Freefall Romance

by Hyouta Fujiyama

Reni and Youichi were nothing more than drinking buddies. But when a night of imbibing goes a little too far, they find themselves drinking buddies with "benefits!" What begins as a drunken lark soon becomes a passionate affair. But Renji and Youichi aren't really gay... or are they?

Related series :
Ordinary crush/Warito Yokuaru Danshikouteki Renaijijou (Adapted From)

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Boys Love, Queer, LGBT, Gay, M M Romance

184 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2004

About the author

Associated names :
富士山豹太
Фудзияма Хёта
富士山ひょう太
富士山ひょーた
富士山ひょー太

Name (in native language) : 富士山ひょうた

Birth date : January 28

Zodiac : Aquarius

Blood type : A

Likes games.
Was born in Ishikawa but grew up in Saitama.
Doujin circle is called Tiny Time.

Reviews

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty middle-of-the-road older yaoi. There's not a whole lot to it, and I wonder if I'd like it more (or less) if I'd read the 4 volumes it's a spin-off from. Looking at them, though, I don't think the older brother's workplace love interest would show up, so I'm not sure if it would make a difference. I'll probably hang onto the book for now, just in case, since it's a little harder to find, and will let go of it when I need more space.

The story is a pretty basic one. Nanase and his younger brother both attended a boys only high school where 90% of the class was gay. Nanase came out intact (with a few gay friends) and is now a working adult, whereas his brother wound up with a boyfriend. He was very against this - sounds like he probably argued against it pretty heavily in the previous volumes - and has been pouring out his woes to his coworker friend, Tsutsumi.

In the process, Tsutsumi realizes that he has a crush on Nanase, and eventually acts on it, to Nanase's dismay.

Tsutsumi isn't particularly aggressive; he does tell Nanase several times that he's going to maintain his romantic interest in him, but he's also careful to keep their business relationship separate, and gives Nanase some space to think about things. Eventually Nanase admits that he is attracted to Tsutsumi as well but was just angry with himself because he'd been so stubborn about rejecting all the male advances in high school, and wound up gay (bi) anyway.

My only real problem with this storyline is that there's very little chemistry between the two. That's why I'm wondering if they have any scenes together in previous volumes, where I could see their friendship in a more concrete form. I know they like each other on a work/friend level before it moves to anything romantic, but I just don't particularly see any of that on the page. It's just two characters going through the motions, and I didn't feel much of anything one way or the other.

[TT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this one, these men are so in denial that they want each other but what happens when they try to get intimate without any drinks to blame it on. Things get serious!

[Adrena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that good.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not as contrive or negative as it’s predecessors, it still failed to keep my interest. They are style is cute at times but stiff at others.

[Mely · Rating 3 out of 5]

More salarymen, because sometimes it's nice to get away from jailbait. Youichi Nanase, the older brother of Kouichi from Ordinary Crush, has just found out his baby brother is gay, and isn't happy about it. He spills his sorrows to his friend and work colleague, Renji Tsutsumi, and then feels better after a night's drunken babbling. But apparently hearing people talk about homosexuality makes you gay, because Tsutsumi is now attracted to Youichi. He picks a remarkably bad time to make his first move, but the guys work it out.

Repressed homosexuality as homophobia apparently runs in the Nanase family; it takes Youichi a while to work out his feelings for Tsutsumi, who is much less conflicted about his discovery. There's nothing that thoughtful about gay identity here -- both characters call it "immoral," it's just that Tsutsumi's response is, "So what?" -- but Tsutsumi is unusually careful for a seme in asking permission before making his moves.

[Jules Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yaoi manga, and a Did Not Finish for me, mostly because I was half way through when I found some torn pages with large sections of the page missing, and when I was filling out the Amazon returns form I realised I wasn't sufficiently interested in finishing it to request a replacement copy and wait a couple of weeks for it rather than just getting my money back. That I can no longer remember anything about the plot a couple of weeks later tells you how much impact it had on me, whether for good or bad. But I think this was a case of it simply not being a good match to my taste rather than it being a poor quality story -- I'd have been perfectly happy to finish it without the returns issue. I did like the artwork, I remember that much.

[Boorrito · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I like Fujiyama (by which I mean I like Honki Ja Nee Kara and Dear Green and its prequel and oh man can someone licence those in English please?). I'm also over ~high school~ romances and hey, salaryman bl is something I like so I thought this would probably be alright. After all there's no point bitching about stuff not getting translated if I don't actually buy anything...
And that's exactly what it is. It's alright. I mean it's miraculous in that one of the characters actually bothers to ask for consent (this genre man, it's terrible that I have to write that as a positive, it should be automatic...) but it's not that grabbing. The main couple are kind of boring.
Still the art is pretty decent, so props for that. Just expected something more interesting.

[Sarah]

Unlike many yaoi stories, this one has the benefit of at least using the word GAY to describe having a sexual relationship with a person of the same gender, however that alone isn't enough to save this story. It is bad. The characters never really spark and the sex scenes are stilted. In all it is a disappointing read.

[Reader17 Der · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this volume. I love Hyouta Fujiyama stories.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this manga-ka. Her art is really great. The story line was sweet and well written. I'll be looking for more by Fujiyama asap.

[Annette Gisby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet yaoi story, with good artwork, not much plot though ;)

[Daesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this manga. The fact that Nanase and Tsutsumi, have both never been with a man before, made me like it even more. The jealousy was a bonus ;P

[Swathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cute office romance. It's not over the top but a subtle slow burn. Also I love how one of the characters embrace of the love is because gender does matter since he loves him for who he is.

[小さな N (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)⊃ [_|_] ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Shaundra · Rating 5 out of 5]

hehe!!