I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Kitazawa Kyou(7)

Satou, a straight businessman with a kindergarten-aged son, falls for Takahashi, his gay neighbour, who loves children. Takahashi has endured censure and abuse, and Satou and his cute son had to deal with abandonment by his ex-wife, so they both bring their baggage to the relationship, and this manga shows how they deal with it and master their instincts. Satou is a little more authoritarian than I like in men, and I almost dropped the story at one point where he crosses the line, even if his first concern is for his son. The story is so fearsomely earnest and tries so hard to be wholesome and sweet almost into maudlin territory, it's difficult to stay offended for long. A lot of Kitazawa Kyou's stories tend to dance on the edge of that place where the autocratic seme almost overwhelms the compliant and good-hearted uke, so this is clearly a power dynamic preference of the mangaka's. It isn't mine, though, but this time, Kyou doesn't let the story go too far.

Kaichi is a mind reader with his own home and business, and a friend from back in school in the handsome lawyer, Anan Kei, whose thoughts are largely veiled from him. Just as it seems as though Kaichi and Anan are about to become lovers, Kaichi is asked by his uncle — the man to whom he owes his livelihood — to look after his abused step-cousin. Tatsuya is also able to veil his thoughts from Kaichi, but it is clear that the darkness hides tragic secrets which Kaichi is determined to find out. The trouble is, this leads to serious misunderstandings with Anan. A fascinating story with Kitazawa Kyou's usual sexy drawings of men. The translation needs the support of a good editor, but the meaning does come across.

A Ikebana Iemoto has a bondage and humiliation kink that isn't being satisfied by his male lover. When he is blackmailed into sex by a film director that his brother rejected, all hell seems about to break loose. Kitazawa can really draw unhinged men.

Kitazawa Kyou says, "A sorry bunch of guys." I can't argue with that. Her artwork is surely pretty though.

Dramedy about cops who cannot get along, but must work, live and, eventually, sleep together.

In the past, Chihiro, heir to the Saotome Yakuza, was kidnapped as his father was ambushed and murdered. After he was repeatedly gangraped and enslaved as a prostitute by the Russian mob, Chihiro was rescued by two hot bodyguards, Shirotae and Kuroba, who now, in addition to protection and enforcement, help him relieve the persistent "arousal problem" that was the apparent side effect of his abuse (really?) Anyhooo, Chihiro is now making a play on the "quality" gun trade, finds himself prone to fits of murderous rage, only to be reined in by the young hot leader of the Gojou group. Now that the Russian mafia has returned, it's a wonder how hometown gangster boy plans to make good on honouring Daddy's memory. Yup, that's where it's going for realsies. Kitazawa Kyou likes to craft a slightly unhinged cupcake yakuza always on the edge of a psychotic meltdown. The question isn't whether a reader can suspend disbelief. Obviously not. It's whether the story is any fun to read. I don't know. If it goes too James Cagney, it might be a twitching facial nerve too far.