Rainy Day Love - BL Bookrack Review

To be fair, I'm going to post the bad reviews along with the good, and here's one by Michelle Smith at Manga Bookshelf, who was disappointed by Rainy Day Love. Michelle likes more serious BL and was hoping that the title alluded to a melancholy story, but in reality, Rainy Day Love is a fluffy, fast-paced romp with little drama or angst.

I won't lie, there is no subtlety when it's sexy time. Here is an excerpt straight from the script:

PAGE 90

90.1

Shizuno:        I want to...

Shizuno:        ...Have sex with you now.

FX:        [SUBTITLE] Bam

90.2

Yuta:        Eep!

FX:        [behind the boy] Roar

FX:        [on the floor] Plop

So here is Cynical Pink's warning to all prospective readers out there: THIS BOOK MAY MAKE YOUR TEETH ACHE. It is a cute story - silly in some places, funny in others, but sweet all over. 

Those looking for a more serious read should take a peek at You and Tonight v1. The focus is on the two main characters and their internal development as well as their struggle as a couple. It is a quiet drama, not angsty or slashy. I guess you could call it a slice of life for yaoi businessmen.

Keiko Kinoshita Featured on b's-garden

Keiko Kinoshita's two currently running series (You and Tonight and Ikusen no Yoru) were featured on Taiyoh Tosho's website b's-garden. The site looks to be promoting the release of the latest tankoubon, which includes a preview of You and Tonight volume 2 and a desktop image of Rikuro and Yasutaka. There's lots more, but it's beyond my ability to translate T_T

Pick of the Week - You and Tonight

Melinda over at Manga Bookshelf has her eye on Keiko Kinoshita's You and Tonight v1, having read and enjoyed other titles by Kinoshita (like Kiss Blue).

MELINDA: I’m going to go off-list and into the digital only realm this week, to recommend volume one of Keiko Kinoshita’s You and Tonight, due out soon at eManga from the Digital Manga Guild. I was a big fan of Kiss Blue, a two-volume series from the same creator that was released on DMP’s Juné imprint, and I’m actually working on editing another of her short series for my reporter’s stint at the DMG. I’m consistently impressed by Kinoshita’s subtle humor and delicate touch (she’s even won me over to the dreaded BL Anthology), so when I saw that another group was working on You and Tonight, it immediately jumped to the top of my list of must-buy BL. I’ve always been a fan of the best-friends-turned-lovers trope, and given that this was also the premise for Kiss Blue, I’m gathering that it’s a favorite of Kinoshita’s as well. The first volume is already available for the Nook and Kindle, so I expect it’ll go live on eManga in just a day or two. Now the question is, will I be able to hold off until it appears for sale on the iPad? Only time will tell. [Read the rest of this week's picks here.]

Also keep your eye out for Want to Depend on You (localized by BLBangBang) and the Yuri-sensei books (localized by Purple Prose Killers) if you want more from Kinoshita sensei!

Rainy Day Love Review at Squeefinity

Thanks to Shakespeare over at Squeefinity for her review of Rainy Day Love! I've seen another review (on MU) that mentions liking Shoichi and Seigo more than the main pair, and I kind of agree. This was Konno-sensei's first title, and you can almost see her getting more comfortable in the saddle as the book progresses. I hear her second title in HertZ has finished, and she's already begun her third, so hopefully DMG will have more from her soon!

Tonight I had the opportunity to read Rainy Day Love. It is adorable. Yes. I know, crabby Shakespeare who usually just wants to be critical of everything is saying: this manga is pretty darn sweet. [Read the rest...]

For the Love of... Mustaches!

During the DMG video conference today (http://www.livestream.com/dmguild), the chat box got a little rowdy. At one point, cheers of "Take off your shirt!" were typed enthusiastically. Near the end, conversation digressed into mustache fetishes, and I nearly suggested a challenge to see who could slip a mustache past DMG QC. I didn't think the head of production would appreciate the humor, though XD

I thought Rikuro looked kind of good with his goatee XD

It didn't go so well for the younger guys, though >_>
Then ago, fu manchu never goes well for anyone...




Top pic is from You and Tonight v1 - Koyoi Omae to (c) by Keiko Kinoshita
Bottom pic is from Rainy Day Love - Ameiro Koigokoro (c) by Satomi Konno
All rights reserved Original Japanese edition published by Taiyoh Tosho Publishing Co., Ltd.

You and Tonight v1 is released!

Volume 1 of You and Tonight by Keiko Kinoshita is finally out on eManga, Kindle, and Nook! This series is still being serialized in HertZ magazine, and hopefully DMG will get the license for volume 2 soon!

Rikuro has been in love with his best friend, Yasutaka, for ten long years. Convinced that he never had a chance, he hid his feelings and moved to Tokyo, dreading the day that Yasutaka will get married and start a family. All that changes at a party one night when Yasutaka admits that he gave in to a desperate co-worker and slept with him. With a renewed sense of determination, Rikuro decides it's time to finally make his move, but his gamble may mean losing his best friend!

Amazon Sales Ranks January 1-15

More colored spaghetti! A few notes:

• Each dot represents a daily average for that book.
• Dots with short line segments or no line at all pop into the top 100 for a day or two and then disappear again. Books with long lines of connected dots stay in the top 100 consistently. 
• Like before, the Manga Rank is Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga. It goes up to 100 and is recalculated hourly (by some unknown algorithm).
• The Kindle Rank includes all paid books in the Kindle Store.

• You can see a new title appeared on January 5 in dark purple, and it quickly moved to the top of the rankings. This title had the luxury of being released with only one other book (which isn't included because its link was throwing an error in my script). I'm interested in the next big batch of DMG books and seeing how titles are ranked when several are released at once (as happened around mid-December). Do titles get lost when there are several released at the same time?


• So far, 24 DMG titles have been published. Around 10 titles are consistently staying in the top 1-80 rankings at any given time, and there doesn't seem to be a pattern. Another 10 books fluctuate in and out of the 80-100 range. Is this competition between the books for a limited audience? Or are only half the books garnering word-of-mouth interest?


• Since November, there have been many more Kindle manga books released by other publishing companies like Yaoi Press and Seven Seas. They are regularly less expensive than DMG titles, and Yaoi Press tried something interesting where they published chapters of a book independently. While the total book wound up being more expensive than a DMG title, the first chapter was $1.50 and probably tempted many people to give it a try. What do people think of DMG pricing so far? Too high? Just right?

Ranks aside, I think in the long run we're just going to have to wait until the sales figures come out in a month or two.