## means “loved to bits OMG!”
# stands for “liked.”
[] means “rather liked,” on the brink between “liked” and “not my thing.”

If you want my reviews of manga and yaoi manga that I liked, click here. Other fandom recs are here.

Death Note Post Script: an Unofficial Blooper Reel, by moonythestrals #
Light/L, R, short. Summary: You know all of those things that should’ve happened in the actual series, but didn’t? Yeah, I don’t either - but my brain made a valiant effort to uncover them at four in the morning.
Spoilers: For the entire series, just to be safe.

Meta!ficю Шn my opinion, very funny. I like watching bloopers, so I enjoyed this fic a lot. It’s even more amusing on the second reading or if you try to imagine it as ‘real’ mis-filmed or mis-drawn scenes. My favourite thing: Hermione!Misa :) And the thing that made me laugh out loud was the several reshootings of THE scene from vol. 7.

And to think that I wasn’t even going to read more DN fic :) I’m a magpie *sadface*

A Tithe to Hell, by Aja (bookshop) ##
Light/L, NC-17, 34,000 words. AU, set immediately after manga issue 53 (the end of the Yotsuba Arc). Warnings for: knife/bloodplay, excessive eyerolling, bad metaphoric comparisons of L to fish, amphibians, birds, monkeys, insects, cave dwellers, and fungi, ridiculous amounts of cuddling, and cake as a plot device.

This is just bloody amazing. I finished it and kept staring at the screen, robbed of words and possibly even thoughts ‘cos they simply kept returning to the scenes of this story, rotating them in my head. I’m not sure I want to read another DN fic or even delve in this fandom at all because after this, how could they bloody compare? Guh.

It’s everything I would ever want L and Light’s relationship to be, every character trait perfectly explored, every mind-game potential fulfilled, every detail of behaviour and appearance taken into account. And it’s so poignant, so beautiful! The author made me see and feel, cry and grin, be there, become them.

They say familiarity breeds contempt. For me, it rather breeds inattention, the lack of consideration. I’ve been in HP fandom for years, so I stopped admiring — stopped noticing even that unique chameleon skill that makes a good writer take somebody else’s character and recreate it perfectly, as if it were their own invention, naturally like breathing. I read a story with a Snape that is perfectly Snape, I see a Harry who is so Harry that I can’t help saying “OMG it’s him!” and I take it for granted. And only when I come to a new fandom, do I begin noticing such things again afresh. Aja took my breath away with this skill here. A perfect Light. A perfect L. Simply wow.

Well, it’s a veeeery old fandom actually. I simply discovered it now. And OMG am excited! So now I’m wallowing in Eroica fiction like a happy piglet in the mud.

As usual,

## means “loved to bits OMG!”
# stands for “liked.”
[] means “rather liked,” on the brink between “liked” and “not my thing.”

If you want my reviews of manga and yaoi manga that I liked, click here. Other fandom recs are here.

Eroica fanfiction on the net:
Eroica fanfiction index at Eroicafans, the most comprehensive archive, with email order
Fried Potatoes, an eFiction based Eroica archive
Eroica archive at Belladonna.org, sorted by author; most links lead to Eroicafans
Castle Gloria, LJ community for Eroicafic
Schloss Eberbach, everything Eroica-related on LJ
Yuletide Eroica fics (mostly short)
Eroica fiction on FFnet
Eroica sources at Beladonna
Eroica recs at Crack Van

Angel and By Any Other Name, by Kay Reynolds (or here) #
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novel-length. Summary1: Our heroes must escape from a Third World prison. Summary 2: Our heroes face their pasts… and their future.

There were 2.5 things in this story that I disliked (one of them strongly). I would quit very soon were it another story. But there was something in this one, lots of somethings even, that made me read it for two days, totally engrossed. I’ll start with those 2.5 things as I always try to be honest about what I liked or not but please read this rec to the end, ok? Because really, I hate one of these things with a passion, so if I enjoyed this story despite them, maybe you will, too.

1) The story has a serious case of epithitus (the thief, the Earl, Dorian, Eroica vs Klaus and Major), which makes it read like an orgy or a group fight, depending on the scene: Smiling, Dorian crossed the short distance to the bed, positioning himself before Klaus. The Major put his arms around his thighs […]. Then he paused. Dorian shifted a bit, uncomfortable. […] The thief placed his hands on Klaus’ shoulders and pressed his fingertips into muscle, encouraging, Go on….. Which leads to constant POV jolting. Which makes for unnecessary interruptions of smooth reading ‘cos the story has gliding POV as it is. Which, in turn, sometimes shifts to completely random POV character like a cat or a secondary character we can see only two times in the fic. In which I can’t see any reason or purpose, within this story.

2) There are other stylistic choices that irked me. a) I wish the author didn’t use German for Klaus’s speech apart from ‘Gut’ and ‘Ja’. ‘Cos there were errors. b) Sex scene = purple. Blades, swords, sexes, anything but plain old cock. On the other hand, purple prose made me think of “Man in purple” so I found it amusing rather than annoying. The sex is still hot though, very very hot. c) The story is not without SPAG errors on the whole either (not many but what there are, recur).

IMO, the things I list above point at the lack of writing experience. Perhaps. Or the lack of knowledge of writing tricks. But where it lacks in that, the author compensates in talent and the ability to tell a really good story: strong, interesting, and multifaceted. It’s darker than the manga, more in the mood of Der Freischütz. For example, “They call it ‘intelligence.’ But what I am doing most of the time is killing people,” Klaus told him harshly. “Sometimes people are trying to kill me. To stay alive, to accomplish my work requires so much concentration, so much determination and resolution that I have no room for anything else.” Well, there are no killings in From Eroica in Love, at least not in the first 21 volumes, but if you remember Der Freischütz or try to look at the same story from another angle, not humorous, of course you won’t do without death.

This story touches and digs deep into other dark(ish) topics: attempted rape in the prequel, family history where the parents, if not quite demonic, aren’t good parents at all (which seems to be a cliché in this fandom), with other twisted past events that influence the characters’ present. The biographies the author creates for both Klaus and Dorian and all the historical stuff are interesting and not unbelievable, or maybe just very suitable for this darker reality. The story is rather verbose; it’s also very dramatic. It’s often bleak, at other times romantic. But it’s always captivating and interesting to follow. I enjoyed it a lot and was particularly impressed with how the author made Major and Eroica’s relationship work and be so damn logical. The cat was a very nice touch too :) A cat always improves a story, as for me, and this one is no exception.

I think the author managed to keep a really fine balance between romance and angst, and between action and contemplation. The story is pretty plotty but it’s not very fast-paced.

I do imagine these characters differently from the Dorian and Klaus in the manga when I read this story, especially if I think of Klaus. But I don’t think it’s a question of characters being in character or out of character. I believe it’s the matter of another medium and genre.

There was a passage that made me laugh out loud:

“And ‘Mad Vlad’ Zhirinovsky is ready to begin a new war.”

“He is demanding the return of Alaska, Finland, Poland and the satellite countries. He is threatening to deploy nuclear weapons at Germany. He likes to think of himself as Russia’s answer to Hitler. Zhirinovsky is connected to the KGB. He was recruited in his student days in Turkey, back in 1969.”

I do remember the time when Zhirinovsky seemed a big shark. Now, there are bigger ones, and he looks just like one of the numerous opportunistic politicians, no more. But this scene is a nice touch — very much in the mood of the original manga and that historical period.

As a conclusion, it’s a very enjoyable story, as for me. And the storytelling is good, too, despite small imperfections. Would you believe me if I told you that I stopped noticing POV switches and epithets by the middle of it? Well, I did. I think it’s worth rereading too.

Angle of Descent, by CTB (Colette T. Bolech) (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~8600 words. Summary: Eroica finally has enough and does as the Major wishes. He leaves. But is that really what they both want?

Angsty and intense. We can see an offended and cold Dorian. Sex when it happens is sexy. Quite pleasant, on the angsty end of things.

But Not For Me, by unknown (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, PG-13, ficlet. Summary: Dorian, the Major, and a romantic location.

Amusing, even funny. I never expected such a twist — although I should have! How many years have I been reading fanfiction? It’s just a vignette but nicely tricky.

Caged Flight series, by BT #
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, longish novella on the whole. Written: August 1989. Summary: Capture, escape and rescue. And of subsequent events.

A delightful writer. I’m reading their Eroica fiction one story after another and enjoying them all. There are quite a few good writers in this fandom. That makes it such a pleasure to wallow :)

I like it that sex happens early in the story, even thought with the help of mind-altering substances. I do prefer these two characters to come to some sort of relationship without any help from any devices, but if it’s done as well as here, I like it too. it’s even refreshing that BT makes Klaus and Eroica fall into bed first (believably!) and sort out the mess later. It reads really smoothly. Well-written, hot, plotty, and nicely angsty in places where Dorian’s and Klaus’s characters clash.

Cakes and Ale, by Torch (flambeau) #
Dorian/Klaus, R, ~5K words. Summary: Klaus finds out what the road to hell is paved with, and Dorian refuses to wear a tie.

Amusing, hot, and well-written. Dorian and Klaus wake up terribly hungover in Schloss Eberbach and try to remember what they did or didn’t do last night. Very vivid. Pleasure!

Calamity is Virtue’s Opportunity, by Sandy K. Herrold []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novella. Summary: Eroica has his eye on a prize, which Klaus warns him not to attempt. But how can Eroica resist a challenge?

This is another blackmail plot which, I gather, are pretty common in this fandom. There are a few details I found interesting though: spoilers, highlight to read: for one, Klaus had a brother whose death has a mystery for him to uncover. For another, Dorian kills. The motivation for Klaus and Eroica to do it didn’t seem too convincing to me but it’s wasn’t unbelievable. The story is darkish and of course plotty. This is what I like about this fandom so far! If one wants to keep up with the source, they have to write plotty fics. I enjoyed this one.

Cantiques de Noël, by BT #
Dorian/Klaus, Dorian/OCM, NC-17, novella. 1991. Summary: The Major gets lost in thought, and then the snow at Christmas time.

It’s Christmas, but Klaus is lost. His mission was cancelled, his subordinates and colleagues are busy partying, but he decides to escape and have a fast night drive through Britain. The story features an emotionally stunted Klaus that is written very well, and lots of vivid scenes. I watched it rather than read. Pleasure!

Crossing the Lines, by Jay Tryfanstone (link to the main page) []
Dorian/Klaus, PG-13, short. Summary: Nailing the flag to the wall.

A much older General comes to a much older Earl. The story is non-linear, and trust Tryfanstone to use various formal devices with such a skill. What she achieves I can only call elegance. Very succinct: a line from a conversation, a hint at a parallel scene. This is here and that is in England; this is now and that will come to pass. But as soon as you catch up with the rhythm, it’s not difficult to follow. Sad but not hopeless.

Five Days in Padesca, by laurakaye []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, shortish. “This is still about the Pope, isn’t it? It’s hardly fair to keep on about that after all this time.”

I liked how the author made the Major change his mind about Eroica in this story. With his unique single-mindedness, he analyses everything from top to bottom and, having set on the course of action, acts. Lovely and hot!

A Garden in Paris and A Garden in Eden, by Jeanne Johnson (gaining access is a pain) []
Dorian/other man, some Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novella. Papuwa/Eroica x-over.

I haven’t read Papuwa (and found no info that it’s even been scanlated), but it doesn’t matter. The story reads just fine. It’s very intriguing and interesting. Sergei and his, let’s put it like this to avoid spoilers, connections read like wonderfully written OCs to me. The story is darkish, angsty, and wonderfully balanced between plot and relationships, exactly in the way I like most. Twisted families and twisted pasts rule the current events, and mysteries are uncovered at a nice pace. The only disadvantage for me was that it’s not much about Klaus. It’s mostly about Dorian and Sergei. And when it comes to Klaus, he only appears several times; the rest is left offscreen. Nice story.

Goodwill To All Men, by Karen Colohan / Yavanna []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~15500 words. Summary: Christmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill, but Klaus can’t help feeling those around him him are stretching things a bit too far…

It’s a PWP, nice and detailed. I thought it was a bit too easy in how they fell into bed but it was pleasant to read anyway. I liked Eroica’s costume. I would hate it in another universe or on another character but I think it suits Eroica really well.

Hold, by Sleeps With Coyotes []
Dorian/Klaus, PG, short. Summary: If he could, whether or not he should, would he?

I bet you thought what I did when you saw the summary. Take your mind out of the gutter, you perv (and fetch mine too)! It’s verrry romantic. And amusing, in its precise little details.

In the Shadows, by FoxyG unrated so far
PG-13, WIP (a bit over 20K words so far). Eroica/Pet Shop of Horrors crossover. Klaus is tracking down a terrorist in Los Angeles. Count D has a new client.

Until I stumbled upon this story, it hadn’t occurred to me that these two fandoms could be crossed. But now it seems so logical! It’s a very enjoyable reading. Plotty and often very amusing. But not without being slightly creepy — it’s D’s petshop, what else would you expect!

So, who will out-macho the other? Klaus or Leon? And who’ll out-charm the other? D or Eroica? My bet is on Klaus and D :)

Not without occasional error, but very intriguing so far. I hope the author continues it.

Incandescence Arc: [1], [2], [3], by Kat Reitz and Tzigan (or at Kat Reitz, Tzigane, Whizzy, and Perryvic’s site) #
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novel-length. First Time, Hurt/Comfort, Death. AU as it diverges from the middle of the series. Warnings: Sex, yelling, love, emotional pain and physical pain, warm fuzzy moments, and the realistic decline into a tragic circumstance. Summary: “The candle that burns brightest burns out quickest.”

Deep in the story and liking it a lot, I suddenly decide to look at the headers — do I wish I didn’t! I’m now scared shitless that it will make me bawl. Well, it should be expected that I come across a death!fic even in such a happy fandom as Eroica. What this fic does, it gives you a feeling of impending doom looming over all the bliss (even if it’s a bliss after a really heavy injury). You just can’t help hoping for a miracle but know deep inside that there can’t be.

I could say that this fic is melodramatic. It is, especially part 3, excessively so, even. But it simply sucks you in, so by the time that you notice that it’s becoming rather heavy on emotion, you are so involved in reading that it simply doesn’t matter. There are small problems scattered all over: light epithitus, small errors and typos, especially of the lie/lay variety. But, once again, I read about 100K words in one sitting. The authors just made me care about the characters that much. But it is a very sad story. Rather like Beautiful World by Cinnamon — HP readers will get what I mean. So, yes, it did make me bawl.

Bottom!Klaus is my bulletproof kink, especially a Klaus that tentatively discovers the joys of bottoming soon after discovering the joys of gay sex, and switching roles is too. Also, I like it when there’s lots of explicit sex. This fic features all of that. Very enjoyable, as for me, although might not be everybody’s cup of tea.

The Iron Mask, by Kadorienne []
Dorian/Klaus, R, ~6K words. Written: 2001. Category: Amnesiac!Klaus. Summary: Take the standard Eroica blackmail plot. Throw in the sharp blow to the head our darling Major has been needing so desperately.

Cliché but fun. It’s the first time I saw amnesia plot in this fandom, and although I admit that there’s nothing unique in how it’s executed here, it was still pleasant to read. The way the Major behaves after losing his memory is very much him and therefore, very amusing.

“Where shall I take you, darling?” The man’s accent was English and aristocratic, quite pleasant to hear.

“Wherever you wish.”

The other man seemed a bit surprised at that. Giving Klaus an inquiring look, he said, “Well, we really ought to get you out of those wet clothes.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he looked as if he regretted them. He sent a quick, apprehensive glance Klaus’ way. When Klaus only nodded mutely, the other man continued, “My flat is closer than the schloss, if that’s all right.”

“Of course.”

Klaus had said something wrong. The confusion in the blond’s face was muted, but it was there. Klaus only hoped he could get his bearings without offending the man. A lovers’ quarrel was all he needed now.

It Cuts Both Ways, by Karen Colohan / Yavanna []
Dorian/Krycek, Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~15K words. Eroica/X-Files crossover. Summary: It takes another man to make Klaus see Dorian in a whole new light.

A PWP, and even with a kink I don’t like (knifeplay), and again I think Klaus surrenders a bit too easily, but it’s hot and enjoyable. Yes, sometimes I like PWPs. I know zero about X-Files, so I went and read character description at Wikipedia. It wasn’t necessary though; you can get the story quite well without.

One thing I disliked was this line: However, he’d nearly got more involved in the action than he’d bargained for when a stray bullet had flown in his direction. Fortunately for Eroica, Z had seen the danger and yelled at him to duck. — just how slowly do they think a bullet flies? It’s not a potted plant thrown by an angry housewife, you know.

Lives Lived: Part 1 , Lives Lived: Part 2, by Jeanne Johnson []
PG-13 and R.

Amusing, clever, well-written, witty even, it’s a story of souls reborn. Not quite my thing though because it’s too, I dunno, literature-like. But memorable.

A Matter of Good Will, by Beth Minster []
Dorian/Klaus, R for violence, novella. Summary: A priceless artefact, a theft, and Mardi Gras.

Pleasant and plotty (although not without occasional light epithitus too). One thing I didn’t like was that in the respect of Dorian and Klaus’s relationship, it’s exactly like the manga. Sapienti sat :) Other than that, it has a nice plot with a carnival, disguises, mystery, and native religions. Reads quite well.

Members Only, by Sleeps With Coyotes []
Gen, PG, short. Summary: Klaus tracks a target to a very private gentleman’s club.

Well-written, vivid (the guards at the club!) and amusing, especially the ending. Pity only it’s not Klaus/Dorian :)

My Kingdom for a Horse series, by BT []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novella. Published in Homosapien 1991. Set during the 1988 Korean Olympics. Summary: The Major hates filthy bars, courier duty, and Eroica. He especially hates when he has to contend with them all at the same time half a world away from his beloved Germany.

Again, what I liked best in this story that it practically begins with sex. There’s no long way to it, no slow and gradual change of Klaus’s views. But somehow it’s believable all the same. Good use of alcohol :) I also liked the NATO interviews and ‘Dr Freud’ — that was very unusual but insightful. Pleasant story, longish too!

One Morning In January and sequel, White Rose Blooming, by Kadorienne #
Novella.
Dorian/Klaus, Klaus/OCF. #1 Summary: A story about Lieutenant Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach.. #2 Summary: Virgin!Eroica, EmperorOfTheHamburgNights!Klaus. Novella. Rated PG-13 and R. Warnings: Het scene!

Story 1 is a scene from Major Eberbach’s past. The one I really liked was story 2. I was glad to see characters from vol 1 (Caesar) in story 2, although I admit I spent some time trying to remember who he was.

The story is angsty, USTy, and awfully romantic. I quite liked it. But what I liked best was the author’s take on Klaus’s homosexuality. I didn’t have to suspend any disbelief about it. Just think, it’s no mean feat if we are thinking of Iron Klaus. I also liked how Kadorienne pulled off Dorian’s being a virgin (at his age! And Dorian!) Was also believable, as for me. So, this time they go to Peru. Klaus is on his official mission — well, and on an unofficial one, too, and Dorian of course has his own business there. And of course their paths cross. Action begins. There are terrorists, secret orders, kidnappings, rescues. I.e. it’s nicely plotty. Meanwhile outside of his mission(s), Klaus is in the middle of settling down. He’s chosen a nice woman and is going to marry. The frustration soaking all this business is nearly palpable. Dorian’s angst is too.

There was one thing I didn’t like: an info dump in the middle in the form of Dorian’s recollections, recounting the events we all know from the manga. Why would anyone do that? But that’s a minor thing while the story on the whole is very enjoyable. As for me, of course.

Revels and Revelations, by BT []
Oct 1996. Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~7000 words. Summary: An undercover Major is invited to a “co-worker’s” family gathering at Christmas time, only to learn it is also the Earl’s family.

Another Christmas story from BT. It’s an established relationship fic, well, background EST anyway. I don’t usually like those but here I couldn’t help imagining it as a sequel to one of the stories above :)

The Major, as a British ministry clerk, comes with his superior to the latter’s family Christmas where he meets his lover of the past year — as it turns out, part of the family. The trademark Major’s suspicious mind begins analysing every talk and gesture for the clues for his mission. It’s very amusing and not a little tense. Also, I like how BT writes sex.

Spring Fever, by Kadorienne #
Dorian/Klaus, R, novella. Written: 2001. Summary: Klaus makes Dorian an offer he can’t refuse.

I love how Kadorienne writes romance: so exciting and comforting, with a nice touch of angst and tension and engaging plots. Perfect to bask in. One thing I wish is that the story were explicit. But I shouldn’t be too greedy.

As iamtheenemy says in their crack_van rec, “This story has a simple premise - Klaus, realizing he will be unable to resist Eroica’s constant flirtation any longer, makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Eroica gets one night with a cooperative Klaus, and in return, must never bother him again. Of course, things don’t go quite as planned, for either man.”

Amusing and lovely, and a bit angsty, to spice the romance. Pleasure!

Strangers, by Colette T. Bolech & KM (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, novella. Warnings: Character death – before start of story, angst and grief. Summary: Dorian is deeply depressed and gets support from an unlikely source.

The ‘before the start of story’ situation made really sad. It robs Dorian of his Eroica part, and to see it missing is pretty painful. I don’t quite understand the very premise, why Klaus comes to visit Dorian at all. But if to put that aside, the way the story goes is lovely, even if I don’t quite believe in this Klaus. The story also needs another proof-reading.

Suite of Hours, by CTB (Colette T. Bolech) (available from the Eroicafans.org email archive) []
Dorian/Klaus, NC-17, ~13K words. Summary: Eroica and the Major reflect on their relationship or lack there of. Conclusions are draw. Notes: Published in Concupiscence 3- 1994

The story is slow and rather verbose, as for me. While the characters think of each other, there is a lot of masturbation (rather repetitive) and contemplation but it’s not as boring as I though it would be on reading the unfortunate summary. The stupefied and insecure Major is hot. I like how CTB writes sex: even though it is repetitive (or not very varied), it’s somehow very sincere and intense.

The Three Kisses, or, Love Tank, by Beth Minster #
Dorian/Klaus, PG-13, novella. Summary: The Major needs Eroica’s services… but can he pay the price? Illustrated by Nico & Kat Benedict!

Well, it’s a story of three kisses. Amusing in the best Eroica style. And absolutely delightful, despite occasional light epithitus. The author spells the Major’s name as Klaus von Eberbach which contradicts the canon that doesn’t itself agree with grammar. Canon or grammar? Well, I’ll take any :)

Too Good To Be True and sequel The Truth Shall Set You Free, by Kadorienne []
Alternate sequel: The Course of True Love.
Dorian/Klaus, Dorian/OMC. Rated R. Summary 1: Just a few scenes from the manga told from a somewhat different angle. Klaus’ point of view. Summary 2: Discovery, disgrace, and redemption. Summary 3 (alternate): Klaus makes a terrible error in judgment, and accepts the consequences.

Too Good To Be True shows us Major Eberbach’s view of the world. It’s pretty bleak as such a view of the world is but amusing because it’s Iron Klaus and very IC, as for me. I liked the alternate sequel better, so I’ll speak of it. IMO, it fits the first story (and manga) very well. Major is exquisitely paranoid. The author takes this character trait of his and develops it to — almost — absurd, which seems very logical and fitting in this case. Major Eberbach sees plots everywhere. More than that, he sees the proof that they are real plots. So he mistrusts Eroica. And mistrusts him. And keeps doing it, until the picture of the world he sees loses its orderliness. Then he feels that maybe it’s a call for a rethink. But that doesn’t mean that Eroica will welcome him with open arms. The second half of the story is awfully romantic, in a nice way, but a bit too much for me. A pleasant story on the whole.

Watching Me Watching You, by Colette T. Bolech & KM (is available by email request) #
Dorian/Klaus, R, novella. Summary: The Major, Eroica, and a blackmail plot.

By now I get it that epithitus is a common illness in this fandom so I probably should quit warning for it. But anyway, it’s present in this story too, and no, it isn’t very distracting in it either. There’s a blackmailer who threatens NATO officers. NATO powers that be assign the Major to play a part of homosexual lovers with Eroica to lure the blackmailer and catch him. Klaus, ever serious about his missions, will go to any lengths to accomplish it. So he begins staging and play-acting with Eroica, as planned. And hates it, of course. But they have to do it for a long time. Somewhere along the way, Klaus’s thoughts about his role change. I liked how gradual and smooth the change was in this story. They have to pretend to be lovers, spending a lot of time together. Then they have to pretend a little less and enjoy their outings a little more. Little by little, step by tiny step, we come to the lack of pretence. There’s plenty of angst but quite a few of lovely scenes too. I liked it.

What I take:
- stories where a person comes without his genitalia being touched AT ALL. As in, the person’s body can be touched but NO touching genitalia and NO intercourse.
- come MOSTLY untouched. As in, the person is teased for so long or whatever that they come the second they ARE touched.

Won’t do:
- if a guy is fucked and comes without touching his cock.
- wet dreams won’t do either.
- no WIPs that have only a chapter or two written;
- no drabbles;
- do not bring fics you haven’t read;
- do not bring fics you didn’t like;
- do not bring fics the authors of which show no grammar or spelling skill even if you liked them;
- do me a courtesy, please, do not leave only a link. I’d be really grateful if you tell me (besides the title and author) whether the fic is a WIP or completed, what the pairings and the rating are.

Special marks:

# - liked
## - loved
NR - have not read
new - added in the last month or so

These are NOT my recs; it’s just a themed listing.

Stories are sorted by the character who comes untouched, and further on, in alphabetical order by title:

Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, other

All Bets are Off, by Allegra #
Harry/Draco, some Harry/others; R; novella. Summary: I am SICK of Good-little-innocent!Harry… Enter Playboy!Harry and his Overinflated Ego, a challenge, a bet, a couple of Really Cunning Plans - and there you have it, “Forty days and forty nights”, Hogwarts style. Mayhem ensues! Warning: judicious use of Emphatic Capital Letters and idiotic one-liners.

A Bit of All Right, by I Got Tired of Waiting (igtow) NR
Harry/Draco; Harry/Snape; Ron/Hermione; Bill/Fleur; Dumbledore/??. R, novel-length. Part 2 in Hiding Under the Ninth Earth series. Summary: “Hiding Under the Ninth Earth is a continuing story of Severus Snape and Harry Potter–their relationship and life together. It’s about the Muggle Wars. And it’s about how two people, standing firm together, can change history.” In Chapter 32, Snape makes Harry come with a thorough kiss.

Black Box, by Lysrouge
Harry/Snape; R; PWP, ficlet. Summary: Harry in a box.

Candyfloss, by Frances Potter (dragon_charmer) (locked)
Harry/Draco; NC-17, short. Summary: “Harry, a crowded Quidditch Stadium and a Slytherin with a sweet fetish.” Part of the series called Honeyduke’s Luxury Selection.

Chastisement, by nishizono
Snape/Harry/Draco, NC-17, short. Summary: Another PWP detention story featuring an authoritative Severus Snape. It can be read as a non-crack sequel to iDobby, or as a stand-alone one shot.

A Choriambic Progression, by Mairead and Aristide ##
Harry/Snape; NC-17, novel-length. Harry comes untouched a couple of times, once with no touching and once with minimal touching.

Contemporary Magical Innovations by H. Granger, by Kai (kaiz) #
Harry/Snape, PG-13, novella. Summary: “The difference between History and What Really Happened.” Severus makes Harry come using only his voice.

Headonist, by ElectricAndroid
Snape/Harry; NC-17, short. Eyeliner, silk knickers, and Veritaserum.

His Master’s Voice, by Eriador117
Harry/Snape; NC-17; short. Summary: “Harry loves his Master’s voice …. sequel to Games Without Frontiers.” Warnings: blindfolds and light bondage, teacher/student.

La Vita Nova, by Titti
Harry/Snape; NC-17, novella. Part of the HP/SS Fuh-Q Fest. Harry comes untouched during his first time with Snape.

A Little Self-Control, by Nox Pumilum
Snape/Harry; NC-17, chaptered PWP. Summary: “Severus says that Harry has no self-control. Harry, of course, disagrees. They make a wager of sorts…” Warnings: Bondage, cross-dressing, use of sex toys, Harry is still in school.

Maui Wowie, by odogoddess
Harry/Snape, NC-17, short. Summary: post-series. Whilst on vacation, Severus and Harry try a few new things out…

Minute Man, by Reena (reenka)
Harry/Draco; NC-17, short. Malfoy makes a very special show that makes Harry come in his pants.

Mistakes and Menages, by Diana Williams
Snape/Remus, Snape/Remus/Harry; NC-17. Story 5 in Lacy Things Series. Harry comes untouched watching Snape, though it’s not the main part.

Quill and Ink, by Cybele (cybele_san) #
Snape/Harry; NC-17. Sequel to Something to Write On. Harry faces the consequences of dreaming about Snape’s quill. He comes because of magic (and a quill) thanks to Snape’s intervention.

A Ride Revisited, by Magdelena NR (reqiures registration)
Harry/Snape; NC-17. Summary: Years later, Severus reminds Harry about an earlier ‘ride’ on the Knight Bus. Sequel to A Ride to Remember.

Scratch, by AuctaSinistra (or here) ##
Harry/Snape; NC-17, novel-length. Warning: underage. Harry comes from Snape’s mere touch.
Sequels: The Holly and the Ivy and This Thing of Darkness (also at ISF and WTP)

A Six Horse Problem, by Eriador117 (or here) NR
Snape/Harry, NC-17, novel-length. Non-magic AU based on Equus. Psychiatrist Severus Snape has his toughest case to date. Warnings: Violence, Adult Language, Sexual Situations, Non-con (rape), Self harm, OOC-ness, Under 18, Contains Het Sex. Harry comes untouched while under a light trance.

Shattered Souls, by Eriador117
Harry/Snape; NC-17, novel-length. Summary: “Snape and Harry have more in common than they would like to think. When they are forced to be married and bonded in order to keep Harry safe from the Dursleys, will Snape be able to help Harry come to terms with his demons without falling under the spell of his own?” / Warnings: Rape, torture, child abuse, non-con situations, eating disorder, suicidal mentions, depression, post traumatic stress, and lots of angst. There’s a scene where due to the bond they share, Snape mind talks to Harry to orgasm during a potions class with no touching anywhere.
Sequel: Shattered Hearts. There is also a scene in the sequel, Shattered Hearts, where they are both viewing a love scene in a pensieve and Harry comes without being touched.

The Tides That Bind, by Nienna Ciryatan and Tigerlily NR
Harry/Snape; NC-17 (?), long. Summary: Harry needs Professor Snape’s protection. The onlyway Severus can protect him completely is if they’re bonded in marriage. Well, that’s what Albus Dumbledore claims. In Ch. 8 Snape talks Harry to climax without touching him.

Tiger & Dragon, by loverstouch NR
Harry/Draco; R, long, WIP?. Summary: In the summer after his fifth year Harry is taken from the Dursley to live with the Malfoys. The next day the Daily Prophet’s headline read ‘Boy who lived died in Death Eater attack’.

The Tongues of Men and Angels, by makesmewannadie (requires password)
Snape/Harry; NC-17; PWP, short. Harry makes a request: “I want you to fuck me with your voice.” Snape sees to it.

Yes, Professor, by Seeker (brenantrim) #
Harry/Snape; NC-17, short. Summary: “Hermione returns from holiday and Harry gets an idea.”

Draco Malfoy

Commencement, by Aja #
Harry/Draco; NC-17, short. Summary: “On the eve of graduation at Hogwarts, a drunken encounter leads to run-ins with Filch, unexpected bonding, and, perhaps, much more…”

Corruptela Vox, by Constant Vigilance
Harry/Draco; NC-17, one-shot. Parselsmut. Summary: Draco’s kink is revealed. Pretty much a PWP.

Language of Love, by Beren (beren_writes)
Harry/Draco; R; PWP, short. Summary: Harry and Draco try a little experiment with Parseltongue.

Matinee, by LadyVader
Harry/Draco; NC-17, one-shot. Summary: This is why you don’t let people film you when you’re drunk… or do you?

Momenti Diversi, by zarah5 (link to ch.5; previous parts are linked from there) #
Harry/Draco; NC-17, chaptered novella. Summary: In which you’ll find the Italian sun, some sexual tension, a reluctant Harry and a persuasive Draco. (Post-Hogwarts, aftermath of war.)

Narcissus and Echo, by themostepotente
Harry/Draco; NC-17, short. Summary: “Harry has ways of making Draco come without touching him.”

Obscene Obsession, by Jitterbug
Harry/Draco, NC-17, short. Summary: “Draco is in denial and has an oral fixation.”

Ouroboros by Dana (shaggirl) #
Harry/Draco; discontinued WIP; R. Summary: Harry and Draco need each other after the war, for punishing sex and other things. In Part 2, Draco comes untouched, but it’s just a minor detail there.

S is for Sibilant, by MoonflowerRose
Harry/Draco; NC-17, short. Summary: “Draco finds out something rather annoying about himself, and something rather interesting about Potter. Dirty talk parseltongue for Elle.”

Three Gryffindors and a Slytherin, by Beren (beren_writes)
Sirius/Harry/Remus, Draco/Remus; NC-17, short. Summary: It was only supposed to be a small party to celebrate the Ministry finally sorting themselves out and officially declaring Sirius innocent, really it was.

to go wherever dreaming goes: part 1, href="http://nothingbutfic.livejournal.com/150579.html">part 2, part 3, by abaddon (nothingbutfic) ##
Harry/Draco; NC-17, novella. Summary: There is also love in the world.

Severus Snape

Toward the Future, by Titti
Draco/Harry, Snape/BW; NC-17 . Sequel to Our Summer at Hogwarts.
Harry and Draco’s last year at Hogwarts. Snape and Bill are there to help them fight Voldemort. Slytherins help Harry’s training. Features Severus coming from the pleasure a bond created to counter the Dark Mark.

Velvet Tongue, by Phantom
Snape/Sirius; NC-17; PWP, short. Dungeons, two enemies chained to the wall, and shackles charmed to release their captives at the moment of orgasm.

Other

Seamus Finnegan

Handjob, by Lysrouge
Seamus Finnegan/Terry Boot; R; PWP, short. Summary: Terry brings Seamus breakfast in bed.

Remus Lupin

M is for Melolagnia, or Music Be the Food of Love and Q is for Quatiosis, or Shake Your Bon-Bon, Ma Belle-Belle, by Anj (rosesanguina)
Parts of the The Lusty Alphabet of May in lj comm pervy_werewolf. 1) Remus/Luna. R. Day #18. 2) Remus/Fleur; R. Day #22.

The MoonyBelly, by franticbabbles
Remus/Sirius, R, short. Quote: “There were certain things Sirius Black had learned his Seventh Year at Hogwarts, things that would stand him in good stead for the rest of his life. […] And he learned how to make Remus Lupin have an orgasm without going anywhere near his cock.”

Sirius Black

Found Wanting, by anise_anise #
Harry/Sirius; NC-17, short. Sirius comes untouched while giving Harry a blowjob.

Many thanks to all people who take part in the search!

Know other good stories that would qualify? Please, share!

If you want to see what yaoi manga I liked, look here.

Manga are sorted by title

Death Note []
Author: Ohba Tsugumi/Asami Yuuko. Artist: Obata Takeshi
Scanlated by: Aku Tenshi, Binktopia, Ice-Master Scanlations, KEFI, OrangeTangerine, Shannaro, The Ones Who Never Lie, Toriyama’s World, We, The Fans, mD-xD, pedobears, gto0o
Status: (12 Volumes + Volume 13: How to Read - Complete), licensed
Genre: Adventure Mystery Psychological Shounen Supernatural
Found: via Amanuensis; bought 10 vols in a tiny shop in Haarlem, Netherlands, and the rest in Antwerp
Summary: Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects–and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?

My notes: This is a story of love that could have been but wasn’t. When I first opened this manga, I didn’t believe I would like it. I didn’t like the drawing. I thought it was very professional but adhering to the tastes of late-teen majority and not to my tastes in general. But since I’d bought all the volumes, I decided to give it a go. And it blew me away. Totally and completely.

It’s possibly the plottiest thing I’ve read. I don’t like playing chess (although I did when I was a child), but I’d compare it to chess, only lightning-fast. The two young geniuses play various, highly complex combinations that change and turn like a kaleidoscope, fluidly shifting and dragging you with them. It’s a manga impossible to put away. You keep OMGing and WHOAing. I felt torn between the desire to gobble it up as fast as possible and stretch the pleasure. So for the first half of the manga, the way to work and home became my favourite part of the day ‘cos I decided to read it only on the train. Yep, it wasn’t the wisest decision ‘cos yep, I missed my stop.

But then it went sour, for me. You see, I’m a fan of a finite narrative structure, so to say: beginning-development-climax-end. There’s another one, that of a soap or ongoing TV series. Say, like this: there’s a big family with complicated relationships. Mary and John are in love but fighting, and Suzy left for a long trip (’cos the actress is busy in another project, but that’s off topic), and CC is in coma (because the actor’s contract hasn’t been renewed, but that’s also OT), and Mary and John keep fighting but that’s becoming boring, so the creators need ‘new blood’. So - bang! - a long-lost sister comes, who turns out to have been living in captivity, seized at a tender age by a really bad twin brother of CC who had left home to join a gang when he had been a teenager. In other words, add a new villain. Add another hero … deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum.

Let an old villain train/pass his powers to/clone/whatever a new one; let the hero find a companion/pass his sword/blaster/fatherly advice/whatever to the new one; let a lost relative/friend/love appear. Then do it again. This way, your story becomes potentially endless. This way, your plot gemmates. You can end it at any stage of gemmating or let it linger depending on the popularity of your product. It’s not inherently good or bad. It’s just another structure. But I hate it. It rubs me against the fur.

This is why, when DN changed the type of story in the middle, I nearly stopped reading. Not because of [spoiler, see below] in vol. 7 but because I felt that it started looking as if the writer introduced more new characters because s/he didn’t quite know what to do with the old ones and the admittedly elaborate plots s/he entangled them in.

Now for the real spoilers, highlight to read:

I can’t say the killing of L made me terribly sad. But it did make the manga lose any sort of personal touch that it had had — which hadn’t been many, as for me. ‘Cos both L and Light are rather sociophobic/sociopatic to begin with, and their relationships with the people around are nothing but utilitarian. This is, on the whole, a manga where it’s very hard to identify with the characters: they are either, let’s put it mildly, not very humane and treat people as things (massmurderer Light, reclusive and ruthless L, a young criminal Mello or a hyper-infantile Near — who turns out the most humane of them; a psyho actress Miso or robotic Takada and Mikami) or are boring or not very bright (Soichiro Yagami who’s a good man but old and boring; Matsuda who’s stupid — but he’s my favourite character in this manga. On a tangent, don’t Matsuda and Ide make a good couple? :D). So removing one character from the pair of opposites the readers got to like best by vol. 7 and introducing two new ones who require a couple more volumes to get used to, as for me, was a serious mistake, not to mention that it broke the pacing.

Also, one Kira vs one detective genius was ok. Two Kira, since the second one appears very soon, vs one L were fine. But as soon as L is killed off, I couldn’t see the rest as anything but arbitrary. If there can be M and N, why not P and O? Or L1/2? Well, ok, the author managed to pull out of this hole by making Near deliver the explanation of why N+M are cooler than L. But I had to read for five volumes to get there. The same is true for the other side: if there appear more Shinigami, new Death Notes, and a new Kira, why not another one? Or three more? In the end, I can’t see why it had to be 12 volumes and not 18 or 34. Or 9. In other words, the middle part bored and annoyed me.

IMO, the story does pick up by vol.9 or so when it becomes personal again and — surprisingly — settles back into the finite structure, and by vol 11, it again becomes truly engaging. But still the reason I persevered through the third quarter and finished it was to see how exactly the ending would be done. I liked the final confrontation and the very final pages but didn’t like what happened in between. Spoiler ahead, highlight to read:

The way Light dies, well, I didn’t find it particularly unbelievable but I didn’t find it believable either. He was coolly walking the plank for so long that his total and very melodramatic loss of nerve seemed a bit OOC.

A couple more words about the drawing. As I said, it looks very professional but rather generic I don’t know. It’s clean and really well-done, but as I said in comments on LJ, it reminds me of Mercedes Benz while I want a horse. It’s also very dense: a lot of visual information is pushed into every panel (except blank black pages) but little of it is vital information. The panel structure isn’t very varied. They are all rectangles, and the two tricks the artist uses are close-ups and remote view from above. I don’t think it’s a drawback though. If the visual side were more varied, with this kind of ueber-fast and complex plot, it would be too hard to read, I think. This also makes it a ’starter’s set’ manga, something that an inexperienced western reader could use to begin getting familiar with manga in general because the narrative element dominates over the visual clues.

The thing I hated was how feet are drawn, of course :) I don’t mean only L’s awful monkey feet (really, feet aren’t sorta-arthritic-hands!) but the feet of other characters too.

And also concerning drawing: when there were about 10 pages without speech bubbles in vol. 10 — to convey the passage of two weeks — it completely threw me. I thought I got a defective book :)

As a conclusion, it was for sure a very entertaining and engrossing reading but not involving on any other level than plot/suspense.

ETA: but where the manga didn’t succeed, the live-action films did. I watched both Death Note and Death Note: the Last Name (careful, articles may contain spoilers). I liked them. They are long and very different from the manga. I liked the cast. So many beautiful girls. Although it’s silly to compare such different media, I liked the drawn!Light better. Well, same about the drawn!L. But I also liked this creepy eyebrowless film version. I finally was able to connect to the story emotionally here as I was unable to while reading manga. Let me just say that what didn’t make me cry in the manga, here sure did. It’s so quiet; he’s alone. I cried like a baby. Also, showing the event of such magnitude through details: hands, chocolate — that really punched me hard.

I also liked the endgame in the films better, in what concerns Light’s character (see spoilers above). But what I absolutely loved were Shinigami. They are so wonderful!

The films worked for me where the manga didn’t, and where the manga did, I liked it a lot. So I got the whole from two different sides :)

See also comments on LJ: some very interesting discussion points from Amanuensis among others.

Eroica Yori Ai wo Komete (From Eroica With Love) (from 1976 till now) ##
Mangaka: Aoike Yasuko
Scanlation group: Pink Panzer; an anonymous group scanlated the first 19 volumes. The first ten volumes have been published in English.
Genre: Action Adventure Comedy
Status: 34 Volumes (Ongoing); scanlation up to Vol. 21 (part 1 of of story 17)
Found: in a talk with Parlophone about old skool manga
Summary: What happens when a gay art thief and a conservative NATO officer cross paths? Disaster, of course. Dorian is an aristocrat, a thief and a hedonist; Klaus is a duty-driven espionage agent with no patience for fools. Follow them as they chase each other across the globe — from Britain to Baghdad, from Alaska to Alexandria, from Moscow to Madrid. Spectacular locations and non-stop adventures await!
Download: Vol. 1-19 with a nice detailed guide including notes on scan quality (locked for members); vol. 20-21 (locked). More covers (and first 13 vols) here
Prequel/spinoff: Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter; Madan no shashu)
Status: 1 volume (Complete).
Summary: A hardboiled espionage action story featuring Major Eberbach. Can he elude the pursuit of the genius assassin from the KGB? More detailed summary by missparaphilia here.
Other related and side stories: Z, Plus Ultra (artbook), Nanatsu no umi nanatsu no sora and its prequel, Eru Arukon - Taka (a step to the past, about Man in Purple)

Related things: lj comm castlegloria (Eroica fanfiction); schlosseberbach (everything Eroica); Eroicafans.org. There’s fandom! I might dip my toes in it. I haven’t decided yet. Am awfully tempted.

My notes: I loved this manga to bits and tiny little pieces! I’ve had SO MUCH FUN with it. Best Male Friend who had to observe me reading it in the evenings on our trip now must be sure I’m a complete loony, if he hasn’t thought so before. Because I clapped hands, squealed, laughed, and talked to my laptop.

It’s awfully trashy, as trashy as only comics about superheroes and Cold War times can be but yeah, lots and lots of fun. I can’t tell you how many times I burst out laughing or grinned in delight. Each time I finished a story from the series, I thought, “I liked this one best!” And then thought the same when I read the next one. The genre is spy action/adventure and humour. Truth be told, I don’t like reading about spies almost as much as I dislike reading Sci-Fi. Not my thing at all. But this one is so light and captivating, and in the end, so amusing and enjoyable that I succumbed almost at once.

Character facial expressions aren’t Aoike Yasuko’s forte, nor is anatomy. Plot is. Spies and secret agents of every country: KGB, NATO Intelligence, CIA and FBI, MI6 (SIS), Interpol, etc, etc and also local police of where the action takes place and local criminals are all competing with each other or fighting each other. Characters travel all over the world. Character names are awfully trashy too; that first seemed too bad to me but later made me laugh and welcome them (Misha the Cub as the KGB boss, Comrade Dostoevsky, Comrade Gorky, Comrade Karinka, lol). The settings are European (mostly) but there are lots of Japanese sayings or references, and that creates a fantastic multi-cultural kaleidoscope. If it’s skewed, it’s fun nevertheless. One thing I find surprising is that among all the agents and forces, there’s not a mention of Stasi. You’d think that Iron Klaus of Bonn would mostly deal with them. But back to what I started with, this manga is incredibly plotty. Feels like a real rollercoaster sometimes. What amazes me most is that the mangaka always ties all her ends by the end of a story. Wowsome.

Both main characters are very attractive. Supporting characters are wonderful too, especially Mr James, Eroica’s extremely stingy accountant (although I don’t like how he’s developed in the last scanlated stories). I love-love-love Iron Klaus (Major Eberbach). I can’t even believe how much myself. Almost like Snape. But then again, he’s a Snape-like character, only with much better hygiene. He’s very rude and loves to shout; he expresses his negative opinion on people and actions without hesitation. He’s a prude and neat freak and superhero all the way but unexpectedly, there’s something in him that calls for your sympathy and makes you want to hug him, even with the risk for your life such a gesture would pose — when he broods or when something does manage to stun him (Eroica usually :D). IMHO, his character isn’t as logical as Eroica’s: it’s rather contradictory, if you start thinking about it seriously. But in the mosaic-like nature of this character perhaps lies a lot of his appeal. He’s intelligent, resourceful, quick-witted, and observant but at the same time not aesthetically developed in any way (despite being a rich aristocrat by birth) and rather naive in some things, or maybe infantile. But why am I looking for that much psychological credibility in a character who smokes like a chimney but is able to run fast for miles without losing his breath? He’s incredibly cool (superhero, remember?) but his quirks and idiosyncrasies make him humane. And precious. If to speak of the way he’s drawn, I melt when I see his haircut. Melt and squee :) So I understand why Eroica never gives up. Eroica himself is also an absolutely charming character: extravagant, flamboyant, childlike in his wish to have all the pretty that he likes, devious yet kind. And more logical in and of himself, as a character. Speaking of the drawing again, the characters don’t age as the years pass: not only is Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach the Eternal Major, he’s an ageless Klaus: he’s the same in 1990 as he was in 1977, and so is Eroica.

On the whole, I’ve read manga where the drawing looked more professional but was it more enticing? No, no, it wasn’t. At the beginning, I looked at the covers and thought, “OMG, what awful jaws!” By the end I though, “Oh my, such lovely chins, gimme more!” I thought it many times while reading Eroica that that was an error and that was badly drawn but overall I was completely charmed. The mangaka draws one face for her main characters, as too many do, but it seems she’s aware of it: see story 10 and on. In any case, the drawing changes to the better visibly from the first volumes to the middle of the manga. It looks as if the mangaka didn’t find her style and touch at once. I like the later style better of course, and objectively speaking, it’s more elaborate and sure.

Another thing I liked very much about this manga is that it’s like a contemporary history lesson. Well, only for those who remembers the news hot topics from the years when the volumes were drawn ‘cos the lessons are comical and so of course warped. War Iran vs Iraq, Moscow Olympics 1980, Perestroika and Glasnost, the uniting of the two Germanies, they all pass before your eyes. Fashions! OMG sunglasses! Hair styles OMG! :) Breathe and drink history, or ‘History Lite’, if you will :)

Speaking of structure, the manga consists of stories that have the same cast of characters and that you could read separately. Comparing it to other manga that have ‘big plot’ and ’small plots’, I wouldn’t say it has a big plot that unifies all stories. I mean, if you start with story 15, I don’t think you’ll find it incomprehensible. But I still recommend reading it from beginning to … well, to the current [scanlated] volume. Because while the big plot barely goes anywhere, the characters form various kinds of relationships, and it’s interesting to trace those. Story 1 is really just a warm-up for the later series (but please don’t let it scare you off). There are main characters you won’t meet after story 2, so reading vol. 1 is a bit bewildering ‘cos it barely touches what the summary speaks about. But that story picks up later, and goes on for many volumes.

Side stories are fun, especially the one that shows the disastrous party that is referred to in The Laughing Cardinals. Other side stories tell us quite a bit about Lord Eroica’s and Iron Klaus’s past. General advice: don’t skip side stories, especially the later ones. They either show a lot of important things or you simply would want more Eroica by then :)

The prequel, Der Freischütz, is darker than the main series. If From Eroica with Love is a humorous look at a spy’s life (and so, adventures), Der Freischütz is about its dangers and ruthlessness. Makes one understand Major’s paranoia better. Spoiler, highlight to read: only in Der Freischütz can we see the death of a character. In Eroica, things get smashed, buildings destroyed, there are fisticuffs, people get injured occasionally, but nobody dies. In Der Freischütz, even Major kills.[/end spoiler]

I posted this rec on my LJ under the yaoi tag but it’s not yaoi at all. Spoiler white on white, highlight to read (mind, a REAL spoiler, for the whole series, so think twice): honestly, it’s not even BL for real. Very soon in the series, Eroica falls in love with Iron Klaus aka Major Eberbach. Major, if anything, is asexual. He despises the ‘homo stuff’ but there’s no woman to make his blood run faster either. If anything, he’s a devoted husband to his work. So their relationship consists of endless one-sided flirting and passes and also one-sided shouting and attempts to sterilise plates, door handles, etc not to catch homo virus. I would hate UST of such proportions in another manga. But somehow it’s not annoying here. Maybe because Eroica enjoys chase much better than gain. Or maybe because if Iron Klaus didn’t break into a cold sweat at the thought of somebody touching him (unless it’s a fight), he won’t be Iron Klaus anymore. Be it as it may, the UST too happens to be very enjoyable in this manga.[/end spoiler]

Btw, I would like to request a spoiler for the last 10 volumes, if somebody has read them raw (since the question is spoilery too, it’s also white on white): does their relationship progress in any way, as in, the Major begins to feel something beyond annoyance about Eroica or does it stay the same? I doublt it, but… And does the mangaka age her characters?[/end spoiler]

A couple of notes on the translation of volumes 1-19: it seems to be done by a person (persons) whose first language is Japanese, so the English often sounds stilted. There weren’t errors that threw me out, just strange word choices and expressions. Well, and of course the translation of proper nouns can be very imprecise, say, Ljublanka in story 11: I couldn’t figure out what it was until I saw the note that it was where the KGB headquarters were located. Turns out to be Lubyanka. Don’t know whose error it is, mangaka’s or translator’s. And can’t say it really matters. Ljublanka or Lubyanka, or Russian names that can’t exist, it’s still fun and charming in its own way. My special thanks to Pink Panzer guys for picking up the scanlation in the first place, but also for keeping to the spirit of the translation (’cos by the middle of the story, I loved it) and for the good scans.

My favourite story is Emperor Waltz (a huge one, volumes 16, 17, 18 & 19), and favourite scene is Iron Klaus performing a Tyrolean dance. Who could resist?! A couple of pictures to entice: click here.

I spent almost three weeks with this manga, and now that I’ve reached the end of the scanlated stuff, I don’t know how to be without! As a conclusion, heartily and highly recommended. From pj with love :)

Pet Shop of Horrors ##
Mangaka: Akino Matsuri
Scanlated by: Eternal Sleep
Status: 10 volumes, licensed; sequel, Shin Pet Shop of Horrors, licensed, ongoing
Genre: Comedy Fantasy Horror Josei Mystery Supernatural
Summary: From Tokyopop: A smoke-filled alley in Chinatown harbors Count D’s Pet Shop. The pets sold here aren’t your everyday variety and the Count prides himself on selling Love and Dreams in the form of magical creatures that come with an exclusive contract. But buyers beware. If the contract is broken the Count cannot be held accountable for whatever may happen. A fascinating and macabre look into the very soul of human nature.
More covers in my LJ

My notes: this is my favourite manga of all (well, so far). I love it to bits and pieces. You’ve probably read manga where the drawing technique was better, more elaborate, unique in the end. You’ve possibly read manga with a much more solid, tight storyline. I find though that it doesn’t really matter. A story doesn’t have to be perfect to be utterly enticing. And Pet Shop of Horrors (further PSOH) is. So. Freaking. Charming.

Or maybe you are like I was: rather spooked with or uninterested in manga-style drawing (which, as it turns out at a closer look, isn’t one style at all). I think PSOH can be a good place to start getting acquainted with manga. Because it’s eclectic and has elements that may appeal to different kinds of readers: horror/supernatural, mystery, crime/action, humour, morality tale, and then there are animals and very attractive main characters.

I began with the PSOH anime (available on YouTube). It consists of only four episodes (Daughter (from Vol 1.3, rabbit), Delicious (Vol 2.3(7), Mermaid), Despair (Vol 1.2, Medusa), and Dual (Vol 5.1, Kiri). People say that Count D’s voice in Japanese is better but I really liked his English voice (I watched the English version).

I admit that by the end of episode one I was thoroughly creeped out. It still stands out in my mind as one of the creepiest episodes in the series, but to see it first, without any idea what I was getting into? Was a shock. But I was intrigued too: how come that animals are also people? I mean, how? And what’s this Count D’s agenda? He didn’t seem evil, but the consequences of his business transaction were quite horrible. So I watched on. And by the end of episode four was absolutely, madly in love with him. So of course I rushed to find the manga. It’s not difficult to find; I think it might be sold where you live, and if not and if Amazon isn’t an option for you, it can be found on the net almost in any big place that trades manga.

There are ten volumes of the original PSOH manga, and three more of Shin Pet Shop of Horrors, the sequel (only two are scanlated so far) that features different main characters. The premise is as follows. In LA Chinatown, there’s a Pet Shop. Quoting from the book: “Its proprietor, an enigmatic figure known only as Count D, beckons through his doors the injured and the scarred, introducing them to creatures friendly and bizarre. […] Detective Leon Orcot [..] has traced a series of seemingly unrelated crimes to Count D and his Pet Shop of Horrors. A steadfast skeptic, Leon dismisses as trickery the inexplicable events he witnesses.”

It begins as spooky; the morals are a bit annoying and repetitive, and detective Leon Orcot seems to be little more than a hot-tempered dunderhead. But it’s still intriguing. So you read on. And it becomes less creepy, or at least much more varied. The dunderhead turns out to be not that bad. You begin to see the logic (or a logic) of Count D’s actions. Then, gradually, the big story becomes a focus rather than those short ones of which it consists. Leon and Count D develop a sort of friendship that is actually 3/5 flirting and 2/5 shouting at each other. Enter Chris, a six-year-old third main character. You learn more and more about Leon, his past, and his life; in the end you learn a lot about Count D too (in Vol 10 in particular). You learn to treasure the drawing: D’s expressions, comic relief scenes, outfits, animals. So when it ends, you turn to fanfiction as the only painkiller available — ‘cos it ended, and the very fact is devastating.

On the way it so happens that the two main characters and antagonists have a real potential. It’s easy to develop a crush on Count D. He’s enigmatic, mysterious, aloof, and the further the more appealing. But whom I really love is Leon. He’s an ordinary guy to umpteenth degree, but he’s so good it’s impossible not to fall for him. Leon hides strength of character and integrity under his rude and messy outlook. He’s like Harry: often clueless but true and good. By the end of the first series, my heart was so totally his that I couldn’t completely get into Shin Pet Shop. You’ll see why when you get there. Chris is plain wonderful. And animals? Awesome. T-chan in particular, but you won’t meet him until the middle of the series. So, love it is :)

I want to say thank you again to iibnf for the anime and to RexLuscus whose enthusiasm made me try it and who’s been a wonderful guide.

They were Eleven (11-nin iru! ; Juuichi nin Iru) (1975) #
Mangaka: Hagio Moto
Genre: Drama Gender Bender Mystery Sci-fi Shoujo
Status: licensed, oneshot, part of Four Shoujo Stories
Warning: pretty bad scan quality; reads left to right!
Found: via Parlophone’s recommendation
Summary: The elite Cosmo Academy attracts applicants from every stellar nation in the galaxy. One young hopeful is Tadatos Lane, an orphan esper from Terra. The final stage of the academy’s entrance exam is a perilous mission simulation aboard an actual derelict starship. The applicants depart for the ships in groups of ten, but when Tada’s crew arrives on the Esperanza, they are horrified to discover that they now number eleven. As the test progresses, things go awry and the atmosphere grows increasingly tense. The crew members begin to suspect sabotage, and Tada appears to be the likely culprit.
Read here.

My notes: there are several obstacles to overcome but if you do, this is a really captivating, wonderful story! Those obstacles are: a) the quality of the scan: it’s a simple scan of the licensed English version, not cleaned at all; b) it reads left to right. I got terribly confused at the beginning and kept trying to read every other page in the wrong order. Then there are my personal misgivings: Sci-Fi is, arguably, my least favourite genre. “Space ship” for me is like “watersports” for some :) It doesn’t mean that I won’t enjoy a Sci-Fi story. It means that I’m extremely reluctant to read it. Parlophone told me how nice this story was and gave me the link to go read it. I went there, saw the bad scans and wrinkled my nose in displeasure. I decided to save all the pages to my computer to read at my leisure, using my keyboard for navigation, and got hooked while doing it!

The summary above is sufficient, so I want only to share my thoughts. I think this manga is a good example of coherent storytelling. You’ll say “well, duh” but really, how many truly coherent manga I’ve read recently? Not many. Add to this that They were Eleven has a wonderful balance of humour, suspense, and angst, a fine balance between plot and character development, and you’ll get a fine manga to read. The drawing is old-fashioned, but then it’s a more than 30-year-old work! But the style overall is very pleasant, as for me. Give it a try!

A couple of things to know:

- I’m ‘omnivorous’, which means I read any genre and will give a go to any plot.
- That includes rape (which happens, like, in every other yaoi manga as the expression of undying love), incest, and shota(con). If you don’t know what that is, go read the corresponding articles in Wikipedia first. Otherwise, mind the genres and warnings, and if you know you don’t like something, simply don’t click the links. It’s not my task to cater to your kinks and squicks.
- If a manga is licensed, I won’t give link to places where to download it. If you want to read it, you’ll have to find it on your own. It’s not that difficult, seeing how many free manga-sharing communities and sites there are. But it would do good to support your favourite mangaka by buying her work!

## means “loved to bits OMG!”
# stands for “liked.”
[] means “rather liked,” on the brink between “liked” and “not my thing.”

If you want to also read my reviews of the yaoi manga I read that I’m not including here (I don’t like every one of them, naturally), go here. Chances are, you’ll like something that wasn’t quite to my tastes.

Manga are sorted

a) By title (Japanese title if it’s known by it better or the English one if the case is opposite)

b) By mangaka (to be added later)

Akanai Tobira (The door to the closed mind) []
Mangaka: Suzuki Tsuta
Scanlation group: Dangerous Pleasure
Status: 1 volume (complete), scanlation ongoing (ch. 3-5 released)
Genre: Yaoi
Warning: NWS
Recced by eromenos_x here
Summary: A book of oneshots (some are two chapters). 3) The Ugly Duckling and the Prince. In high school reserved Tayama paled in comparison to princely Tachibana, even the girl Tayama liked did nothing but talk about him. Now that they’re in the same college Tachibana has latched onto Tayama as his new best friend. Fighting off the Prince’s fan girls is proving to be troublesome, but more worrying are Tayama’s own feelings…
5) It’s Lonely When You’re Cold. Muraoka Takeo has been admiring the beautiful but reserved store clerk for months, but when Takeo finally gets up the nerve to talk to him he finds himself being kissed! When the object of his admiration proves to be more different than Takeo could ever imagine, is there any hope?
Download: here

My notes: Chapters 3 and 4 are the same story, the 1st part of which is told from one guy’s perspective and the second, from the other’s. When one guy is supposed to be good-looking and the other one just ordinary or ugly but they are drawn sort of the same, it makes me go “WTF?” Why should I believe words when there’s drawing? In the opening panels, it’s hard to get who’s saying what but it gets better later. There’s also some confusion in terminology. The guy is called a sadist so I expected some serious pain kink. But it’s dubcon and some rather forceful sex, and the guy doing it is pretty messed up and, yes, rather sadistic. But not S/M, no. Chapter 5 is also interesting.

These manga aren’t very unusual but there’s a nice twist in both of them that makes them easy to remember.

Angel’s Confession []
Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Scanlation: Malariousarea
Genre: Yaoi
Status: complete, Oneshot
Warning: Not Worksafe
Found: asked for nice and loving shota in yaoi_daily_cafe
Summary: Yuuya’s parents are always fighting or out of town. When he gets locked outside on a cold winter’s night, he’s saved by his neighbor Moegi. Soon he’s spending most of his time at his “angel’s” and has fallen in love with him. But how does Moegi feel about him?
Download

My notes: the opening panel is a classical POV disruption: “My name is Makise Yuuya, a lively 15 years old” (not to mention bad grammar). I’m not sure whether it’s translator’s fault or the original, but the dialogue bubbles sometimes seems to miss things or be rather, let’s say, less comprehensible, not least of all because of jumping from 3d to 1st person. Having said that, the story and drawing are really lovely, hot in places. Not very sophisticated, on any of the levels, but pleasant and exactly like what I wanted when I made this request. I’m going to read more by this mangaka.

Boku dake no Kimi, Kimi dake no Boku []
Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Scanlation Group: Dangerous Pleasure
Genre: Yaoi
Status: Oneshot, complete
Warning: not worksafe
Found: looking for this mangaka’s works
Summary: A selfish young model treats coworkers and lovers badly, but cherishes his honest childhood friend.
Download

My notes: Awww. The story itself is nothing special: a first childhood love that bears fruit when the characters are adult. Big guy crying is cute. I really like this mangaka’s recurring plot of somebody returning to their childhood’s love, their neighbour. It’s a tad naive but nice and sweet. Nicely drawn, too.
More stuff by this mangaka can be found in lj comm naono_bohra or via The Naono Bohra English scanlation database.

Chintsubu (Chinko no Tsubuyaki) []
Mangaka: Yamato Nase
Status: 2 volumes (Completed)
Scanlated by: Nakama
Warning: not worksafe
Genre: Comedy Yaoi
Found: recced to me by jealous_sky here.
Summary: Toride has always loved his cute classmate, Ayase. Somehow, when their school bus crashes at a fertility shrine on a class trip, Toride’s penis gets attached to Ayase’s body (well, of sorts — pj). How do they know? Well the penis can talk, of course. Similar problems beset their classmates, the class brain Iwabuchi and the class playboy, Kamiya. How will the boys deal with this embarrassing situation? Will they ever get the problem resolved?
Download: in manga sharing places while Nakama is down.

My notes: guys, this is crack. Pure, crazy, silly crack. Some lines and panels, like “After that, I new rumor began to spread”, made me laugh. The drawing is cluttered, sometimes to the point that I said out loud that filling every bit of space with drawing isn’t really necessary. But the story is sheer fun. Talking penises, penises possessed by classmates, penises wearing glasses, etc. I don’t know if in my impatience to read it I downloaded an unfinished version or if it doesn’t have a proper ending, but my reading ended on ch. 15 of vol. 2 which was a sort of non-ending. Apart from that, it was lolsome. I can’t say I really liked the story, but I certainly enjoyed reading it.

Covetous You, Insensible Me []
Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Scanlation Group: Dangerous Pleasure, SHI-RAN
Genre: Yaoi
Status: 1 Volume (Complete)
Warning: not worksafe
Found: looking for this mangaka’s works; also Confession is recced to me by trague here
Summary: A collection of oneshots:
1) Covetous You and Insensible Me (Hoshigariana Kimi to Futsutsukana Boku) [SHI-RAN]: Never one to get close to strangers, Kai finds himself helpless in the enchanting gaze of a foreigner…
2) Lost in the Darkness Before Dawn (Gyou An ni Mayou) [Dangerous Pleasure].
3) Confession (Kokuhaku) [SHI-RAN]: Unable to forget the random act of kindness by the wealthy but lonely business man, Matsumi offers to sell his body. Is it really just for money, or is there a greater need at stake?
4) The night he escaped death (Shi ni Zokonai no Yoru) [Dangerous Pleasure]: Prequel of Lost in the Darkness Before Dawn.
5) Sleepless Night (The Night He Escaped Death bonus) [Dangerous Pleasure].
6) Service: Confession bonus [SHI-RAN].
7) Bonds of Blood: Covetous You and Insensible Me bonus [SHI-RAN].
Download: at Shi-ran, at DP

My notes:
#2, 4 (prequel) and the bonus (#5) are historical, with spies and sword fights. And also curling toes and beautifully tattooed arms. There’s some limb loss and gore in the prequel. And nice role reversal in the bonus story.
#1 and its tiny bonus (#7) are a classic NB’s story: an older, insecure uke (much older, even) and a young seme. This time a predator falls in love with his prey.
#3 and #6: is about a middle-aged man and a young boy he helps at a construction work site. It’s lovely.
Pleasant reading on the whole. I liked the Lost in the Darkness Before Dawn storyline (2, 4, 5) best. I really liked how fighting scenes were drawn. Well, and I always like how Naono Bohra draws sex.

A COWARD’S HAPPINESS series (Ikujinashi no Shiawase) []
Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Genre: Yaoi
Status: 1 volume (Complete)
Warning: not worksafe
Found: looking for this mangaka’s works
Summary/scanlation groups/DL:
1) Ikujinashi No Shiawase (A Coward’s Happiness) [Cblue]: The owner of a rice shop, Kawada feeds a poor student, Mori, after he tried to steal food from his shop, saying ‘The duty of a student is to study’; and starts to look after him. But Mori starts harboring deeper feelings towards Kawada, not just gratitude… (by kriptonima)
2) Slave of Love [Datenshi Blue and ALSO Liquid Passion + Countless Time]: (spin-off of ch. 01): Mitsuo is the manager of a host club owned by his cousin, the violent and ruthless Eito. Eito raised Mitsuo from a very young age, but they’ve grown apart, despite still living together. When Mitsuo decides to help a younger coworker quit the business, he runs the risk of making Eito very angry…
3) Revenge of Love [Liquid Passion + Countless Time]: (sequel to ch. 02) The drama continues with a twist.
4) Homemade Vampire [Nakama]: Letting his oversized half-Japanese nephew live with him is one thing, but a man will soon discover that the nephew is keeping a dark secret…
5) Kodomo no Himitsu (A Child’s Secret) [Nakama]: Mori and Kaname are cousins with secrets. Mori is harbouring a crush on his older cousin and is plagued by erotic dreams at night. Kaname, on the other hand, likes to tease Mori by giving him alcohol and ‘playing’ with him after he passes out.
6) A Coward’s Blunder (extra) [Liquid Passion]: Rice shop love continues.
More stuff by this mangaka can be found in lj comm naono_bohra or via The Naono Bohra English scanlation database.

My notes: Story #1: translation: awkward. The story is drawn very pleasantly (as usual) and there are enough details to keep it in your mind after reading, say, stealing the rice or small earthquake, or the very small guy Kawada who is awfully cute and kind. Lots of lovely panels in this one. #2 follows up from one and has the same characters but us about the manager in the host club where Mori works, Mitsuo, and the owner of said club. Advice: read Liquid Passion’s version; the translation is better there. There’s an unusual take on rape, a very cliché thing in yaoi manga: the guy loves being raped, and reflects on it — well, somewhat.
#4, Homemade Vampire — liked. Especially the last panel, with fangs.
#5, Kodomo no Himitsu, is about a countryside guy Mori who came and stayed at his cousin’s place. Cousin, Kana-chan, makes him drink; when drunk, he passes out. Cousin first decides to have a laugh at his expense by making him come and wash his underpants in the mornings but gets addicted and falls in love in the end. Quite lovely, too.

On the whole, not my most favourite of Naono Bohra’s works but quite enjoyable, like most of her manga that I’ve read. If you need something nice and comforting, go for it.

Don’t Say Any More, Darling (Sore wo Ittara Oshimai yo) []
Mangaka : Yoshinaga Fumi
Scanlation group: –
Genre: Drama Josei Sci-fi Shounen Ai Slice of Life Yaoi
Status: 1 Volume (Complete) collection of oneshots; licensed
Warning: NWS
Found: something in the cover attracted my attention when I browsed various yaoi-sharing places
Summary: Kouhei is a doctor at the local university hospital who has lost touch with his high school friend Tadashi. While Kouhei grew up to become a successful young doctor, Tadashi became a jobless, poor-as-dirt, flaming gay writer. But one lonely night, at his wits end, Tadashi sends Kouhei a text message and receives a reply. Of course Tadashi has secretly harbored feelings for Kouhei for a long time. But when he finds out Kouhei is getting set-up for an arranged marriage… (this is for the first chapter only; the other 4 chapters are unrelated)

My notes: Story 1, Don’t Say Any More, Darling: I can’t say I like the drawing, especially the faces with their drill-like tiny eyes. But on the other hand, the drawing is very distinctive and I like that very much! The story is entertaining, especially the ending.
Story 2, My Eternal Sweetheart: a very ill boy who can’t leave their mansion asks his older brother to make a sex android for him. Then another one. And more. Nice twist at the end.
Story 3, Fairyland: “Because humans have become so foolish and indecent, god punished them by erasing them from the Earth.” After a month of wandering through the empty city, a man who somehow survived meets a teenage boy. It’s pretty weird. I can’t say I get it.
Story 4, One may day, is a non-explicit het and I don’t get it either. An older man buries his first wife and meets a woman in a caffee. He marries her but not for long. I can’t see any point to it.
Story 5, (not sure which of them is the title) Solfege: an ageing former piano star has been forgotten by public. He smokes on a bridge every day, and meets a young guy. Again, a nice twist in this story.

Well, I liked three out of five: 1, 2, and 5. Not LIKED liked but I enjoyed them and found them very entertaining. So, half a star from me. Am definitely going to read Antique Bakery and Gerard to Jacques, two longer manga by this artist.

Empty Heart []
Mangaka: Minase Masara
Scanlation Group: Nakama, Hochuuami
Genre: School Life Yaoi
Status: licensed but it was fully scanlated
Warning: not worksafe
Found: Recced by ahoythere here: Again, beautiful art. I read Minase’s stuff because it’s so pretty, not because the story’s good but this manga is an exception (maybe I’m also nostalgic because it was one of the first mangas I ever read…). Takumi is in love with his teacher Jun but Jun has always loved Takumi’s older brother Ryou. Because he and his brother look exactly the same, Takumi offers to sleep with Jun and pretend to be Ryou. The angst isn’t overdone and it’s quite a sweet story.

My notes: lovely. I’m in two minds about the drawing. It’s very pleasant on the one hand but some things annoyed me, stick-like arms mostly. The story isn’t too complex but it’s pleasant to look at, and there’s just enough story in it to keep my attention.

I’m keeping the summary from ahoythere because the one at Manga Updates is too spoilery.

Eroica Yori Ai wo Komete (From Eroica With Love) (from 1976 till now) ##
Mangaka: Aoike Yasuko
Scanlation group: Pink Panzer; an anonymous group scanlated the first 19 volumes. The first ten volumes have been published in English.
Genre: Action Adventure Comedy
Status: 34 Volumes (Ongoing); scanlation up to Vol. 21 (part 1 of of story 17)
Found: in a talk with Parlophone about old skool manga
Summary: What happens when a gay art thief and a conservative NATO officer cross paths? Disaster, of course. Dorian is an aristocrat, a thief and a hedonist; Klaus is a duty-driven espionage agent with no patience for fools. Follow them as they chase each other across the globe — from Britain to Baghdad, from Alaska to Alexandria, from Moscow to Madrid. Spectacular locations and non-stop adventures await!
Download: Vol. 1-19 with a nice detailed guide including notes on scan quality (locked for members); vol. 20-21 (locked). More covers (and first 13 vols) here
Prequel/spinoff: Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter; Madan no shashu)
Status: 1 volume (Complete).
Summary: A hardboiled espionage action story featuring Major Eberbach. Can he elude the pursuit of the genius assassin from the KGB? More detailed summary by missparaphilia here.
Other related and side stories: Z, Plus Ultra (artbook), Nanatsu no umi nanatsu no sora and its prequel, Eru Arukon - Taka (a step to the past, about Man in Purple)

Related things: lj comm castlegloria (Eroica fanfiction); schlosseberbach (everything Eroica); Eroicafans.org. There’s fandom! I might dip my toes in it. I haven’t decided yet. Am awfully tempted.

My notes: I loved this manga to bits and tiny little pieces! I’ve had SO MUCH FUN with it. Best Male Friend who had to observe me reading it in the evenings on our trip now must be sure I’m a complete loony, if he hasn’t thought so before. Because I clapped hands, squealed, laughed, and talked to my laptop.

It’s awfully trashy, as trashy as only comics about superheroes and Cold War times can be but yeah, lots and lots of fun. I can’t tell you how many times I burst out laughing or grinned in delight. Each time I finished a story from the series, I thought, “I liked this one best!” And then thought the same when I read the next one. The genre is spy action/adventure and humour. Truth be told, I don’t like reading about spies almost as much as I dislike reading Sci-Fi. Not my thing at all. But this one is so light and captivating, and in the end, so amusing and enjoyable that I succumbed almost at once.

Character facial expressions aren’t Aoike Yasuko’s forte, nor is anatomy. Plot is. Spies and secret agents of every country: KGB, NATO Intelligence, CIA and FBI, MI6 (SIS), Interpol, etc, etc and also local police of where the action takes place and local criminals are all competing with each other or fighting each other. Characters travel all over the world. Character names are awfully trashy too; that first seemed too bad to me but later made me laugh and welcome them (Misha the Cub as the KGB boss, Comrade Dostoevsky, Comrade Gorky, Comrade Karinka, lol). The settings are European (mostly) but there are lots of Japanese sayings or references, and that creates a fantastic multi-cultural kaleidoscope. If it’s skewed, it’s fun nevertheless. One thing I find surprising is that among all the agents and forces, there’s not a mention of Stasi. You’d think that Iron Klaus of Bonn would mostly deal with them. But back to what I started with, this manga is incredibly plotty. Feels like a real rollercoaster sometimes. What amazes me most is that the mangaka always ties all her ends by the end of a story. Wowsome.

Both main characters are very attractive. Supporting characters are wonderful too, especially Mr James, Eroica’s extremely stingy accountant (although I don’t like how he’s developed in the last scanlated stories). I love-love-love Iron Klaus (Major Eberbach). I can’t even believe how much myself. Almost like Snape. But then again, he’s a Snape-like character, only with much better hygiene. He’s very rude and loves to shout; he expresses his negative opinion on people and actions without hesitation. He’s a prude and neat freak and superhero all the way but unexpectedly, there’s something in him that calls for your sympathy and makes you want to hug him, even with the risk for your life such a gesture would pose — when he broods or when something does manage to stun him (Eroica usually :D). IMHO, his character isn’t as logical as Eroica’s: it’s rather contradictory, if you start thinking about it seriously. But in the mosaic-like nature of this character perhaps lies a lot of his appeal. He’s intelligent, resourceful, quick-witted, and observant but at the same time not aesthetically developed in any way (despite being a rich aristocrat by birth) and rather naive in some things, or maybe infantile. But why am I looking for that much psychological credibility in a character who smokes like a chimney but is able to run fast for miles without losing his breath? He’s incredibly cool (superhero, remember?) but his quirks and idiosyncrasies make him humane. And precious. If to speak of the way he’s drawn, I melt when I see his haircut. Melt and squee :) So I understand why Eroica never gives up. Eroica himself is also an absolutely charming character: extravagant, flamboyant, childlike in his wish to have all the pretty that he likes, devious yet kind. And more logical in and of himself, as a character. Speaking of the drawing again, the characters don’t age as the years pass: not only is Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach the Eternal Major, he’s an ageless Klaus: he’s the same in 1990 as he was in 1977, and so is Eroica.

On the whole, I’ve read manga where the drawing looked more professional but was it more enticing? No, no, it wasn’t. At the beginning, I looked at the covers and thought, “OMG, what awful jaws!” By the end I though, “Oh my, such lovely chins, gimme more!” I thought it many times while reading Eroica that that was an error and that was badly drawn but overall I was completely charmed. The mangaka draws one face for her main characters, as too many do, but it seems she’s aware of it: see story 10 and on. In any case, the drawing changes to the better visibly from the first volumes to the middle of the manga. It looks as if the mangaka didn’t find her style and touch at once. I like the later style better of course, and objectively speaking, it’s more elaborate and sure.

Another thing I liked very much about this manga is that it’s like a contemporary history lesson. Well, only for those who remembers the news hot topics from the years when the volumes were drawn ‘cos the lessons are comical and so of course warped. War Iran vs Iraq, Moscow Olympics 1980, Perestroika and Glasnost, the uniting of the two Germanies, they all pass before your eyes. Fashions! OMG sunglasses! Hair styles OMG! :) Breathe and drink history, or ‘History Lite’, if you will :)

Speaking of structure, the manga consists of stories that have the same cast of characters and that you could read separately. Comparing it to other manga that have ‘big plot’ and ’small plots’, I wouldn’t say it has a big plot that unifies all stories. I mean, if you start with story 15, I don’t think you’ll find it incomprehensible. But I still recommend reading it from beginning to … well, to the current [scanlated] volume. Because while the big plot barely goes anywhere, the characters form various kinds of relationships, and it’s interesting to trace those. Story 1 is really just a warm-up for the later series (but please don’t let it scare you off). There are main characters you won’t meet after story 2, so reading vol. 1 is a bit bewildering ‘cos it barely touches what the summary speaks about. But that story picks up later, and goes on for many volumes.

Side stories are fun, especially the one that shows the disastrous party that is referred to in The Laughing Cardinals. Other side stories tell us quite a bit about Lord Eroica’s and Iron Klaus’s past. General advice: don’t skip side stories, especially the later ones. They either show a lot of important things or you simply would want more Eroica by then :)

The prequel, Der Freischütz, is darker than the main series. If From Eroica with Love is a humorous look at a spy’s life (and so, adventures), Der Freischütz is about its dangers and ruthlessness. Makes one understand Major’s paranoia better. Spoiler, highlight to read: only in Der Freischütz can we see the death of a character. In Eroica, things get smashed, buildings destroyed, there are fisticuffs, people get injured occasionally, but nobody dies. In Der Freischütz, even Major kills.[/end spoiler]

I’m posting this rec under the yaoi tag but it’s not yaoi at all. Spoiler white on white, highlight to read (mind, a REAL spoiler, for the whole series, so think twice): honestly, it’s not even BL for real. Very soon in the series, Eroica falls in love with Iron Klaus aka Major Eberbach. Major, if anything, is asexual. He despises the ‘homo stuff’ but there’s no woman to make his blood run faster either. If anything, he’s a devoted husband to his work. So their relationship consists of endless one-sided flirting and passes and also one-sided shouting and attempts to sterilise plates, door handles, etc not to catch homo virus. I would hate UST of such proportions in another manga. But somehow it’s not annoying here. Maybe because Eroica enjoys chase much better than gain. Or maybe because if Iron Klaus didn’t break into a cold sweat at the thought of somebody touching him (unless it’s a fight), he won’t be Iron Klaus anymore. Be it as it may, the UST too happens to be very enjoyable in this manga.[/end spoiler]

Btw, I would like to request a spoiler for the last 10 volumes, if somebody has read them raw (since the question is spoilery too, it’s also white on white): does their relationship progress in any way, as in, the Major begins to feel something beyond annoyance about Eroica or does it stay the same? I doublt it, but… And does the mangaka age her characters?[/end spoiler]

A couple of notes on the translation of volumes 1-19: it seems to be done by a person (persons) whose first language is Japanese, so the English often sounds stilted. There weren’t errors that threw me out, just strange word choices and expressions. Well, and of course the translation of proper nouns can be very imprecise, say, Ljublanka in story 11: I couldn’t figure out what it was until I saw the note that it was where the KGB headquarters were located. Turns out to be Lubyanka. Don’t know whose error it is, mangaka’s or translator’s. And can’t say it really matters. Ljublanka or Lubyanka, or Russian names that can’t exist, it’s still fun and charming in its own way. My special thanks to Pink Panzer guys for picking up the scanlation in the first place, but also for keeping to the spirit of the translation (’cos by the middle of the story, I loved it) and for the good scans.

My favourite story is Emperor Waltz (a huge one, volumes 16, 17, 18 & 19), and favourite scene is Iron Klaus performing a Tyrolean dance. Who could resist?! A couple of pictures to entice: click here.

I spent almost three weeks with this manga, and now that I’ve reached the end of the scanlated stuff, I don’t know how to be without! As a conclusion, heartily and highly recommended. From pj with love :)

Fingertip’s Love (Yubisaki no Koi) []
Mangaka: Naono Bohra
Scanlation Group: Nakama (site is down)
Genre: Yaoi
Status: 1 Volume (Complete)
Warning: not worksafe
Found: looking for this mangaka’s works; recced by Reddwarfer
Summary: Detective Maizuru Motoya has a secret he cannot tell his assistant, whom he is in love with. With a single touch of a person, Motoya can read their thoughts. How he got such ability is in the past. Nakagawa, who doesn’t know about his respectful boss’s special ability, began to worry when Motoya refuses to let come in contact with him. To add more worry, Motoya is awfully close with Hajime…

My notes: It’s a bit too comical and dramatic for me, but lovely and pleasant to look at too. The detective is what makes this manga, IMO, with his special ability (you’ll learn how he got it in ch. 5) and incapacitating phobias. He’s awfully cute: eyes that have corners down and skinny hands, like a small yuppy dog :) I was wondering why people kept calling him old man when he’s freaking younger than me, like, a mere boy! Then in the extra, the mangaka said she’d drawn him as 38. Well, ok, not an old man still but less outrageous :) Anyway, the story was interesting to follow and pleasant to look at. What else to wish?

Flowers unrated so far
Mangaka: Miyamoto Kano
Group: Liquid Passion
Warnings: Not Worksafe
Status: ongoing
Genre: Yaoi
Found: Been posted in yaoi_daily June 2008, where the comm celebrated the mangaka’s birthday
Download
Summary: When Ryou moves into a new apartment block, his neighbour Makoto makes no secret of the fact that he likes men, and Ryou is forced to confront the secret doubts he’s always had about his own sexuality. Things get complicated when Makoto’s history with the other resident of the building, Nanno, results in jealousy, tension, and love triangles all around.

My comments: Looks like a typical story by this mangaka so far. I doubt it will become my favourite manga but I’ve been following it and am planning to continue. There’s plot behind the porn and the characters look lovely.

Gokuraku Cafe []
Mangaka: Mamahara Ellie
Been posted in yaoi_daily in June 2008.
Warnings: relatively worksafe (but for a few kisses)
Genre: Yaoi
Scanlation Group: Forever More
Download.
Summary vol.01: Gokuraku Cafe revolves around Yuuto Takanashi, a young cafe part-time worker with a penchant for the animated cartoon character, Jacky. Naturally enthusiastic and helpful, Yuuta often gets involved with the personal lives and problems of Rainbow Forest Cafe’s customers. Although a bit impulsive, his involvement usual