I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #sad(5)

Ostracized and bullied by classmates, Mishima accepts his homosexual nature and relieves his feelings by cross-dressing, until it becomes clear that the bullying covers other issues in his classmates. This manga swerves between depressing realism and, unlikely as it seems, comedy. The introduction of an adult with psychiatric issues keeps it from getting too campy.

A high school student, with a tragic past and loving brothers who inspire him, is hired to be a housekeeper-companion to a wealthy young man who has contracted a mysterious illness. Complications set in as a result of mistaken identities, deception (well-meant, but poorly executed) and confused feelings. I usually don't like Sou Irime's stories because I found her semes have a nasty streak, but she has crafted a rather nice tear-jerker here, and there is no intentional cruelty in the trick that is played on the uke.

Unloved catamite.

A former athlete falls into a depression so deep, after he is cut from his team, that he is willing to have sex with anyone in order to feel something. Hints of a failed romance indicate that the real reason for his anguish has little to do with soccer.

Here is a sad tale about obsession and grief. If Natsuke could rewind the years back to high school when he rejected an ardent confession from Haruomi, the boy he led on, would he? Haruomi hasn't moved forward, instead numbing his pain in masochistic encounters with anonymous men, all strangers upon whom he projects Natsuke's face. When Haruomi uses the occasion of the marriage of a mutual friend to engage at long last in a similar sort of cold, painful sex with Natsuke, he is still unfulfilled. Natsuke remains obstinate and unmoved, even through a clumsy blackmail attempt. What will it take to break through this emotional stalemate?