Shaenon K. Garrity
April 14, 2008 Takeo is the go-getter young president of “an I.T. venture corporation exceeding profits of 5 billion a year,” but beneath his wealth and power he’s an awkward, virginal otaku. He wears glasses. Fumiaki is “Fumi-chan,” slacker office clerk and Takeo’s crush of 17 years. He does not wear glasses. Fumi’s brother Shogo, who also does not wear glasses, decides to bring the two men together despite Fumi’s insistence that he’s straight, and the very mild sparks sort of fly.
Since there is neither enough plot nor enough character development to fill a volume, the story is padded with light, cutesy side situations that do nothing to advance the action: the guys get the flu, babysit a toddler, fend off gold-digging women, and-horrors!-break Takeo’s glasses.
It’s all pitched at a gratingly low energy level; you’d think a 17-year crush would ultimately erupt into such passion as the yaoi world has never seen, but the endlessly grinning Takeo just wants to cook, cuddle and chastely watch Gundam with his boyfriend. Only a couple of brief sex scenes push the material into adult territory.
The art is extremely crude, with stiff figures, ugly, wooden faces, and no backgrounds to speak of. Since there are only three characters, surely Tatsumi could have avoided making two of them look so confusingly similar. A dull book that doesn’t even feature a lot of glasses.
