy when they invite him to their house. But while he enjoys spending time in their warm company, Inui is troubled because some desires in him awake when he thinks about Daddy-Mugita. Another story included is Aogeba Koishi, where a senpai and kohai from the middle school basketball club meet again as adults.
Adorbs!
Oh My Hero! is a wonderfully wholesome romance between a divorced single dad and a younger man who works as a tokusatsu hero.
Inui, the man behind the mask, frequently sees the Mugita father and son very enthusiastically cheering him on in the audience during his performances. He has a long-standing, long distance crush with the father until the son brought them together. From then on, Inui spends his time playing with the young child while secretly longing for Mugita.
One day, the boy accidentally spilt his drink over Inui’s clothes. This led to Mugita taking him to the bathroom to change, and that led to some unexpected release of pent up tension…
I loved the the vibe of this manga! The artwork is as mellow and calming as the story. The romance is soft and gentle and oh so wholesome, even with the couple of handjob scenes. I had a bit of apprehension that the younger Mugita might have a crush on Inui as is sometimes the case with single dad stories. Happily, the plot avoided that dreaded love triangle.
There was a single chapter story about a kohai and his admired senpai who suddenly kissed him when they were high schoolers. They accidentally met again and went on to relive youthful regrets and…that kiss? Ooh, this has so much potential! I wished there were more chapters.
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MANGA: Nirameba Koi
Nirameba Koi – Yukue Moegi
Apart from the fact he’s in the student council and has quite strange tastes, Shima is an average, low-profile, quiet high schooler. Therefore, he doesn’t understand why Ryuunosuke, a sports student, always glares at him every time they cross paths. Shima doesn’t want to draw the punk’s attention, but the instinctive hostility of Ryuunosuke towards him troubles him, and he wants to know why the other boy hates him…
This is a super cute collection of stories that explores the juvenile delinquent uke trope. It’s always fun to see these tough boys get all blushy and flustered.
Glare At You Because I Love You is the title story. Told from the point of view of student council member Shima, the story follows how he fell in love with Ryuunosuke, a notorious juvenile delinquent who always glares at him.
This is one of the most adorable falling in love with a tsundere story. Shima is wonderful. He’s the type of guy who finds cats with weird faces cute. I loved how he slowly get to know the secret sweeter side of Ryuunosuke’s personality. I especially liked how he notices the little things Ryuu does that show he really has a kind heart. It was a joy to witness him slowly falling for the intimidating punk who’s really a big softie underneath all that scowl.
Ryuu fell in love at first sight with Shima. He had a really good reason for doing so. The reason and the way he said it was so full of hope and longing you really had to feel for the guy. Don’t judge a punk by his death glare.
There were a couple of other stories in this 2-volume collection.
The Dragon Of Memories is a one chapter, age-gap story of a troublemaker who frequently had run-ins with his school’s new janitor. Unbeknownst to him, the older man was someone from his past and was trying to jog the young man memory. I wasn’t feeling this story. This had a huge dub-con scene.
Notice Me Because I Love You is a childhood friends to lovers story starring Ryuu’s kohai, Reiji, and Akira, the twin brother of their mutual friend, Osamu. Reiji is an uber dense high schooler who failed to notice that Osamu’s twin brother, Akira is in love with him since forever. The three are neighbors and had been friends since they were little kids.
I liked this one as well, though not as much as the main story. The characters were familiar mostly because I have read other stories with similar character types. But I enjoyed the way straight A student Akira was pining for his twin brother’s spectacularly oblivious friend.
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MANGA: Shokuinshitsu no Himegoto
Shokuinshitsu no Himegoto – Ueda Kiyo
Nishio, a stoic math teacher, doesn’t get along very well with Sakaki, the beloved gym teacher. However, after one drunken night, Nishio finds himself in Sakaki’s bed where he is suddenly kissed and confessed to…?
A Secret Of Teachers Room is an endearing opposites attract, gay for you, teacher + teacher romance between a grumpy but softy Math teacher and a handsome, uber-popular PE teacher.
I really liked that this is between two teachers since I am not a fan of teacher/student romances. It started as a one-sided enemies thing because Nishio considers Sakaki his natural enemy. The PE teacher was everything he was not. To his surprise, his so-called enemy was in love with him.
Sakaki is a great seme. Even after he was rejected because Nishio is straight, he still made friends with him. And he’s not pushy about it as is sometimes the case with these things. My favorite part was how he was always there to take care of the Math teacher, offering him advise and cheering him up when the latter had some issues with his students. And he’s so easy-going about it.
Nishio is a devoted teacher. His passion for teaching is one of the things Sakaki loves about him. He’s super strict in the classroom but is a lovable dork who cries during graduations. He’s spectacularly unaware of his own appeal. He thinks nobody likes him
I loved both MCs. I enjoyed how their opposite personalities played off with each other. The story was mostly from Nishio’s POV but we are still privy to some of Sakaki’s thoughts. I liked this style because we can see the depth of Sakaki’s feelings while still giving us some surprising twists.
The manga did a good job showcasing the slow-burn transition from co-workers to kind of friends to lovers. The art is a bit generic but fits the vibe of the story. This is a great volume to read if you’re looking for a low-angst workplace romance set outside a corporate environment.
There is also a nice little side plot about their two students. I have yet to check if they have their own spin-off. I hope they have.
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MANGA: Suki, Dakara Furetai
Suki, Dakara Furetai – Noda Matsumoto
With the help of a friendly ghost, Masaki, Ono-sensei can examine his young patient’s teeth without much fuss. It seems that only Ono-sensei and children can see Masaki. He brings a calming presence, which is convenient for children at the dentist and for Ono-sensei as well. But is he really a ghost? He doesn’t remember much about his past but for some reason, he’s very attached to Ono-sensei. So much so that Masaki hangs out around the office and even walks Ono-sensei home. Once they reach the entrance to Ono-sensei’s apartment however, Masaki is asked to stay out. Ono-sensei doesn’t want Masaki to know that something else haunts him behind closed doors.
I Want to Feel You Because I Like You is a ghost love story with a twist. I normally avoid ghost stories because they usually end in tears. This one is a tearjerker as well.
Ono is a dentist who can see Masaki. Only he and children can see him. Masaki helps calm the young patients. His presence also helps Ono through some very rough patch.
The manga slowly goes from light-hearted to heavy. As the story progressed, we learn more about Ono. He suffers from recurring nightmares and has what appears to be a terminally ill lover. A touch from a someone he couldn’t see calms him when the dreams were really bad.
The story deals with grief and healing. While we witness Ono’s heartbreak, there still a feeling of light at the end of the tunnel. I had some inkling of where this was going and I’m glad I was right. There was a new beginning. Although, this has another surprise which comes with a warning that if you don’t like shota, best not read this.
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BLOG TOUR: Graphic Noiz 3 The Manga by Natsuya Uesugi (Giveaway)
