Daiji na Koto na no de, Nido.
Aww. That was quite sweet. It's more of a 4.2 than a 5, but I bumped it up to five because the seme never raped the uke out of love. When he asked if he could put it in, and Tomoya said no, I thought, "Welp, this is it. And later it'll be treated as romantic because he secretly wanted it." But then he didn't, and things still got creepy, but for yaoi, it was pretty relieving that it didn't go the usual way. The oneshot didn't really do anything for me. It was cute and stuff, but I get the feeling that it may have been one of her first attempts at yaoi. Or manga in general. The art was off, the story was weak. But I did love the ending, haha. Not so much of a secret after all.
Tomodachi Ijou no Koto, Shitai.
Uuuuuuggggghhhhh. Okay, the first half of this manga, I thought I had found my dream couple or something. It was so perfect. Then... a bunch of the usual cliches came dancing in and ruined the perfect high. I'll break this into pros and cons, I guess. PROS: * BEAUTIFUL art. Ugh. * Super hot boys. * Genuine love for one another. * True friendship that matters dearly, even if they'd stayed platonic. * Mutual affection from the start. * Some side characters that I really liked. * Funny, cute moments throughout. * Super hot moments, particularly the one that gets this whole thing started. CONS: * MISUNDERSTANDINGS. I hate this trope SO much, and it's in everything. A little bit is one thing, but when it just goes on and on to the point of everyone involved seeming mentally challenged, it becomes more annoying than anything. Using misunderstandings that could easily be cleared up with a little communication is lazy writing. It's a weak plot device, and I can't stand it. Sadly, it's often in yaoi--and things with romance in general--so it's tough to avoid. * "It's okay if it's you." This trope is another one that I can't stand. It was set up in a way to indicate interest in girls had been either passing or just forced, but since bisexuality can never exist in yaoiland, they just HAD to shove in that pointless exchange with him telling the dude he's only into chicks. Why does it always have to be an exception? The cons were fewer in that sense, but they're right below "rape to love" in my list of yaoi tropes that I hate, so it hit me pretty hard. I wouldn't have cared as much if I hadn't liked it so much from the beginning. You may have noticed that it still has five stars, however. If I just ignore those other things, this really is a very sweet story with an adorable couple at the center. I want to read more about these two. I want to read more about senpai and his boyfriend, especially! XD And the art is just so damn lovely. Hopefully some of the mangaka's other work will inspire me in the same ways without irritating me in the others.
XXX Allergy
Cute story, cute art. The sex was a bit abrupt, lol. Also, this guy clearly has never owned a rabbit. "They don't bite," since when? XD One of my rabbits used to growl like a demon if you tried to put her back in her cage before she was ready. XD Anyway, it's on the 3.5 scale because it was a little rushed in places. We'll see how I feel after reading the follow up.
Koibito ga Ubu Sugite Komaru
With all of the rinse-and-repeat, boring, rapey webtoon crap that's been saturating the market, this is a refreshing little taste of simple and sweet high school romance. I actually was super over it for a long time because ALL yaoi/shounen ai was high school romance, and it was all the freaking same. Lately I've been craving it again, but a very specific kind, and it's been tricky. I'm just a little over the excessive smut in everything else. I want a good story, not two minutes of an awful, pushy top, then 3000 pages of a dick stretching out an asshole while the other person whimpers and says "stop" over and over, then they live happily ever after. Like wtf. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this, I'm just annoyed. I hope this ends up being as sweet as it started. Just a simple story, back to the basics.
Mayoke no Darling