DMP BOOKS/Juné Manga – @junemanga
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
CARTOONIST: Sakira
TRANSLATION: Valeria Paolini
LETTERING: JF
EDITOR: Lindsay M
ISBN: 978-1-56970-834-7; paperback, (April 2020)
194pp, B&W, $16.95 US
Yaoi/Drama/Romance/Manga; Rated “18+”/Mature
Teach Me, Tutor is a yaoi manga anthology collection from manga creator, Sakira (the creator of Sailor Men). Yaoi manga is a subset of boys' love (or BL) manga, which depicts amorous situations between male romantic leads. Yaoi manga usually features explicit depictions of sex between those male leads. The main feature of Teach Me, Tutor, a five-chapter serial that finds two old friends in a master-pupil... sexual situation.
Teach Me, Tutor opens with the title story, “Teach Me, Tutor.” Mitsuhashi Minami needs a tutor to improve his grades in college. Along comes his old neighbor, Arakawa Uta, whom Minami once called “Uta-kun.” It isn't long before Uta's tutelage leads to improved grades for Minami, and then, Uta-kun is demanding that Minami call him “Sensei.” Next, Uta it tearing Minami's clothes off and tying him up. It seems as if it is time for the tutor (Uta) to teach his pupil (Minami) about the joys of rough sex. But does Minami hate... or love this new direction in his education?
Later, in “Stalking Love,” Minami and Uta are a couple living together, and Uta's jealous side often rears its ugly head. When a friend of Minami's, a straight student named Irie Tadakuni, starts asking Minami for relationship advice, Uta is suspicious. Minami thinks his lover is just being jealous as usual, but is there something to Uta's concerns about Takakuni...?
In “My Dear Teddy Bear,” 27-year-old Asari Soushi, a beautician, finds a small apartment. Much to his surprise, however, he gets an unexpected roommate, 36-year-old Momoi Atsumu, an office worker. Soushi can't help but wonder if his landlords aren't pulling a “double contract scam.”
Soushi soon finds out that this tall, dark, and handsome older man is hugely muscular... romantic... horny... and apparently shy and embarrassed about that. With the help of some choice root vegetables, can Soushi be the aggressive “seme” (top) that Atsumu's uke (bottom) needs? Plus, what happens when Atsumu's young daughter(!), Umika, moves in?!
[This volume includes an “Afterword” and a bonus comic, “Manga Report of L.A.'s Autograph Session!!”]
THE LOWDOWN: The “Teach Me, Tutor,” serial is not the best that this Teach Me, Tutor collection has to offer. Arakawa's Jekyll and Hyde personality is more Hyde... if Hyde were a sexually sadistic, bondage maven... and rapist. “Teach Me, Tutor” is a bit odd even for my odd tastes, but it does have its humorous moments. I do like that the fact that Sakira fills her illustrations with the depictions of copious amounts of flowing bodily fluids.
The two-part “My Dear Teddy Bear” story is the best of this volume. It is sweet, romantic, cute, silly, and ultimately heartwarming. The Soushi-Atsumu dynamic is a winner, and it gets even better when Atsumu's bold and sassy daughter, Umika, is added to the mix. I wish Sakira would have given us an entire volume featuring the “My Dear Teddy Bear” characters, who eventually form a family of endearing characters.
Teach Me, Tutor finishes off with a ridiculous, but mildly amusing story about two dudes who have been fightin' friends since childhood. “Our Cowgirl/Riding Situation” is one of those “just-get-a-room” state of affairs. I think that this single-chapter story would also make for an interesting stand-alone volume.
Sakira fills this volume will tall, brawny, muscular men, and she draws the muscles and muscularity in exacting detail. The muscles bulge, and just about each big, muscly ass has an anus waiting to be penetrated by finger... or by one of those long, thick dicks that every male character seems to swing in this book. In Teach Me, Tutor, yaoi means yowza!
Valeria Paolini, via her English-language translation, manages to find both drama and comedy in Sakira's script. JF deftly letters around all the bulging muscles and... the bulges. Teach Me, Tutor isn't the greatest yaoi manga, but it is great to see gay sex depicted in comics (or, in this case, manga) as big, sweaty, and sticky fun. Also, I do have to give Sakira much credit for celebrating the rip-roaring joy of masturbation in these stories.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Yaoi manga fans and Sakira fans looking for big men with the big stuff will want to get the education of Teach Me, Tutor.
7.5 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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