I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #a little chat would've sorted this out before it blew up in your faces(13)

A man's inability to speak his heart allows misunderstandings to arise with his lovers and problems to go unreconciled. When his first love makes a sudden reappearance, will he change his habits?

Kei's step-brother, Haruto, has a peculiar genetic mutation that allows him to live practically forever, but there is a special connection between the two of them, a connection which only Haruto seems to understand. Kei, fed up with Haruto's pestering, and unable to comprehend the mystery tries to sort things out by himself. His realizations come at the same time as a visit from Haruto's real father, changing the course of their lives. The ending is unnecessarily melodramatic and the mystery is a bit of a Maguffin. Really, things would've been much better if everyone had sat down for a little chat much sooner, but that would've scotched the whole plot.

When Kaoru breaks up with them, his girlfriends complain that he doesn't desire them, and college friend, Masoto, always seems to end up with them. Masoto offers to comfort Kaoru after one such break-up "until the one he really likes" comes along. Kaoru's only issue is that Masoto leaves right after they have sex, but he can't seem to say anything about it. Slow-paced and set up for a classic romance with spare drawings beautifully rendered by Takamiya Azuma, this story is scanlated up to the point of heartbreak. We never learn the final outcome.

Nonokawa, a salary man in the midst of burn out, hears that drought has dried up a reservoir that had been constructed to flood his old village, and returns to look at the elementary school which is now exposed. That was where he had a brief but traumatic encounter with his childhood friend, Kouya, who clearly shares his feelings, after which he ran to the city, sealing all those feelings away. A cute story about regret and repression.

(1) Rin, owner of a host club, mistakes Ayamu as a potential suicide and brings him home to work as a housekeeper in exchange for free rent. Lack of communication leads to misunderstandings when Rin's twin brother and host, Ren, shows up and develops a liking for Ayamu. (2) After Ayamu rejects his advances, Ren decides to console himself with the newest host club member, Shion, only to discover that he has an irrational fear and hatred of men. When a belligerent former associate of Shion's appears, it becomes apparent that Shion's fear and hatred aren't so irrational. (3) Forgettable story about jealousy and meet-ups. (4) Cute story about the Goth clothing fetish.

Incredibly beautiful artwork and a realistic, thoroughly absorbing and (so far) somewhat scary storyline. A Mama at a fishermen's bar, renowned for rough customers, uses her cross-dressing son to attract custom. The story starts off edgy and dangerous, but shifts in Chapter 3.

Childhood friends who live under the same roof. One suffers from amnesia. The other from unrequited love toward the amnesiac.

Another school-based story. This time childhood friends suddenly stop talking to each other after a night of drinking, and one of them can't remember why, although the other one seems to remember quite clearly.

Another slice of life drama from the Queen of Yaoi Soap Operas, Fuwa Shinri. This time stepbrothers, Sora (5 years older) and Tatsuki, love each other in every sense of the word, but they will never say it. Noooo .... instead they have to take each other and everyone else they love on a long and torturous journey that includes Tatsuki moving out, psychotic fans (Soru is a popular mystery novelist), stabbings, aggrieved girlfriends (and rightfully so), a miscarriage, runaway avoidance crap, incensed editors (and rightfully so), a near-death accident and drama-rama-rama! It's a darned good thing Tatsuki's ex-girlfriend isn't the stabbing sort, because in her case, he deserves it. Instead, he gets stabbed for something else. It's also a good thing that the relative who Tatsuki hates so much is so plain-spoken, or these two jackasses would take their closeted gay secrets to an early grave. In Sora's case, he nearly does anyway. So, yeah, it's a ride on the tearjerk express, but Fuwa Shinri does that so well, and even when the story's just too much to qualify as realistic, it still feels like it could happen.

Stories about gay pick ups and the desire for intimacy to extend beyond the physical. (1) An actor has been thrown onto the street by a former friend who wants him to start being serious about a career, only to be picked up by a restaurant owner with a spare room and a customer who thinks the actor is just his type. (2) The actor has an identical twin brother who happens to be a hairstylist and has just moved to town. (3) Two salarymen from the same company seem to be on the same wavelength until an evening of hot sex backfires. (4) The couple from the second story resolve some more issues. (5) A man who was traumatized in middle school for being gay, is so fragmented, he retreats into the persona of a child until he finds someone who returns his love.