30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 16: Mr. Convenience

Passover begins tonight, and so the most difficult period of my 30 Day Yaoi Challenge begins! (First there’s tonight’s Passover seder cutting into my reading time, then there’s Wondercon this weekend, then I’m going on a trip to the Bay area next week…) Can I manage to keep posting daily until the end? We’ll see!

Mr. Convenience by Nase Yamato

Kyaaah! I loved this manga! It’s premise was pretty original, it’s characters had motivation, it was even funny and the art was so cute!

Takashi is a jack of all trades at his brother’s staffing company, getting all sorts of odd jobs every day. Despite the fact that he doesn’t rake in a lot of cash, Takashi finds his work rewarding. That’s why, when a strange e-mail is sent to his company asking for a friend, Takashi takes the job seriously.

The e-mail was sent by a young, but lonely businessman named Aki who has a lot to get off his chest. At first, Aki only wants Takashi to come by once, but Takashi finds that he can’t in good faith let Aki handle all of his stress alone. The two spend more time together and Takashi starts to fall in love. Unfortunately, Aki begins to think it’s because Takashi needs the money and tries to distance himself. (And, of course, fails to because this is a yaoi manga and there’s always a sex scene.)

The second half of the book focuses on another jack of all trades at Takashi’s company, named Miya. One day, a strange client asks for Miya and then propositions him. Miya tells him off because he doesn’t do that kind of work, but the man belittles Miya’s job in the process. Regardless, Miya keeps accepting this client’s job because he pays well and winds up falling for him a little. The two wind up having sex during one of Miya’s scheduled jobs for him, but Miya can’t think of a better way to get intimate with him except to ask for more money. (The guy had been consistently asking about “that” kind of work, after all.)

But then the man reveals that he’s an investigator named Tateishi who has been sent there by Miya’s rich family, who are very concerned that Miya is putting himself in danger. Miya, who left home because he felt too pampered there, feels extremely betrayed and is pressured to go back home. Tateishi begins to feel like he misjudged Miya, and the two talk it out. Of course, they wind up confirming their feelings for each other and Miya gets to go back to work for the staffing company (although he has to live at home for the time being.)

There wasn’t an non-consensual stuff in this volume. (But the sex is still hot, in case anyone is looking for that kind of thing!) In fact, I don’t think I can find anything to complain about! I actually thought this volume *might* be about prostitution, in which case I would have something or another to talk about.

It was actually quite funny, lots of little quips and jokes were fit into asides and places like that. The art is cute too, although everyone’s a bit too pretty and/or cute. I just figured out that Yamato is the creator of Cigarette Kisses, so I’m going to check that out sometime. A few of her other works have been picked up by Jmanga and Deux, and some of those were even rescued by SuBLime. (Which is good, because I used up my old points on Jmanga, but also bad because not everything was rescued and I used my old points before I realized…)

I wholeheartedly suggest you read Mr. Convenience! More Nase Yamato please! (But not any of her shota-con stuff…Please.)