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A young man works for a mycologist in the forests of Japan, studying fungi and mushrooms. Slowly, as the scientist opens his eyes to this new world and its astonishing beauty, the young man comes to love him. Aoi Aki's artwork is superb. The story moves at a gentle and realistic pace. The relationship is natural and unforced. I love this manga! It is one of my absolute favourites.
A stray cat who lives in the garden of a gay man who is being abused by a brutal partner, asks the moon to change it into a man so it may protect the one he loves. Another sweet kitty begs for the ability to convey feelings of love from the man he loves to the man's former lover. Stories that are so sweet and pure, they cuddle up and purr.
Salaryman Takamura is given a job under the EnMa Daiou, the ruler of hell, who relentlessly coaxes him for sex. Takamura discovers that his position includes frequent temptations to break the laws of hell in order to interfere in the destinies of people he longs to save. One of these individuals is a professor he once loved. Who will win over his heart? The professor? Or the King of Hell? There is much dramatic and sexual tension in this beautifully illustrated story by Kuju Siam.
A father is stressed beyond his capacity to cope while trying to raise his preschool-aged daughter while working in a Japanese restaurant. He is saved by a hopeless flirt and serially unfaithful gay customer who is attracted to him, but he is straight and very suspicious of such a flighty man. The relationship takes time to develop and is full of realistic emotional responses. The daughter is adorable and the ending is full of cheer!
A man is dumped by his gay lover on Christmas Eve and, suffering from loneliness and heartbreak, spontaneously rescues a vagrant and kitten who have fallen asleep in the front garden of his apartment complex. The vagrant is suffering from his own tragic loss, and the two of them slowly come to understand and love each other, but not before denying their true feelings.
Sugiura Sakae returns as a teacher to the elementary school where, years before, Fukada Ryuuji, his own teacher, saved him from grave personal danger, but age and despair have taken their toll on Fukada-sensei, and Suguira has a difficult time reconciling the memory of the man who protected and inspired him, with the scruffy man whose laisser-faire attitude offends his work ethics. Can anything be done to mend Fukada's crushed soul? This inspirational story is one of the best!
After 9 Hours tracks Deguchi as he develops a crush on the straight Onoda, but doesn't dare reveal his feelings for fear of rejection. The World is Full of Colour is about how Onoda and Deguchi negotiate their feelings for each other as they deal with the realization of mutual attraction, fear of betrayal, jealousy and moving past games. Realistic, truthful, yet light and breezy, this is one of the best yaoi mangas I've read, and definitely on my favourites list.
Serizawa, the technology section manager at a popular bookstore, is asked to deal with a customer whose appearance frightens fellow employees. He is surprised to discover what a gentle and goodhearted young man Keita is and, slowly, they develop from a good friendship into a more loving and trusting intimacy. This story is full of rewarding goodhearted gestures of kindness. The sweetness slays me! One of my favourites.
So much fun! Kashiwaya has a wild imagination and no filters. This makes him a perfect playwright, but sometimes, it makes things get a little sticky for his friend, Hibino, who is the epitome of patience and acceptance (not to mention being completely intrigued.) This story includes one of the weirdest bondage scenes I've ever come across in a manga, and a very hilarious story about "The Curse of the Kappa." Too funny and, in its own way, very sexy.
Law student, Arikawa Youichi, has portentous dreams about someone named Misaki, an enigmatic and formless "presence" activated by a pretty floral crystal pendant that Arikawa suddenly found in his possession (the result of a mishap), never realizing that Misaki Shouta is a man whom he met by accident and happenstance, on two prior occasions, and heard about by rumour, once, thus setting the scene for a story about predestined love.
Messages
I followed you on my old account that I have since deleted years ago and just realized after many years that I didn’t follow you on this one.I always loved your comments and recommendations. I noticed it has been 6 years (approximately) since you’ve commented or updated. I hope wherever you are you’re happy and doing well! Time moves so fast. (づ￣ ³￣)づ
Almost all of your recommendations are my favorites. Some are really old ones I read before that I'm so excited to read it all over again. They all actually have good plots unlike most mangas these days with the rape/rapist theme. TY !!!!
(づ￣ ³￣)づ
I don't know why I didn't peruse this list of yours sooner; I'd seen it pop up on several pieces I've really liked. I have read quite a few on here, but I am adding several to my list for future reading. Some of the ones on here that I've already read I'm glad to see are here, because some of them are quite underrated.
Always love your commentaries, I look for them usually in mangas to remind myself if I've read the manga already but from a different site :) If you don't mind, I recommend Dog Style and Haru wo Daite Ita(very long)! I don't know if you'll like the art style but the plot is good!
Thank you for your charming and encouraging message. This will date me, but the last time I read Haru wo Daite Ita, it was only half-finished and, as I kept losing track of the characters and plot-points between releases, I decided to wait until the manga was completed before coming back. Your little poke is a good reminder that it's time to revisit the story and finish reading it. I try not to post unfinished manga on my favourites list (sometimes, I forget), but this one has been finished for awhile.
This list is great! Thank you very much! btw, your comments are great too. You always point something out about the mangas you commented on, until I found myself following your recommendations.. hehe..
I just noticed your comment today. Sorry for taking so long to respond. Thanks for the lovely comment. I hope you're having a happy new year.
Dear I Thot You Was a Toad, I absolutely love this list and thank you for making it! Whenever I'm interested in reading a potential manga, I always look in the comments section. As soon as I see your username, I know that the manga will be fantastic. I think you're a good critic and I admire you and respect your passion. I always like to think of all the different kinds of people who frequent this website. In the end, I think we're all just people who care about the world. I think you're a wonderful lady (unless you are actually male, in which case I apologize.) Sorry if this was all a bit blunt and strange; thanks again! (▰˘◡˘▰)
That's a very sweet letter, and lovely to receive. If my name is in the comments, though, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good manga, because I'm just as inclined to say something's awful if I think it stinks. I am quite (*cough*) passionate about some issues, yes ... although less tactful people just say I'm an opinionated hothead, and I reckon that's pretty accurate, too. Thing is, people know what they think and feel if they really look inside, and they need to express that sort of stuff because that's the only way to be true to oneself. It isn't always going to go over well. People can't even agree whether cats or dogs are cute (both, as far as I'm concerned.) Might as well say it. Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you like my list. It's entirely due to the talents of the various mangaka featured on it that I even have one. They are the real people to thank! Cheers.
I always ALWAYS get jealous of your comments & reviews!! How do you squeeze in the summary & your comments with only a few but highly informative lines?? I can't help but love your comments from the bottom of my heart. They inspire me to keep improving my reviews which is nothing compared to yours. Thank you. Hope to see more from you :)
Thanks for your kind comment. I had to laugh because quite a few of my reviews are really long-winded, and I know some readers find that irritating. I try to say everything I need to say in order to remind myself of what I've already read, though, and why I did or didn't like it. The summaries that get posted don't always do that for me, and for quite a long time, the people who uploaded manga onto this reader site didn't even bother posting a summary. Now they've started including very good notes, which leaves me free to explore other themes. Basically, though, that's the main reason I write them.
Also, a good friend of mine, a teacher, told me that the best way to remember something is to re-frame it in your own words. So, I want to encourage you to continue writing your own summaries! You have your own way of saying things and your own outlook which I won't necessarily key into.
Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. Of course everyone has their own writing style. Mine are mostly simple details, points i liked about the manga & a bit jumbled. I do get happy when other people like it. So never once , have i thought about changing it, but there's always room for improvement :)
I was here so I thought I'd share...when I hit reccomend it said it was "optical" I assume it meant optional lol
Great list Toad :D
Thank you. I think so, too, thanks to all the mangakas who actually wrote these stories.
Weird, but the tally of people who have hit "recommend" hasn't changed at all.
hmmmm that is weird.
maybe I recommended it already and I have a mind like a sieve...cause I stalked this list when I was new to manga...
In either case, thanks!
Lol your welcome heh
Your descriptions are so well written 0_0
English was my worst subject EVAH so my descriptions are all unintellectual things like
"AAGGGGHHHH OMG ITS SO CUTE
LIKE
OMG
READ IT
JUST READ IT"
or something along those lines
Cheers, BloodLust!
(I kind of wish I was able to squee and flail more, without sounding like a complete wally, that is. Apart from keeping my lists, my comments tend to be a bit dry, "Oh, that was very good. Bravo!" --- Like the comments of someone who requires orthodontic equipment to smile.)
i need that irl but online i think im able to express my emotions pretty clearly through the use of not-very-intellectual words and emojis
Emojis are wonderful shorthand. (〜￣△￣)〜
I finally dropped by x) Some of old manga I used to read found in this list.. THANK YOU! you also make good review.. and, seems like we have similar taste (after I check on your fave list) this is the 2nd list I love after Kathy x) Thank you!
I like Kathy's list, too, and although I think the artwork has gotten better recently, some of the old yaoi stories can't be beaten. Plus, there are dozens and dozens of people collecting all the newest stories, so it's nice to have collections that aren't all the same.
I like your list. I thought if someone was going to write such a well thought out blurb, then they must have great taste about their yaoi. I wasn't wrong.
Thanks, Froggyis. This comment made my day. Welcome to my work-in-progress.