I came across this yaoi manga at a recent trip to the New England Mobile Book Fair, and couldn't resist it; I don't recall seeing any mermen-yaoi before!

Timid little Kanan is investigating a leaking apartment when he discovers a handsome man lying beneath the water in an overflowing bathtub. He fears the man's dead - but no; he wakes up from his nap, gets out of the tub, and introduces himself as a mermaid, and demonstrates it by weeping a few tears that promptly turn into pearls. Then he blithely says he plans to move in with Kanan, and becomes quite the taskmaster, having dropped not-so-casual hints that mermaids find humans very tasty.

Turns out his threats to eat Kanan can be interpreted in a more benign fashion, and things get steamy pretty quickly. From there the story wanders into visits to the undersea realm, threats from rivals, dangerous waters - and an utterly charming encounter with a giant clam (!).

Not a lot of depth to the story, but it's funny and steamy by turns. I like it.

I'm adding this book to my Yaoi Manga shrinking bookbox, which will set out on its first leg tomorrow. (See the bookbox journal here for mailing order and contents.) Hope someone enjoys the book!

Mr. Mermaid turned out to be way too selfish for me. He’s a bully and yet his biggest victim gets put into the position of villain…and loses, making the bully look good. Oh, and he saves the ‘damsel’ in distress from the big bad vict– I mean, villain, in the meantime. Oh, wait, the ‘damsel’ is the bully’s ‘possession’, sorry.

Let’s not forget that Kaioh is so big and bad that he doesn’t sweat, pant or flush during sex, indeed, he doesn’t even smile or smirk or look passionate. Wow, how sexy.

The art comes off as amateur, and it may be one of the mangaka’s first works, didn’t check. But I really loved the chibi style, so moe…

So I may not like how Kaioh is but I did really like how he was about the gifts he gave to Kanan. “It’s yours, so keep it near you…whether it’s stolen or it breaks.”

As for Kanan, he was really naïve and a crybaby but the only time it really bothered me was when he went with the bad guy who tricked him with a lie, even though he’d just witnessed the bad guy ranting about how much he hated Kaioh. Kaioh told him to stay, he should have placed that order over anything else. Since Kaioh is apparently his master.

At one point Kanan thinks to himself that he’s more timid than usual now but he’s had some happiness too. Being terrified by someone almost all the time is a false happiness as for me.

Oh yeah, can’t forget, bullying is funny! And cute! Let’s laugh at moe chibi Kaioh pinching Kanan’s cheeks etc etc.

Despite all my complaining, I am sorta curious about what happens in the future.

The clam stuff was pretty darn cute.

A fish with a steel tongue

to go with those man pecs,
licks with too much edge.