BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

Golden Sparkle
Story and art: Minta Suzumaru
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: March 14, 2023

How’d you get your sex education during your grade school years?

In my small town middle school days, maybe around thirteen years old, I remember the dreaded and unavoidable SEX ED. We got grade 7 sex ed from our art teacher, who I remember telling us to get all our “teehees” out before we started. Then in grade 8 it was our homeroom teacher, a middle aged woman who went to my family’s church. I have a vague recollection of a black and white diagram of a vagina projected at the front of the class, and the “bad girl” in class getting yelled at for making a snide comment, and me sinking down in my seat wishing I was anywhere else. That’s about it, and this was all baseline heterosexuality.

So needless to say I didn’t pick up much in school.

Then, in those formative years, a kid I was close to showed me Digimon yaoi and I lost my damn mind. High school was a rabbit hole of Wikipedia deep dives and websites I very much should not have been accessing on my family’s desktop, and hunting for other gay boys to dirty talk to on Habbo fucking Hotel. Good God, I hope I made a habit of clearing my search history… I somehow got away with doing a sexuality survey for a high school sociology project; I was a grade 12 Alfred Kinsey, I still have the binder filled with surveys, grades 9-12. Probably not the most academically rigorous (or ethical), but I got a good grade on it. All that to say, my sex education came very haphazard, self directed and maybe not the emotionally healthiest it could have been. Which explains a lot.

Anyways, how about that boys’ love manga…

Golden Sparkle introduces one of the more unique protagonists in the annals of BL in one Uehara Himari. Himari never really got girls. When dropping him off for kindergarten, his long absent father explained it was up to Himari to protect the girls in his class, before he witnessed a little girl bully his classmate, which shocked him to his core. As he grew up, he died his hair blond and tried acting like a delinquent so people would leave him alone, mostly so he wouldn’t be drawn into the grade school intrigues of guy talk (JUGS) and romantic advances from girls. He skipped his junior high health class because it wasn’t graded, and at home he only has his older sister and mother, so by the time he reaches high school, and puberty, he’s completely ignorant to all matters of sexual health. At the start of the manga, we find Himari cleaning his boxer briefs, concerned about his nightly… emissions.

Enter tall, broad-shouldered, easy going and babely Asada Gaku. The two quickly bond, and after learning about Himari’s… predicament, Gaku gives his new friend some… PRACTICAL sexual health education.

By teaching him how to jerk it. And not just teaching, but by pulling Himari into his lap and giving him a HANDS ON demonstration.

A premise as ridiculous as it is weirdly romantic and sexy. I saw “high school” and a “M – Mature” rating on the back and we can typically make some assumptions about the sexual politics of said manga. Much like I’m Looking For Serious Love, I almost gave Golden Sparkle a pass because of this–the last few years were rough, I don’t need jarring sexual violence in the middle of my sweet, fluffy, romantic manga. But as they get going on their makeshift sexual health adventures, Gaku talks Himari through it, “This is foreplay, helps set the scene. Can I take your pants off? This is a handjob. This is mutual masturbation.” Etc. Weirdly consensual for BL manga about sexual innocence. The two develop a relationship beyond the purely academic; they hang out, they mess around with their classmates at school, Gaku gets Himari to read his junior high health textbooks. Himari’s education and development is important to Gaku in an atypical and lovely way.

The tension of the manga comes from precious little pure Himari not understanding the mix of pleasure from both their educational field trips (to Gaku’s dorm room) and his overwhelming feelings for Gaku. Meanwhile, Gaku was popular in his junior high days but labelled a “player” from a string of girls he dated, though he never felt much when things got physical. His friends abandoned him when he felt girls should be… you know, afforded basic respect as human beings, so he shows up to high school looking for a clean slate. They both chose an all boys high school where no one would know them, and where they wouldn’t have to worry about girls. Little did they know… THEY’D HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT BOYS!

I really loved Golden Sparkle in a way BL doesn’t typically resonate because it illustrates–in a fairly ideal and romanticized way–the fumbling way that teenagers come (no pun intended) to their own sexual education. Soap box moment: At least coming from my experience, school is probably the worst possible place to give young people sexual health information only because adults are way too precious about sexuality. Just look at all the bullshit and hypocrisy going on in the states at the moment, an authoritarian, fundamentalist movement using gender and sexual diversity for scapegoating their way into power. Adults in these positions of power tend to treat sexuality as black and white. Theres “good/normal” sexuality and “bad/deviant” sexuality. Kids don’t give a shit, they’re going to make their own mistakes and, because they don’t have anyone to talk to, might land themselves in vulnerable situations. Being able to name the testes and fill in different terminology for the vagina on a shitty photocopy is maybe the barest amounts of helpful, but doesn’t really do much for lived experience. Young people mostly come around to sexuality one way or the other, but I just think back to some Digimon yaoi fanart (MattxTai, my OTP) where I realized for the first time, “Wow! Boys can kiss?!” If someone had handed me something like Golden Sparkle as a teenager it would have been its own kind of education, and not actually the worst one.

Educational politics and religious fundamentalism aside… If you’re looking for a sexy and cute manga that hits all the right notes–the “home sick with a fever” visit, the pained separation, the tearful confession, their friends cheering them on–then Golden Sparkle will give you the good stuff with some fun variations on the standard high school romance fare.

Level of Problematic: The ol’ BL bait and switch; Ah yes, the character profiles at the back of the book that remind you the main characters who you just watched bone… are both in their first year of high school… and are fifteen… Thanks, Minta Suzumaru, I wanted to feel like a total pervert today! For some comparative literature, though, that’s the same age as gritty reboot Archie Andrews in Riverdale, and doesn’t he take off his shirt a lot and bone his teacher or something? To be honest, Golden Sparkle could have been set in their first year of college and it wouldn’t have changed much, if you need a little plausible deniability. Oh, the places you’ll go and the porn you’ll read!

Level of Adorable: The ol’ BL best friends who bone; There’s a fair amount of sex, and the last sex scene is pretty saucy, but for the most part it’s the boys’ relationship that’s the focus in spite of the manga’s entire premise and, like I said, hits all those sweet, sweet BL notes.

Level of Spiciness: The ol’ BL helpful handie; Helpful handjobs are actually a bit of a BL trope, come to think of it… The whole, “It’s not gay if I’m doing this to help you calm down.” I’m pretty sure that’s the foundation of the entire omegaverse concept.