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NightS

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A collection of masterful, sensual stories by popular yaoi creator Kou Yoneda! In the title story, Masato Karashima is a “transporter,” a man paid to smuggle anything from guns to drugs to people. When he’s hired by yakuza gang member Masaki Hozumi, he finds himself attracted to the older man, and what starts out as a business transaction quickly spirals into a cat-and-mouse game of lust and deception. In “Emotion Spectrum,” a high-school student tries to be a good wingman for a classmate, with an unexpected result, while “Reply” is told from the alternating perspectives of an emotionally reserved salesman and the shy mechanic who’s in love with him.

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2008

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775 people want to read

About the author

Kou Yoneda

36 books497 followers
Yoneda Kou (ヨネダコウ) made her manga debut in 2009 with Doushitemo Furetakunai (No Touching at All), which became an instant critical and commercial success. She followed up with Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai (Twittering Birds Never Fly) and has also published doujinshi (independent comics) under the circle names "Raw" and "NITRO Koutetsu". A Capricorn with an A blood type, she likes sushi, inexpensive chocolate, and foreign drama series.

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5 stars
501 (37%)
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469 (35%)
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267 (20%)
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60 (4%)
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25 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
Profile Image for Mir.
4,975 reviews5,331 followers
June 25, 2018
Except for the first story, these are ordinary people in realistic situations. Kou Yoneda's art is excellent, especially when it comes to subtle expressions.

Other than the m/m element these short stories don't have a ton in common. They differ in length, genre, and rating.

The titular "NightS" is kind of like a summer action blockbuster, a not terribly convincing set-up with drug trafficking and law enforcement pursuit functioning mainly as a backdrop for hot actors characters bantering and having Hollywood sex (you know, the kind where everyone in in sync as to what they want, gets out of their clothes gracefully, is toned and flexible, and none of the poses look weird to the observer). One thing I did find unusual was that it ended . This feels like it ought to be the first half of a longer story.



"Emotion Spectrum" in contrast is an almost totally PG high school love story. There is one use of the word fuck to upset parents who think their kids don't know that word already; otherwise this would be perfect for a YA anthology. Poised Kugo sees a quieter classmate watching him and his hot, popular friend Nakaya. Taking pity on the shy Usui, he decides to help him get together with Nakaya. As he spends time with Usui he develops feelings for him. It's a cute story, well-conveyed, and ends happily for everyone.

Also: introduced me to the band Ellegarden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1zt9...

"Reply" is the longest and most realistic. Mechanic Seki had not previously been interested in men (that he was aware of, although he seems to have been not involved with women, either) but begins to feel attraction to a coworker in another department. I liked that this grew over time rather than being instalove. At first they are just coworkers who hardly interact, then they gradually become friends and begin to hang out after work, then Seki realizes he is in love with Tamaki. Eventually he finds the courage to confess, and then everything is awkward and uncomfortable.

Profile Image for Sheziss.
1,367 reviews486 followers
October 12, 2016
I was pleasantly surprised by this. His style is melancholic and crestfallen. Strangely enough, even the "adorable" story was sad, in a way. However, the author manages to not only infect with this sadness, but also with the warmth we can find in the different pairs.



ONESHOT
This may be my favorite. Incredibly sensual. Unexpected ending that is not an ending at all, but the beginning of something huge. That's why I can't understand why there is not a whole book about this story. The premise is awesome.

(This stories continues in NightS: Another Story).

***

EMOTION SPECTRUM
This is the high-school boys one. The "cheerful" one.

***

REPLY
I don't know what to think about this. The characters seem to like each other, then stay far away and their feelings get cold, then they regret being star away, but they still don't get closer.

*****

Read in Manga Rock.

Volumes in the series:
NightS by Kou Yoneda NightS Another Story by Kou Yoneda
Profile Image for Sushi (寿司).
611 reviews162 followers
November 26, 2019
La copertina è quella che mi ha attirato. Mi piace il nero. Così l'ho comprato. Non ricordo se ho letto altre cose di Kou Yoneda. È probabile di si come scans ma chi si ricorda.
Tuttavia non mi sento di dare un voto pieno in quanto a volte alcuni baloons li trovo confusionari. Ovvero non si capisce chi sta parlando e devi rileggere il passo.

Però tra i pregi del volume metto la bella carta usata, le pagine a colori e la copertina. Anche se la copertina è data per scontata essendo un Flashbook.
Profile Image for Xing.
365 reviews263 followers
January 16, 2014
SuBLime just released the English-language publication of Yoneda Kou's NightS (both a digital PDF and physical release). This release also comes with two other works by Kou: Emotion Spectrum & Reply.

I just bought it and will be in lala land for the rest of the night.
Profile Image for Peppa.
1,179 reviews97 followers
Read
June 20, 2025
I dropped it for now … not sure if I really don’t like it or if I’m just not in the mood for it. Will try again later.
Profile Image for Sophie.
2,636 reviews116 followers
March 30, 2015
I guess if this hadn't been by Yoneda Kou I'd have given it four stars, but since it was by her and every time I read something by her I am more smitten, five stars it is.

Good short stories are difficult to come by, but here's a collection that shows how it's done. It took me a bit to get into the first one − since I had a bit of trouble understanding what they were talking about, it was mostly the gorgeous art that pulled me in. The second story was - in a way - really cliched, but it was the best version of that particular plot I have read so far, and the kiss scene was *amazing*.

The third story was my favourite, and it has what Yoneda Kou is so good at (besides drawing gourgeous manga) - she gives the characters the time they need, so the feelings never seem rushed, and her stories have a somewhat -melancolic isn't the right word, but somewhat whistful mood? Anyway, her stories are really wonderful and I love them the end.
Profile Image for Daniel.
1,029 reviews92 followers
July 1, 2018
I really liked this collection, though the longest story features some elements I don't usually care for, at least not in other contexts. More on that in a second.

This is basically 2 shorter unrelated stories, followed up by a multipart story between a mechanic and a sales guy at a car dealership. They're all good. The first is probably the weakest, though I like the characters in it better than the second.

These are relationship focused, there is on page sex, but it's not overly graphic and the author/artist doesn't linger on it. Just there and done. Realism isn't really the goal in any of them, it's just naive, sweet sort of stuff. The characters in the first story are older and not inexperienced by any means, so I guess what I mean by that is it's purely focused on the guys and their feelings and basically ignores everyone else and the social realities of the potential relationships. Which is good. I don't read this stuff for social realities.

While I was reading the Reply sections, the longest and my favorite here, there came a point where I realized I would have loathed it and thrown this down in disgust if it were written as typical western m/m, because it's basically gay-for-you. I hate GFY stories and I think idea is harmful. The message of GFY is basically don't give up if someone rejects you, just persist and they'll come around. It's a horrible message for straight people and it's an extra horrible message for LGBTQ people. That's not my only problem with GFY, another is that it also tends to rely on characters who are so unreflective they're supposedly oblivious to their own feelings, and I just can't with that shit. I guess maybe such people really exist, but I can't relate to them and have no interest whatsoever in reading about them.

So how does this get away with it? For that matter, this undoubtedly isn't the only manga I've read that could be classed as GFY, just the most obvious. Why is it more acceptable to me in manga than a novel? I think in general it's that, at least in the manga I tend to like, the cultural space the characters inhabit mutes any GFY element. They're generally not out and proud types, and generally don't tend to self-label, and since communication is more circumspect and indirect, there generally isn't the sort of outright gay-denial you see in GFY m/m. In some cases it may be that even if the author intended a character as GFY, it's non-obvious in the manga I read vs very in your face in m/m novels. Presentation matters.

In this particular case, the mechanic character, Seki, is very self-aware, and what the story loses by including a more blatant than usual GFY element, it makes up for with some other elements.

Specifically:


Profile Image for Emi.
824 reviews20 followers
January 9, 2022
Me encanta esta autora. Las tres historias están muy bien, sobretodo la tercera "La respuesta", que también es más la más larga y puede desarrollarse mejor.

Me encanta como crea Kou Yoneda a sus personajes.
Profile Image for haispeace.
112 reviews
April 1, 2025
Súper interesante.
Todas las historias me han encantado, son súper entretenidas y con tramas súper interesantes.

Hacía mucho que no leía manga y ha sido muy refrescante. 100% recomendado.
Profile Image for Yunebooks.
438 reviews40 followers
December 6, 2021
¡Que ganas tenía de leer Nights! Este tomo único, creado por Kou Yoneda (Pájaro que trina no vuela), contiene tres historias.

La primera trata sobre dos hombres que empiezan a trabajar juntos, uno pertenece a la yakuza y el otro es un narcotraficante. La segunda muestra un triángulo amoroso de jóvenes estudiantes y la última va de dos trabajadores que cada vez se atraen más.

He de decir que la primera historia, "Nights", ¡te deja con ganas de más! Los personajes tienen un rollo y un tira y afloja que me gusta mucho. Me habría gustado un par de capítulos más sobre ellos.

La segunda historia es muy inocente y dulce. ¡Incluso divertida! 

La tercera, y última historia, consta de 3 capítulos y es la que menos me ha gustado. No está mal, pero a penas he conectado con los protagonistas. Además, el drama de esta pareja ya lo hemos visto demasiadas veces en otros mangas... Aún así, los dos primeros relatos me han gustado tanto que en general me parece un buen tomo. Yoneda nunca decepciona y sabe exprimir muy bien la tensión y sus personajes.

Pd. Las páginas extras del final me han dado la vida, pero necesito saber maaaaaas👀
Profile Image for Lauren.
253 reviews4 followers
August 27, 2017
Good read. Not usually the kind of manga I would read but made a change. Marked it down as had to reread a few bits as I wasn't sure which character was talking. Would have liked the stories to be a bit longer as I thought there could have been more to the characters and the storyline. Glad I read it. Would read more like this if I found them.
Profile Image for Printia_books.
172 reviews
April 30, 2024
"Nunca se sabe de que forma va a llegar el amor a la vida de una persona. Tampoco el momento en el que este llame a la puerta. Sin embargo, solo hará falta esperar hasta que esta misma se presente y no dejar que la oportunidad escape jamás."

Tomo bastante cortito donde se nos presenta la historia de tres parejas, cada una totalmente diferentes entre sí. Aunque esto no quiere decir que no tengan un hilo conductor, siendo este el amor.

Hay que decir que el desarrollo de estas parejas no es el más óptimo, debido en gran medida a la cantidad de páginas en la que se desarrolla cada una de ellas. Por tanto, es algo difícil empatizar con las mismas, aunque no es del todo imposible. Esto se debe a que la autora, aunque desarrolle de forma atropellada a las parejas, introduce elementos que hacen que te intereses por saber más.

También deja bastante bien marcada la personalidad de cada una de los personajes, aunque no te vayas a acordar del nombre de ninguno. A valorar también el hecho de que en tan poco espacio sea capaz de crear una historia entendible y personajes con cierto trasfondo.

El dibujo de esta autora, aunque no es feo, no es de mis favoritos. Es un dibujo bastante sencillo a mi parecer, aunque esto no afecta en sí al conjunto general del tomo.
Profile Image for Sandra.
741 reviews7 followers
June 12, 2025
Leider war die Geschichte, die auch das Cover zeigt, nur eine Kurzgeschichte von 3 und eine der kürzeren :/ das war super schade, weil gerade die war richtig spannend, da es um Yakuza und Drogenfahndung ging - ein schöner Auftakt und vorallem die erste Yakuza-Story, bevor Yoneda vermutlich mit Twittering Birds never Fly die ultra drama Yakuzaserie begonnen hat. Und beide hatten auch noch einen Agepgap von 10 Jahren.

Die anderen beiden Kurzgeshcichten waren nett, aber auch nichts super spannend. Eine mit 2 Jungs in der Oberstufe, super langweilig, wie fast alle BLs in der Schulthematik.

Die letzte, die auch 4 Kapitel hatte (und somit EIGENTLICH auf dem Cover sien sollte, aber dann vermutlich nicht spannend genug gewesen war) war eine normale Contemporary-Story zwischen einem Mechaniker und einem Autohändler. Die war nett, ja, vorallem weil es viel um Gefühle und so ging. Aber... ja... es war halt auch nicht wirklich spannend.

Und der Zeichenstil ist halt auch noch nicht so schön ausgearbeitet wie in TBNF, aber ok, es ist halt deutlich älter.
Profile Image for Lexie.
2,066 reviews357 followers
February 28, 2018
Y'all likely know my BL tastes are all over the place - cute & fluffy & dark & melancholic...oh hey look Yoneda fits ALL THOSE CATEGORIES.

I've wanted to read this for what feels like ever. Rec'ed by no less than three friends I was over the moon to find this OOP volume at Powell's for a reasonable price ($9).

Comprised of three stories, I wonder why this wasn't called Reply since that story and it's follow ups are the bulk of the book. That said I enjoyed the couple from NightS the most (I want more damnation, the short at the end and the sequel that's avail digitally is not enough).
Profile Image for Saphirablue.
1,072 reviews77 followers
April 13, 2019
I didn't realize that this is an anthology when I picked it up and therefore have been a bit dissappointed that the story that has been the summary on the back was a bit short. ;)

But, I liked the stories. They are all different and interesting and the characters are adorable.

Sometimes I had trouble knowing which speakbubble belongs to which character. -.-

All in all, an entertaining read. :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Julie.
2,631 reviews198 followers
December 22, 2021
Ah! I kind of wish the title story was a bit longer, because I would've loved to see more of the back and forth of their relationship, but I loved the other stories more so I'm okay with that story being short. The second story with the high schoolers was my fave. It's a pretty common trope and I pretty much knew what was going to happen, but I still adored it. The story with the mechanic and the salesman was really cute too. I just love Yoneda's work so much.
Profile Image for Illy.
709 reviews9 followers
October 17, 2018
Honestly, I loved all the stories in here. They were all super cute. Plus, without realizing it, I kinda fell in love with Yoneda’s writing because I read a lot of her work without realizing it till now that I looked at the author. That sounds stupid but it’s true. I’m really glad I picked this up. This is a really good collection of oneshots/mini story. I highly recommend this.
Profile Image for Rin.
1,066 reviews
March 31, 2022
I read this every now and then because I enjoy 2/3 stories a lot. I'm not a fan of the mafia one because I can't tell who is who no matter how many times I read it. They talk the exact same and the speech bubbles don't line up to the characters. Ugh. The school one is my favorite and the mechanic one is a close second
Profile Image for Ishtar Thornvale ࣪ ִֶָ☾ ⋆ .
132 reviews45 followers
December 9, 2018
“Such is the style of romance in the yakuza world.
You love and are loved, and then you kill each other in your sleep.
And you can easily betray the person who loves you.
You can easily be betrayed by the person you love.”
Profile Image for Ester.
1,203 reviews68 followers
November 27, 2021
Qué maravilla. Tres historias muy diferentes entre sí, pero narradas con gran maestría.
Profile Image for duniamimpigie Anggi.
Author 2 books54 followers
June 5, 2015
I barely can't move on from the first story: "NightS"!!! Aaaaaah >____< Masaki-old man is really cute that I think I can't get enough of him (oh my, how many times have I been re-reading NightS?) >///A///< My "cute" here is referring to his personality, not his appearance, cause he has one good-looking face plus masculine figures--which is my fave <3
And he is quite a bully too X( And *cough*naughty*cough* as well (I don't have any complain here~ tehe~). I almost feel sorry for his seme--what was his name again? Eeeer... "Karashima" (not his real name, though)--especially for that "birthday suit" scene in extra story, successfully made me laugh hard at them xDD

The second story "Emotion Spectrum" is a cliche one, with triangle(?) love story between high schoolers. I can't get fond of Usui. Well, I can't even liking an introvert-gloomy type character, so... yeah, Usui is one of it. And Shima (from "Doushitemo"), too.

Regarding the third story "Reply"... I can't get rid of Deguchi-san's (from "Soredemo, Yasashii Koi wo Suru") image from Takami. They are too similar by their appearance. Hmm... I like the story, yet not good enough that can make me fangirling it.

Therefore, I just give 3 stars for this book--though I really like NightS (viva Masaki-old man!! xDD)
Profile Image for Alexandra.
355 reviews3 followers
May 29, 2014
YK's stories are like that pair of comfortable and much loved relaxed fit pants worn on bloated days while eating dairy-free chocolate and moaning about a seriously gnarly case of PMS. Erm, I mean that in a good way. pffft

NightS is a collection of short stories, and I know what you're thinking. NO, NOT THE DAMN ONESHOT COLLECTIONS, THEY DISAPPOINT AS A RULE! But these each have a strong plot arc and great pacing that prevents most general oneshot pitfalls. Although I would have liked to squeeze even more out of these stories it wasn't as if I was left hanging. There were feels, YK's trademark enervation and wistfulness, nicely developed characters, good humor, generally the men all had some sexy ass charisma going for them. I fell for pretty much every lead character in every short. That never happens for me. Even the tried and true schoolboy story was somehow made fresh and new. Oh YK, what you do to me.

My body is ready for more YK!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews

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