Wednesday, May 28, 2008

My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor by Kazuka Minami review

My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor

Author/Artist: Kazuka Minami

Publisher: 801 Media, Inc.

Rating: 18 and above

Genre: Yaoi, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Grade: A

Yaoi seems to have a template that mangaka like to follow. My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor by Kazuka Minami (also goes by Haruka Minami) is no different.

One night at dinner Yukito is informed that his childhood friend Hokuto will be living with them for a while. The excuse that he is given is that it is just too hard for Hokuto to commute from his home to school and it is close to exam time. It turns out that Yukito and Hokuto's father's are very good friends. It makes you wonder if they (the dads) had that kind of relationship at one time in the past.

Yukito has been crushing on Hokuto for quite some time, which is why Yukito has been avoiding Hokuto for the past several years. Of course with Hokuto under the same roof dealing with his attraction is not going to be easy. It turns out that Hokuto shares the same feelings as Yukito and wants to start a relationship. There is a slight problem. That problem goes by the names of Ogishima and Shiga-sensei, dun-dun-dun!

It turns out that Ogishima and Shiga-sensei are sex friends and also share an attraction to Hokuto. They also seem to enjoy teasing poor Yukito by making him jealous. Is that how Hokuto learned his masterful bed technique? Yukito is beside himself and flips out (Yukito has quite the temper). Will Yukito and Hokito's budding relationship be able to weather this storm? Be sure to read My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor to get the answer to that!

My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor is a funny, cute work. I would expect nothing less from Kazuka Minami-sensei. It contains only one story, which is quite refreshing (I've been reading a lot one-shot anthologies lately, so lay off!). If you've never read anything by Minami-sensei, you'll be in for a surprise. She is the queen of perversion (in a good way, of course). Her art is definitely in the cutesy vein, but it works with the story that is written. Often times with harder core yaoi it's more about seeing how much sex can fit into a certain number of pages instead of having a strong story that can be accented by a sex scene or two. In My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor you need not worry about it. The story is solid, the sex steamy, and humorous throughout. As always 801 Media does an amazing job, from the full color cover page to the beautiful dust jacket. This manga has quite the sexy cover. Luckily when I ordered it through my local Borders the salesperson who was helping me didn't catch the cover. If he had (keyword HE), I would have had to crawl under a rock due to the embarrassment. Oh well, it's still a hot cover! This is a must catch for fans and non fans of Kazuka (Haruka) Minami alike. It's also good for someone who isn't familiar to her work to read this first. I liked it and so should you!

***Review Copy purchased at Borders***

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