I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Abe Akane(7)

Otou, who isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, has always faithfully followed his beautiful, but cruel senpai, Okawa, and continues to follow him right into a job as a host, promising he will always be loyal. Okawa takes hosting a step further into prostitution and even brings women home. When Otou finally gives up on his repressed infatuation, Okawa reacts. Like most of Abe Akane's work, the relationships are harsh and attraction is pushed to the edge.

Hilarious, with none of bitterness or bite that Abe Akane usually adds. A young gay man falls for a writer who's so off in his make belief dreamworld that the real world barely exists for him, and provides care for him like looking after a toddler. Things change when the clueless writer phones up a call girl in order to relieve some tension.

Everybody is gay and more than a little dim in Abe Akane's cupcake yakuza universe, the boundaries of which extend between ground central for the Sakura group's extortion racket, a traditional restaurant and a takoyaki stand. But it does allow for some of the funniest lines I've read in yaoi, like the guy buried in his sempai's rump declaring that his universe has expanded. There are some unexpectedly sweet moments.

Shortly before high school graduation, Hanatarou fucked himself on his childhood friend, Ikkun, disappeared for a few years, then suddenly showed up again completely transformed as a gorgeous transvestite. The gorgeousness is just skin-deep, though, since Hana-chan romps around Osaka (probably), playing at image clubs and leaving the bewildered and agitated Ikkun in the dust, until, at last, enough is enough. This has all of Akane's signature earthy goofiness without the usual side-helping of menace and sadism. Both Hanatarou and Ikkun are adorkable, and the intrusive "Master" is pitch perfect.

Masahiro, son of a yakuza, decides to troll a cross-dressing club and gets his ass handed back to him, all red and sparkly. Troll by nature, he can't, as the jargon goes, leave his ass "unplundered", and must return until the job is thoroughly completed. Question is whether the shopkeeper has enough patience for him.

Cross-dresser is annoyed because lover doesn't open gifts of clothing and jewellery.