Don’t Be Cruel: 2-in-1 Edition

Caught cheating on a test, bookish Nemugasa is blackmailed by playboy Maya into twice-weekly sexual encounters. What at first seems to be the lowest form of bullying is soon revealed to be a complex web of the blackmailer being unable to express his true feelings for his victim. Nekota’s veritable catalog of yaoi tropes is a twisted character study of two unlikable protagonists whose “romance” fails to engage the reader because the characters are so repellent. The would-be provocative narrative is further undone by artwork that’s by the numbers aside from the admittedly creative ways in which the sexually explicit content is presented. The finished product is an unsatisfying work whose sole reward for the reader is that it eventually comes to an end. (June)