Author's Pet by Deathco Cotorino review

Author’s Pet

Author/Artist: Deathco Cotorino

Publisher: Juné

Rating: M – 18 and Above

Genre: Yaoi, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Grade: B+

*** Review originally appeared at The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society at http://liheliso.com/buzz/. Check it out! ***

Author’s Pet is Deathco Cotorino’s first manga. It is a book of one-shots.

Author’s Pet refers to the one-shots I’ll Have You Make Up for This!, I’ll Have You Change Your Job!, and We’re Closed for Today! They are the main story. Yuuta Oohashi woke up late one day and was going to be late for school. Who knew that this day would change his life? While rushing through the train station, he accidentally knocks Tsubaki Nishijima down the stairs, injuring him. It turns out that Tsubaki is an author. Because both of his arms are broken, Tsubaki insists that Yuuta take responsibility and uses Yuuta as his hands. Little did Yuuta know that Tsubaki decided to write a romance novel. What will Yuuta do when he finds himself being turned on by Tsubaki’s words?

The next one-shot is To Keep a Cat and You Have to Pet Us in Order. Naruse is studying Veterinary medicine. He adopts stray cats. One day while following a cat he stumbles upon Mutsuki. It seems that someone beat Mutsuki up and left him for dead. Since Mutsuki is injured and has no where to go, the normally unsociable Naruse allows him to stay with him until he’s well again. But Mutsuki doesn’t behave like the rest of Naruse’s cats.

The Helplessly Romantic Type is the tale of Saki. He works in his father’s auto repair shop. He’s learning a lot as an apprentice, but his main reason for wanting to work there is Sasaragawa. Sasaragawa is a top manager at the shop and an old family friend. Will Sasaragawa ever be able to see Saki as someone other than the president’s son?

Love Battle in the Dorms is the typical love triangle. Youhei Kikuchi lives in a run down apartment building. His room is sandwiched between his sempai and his kohai. The two neighbors vie for the attention of their handsome fellow classmate all while making the other jealous. Can Youhei choose between these two adorable guys?

In Open 24 Hours we meet Sakamoto. Sakamoto is a clerk at a local convenience store. There is one customer who comes in on a regular basis who buys only sweets and is rather grumpy. Sakamoto being the caring young man invites himself over to Shirokawa’s (the grumpy man) home to fix him dinner. He’s worried that all Shirokawa eats are cakes and sweets. Man, I wish I could get away with that. It turns out that they are both attracted to one another. Will their relationship be able to get off the ground?

The last one-shot What Should I Do? is also the shortest. Sanai is the morality officer. All I can think of is he is like a hall monitor from hell. He has a thing for Kawatani, just your everyday normal student. Sanai is also a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Poor Kawatani, he doesn’t seem to stand a chance.

For a first attempt at a full manga, Deathco Cotorino did a pretty good job. Each one-shot is very light, nothing is at all intense. It’s like the manga form of cotton candy. It is sugary-sweet, light and airy, and gone in an instant. The characters were all very cute. I initially had to take note of the characters names to keep them straight because I found them to look a little similar. But some of my problem might have been due to the fact that I was fighting off a migraine headache and was having a hard time focusing. It’s a good thing that this manga was light and fluffy because anything more intense would have caused more confusion than I needed. Out of all of the one-shots my favorites were the main story and the To Keep a Cat stories. The characters had flaws but were also endearing. Love Battle in the Dorms had me chuckling, and it was a fun story to read. I would love to be sandwiched between two battling hottie neighbors fighting for my love and affection. But sadly, I have to live in my own fantasy world.

This is a Juné release. You can’t go wrong in picking up some of their titles. It is a larger trim size, which is great to read because you don’t have to squint to be able to see what you are reading. There is an adorable dust jacket and the picture on the back cover is a totally cute chibi drawing of Tsubaki and Yuuta. This was a really fun title and it’s not on the terribly explicit side. It has the M rating for some steamy scenes and language, but nothing too bad. If you are looking for something with a lot of substance, this may not be the title for you. But if you want a quick read that is sweet in all the right places, pick up Author’s Pet.