Note: I've seen a few places online tag this as "boys' love." While it includes characters that read that genre, as well as a few panels and pages of the works they read, this is absolutely not a "boys' love" series, in case the cover doesn't make that clear.

Ichinoi is in her 70s and lives a quiet life. Her husband died a while ago and her daughter lives in another country, so most of the people she sees on a regular basis are the children and elderly people who come to her for calligraphy lessons. This changes when she goes to a bookstore for the first time in a while and buys a manga volume because it has beautiful artwork. She figures it will be like the manga she read when she was younger, but it turns out to be a romantic "boys' love" (BL, m/m) series. She ends up hooked and goes back to the bookstore for more volumes, attracting the attention of one of the store's employees, Urara, a high school student and huge BL fan.

Right Stuf has started including more reviews on their blog, and it was one of those reviews that prompted me to buy this. The artwork wasn't the style I'm normally attracted to, but the premise, a budding cross-generational friendship prompted by a shared love of BL manga, made me want to read it immediately.

This was a wonderful first volume. Urara desperately wanted friends with whom she could talk to about the things she loved, but she was too shy, and possibly too worried about how others would react to the things she wanted to gush about. Ichinoi was less shy, and she was the one to take the first steps in her and Urara's friendship, inviting Urara out for tea.

I loved how friendly, positive, and open-minded Ichinoi was. I also loved watching Urara try to navigate the potential hazards in this new friendship. When Ichinoi asked for manga recommendations, it was like the floodgates had opened up for Urara. She could think of lots of titles to recommend but was afraid of making a misstep and ruining things. Ichinoi had already defied Urara's expectations by enjoying a manga featuring a sweet gay romance, but would manga with on-page sex scandalize her?

This volume also touches a bit on Urara's school life - the one person her own age that she talks to is her childhood friend, a guy who's dating someone else and who I think she might have a bit of a crush on.

My biggest issue with this first volume was that it was very short. Also, it's setting off various alarm bells that make me wonder whether I should wait until a few more volumes have come out and I can hunt for spoilers before continuing on. Unlike A Man and His Cat, another series I recently started reading featuring an older protagonist, this one screams "will end with the death of the older character, after the younger character has learned to be more assertive." I like Ichinoi so far, and that would wreck me. I'm also not sure how I feel about the hints that Urara might have an unrequited crush on her childhood friend. It depends on how it gets handled, I suppose.

Extras:

A full-color illustration and a 2-page afterword manga featuring Ichinoi making and eating milk jelly.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Kevin Keller: Drive Me Crazy is very episodic. In the first chapter, each of the characters has to present a report on an inspirational figure, and Kevin chooses George Takei. Takei finds out about his report and decides to pay Riverdale High a visit. In the second chapter, Kevin has some car problems that complicate a date at the drive-in movie theater. In the third chapter, Kevin is now dating his first ever boyfriend, Devon, but there's just one problem: Devon isn't out yet. In the fourth chapter, Kevin's secret admirer is back (his first appearance was in a previous volume I haven't read), and both he and Kevin are starring in Veronica's musical. Devon, meanwhile, struggles with jealousy.

This is apparently the second (?) Kevin Keller volume - I thought about getting the previous one through ILL first but instead decided to just jump in.

This read much more like the original Archie comics than the Archie and Jughead reboots did, despite being more in-your-face about its progressive aspects. I found the art style to be a bit creepy, with everyone smiling 90% of the time, the dialogue was stiff and not particularly well written, and the stories beat readers over the head with their messages.

Kevin Keller is the first openly gay character in the Archie Comics universe, and it's great that he exists. It's also nice that he's not the sole gay person in Riverdale, although he seems to be the only gay guy that anyone is dating. In this one volume, Kevin goes on dates with three different guys and meets a fourth guy who was his secret admirer in a past volume. I was somewhat confused when Kevin said that Devon was his first boyfriend ever, since I'd thought Todd (in Chapter 2) was Kevin's boyfriend, and it seemed like Brian (in Chapter 1) might have been a past boyfriend of Kevin's.

It was great that Kevin got a few stories that weren't solely focused on him being gay - his car borrowing troubles and date at the drive-in were a nice examples of this. Unfortunately, there were times when I felt like Kevin was more of a big gay after school special. The end of the George Takei chapter and the "oh no, my boyfriend is in the closet" chapters were particularly glaring examples. The George Takei stuff was corny, but the stuff in Chapter 3, with Devon, struck me as being potentially painful for some readers.

Kevin began dating Devon knowing that Devon was still in the closet because his parents were homophobic and wouldn't support him the way Kevin's parents did. However, Kevin hadn't even arrived at their first date before he started to have problems with their relationship. He hated that he had to drive out of his way to meet Devon and that they had to be secretive. When kids at school started to find out, Devon said some hurtful (and extremely dated - "I'm not fruity or light in the loafers, as they say!") things to try to reestablish himself as definitely not gay. (Okay, seriously, I had to google "light in the loafers." Does anyone who is not in their 70s even use that phrase anymore?)

Things between Kevin and Devon devolved to the point where Kevin said he couldn't date anyone who was still in the closet. And yeah, he has the right to decide what's best for himself when it comes to relationships, but I disliked that the "happy" resolution to their relationship woes involved

Oh, and one thing I noticed: although I'm pretty sure that even the original Archie comics allowed its characters to kiss on-page, the most Kevin did with anyone was hold hands or hug. After a bit of googling, I discovered that Kevin does get an on-page kiss later on in the series, so that's good. If two heterosexual characters can kiss on-page and still be considered sickeningly wholesome, two gay characters should be able to do the same. Although, from what I've read, Kevin's kiss results in him having to deal with a homophobic stranger's complaints.

I don't intend to read more of this series, although I do have a Kevin Keller novel in my collection that I plan on reading eventually.

Extras:

Six pages of full-color illustrations of Kevin, Betty, and Veronica acting as fashion models.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Go For It, Nakamura! is comedy with gay high school romance elements. I want to emphasize, however, that it isn't a romance. If the series ever gets another volume (maybe it already has, just not in English?), I could see it becoming a romance, but this particular volume is not.

Nakamura is an awkward, introverted, and occasionally uncomfortably intense 16-year old. He adores his pet octopus, Icchan. He has no friends and practises conversations in his head all the time but has difficulty actually having them in real life. He also happens to be gay. He has an enormous crush on his popular and outgoing classmate, Hirose, and his goal is to 1) actually talk to him and 2) become friends with him.

I picked this up on a whim. Happily, this turned out to be a good decision. For the most part, I loved this volume.

I don't handle secondhand embarrassment well and found myself having to take breaks several times while reading this. Nakamura was painfully awkward in ways that, yes, were played for humor but were also often realistic enough that awkward and/or introverted readers could probably find something to relate to. One particular horrible moment Nakamura remembered exactly matched a horrible memory from my own middle school years. Seeing it on-page was a bit horrifying.

I rooted for Nakamura, but I also had issues with him. I disliked how completely focused he was on Hirose. He had zero friends, and yet when his efforts to talk to and impress Hirose led to him meeting and talking to Hirose's friends, he never once considered them to be potential friends. Instead, he viewed anyone who was even vaguely close to Hirose as rivals and possible sources of information about Hirose. He also didn't seem to realize that a lot of the things he was doing to try to get to know Hirose better were kind of creepy, like eavesdropping on Hirose's conversations to find out what sorts of things he liked.

Chapter 2 contained one of my least favorite moments, a single panel in which Nakamura had a sudden tentacle rape fantasy about Hirose. And Chapter 4 was a little weird, introducing a fujoshi artist who developed a crush on Nakamura. I'm still not sure whether she was aware that Nakamura liked Hirose, although I don't see how she could've missed it considering the nature of Nakamura's request.

Aside from those things, however, I really enjoyed this volume. The artwork was well-done and reminded me a lot of Rumiko Takahashi. And the humor usually worked for me, despite my secondhand embarrassment issues. It was focused on Nakamura's awkwardness and his efforts to accomplish something where his secret crush was concerned, but it didn't feel, to me, like Syundei was being overly cruel to Nakamura or making fun of him for being gay. (Be warned, however, that there are a couple instances of homophobia. At one point, for example, Nakamura's teacher laughed at the idea of two boys dating.)

The last couple chapters had some surprisingly serious moments, as Nakamura began to lose hope that he'd ever truly connect with Hirose and become his friend. He compared himself to his effortlessly cool teacher, who Hirose certainly idolized and, Nakamura feared, possibly had a crush on, and found himself focusing on all the ways he fell short.

The ending was sweet. I considered it reasonably satisfying, although some readers might not feel the same. Syundei gave Nakamura a bit of happiness but left plenty of room for the story to be continued.

Extras:

A couple full-color pages, character profiles for Nakamura and Hirose, and a 2-page comic-style afterword by the author. In the afterword, Syundei talks a little about each chapter's creation - I wonder if the "tentacle rape" panel would have made it in if Syundei had known the series was going to continue?

Rating Note:

I debated between 4.5 and 5 stars for this. I don't really know that it deserves 5 stars, considering its problems, but I've found myself going back and rereading parts of it several times since I finished it. I decided that's worth bumping my rating up.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Krampus 

A bizarre Christmas horror story, following a somewhat Scrooge-like story line.  Did you ever play the game Bully?  Remember the drunk Santa Jimmy helped out?  The main character is that guy, only a little younger.  

A group of flawed characters, drunken santa, a dysfunctional cop, the local rich scrooge, and a hit and run driver all try to escape Krampus and his legions as they all reap what they've sown.

It's amusing, but the plot was a bit lacking and the ending left a lot to be desired.  The group of scrappy kids were probably the best part of this story.

Junction True

This one was beyond strange.  It's a story of blind trust, betrayal and revenge.  In the future fashion has taken on an (even more) dangerous fad, parasitical body modifications.  Skeletal pseudo punks (Neumods) pose braced against the concrete with tape worms visible under their stretched skin or genetically engineered leeches glowing with Rave colors across their bodies.

On the edge of this scene is the newest and most dangerous mod, a modification that would link two people together, one completely dependent on the other to live, two become one.

Dirk, our main character, is completely in love with Teralyn, a leader in the Neumod movement, always on the edge of cool and quick to abandon old trends and lovers.  But, Dirk trusts her and after a dangerous and illegal surgery puts his life in her hands.

It doesn't take long for Teralyn to bore of taking care of Dirk and her abandonment means death for him, he can't survive without linking to her.  Luckily he has friends and on deaths door he reunites once more with Teralyn for one more surgery.

It's a creepy story about lust, love, betrayal and the cut-throat nature of society, where some are given license to take advantage just based on status and celebrity and not punished for their irresponsible actions.

New Construction

Sam Alden is another artist whose work I follow.  I really enjoyed the two stories collected in this book, Household and Backyard.  One is about two siblings sharing their memories of their father, and dealing with their mixed up feelings.  Household was my favorite of the two and is about a commune where one of the kids totally disassociates and begins living in the yard as a dog. 

Both comics have a subdued quality that I find so true to life.  Things that seem bizarre to others, like why we do certain things, or have different relationships with our families/friends than what the majority would consider 'normal' isn't bizarre to the people living it, it's just life.

Two perfect slice of life comics that engrossed me in their worlds.

Sleepy Hollow

Perhaps you have to like the television series to enjoy this, but I found it pretty boring.  This adaptation of Ichabod Crane is perhaps the most ridiculous I've ever seen.  It's like Angel (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Detective spinoff), it jumped the shark before it ever aired.  

Basically, items across Sleepy Hollow, New York, cause people to go nutso, imbued with demonic entities trying to bring about the apocalypse.  Ichabod Crane who somehow pulled a Rip Van Winkle and woke up in the present day, teams with local detective to solve these diabolical crimes.

The artwork is good, but not unique.  If you like supernatural goings on with a bit of a procedural bent, try this out.

The Honor Student at Magic High School

Creepy, creepy, creepy.  The story revolves around a bishoujo girl and her sweet crush on her...brother!?  Yes, a sweet love story about a (thankfully) unrequited incestuous crush. 

As I look at other reviews of this book I'm baffled by the fact that reviewers don't seem to mention this bizarre aspect of the novel, or just say it's 'cute.'  It would be cute if she wasn't quite so enamored and it was more like an brother as a hero type story, but it seems she's sincere in her beyond familial affections for him...and it's just creepy as hell.

Truthfully I was so weirded out by the romance aspect of this story that I couldn't tell you what the plot was about.  The main character is in class 1, with a higher magical ability than her ugh beloved bro, who is barely able to magic anything and therefore gets bullied.

Too weird for me.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Vol. 1

Okay, moving on.  Here is a manga about a hikkikomori otaku who gets kicked out of his house when his parents die.  Then he gets hit by a truck.  Then he is resurrected in a fantasy world as an adorable little kid.  Actually, I think he was literally born and went through being a baby too, which thankfully is skipped over. Weird enough for you yet?

So, this pervy otaku is stuck in the body of a little boy, which in itself is creepy, yet also a little funny.

His parents are undecided about how they want him to grow up, will he be fighter like his dad, or a mage like his mom?  Because of his 34-year old otaku intelligence he is able to use magic from a young age, so his parents bring in a tutor (who of course is an adorable big chested tsundere (nice when alone, but gruff when around others)).  At first he gives into his perverted otaku tendencies, but soon decides to live a better life from then on.  

This volume follows his childhood adventures, fighting with bullies, making friends and convincing his mom to forgive his dad when the maid gets pregnant.  Yeah, normal stuff like that.  

This is really one of the most bizarre mangas I've read (which says a lot) and yet it kinda works too.  I'll probably check out another volume of this one.