Mushimanga

Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Genre: Yaoi, Historical, Supernatural
Length: 1 volume
Scanlated by: Dangerous Pleasure

Chief Hakuto is experiencing a very frustrating problem, ED. An avid older seme, Hakuto always goes for the young, cute, slender type but when a subordinate who's completely not his type whispers "I’ll do anything for you" it's too hard to resist even if Hakuto has to.

Chapters 5-6 are an unrelated story. A young man in historical Japan lives in a haunted house, with a mysterious one-eyed manservant, who unbeknownst to him may have something to do with his family's curse…

This is listed as an ongoing project on Dangerous Pleasure's site, but what has been scanlated so far seems complete. There must be another volume in the tubes.

Sample Pages
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This can be downloaded through Dangerous Pleasure's website.

Mangaka: Mamahara Ellie
Genre: Shounen-ai
Length: 2 volumes
Scanlated by: Forever-More

Gokuraku Cafe revolves around Yuuto Takanashi, a young cafe part-time worker with a penchant for the animated cartoon character, Jacky. Naturally enthusiastic and helpful, Yuuta often gets involved with the personal lives and problems of Rainbow Forest Cafe's customers. Although a bit impulsive, his involvement usually ends up appreciated; to the extent that most of the (male) customers begin falling for him! Such incidents, added to the overprotectiveness of his best friend Souhei, only make Yuuto's life more complicated. Interesting turns are indeed waiting for this young apprentice as he struggles to pursue his dreams under the guidance of the enigmatic cafe master, Dick Yashima. (Forever-More)

I feel like I'm going to become a broken record because each time I recommend a Mamahara Ellie title, I want to say basically the same thing: "Sure, the art takes some getting used to, but the characters and the storytelling are worth it."

This particular title uses the trope of the character who always finds himself the object of other people's affections, but that's not the sole focus of the story.

Sample Pages
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Forever-More is disbanded and is no longer hosting their scanlations on their website. You can download it here.

Mangaka: Koishikawa Ao
Genre: Shounen-Ai, Comedy, Supernatural
Length: 7 chapters + extra (complete)
Scanlated by: Blissful Sin

Ordinary university student, Kou, is living with Naoyuki; a gentle and timid vampire. Frightened of his narrow coffin, the cowardly vampire doesn’t scare Kou, but can Kou resist becoming his “lunch?”

This is the first story I've read by this mangaka. The story is very cute, although Naoyuki is pathetic and cries far too often. I prefer his much bitchier older brother.

Only chapters one through three were about the vampires. I wasn't able to get into rest, which is a series of oneshots, but I'm not sure if that's because I just wasn't in the right mood, or if it's the author's art style.

Sample Pages
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You can download this at Blissful Sin's website.

Mangaka: Kodaka Kazuma
Genre: Yaoi
Length: 7 chapters
Scanlated by: Hochuuami

Do you have sexual frustration?

Is your sexual frustration due to unfulfilled lust for a particular person?

Does the idea of having sex with a shapeshifting ex-priest with dramatic fashion sense and a unibang who sells his services from behind a counter in an underground bar appeal to you?

YES?

THEN WELCOME TO THE SEX SHOP OF HORRORS.*

I'm not sure how to summarize this. So, there is this priest, right, and he like, violated some taboo or something, and now he's a prostitute. But not just any prostitute--a high class, magical prostitute who will help you find true love. By having you fuck him. While he pretends to be the person you actually want.

It's Kodaka Kazuma, with all that implies: the art is clean and usually well-done, but sometimes someone suddenly gets an abnormally large head. The story makes no sense but somehow that makes it better. And the porn... it's pretty detailed.

Sample Pages
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Hochuuami has disbanded and their website is down. You can download this title here.

Mangaka: Asou Mizuho
Genre: Shounen-ai, Comedy
Length: 3 chapters
Scanlated by: Aarinfantasy & Blissful Sin

The young Yamato Yousuke searches for a way to follow in the steps of his father, a detective who passed away in mission trying to save a little kid who got kidnapped. Finally, an opportunity to become a detective himself has arisen, but in the middle of carrying out his first assignment, a test to see if he would be a good detective, Yousuke suddenly gets hired, apparently for no reason. There must be a secret behind all this...

So this is very by-the-numbers, and you can see the "secret" coming from a mile away, but it's still cute.

And I giggled when the president of the detective agency threatened to dump a baby into the trash. Maybe that's not the right reason to like it, though?

[horrible infanticide joke redacted]

Sample Pages
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You can download this on Blissful Sin's website.

Mangaka: Tsurugi Kai
Genre: Yaoi, Military
Length: 1 volume
Scanlated by: Fantasy Shrine

Scientist Eric Stuart has been kidnapped! To rescue him, Steve McDaniel, an elite soldier, must infiltrate the enemy's fortress, find the kidnapped scientist, and bring him home.

Based on the cover art, I didn't expect to like this. The scientist is drawn as waif-like, feminine, and dependent on the soldier; usually that's a clue that there's no personality there. However, even though the characters fall neatly into the seme and uke roles, they both have personalities, and their relationship is rather sweet and tender.

There is a lot of plot, for a yaoi manga. After rescuing Eric, Steve goes after the terrorist group responsible for Eric's kidnapping and for dark events in his own past. It doesn't always make sense, but then, yaoi rarely does.

There's one major WTF moment: after dozens of pages of a caring relationship, Steve suddenly rapes Eric after they have a fight. It's so out of place with the rest of the characterization that it feels like the artist realized she didn't have a rape scene, went "oh no," and penciled one in. It's only one page out of 200, at least.

Warnings:
This story contains one scene of non-consensual sex within a relationship, one scene of attempted rape by a baddie, and some implications of past rape. While these aren't typical of the story as a whole, if you're triggered by such things, you should avoid it.

Sample Pages
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You can download this title here.

Ain't dead. I'll be posting more recs once real life has settled down a bit, but for now, here are new chapters released since I last posted here:

• Ikenai Otoko volume 1 (completed)
• What Did You Eat Yesterday ch 10
• Kou'un no Rihatsushi ch 06 (completed)
• Keep Out ch 04

Links lead to pages where you can download the releases.

• Iro Otoko ch 04
  
• Hyper Love Power ch 05
  
• Border extras 1 & 2

Links take you to a page where these can be downloaded, although you'll have to join db_scanlations on LJ in order to see the link for Hyper Love Power.

This is an updated version of my previous post about this series, since so much has been added since then.

Mangaka: Miyamoto Kano
Genre: Yaoi
Length: 3 volumes (complete)
Translated by: Liquid Passion

Konoe, a high school student, is confused about his sexuality. He meets Hikaru in the sleazy gay district, and sleeps with him. They begin to play at being lovers, but Konoe's heart belongs to Atori, his friend and classmate. Can Konoe come to terms with his sexuality and reveal his feelings to Atori, and where do Hikaru's true feelings lie? (LP)

Miyamoto Kano's works--well, at least what I've read so far, which is quite a lot because I really really like them--are especially character- driven for yaoi manga. She creates characters that I want to read about, so it's not just porn with interchangeable archetypes. This aspect of her work reminds me a lot of one of my other favorite boys' love mangaka, Yoshinaga Fumi.

Their approaches are different, though. Rules aims to be something closer to the real world. There's a quiet normalcy about it that stands out, that really makes it appealing.

Unfortunately, Miyamoto Kano's work, while deservedly popular, is confusing as hell. "Rules" is related to at least a dozen other stories that take place in the same universe. They weren't written in chronological order and there are a ton of characters to remember. In fact, for a while, I gave up on reading the new releases because I just didn't have the mental energy to keep it all straight.

Thankfully, Liquid Passion, who scanlated most of them, has put together a chronological listing, here. Although it's not first, I think "Rules" is a good place to start, because it doesn't require any previous knowledge of the characters or stories that are set before.

The non-con tag is for a brief scene involving two of the supporting characters; it's not kink and not part of any of the relationships in the series. The same with the prostitution -- one of the supporting characters is a male prostitute, but that's not really part of his eventual relationship.

Sample pages
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This title is available for direct download through Liquid Passion's website.