Just because it’s dated doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a read…
Title: My Only King (Old School)
Story and Art by: Lily Hoshino
Age Range: YA - Young Adults 16+
Date Released: 2004 (Japanese), 2006 (English)
Publisher: DMP: Digital Manga Publishing, yaoi-manga.com
For ages, kingly coronations in the land of magic have been steeped in mysticism and rigid tradition. But what happens when magic goes awry? The royal crest signifying the kingly office gets bestowed on a bumbling, hormonal teen-aged mortal, that’s what!
After the crest appears on the body of mere mortal Kazuomi, an apprentice sorcerer named Mewt is sent to our world to find and protect the crest from villains who want to get their hands on it. Mewt is fiercely loyal and is willing to go to any lengths to prevent anyone from getting close to Kazuomi… including, as Kazuomi finds out in dismay, girls who are willing to go all the way with him!
Also included in this compilation are stories involving a ghost possessing a young office worker’s bathtub, a king who sells orphan for profit and a bonus episode of “Aishichattano (I Fell In Love With You)” and “Mix Mix Chocolate,” the hit series that spawned a Drama CD. Indeed, if yaoi of the cute and quirky kind is what you’re after, then this comics compilation from creator Lily Hoshino is the book for you.
A word: This manga is dated - but not necessarily in a bad way. See, this Boy’s Love (then called yaoi) was brought over when manga was just making its way into bookstores and people were still discovering what readers did and didn’t like. In this world even a gay glance warranted wrapping the manga in plastic and relegating it to the ‘adult’ shelf of the store. Some things are translated poorly, without much of the cultural nuance we have today and the choices for what made it overseas was overly complicated. What I’m saying is give this manga a bit of leeway, because it helped form and inform what we have now. And some of these gems are still worth reading, if you can look past the imperfections.
Heads up, my review contains spoilers because the queer nature of these characters is directly tied to the plot. I’m not spoiling everything, but enough to complete the review. Just be warned.
Ahh, the early 2000’s. It’s a time when the world of yaoi is new and exciting, with several publishers popping up and slowly filling the single manga shelf at the bookstore with enticing plastic covered volumes. We had yaoi paddles, anthologies, incomplete series and little cute bears with t-shirts that proudly proclaimed ‘seme’ and ‘uke’. It was a completely different time for the fandom where nearly every volume of manga by an unknown mangaka was like Russian roulette. The backs always over promised and while that plastic could mean a censored but deliciously naughty scene or two, it could also mean that the characters finally kiss in volume 4 and that’s it. Period.
(Still burned by you, Eerie Queerie.)
My Only King is one of those aforementioned anthologies where the main story is the one on the back and the rest of the book is padded with tiny little miscellaneous stories by the same mangaka that are of varying quality. It’s a fun little varied escape, but if you’re looking for long form narratives that do more then hint at a grander plot, this really isn’t where you’re going to find it. Which is a shame, because some of these would have been great with some expansion.
Read the rest of the review over on Well, Are They? A Queer Review Blog
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