I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #roommates(12)

When I first read this story (way back), it was one of my favourites, and, although other, better manga have come along, I still enjoy it. There's something very soothing about the relationship between the graceful Shirakawa and his warmhearted loveable "dog" of a kouhai, Yamato. The lovely way they are led to embrace each other through the tragic (and understated) backstory of Kisshoubou has any easy realism that smooths over what would be quite an awkward transition — a specialty of mangaka, Hiiro Reiichi. The subplot involving the stolen intellectual property from Shirakawa's company moves the story back into a vaudevillian zaniness and takes away from the pleasant pace, while not really serving the story except to maybe appease the mystery over what happened, but that is my only nit. Read this. It's a classic.

A realistic and natural story of a boy who isn't sure he's gay and the curiosity which awakens in him when he sees a homosexual couple kissing. This is one of the best yaoi stories I've ever read. The relationships proceed very gently, even through heartbreak and separation.

Asou Kai's pretty boys are always beautiful, and this is a cute school life story, but not a whole lot goes on. It's the usual blend of misunderstanding, insecurity, jealousy, poor communication, yadda-yadda-yadda ... and there isn't much in terms of character or plot to make it really pop. Still, the sex scenes are good and it's okay. I wonder if this was one of her earlier works, because it doesn't seem as rich as others I've read.

Two art students share a dorm room together. The barely articulate Natsu has a crush on Haru, who works at a gallery, but Haru tells him to forget it unless he wants to fail his courses. This is a sequel to Rougatsu no Hengen-san. Promising, but incomplete, and unlikely to ever be finished.

At an all-male boarding house, tenants come and go as their life circumstances change. One of the stories involves a re-encounter as Ryouta, a photographer, rooms with the person he loved in high school. In the second story, Sugano's affair with a married man closes him off from the companion who truly loves him, until his lover's wife becomes pregnant. More shounen ai than yaoi, these stories are easy and realistic slices of life.

A world where monsters and human exist on the same dimension, but are kept segregated by law.

Romances involving three sets of dorm-mates at a boys' school.

Nagai, a detective with the organized crime unit of the police force, suddenly acquires a roommate in his feckless former schoolmate, Kitihara, just as he cracks a bank book fraud ring. Kitihara comes and goes, building up anticipation and longing in Nagai, but he is full of secrets and some of them don't look very savoury. It will be interesting to see if Norikazu Akira takes this into suspense thriller territory, not just police procedural with a side of fluff.

Unfortunate circumstances contrive to set up business student, Sahara, as his thesis advisor, Masaki's bedmate-without-benefits. Masaki seems to have been the victim of treachery which makes him unable to sleep. It takes some twisty logic to make Sahara comfortable with this set-up, until suddenly the "without benefits" part changes and sends him into another tailspin. Now there's a rival in the picture, and he doesn't even know this guy's a rival yet. Looks like this is a story about the "vibes" of honesty creating peace and calm and safety for sleeping, except it's yaoi, so of course that will include more.

So far a very cute story about a marten shape-shifter who moves in with his human lover.