With more people reading manga and webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. This week we have Boys’ Love manga artists, soccer, and, of course, eggs.
All Eyes on Nekoyashiki-Kun! Notice Me, Not My Characters
Writer/Artist: Kazuki Minamoto
Translation: T. Emerson
Editor: Samantha J. Moore
Lettering: Nicole Roderick
Publisher: J-Novel Club
There’s nothing more cut-throat than the world of manga publishing. At least that’s the way it feels to Mamoru, a college student who’s secretly an indie manga artist. He goes to school, works part time, and focuses on drawing his super steamy Boys’ Love manga to sell at Comic Kingdom each season.
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Enter Issei, Mamoru’s childhood friend and biggest fan of his manga. He’s a rising music idol willing to take any risk to support Mamoru. The only problem is Mamoru wants nothing to do with him. Outwardly that is, as he secretly keeps an Issei shrine to support his idol activities.
All Eyes on Nekoyashiki-kun! Notice Me, Not My Characters by Kazuki Minamoto looks like a fluffy BL story about childhood friends that reunite. But underneath this meet-cute premise is a hard look at validation, self-acceptance, and resentment. I wasn’t expecting to be hit back to back with Mamoru’s self-deprecation and insecurities.
All that time Issei has been pining over Mamoru, Mamoru has resented Issei for having an easier go at life. Mamoru thrives on validation and wants his fans to recognize him as their favorite manga artist. He’s also disappointed that he’s not out yet, and feels isolated because he’s making BL manga while being secretly gay.
Although I was looking forward to a quick moving romance, after two volumes and no obvious romantic movement, I’m learning to appreciate the slow burn. Both characters have a lot of emotional work to do, especially as they unpack the complicated feelings between them. I’m almost questioning if they will end up together. For now, I’m trusting the process. — Lisa De La Cruz
Aoashi
Writer/Artist: Yugo Kobayashi
Research Concept Cooperation: Naohiko Ueno
Translation: Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clements
Letterer: Cale Ward
Editor: Ibraheem Kazi
Designer: David Colderley
Publisher: Titan Comics
Aoashi follows the sports manga formula to the letter. Teenager Ashita Aoi’s chance meeting with coach Tatsuya Fukuda lifts him out of obscurity and into Tokyo City Esperion’s Youth soccer club. Aoi makes friends and enemies, runs up against his limitations as a player, and overcomes them through grueling practice. You’ve read this story before, but that’s because it works.
What makes Aoashi stand out is the details. Ashita’s family is poor, and his mother works at a bar. They cannot afford to send Ashita to an expensive sports academy. Yet they do so anyway, an act of generosity that becomes Ashita’s great comfort and burden. Artist Yugo Kobayashi is also ruthless in depicting just how outmatched Ashita is at Tokyo City Esperion, where he’s just one small fish in a sea of hungry sharks. You can tell that the series was published in Big Comic Spirits rather than Shonen Jump.
Ashita’s power as a player is to read the field, and that’s Aoashi’s strength as well. The series explores soccer in granular detail: passing techniques, top-down strategy, the concerns of students and professionals. It spends just as much time fleshing out Ashita’s classmates, teachers and peers. Every minor character is given a memorable moment, even the ones that by genre standards are bit players. Ashita’s world does not revolve around him. No person, thing or idea is considered beneath the artist or the reader.
Folks I know who love soccer call Aoashi one of the best sports manga ever drawn. I am not a soccer expert, so I wouldn’t dare to make that claim. What I will say is that Kobayashi understands the best way to make sports accessible to readers is to teach them where and how it overlaps with our lives. People, systems, economics, all deeply rooted in those kids kicking a ball on a field in pursuit of friendship, struggle and victory. — Adam Wescott
The Egg Project
Writer/Artist: amyahue!
Publisher: WEBTOON
Riku is your classic, straight-A student. Cherry is a successful volleyball player. Their moms may be good friends, yet these two boys can’t bring themselves to say a single nice word to each other. One could say they’re the OG haters. Too bad that living nearby means they’re stuck together like hot glue.
When a high school prank goes awry and their usual bickering gets physical, their teacher forces them to work together on an important project that will greatly affect their GPA. The task? They have to raise an egg for a semester!
After a spooky month, we’re back to our usual programming, a.k.a. recommending series where boys love each other in infinitely different ways. Since The Egg Project is nearing its season climax, now is the perfect time to recommend it.
This series made its way from WEBTOON CANVAS to the Originals section, and it’s well deserved. Not everything that happens in the story is sunshine and rainbows; both Riku and Cherry have their own family-related baggage to deal with. Friendships, romantic relationships and feelings are all so hard to navigate, not to mention having to figure out the trajectory of your life. You know, average high school problems.
Yet The Egg Project is a delight to read. I love it when the enemies in my enemies-to-lovers romance hate each other and mean it. The eventual falling in love also flows naturally. The colors are vibrant, the line art is dynamic, plus you can never go wrong with pink and black.
The Egg Project will make you laugh out loud but also want to hug these boys. Then maybe make them wear a get-along t-shirt in an enclosed space until they sort out their problems. — Merve Giray
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