About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Beast's Storm: Hold Me Baby!. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Trigger Warning: There may be references to self-loathing, male pregnancy (mpreg), and infertility, as it appears in the manga.
Synopsis:
Akira’s work/life balance is finally balancing out in his favor. With more time on his hands, he opts to go on vacation with Sougo and their baby Shouta. Everything is going great until Akira runs into his ex there, and she just so happens to be having her wedding abroad. Seeing her again reminds Akira of the days he hated being a Bestia. Thankfully, Sougo and Shouta are there to remind him why being Bestian isn’t a bad thing at all. As a result of all the fun and comfort in Hawaii, Akira and Sougo successfully conceive their next child together, but this pregnancy is much more complicated than with Shouta. Will they make it with more than one baby in the house?
Meanwhile, Soushi, Sougo’s father, is trying to be a better grandfather and help care for Shouta. But, along the way, he runs into Yuu, his first love. As it turns out, Yuu is still single, but after so much heartache in their past and a life apart from each other after all this time, can they come back together for good? Or has Soushi’s steadfast belief that Bestia should propagate and multiply endlessly scared Yuu away from him forever?
Review:
What more can I say about the art in this series? It’s beautiful and only becomes more so the longer this series goes on, which I selfishly hope is forever. Shouta is the prettiest baby in all of manga, along with our new babies at the very end of this particular volume. Yes, I said babies, plural, which we’ll get into later in this review. Just know that the art in this volume is just as good, if not better, as it is in earlier volumes, and it’s a joy to look at, as always.
Now for the story itself. I was a bit disappointed that the end of the last volume suggested there was a pregnancy, only for this one to start with them going on a vacation and no sign of future babies. However, this begins before the bonus story at the end of the last volume and then continues past it, so just be aware of that when you pick up this volume. I was thrilled to get this story, even though I desperately wanted to see more of the pregnancy because it was nice to see Akira and Sougo outside their element. It was also nice to get some context on Akira’s relationships before Sougo. This world just continues to grow and grow, and I love how many sides of it we get to see. I especially love that we end up with twins, and they are just as cute as Shouta, if not cuter.
I have got to talk about the spice in this one. The previous volume was lacking a bit in the spice department. No worries there. I like romance that has minimal to no smut, but I was also very happy to see that this gets super spicy. Since we’re leading up to a pregnancy announcement in this one, we get a nice raunchy scene with Sougo and Akira, with Akira donning some tiny underwear, which is so hot. Highly recommend this for that scene alone. We also get some spice between Soushi and Yuu, if you can believe it. Unfortunately, it isn’t in their current ages, but we see them get it on when they first met, which was great. I do wish we could’ve seen some older dudes gettin’ it on, but that’s just my depravity talking.
What I do love, though, is that we finally get to see some background on the series’ former antagonist Soushi. I loved seeing how clinically the doctors and their families treated this intimate act of sex, and even they did in their young adulthood. So the only emotional ties they ever really had with sex was with each other since they couldn’t do it to breed and only for pleasure. It was a pivotal moment in their lives that changed how Soushi would proceed with every relationship in the future. Not to say that made everything he said and did to Akira and Sougo forgivable, but it made sense why he might have said and done those things, which was nice context to get.
Results:
At this point, do I need to say I love this series? This is another fun entry into this lovely series. I like seeing more family time and more time with side couples that build out this world. I can only hope this series continues because I love it. I highly recommend this series.
Have you read Beast's Storm: Hold Me Baby!? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!