I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Rocky(3)

Beautifully drawn, tentative shounen ai stories which address the issue of men coming to terms with taboos. The first deals with an age-gap that requires the boy and man to restrain themselves. The second is about autonomy and vulnerability to harassment. The stories deal with the subjects in a well-reasoned, calm and mature slice-of-life fashion. There is nothing unsettling or surreal.

Beautifully drawn shounen ai oneshot about a man who, upon return to his childhood hometown, finds himself couch-surfing with the man who, as a schoolboy, rejected him many years before, but who has changed and offers him a new chance. I don't know why Rocky's stories get such low reviews. They are interesting, mature slice-of-life glimpses into the lives of authentic-feeling characters, and they usually require a bit of thought, but they are well worth the investment of time and contemplation.

Beautifully drawn yaoi oneshot about a realistic D/s relationship between two gay men. The Dominant man was always in second-place during highschool and college to the subordinate, and asserts his control through the use of shibari and potentially compromising photos. He withholds his verbal affirmation of love to Watari, the subordinate, but continues to make love to him, expressing it nonverbally. So the power exchange is balanced. Again, I'm always surprised by the low ratings which Rocky gets when her stories are so nuanced. For all the emotional insecurity they appear to inspires, this mangaka's work is not as ambiguous as it seems.