Comments of Renai Shoumei

Some enjoyable one shots in this random assortment.

Very boring...

All very nice stories.

Love that student council pres. what a seme. Yum.

I really liked the stories. I especially liked the actor/manager and the teacher/student council president.

The first few were cute, but then there was the typical "I shouldn't sleep with my students but whoops" story, and then the style seemed to change, so I stopped.

A series of short stories (rated individually below):
1) A story about a Japanese translator who is brought in to help out an English-speaking businessman. They begin dating, but trouble starts when the translator's ex turns out to be his boyfriend's nephew. Kind of over the top, underdeveloped and uninteresting. 2/5 Stars
2) A manager scouts a man off the street and grooms him to become a top up-and-coming star. They have become lovers. Thing is, this young star is expected to begin dating starlets, and the manager's resolve to not let anything - including his personal feelings - get in the way of his boyfriend''s career - jeopardizes their relationship. Somewhat more cogently organized and paced than the first and a trifle more interesting. 2/5 stars.
3) A gay teacher at an all-boy's school is entrapped by a sexually adventurous and domineering second-year student. Yikes. 1/5 stars.
4) A man re-encounters and re-connects with his cold-fish high school boyfriend, who is now a successful executive. Definitely the best of the lot, if only because it feels as though the story would normally be told from the perspective of his boyfriend, whom he inadvertently tormented and then abandoned in an effort to get him to express his feelings. In that small way, it is somewhat refreshing. 3/5 Stars.

Not sure why I bothered rating these individually - there is an art to short stories which requires a kind of emotional precision, subtlety, and attention to detail that is not this mangaka's forte (but to be fair these are early stories, as reflected in both the writing and the cruder art style). Given more time to develop an emotional connection to the characters, these had the potential to be much stronger stories; as it is it feels like 3-4 volumes of drama condensed into 30-40 pages. It is somewhat difficult to care enough to have much of an impact. If you're interested in the drama, check out this mangaka's other (much, much better) works. Otherwise, I'd give these a miss. I enjoyed reading them if only to get a sense for what the author's less mature work was like, so if you really love this mangaka, you might get a kick out of them.

Apart from a "no stop" means yes in the first story and the underage thing in the school story, no rape/dubcon.

Very average stories, only the student x sensei was hot.

Collection of stories:
~Ch 1 Renai Shoumei (pp 5-52) - translator x american businessman
~Ch 2 Kiss and Cry (pp 54-97) - actor x manager
~Ch 3 Gokujou no Kiss (pp 100-145) - lovers reunited after 10 years
~Ch 4 Escape (pp 149-181) - teacher x student
~Ch 5 Without you (pp 182-217) - insecurity and problems of a couple that is together for 7 years
~Ch 6 One Million Kisses (pp 221-233) - extra for Kiss and Cry, it's from the point of view of their boss

Personally, I liked only the story about the actor and his manager!

237 pgs. As with most muti-story collections some were better than others in this. I would have given 5 stars to the actor, the doctor and his lover, and the reencounter story. The teacher x student one was a little twisted!

A collection of short stories ..
1- Proof of Love has a stand alone page and I reviwed it there. I didn't find it romantic but quite rushed.

2- Kiss and Cry: This was surprisingly good. We are introduced to the couple straight away with great use of flashbacks without exhausting the reader! Straightforward nevertheless.

4) Escape: A weird story as I don't understand the fascination between the 2 and I can't grasp why would the teacher let his guards down!

(1-53) Atushi and chris are co workers and lovers. Atushi is the translator for chris company. Turns out Atushi is chris nephews ex lover.
(53-100) Young actor/model Kanata is dating his manager, Kenji. Kenji saw him in the street and scouted him when he said no, Kenji stalked him. Boss found out their love affair and was pissed. Kanata declared that he will be the best so the boss shouldn't interfere with their relationship.
(102-146) Sugano and Utaka embraced each other in school, Sugano never changed his face expression when they were together and ended it after 6 months . 10 years later Utaka became a salary man and Sugano's company became one of his clients.
(149-182) Sensei and the student body president at an all boys high school.
(183-219) Two doctor interns. One lives with his lover who is 2 years older than him. He feels guilty that he sponges off his lover since he is still studying to become an doctor.

series of yaoi couple /best third story

Not the kind I would re-read