Shy Intentions by Syouko Takaku
Yoshiyuki, a middle school art teacher is visiting his dying mother in the hospital when he runs into the enigmatic Kaoru, who is taken by his beauty.
Yoshiyuki is in no mind to start a romantic relationship, but when Kaoru’s grandmother passes away and Yoshiyuki’s mother dies soon after, he finds himself running into Kaoru’s arms.
The two start seeing each other, but Kaoru struggles with emotional intimacy until his friend Akira points out just how hard he’s fallen for Yoshiyuki. Unfortunately, Yoshiyuki mistakenly thinks that Kaoru is cheating on him with Akira. It takes a major declaration of love for the two to reconcile.
Months pass and Yoshiyuki accepts a head teacher position and agrees to tutor one of Akira’s friends for a teaching examination. As he does so, he begins to suspect that Kaoru and Akira are cheating on him again. But then it’s revealed that Akira’s friend is Akira’s boy friend and all is well (Aside from the boyfriend failing his teaching exam.)
Now this was a good manga. It wasn’t great, it’ll probably never make anyone’s top 5 manga list, but it was a solid read. The characters struggled with real emotional issues, they didn’t stop to ponder whether or not they were gay, and there was the depth to back everything up for the readers. They also had things that struck them in existential ways, like something poetic someone said to them or the color of a rock. It’s stuff like this that really helps a yaoi manga become something worthwhile and not just another formulaic book made to sell sex.
The characters even did some things, sexually speaking, that was more like what real couples would do instead of what usually gets shown in yaoi. Even better? There was nothing non-consensual!
The art is sketchy, and reminds me vaguely of Honey and Clover
Shy Intentions is a book I’d recommend to readers who really like to root for the main protagonists in their BL/yaoi, and it’ll work for those who like the sex scenes too. 🙂
