I Thot You Was a Toad's Manga

Cutesy wootsy story of an unsinkably positive and sweet fluffball of a boy and the scary dude with the Sanpaku stare who falls for him.

Minase Masara likes to write stories about rivals. In this case, the rivals for the affections of teen idol, but lousy actor, Sakakibara Ao, are the award-winning screenwriter, Kou Higashihara, whom Ao knew (and had a crush on) in high school as Ryota Azuma, and the handsome and famous actor, Wakatabe, whose skills onscreen leave no one unimpressed. It doesn't seem as though Higashihara is a rival at first, since his rejection of Ao's confession in high school was unnecessarily perfunctory, and he has some very crushing things to say to Ao about his acting, urging him at the start to quit the production.

The trouble is that a large continuity problem appears in the story between Chapter 4, when Wakatabe urges Ao to develope his sexual charisma onscreen by developing a crush that "burns him from the inside out" and follows it up by asking him go out with him, with an event which happens, later, in Volume 2, Chapter 2 (page 27), that evinces so much surprise from Ao, the reader has to wonder where he's been. Admittedly, a lot of time has passed between the two volumes, but why would such a glaring hole in the plot development go unmissed?

It isn't exactly clear, yet, how the story connects to Cinderella either, other than that there are stepbrothers and they are working Ao rather hard (although he needs the professional development, so that's a good thing.) Even so, the story is lively and interesting and rendered with Minase Masara's usual beautiful drawings.

Ootsuki Mio presents a collection of oneshots.
(1-2) A shut-in, abandoned by his parents and grieving the loss of his dog, is confronted by a young man who claims to be the reincarnation of his late canine. (3) A young man in a gay relationship comes to terms with his lack of sexual experience. (4) A girl from childhood turns out not to be a girl at all. (6) A patisserie falls for a beautiful young man with a secret.
(7) A lover feels neglected.

Haru has an obsessive attachment to his brother's best friend, Soudai, and follows him compulsively from school to school, even into club activities. Suddenly, however, Soudai becomes aware of how Haru struggles to overtake him and withdraws to a place which is, for all purposes, unreachable. What will Haru do?

A serious manga about partner abuse. Yumi's boyfriend beats him, demeans him and tries to isolate him from others by controlling when he leaves and returns to their apartment. Yumi tells himself that there isn't anything this man could do to him that would actually hurt, but when Mayama, a friend from school who never called or texted him in spite of his obvious attraction, suddenly shows up at Yumi's workplace and appears to have kept a flame burning for him, will this change?

A bunny-spirit boy and a fox-spirit boy develop a relationship in spite of their incompatibility. This scanlation is unlikely to be finished.

Handsome Takagi likes gay sex, but not emotional entanglements. After a break-up with a married man, he hires Daichi, an escort from a no-sex policy agency, thinking he could keep things detached and compartmentalized. Instead, Daichi is instantly smitten and they have hot sex like whoa! As for Takagi, what will he do? Mio draws such lovely men and they all seem to fall in love at the drop of a hat. Of the three stories in this manga, the first is definitely the best.

College student, Shousuke, comforts his childhood friend, Tomoki, every time he gets dumped by a new girlfriend. Tomoki never realizes that Shousuke is suppressing his true feelings for the sake of their friendship. This is the story of what happens when these feelings build up too much. Ichikawa Kei's art has a rough beauty which makes these characters and this story quite charming. The first chapter "The Day They Became Lovers" is hilarious, or would be if it weren't also touching and real in a slightly overblown way.

New to a blended family, affectionate younger stepbrother, Yuuto, falls for his sophisticated gay older stepbrother, Ryuusei, and does his best to repress his feelings for the sake of their family. The plot revolves mainly around misunderstandings and communication failure, but it's a good story and plausible given the ages of the two main characters.

A series of comic oneshots. (1) The ox-headed demon and horse-headed demon are twins who guard both sides of the Gate of Hell, admitting souls and guarding the exit. As such, they seldom see each other, but their longing grows with every glimpse. (2) A king asks a knight to initiate his son, Prince Hal, in swordsmanship. (3) A winsome, but unlikely duo, of host and gardener play off an exchange of gratitude and favours to each other. Kuku Hayate's style is completely unique and her stories always refreshing and different, although sometimes (like with the Prince Hal story), they can lapse into embarrassing cringe territory. Still, the goodnatured fun overrides everything else.