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Short take:
You Will Fall In Love: Highly recommended, if you like this sort of thing.
A Capable Man: Avoid.
These are both stand-alone boys' love from Blu, though You Will Fall In Love has a forthcoming spin-off involving one of the characters who doesn't get a happy ending.
You Will Fall In Love is so much like the sort of thing I might have written if I wasn't squicked by a lot of boys' love tropes that... well... I fell in love. It's about martial artists in love and how their emotional state and relationships with each other are reflected in the progress of their art. In fact I did write something like that once, only it was set in an American karate dojo, all the sex was straight or lesbian, and (obviously) there were leading female characters. (I couldn't sell it, or at least I haven't yet.)
You Will Fall In Love features the least squicky teacher-student romance ever, due to the age difference being small, the student being the aggressor, and the two having known each other previously in a different context.
Several years ago, Haru and Reiichiro were best friends and studied archery together. But Haru suddenly quit and went his separate way-- because he was in love with Reiichiro and thought that being gay was wrong. But now Haru has returned to his old high school as a substitute teacher... and finds Reiichiro's little brother Tsukasa, now all grown up and an archery student himself.
Tsukasa loves Haru, but Reiichiro has unfinished business with Haru. Misunderstandings, archery matches, heated grappling matches in hakama, and love confessions ensue. None of this is original, but it's written with emotional delicacy and insight, the characters are likable, and the archery is integral to the romance. The art is really pretty. Other than a brief, pro-forma "no-I-mean-yes," there's no sexual assault. I liked this a lot.
A Capable Man is a collection of short stories: a form which I don't generally like in manga, as the pacing natural to the form tends to make short stories seem very slight and rushed. These all feel slight and rushed, and the first two also glamorize and excuse rape and domestic violence. Steer clear.
You Will Fall In Love: Highly recommended, if you like this sort of thing.
A Capable Man: Avoid.
These are both stand-alone boys' love from Blu, though You Will Fall In Love has a forthcoming spin-off involving one of the characters who doesn't get a happy ending.
You Will Fall In Love is so much like the sort of thing I might have written if I wasn't squicked by a lot of boys' love tropes that... well... I fell in love. It's about martial artists in love and how their emotional state and relationships with each other are reflected in the progress of their art. In fact I did write something like that once, only it was set in an American karate dojo, all the sex was straight or lesbian, and (obviously) there were leading female characters. (I couldn't sell it, or at least I haven't yet.)
You Will Fall In Love features the least squicky teacher-student romance ever, due to the age difference being small, the student being the aggressor, and the two having known each other previously in a different context.
Several years ago, Haru and Reiichiro were best friends and studied archery together. But Haru suddenly quit and went his separate way-- because he was in love with Reiichiro and thought that being gay was wrong. But now Haru has returned to his old high school as a substitute teacher... and finds Reiichiro's little brother Tsukasa, now all grown up and an archery student himself.
Tsukasa loves Haru, but Reiichiro has unfinished business with Haru. Misunderstandings, archery matches, heated grappling matches in hakama, and love confessions ensue. None of this is original, but it's written with emotional delicacy and insight, the characters are likable, and the archery is integral to the romance. The art is really pretty. Other than a brief, pro-forma "no-I-mean-yes," there's no sexual assault. I liked this a lot.
A Capable Man is a collection of short stories: a form which I don't generally like in manga, as the pacing natural to the form tends to make short stories seem very slight and rushed. These all feel slight and rushed, and the first two also glamorize and excuse rape and domestic violence. Steer clear.
