Every volume of this series that I read makes me like it a little more. I’m a little sad that it’s taken this long for me to warm up to it, but Rumiko Takahashi is always worth it.

This book introduces a new character, the shinigami-in-training Shoma. Shoma is doing a home stay with Rin-ne, and was disappointed to learn that the grandson of the very famous shinigami Tamako was dirt poor. While most shinigami-in-training finish their homestay by earning points slowly shepherding the souls of dead pets and animals to the afterlife, Shoma wants to take care of all his points in one shot by exorcising an evil spirit. Since Shoma is approximately a fifth grader, you can imagine how this goes. A devil gets involved after a time, too. Shoma is fairly hot-headed and impatient about exorcising his evil spirit, so the lesson becomes one of caring about the spirits of the dead and not being over-eager to take care of things. His hurry is usually what creates the evil spirits in the first place, which Rin-Ne usually has to take care of himself.

This longer story/series of stories is followed by three adorable one-shots. In the first, Ageha, the shinigami with a crush on Rin-ne, is conned into buying a kotetsu she believes has the power to make Rin-ne hers. While it can’t do that, it does bring her closer to the other characters in the series in a nice, friendly way. Plus, it’s the middle of winter and Rin-ne and Rokumon don’t have heat in their apartment, so…

The second story is about a “haunted” cooking table in the home ec room. This involves the usual suspects: a disgruntled ghost and the ruining of food that Rin-ne was dying to eat. He eats it anyway, even after the ghost ruins it. I’m not sure why, but sadly, Rin-ne’s constant poverty and the jokes associated with it are quickly becoming my favorite part of the series. I particularly enjoy Sakura Mamiya’s complete indifference regarding this. One of my other favorite things about the series is the slightly eccentric use of Sakura Mamiya’s full name by Rin-ne. It’s a little awkward every time he speaks to her, but not in an overt way.

The last story is about a scarf that is showing up to strangle people who are receiving hand-knit scarves with their love confessions. This is a cute story, and involves Sakura Mamiya knitting a scarf for Rin-ne.

All of the stories in this volume were cute, fun to read, and very much gave me the flavor of this series. Sakura Mamiya and Rin-ne still aren’t very distinct characters, but they’re growing on me, and I’m enjoying their stories more and more. They’re more comedies than anything else, and I doubt anything about this series is ever going to be over-complicated or plot-driven. But I’m still enjoying it, and I like it now that I’ve hit a comfortable groove.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.

As if to prove my complete dismissal of the staff at the Phantomhive manor was unjustified, Black Butler suddenly proves that all those characters are not only useful, but bad ass. I was wrong, terribly unfunny staff of the Phantomhive manor. I was wrong.

And that was only the first chapter! Various members of the circus show up to wreak havoc at the mansion, and are… dismissed by the staff. I can’t tell you how much I loved this entire chapter. Not only was I reeling from the complete reversal on these characters, it was also an excellent action scene, with every manner of fighting you could want. There’s even a garrotte at one point.

And while all this is going on, Sebastian and Ciel are simply sneering at Joker, completely confident, when Joker tells them their home is being invaded. I’m not sure how this could have been any better.

And while this is going on, things get quite serious over at the mansion where Ciel and Sebastian are confronting Baron Kelvin, his mad doctor, and Joker. Joker asks what he could have possibly done, since Baron Kelvin made the circus staff do his bidding in exchange for his monetary support of their handicapped brothers and sisters still in an orphanage. Ciel states he did what he had to, and Ciel was simply stronger and was taking all that away from him. It was interesting, and surprisingly straightforward and bracing, logic. Later, Ciel has an uncharacteristic moment where he loses his composure, and the matter at the mansion is resolved, rather messily, in a matter of moments. It really is that simple in this series.

There’s lots of other interesting story after that, too. We get a closer look at what it is that the grim reapers actually do, courtesy of Joker. We find out just how cruel Baron Kelvin really was to the performers in the circus. And there’s even a cute little one-shot at the end of the book that serves as a nice non-sequitor and a wind-down to all the action in the past couple volumes.

After this last storyline, I am a raving fan of this series. It’s just the right mix of mystery, evil, black humor, and faustian bargain begging to go bad to keep my interest. It’s well-written, it dwells on some truly cruel topics, and all the period details keep the story rooted quite firmly in the Victorian era, and are much appreciated. There’s honestly not very much I would change about Black Butler at this point. I love it almost unconditionally.

You knew I was all over this. I just can’t get enough. I’m sorry.

Though Souichi and Morinaga are now living together, Morinaga realizes that he’s gotten no action over the past couple months. After a failed attempt to take advantage while Souichi is drunk, Souichi announces that he will be flying to Canada for a 2-month research trip. Morinaga is devastated. Souichi seems indifferent, until he gets there and… well, context would have you believe he misses Morinaga. Morinaga finds a chance to head to Seattle for a seminar, and he manages to meet up with Souichi in Vancouver. Souichi seems more than a little bothered by Morinaga’s visit. Bothered in a different way than usual, though.

Basically, very little happens in this volume that isn’t sex. I… can’t say I mind since this is my favorite volume of the series and all. Some of it is, admittedly, a little out of character. There are hints that Souichi misses Morinaga scattered throughout some of the Canada scenes. A conversation with his younger brother Tomoe reveals that Souichi is trying to hide the fact he lives with Morinaga. While he is homophobic, and wouldn’t want Tomoe to think he’s gay, it’s also a case of Souichi wanting to hide his relationship with Morinaga, regardless of meaning. He also mentions he’s not at all lonely in the “apartment by himself” while in conversation with Tomoe, but he certainly does look lonely when he gets back to his Canadian condo later. And, more damning, is an extremely out-of-character… uh, scene with Souichi. And while all this does seem out of character, I like that it gives Morinaga and Souichi something to go forward with, in terms of finding some sort of common, mutually enjoying ground in their relationship. Morinaga is still pretty concerned with finding some sort of middle ground with Souichi, and while volumes like this do make it seem like he (or both of them) are more interested in sex, both are putting a lot of thought into how they treat the other in this volume. Especially Souichi. He gets quite a bit of time to think about how he feels about Morinaga.

And there’s not much commentary I can offer about the later scenes where Morinaga comes to Canada. To say much would be a spoiler, and really, you know where all this is going. It’s great. I don’t know why I love the sex scenes in this series so much. It’s just better here than it is in other books. It just seems to mean a lot more to Morinaga and Souichi. Plus, again, I get a big kick out of watching them bicker, which happens even in bed. For instance, here, Morinaga gets more than a little terrifying when he suspects Souichi of cheating.

There are several extras in this volume. The usual bonus story here is actually an extension of the last sex scene, and Takanaga mentions that it was material that made the chapter too long for the serialized magazine. Another story is a silly one-shot that has all the characters in the series playing in an adaptation of Cinderella. Morinaga gets to be the prince, and I loved his first panel, where he’s sitting bored at a party full of young women in ballgowns and thinks “When will they figure out I’m never going to pick a bride because I’m gay?”

The last story… is a little more troubling. It’s a two-part side story, called “Our Mistakes,” about Morinaga’s brother Kunihiro and his friend/Morinaga’s first lover, Masaki. They meet back up, and… uh, it’s basically an extended rape scene, with Kunihiro as the victim. He tries really hard to reconcile with Masaki after a chance meeting, but Kunihiro gets too drunk waiting for Masaki’s shift to end, so Masaki takes him home. And ties him up. Then sexually abuses him for… uh, days? And then Kunihiro forgives him? And is likely attracted to him? Really? What’s even more disturbing than this is that, apparently, the Challengers/Tyrant series is going to continue with this couple in Takanaga’s next series. That’s a shame, because I hate them both.

But! In the meantime, The Tyrant Falls in Love continues to be my favorite BL series of all time. This is mostly a “physical” volume, but it also appears to be the beginning of Souichi beginning to realize his romantic feelings towards Morinaga. He’s confused, and angry, and apparently resisting every step of the way, but it seems to be happening. I liked that, with all the sex, the commentary this time around was mostly from Souichi’s point of view, something we are not often treated to. I’ve gone on and on about why I love this series from the bottom of my little rotten fangirl heart, so I don’t feel the need to justify admiration for a “physical” volume. But yes. Any fan of the series is going to be more than pleased with this. Just sayin’.

Since I have been relentlessly stalking eManga, you can bet I had my eye on the grand opening of SuBLime, the new digital BL imprint of Viz Media. If this succeeds, I hope like nobody’s business to see Zetsuai and the BL work of Setona Mizushiro, which are published by Shueisha and Shogakukan, companies that… uh, own Viz.

For my first foray on the site, I picked The Bed of My Dear King. Other launch titles include Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies (which sounds a little zany), Husband, Honeymoon (which I’ll read when the second volume comes out), and Love Pistols (which is all kinds of crazy disturbing I’ll talk about at a later time because I read it anyway). I’ll probably read all of these, honestly, especially since the digital editions only cost $6 and come with a PDF. That’s still a little more than I’d like to pay for something I don’t own a physical copy of (ideally, $5 would be the ceiling), but it’s a bit better than the $7 price tag at eManga, and I’ve paid that over and over again on that site.

I suspect The Bed of My Dear King is the best of the bunch. It’s more of a josei-ish romance than the usual (admittedly shallow) BL book. It’s a collection of three short stories. In the first, Koga, a repairman, visits Tohno to repair his phone and cable lines. Tohno lives on a remote mountain, and is an eccentric sculptor whose house holds all sorts of surprises for Koga. Koga tries to get the awkward repair over with as soon as possible, but the two wind up snowbound in the house and cut off from the outside world. This leads obvious places, but the mix of timid and frank behavior from both is interesting, as are the continued and unexplained, unapologetic eccentricities of Tohno.

This was a decent story, and I liked it quite a bit when I finished it, but it’s the least interesting in the collection. The whole situation’s just a little too weird for my taste. But both characters are likable. Koga’s sexual orientation remains ambiguous throughout (so he’s not necessarily a straight man that falls inexplicably in love with a gay man after one day), and Tohno is fairly frank about his orientation, and that he’s not really interested in Koga sexually. Koga is the one that initiates, at the very end of the story. It’s a cute one, and more about Tohno’s insecurities and whatnot than it is about love or sex.

But, more to the point, what is up with all these BL books about sculptors? I suppose it gives one a reason to touch another, but it’s been coming up pretty frequently for me lately. This, Gentle Cage, the aforementioned Love Pistols, and Tonight’s Take-Out Night. All of these I’ve read in the past month. It’s a little weird.

The second story, Cherry, is a cute and light romance between two students. It’s a slow burn, and it’s nice to see the two stepping so delicately around the subject when they’re together. This reminded me a lot of the wonderful stories I’d just read in Kyudo Boys, by Keiko Nishi. It’s a fluffy, nice story to read.

Flowers, the last story, is the longest and my personal favorite. It tells the story of two students who appear to be quietly attracted to one another. The one that initiates the relationship, Ozu, appears to be forcing physical affection on Kumon, who is a compliant partner. The relationship, however, appears to be founded on gossip. As the story continues, and Kumon continues to meet with Ozu to hear the next part of the story, we find out that Ozu was involved in a local and family tragedy with a young woman. The gory details are given to reader through random lines of gossip at the beginning of the story, but as Ozu tells his side, the facts only get sadder and sadder. Kumon is mostly silent through all this, and appears to be listening to the story, but he starts to speak up towards the end.

Kusama has a knack for characters and pacing, which is extremely key in BL. Finesse such as hers makes a book like this more than simply BL. It’s a worthy shoujo/josei read, as well. Sex is only really depicted in the last story, and the physical relationship is key to the narrative and relationship there. All of the stories in here are gentle, in their way, and none of the usual bodice-rippers or high drama that I usually favor. Even the tragic final story is not so much dramatic as it is… well, just sad.

Overall, this is definitely worth a read by romance and shoujo fans who aren’t necessarily into BL. Romance is still key in all three stories, but all three study the characters and relationships in far more depth than the usual BL one-shot, and the context of all three is important as well. They read as slice-of-life, as well. I was just all sorts of impressed with this. I sincerely hope that we can see more from Sakae Kusama in the future.

I was a little surprised when the main story ended in volume four, which means volume five is just short stories, or an unconnected one-shot. It’s not a bad thing, I was just expecting the Claude story to stretch out a bit longer.

On the other hand, I think it would have dragged too much if it had. The story is paced very well here. We find out the true nature of the “real” Gertrude and her sister through a flashback. There’s a very long, extended goodbye between Sahara and Gertrude, and an even more triumphant scene right after that, courtesy of Sehara. I can’t spoil too much, since the whole book is about the ending of the series, but I thought it was a cute and very fitting ending to a series like this.

I can’t recall if I’ve spoken about this before or not, but this is a really great first series. It is a little rough around the edges (Puppen, Mariotte, and the other demons on Team Gertrude never feel like more than hangers-on, which is my biggest nitpick), but the fact that the story is so easy to get caught up in, and Gertrude and Sahara are both such likable characters, speaks much of her later skill. I adored Two Flowers for the Dragon, and while this isn’t quite as good, it’s still a very solid read, and has a very rare and genuine all ages appeal to it.

Plus, I still like demons. There’s a lot of vague magic stuff happening in this volume, and not so much demon stuff, but I still like the fact that Gertrude can still be a powerful demon when all is said and done. But mostly, I love that the relationship between Sahara and Gertrude took precedence in the end without overruling everything else that had happened. The ending was about the two of them wanting to be together, but both accepted the circumstances that were separating them, and the fact that other people exist. That is a somewhat rare point of view for a shoujo manga.

As much as I liked this series, I’m a little less excited for the last volume now that it’s not tied into the main storyline. But more Gertrude and Sehara is never a bad thing, and I’m sure I’ll love it. Hopefully it’ll be a cute place to leave the series off.

Rin-ne always makes me want to read Inu-Yasha, since I prefer the action/fantasy in this series to Rin-Ne, which is more of a weak cross between Inu-Yasha and Ranma 1/2. I’m liking Rin-Ne more and more every time I read a new volume, but it’s still not nearly as good as Inu-Yasha. Good thing I’ve got more than half the series left to read!

Unfortunately, despite the fact human Inu-Yasha is on the cover this time, none of the content featured his full moon transformation, which is a first for these omnibuses. There were lots of other fun stories to be had, though, including one that took place in Kagome’s Japan, and a return to the “wandering around exorcising things” storylines from the beginning of the series. I like these short fights with miscellaneous demons, so I was happy to see them back.

Actually, the main bit of story in this omnibus was a plotline where Naraku tried to lay a trap for Sesshomaru in order to absorb his powers, and wound up driven out of his castle and out of hiding, period. From this point on, none of the characters can sense Naraku anywhere in reality, and the return to wandering demon slaying is a means to learn any sort of information about where Naraku may have gone. I can blow this part off with a simple summary, but the story was a good one. Sesshomaru grows on me a little more every time he appears, and this storyline would have us believe that he’s fighting Naraku for the sake of Rin, who has been kidnapped. Not only does it look like he’s gone soft towards Rin, but it also looks like he may have avoided confrontation and/or a fight with Inu-Yasha’s group.

Anyway. All of that is pretty significant plot development for a series like this, and the aftermath changes the types of stories that appear afterwards. The shikon jewel has taken a backseat, apparently, to finding Naraku, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. The shikon jewel has always been sort of a tool for a demon power-up, and it’s become increasingly obvious that Inu-Yasha isn’t going to use it, so… that leaves defeating Naraku as a goal. So that’s okay.

Anyway, there are other things going on here, too. A plotline earlier in the volume has Inu-Yasha learning yet another trick, the power to break shields, while helping out a fellow half-demon that’s being abused by her family. The later demon hunting stories are all things like… an ogre taking over a palace, a hair demon that brings the party back in contact with Koga… relatively minor storylines like that. I don’t mind the break after all the heavy Naraku-centric stuff lately, and I especially liked the chapter where Kagome went back to the present to take a test and Inu-Yasha went to “wait patiently” while she finished. It’s little stories like this that make me adore this series.

I’m one behind in the omnibus release of this series. It’s always hard to convince myself to pick these up, since I tend to read them in one sitting and part of me knows that the action can get a bit repetitive if taken in a big dose like that. But I can’t get enough when I do finally pick them up, and I can’t help but think that one volume of this series at a time isn’t nearly enough story at once. It’s just an absolutely perfect mix of entertaining action, imaginative demon enemies and folklore, and likable characters. It has a pretty universal appeal, and I can see why it’s so popular. Part of me is itching to pick up the volume 9 omnibus right now.

I always assume that, if a publisher sees fit to release an omnibus, it probably means the story is amazing. This is almost always true of June and their BL omnibuses, and Viz’s 3-in-1s are always of their best stuff. Even Tokyopop has released the Demon Ororon omnibus, which was a shocking pleasure to read. Black Gate… hm.

The premise is great. The story starts with Senju, an older salesman, and Hijiri, the young boy he is in charge of. Senju is, in addition to a salesman, a mitedamashi, someone who is in charge of closing “black gates,” which pop up randomly and tend to steal away human life prematurely. He’s good at his job, but it doesn’t pay well and he and Senju are constantly poor. That’s fine, because the two of them bicker constantly and keep themselves happy that way. Later, it’s revealed that Hijiri is the last of a race of “gatekeepers,” a people that can choose to open and close death gates at will. Basically, they can stop death from occurring. The others were killed off by humans who wanted the leader to close all the gates forever, thereby stopping any death from happening. Hijiri slowly grows into his powers, and Senju finds that he can’t be with him anymore and leaves him without saying goodbye.

That’s volume one. From there, it becomes a story about Senju slowly growing into his powers, a race of guardians that protects him from supernatural threats, and later, getting to the bottom of a cult of people that seems to be murdering all the mitedamashi. In the end, the question becomes personal. It sounds all right to say that death is a process that should never be stopped, but what happens when someone Hijiri cares about dies? Will he be able to resist the urge to close the death gates then?

All of this is super-interesting, and I like the premise and nuts and bolts of the magic system used in this series. And I loved Senju and Hijiri as a team. It broke my heart when Senju left at the beginning of volume one.

And this next part is where the series fails. Senju is replaced by the two guardians and Hijiri’s eventual partner, the younger brother of one of the guardians. Then the story becomes about Hijiri getting to know the guardians and mending the relationship between the brothers. It’s… boring. The guardians are much less interesting than Senju and Hijiri, and the brotherly squabble felt out-of-place in a story that was either going to be about the morality of stopping death or Senju and Hijiri/Senju finding Hijiri. The brotherly relationship becomes important later, when the older brother has to not hate the younger brother in order for certain story elements to matter, but I just… could not get into those characters.

The Mitedamashi murder plot eventually turns into the conclusion of the series. The climax involves the dead race of gate keepers, and unfortunately the three antagonists are almost… out of character. It’s a little strange, and it felt wrong that they were doing what they were doing. Even after the dust settles and they all explain their reasons, it still doesn’t feel right. Similarly, when Senju eventually comes back, his reasons for doing what he does, during the climax and the epilogue, are similarly vague.

In addition, the middle part of the series is about the weaker characters introduced and the struggle that Hijiri goes through making new friends and using his almost-nonexistent powers. It’s not really about the gates or the magic or anything else in the series, and it just isn’t that interesting.

It’s just… okay. Very middle-of-the-road, unfortunately, despite a lot of the great things in it. It’s a good read, and I’m not sorry I bought it. It’s also a great value, since the omnibus is only $19.99 and is a 3-in-1 you could potentially read in one sitting. But… it’s a little bland, and I wound up not liking most of the characters in the series, which can be fatal when it suddenly switches to character-oriented stories. I also can’t figure out if it’s a shoujo or shounen manga, and am not going to bother to look it up at the moment. It reads pretty gender-neutral and more like a straight up action/fantasy series than anything else, with a little schmaltz thrown in. A decent short series for teens, for sure, but there are better reads out there.

Another day, another BL one-shot (or three, I can’t remember how many I wrote up for this update). This one is yet another salaryman volume, because I’ve been working on a theme lately.

This one was pretty great, but I don’t have that much to say about it. Shibui and Himeko work at the same magazine publishing company. Shibui is more than a little intimidated by his former classmate Shibui, who apparently made a pass at him at some point during their college career and scared Shibui off. But Himeko keeps sticking his neck out for Shibui at work. When Himeko confesses his feelings for Shibui once more, Shibui rejects him harshly. A flashback shows us that Himeko was more than a little creepy in his pursuit of Shibui in the past, but when Himeko gives Shibui up cold turkey, Shibui realizes that he misses having Himeko around. Sex is enjoyed by both parties. The end.

I’m liking the trend in BL books I read lately where nobody assaults anybody. Himeko doesn’t force anything more serious than a kiss on Shibui, and I like the way that the love story plays out here, where Himeko doesn’t force Shibui, but Shibui finally gives in anyway. It’s sweet, and fairly romantic without being drama-tastic or terribly emotional. The harshest thing we have to deal with is Shibui’s discomfort, which makes this a slightly unusual story.

The last third of the book contains an epilogue and a few short stories after the two hook up. One is a cute jealousy tale, one is a story about how Himeko tricks Shibui into a blowjob (which is actually pretty funny, in addition to not being nearly as harassing as it sounds), and another about the two finding a middle ground between sex and dating.

It’s a very good book. It’s probably among the better of the one-shots I’ve read. My tastes run towards the slightly more tragic, so I tend to rank those higher, but for a book with none of that, this still ranks pretty highly on my personal list. I have to say, I adore the number of adult-oriented BL titles that June has been releasing lately. I was fairly picky before, since it seemed like the bulk of what was coming out was school-age tales, but I realize I’ve been missing quite a bit of good stuff that’s been coming out over the past year. I’ve been scrambling to snatch them up before they sell out and become too expensive.

I picked this one up because I enjoyed the author’s other work in English, Real Lies. This is almost nothing like that, but I also enjoy Korean fantasy manga, or what I’ve read of it. Sort of. Very few have finished in English. And actually, most of them start out kind of rough. Like this one.

The premise is great. Normal girl (Ji-Yoon) rebels against her parents when they try to force her into an arranged marriage. She flees into a strange theater, where a man forces her to buy a statue of a beautiful man. When she finally agrees to at least meet the person her father wants her to marry, when the man comes to the door, she is sucked into an alternate fantasy dimension and awakens in the body of a much younger version of herself. A strange pair of men, the elegant Lloyd and the arrogant Chopi, take her to a palace and start calling her Princess Isdale. They explain that she’s from their country, the country of dreams, and was sent to the human world as a baby. They’re under attack by the former king’s brother, and the current king, Lloyd, reveals that the traitor has two of the three royal treasures, and must be stopped so that Lloyd doesn’t die and Princess Isdale and Chopi can get their original bodies back.

Most of that is sort of… crammed into the second half of the book. It helps that there’s only three characters, and that all the action is restricted to the inside of the castle, though. There’s also the fact that the premise isn’t really that complicated, and there’s not a whole lot of detail included about Princess Isdale, Lloyd, and Chopi. It also helps that there’s something inherently pretty about the art in Korean fantasy comics. Lots of long hair and big eyes, draped clothing, and elegant-looking characters. I also like the idea that the world is created based on the wishes and dreams of reality, and I’m curious about how that may affect the story in the future. The character personalities come across fairly clearly, too. Lloyd is fairly submissive and not that interesting, but Chopi and Ji-Yoon are rather abrasive and tend to bounce their personalities off one another. It can be fun, but there’s not nearly enough of it.

Unfortunately, there’s more bad than good. The generic fantasy premise doesn’t really endear me to the book. Ji-Yoon seems to easily accept absolutely everything that’s going on, and after some brief discussion, she and Chopi decide to go after the villain, which… if they were going to do it anyway, I’m not sure why there was even the smidge of dramatic build-up that appeared. It’s kind of a waste when so much story is crammed into one volume. There’s also too little explanation. Who is Princess Isdale? Is she part of Chopi and Lloyd’s family, somehow? If not, why does she have the Queen’s Mirror, if they’re not married, and what country does she come from? Chopi appears to be inhabiting a dead body, what’s that like? And again, how do the wishes of humans affect the world they live in?

Two other factors work against it. As pretty as the character designs and clothing are, the backgrounds are a little bland and indistinct for being a fantasy palace. Also, there’s lots of strange and inappropriate humor for a story so serious, including lots and lots of breaking of the fourth wall, which felt super-weird in a story like this.

Not work seeking out, honestly. Apparently, it’s only two volumes long, too. ADV never got the second volume out, but something tells me there’s not a very neat wrap-up in the next volume, unless the villain drops over dead on his own. It’s a shame, because Real Lies was very good.

Another day, another DMG release I picked up on eManga.com. I like salaryman BL stories, which is the completely shallow reason I picked this up.

At Ozaki and Shinoda’s company, there’s an elite force of salaryman that have “career gate” passes. It’s every employee’s dream to be allowed to wear one of these cards, which gives one access to the upper floors of the company. Ozaki works hard, hoping that his next evaluation will grant him the coveted “red card,” or first level access to the career gate. His partner, Shinoda, seems less interested in advancement, though his skills far surpass Ozaki’s own. Ozaki also has to work to conceal an attraction towards Shinoda. When Ozaki’s boss puts him in a position to be a boy toy for a higher-up in the company in order to let Shinoda save face, Ozaki grudgingly agrees. Shinoda, who finds out later, goes crazy and reveals that, not only is he the holder of a platinum career card (marking him as one of the most elite employees in the company), he is also crazy in love with Ozaki, and has been concealing his status so that he can continue to be partnered up with him.

And… that’s Career Gate. The romance is resolved fairly early on, and from there, the premise tends to be about some corporate backstabbing and nay-saying, trying to remove Shinoda from his position as an elite or unmasking his public persona as Ozaki’s partner. There are also several people that try to kidnap Ozaki and use him as corporate leverage against Shinoda, and Ozaki even offers himself up at one point in order to make a deal go in Shinoda’s favor.

There were… a few things wrong with this book for me. Often, when a BL book like this tries to cover subject matter that is not romantic in nature, it tends to fail at it, unless it’s a remarkable book. Career Gate is not one of those exceptions. The workplace subplots are completely ridiculous, and unfortunately fail at bringing Ozaki and Shinoda closer together since they serve little purpose aside from having Ozaki constantly kidnapped and Shinoda rescuing him. It doesn’t deepen their relationship, and they don’t really learn anything about themselves, or any sort of lesson about what not to do in those situations.

There’s also lots of non-con. There’s non-con in many BL books, and I hate it every time, but it was creepier than usual in this one since it was strangers forcing it, and not the romantic interest. Ozaki gets kidnapped and put in unpleasant situations more often than he should as an office worker. Once the situation is completely non-con, but the other two times it’s a rather pathetic display of emotional blackmail, “for the better of Shinoda.”

And the final nail in the coffin was that neither Shinoda nor Ozaki was really developed enough for me to get a feel for them. I neither liked nor disliked them, but as a result, the romance elements didn’t work for me. And when that happens, the BL book has failed me. I’m sorry, BL book.

It’s not a terrible work, and I think being a salaryman plot redeemed it a bit for me (a complete bias on my part… if this had taken place in a school, I would have hated it). It was a BL one-shot, and served its purpose as an entertaining read. But there are definitely better salaryman stories out there, and better one-shots on eManga. Even knowing what I know about it now, I probably would have still read it since I like the workplace stuff, but if your tastes lie elsewhere, you might not want to give it a try.