Shy Intentions (Yaoi)

Absolutely adorable!This was mostly told through a backstory.I bought this exact same yaoi manga a few years ago. This without a doubt still remains one of my most favorite and best yaoi mangas ever that I've ever read.It's not your typical boys love high school love story or yakuza romantic manga. It's extremely romantic very sweet cute and very relatable.This is the story of two lost broken souls coming together by a chance meeting and slowly falling in love with one another.

While I certainly have nothing against BL stories set amongst students, by a fairly far margin my favourites involve grown men working actual jobs. Whether it's actors, businessmen, café owners, or even yakuza types, I have to admit that the more mature dynamic between characters balancing their work lives and love life and other obligations strikes a particular chord with me. I was therefore delighted to come across a recent addition to the DMP stable, Shy Intentions. Featuring two very grown men already comfortably settled into their chosen career fields, I looked forward to seeing how their emotional lives played out.Shy Intentions did not fail to deliver for me. It opens with Niya Kaoru being met by his lover Yoshiyuki so that the two of them can go home together. Niya has had a delivery however, so he goes to check on it with a colleague, leaving Yoshiyuki alone with a young student acquaintance who is the lover of Niya's colleague and long-time friend. This young man is impressed with how lovey dovey the couple seem, and asks how they met. What follows is the actual story of their love, and it is one of a subtle sea change in the two men who become lovers.Yoshiyuki is a middle school art teacher. His father died 20 years before, and his sisters, now married with families, have always cared for his mother despite the fact that she and Yoshiyuki now live alone in the family home. When his mother is struck down with liver cancer, Yoshiyuki is at a loss. He's always kept to himself, and even though he teaches art, never really connected to the outside world. So much so that he finds himself musing that he doesn't understand what people mean when they say the sky is beautiful. Faced with this emotional crossroads, he is finding things hard to deal with. Sitting by his mother's side, he can't bring himself to really look directly at her, and always leaves once his sisters arrive.Niya on the other hand, comes every single day to spend lots of quality time with his grandmother. She's been there a long time now as such things go, unable to go home, she is spending her remaining months there as she fades away due to age. It is during one of his daily visits that he accidentally overhears a nurse speak to Yoshiyuki's mother. The unusual surname catches his attention and unable to help himself, he glances in, where he catches sight of the melancholically beautiful face of Yoshiyuki. He is determined to pursue this fellow, at first out of his usual idle idea of fun. But what happens instead, is that he discovers that Yoshiyuki is able to get under his skin, crossing an emotional barrier that he had put up after the death of his kid sister. Unable to stop himself, he tries tor each out and get his true feelings across, hampered by his own usual glib demeanour.Yoshiyuki too, finds that once he looks up, he can see things about him more clearly. But where his gaze is directed is towards Niya, who takes him by the hand and shows him so much of the world about him. Falling helplessly in love, he faces the death of his mother and the his own previous alienation from others causing him to question what is actually happening. Unsure of himself, he stumbles helplessly. Niya and yoshiyuki turn out to be, despite outward appearances and actions, internally the same. They are two very ordinary people in unremarkable professions, leading unremarkable lives, who also happen to be two lost souls looking for warmth and respite, and what we get is a gently paced tale of how they came to find it within each other.The art is well executed, making use of the common every day settings these men find themselves in. This adds to the sense of poignancy found within this tale, as the mundane activities lead them to self discovery of the grand passion within, and the rare beauty of true love. While not as angsty as Yoneda Kou's  No Touching At All (Yaoi) , it does share some of the hallmarks that made it so great, and they are as flawlessly executed. So while I love the sweetness of high school love, the glamour and danger of yakuza laden romance, and the glitz of stories with foreign princes , actors and/or rock stars, this makes a nice change of pace that leaves a lasting impression of complete satisfaction. Having read this, I'll be seeking out more of her licensed works and hoping to see more appear from her in the future.

Eek! It's rough doing the first review! I did a little research, just to cover myself, but now I'm glad I did.The mangaka, Takaku Shouko, is the same artist who did the PASSION series and KISSING with other authors. The art is, therefore, superb, with good details, clear lines and characters that look different enough that you easily tell them apart.This seems to be the mangaka's first English-language solo title, but I think her writing easily matches up to the standard of her art. The story is interesting and the mostly emotional plot lands on various highs and lows throughout the story. The story of the main couple is told mostly in flashback, after an opening sequence, so the reader is assured of the outcome from the start. This is the first time I've read a BL manga story told in this way, but I thought it worked out well, for the most part. Not too confusing once I got over the initial "whoa, this is different".As for "adult" scenes (let's face it, we all want to know), there was more than one and I wasn't disappointed in them. Also, there were a few romantic moments that stood out compared to the average BL title.My only research note is that I was curious about the secondary couple in the volume, and it turns out that they had a short story in a volume of one-shots (FROM YESTERDAY) that hasn't been released in English at the time I am writing this. You don't need to have read the short story to understand the plot in this book, but knowing it exists does explain the matter-of-fact air around the second couple.I closed this book and felt good about having purchased it. Rare enough these days, so I recommend it!

i'm a big fan of takaku's art and really enjoyed her work in passion and kissing. here the story (by takaku) is more shallow, but it's nice to see two adults for a change instead of the more prevalent sensei/student and student/student stories. i still really like her artwork, which includes a lot of closeups and expressive faces. the typical yaoi insecurity forms the basis for much of the conflict, but near the end in the bonus shorts there's a bit more humor thrown in which is nice. all in all you may not want to get this if you're looking for a lot of plot or drama, but if you're a fan of the artist you'll prob. enjoy this as much as i did.

I'm very pleased with the book and delivery of the book ,thank you very much .

A nice love story, even if a bit jumpy in the plot (possibly due to translation, or trans-cultural issues and writing styles that don't move easily from Japanese to English). Nicely drawn, sturdy paper, nice design