Double Trouble by Takashi Kanzaki review

Double Trouble

Author/Artist: Takashi Kanzaki

Publisher: Juné

Rating: M – 18 and above

Genre: Yaoi, Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life

Grade: C+

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

Kou Sawara has a massive crush on his new stepbrother. He'd never had a mother's attention and Naruki Sawara is quite domesticated. Luckily he is able to escape to his dorm at school. But he's in for a surprise; Naruki has followed him to school! Naruki is only a year older than Kou and he adores his new brother. Of course Kou struggles with his own urges to jump Naruki but he takes it upon himself to protect his brother from other perverts at Seiran (their high school). Kou's roommate, Yoshino, offers up his hypnotism abilities to make it so Naruki can protect himself. But Yoshino has an ulterior motive. He's in love with Kou and wants to help him realize that Kou is really the uke instead of the seme that he thinks he is. Once the hypnotism is complete the if the sweet Naruki gets turned on he turns into super aggressive 'seme-Naruki'. It seems that Naruki is also attracted to Kou but is only able to do anything about it while he's in seme-Naruki mode. With Kou now being in the uke position Yoshino is determined to win over Kou.

There's also a brief one-shot at the end called You're the Naïve One. It takes place at Seiran Academy as well. Satoru Shinozaki is called the "homo-making machine" at Seiran. He'll sleep with anyone, but the man he's attracted to only shows what would be seen as motherly care. Riku is Satoru's former roommate. Can Riku's mothering attention be more than just friendship?

Takashi Kanzaki-sensei mentions in her Afterword that she likes drawing these types of stories and I'm beginning to see a trend. The love triangle is present in many of the translated manga that have been penned by Kanzaki-sensei (Heavenly Body, Love Alpha, and now Double Trouble). I kind of liked Double Trouble but not enough to rave about it. Sensei definitely knows how to draw her boys. They're adorable, gorgeous, and handsome, you name it that is what they are. The story lines, however, are starting to become tiresome. You read it thinking "Didn't I just read this same story a few days ago?" It's very predictable and you can pretty much guess the direction the story is going to go in.

When it comes to Digital Manga the other Takashi Kanzaki-sensei titles have been published by 801 Media due to the explicitness of the manga. But Double Trouble is rather clean in comparison, but it is published by Juné which tells you that its not as detailed. There is more of a focus on the absurdity of the story than the sex. So far so good when it comes the production values of the dust jacketless manga.

If you like Takashi Kanzaki-sensei chances are you'll enjoy Double Trouble. If you haven't checked out any of her stories this one isn't too bad to pick up if you want to experience her madcap stories without being bombarded by way more sex than story. If you have read her other manga you'll definitely know you've read this story line before.

***Review Copy provided by Juné***
***Reposted with permission from The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society***