Brace Yourself! The Long-Threatened Yaoi Review is Here!

This post comes with some warnings.  If you don’t like boys’ love or yaoi, skip this post.  Just don’t read it.  I’ll probably do another post tomorrow, so just come back then.  If you don’t mind or feel adventurous, please, read on.

I have a limited yaoi collection, mostly because this kind of manga just recently became available at the Borders across the way from where I work, which is where I buy the grand majority of my manga.  The last time I shopped at Barnes & Noble the cashier literally shoved my purchases at me after I paid for them, which I found offensively snobbish and will still be limiting my time there.  However, this is not a bookstore review.

I had initially planned to re-read the two volumes of Love Recipe, but since I do most of my reading at work currently I decided that wasn’t really possible due to the explicit nature of the material and one nosy coworker.  This is my favorite yaoi though, so I should be able to review it with no problems now.

If you’re familiar at all with Animation Runner Kuromi, Love Recipe is similar, but with a boys’ love/yaoi bent.  If you’re not familiar with Animation Runner Kuromi, go get familiar with it.  Now.  In the meantime, Love Recipe is about a newly-minted graduate, Tomonori Ozawa who has just landed his dream job as an editor for a manga publisher.  The tiny detail he isn’t aware of before showing up for his first day on the job, is that he works for a Boys’ Love manga publisher!

It’s not long before Ozawa is sent to retrieve a manuscript from RoseBoy’s most popular author, Sakurako Kakyoin.  Under the impression that Kakyoin is a woman, he readily agrees, and is shocked to find that Kakyoin, is in fact a man that draws boys love comics.  Ozawa is molested by Kakyoin shortly thereafter.

There’s an odd charm to this manga.  Although there is the initial consensual-on-one-side sex, the sex scenes in the rest of the manga seem to be mutually consensual.  At least as much as it ever is in yaoi, from my limited experience.  The relationship between the two main characters is amusingly complex, and all the extra snippets about manga editing, moe, and the purpose of boys love comics makes this manga a continuously good read.

The biggest draw for me is the relationship between Ozawa and Kakyoin.  Kakyoin starts out as the older, experienced aggressor, but ends up quickly falling for Ozawa, who doesn’t have a clue.  Ozawa’s cluelessness carries the humor for the rest of both volumes of this manga.

In short, I highly recommend this manga, for yaoi beginners such as myself, or maybe even long time fans.  It’s cute and sweet, and the sex scenes are well done, without being overly graphic or weird.   They’re a little more expensive than most manga, but for the extra money, you get lovely slipcovers on your manga.  It’s definitely worth the extra money.  In fact, feel free to check out Digital Manga’s website to see more of their catalog.