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My first BL/Yaoi manga titles...
I think I saw the first Kizuna OVA before I read any yaoi manga, so that was probably my introduction into yaoi. However, the first manga titles that I bought were Only the Ring Finger Knows and Golden Cain.
Only the Ring Finger Knows is a very sweet and romantic story. It's definitely BL rather than yaoi--there's no smut, nothing more explicit than a bit of kissing. The June summary reads: "It's the ultimate expression of love – to wear matching rings with your significant other, showing the world that you are a couple. High school student, Wataru Fujii, also wears one though he is single. When he accidentally switches rings with popular and handsome senior, Yuichi Kazuki, they discover that their rings pair up!" Naturally, this mix-up draws the two closer together, although the normally kind Kazuki treats Wataru in an uncharacteristically cold and harsh manner--of course, this being a love story, it's only to cover up the true feelings that he has for Wataru. It's a really lovely story, and maybe because it's one of the first titles I read, I still have a great fondness for it. June has also published four light novels that continue the saga of Wataru and Kazuki's relationship, dealing with jealousy when others try to come between them, opposition to their relationship from Kazuki's older brother, and worries about being separated when Kazuki goes to college. To be honest, I haven't been impressed by the quality of most of the light novels I've read, but this series is pretty well written and I enjoyed them a lot. I thought the characterization was very good, although the sex scenes were described in a vague, slightly overly-flowery way--yes, they do have sex in the novels, although the scenes are brief and the emphasis is mostly on characterization, but I prefer a good smutless story over a smutty but mediocre story.
Golden Cain was published by the now defunct BeBeautiful. It's almost the opposite of Ring Finger: rather than a sweet, chaste tale of teenage romance, it's a smutty, explicit story about sex and obsessive love. There are a couple of good reviews here and here, but basically, high school student Shun is wracked with guilt over the accident that severely injured his older brother (the reader is actually led to think that he was killed, until it's revealed late in the story that he's still alive), and easily finds distraction in the very beautiful, sensual, and completely uninhibited Vietnamese model Cain. ("Golden Cain" because he has blond hair.) They embark on a passionate affair that starts with lust and develops into a passionate, obsessive love. There's plenty of smut, although it's of the "invisible genitals" type, which makes it look a bit silly at times, but it's still pretty hot. There's also a sub-plot introduced at the end where we discover that Shun's brother has an incestuous love for Shun, which hits my incest squick a bit, but nothing actually happens between them in the US version, and Cain seems to have a pretty firm grip on both Shun's body and his heart. (The Boys on Boys on Film review says that a "racy" side story involving Shun and his brother was cut out of the BeBeautiful release.) There's also a bit of (attempted) non-con involving the leader of heavy metal band who tries to rape Shun, but Shun is saved by Cain--twice. It's not my all-time favorite yaoi manga, but it's a good read, and worth picking up if you happen to find a used copy, though I wouldn't pay the kind of exorbitant prices that Embracing Love commands. (Amazon sellers show prices for new and used copies ranging from about 4-16 dollars, which seems very reasonable.)
Since I've done quite a few manga reviews now, I'm adding a new "manga" tag to this, and will go back and tag my older entries.
Golden Cain was published by the now defunct BeBeautiful. It's almost the opposite of Ring Finger: rather than a sweet, chaste tale of teenage romance, it's a smutty, explicit story about sex and obsessive love. There are a couple of good reviews here and here, but basically, high school student Shun is wracked with guilt over the accident that severely injured his older brother (the reader is actually led to think that he was killed, until it's revealed late in the story that he's still alive), and easily finds distraction in the very beautiful, sensual, and completely uninhibited Vietnamese model Cain. ("Golden Cain" because he has blond hair.) They embark on a passionate affair that starts with lust and develops into a passionate, obsessive love. There's plenty of smut, although it's of the "invisible genitals" type, which makes it look a bit silly at times, but it's still pretty hot. There's also a sub-plot introduced at the end where we discover that Shun's brother has an incestuous love for Shun, which hits my incest squick a bit, but nothing actually happens between them in the US version, and Cain seems to have a pretty firm grip on both Shun's body and his heart. (The Boys on Boys on Film review says that a "racy" side story involving Shun and his brother was cut out of the BeBeautiful release.) There's also a bit of (attempted) non-con involving the leader of heavy metal band who tries to rape Shun, but Shun is saved by Cain--twice. It's not my all-time favorite yaoi manga, but it's a good read, and worth picking up if you happen to find a used copy, though I wouldn't pay the kind of exorbitant prices that Embracing Love commands. (Amazon sellers show prices for new and used copies ranging from about 4-16 dollars, which seems very reasonable.)
Since I've done quite a few manga reviews now, I'm adding a new "manga" tag to this, and will go back and tag my older entries.
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