I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #sports(13)

First in Takanaga Hinako's Kimi ga Koi series, which continues with the second installment Kimi ga Koi ni Oboreru and ends with Kimi ga Koi ni Midareru. After a long absence from competitive archery, brought on by the agitation of his unrequited love for Reiichirou, Haru finds himself back in familiar territory as the student adviser of the archery club at the high school where he teaches when he comes across the younger brother of his foresworn love, Tsukasa. Tsukasa has been nursing a secret infatuation with Haru for years, and with Reiichirou out of the picture, uses Haru's proximity to press his advantage. What happens when Reiichirou returns? An emotionally moving romance filled with many poignant and dramatic moments and some rather nice art work.

Udou's bitterness and breezy cruelty towards others is rooted in an unrequited love for Kiyotake, a basketball teammate from high school. His misery and jealousy has prompted him to commit despicable acts against the very person he loved, twice. Now, in college, karma has caught up to him and his feelings are revealed in all their rawness, but what does Kiyotake have to say about them? Here is how one man's kindness can redeem someone who has fallen so completely. Ogawa Chise's stories often go over the top into outright madness, but this story hits all the right emotional notes without going too far.

Televised sportscaster, Fukurou, is assigned to cover baseball star and infamous horndog, Shiratori Reiichi, and is shocked to find himself as his lover. As this is in alignment with his feelings, he goes along with it, but there is a deception and broken engagement in Shiratori's past which pulls on him emotionally and he indulges in sex friendships. Will Fukurou ever be able to trust him? The story never gets too down-spirited and there are plenty of amusing moments thanks to rituals like meeting the parents and the usual baseball tropes about homeruns, etc.. As usual, Yamamoto's drawings make the characters seem very young, like boys rather than men, but it's a stylistic quirk, nothing more. A nice, pleasant story about a goodnatured sports reporter.

Crowded out of his home, after his mother remarries, Hirano moves into the dormitory at his all-boys' high school where he is put under the care of Morioka, a student who had been accused of bullying his juniors in the basketball club. At first, Morioka's taciturn deflections and sullen appearance make it seem as though the rumours about him are true, but Hirano discovers there's more going on. A story that starts off slowly and builds momentum and interest as it goes on.

Stories about high school boys who develop crushes on each other. The art has a gestural quality.

(1) Short and cute story about rival tennis players with different styles who have the hots for each other, but only one of them realizes it. Climax involves trickery.

Sex gambling kink battled out between two tennis players in public. Depending on who's the winner, the prize is very public French kisses, or private nipple-licking. Seems to be some confusion on where to go after that. The art is a bit sketchy.

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.

College student, Hamura Yuzuki, a track-and-field athlete who has competed at the National Championship level during middle and senior high school, focuses strictly on pole-vault to the detriment of his team, because of a casual comment by Akishima Jin, a fellow athlete with whom he parted ways after graduation, about the sky being the means through which they are connected. He cannot forget Jin or detach from the past, and this causes problems with his girlfriend, one of which leads to a coincidental reunion with his obsession.