BUTCHLog           BUTCH (◔◡◔)
BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

Boyish²
Organized and published: Mutsumi Natsuo
Translation: Ayumi Shinozaki
Release Date: January 31, 2022

CW: brief mention of suicidal ideation within a story, otherwise all delightful butch fluff

I’m the person who, when walking down the street, will be eyefucking the hottest guy in sight. Rain or shine, trans or cis, winter, spring, summer, fall, big or smol, I am boy crazy.

Often it will occur that said hot guy turns around, and I see that they’re a butch woman, or maybe a masculine AFAB non-binary person. I’ll shrug and go, “I’m okay with that.”

So let’s just say Boyish² (click through for the ebook) was ready made for a lesbian/androgyny enthusiast like me.

No preamble needed, Boyish² delivers what it promises, butch on butch stories. The delightful thing is it runs the gamut in so many ways, a total grab bag; art style, genre, tone, length, narrative, spiciness… There were definitely stories I enjoyed more than others, but unlike other manga short collections or anthologies, thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, not really a dud among them. That’s why it’s such a fantastic anthology, there’s probably something for all yuri and butch lovers in here.

So instead of one big review (and by review I mean gushing, pun intended), I’ll do three spoiler-free mini-reviews of my favourites.

Beware the Wolf

I haven’t read enough girls’ love/yuri to make any major comparisons between that and boys’ love. What I can categorically state is that artist Jackie’s “Beware the Wolf” has serious boys’ love vibes, and I am here for it.

High schooler Yori–nicknamed “Bunny” by her friends, probably because she’s small, floppy and docile–is sent to get drinks from the machine for her friends, who sometimes take advantage of her kindness. When she drops a bottle she’s helped by the school’s lone wolf, Oghami. A gym class accident, a nosebleed and the requisite trip to the nurse’s office (as well as a requisite kabedon) gives them a chance to get to know one another and cements their friendship… and maybe something more!

Probably the most traditionally manga art style of the entire anthology and, again, the BL vibes are real. You’ve got your light-haired uke and your dark haired seme–I mean, literally a bunny and a wolf. Light hearted and tender. *chef’s kiss*

We’re Just Close, is All

This is a hotly contested favourite for me against “Bad Butch Bad Boy”… but more on that later.

Jackie’s art may be the most traditionally manga, but I think Edakichi’s style is my favourite from the bunch. I’m a sucker for manga with extremely expressive characters that just pop off the page; between blonde shorty Haru Fajino’s peppy, happy-go-lucky disposition, tall, dark-haired Nozomi Maebara’s cool, slightly melancholy facade, and Edakichi’s huge expressive eyes there’s so much to love.

“We’re Just Close, is All” is your requisite unrequited love story–you may have guessed from the title–but like a couple of the other stories in the manga it actually depicts the gender journey of Nozomi as she decides to cut her hair short and start wearing guy’s or unisex clothes. The story starts with a kiss between the two of them, but we learn that happens every time Haru gets drunk. Adorable with some feels, if Edakichi continued with these characters I would be the first in line.

Bad Butch Bad Boy/Coffee Time

I’m rolling these two into one because they’re by the same author and I do what I want. Both, as it would happen, by the anthology’s organizer Mutsumi Natsuo!

“Bad Butch Bad Boy” ticks all the boxes for me. Bee is a bratty, feral shithead boi in skinny jeans (check), Iori is a smooth, cool, handsome, dominating and punishing butch woman (check and check). After some impolite behaviour in Shinjuku Nichome (Tokyo’s gay village), Iori takes Bee under her wing… in a manner of speaking… with sexy results (and some light S&M, check)! A delicious and hot little short, and always so cool to see manga stories set in Shinjuku’s “special ward”.

“Coffee Time” is pure and delightful fluff, and a fantastic depiction of a black woman in manga as a bonus, I legit think the first I’ve ever seen! Shy, freckled blushing and boyish Akira is a regular at their university’s “Starbooks” (AHAHAHA), and handsome, bespectacled and stylish locks-with-an-undercut Gray is the requisite hot foreigner and their favourite barista. Cue the squeeing. Art-wise these two stories are a cool comparison between the previous two, especially Jackie’s more traditional look. Mutsumi Natsuo is definitely very manga with a bit of a webcomic twist, looks-wise, very clean lines and simple shading, compared to the very manga cell shading in “Beware the Wolf”.

I just realized I picked the most straightforward of the bunch, definitely looking for those classroom BL vibes, but there’s a little fantasy and sci-fi thrown in for good measure! A few small editing issues and a couple instances of clunky translation is my only criticism, otherwise smooth, very butch sailing. I am just so thankful and impressed they got this translated and out in English so quickly, it went out in Japanese last December! I was so excited for this anthology and thought I’d be waiting a year for it!

I flicked through the manga to pick my favourites and it was almost impossible to decide–hence the two-for-one in the last. There’s so much to be said about some of the other stories I’d just be going on, but a couple of honourable mentions include:

“Moon In the Water”, probably the most honest depiction of depression I’ve seen in manga–they don’t USE the word depression, but main character Nadeshiko is discovered, by love interest Toki, drinking alone, struggles with her identity, is shown to be so sad it hurts and talks about how she wants to die–if it looks like depression and quacks like depression…

“I’ll Sculpt My Abs!!”, as well, I can’t believe I left out of my favs. Muscled butches in crop tops and midriff abound. Woof.

The three (okay four…) above may be my favourites, but Boyish²‘s strength is in its variety, whether you’re a veteran yuri reader or just want some adorable stories about cute butches in love, there’s something in here for you. Boyish² is an incredible cultural artifact, as well, there are very few pieces of media I can think of that depict butch/masculine-leaning women in love, which obviously needs to change.

I kid you not, before I had even got half way through I was inspired to write some butch on butch smut. And no one can stop me. In the immortal words of anthology organizer Matsumi Natsuo in an afterwod: “Blessings and love to all butches!” A(wo)men.

Level of Problematic: “Little lady, this is an adult establishment.”; honestly, the worst it gets that I can think of is a non-consensual kiss and… something else, but I don’t want to ruin that surprise. And it’s a pretty hot one that leaves the bratty, feral shithead boi in skinny jeans blushing and drooling. I’ll take another.

Level of Adorable: WOLF & BUNNY; one of these stories would have given me the warm fuzzies, but a dozen of them… I was not ready…

Level of Spiciness: The S&M Queen; SADLY maybe rated 16+ at worst. I would gladly read Boyish² 2: Butches Gone Wild XXX. Or Boyish² 2: Bigger, Badder, Butcher? GLADLY.