12 Days of Yaoi – Well Done – Yaoi Webtoon Review

I have been talking a lot of boys love titles from Futekiya during this little special event here on Yaoi Playground so today’s title for review comes from the webtoon site Tapas and in tomorrow’s review I am tackling a big one from over on Lezhin! I haven’t written about a title from there since my last Killing Stalking post, but I think tomorrow’s title comes close to popularity of that one.

As for today’s review, when I first read the synopsis for Well Done by Mongya and Anco I was very much immediately reminded of the yaoi classic OVA series My Sexual Harassment, a title I consider a true classic of the genre, but as I began to read this webtoon I knew I was reading something very different.

Sangwoo Yoon had everything he wanted in life and was climbing the corporate ladder, but his arrogance got the better of him when he was caught sleeping with the boss’s daughter. Two years later he finds himself still at the bottom of yet another soulless job when he catches a higher up famous CEO Jaehyun Han in a compromising position and said CEO wants Sangwoo to work directly underneath him in more ways than one. Will this be the chance for Sangwoo to finally climb the corporate ladder or is he just being toyed with like a rat in a trap?

From a set up that had me hooked from the beginning I must confess I finished this one in one sitting, I was just that hooked! From the hilarious reactions of the characters to the gorgeous artwork this is the one BL title on Tapas I recommend over any other. The sex scenes were some of the hottest I have seen, if I had one complaint for this one it was that the pacing in the second half of the story was a little off, not enough to distract me but some moments did feel like they dragged a little too much, but the ending was a good pay off over all, after all not every boys love title needs a deep story to be enjoyable and it really was the characters that made this one.

12 Days of Yaoi – Dakaretai Otoko 1 -i no Odosarete Imasu – Anime Review

Dakaretai Otoko 1 -i no Odosarete Imasu or Dakaichi I’m Being Sexually Harassed by the Sexiest Man of the Year is a 2018 boys love anime series that I have loved more and more with each viewing and I hate to be the reviewer who says this because it is over used in a lot of anime reviews but, when you stand back and look at this series it can be seen as a complete deconstruction of the yaoi and boys love genre; taking many tropes within the genre and taking them in places I was not expecting it to go.

A prime example of this comes in the very first episode when we are introduced to our main characters. Takato Saijo is your typical male tsundere male character. A man who has been an actor for most his life he can come across as pleasantly charming to those he works with and knows how to work his charm. He has been dubbed the most huggable man in Japan for the last five years by a popular magazine and it is a title he wears proudly, except he has just lost his title to an up and coming actor by the name of Junta Azumaya a young man new to the world of acting who is seen by many as an angelic beauty.

Now going by these descriptions you would think, ok so this will be a series about Takato trying to somehow ruin Junta’s career but then because this is a yaoi story he decides to destroy him in some other way. If this was your assumption you would be dead wrong. It is in fact Junta who has fallen for Takato and wishes to pursue the older man. Younger seme’s are nothing new to the yaoi genre but what really makes the first episode of this anime stand apart from other boys love stories is that when Junta makes his first sexual advances towards Takato and is told to stop, he listens. This is a big deal for a boys love story because this does not happen all too often within the genre. It is because of this that the genre is seen as rapey by outsiders and there are certain titles out there that do not help this argument.

Not to say that the series is not perfect on this front, there are many scenes of Junta being a little of zealous with his affection towards Takato and getting a little too handsy but with a lot of those scenes he is called up on it by Takato and quite often back handed for the unwanted attention. This might not seem like much but it is in my opinion a step in the right direction for the boys love drama.

Both of the main characters are absolutely adorable and I loved watching Takato’s walls slowly coming down as be begins to fall for Junta and the switch of sweet angel to devilish love to restrained guard dog with Junta throughout the series was both adorable and hilarious at times. I will admit the over all story of the series is a little on the bland side, though I did really enjoy the flashback episode about when Junta first fell for Takato and how he knew he would have to hold back his desires and get Takato to fall for him first… he almost did not succeed in this but he at least tried to be a good boy. The side characters go from amusing to annoying with a character coming in as Junta’s kind of rival for Takato’s affections going from annoying to funny by the end of the series.

The series is no where near perfect, it’s story drags a fair bit mid season and though the beach holiday episode is fun to watch with plenty of fanservice it got a little tedious, it somewhat made up for this however within the melodrama of the last three episodes which will pull at the heart string of any hardcore fujoshi or fudanshi. If you are already a fan of boys love then this will most likely be an enjoyable watch for you, but if it is not the genre of your choice then it may be a skip until you have perhaps watched a few other titles such as Hitorijime My Hero, Gravitation or Junjou Romantica.

12 Days of Yaoi – Dramatical Murder Limited Edition Announcement

In 2018 Just USA an American company that specialize in localizing visual novels to English announced a new project called Jast Blue with the announcement that this branch of Jast USA would be working along side Nitro+CHiRAL to give official English releases of their popular yaoi titles and among those announced the one I was most excited for as were many other western yaoi fans was an official English release of Dramatical Murder and now at the tail end of 2020 we get a trailer for the official English release and although this post was not originally planned for my 12 Days of Yaoi, this is just such big news for the community I just had to talk about it!

The game is now available for pre-order from J-List for a special edition physical copy of the game and at first I was excited, but then I remembered something about J-List. Australia has banned all 18+ imports from Japan and well J-List’s motto is you have a friend in Japan. So my excitement soon turned to disappointment. The yaoi game I have wanted to play for the longest time, I won’t be able to get a physical copy of and this special edition looks really cool!

So here I was last night staring at the listing on J-List kind of just sulking to myself thinking great just what I was expecting from 2020. Then as I was staring I noticed something on the page, it said Ships from USA on the order page. So I did some digging on the website and found out this game is coming from Japan it’s coming from the USA warehouse and that place does still ship to Australia! Not to sound melodramatic but this felt like a little Christmas miracle just for me! So now I have a copy of this much much much wanted game on pre-order for myself.

I can not wait to get into this game once it releases plus it has motivated me to finish the other Nitro+CHiRAL games I have so far, those being Sweet Pool and Togainu No Chi Lost Blood. Have their been any game announcements this year that has had you excited or have you had one of those moments where you felt like you missed out on something just to find out yes you can get it after all? I would love to here your stories in the comments below and thankyou again for joining me on these 12 Days of Yaoi! Tomorrow’s post will be a review of a boys love anime that kind of has fans divided and I am most definitely on one side of the argument for this one, I look forward to seeing you then!

12 Days of Yaoi – Liquor and Cigarette – BL Manga Review

Now let’s start of these fun times with a fun little yaoi manga shall we? For on this first day of the 12 Days of Yaoi I present to you Liquor and Cigarette by Ranmaru Zariya, one of my favourite manga reads this year! A big thankyou to SuBLime for giving this manga an official English release and yours truly got her copy through Amazon on Kindle, I swear this year Kindle and a few other sites and apps have been my savior when it comes to reading!

Theo runs his family’s Liquor store and his childhood best friend works just across the street from him in a cigarette store that woman come from other towns just to be his customers. His friend Camilo is a known flirt but does not seem to date anyone who takes interest in him be they women or men which he has shown interest in both because he has openly stated that he is bi and lately Camilo has been a lot more forward with his attraction to his childhood friend.

Exploring themes of sexuality, slight internalized homophobia, and the classic trope of friends to lovers Liquor and Cigarette is a fun boys love read that has just enough drama to keep you hooked without being over melodramatic. The only real issue I think some readers might find with this story is at the beginning of the experimental relationship between the two main characters Theo relies quite heavily on liquid courage and this may bring up some consent issues for some readers so I feel it is only right to pre warn any new reader of this story.

The artwork is what drew me into this series I especially love the amount of emotion the author and artist Ranmaru Zariya is able to convey in the characters eyes in particular, they just seem to stare into you soul making you want to invite them in, especially on the cover which is what initially drew me to the title. It’s no wonder then that another of their works Coyote which I have yet had a chance to read has been on everyone’s must read list this year.

I hope you enjoyed the first day of 12 Days of Yaoi here on Yaoi Playground, stay tuned tomorrow when I will be discussing my favourite yaoi game of the year but also give an honest review about some of the minor problems with the game…

A Yaoi Filled Holiday Here on the Playground!

Hot sweaty bodies, sunbathed beaches and Christmas songs in retail stores, it’s that time of year again the Christmas season is upon us all and here is hoping it will bring some much needed end of year joy to all of u. Being an Australian the Christmas season for me also marks the beginning of summer which is pretty awesome so I thought why not share some that heat this holiday season?

Reviews and other posts have been sporadic throughout this year and I won’t go into detail as to why but I want to give a special thank you to all you readers and supporters out there so starting December 13 all the way to Christmas day itself I will be posting every day with yaoi content featuring some of my favorite yaoi I have enjoyed throughout this year. From Webtoons, manga, and anime to ships and fanfiction there is going to be a little bit of everything from the wonderful world of yaoi and boys love!

Now let’s start this season off right with my favourite part of Christmas, Yaoi Christmas Carols!