Waru

by Yukari Hashida

Joe the thug wants to go down in a blaze of glory.Diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, he figures that the last chance he has of ever making a name for himself is to kidnap a politician’s son, demand an insane amount for the ransom, escape to the South Sea Islands with the money and die partying with booze in one hand and a beautiful babe on the other.But can you say “Stockholm Syndrome?” Things don’t turn out as Joe planned when the kidnap victim, Yuushi, begins to develop feelings for him. Which one is the captor and which one is the captive? That picture’s pretty much muddled at this point. Confused? Flip through the pages of Waru and figure it out for yourself.

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Romance, Graphic Novels, Boys Love, M M Romance

195 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 24, 2009

About the author

Name (in native language) : はしだ由花里

Associated Names :
桥田由花里
橋田由花里
高桥由纪
高橋由紀
TAKAHASHI Yuki

Also goes under the name of Takahashi Yuki for most of her shojo work.

Likes: Brad Pitt, Shrimps, Dogs, Pudding
Dislikes: Onions, Bugs

Reviews

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feels like a dash of Warner Brothers’ Road Runner wackiness was added to a yaoi love story, which had me falling out of my seat, laughing. The fragile, vulnerable uke is a lot more devious, possessive, and determined to enjoy and keep his position in the seme’s heart than the reader would guess while the thug-like, bad boy seme is way out of his league (and loving it, although he takes several panels to admit this). Add a villainous rival with a finely developed taste for beauty and the equally wacky, mischievous father of the seme (not exactly supportive of the romance, not exactly unsupportive either, and always there with comedic timing), a series of crimes and misunderstandings leave the reader with a love story that’s every bit as much a slapstick comedy.

[Viridian5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yukari Hashida's Waru is fun, occasionally of the insane variety. You'll have to suspend your disbelief now and then, but I didn't mind. The first story about the boys is the strongest and best, with the next two sort of being "the further adventures of" and so crammed with things going on that our featured pair barely have a place in them.

When Joe is told that he has a life threatening disease, he decides to make a big score and live large before he has to die, so he kidnaps a politician's pretty son for ransom. His hostage, Yuushi, is suspiciously helpful and just gets more so as things go along. Our badass thug needs rescuing now and then....

Joe's a good-hearted, rough-edged ne'er-do-well; for a thumbnail sketch think Sha Gojyo if he had Kurosaki Ichigo's dad. (Joe's dad can be helpful at times but he also seriously needs to get his ass kicked.) Yuushi is a doe-eyed string-puller. You guys know I prefer it when the roles aren't strictly coded by height/hair color/size of the eyes.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, I think I would've liked the story more if Joe's father had been the main character. He was hilarious and really made the comedic bits pop for me. Alas, the couple the manga focuses on is kind of bland and their romance goes on for too long. Overall, it was better than I was expecting, but it's far from the best yaoi out there.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

In general this was a lot of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. There's a good amount of humor that even breaks the 4th wall at times. I mostly like the main couple BUT this manga is definitely a product of its time. There's some very dated attitudes toward homosexuality, which is unfortunately true of a lot of older yaoi. What bothered me more though was how young Yuushi was. While his age is never explicitly stated, it's very clear by the end that he's definitely underage, quite possibly very underage. That just made me very uncomfortable, to the extent I may have bypassed reading this if I knew. Nevertheless, this was enjoyable. If I ever reread it, I'm just going to mentally make him older.

[TT · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Roxana Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

El principio un poco flojo pero el resto muy gracioso.

[Francine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2016:

This was the first yaoi manga I ever owned and I'm holding onto it for sentimental reasons.


2021:

This was the type of trash I liked as a young adult, huh? My tastes have changed, in the sense that I have become a lot more sensitive towards the way rape is almost glamorized in many yaoi manga - like homosexual rape isn't traumatic because it's between men so it doesn't count, or something.

Another topic I've become more sensitive towards is the age difference between the protagonists, PLUS! the fact that one of them is underage. I'm not sure exactly how old Joe is, but he seems in his mid-twenties, while Yuushi is still in middle school the first time they have sex. I understand why 18-year-old me could gloss over this age difference because I was basically still a kid, but as a 30-year-old, this makes me uNcOmFoRtAbLe.

Other than that, it's a funny comic. Like, the one-two-punchline comedic timing is really good.

And I kinda like that Joe is a bi person with a gender preference - often in media, bi people are written as 50-50, and Japanese media often forget that bisexuality even exists at all, so it's cool to have some representation. Shame he had to be a child predator! /facepalm.
It's also weird that he never calls himself bi but keeps making jokes about being perceived as a homo? This manga is pretty old, so maybe it has to do with the times and/or the translation.
Another thing I liked was that we follow the relationship between the protagonists over a period of several years. They seem pretty happy together, considering everything they went through.

So yeah, in conclusion: it's pretty funny, but I don't much care for the child rape. So I'm yeeting this from my personal library.

[L-D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Joe decides to go out in a blaze of glory and kidnap a politician's son. Yuushi, a young cute student, however, develops a case of the hots for his captor. Can Yuushi help Joe get back on track?

This was a cute story but I didn't like Joe's character whatsoever. I'm not really sure what the young Yuushi saw in him. And when Yuushi's mother comes into the story, Joe shows even more of his true colors. The romance aspect of this book was pretty weak, but the kidnapping was interesting.

[Veronika KaoruSaionji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and funny, but not very serious. But still nice. :o)

[Phan Thanh]

là một câu chuyện hấp dẫn

[Anna C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am more interested in his father, lol... way too hilarious.. he can became whatever, lol...