I Thot You Was a Toad's Manga

You have to hand it to Ogasawara, her art is incredible, her sex scenes are blow-the-roof-of-your-head-off hot, but her plots are sheer bimbly Crack-a-woo-woo! Um, yeah. This one even has a fetish I've never heard (or dreamed) of. Seriously, I will never look at bonsai the same again. So take a Shinto priest, every fallen archangel in the Kabbalah, a bonsai, a shy uke, and a 1990s rave. Toss them together with lots of BDSM gear, exorcism guns, slaves, butterfly wings and a shit-load of ecstasy and drop them into the sunken city of Atlantis. That should give you an idea ... although I'm sure I missed loads of important things. I was kind of distracted by all the hot bishies having surprise buttsex.

Short stories which are all about kinks like sex in public places, voyeurism, strip teasing and stolen undergarments. Hot and smutty.

Jun's secret crush on Hayato is fulfilled and his heart is overflowing with bliss, until Hayato's former lover returns and it seems as though Jun is being pushed out. Must he passively accept this turn of events? What intrigue is behind the reappearance of Hayato's former flame? A bittersweet romance compounded by communication problems and insecurities.

Series of short stories surrounding a mysterious bartender/magician/sex therapist/male prostitute who mends the broken hearts and relationships of gay couples using illusions and hypnosis.

Shinba Rize

Two different gay couples living in small apartments, next to each other in the same building, become friends.

Cute and fluffy story about a clumsy and overly persistent men's underpants salesman and the stern, megane department store procurement officer with a taste for sweet pastries who figures out a much better way of retaliating for the young man getting under his skin. Oh-ho-ho!

So much fun! Kashiwaya has a wild imagination and no filters. This makes him a perfect playwright, but sometimes, it makes things get a little sticky for his friend, Hibino, who is the god of patience and acceptance (not to mention being completely intrigued.) This story includes one of the weirdest bondage scenes I've ever come across in a manga, and a very hilarious story about "The Curse of the Kappa." Too funny and, in its own way, very sexy.

Law student, Arikawa Youichi, has portentous dreams about someone named Misaki, an enigmatic and formless "presence" activated by a pretty floral crystal pendant that Arikawa suddenly found in his possession (the result of a mishap), never realizing that Misaki Shouta is a man whom he met by accident and happenstance, on two prior occasions, and heard about by rumour, once, thus setting the scene for a story about predestined love. Upon actually identifying Misaki, at university, Arikawa instantly declares his love and fascination. His straightforwardness comes across too forcefully to Misaki, who veers off, but since Arikawa has been hired by Misaki's professor as an assistant, they are forced to share time and space in the botany lab where Misaki researches microorganisms in soil cultures. As they grow accustomed to each other, Satoshi Kawahata, a parental authority/conflicted would-be lover from Misaki's past, tries to re-assert himself as the central person in Misaki's heart, revealing the back-story behind Misaki's reticence. Can Misaki overcome his insecurities and defeat his loneliness?

This story has many nice touches, including the symbolic language of flowers, the differences between free expression and withholding, a secret garden, the magnificent prequel Hana No Miyako De "The Flower Capital" [http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/hana_no_miyako_de/] and a twinkly "magical fairy-godfather" type. After the initial declaration by Arikawa, it moves along at a fairly slow and realistic pace, but I like the introduction of subconscious elements, like the dreams and the connection with the grandfather. The artwork is beautiful, too, with Takarai Rihito's delicate line drawings enhanced by the floral subject matter, but some of these drawings are undermined by poor quality scans and cleaning, especially in the first volume. Other than that, this is a must-read!

Hot butler and sweet kid fend their way through the vultures of culture in Maruya Kae's gorgeous art style.