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Manga Review | Aishiteruze Baby by Yoko Maki

Title: Aishiteruze Baby

Author(s): Yoko Maki

Artist(s): Yoko Maki

Kippei Katakura is a player. As one of the most attractive guys in his high school, he has no shortage of partners to play with every day. However, Kippei’s days of playing bachelor are coming to an end when a major family event rocks the foundation of the Katakura family. Kippei’s aunt Miyako lost her husband. Unable to handle the pressures of single motherhood, Miyako leaves her five-year-old daughter Yuzuyu in the care of Kippei’s family until she can get on her feet.

As the only family member old enough to care for her and with enough free time to do it, Kippei is designated as Yuzuyu’s primary guardian. Yuzuyu quickly takes to Kippei and begins relying on him heavily. Similarly, Kippei finds himself increasingly attached to Yuzuyu, and soon, those irresponsible player days feel like a distant memory. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. Kippei and Yuzuyu constantly face prejudice, trauma, and the many struggles their unique relationship creates. As their bond grows stronger and stronger, the looming threat that one day they will have to part only grows along with it.

Title: Angel Buddy

Author(s): MasterGin

Artist(s): Chungnyun

Sooho can see ghosts. Unfortunately, he’s one of the few who can, and as a result, all manner of creatures that go bump in the night show up to bug him. Since he is the only one who can see them, he is a social pariah among his classmates. However, it becomes even harder to look normal when an angel named Taker appears before him. Angels can see souls, and Sooho happens to have an extremely powerful soul. Naturally, Taker would love to harvest Sooho’s soul, but Taker’s days of soul-harvesting are over, and now he wants nothing more than to sate his curiosities and live among humans.

Unwilling to let anyone have Sooho’s soul, Taker makes him an offer: let me be your bodyguard. Taker will help keep the ghosts at bay, and in exchange, Taker gets to hang around Sooho. While this is all fine and dandy at first, Sooho’s soul begins to attract more than just ghosts. Angels and demigods alike are drawn to Sooho, so it’s more important than ever for Taker to stick around. Over time, though, Taker’s curiosity grows into something much stronger, and even Sooho finds himself drawn to Taker. What could grow between an angel and a human?

Title: Lip and Sword

Author(s): Jin Shisi Chai

Xing Ming is the host of Pearl Line, a news analysis show for the station Pearl TV Station News Center. He’s attractive, talented, and truly cares about the news he puts out. As a result, during the end-of-the-year banquet for the station, Xing Ming is awarded the Top Ten News Centers of the Year award. However, not everyone feels he is deserving of it. Director Chen Linan, who actually recruited Xing Ming initially and put him in the position of hosting Pearl Line, now no longer feels he is worthy of his accolades or role on the show. This is all because Zhuang Lei, rumored to be Chen Linan’s niece or lover, was the host of Pearl Line before she went on maternity leave, which allowed Xing Ming to be her replacement. Even though she has recovered and is ready to return, Xing Ming refuses to give up his spot.

Due to his frustration and drunkness, Chen Linan confronts Xing Ming at the party. At first, Xing Ming isn’t worried over the drunken Chen Linan’s pestering… until Chen Linan brings up Xing Ming’s dead father, a convicted rapist. In a blind rage, Xing Ming beats Chen Linan over the head with a wine bottle in front of everyone at the party. In a panic, knowing his job is on the line, Xing Ming reaches out to the station chairman, Yu Zhongye, and offers himself up in exchange for leniency regarding his punishment. While Yu Zhongye does take him up on his offer, and they spend a night together, the director and chairman are set to fire him the following day. Once more, in a fit of rage, Xing Ming fights off the security guards and poses an offer to the chairman: let me create my own show with my own team from scratch. If he doesn’t get decent ratings during a six-month period, he will leave on his own.

Yu Zhongye agrees, but as Xing Ming faces setback after setback, he constantly has to return to Yu Zhongye for favors. As he gives himself over to the chairman repeatedly, Xing Ming begins to question if this is all worth it and what his sexuality is. However, more than anything, Xing Ming wonders if what he feels for Yu Zhongye is truly admiration or if it is something deeper? And is Yu Zhongye capable of loving anyone for more than their body?

Title: Sweat and Soap

Author(s): Kintetsu Yamada

Artist(s): Kintetsu Yamada

Asako works at a toiletry manufacturing company in the finance department, which is convenient since she struggles with something that makes life pretty tricky: sweat. Asako sweats much more than average, so she has to be extra hygienic to avoid smelling out in public. Even with her above-average hygiene habits, though, Asako still finds herself stressing over her smell. As a child, she was relentlessly bullied for sweating, and that trauma has carried over into her adulthood. So, her days are spent in constant anxiety and fear over getting too close to those around her and becoming the laughingstock of her peers due to her hygiene.

Her fears come to a head when the lead product developer Kotaro Natori at work approaches her in the lobby because of her smell. He has an unnaturally strong sense of smell because he develops the soaps their company produces, and Asako’s scent is particularly strong to him. However, he doesn’t dislike her smell at all. Instead, he is inspired by it, and he desperately needs Asako’s odor to inspire him for the upcoming Winter line of soaps he is preparing to present. Though Asako wants to do anything but let Kotaro smell her all day, for the company’s sake, she agrees to let Kotaro smell her at the office daily. It’s not long, though, before Kotaro is drawn to Asako for more than just her smell, and even Asako is beginning to enjoy these sniff sessions a bit more than she expected.

Title: You Jin

Author(s): Fujoking

Artist(s): Fujoking

You Jin isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but even he finds it a bit weird when his female childhood friend Lee Sejin turns up on his doorstep, claiming to have contracted a potentially fatal disease with the convenient side effect of switching his gender. Sejin has been living his life as a man since the change but has run into some trouble with his gaggle of girlfriends. So he begs Jin to take him in until he can figure out what to do with his life moving forward. Of course, Jin is suspicious but lets Sejin stay with him all the same.

Once Sejin establishes himself in Jin’s life, he asks him for one more favor: help him grant his last wish. Naturally, Jin isn’t unwilling to help until Sejin tries to kiss him. As it turns out, Sejin’s last wish is a bit more than Jin realized. How far is Jin willing to go to help a childhood friend, if that even is who this person actually is?

Title: Pink Heart Jam

Author(s): Shikke

Artist(s): Shikke

Haiga is experiencing many firsts. It is his first time in college, it is his first time living in the city away from his rural home, and it is his first time faced with his sexuality. While touring his campus for the first time, Haiga sees Kanae, a beautiful man and Haiga’s upperclassman. Haiga is immediately attracted to him, but he isn’t sure if he simply admires Kanae or if he really is attracted to him as a man. Without any real reason to find out, Haiga is left on his own to wonder.

That is until his peers give him money to visit a box spa after a night of drinking. However, this particular box spa is located in the gay district, which Haiga uses to his advantage to help answer the question: does he like men or not? Of course, Haiga doesn’t expect that the person servicing him is none other than Kanae. So, this is a chance for Haiga to discover his sexuality and determine if his feelings for Kanae are more than simple admiration for his upperclassman. While he is figuring that out, another question lingers in the back of Haiga’s mind: how does Kanae feel about him?

Title: Sign

Author(s): Ker

Artist(s): Ker

Kang Soohwa’s life isn’t all that great right now. He has almost no money left in his bank account, his laptop is broken, and he doesn’t have a job. So, to better his situation, he goes out on the hunt for a job, trying to find someone with free WiFi so he can apply to jobs on his phone. The moment he does find a connection, though, he is hosed down by a strange man on the balcony of a cafe. Absolutely shocked by his terrible luck, he passes out.

When he wakes up, he’s in the cafe, and the strange man is looking over him with an equally odd little man beside him. It turns out they are workers at Cafe Goyo – Yohan is the owner who sprayed Soohwa down, and Gyoon is an employee helping out. As retribution for being assaulted with a water hose, Soohwa begs for a part-time job at the cafe. At first, Gyoon refuses, but after some desperate persuasion from Soohwa and some pitying tears from Yohan, Gyoon relents.

On his first day, Soohwa tries to communicate with Yohan only to discover that Yohan is deaf. However, that isn’t the only thing Soohwa learns. It turns out that Soohwa is attracted to Yohan’s voice, which, of course, makes working together incredibly awkward. So, to avoid more embarrassing scenarios, Soohwa makes it a point to learn sign language, but he has to learn from Yohan. So Soohwa must do his best to learn sign language from Yohan without ever hearing his voice. Easier said than done. What would Yohan think if he found out about Soohwa’s weird fetish?

Title: Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts

Author(s): Yu Tomofuji

Artist(s): Yu Tomofuji

Beastkind and humans live entirely separate lives. Each is designated land with an agreement to never cross into the other’s borders, except for the agreed-upon ritual. To uphold the peace between the human kingdoms and the beastkind, humanity must give a human sacrifice to the king of beasts. Unfortunately for Sariphi, it is her turn to be sacrificed. Oddly enough, though, she isn’t afraid. She has known she was meant to be a sacrifice for a long time and has resigned herself to this fate, ultimately happy that her life and death could be meaningful.

During the ritual, she is faced with the king of beasts. However, instead of killing her, he turns into a man and tries to set her free. Since taking the throne, he has never once killed a sacrifice and instead helped them all to escape. Even so, Sariphi doesn’t leave. She has nowhere to return to and now has no meaning for her life. The king is entranced by her lack of fear, something he must contend with every day because while he is the king of beasts, he is not entirely a beast. Drawn to her, the king decides to let her stay with him under the pretense that she will one day be his bride and help close the divide between human and beastkind.

Having lived her whole life under the assumption she would one day die as a sacrifice, Sariphi must now find a new motivation to continue. She battles against prejudice, political schemes to keep her from becoming queen, and efforts even to take down the king of beasts. Can a human girl survive in a world made for beasts?

Title: Salad Days

Author(s): Jing Shuibian

Jiang Shen is a poor boy in a rural village. He spends his days playing with friends out in the rice paddy fields, helping his father work the fields, chasing wild chickens, and fishing. The most time he ever spends in the city is when his mother takes the vegetable harvest to sell. While his mother is busy in the city, Jiang Shen usually spends his time exploring the Children’s Center, where he stumbles upon a ballet class. The teacher catches him looking and invites him in, where she discovers he may have an innate talent for ballet. It isn’t long before Jiang Shen’s focus goes from his idyllic village days to something much larger and grander.

On the other end of the spectrum is Bai Jinyi. He comes from a filthy rich family and wants for nothing. He spends his days training at the Children’s Center in boxing, with his goal being to go international and win the gold belt. However, while attending training one day, an unusual sight catches his eye: a little boy among a gaggle of girls in a ballet class. Inexplicably, Bai Jinyi becomes drawn to this little boy, and for once in his life, Jiang Shen is the one thing he wants, even more than boxing.

They say the rich never box and the poor never dance. Yet, Jiang Shen and Bai Jinyi are set to defy those odds. As the two grow and change and their dreams grow more and more focused, the one thing that keeps them tethered together is their growing feelings for each other. So, can these happy days continue for two boys whose paths would never have crossed otherwise? And can they grasp their dreams while holding onto each other?

Title: I'm the Soldier's Ex-Girlfriend

Author(s): Ji Hyun

Artist(s): SETE

Maise Hazelnut is supposed to be the saintly female protagonist of the harem romance novel The Soldier’s Girlfriend. But, unfortunately, the current Maise is not that saintess character. Instead, she is a girl from the 21st century who has reincarnated into the world of her favorite novel! But she’s not just any character – she is the saintess! She initially enjoys the adventure and her cute, soon-to-be-soldier male protagonist boyfriend, Sucre. However, it doesn’t take long before all of it gets old, especially when Maise is often getting kidnapped so Sucre’s enemies can threaten him. While he is off gallivanting on various male protagonist adventures, he is also flirting with all the beautiful women of the novel.

Fed up with the plot, Maise decides to live her life her way. The first step to do that is breaking up with Sucre, and while he doesn’t take it well, Maise holds firm. So, newly single and living her best, peaceful life, Maise goes out to look for her true love. In her pursuit, she is set up with the mysterious Eith Lancell. He’s handsome, considerate, and everything that Sucre wasn’t, which is just what our independent female protagonist is looking for. Eith seems just a bit too perfect, and it isn’t long before Maise suspects there is more than what meets the eye with her devilishly handsome new beau.

Reviews

Manga Review | Aishiteruze Baby by Yoko Maki

Manhwa Review | Angel Buddy by MasterGin

Manga Review | Sweat and Soap by Kintetsu Yamada

Manhwa Review | You Jin by Fujoking

Manga Review | Pink Heart Jam by Shikke

Manhwa Review | Sign by Ker

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