Product Description

Toru is a shy and quiet student who has a special crush on his close friend Ryoji, a popular member of the high school swim team. In front of Ryoji, Toru hides his feelings and acts as if he is just one of Ryoji's good friends, but out of the blue Ryoji confesses to Toru that he wants to try experimenting sexually with him. Toru, dazzled, can barely hide his secret desire for Ryoji and accepts his offer. As time passes, Toru's happiness begins to fade knowing that his affair with Ryoji was just a fling based out of sexual curiosity. Adamant about his feelings for Ryoji, Toru confides in another one of his close friends, Kashiwazaki, about his dilemma. The two set off to devise a plan to test Ryoji's true intentions by secretly deciding to lie to him about falling in love. Soon after, Ryoji becomes frustrated and jealous and attempts to pry Toru out of the arms of Kashiwazaki. Just as they planned? Yeah! That is of course until Toru realizes Kashiwazaki doesn't really want to let go! How could he not have seen it coming! Toru and Ryoji both use to hide their feelings from each other, but now they have discovered that they were not the only ones. Will Toru and Ryoji be reunited or will their true feelings for each other go unfulfilled?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #529360 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Customer Reviews

Boi love with Fan Appeal
Considering the mixed reviews this volume is getting here on Amazon.com, the first and final thing I have to say about this volume is that, yes, it's worth it. And better for a Yukine Honami fan.

2005 will probably see a lot more Yaoi translation releases, and right now, yes, we non-Japanese fans are buying up every possible trickle. This one is a pretty good trickle.

*Desire* is yaoi, not hints of boy-love, or UnresolvedSexualTension, or slashy hints. Explicit scenes are scattered through the volume, and the storyline itself follows relationship trouble between 2 boys (with a third thrown in for extra ansty goodness).

What is truly pleasing about this volume is the art. *Desire* has a rougher, sketch-like quality to it than Honami's other volumes; it's not as "pretty", but it's still a nice style. Of course, this is fan bias. As it's in a modern school setting, you don't get the gorgeous decadent furs, hats, coats, cuffs, of *Sono Toki Heart wa Nusumareta* (unreleased- you know, the one with the Mysterious Masked Bandit), but the faces are still here. The younger boy for Yukine Honami's couples is the one that hooks you every time.

Perhaps the most appealing part of Yukine Honami's style are her character eyes- not the 80s or girly sparkly eyes, but still expressive and modern. The hollow look, the rejected look, the hurt look... This is what boy-love angst is about. You get a lot of angsty goodness from wounded eyes here.

The dialogue is fitting- and well done. Some honorifics could have been more natural in its original Japanese form, but it doesn't undermine your reading at all.

All in all, a satisfying mix of innocent and clean art balanced by "getting together", drawn out angst, curt misunderstandings, and good translation, that in the end is unexplicably soothing. Definitely one you want to hold on to.

Little character depth
The summary of the story sounded as if it might be interesting, and the positive reviews as well as the recommendation from Amazon that I might be interested, helped me decide to give this a chance.

I was disappointed.

As has been mentioned, the best character in the series (and mentioned by the mangaka in the afterword) got the least amount of "screen time". I shouldn't be surprised at the strong yaoi stereotypes in play, but as they're not my cup of tea I'd hoped to avoid them. Sadly that wasn't possible with this book. An insistent strong-willed "yes trust me this is what you'll like" seme character, square jawed and sexually promiscuous pulls the emotional strings of a delicate sensitive uke character who caves because it's the only way he'll be close to the man of his dreams - it felt very cookie cutter approach without giving me any reason to care whether or not they got together or not.

I love seeing friends become lovers but what the two had together barely felt like a friendship to me.

A 'Desireable' Read
This story has the sweet elements of "Only the Ring Finger Knows" mixed in with a more balanced drawing style. While the translation is stilted in a couple of pages, the artist's gift for emotional expression in the eyes and faces of the characters is first rate and needs no translation.

Toru loves his best friend Ryoji. Ryoji drops the bomb that Toru turns him (Ryoji) on. The problem? Toru loves his best friend and doesn't want to be used as an adolescent experiment. He also can't tell Ryoji that or he may lose his friendship. Let the angst begin! Hurt, betrayal, indecision and yes, desire, are all beautifully expressed on the faces and body language of the characters. I found the brief sex scenes in perfect line as far as details shown with the characters and the emotions of the storyline. It's explicit enough for first time yaoi readers. And the emotions evoked cross all genders...lots of straight couples deal with does he/she love me or is he/she just using me? This is one of the most re-read of my (embarassingly large) yaoi collection. Not because it's the best art, nor the best translation, but because the emotional elements of the story are much more relatable than, say, being kidnapped by Yakuza and abused by some hot-looking guy, and miraculously falling in love because of that (not that those aren't enjoyable, too and if you're looking for that, may I recommend "Target in the Finder"?). Still, this is an undeniably beautiful story with expressive art.