Blogger.com won’t let me post this response to Tumperkin’s post:
If a picture paints a thousand words…thoughts on manga yaoi romance
My reply is apparently too long. *sniff* So here is it.
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Ah, Yamada. Love her. That’s a sequel to an earlier work – also by Yamada and Aida – Takaga Koi Daro (It’s Only Love), which takes place four or five years earlier where it shows the circumstances that lead Sawaragi to getting arrested by his brother-in-law’s love interest. I liked the sequel more, I think. Although TKD is somewhat unconventional (for a BL comic, anyway), it’s almost flippant especially when comparing with that one.
I’m curious, though; how the heck did you manage to read it on Kindle? Isn’t text too small to read?
“Anyone else tried manga romance and if so, do you have any recommendations?”
Oooh. I have to admit the best ones haven’t yet been published by any US/UK publisher. And many titles below aren’t yet available on Kindle, I think? With that in mind:
Published by DramaQueen
- Not Love – Kano Miyamoto
- The Judged – Akira Honma
- Last Portrait – Akira Honma
Published by Deux Press
- Future Lovers – Saika Kunieda
- Lovers & Souls (2 vols) – Kano Miyamoto
- Say Please – Kano Miyamoto
- Two of Hearts – Kano Miyamoto
- Red Blinds the Foolish – Esu Em (lit: S & M)
- Seduce Me After the Show – Esu Em
Published by DMP/June (associated with Digital Manga Guild)
(this pub is notorious for publishing volumes of a series out of order, like they did with Tired of Waiting for Love & It’s Only Love. So I’ll try to focus on standalones.)
- Freefall Romance – Hyouta Fujiyama (wonderfully expressive)
- Sweet Whispers – Hyouta Fujiyama
- Cafe Latte Rhapsody – Toko Kawai [painfully sweet & standalone]
- Bond(z) – Toko Kawai
- Cut – Toko Kawai
- The Day I Become a Butterfly – Sumomo Yumeka [philosophical and whimsy, but I love her]
- Same Cell Organism – Sumomo Yumeka
- Kiss Blue (3 volumes) – Keiko Kinoshita [art is awkward, but the story really does grow on you]
- Maiden Rose – Fusanosuke Inariya [I'm not that keen on this, but it has a massive following]
- No Touching At All – Kou Yoneda [one of most respected BL creators] [Edited: I just read Amazon US reviews of the DMG edition. Apparently, the translation - done by Jocelyne Allen - is pretty bad. Such a shame.]
- Rabbit Man, Tiger Man – Akria Honma [Unbelievably silly and adorable. I never expected this from Honma, who did incredibly dark romances, The Judged and Last Portrait, both published by DramaQueen]
- Thirsty For Love – Satosumi Takaguchi & Yukine Honami [a lot of BL readers hated this one because it's not exactly a BL and it revolves around alienation, sadness, death and oddly empty resolution of a girl and three boys, but I found it thought-provoking and memorable.]
- Close the Last Door (3 vols) – Yugi Yamada [romantic comedy; silly, funny and rather sweet. Yamada is one of those creators I'd follow any time, regardless the quality of her work]
- Manic Love / Fake Fur / Emotion Circuit – Satomi Yamagata (many readers find her works confusing because she doesn’t organise her stories in chronological order and, sometimes, she can be a tad too lyrical, but I love it.)
Published by BluManga
- You and Me, Etc. – Kyuugou [warning: I haven't seen the BluManga edition yet as I've read the original]
- Gerard & Jacques / Lovers in the Night – Fumi Yoshinaga [I'm not keen on Yoshinaga, but quite a few adore her works. Blegh.]
- Love Pistols – Tarako Kotobuki [truly one of most WTF? series out of josei (which also publishes BL), but so compelling. Published by BLUmanga under Tokyopop (now defunct) and will continue to be published through SUBLime under Viz Media]
Published by netcomics.com (it does offer some titles in print)
- Black-winged Love – Tomoko Yamashita
- U Don’t Know Me – Rakun [South Korean; this one has some flaws, but interesting for a SK BL comic.]
- Let Dai – Woon Soo-yoon [SK; I have a serious love/hate relationship with this one. Dai is probably one of most charismatic and hugely emotionally disturbed characters I'd come across in comics. He's cruel and kind, hateful and loving, compassionate and horribly ruthless, and... gah. I couldn't stand him sometimes, but he got away with it. Repeatedly. The story dragged in a couple of places, some cultural references were puzzling, and the end was almost a failed pay-off. I still can't believe I read all 15 volumes of this. Probably the longest series I read as my usual limit is just three volumes. But it's one of most compelling comic series I read. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Pardon the cliché.]
- Age Called Blue – Esu Em
- 9 Faces of Love – Wann [a mixture of genres]
Like I said, the best ones haven’t been licensed. Shame, really. Maybe one day when I feel rebellious and reckless, I’ll post a scanlated list of best works.
Would you like a list of heterosexual romance comics and perhaps lesbian comics? 
Most ‘yuri’ (lesbian) comics tend to feature more dialogue and emotions and visual codes than sex, really. I highly recommend *anything* by Ebine Yamaji. Free Soul, Love My Life and Indigo Blue.
*cough* Sorry for being so long-winded.
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