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

During a drunken spree, failed novelist, Yuu, meets up with the Chris and gets "married" to him, symbolized by tattooed rings. Chris has been broken down with tragedy and suffers from bipolar personality disorder, which he masks with prostitution and drug use, but Yuu is swept up in his mania and has a tragic secret of his own. Will these two be able to heal each other? Hina Garasu's artwork is beautiful, adding more power and poignancy to the ending.

Tamaquis Wren specializes in yaoi where the uke surrenders himself to love so much, he gives up his own dignity. Dignity is reinstated by love returned, a classic romance trope. This story is hardcore, however, for, instead of love, the sole motivation is vengeance, and there is no surrender, just rage-fueled detachment and dissociation. To extract the cruelest revenge he can, Yan, the son of a murdered king, becomes the favourite catamite in the court of the Chinese Emperor who committed regicide against Yan's beloved father. Bent on destroying his enemies and slowly debauching the Emperor past his body's capacity for tolerance, the only revenge Yan can extract is what he has, himself, endured. In the end, in spite of page after page of strangely utilitarian sex and seduction with child rape, gang rape, slavery, sex cults, drugs, felching, castration, BDSM, odd sex toys, vegetable-slicing(!) and a huge and surprising reveal right at the end, the story is empty and cold, just like Yan. Weirdly, it's the court intrigue and politics that move it beyond mere shota wish-fulfilment smut fantasy and redeem it (for me; I can't abide child rape), transforming it into Wren's best work. It isn't romantic at all and, for once, Wren doesn't pretend that soul-crushing depravity and oppression are romantic. Wren's drawings are distinctive and stylized, but here they focus on lips, hair, eyes, skin and a boy whose naked body is modified to look like a young woman's. Everyone else is nameless, fully dressed and, either a wild-eyed and lust-maddened rapist, or a fellow scheming manipulator — distorted through the lens of obsession. Yan is an interesting character who gains his individual freedom, revenge and personal power, although nothing else — certainly not love.

Violence seems to fit into Narusaka Rin's "red strawberries and white cream" aesthetic. Her gorgeous drawing feature sharp, spiky features and smoldering facial expressions, with ample visual allusions to Yamane Ayano's yakuza thrillers. So far the plot features wildcat yakuza punk, Miharu, beholden to nobody and who will drop an opponent at the merest whiff of provocation, subjugated by Yashiki, in a no-rules, no holds barred BDSM relationship complete with humiliation kink, toys, erotic asphyxiation, drugs and spectators. Yashiki runs a private club for it and Miharu's protests are more of a turn-on for that set. There are hints that Miharu is longing for some tenderness under that BAMF strut, and there are moments when weariness seems to drip off Yashiki before he resorts to something outrageous just because he's bored, and then, WHAM! The whole plot is resolved and over. It kind of shot its wad too quickly.

Silly story about two strangers and an unbelievable premise for gay sex involving a foot fetish. Could've been hot. Wasn't.

This rollicking action thriller starts when undercover narcotics officer, Leaguer, accidently stumbles into evil drug lord Cider's den and is saved by a good cover story and the quick thinking of Yakuma, secret-assassin-come-male-prostitute, who's satisfying Cider's kink for public sex. Futuristic setting with robotic drones and a bombed-out skid row, this story never manages to seem heavy or oppressive due to the light dialogue and chemistry between Leaguer and Yakuma and their sassy side-kicks. It reminds me a little of Weiss Kreuz, although it never takes itself too seriously.

Short stories themed on a sex tour company, which in the hands of Nishimura Shuuko, usually involve kinks. This one includes the 'King of the Ridge' public sex slave story. Unfortunately, the first story also includes the typical Interfering and Manipulative Bitch of Yaoi stereotyped female character.