I scored a bunch of manga at the Used Book Superstore in Burlington MA today, at 50% off yet! This one is a very entertaining, wacky parody/homage of yaoi novels, with lots of familiar tropes that are subverted and otherwise played with, along with frequent self-referential remarks and fourth-wall breaking. The premise: young, handsome Momoi, son of the former company president, is taking charge - with the purpose of finding a "hot boyfriend who looks good in a suit," as he says to managing director Watanabe (who points out that he has is internal and external dialog switched, a cue right off the bat as to how goofy this story is).

Watanabe is a middle-aged management-type with a wife - and with glasses, the removal of which triggers a heart-thump of interest from Momoi, though he's not settling for any one person just yet. (I liked how Watanabe's appearance shifts between slightly-schlubby to tall, dark and handsome and back again; could be carelessness with art style but I think it's deliberate fun from the artist.)

There are tons of visual quips, such as the bit about Momoi and Watanabe having to carry pieces of toast in their mouths as they're (literally) running late to work - as Watanabe notes, it doesn't look right without the toast.

There's some fun with the get-drunk/wake-up-naked-in-bed/wonder-what-happened trope, and (via secondary characters) the long-lost-childhood-friends reunion, including generation gap and even a vampire (!). Oh, and a gratuitously loinclothed-wearing stud who shows up at random when somebody thinks a scene needs a little fanservice... yeah, very goofy! I giggled a great deal throughout this book, all the while finding myself interested in some of the potential pairings and hoping they'd eventually stop messing around and get together. [Surprise - some of them do!]

Among my favorite bits: places where one character shows another a copy of the manga that they're in, pointing out that they can find out everything that happened offstage just by reading the book. And the running gag in which nobody seems to know or care just what the company actually does. And the - oh never mind, let's just say it's a lot of fun, with occasional sex scenes (also fun).

I'm adding this to spacedog's Manga/graphic novel bookbox, which will be on its way soon. Hope someone enjoys it!

Taken from the Manga Bookbox

I'm not normally big on yaoi stories, but this parody had me cracking up! The gleeful trashing of tropes and poking holes in the fourth wall surround a couple of surprisingly effective little romance tales. I was surprised to find out how much I cared for the characters of such a silly comic.

This was an excellent cheer-you-up type of light read for days when you just need something silly.

One of the books starting the LGBTQ+ Bookbox

Taking out of emmejo's LGBTQ+ Bookbox. Looks fun!