I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Touko Kawaii(2)

A series of varied yaoi oneshots about men who grapple with their real natures in the face of social approbation: (1) Tomo and Keita live separately as male friends, both with girlfriends, until a heatwave, one summer, leads to homosexual experimentation. Has this summer fling revealed their true selves, or was it just a side affair to their main relationships? (2) Even though Yoh is a responsible adult capable of making tough decisions, he has been inhibited by an unfortunate incident in his childhood where a daycare teacher insisted that it was wrong for 2 men to marry. Can he ever live as openly and courageously homosexual as Akira, the neighbour and old friend, for whom he nurtures a secret crush? (3) A flower spirit transforms into a human shape in order to express his love for the gardener who cares for his kingdom. (4) Ayasuji, a young salaryman is put out when he's ordered to spend a month hosting Ren, the wealthy heir to a family corporation who has taken a "Roman Holiday" in order to find out what it's like to live without the burden of executive level responsibilities and isolation. Ayasuji's injured feelings change as the full cost of Ren's upbringing is slowly revealed. Touko Kawaii portrays human emotions with such a keen sense of observation and awareness, her stories are powerful and sensitive. A lot of people take issue with the simple, childlike quality of the artwork, but Touko's stories more than make up for issues with the drawings. Each story, although relatively short as the oneshots they are, is as rich and developed as most manga.

Slice-of-life story about advertising production manager, Daisuke, and his favourite photographer, Nishioka, a man who hides his attraction for "Dai-chan" under the disguise of acting like a spoilt infant terrible. Together, they weather office intrigue and unprofessional conduct in job settings that actually resemble real life jobs. Touko Kawaii's usual flair for great characterization turns ordinary things into extraordinary fun. The only complaint is that any text which runs along the page gutter by the spine in the second volume is almost indecipherable.