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Posts Tagged Boys’ Love/Yaoi

Review: A Gentlemen’s Kiss (Vol. 02)


Manga-ka: Shinri Fuwa
Publisher: DMP
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: December 2008

Synopsis: “When Kyoya, a former employee at Homura Yasobe’s host club, stumbles upon his boss’ clandestine affair with Touji Karasuma, the leader of a rival Yakuza faction-Kyoya seizes upon the opportunity to blackmail Homura into going out with him. But will the cold and calculating Touji accept defeat and let his beloved Homura go?”

After a former employee of Homura’s host club learns about his boss’s four year affair with rival Yakuza member, Touji Karasuma, he seizes the opportunity to blackmail Homura into a date. What begins as a protection of the men’s status turns into an emotional leaning post for Homura whose thoughts just can’t be pried from Touji despite their growing absence from eachother’s lives.

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Review: Seduce Me After the Show


Manga-ka: Est Em
Publisher: Deux Press
Rating: Teen (18+)
Released: May 2008

Synopsis: “A stylish, tempestuous dance of anguish and passion. Seduce Me After the Show contains seven short stories which take place within the artistic worlds of dance, painting and music. Overall themes focus on the dichotomy of hope & despair as well as the relationship between pleasure and longing. Devastated by the death of his world famous dancer mother, Theo Gallardo abandons his own dancing cateer to become an actor and co-stars in a film with popular Hollywood idol Darren Fergus.”

Seduce Me After the Show is a collection of seven short stories. Numerous positive reviews prompted me to pick this title up, and though I did find it a nice overall read, ultimately for me its greatest failing was not living up to its community hype.

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Review: Shards of Affection


Manga-ka: Duo Brand
Publisher: DMP
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: December 2008

Synopsis: “The delicate edge of a perfect sword can slice through flesh without a sound… but only the rarest weapon houses an apparition-battling spirit, too! Two warriors – one naïve and one experience – must wield their special blades with great care in order to conquer their opponents. Elsewhere, a clumsy young scientist and a cautious priest feel the sharp pangs of desire… and an ancient-monster lashes out for the one he loves.”

I’m a huge sucker for stories involving priests and monks, and in a lot of cases, traditional Japanese clothing in general, so some of these short stories had me at the get-go. Personal interest aside, however, this collection of inter-connected stories managed to earn few brownie points for itself past that quirk.

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Look what the Kitty dragged in!

Could it be? Naono Bohra in English?! (With no thanks to DramaQueen) Kitty Media has a listing on RightStuf for Naono Bohra’s supernatural one-shot Yami no Tooboe, Mune Ni Toge (which they’ve renamed Yokai’s Hunger). Big fans like me will obviously be very happy of what will hopefully be the first of many of Naono’s work to be licensed for English release. And even better, not long to wait with Yokai’s Hunger due for release in March 2009.

Listing originally spotted by sharp-eyed voiceofreason36 at the YaoiGen forums.


DramaQueen’s Drama, Yaoi Press Year End

A few recent boys’ love events of note:

 The drama over at Drama Queen’s forums continues with fans up in arms over their continued disorganization, misinformation and the latest in a string of broken promises. Some intelligent comments are made about DQ’s consistent failure as a business and I’m certainly enclined to agree. It’s been a long, sad road and DQ’s possible return no longer looks optimistic as much as it just shows how easily a so-called company can mess with its dedicated fans, not to mention contributers. For shame, DramaQueen.

And after failing to deliver on promised release dates for Tyrant Who Falls in Love twice, LadyQ on the forums pulls out a very familiar excuse:

“OK – DON’T PANIC! Tyrant is on it’s way – there’s a minor problem on our printing (nothing major!) so we’re working on it to get it printed asap.

Please know that Tyrant will be out – we will not be able to make it for Christmas delivery – but we’re shooting for January. I know how you all must feel, but please know that this time, it was not within our control when the problem arose ><! “

Maybe you should just, I don’t know… wait until you actually have something before you promise it to people?

On a much more positive note, Yamila has posted her end of the year report for Yaoi Press. They’re obviously feeling the current economic crunch but remain optimistic about things to come. One of their upcoming changes is the format of their books which will have higher page counts and larger trim sizes. It’s a good read for both fans of their releases and as a view of how one of the few consistant publishers in these rocky times is getting by.

Over at her blog, Tina Anderson makes some suggestions for some global BL reading for the holiday vacation. There’re some great titles on the list so check it out if you’re looking for some good reads that are refreshingly different from your usual yaoi fare.

And finally, in referrence to the appearance of In God’s Arms on Amazon (slated for a July 2009 release), a fan has been circulating an e-mail they recieved from Seven Seas telling them that the license for the boys’ love book by Nekota Yonezou had indeed been lost. While this doesn’t come as a surprise, and it’s more likely Amazon just regurgitated the listing, wouldn’t it be a much nicer thought that a license lost could infact now be a license found?


Review: Black Sun


Manga-ka: Uki Ogasawara
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: December 2008

Synopsis: “Gerun Fortress – a coastal stronghold along the Mediterranean Sea. Here, two-hundred Monastic Knights make their final stand against a league of 20,000 Middle Eastern soldiers led by General Jamal Jan. Called “beardless” by some, “shameless” by others, Jamal soon seizes the castle and its acting commander, Prince Leonard de Limbourg. The general’s ideas of how to subjugate the enemy do not conform to the typical rules of warfare, however. In quick order, Prince Leonard finds himself stripped naked and forced to perform in front of his own men. Leonard’s humiliation does not end there; now the general’s captive slave, he is brought back to a strange land and presented before His Majesty the Sultan. Will Jamal’s deviant attentions lead to certain punishment for both he and Prince Leonard?”

A battle of thousands versus mere hundreds leaves the commander, Prince Leonard, looking for a way out that won’t leave the castle stained with the blood of his men. In exchange for their safety, he surrenders himself to the enemies General, Jamal Jan. Forced to engage with Jamal in front of the soldiers present there, Leonard is humiliated, then whisked away to Jamal’s home as a prize of war, one that not only spells obvious troubles for him, but possibly for his captor as well.

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Saturday Splunks

Eventually I’m going to run out of titles completely based on what day of the week it is. I’m only so creative on no hours of sleep! While I finish up some work on an incoming post on holiday shopping (complete with too many random colourful pictures of course), here’re some more Amazon-related finds which may or may not be new but were atleast of interest to me so I like to think satisitically must be of interest to atleast someone else out there! If you’re that person (or people?) then this post is for you :)

As usual, keep in mind that these listings may not be entirely accurate and pending official recognition and announcement from publishers, cannot and should not be considered 100% confirmed. This is especially true regarding release dates. Check it all out under the cut.

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Review: Love Mode (Vol. 11)


Manhwa-ga: Yuki Shimizu
Publisher: BLU
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: November 2008

Synopsis: “The mysterious figure of Shiki finally appears in this flashback — we find a younger and more naive Aoe escaping his familial responsibilities to the countryside of England, where he shares a simple bed and breakfast home with Takamiya and Shiki. While Aoe can’t deny his feelings for the happy-go-lucky Shiki, he can’t shrug off his duties to his family. The tension and seduction builds to an unexpected event that will rock his world forever!”

Volume eleven marks the end of Love Mode, a character-driven story of men brought together by a bomcintion of their business and pleasures. As testament to her skill, Yuki Shimizu has left pinnacle events in characters’ lives a mystery until this final point, revealing to readers past events in what is easily one of the most dramatic books of the series.

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Deux and Libre English Teaching Team-Up

More from the Deux front today. Posted on their website is a colourful little page about a project between Deux Press and the Japanese company, LIBRE. It’s titled Repeat After Me? .The project’s lead artist is Shinri Fiwa (whose work has been published in English by BeBeautiful and DMP) and it looks to me like an online manga project that utilizes the plot of a young man forced to learn English in three months, to actually teach English. Pretty neat concept I’d say. Learn English with some boys’ love!

Deux Press will be working with LIBRE on this project as their English helping-hand. Who knows, maybe they could turn the tables and have it work the other way around for us English readers someday?


Deux Saves Cigarette Kisses

Those lamenting the loss of Brocolli Book’s yaoi imprint, Boysenberry, because they feared that they’d never get their hands on an English edition of Nase Yamato’s Cigaerette Kisses, need fear no more. In a surprisingly swift move (from our consumer perspective anyway), Deux Press announced today their acquistion of the title.

Deux Press, the yaoi imprint of Aurora Publishing, has picked up the title Cigarette Kisses by Nase Yamato. Originally, Boysenberry Books, the yaoi imprint of Broccoli Books, was to release this title. However, with Broccoli Books shutting down, the title will be dropped from their list. Lucky for all of the Nase Yamato fans, Deux Press (who is already releasing her Take Me to Heaven in January 2009) was able to acquire the rights to the title, and fans can expect the manga to be released sometime in the second half of 2009.”

This news comes to Kuriousity compliments of Fujoshi Library.


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