I”m going to take you back to a
simpler time, when my jokes made some sense and I actually had a
semblance of a schedule, to remind you of that time I talked about
Yaoi. More specifically the forgettable Alone in My King's Harem by
Lily Hoshino. I mention that book again because Night Circus section
of that book is still pretty great. Oh, and because today’s
subject,My Only King, is yet another collection of yaoi shorts by the
same manga-ka.
My Only King drops the more fantasy
based art and feel of Alone in My King's Harem(AMKH) in favor of a
more realistic feel. All the stories take place in what can be
considered the real world outside of the last story which is more
fantasy like. It seems to be the opposite of AMKH,which ended with
the more real life based Flesh chapters. My Only King carries over
some of the other titles problems while also improving on a few. The
art is still down right beautiful even if the uke characters are even
more girly than before. It lacks the dream like aspect that kept the
first book from being totally forgettable but in turn improves the
story telling quality to an extent. My Only King manages to give the
stories some more depth and delivers a more solid collection.
The book begins with the titular story
that takes up half of the book's eight chapters. The plot is a a
simple set up with a normal guy getting the a crest meant for a king
of another world and the boy sent to find it. The set-up is rather
interesting and the whole time I felt like it was establishing a
world with it's own rules for magic. Then it does nothing with
it,apparently just an excuse to get our two leads into some mildly
steamy kissing. This could have been so much more,the world and
characters are there to make this into a half way decent comedy or
even action series. Heck,this would have been a perfect way to start
a reverse magical girlfriend show. Nope they kissed so might as well
call it a day. What's that about magical crests,probably not
important. It's a fine story but it wastes it's potential in an
infuriating way.
Twinkle Twinkle Horoscope and The Ghost
in the Bath take the idea that brevity is best and run with it. The
former concerns a boy recently broken up with falling in love with
his male friend. As the story plays out the boys are in a constant
struggle with why they are exactly doing this,mind you mostly through
sub text. Are the boys using each other to stop their own loneliness
or just using the pretext of the horoscope to make the love they have
acceptable in there mind. It ends after a kiss,which seems to be a
connector for these stories. This is probably one of the stronger
stories and the uke actually looks like a guy and not just a rejected
Prunus Girl lead
The Ghost in the Bath sort of comes
and goes so fast that I'm not sure what quite went on. A business man
is haunted by a ghost possessing his bathtub. It plays out like a
scene from a much larger work yet manages to feel like a complete
work in way. The scene is the two talking about how they came to this
and what there feelings are. It's adorable and feels like it could be expanded if the manga-ka wanted to. However it feels like a complete story regardless. The fourth
story Mixed Chocolate is an extra episode to another series not
featured in the book and is short and fluffy. Not worth talking about
due to lack of knowledge and depth so I'll skip to the final
stop,King and Rune.
This one is the second longest and
while going with a three way relationship between two guys and a girl
leaves no impact asides from some minor squik factor. We watch the
main boy grow up as he is sold off again and again by a king he
claims to hate. Yet he keeps getting sent back to the king's home to
see an albino girl who no one wants to buy. However the eventual
pairing ends up with the two guys together-in a yaoi manga,shocking I
know-with the girl being a platonic third party. The younger boy's
actions are trying to vilify the king so he doesn't have to admit the
loves him and the king plays along with it. However once they do do
the deed, it has this squiky feeling of raising yourself a young
husband. It's not too bad and the actual relationship dynamics are
interesting. It's saved from being the weakest story by Mixed
Chocolate but even if it was it's still pretty great.
So another set of stores that were
beautifully drawn with most of them on about the same level as Night
Circus. It is a marked improvement outside of the Mixed Chocolate
story that is rather out of place. It's an interesting collection
that is more focused on the love aspect and not just sexy boy/boy
action. Definitely worth checking out unless you have some personal
vendetta against yaoi.
Till Next Time:Stay Positive
