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Posts Tagged Boys’ Love/Yaoi

Review: Only Words


Author: Tina Anderson
Artist: Caroline Monaco
Publisher: Iris Print
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: August 2008

Synopsis: “18-year-old seminary student Koby Bruk has watched for two years as the Nazis encroach on Poland. The Hitler Youth now openly attend his classes, and Koby finds himself strangely fascinated by one in particular: the scarred and domineering Oskar Keplar. When Koby is bulled by his classmate Irvine, he chooses to speak up against him. Oskar retaliates, cornering Koby and making a sinister promise.”

The lead of Only Words is Koby, a seminary student who lives his life honestly and quietly within the confines of society in Nazi-inhabited Poland. Affecting his life in a way that will forever stay with him is Oskar, a Nazi soldier, and between them is arranged a seductively dangerous encounter.

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Shut Downs, Slow Downs and Possible Start Up

Brocolli Books

Doesn’t it always seem like lots of stuff goes on and e-mail boxes get flooded on the few days you’re out of town? Darn irony! So upon my arrival home from an entertaining anime & manga presentation I helped run for Teen Read Week in Halifax, I came across several different things so it’s short round-up time!

Biggest manga news in recent days is undoubtably the announced shutdown of Brocolli Books USA International. While not a big fan of the publisher myself, it can’t be denied that they had some popular titles and a good reputation of quality. I first heard of Brocoll’s shutdown thanks to Gia who was quick to learn of the news. Since then ICv2 has recieved confirmation of the shutdown and more information was shared with the public through Brocolli Books’ production blog.

Yaoi Press’s Twitter reminds those waiting for some of DMP’s December releases that they’ve been pushed back until sometime in 2009, including Vampire Hunter D (Vol. 03) and Kabuki (Vol. 02). The full list can read from ANN’s post this past October.

 On a potentially more positive note, another post over on the DramaQueen forums had this to say:

“Tyrant QC is done so next phase is printing!!! OK – we will be updating the website with pre-order for weekend after Thanks Giving – that would be Nov. 29th that Saturday.

We are timing the pre-order as close to the time we get the books in-house from our beloved printers. So there might be a 2 week lag from pre-orders to shipping date. Just wanted to let everyone know in advance!”

As usual, we shall see…

Also, at BLU would like to remind readers to stop asking about Love Pistols (Vol. 06). It hasn’t yet been released in Japan so harassing them about it won’t make it available in English any faster. Even I’ve recieved e-mails asking about it so I can only imagine what their e-mail boxes must look like. Please be courteous and do your research before you make an inquiry :)

And finally on a great note if it turns out to be true, Danielle over at Comics Should Be Good! is spreading the word that it looks like Viz may have picked up the license to Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku. Edit: And ANN continues this news with a bunch of other titles as well!


Review: Stop Bullying Me!


Manga-ka: Natsuho Shino
Publisher: DMP/June
Rating: Older Teen (16+)
Released: October 2008

Synopsis: “Next to my big brother, who I really, really love, is him, who I really, really love. ‘He’ is student council vice president, Izumi. He’s always with the council president, my big brother, and whenever I get close to them they find a way to bully me! But… when Izumi sometimes shows me his gentle side or his cool side when he’s working, I get somehow excited…! What’s happening to me?”

Stop Bullying Me!”, a cry from the boys’ love story’s lead, Tomo Masaki. Despite his difficulty with schoolwork, he’s managed to make it into a prestigious academic high school, all so he could be nearer to his brother, Ei. Ei is the school’s council president with a kind personality, hard working ethics and an attractive on top of that. Doesn’t seem the same can be said for his best friend, Izumi however, who just won’t leave Ei’s little brother alone.

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Review: Sound of My Voice (Vol. 01)

Reviewer: Lissa Pattillo

Manga-ka: Youka Nitta
Publisher: BeBeautiful
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: November 2006

Synopsis: “A lifelong dream of fame and fortune has been the driving force of Wataru Jouchi’s entire life. Now, after much self-doubt, he’s decided to fulfill his destiny and become a voice actor for anime videos. At first, he is thrilled to discover that his long lost friend, Renji Kazama, is considered a top star in the industry. But Kazama does not seem at all pleased about their unexpected reunion.”

Wataru’s dream is to be a successful voice actor, but to do this he must start from the bottom and work his way up. During an audition, he meets Kazama, an old childhood friend. Not only is he amazed to meet his old friend again, but doubly so that the two are in the same profession. However, Kazama doesn’t think as highly of the reunion and harbours bitterness from their youth.

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Review: Pathos (Vol. 02)


Manga-ka: Mika Sadahiro
Publisher: DMP/June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: September 2008

Synopsis: “Talk about keeping secrets from your kids! King and J are two immortal vampires stuck with raising Ace. As he grows up he finds himself attracted to J. But King and J, afraid Ace will find out they are vampires, send him to a boarding school. Mika Sadahiro’s gothic love story of the growth of a boy raised by vampires and the emotions of vampires that span eternity continues.”

Pathos volume two returns readers to the story of Ace and the vampiric duo who adopted him. Years have passed and the youth remains enthralled with the immortal life of a vampire, and even more so with one of his ‘brothers’, J.

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Review: Love Recipe (Vol. 01)


Manga-ka: Kirico Higashizato
Publisher: DMP/June
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: July 2007

Synopsis: “Tomonori has just landed his dream job at a large publishing firm. The only catch is, he is the new editor of a Boys’ Love magazine! With that, comes the responsibility of managing Sakurako Kakyoin, a male yaoi artist who is notorious for missing his deadlines. To become a full-fledged editor, Tomonori-kun has to start from the bottom – checking drafts, editing scripts and lettering. Now if only Kakyoin-sensei would stop sexually harassing him, he could actually get some work done!”

Love Recipe volume one introduces us to Tomonori Ozawa, an enthusiastic youth who gets hired at his dream location, a large publishing firm. Much to his surprise, he gets placed in the boys’ love department! Everything is pretty strange, and a tad disturbing, to him at first with the swooning desk workers and fans eager for more boys loving boys. One day he’s sent by his boss to the home of famous yaoi artist, Sakurako Kakyoin, to pick up their manga. What he doesn’t expect is that Kakyoin is actually a man, and not only a man who draws yaoi, but also a man who falls for Tomonori at first sight.

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Review: The Judged


Manga-ka: Akira Honma
Publisher: DramaQueen
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: July 2006

Synopsis: “A leak to a legal office makes a case for government corruption. It is now the job of public prosecutor Kyou Sugiura to investigate Tatsuki Toudou, an arrogant politician riding on the coattails of his daddy’s success. But Toudou may be more clever than his sexually abusive, adoptive father was. He uses manipulation after manipulation to exact revenge against Kyou for that time, long ago, when the two boys shared an intimate bond… which Kyou betrayed.”

For those who follow the reviews on my site, it’s safe to say that I tend to give books positive reviews over negative ones. A simple reason for this is that I buy what I really want thus more often than not tend to like what I buy. In the instance of The Judged, I purchased it based on the manga-ka, Akira Honma, whose work I enjoyed in their other book published by DramaQueen: Last Portrait. Well, despite my purchase under inspired pretences, the series fell very short of expectation.

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DQ’s Return Minus 10 Months

DramaQueen has made corrections based on some unsurity of the news it gave the other day for the release date of it’s first return title, Tyrant Who Falls in Love. While they stated the month of September, causing some to assume September 2009, it was actually a mistake on their part and they meant November 2008! Much better I’d say, right?

“Tyrant is coming out this NOVEMBER – sheesh I’m losing track of time – so my apologies for getting the month wrong!

We’re shotting for BEFORE THANKS GIVING shipping – and I know that many fans have doubts about our release schedule after last year – I just humbly ask that you all forgive us for not being able to fulfill the schedule that we wanted to do.

Trust me, there is nothing that would have stopped us from doing so if circumstances allowed it – but we’re still here and we never gave up that we’ll be back to printing. This is our labor of love, and we’ve learned from our errors and now we’re moving one.

So, Tyrant is THIS NOVEMBER! Haahaa – printer’s been paid, so it’s gonna happen. Right now, we’re double checking the QC and then sending to printers. Once again, thank you thank you for all your support and encouragement (in all forms ^ ^) and it’s just good to be back doing what we love…. “

Thanks to Nadaj for the heads up on my previous post, and Simon for the initial insight.


It’s Alive! Aliiiiiive~!

Disclaimer: Despite mad scientist status, Kuriousity claims no part in DQ’s revival Hopefully there’ll be a cool accompanying picture (Edit: check! Well, semi-cool anyway) to that overenthuastic title but in the meantime:

Seems that those who’ve held out hope for DramaQueen are finally being rewarded as a post on the forums has made official proclamation that they’re making a comeback. The plan is to have the first volume of The Tyrant Who Falls in Love out in September 2009. They also have plans to continue the RUSH anthology. This after it was previously stated that the RUSH crew were looking for another publisher after DramaQueen’s long silence.

Looks like my foolish hold out of hope was not in vain! All for the love of Hinako Takanaga and Naono Bohra. Now it’s just a matter of September coming around to make sure it’s not another empty promise. When we hold that book in our hand, then we shall truely celebrate!

You can read the whole post under the cut. Thanks to the folks at Boys Next Door for the quick pick up of the news!

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Review: Dark Prince (Vol. 03)


Author: Yamila Abraham
Artist: M.A. Sambre
Publisher: Yaoi Press
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: September 2008

Synopsis:
“Prince Davon yearns for a pure love with the peasant Aeon, but the dark forces that taint Davon’s life will interfere. Both Davon and Aeon become unsure of where they stand. Will they be lovers, or adversaries? The macabre story of twisted love, demons, and torture comes to a heart-wrenching conclusion.”

Volume three of Dark Prince marks the end of this boys’ love story of demons, gods and princes. Prince Davon is still struggling under the control of the abusive and selfish God, Pharah. Aeon, the young boy believed to be a reincarnation of a man named Rickus, stays at Davon’s side but Pharah wants the boy for himself. But when Davon is unable to convince Aeon of his God’s non-existent good side, Pharah orders Davon to kill him.

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