Kissing
Story by Teiko Sasaki
Art by Shoko Takaku
Published by Juné, imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by publisher
ISBN10: 156970922x
ISBN13: 9781569709221
Review by Linda Yau
Kazushi and Haru have been childhood friends, and now they are on the brink of graduating college. What happens when Kazushi suddenly pulls Haru aside and kisses him? This sets of a catalyst for Haru, who has to think about what would their relationship is and would probably turn out if he accepts or rejects Kazushi’s obviously last ditch to reject a girl’s confession – confession to him.
This book is rated as suitable for 16+ and so there is not as much sex scenes as there is kissing scene, pretty age appropriate.
As a standard romantic bl-plot, Kissing was all right. The main story between Kazushi and Haru was covered in one book, with an additional flashback story from the perspective of Minota, the couple’s common good friend.
The art was pretty, and what normally counted in my mind was the story, which only delivered to the point of it being good for a one time read, and that is quite sad. Because the story was pretty general, I found it pretty difficult to see anything that would make it stand out. There was one unique concept that made a slight impression on me, and that was the gifting of a trophy. Toward the end of the story, the meaning of the trophy was more fleshed out, this became the couple’s love token. Other than that, the plot was pretty weak, and felt as it was a filler for the company to push out a story to fill its yaoi publishing quota.
Normally I would be a fan for supporting characters, but because of the weakness and generality of the plot, even the characters were all very one dimensional. Reading this book was slightly disappointing.
Kissing is the only book written by Teiko Sasaki that has been translated so far, but if you are a regular reader of yaoi manga, you might recognize the illustrations, which are done by Shoko Takaku who has also illustrated previous Juné releases of Shy Intentions and Passions.