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PUNKS TRIANGLE
Fashion student Chiaki dreams of seeing his designs on the runway, worn by none other than Ai—the charismatic male model who changed his life. When a prestigious competition promises to make that dream come true, Chiaki is fired up to win. But his hopes are dashed when he's paired with the clumsy and unfashionable Enaga for the project. One fateful night, after a run-in with some delinquents, Chiaki is unexpectedly saved by his idol Ai. Even more shocking, Ai seductively offers to teach him how to have fun at night…
Caught between the alluring, mysterious model he worships and a clumsy, rough-around-the-edges classmate who can’t seem to stay out of trouble (but may be hiding a surprising secret), Chiaki faces a heart-pounding, pure boy’s love dilemma that will turn his world upside down!
Caught between the alluring, mysterious model he worships and a clumsy, rough-around-the-edges classmate who can’t seem to stay out of trouble (but may be hiding a surprising secret), Chiaki faces a heart-pounding, pure boy’s love dilemma that will turn his world upside down!
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2025
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953 people want to read
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December 8, 2025
You got me lifted, shifted higher than the ceilin' / And ooh-wee, it's the ultimate feelin' (Suga Suga – Baby Bash).
I always take comfort in the fact that whenever I start something totally brand new, be it a manga or a book or otherwise, there’s always a small yet non-zero chance that I might stumble on a new favorite. The anticipation is a part of the fun! But don’t worry, I’m not one to keep people in suspense for no good reason, there’s going to no beating around the bush here, stay tuned for my assessment... oh cool... a new favorite is exactly what PUNKS TRIANGLE (sorry for yelling, that’s how it’s stylized) is. Hurray! I don't know, I just feel like this is an especially notable accomplishment this time around because whenever I read a book with an in-universe famous love-interest like in White Noise by Lark Taylor, I usually spend the entire reading experience hating on them. I think my problem with these “I-Meet-Up-With-A-Famous-Person-and-we-Fall-in-Love” type love stories is that there’s often too much of a discrepancy in quality because we either get something like a Sometime After Midnight by L. Phillips (good) or end up on the Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick side of things (bad), with nothing in between. Wait, you know what? I changed my mind, because those odds could be a good thing after all, as I'd much rather read something bad than something mid. I mean, I don't know why I'm even talking about any of this at length, because none of it applies here, this manga was absolutely amazing! Yup, really good. Hey, remember when I reviewed that other gay manga called White Liar? I totally justified my intense adoration and unabashed gushing for a Yaoi manga by downplaying the explicit aspects of the work and instead focused on discussing how the heavier emphasis on romance elevated the story in a way where it felt wrong to group it together with a genre that’s mostly seen as thinly veiled porn… but I don’t think I can make that same excuse here, because if I’m being completely truthful, I walked into this book totally expecting… porn, basically. Look at the cover, it was supposed to go straight onto my "guilty pleasures" shelf and now it's sitting pretty in the "comfort food" section! I guess I’m saying that I wasn’t expecting much in the way of an involved romantic plot, and yet I somehow found this manga’s story to be even lovelier than the last due to the adorable art, cozy atmosphere, and a rather lively and focused love story that didn’t get too lost in the riff-raff of unneeded side-characters and heightened drama created from silly miscommunications. So, in other words, I suppose I went into PUNKS TRIANGLE with impure thoughts and came out the other end of this damn thing a whole new man. Sheesh, wasn’t expecting that one! “When the rain washes you clean, you'll know” and all that. But let’s get to the bottom of the story, from the first page we’re introduced right quick to our story’s designated bottom, Chiaki, a student currently at university studying fashion design. A couple years ago he had a life altering queer awakening when he first saw supermodel and punk fashion icon Ai walking down the runway (“Walk, walk, fashion, baby”) and decided to completely change everything about himself and dive headfirst into this whole new world. A whole new aesthetic, can you imagine? I totally get, you know? After seeing how sexy and cool Leon Kennedy was in Resident Evil 4, I subconsciously changed my whole fashion sense to emulate him. Which is to say that I went out and got a new jacket, but that's basically like a whole new aesthetic!
Steering the ship back on course though, the thick plottens because it actually turns out that Ai himself is more than meets the eye considering his secret aspirations of being a designer himself, and after seeing one of Chiaki’s pieces on display has his own little awakening which inspires him to moonlight in a disguise Hannah Montana style and enroll himself in the same university just for a chance to get to know him. It’s a real “fan of a fan” situation, with most of the drama blooming from only Ai knowing the complete picture and his struggle around deciding whether the best course of action forward is letting Chiaki fall in love with the real him (thus falling deeper in a lie) or wooing him by trying to live up to the image that’s been built up around his superstar persona (thus falling deeper in a lie). Yeah, so you can probably see why I thought this manga ended up being surprisingly deep considering I thought it'd just be two dudes doing the grown-up the entire runtime! Instead, I found PUNKS TRIANGLE to be an incredibly restrained and thoughtful examination of a relationship that starts from a lie and is able to blossom into something beautiful, something real. I will say that it was interesting how this manga used its styling around “punk” almost as a backdrop, an aesthetic, rather than being a story that goes in depth around the lifestyle. I could see how this might put off a lot of potential readers, because a counter-culture queer love story around two guys who fall in love against all odds feels like it’d be right at home here and pretty damn punk, but I think if you’re patient, PUNKS TRIANGLE’s rather light punk dealings can be interpreted as being a bit on the understated side of things. That the stylistic choice to focus on punk clothing and fashionable appearances over anything else should be seen as liberating in a different way, considering that both Chiaki and Ai started dressing the way they do in order to escape societal norms, as a way to “wear their hearts on their sleeves” and let their clothes do the speaking for them. Now, I know I’m not really one that should be talking about punk culture, seeing as my fashion icon is George Costanza, but I got my Vans on (but they look like sneakers), so I figured that'd give me at least a few credentials, no? I’m just saying that if nothing else, and I think it's easy to forget, but I believe that just the simple act of being queer and brave enough to be open about said queerness is already counter-culture enough in my book. That's plenty punk, I reckon. Besides, in my opinion, the best thing about PUNKS TRIANGLE was that it didn’t get too in the weeds around the fashion industry or try to lecture too hard about the punk rock sub-culture in Japan. The story did itself a favor by focusing instead on being a simple walk-and-talk romance where both Ai and Chiaki just go out, hit the town, and fall in love. It’s nice, it’s like that scene in Begin Again where Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo hit the club while wearing headphones so they can blissfully dance among the crowd yet exist in their own separate world. Or it’s even like that scene in Summer of 85 where Alexis and David hit the club while wearing headphones so they can blissfully dance among the crowd yet exist in their own separate world! Got a real “either or” kind of thing here, you know how it is.
“I’ve never seen tea like this before…”
“That’s not tea, it’s lube.”
Walking-and-talking has always been my favorite kind of romance story! And I know, I know, I’m literally always going on and on about how Before Sunset is, like, the best of the bestest, bestie, but it actually pertains to what I'm talking about for once because in the same way as that movie, this manga's story is all about showing how both characters are growing closer and falling in love naturally through dialogue. Slowly and then all at once! When it comes to the “having a chat” genre, I really do believe that the “walking-around-town-and-getting-to-know-each-other” kind of love story can elevate even with the most terrible of actors working under the most awful scripts. Not to be a Topical Terry here and make this also double as a Letterboxd review, but let’s take The Weeknd for example, because while he’s literally one of the worst to ever do it when it comes to performing on screen, I maintain that the best acting he's ever done wasn’t in ego driven and insipid dreck like The Idol or Hurry Up Tomorrow, but rather in the music video to his song “Out of Time.” I truly believe he put in a more than passable performance there because it’s just him and the lady from Squid Game running around an abandoned hotel and… you guessed it… falling in love and getting to know each other! Also, it's only a couple minutes, so it definitely shaves off the amount of time we have to look at him jutting out his chin in an attempt to enunciate his jawline. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, simplicity is really all I ever need in a romance, and that’s exactly what I got out of PUNKS TRIANGLE, so I honestly couldn’t be more happy with the end result! Another cool thing about this manga is that it makes full use of the medium it’s in. Captain Obvious, I know, but what I’m saying is that it knows full well that it’s a manga and doesn’t try to stray too far from the goal. For example, Hunter X Hunter is one of the greatest manga out there and I love it, but I can’t lie that my head would spin whenever I’d get to a page where the panels were entirely full of text! Like, just write a novel at that point, my guy. Anyway, manga is a visual medium and it's important to take artistic merit into account when analyzing the piece as a whole. Sure, I'm out here pondering “What does it mean," but when you're reading a manga or a comic, asking “does it look nice” matters too, don't you think? I hope I'm not being shallow by saying that my views on art has a lot to do with whether or not the stylistic choices are aesthetically pleasing to me! Tell me to read JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and I'll be like... but the art is kind of busted, so I don't want to! This is mostly just padding because I'm working up the nerve to say that I really just thought that our resident love-interest (and top), Ai, was hotter than a Bisquick biscuit out the oven! So hot… steam seemed cool. Hm, I suppose that was a pretty surface level reading of the text, huh? But I do think it’s a little relevant to the topic at hand because whenever I’m reading a book and the narration constantly brings up how hot the love-interest is, I always get really annoyed! Miffed even. It’s like, hey man, this is a book, so go ahead and use your WORDS!! We can’t see what anybody looks like, so use the magic of descriptive language to get your point across!
But yeah, it always grinds my gears how the love-interest in every one of these “Bad Boy” type stories are often just straight up terrible people and go through the entire story treating people like trash, with their alleged hotness always being used as an excuse to alleviate any of their wrong-doings and make it so the main character and us, the reader, forgives their jerk behavior. “You’re a jerk (I know).” So yeah, this manga’s art being as good as it was and Ai being as sexy as he was definitely helped my opinion of him… but also, the thing is... none of the "Bad Boy" slander I'm drilling into this review even applies to him because he never actually did anything wrong throughout the whole story! It was actually a plot point where a lot of people see him as being one thing (including Chiaki) and assume he's some kind of way when he never actually did anything to deserve such surface level snap judgements. But nah, he was just a nice and sweet guy who dresses like a punk. "He was a punk, she did ballet. What more can I say?" well, it turns out you could say a whole lot more! It was really cool how Ai’s characterization and behavior was just as “dream man” coded as the way he looked! Opposite to his appearance, he was actually shy and awkward, and caring and loving in a way that made him just as swoon-worthy as all the greats. Like for real, move aside Mr. Darcy! Similarly, the understated yearning threaded throughout the narrative is yet another way that this manga understood the assignment in that all the most titillating moments were in the preamble leading up to any potential sex scene rather than the actual sex scenes themselves. I won't go on about it too much because I'm embarrassed even talking about it, but there's a scene where Ai pierces Chiaki's belly button and it's like... woah. Uh, moving on though, I thought it was an inspired choice in taking the “dual identities” angle because it helped to humanize Ai and in turn made his newfound relationship to Chiaki feel more relatable and “earned” by the end of the story. I mean, this has never been a problem with me because I’ve never been one to get parasocial about any star that I’m a fan of, but it was nice seeing this side to Ai, as idols and superstars often feel so unreachable that it’s easy to forget that they really are just people at the end of the day. There was this clip shared around on Twitter (when I still had it) that was, like, a behind the scenes of some mucky-muck party with a bunch of K-Pop idols and I thought it was really funny because it was soo~ooo awkward. The part where they were just standing around like sims and every now and then a few of them would break out into rehashed K-Pop dance choreography with barely audible music in the background had me rolling! But it was also a humanizing moment, you know? They really are real people, isn't that wild? “The world is filled with all the lonely people, trying to find their way. All they need is a hand, to guide them to a brighter day.” Okay, that's pretty much all I have to say. My final verdict? Yup, I really loved PUNKS TRIANGLE; between the art style being given a unique dream-like haze and its take on the comforting yet electric feeling that comes with the prospect of exploring something new, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve found another favorite. Hey, I guess it’s okay to meet your idols every now and then.
In a natural mood, then I'm a natural dude / And we some natural fools, blowin' out by the pool.
I always take comfort in the fact that whenever I start something totally brand new, be it a manga or a book or otherwise, there’s always a small yet non-zero chance that I might stumble on a new favorite. The anticipation is a part of the fun! But don’t worry, I’m not one to keep people in suspense for no good reason, there’s going to no beating around the bush here, stay tuned for my assessment... oh cool... a new favorite is exactly what PUNKS TRIANGLE (sorry for yelling, that’s how it’s stylized) is. Hurray! I don't know, I just feel like this is an especially notable accomplishment this time around because whenever I read a book with an in-universe famous love-interest like in White Noise by Lark Taylor, I usually spend the entire reading experience hating on them. I think my problem with these “I-Meet-Up-With-A-Famous-Person-and-we-Fall-in-Love” type love stories is that there’s often too much of a discrepancy in quality because we either get something like a Sometime After Midnight by L. Phillips (good) or end up on the Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick side of things (bad), with nothing in between. Wait, you know what? I changed my mind, because those odds could be a good thing after all, as I'd much rather read something bad than something mid. I mean, I don't know why I'm even talking about any of this at length, because none of it applies here, this manga was absolutely amazing! Yup, really good. Hey, remember when I reviewed that other gay manga called White Liar? I totally justified my intense adoration and unabashed gushing for a Yaoi manga by downplaying the explicit aspects of the work and instead focused on discussing how the heavier emphasis on romance elevated the story in a way where it felt wrong to group it together with a genre that’s mostly seen as thinly veiled porn… but I don’t think I can make that same excuse here, because if I’m being completely truthful, I walked into this book totally expecting… porn, basically. Look at the cover, it was supposed to go straight onto my "guilty pleasures" shelf and now it's sitting pretty in the "comfort food" section! I guess I’m saying that I wasn’t expecting much in the way of an involved romantic plot, and yet I somehow found this manga’s story to be even lovelier than the last due to the adorable art, cozy atmosphere, and a rather lively and focused love story that didn’t get too lost in the riff-raff of unneeded side-characters and heightened drama created from silly miscommunications. So, in other words, I suppose I went into PUNKS TRIANGLE with impure thoughts and came out the other end of this damn thing a whole new man. Sheesh, wasn’t expecting that one! “When the rain washes you clean, you'll know” and all that. But let’s get to the bottom of the story, from the first page we’re introduced right quick to our story’s designated bottom, Chiaki, a student currently at university studying fashion design. A couple years ago he had a life altering queer awakening when he first saw supermodel and punk fashion icon Ai walking down the runway (“Walk, walk, fashion, baby”) and decided to completely change everything about himself and dive headfirst into this whole new world. A whole new aesthetic, can you imagine? I totally get, you know? After seeing how sexy and cool Leon Kennedy was in Resident Evil 4, I subconsciously changed my whole fashion sense to emulate him. Which is to say that I went out and got a new jacket, but that's basically like a whole new aesthetic!
Steering the ship back on course though, the thick plottens because it actually turns out that Ai himself is more than meets the eye considering his secret aspirations of being a designer himself, and after seeing one of Chiaki’s pieces on display has his own little awakening which inspires him to moonlight in a disguise Hannah Montana style and enroll himself in the same university just for a chance to get to know him. It’s a real “fan of a fan” situation, with most of the drama blooming from only Ai knowing the complete picture and his struggle around deciding whether the best course of action forward is letting Chiaki fall in love with the real him (thus falling deeper in a lie) or wooing him by trying to live up to the image that’s been built up around his superstar persona (thus falling deeper in a lie). Yeah, so you can probably see why I thought this manga ended up being surprisingly deep considering I thought it'd just be two dudes doing the grown-up the entire runtime! Instead, I found PUNKS TRIANGLE to be an incredibly restrained and thoughtful examination of a relationship that starts from a lie and is able to blossom into something beautiful, something real. I will say that it was interesting how this manga used its styling around “punk” almost as a backdrop, an aesthetic, rather than being a story that goes in depth around the lifestyle. I could see how this might put off a lot of potential readers, because a counter-culture queer love story around two guys who fall in love against all odds feels like it’d be right at home here and pretty damn punk, but I think if you’re patient, PUNKS TRIANGLE’s rather light punk dealings can be interpreted as being a bit on the understated side of things. That the stylistic choice to focus on punk clothing and fashionable appearances over anything else should be seen as liberating in a different way, considering that both Chiaki and Ai started dressing the way they do in order to escape societal norms, as a way to “wear their hearts on their sleeves” and let their clothes do the speaking for them. Now, I know I’m not really one that should be talking about punk culture, seeing as my fashion icon is George Costanza, but I got my Vans on (but they look like sneakers), so I figured that'd give me at least a few credentials, no? I’m just saying that if nothing else, and I think it's easy to forget, but I believe that just the simple act of being queer and brave enough to be open about said queerness is already counter-culture enough in my book. That's plenty punk, I reckon. Besides, in my opinion, the best thing about PUNKS TRIANGLE was that it didn’t get too in the weeds around the fashion industry or try to lecture too hard about the punk rock sub-culture in Japan. The story did itself a favor by focusing instead on being a simple walk-and-talk romance where both Ai and Chiaki just go out, hit the town, and fall in love. It’s nice, it’s like that scene in Begin Again where Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo hit the club while wearing headphones so they can blissfully dance among the crowd yet exist in their own separate world. Or it’s even like that scene in Summer of 85 where Alexis and David hit the club while wearing headphones so they can blissfully dance among the crowd yet exist in their own separate world! Got a real “either or” kind of thing here, you know how it is.
“I’ve never seen tea like this before…”
“That’s not tea, it’s lube.”
Walking-and-talking has always been my favorite kind of romance story! And I know, I know, I’m literally always going on and on about how Before Sunset is, like, the best of the bestest, bestie, but it actually pertains to what I'm talking about for once because in the same way as that movie, this manga's story is all about showing how both characters are growing closer and falling in love naturally through dialogue. Slowly and then all at once! When it comes to the “having a chat” genre, I really do believe that the “walking-around-town-and-getting-to-know-each-other” kind of love story can elevate even with the most terrible of actors working under the most awful scripts. Not to be a Topical Terry here and make this also double as a Letterboxd review, but let’s take The Weeknd for example, because while he’s literally one of the worst to ever do it when it comes to performing on screen, I maintain that the best acting he's ever done wasn’t in ego driven and insipid dreck like The Idol or Hurry Up Tomorrow, but rather in the music video to his song “Out of Time.” I truly believe he put in a more than passable performance there because it’s just him and the lady from Squid Game running around an abandoned hotel and… you guessed it… falling in love and getting to know each other! Also, it's only a couple minutes, so it definitely shaves off the amount of time we have to look at him jutting out his chin in an attempt to enunciate his jawline. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, simplicity is really all I ever need in a romance, and that’s exactly what I got out of PUNKS TRIANGLE, so I honestly couldn’t be more happy with the end result! Another cool thing about this manga is that it makes full use of the medium it’s in. Captain Obvious, I know, but what I’m saying is that it knows full well that it’s a manga and doesn’t try to stray too far from the goal. For example, Hunter X Hunter is one of the greatest manga out there and I love it, but I can’t lie that my head would spin whenever I’d get to a page where the panels were entirely full of text! Like, just write a novel at that point, my guy. Anyway, manga is a visual medium and it's important to take artistic merit into account when analyzing the piece as a whole. Sure, I'm out here pondering “What does it mean," but when you're reading a manga or a comic, asking “does it look nice” matters too, don't you think? I hope I'm not being shallow by saying that my views on art has a lot to do with whether or not the stylistic choices are aesthetically pleasing to me! Tell me to read JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and I'll be like... but the art is kind of busted, so I don't want to! This is mostly just padding because I'm working up the nerve to say that I really just thought that our resident love-interest (and top), Ai, was hotter than a Bisquick biscuit out the oven! So hot… steam seemed cool. Hm, I suppose that was a pretty surface level reading of the text, huh? But I do think it’s a little relevant to the topic at hand because whenever I’m reading a book and the narration constantly brings up how hot the love-interest is, I always get really annoyed! Miffed even. It’s like, hey man, this is a book, so go ahead and use your WORDS!! We can’t see what anybody looks like, so use the magic of descriptive language to get your point across!
But yeah, it always grinds my gears how the love-interest in every one of these “Bad Boy” type stories are often just straight up terrible people and go through the entire story treating people like trash, with their alleged hotness always being used as an excuse to alleviate any of their wrong-doings and make it so the main character and us, the reader, forgives their jerk behavior. “You’re a jerk (I know).” So yeah, this manga’s art being as good as it was and Ai being as sexy as he was definitely helped my opinion of him… but also, the thing is... none of the "Bad Boy" slander I'm drilling into this review even applies to him because he never actually did anything wrong throughout the whole story! It was actually a plot point where a lot of people see him as being one thing (including Chiaki) and assume he's some kind of way when he never actually did anything to deserve such surface level snap judgements. But nah, he was just a nice and sweet guy who dresses like a punk. "He was a punk, she did ballet. What more can I say?" well, it turns out you could say a whole lot more! It was really cool how Ai’s characterization and behavior was just as “dream man” coded as the way he looked! Opposite to his appearance, he was actually shy and awkward, and caring and loving in a way that made him just as swoon-worthy as all the greats. Like for real, move aside Mr. Darcy! Similarly, the understated yearning threaded throughout the narrative is yet another way that this manga understood the assignment in that all the most titillating moments were in the preamble leading up to any potential sex scene rather than the actual sex scenes themselves. I won't go on about it too much because I'm embarrassed even talking about it, but there's a scene where Ai pierces Chiaki's belly button and it's like... woah. Uh, moving on though, I thought it was an inspired choice in taking the “dual identities” angle because it helped to humanize Ai and in turn made his newfound relationship to Chiaki feel more relatable and “earned” by the end of the story. I mean, this has never been a problem with me because I’ve never been one to get parasocial about any star that I’m a fan of, but it was nice seeing this side to Ai, as idols and superstars often feel so unreachable that it’s easy to forget that they really are just people at the end of the day. There was this clip shared around on Twitter (when I still had it) that was, like, a behind the scenes of some mucky-muck party with a bunch of K-Pop idols and I thought it was really funny because it was soo~ooo awkward. The part where they were just standing around like sims and every now and then a few of them would break out into rehashed K-Pop dance choreography with barely audible music in the background had me rolling! But it was also a humanizing moment, you know? They really are real people, isn't that wild? “The world is filled with all the lonely people, trying to find their way. All they need is a hand, to guide them to a brighter day.” Okay, that's pretty much all I have to say. My final verdict? Yup, I really loved PUNKS TRIANGLE; between the art style being given a unique dream-like haze and its take on the comforting yet electric feeling that comes with the prospect of exploring something new, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve found another favorite. Hey, I guess it’s okay to meet your idols every now and then.
In a natural mood, then I'm a natural dude / And we some natural fools, blowin' out by the pool.
April 29, 2025
Ai, the man that you are! I could read 20+ volumes of these two and it wouldn’t be enough. I’m going to be thinking about them for the rest of my life
August 25, 2025
we all need a guilty pleasure read every now and then 🫢
April 23, 2025
that was fun 👌
April 22, 2025
4.5 stars
Cute, sweet, and sexy, this benefits a lot from being a bit longer than most one shots. While the hidden identity premise may not be the most original, it's done very well, and the backdrop of a fashion school lends itself to some great art. There's also so much blushing from both leads, which is always something I adore.
Cute, sweet, and sexy, this benefits a lot from being a bit longer than most one shots. While the hidden identity premise may not be the most original, it's done very well, and the backdrop of a fashion school lends itself to some great art. There's also so much blushing from both leads, which is always something I adore.
April 20, 2025
This was surprisingly cute.
I have to admit, I made the mistake of flipping to the back and seeing a scene that, entirely out of context, looked like a threesome with the love "triangle" of the title. I'm so incredibly not into that, I quite literally stomped my way over to the packing slip that'd come with the book, prepared to return it as soon as possible. And then I thought about the summary...and how similar the guy on the front cover looked to the one on the back cover, if you looked past the shaggy hair and hat...
So I sat down and read the book instead, and discovered very early into it that the hot model, Ai, whom Chiaki idolizes, is the same clumsy, sloppily dressed Enaga who gets paired up with Chiaki in a runway project at his fashion school. It's not a twist, actually: Chiaki is the only one who spends the majority of the story unaware that the two guys he's been forming close relationships with are, in fact, one guy who's just literally wearing a different hat.
There's a certain amount to this that's pretty silly. I feel like I would recognize my favorite celebrity, especially after spending two months in close quarters with him, even if he was wearing baggy clothes and a wig - and Chiaki is as obsessed with Ai as anyone can get. His house is full of Ai posters and merchandise - he follows his social media and is able to track him to a nightclub based on a tiny hint in a corner of an image - he buys every magazine Ai ever appears in - he's studied his body of work so extensively that he can recognize him by his walk.
And yeah, Enaga slumps and walks differently when he's not in Model Mode, but still. It's a bit of a stretch that you just have to go with to make the story work.
But I did like their bond and how their relationship formed. We don't learn a ton about Enaga, really, other than how he got into fashion (specifically punk) and then into modeling. But he's a surprisingly genuine guy who's very kind to Chiaki both in and out of school, even when Chiaki is very much a mess. He's gentle and patient with him, and although there's one flub in a love hotel, he's so careful to go at Chiaki's pace and to do whatever makes him happy.
Chiaki, it turns out, has some significant trauma from spending a good portion of his childhood falsely believing that his parents were in a happy, stable relationship. I loved the imagery of the literal stitches coming apart in that family, with Chiaki only finding out about his mother's infidelity on the day she left - with him pulling at her sleeve to stop her, and the already-tattered sleeve fraying apart in his hand.
To cheer him up, his friend took him to a fashion show, where he saw Ai for the first time, and got absolutely hooked on his strength, his magnetism, and the punk fashion he embodied so well. It gave Chiaki the strength to pursue fashion as at least a passion, if not a full-on career - I'm not sure what he was doing outside of his night school classes - and genuinely changed his life for the better.
But when Chiaki tells Enaga about this...and tells Ai that his "type" is people who don't lie to him and don't hide things...that can't exactly go well.
There was a pretty good balance of showing how deeply the lie did end up hurting Chiaki, and how it's possible to work through that kind of hurt when it wasn't fully intentional or irreparable.
Things perhaps work out a little too easily, but it is just a one-shot, and I liked how they communicated through what had happened, and how to move forward. Their relationship is really sweet, and I liked seeing Chiaki realizing that the "cool" and "cute/clumsy" sides of his boyfriend are equally appealing, and both intrinsic parts of him. And Enaga completely believing in and supporting Chiaki's artistic talent and sewing skills - while being able to work really well creatively with him - was so good, as well.
I have to admit, I made the mistake of flipping to the back and seeing a scene that, entirely out of context, looked like a threesome with the love "triangle" of the title. I'm so incredibly not into that, I quite literally stomped my way over to the packing slip that'd come with the book, prepared to return it as soon as possible. And then I thought about the summary...and how similar the guy on the front cover looked to the one on the back cover, if you looked past the shaggy hair and hat...
So I sat down and read the book instead, and discovered very early into it that the hot model, Ai, whom Chiaki idolizes, is the same clumsy, sloppily dressed Enaga who gets paired up with Chiaki in a runway project at his fashion school. It's not a twist, actually: Chiaki is the only one who spends the majority of the story unaware that the two guys he's been forming close relationships with are, in fact, one guy who's just literally wearing a different hat.
There's a certain amount to this that's pretty silly. I feel like I would recognize my favorite celebrity, especially after spending two months in close quarters with him, even if he was wearing baggy clothes and a wig - and Chiaki is as obsessed with Ai as anyone can get. His house is full of Ai posters and merchandise - he follows his social media and is able to track him to a nightclub based on a tiny hint in a corner of an image - he buys every magazine Ai ever appears in - he's studied his body of work so extensively that he can recognize him by his walk.
And yeah, Enaga slumps and walks differently when he's not in Model Mode, but still. It's a bit of a stretch that you just have to go with to make the story work.
But I did like their bond and how their relationship formed. We don't learn a ton about Enaga, really, other than how he got into fashion (specifically punk) and then into modeling. But he's a surprisingly genuine guy who's very kind to Chiaki both in and out of school, even when Chiaki is very much a mess. He's gentle and patient with him, and although there's one flub in a love hotel, he's so careful to go at Chiaki's pace and to do whatever makes him happy.
Chiaki, it turns out, has some significant trauma from spending a good portion of his childhood falsely believing that his parents were in a happy, stable relationship. I loved the imagery of the literal stitches coming apart in that family, with Chiaki only finding out about his mother's infidelity on the day she left - with him pulling at her sleeve to stop her, and the already-tattered sleeve fraying apart in his hand.
To cheer him up, his friend took him to a fashion show, where he saw Ai for the first time, and got absolutely hooked on his strength, his magnetism, and the punk fashion he embodied so well. It gave Chiaki the strength to pursue fashion as at least a passion, if not a full-on career - I'm not sure what he was doing outside of his night school classes - and genuinely changed his life for the better.
But when Chiaki tells Enaga about this...and tells Ai that his "type" is people who don't lie to him and don't hide things...that can't exactly go well.
There was a pretty good balance of showing how deeply the lie did end up hurting Chiaki, and how it's possible to work through that kind of hurt when it wasn't fully intentional or irreparable.
Things perhaps work out a little too easily, but it is just a one-shot, and I liked how they communicated through what had happened, and how to move forward. Their relationship is really sweet, and I liked seeing Chiaki realizing that the "cool" and "cute/clumsy" sides of his boyfriend are equally appealing, and both intrinsic parts of him. And Enaga completely believing in and supporting Chiaki's artistic talent and sewing skills - while being able to work really well creatively with him - was so good, as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 10, 2025
Yea, so I need 20 more volumes of them right NEOW. I love love love the punk style. The fashion, the piercings, their dynamic?! I love all of it.
This kind of style is few and far between nowadays and I really hope we can get a few more volumes of them later on.
The story flows really well and though we see a lot of ‘hidden identity’ tropes it’s done really well here. I like that we got to see them become friends and they didn’t jump into being lovers right away.
Also, this made me really wanna get a new piercing haha.
This kind of style is few and far between nowadays and I really hope we can get a few more volumes of them later on.
The story flows really well and though we see a lot of ‘hidden identity’ tropes it’s done really well here. I like that we got to see them become friends and they didn’t jump into being lovers right away.
Also, this made me really wanna get a new piercing haha.
October 22, 2024
Both of them look so good, I love those piercing and Sumiuraki-kun changed so much bc of Ae! He's cute and pretty!
April 14, 2025
I wish I could read it with fresh eyes over and over! Reading this was an extremely pleasant experience. It is tops for me. I'm excited for the sequel too!
August 24, 2025
the angst was angst-ing. the art was spectacular. the story had me on a chokehold. PLEASE I DONT KNOW IF I WANTED TO BE CHIAKI OR AL because those boys are so pretty 😔
July 7, 2025
♾️⭐️ - peak, I am obsessed.
𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝑔𝑜 & 𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊
& 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓈 𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽, 𝒷𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝒽𝓊𝓉𝑒
𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉.
// 𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝔂? 💕
Ai, the man that you are. 🫠 How am I supposed to just live, laugh, love with all of my other fictional boyfriends knowing this man exists and is now permanently etched in to my brain? How?
Chiaki, you adorable little bean. lol, I seriously adore him so much and I love that meeting his idol was everything he could have ever hoped for and so much more.
This manga was spectacular, I would read 100 more volumes just with these two and be content, ijs.
If you love BL, romance mangas, with just a hint of spice, pick this one up. Please. 🙏 🔥💕
𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝓁𝑒𝓉 𝑔𝑜 & 𝒻𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊
& 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓉 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓈 𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽, 𝒷𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝒽𝓊𝓉𝑒
𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝒹𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉.
// 𝓐𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝔂? 💕
Ai, the man that you are. 🫠 How am I supposed to just live, laugh, love with all of my other fictional boyfriends knowing this man exists and is now permanently etched in to my brain? How?
Chiaki, you adorable little bean. lol, I seriously adore him so much and I love that meeting his idol was everything he could have ever hoped for and so much more.
This manga was spectacular, I would read 100 more volumes just with these two and be content, ijs.
If you love BL, romance mangas, with just a hint of spice, pick this one up. Please. 🙏 🔥💕
April 23, 2025
I read this three or four days ago and forgot to rate. Therefore, I don’t really remember it (yes already manga goes in one brain and out the other)
August 1, 2025
ESTO FUE EXCELENTE nueva obsesión desbloqueada 🤩 iba a decir que esto hubiera sido más excelente aún si hubiera sido un manga de +50 caps (slowburn) pero a pesar de solo tener 5 se sintió el desarrollo igual, consiguió la sensación que yo quería de VIVIRLA AL MÁXIMO y no sentirlo apresurado. MIS DIECES, LEANLO
April 27, 2025
Super cute read. Loved both of the characters and coming from a fashion background it was really nice to read something that took great love in one of my passions. Both characters were super sexy too.
May 21, 2025
Short and sweet, wish it kept the identity secret for longer but it was still good. Chiaki getting the piercing was.. something (in a good way) and him trying to look cool in front of Enaga despite not knowing what he's doing omg he's so cute
August 15, 2025
I was middle of the road with this one, so many a reread is in order.
November 28, 2025
This was really cute! I loved the artwork and the special chapter was very steamy ❤️🔥
I heard about this book while watching the series adaptation and, after reading it, I must say that the adaptation is so incredible, it's really like the drawings and story came to life! The actors are also amazing and fit Chiaki and Enaga/Ai's vibes so well 😍 I do wish it was longer or we had more story/development but I really enjoyed it overall and I do recommend it, it's really sweet.
I heard about this book while watching the series adaptation and, after reading it, I must say that the adaptation is so incredible, it's really like the drawings and story came to life! The actors are also amazing and fit Chiaki and Enaga/Ai's vibes so well 😍 I do wish it was longer or we had more story/development but I really enjoyed it overall and I do recommend it, it's really sweet.
August 1, 2025
This was a delightful one-shot with one of my favorite tropes, 2 person love triangle. I love how sweet both Chiaki and Ai/Enaga are together.
October 25, 2025
It was fun but I’m enjoying the show more
May 8, 2025
that was so cute<3 it gave me paradise kiss vibes minus the angst
April 29, 2025
This is such a cute little story and honestly one of the best ways I've seen a love triangle resolved. The fact that Ai and Enaga are the same person is so funny but also so sad with how hard it made everything. Chiaki's backstory made me so sad and it also made the whole love triangle so much more difficult and so painful. I liked how he saw Ai as this sort of guiding light and how he was the one to help him find what he wanted to do in life. It did hurt seeing Enaga put his emotions aside so he could help Chiaki achieve his dreams, even if it made him sad. It was sweet seeing him chasing his dreams though despite being so clumsy, and how Chiaki helped him with that as well. The art is also beautiful, it's so detailed and the clothes are so pretty. Somehow the author also made Enaga and Ai look the same but completely different which was really cool.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2025
EL DIBUJO ES PRECIOSO ‼️
4⭐️
4⭐️
November 15, 2025
This is better than I thought it would be.
April 17, 2025
Always so exciting when something I've been anticipating actually turns out to work for me. I really loved this. The relationship was so cute and I loved how long it was. There were some things with their backstories that seemed kind of rushed and thrown in, but overall this really worked for me. I'll definitely be rereading this in the future.
April 9, 2025
They are so cute 💚🖤💚🖤
May 19, 2025
Definitely one of the saner BLs. Still a bit strange.
January 1, 2026
I picked this up on a whim during one of my Barnes and Noble trips, looking to try a newer (or at least newer for me) BL manga.
Honestly, I enjoyed it. It was a nice, yet shorter series about Chiaki, an up and coming designer who falls in love with a model named eye, who gets paired with Enaga for a class contest. The winner’s outfit will be modeled by Ai. Little does Chiaki know that Ai and Enaga are one and the same.
I also think it does a good job with the whole “secret double life” trope.
I also liked that Ai was considerate of Chiaki when it came to consent and doing the deed. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Junjou Romantica on the side for a post I’m brainstorming (and to get my thoughts on it as an adult since I was introduced to it in high school), but Ai being as considerate felt refreshing and was appreciated. Especially when compared to Usagi and Miyagi with their partners in Junjou.
If I had to critique Punk Triangle for anything, I suppose it would be the fact that it does feel a little fast paced. Granted, it is a single volumed manga, so I won’t be too critical of it. However, when Ai makes up with Chiaki, it does feel like it didn’t happen too long after Chiaki initially figures it out. It does state that there had been some time between the revelation and the resolution (Chiaki states that it had been two months since he found out and last saw Ai/Enaga), but I feel like there could have been a scene or two during that two month period.
That said, it didn’t ruin it for me.
4/5
Honestly, I enjoyed it. It was a nice, yet shorter series about Chiaki, an up and coming designer who falls in love with a model named eye, who gets paired with Enaga for a class contest. The winner’s outfit will be modeled by Ai. Little does Chiaki know that Ai and Enaga are one and the same.
I also think it does a good job with the whole “secret double life” trope.
I also liked that Ai was considerate of Chiaki when it came to consent and doing the deed. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading Junjou Romantica on the side for a post I’m brainstorming (and to get my thoughts on it as an adult since I was introduced to it in high school), but Ai being as considerate felt refreshing and was appreciated. Especially when compared to Usagi and Miyagi with their partners in Junjou.
If I had to critique Punk Triangle for anything, I suppose it would be the fact that it does feel a little fast paced. Granted, it is a single volumed manga, so I won’t be too critical of it. However, when Ai makes up with Chiaki, it does feel like it didn’t happen too long after Chiaki initially figures it out. It does state that there had been some time between the revelation and the resolution (Chiaki states that it had been two months since he found out and last saw Ai/Enaga), but I feel like there could have been a scene or two during that two month period.
That said, it didn’t ruin it for me.
4/5
May 14, 2025
This was so good. Chiaki dreams of designing clothes that his idol, Ai, a fashion model, would wear. And now there's a chance. A winner of a designing competition at his night school will have their creation modelled by Ai. But unfortunately he has to pair with the clumsiest and least fashionable student in their class, Enaga.
Chiaki sees everyone in the class as a competition to him, which makes him a bit rude to everyone. And now he has an even greater incentive to win. He's met Ai in a nightclub and has had a chance to hang out with him. Too bad he's made a fool of himself and the idol has stopped answering his messages.
For a chance to apologise to Ai, Chiaki sets out to do anything that's needed, even if it means befriending Enaga. And little by little not only a team, but a friendship forms. But the competition runway reveals Enaga's great secret, ruining Chiaki's friendship with not only him but with his idol too. With a budding romanace at stake though, the men are willing to make an effort for reconciliation and more.
This was such a cute, fun story. The romance relied mostly on the secret that's revealed to readers early on, creating some really funny moments, but touching ones too. Chiaki was such an innocent even after Ai tried to corrupt him a bit, the more experienced man leading the younger one. In contrast, with Enaga Chiaki was the more assertive person, looking after the clumsy man. Reader really felt Chiaki's upset after he learns the secret, but the groveling was good and the HEA earned.
This was a stand-alone, but I'd love to read more. Art was good, and there's some spice in the extras.
Chiaki sees everyone in the class as a competition to him, which makes him a bit rude to everyone. And now he has an even greater incentive to win. He's met Ai in a nightclub and has had a chance to hang out with him. Too bad he's made a fool of himself and the idol has stopped answering his messages.
For a chance to apologise to Ai, Chiaki sets out to do anything that's needed, even if it means befriending Enaga. And little by little not only a team, but a friendship forms. But the competition runway reveals Enaga's great secret, ruining Chiaki's friendship with not only him but with his idol too. With a budding romanace at stake though, the men are willing to make an effort for reconciliation and more.
This was such a cute, fun story. The romance relied mostly on the secret that's revealed to readers early on, creating some really funny moments, but touching ones too. Chiaki was such an innocent even after Ai tried to corrupt him a bit, the more experienced man leading the younger one. In contrast, with Enaga Chiaki was the more assertive person, looking after the clumsy man. Reader really felt Chiaki's upset after he learns the secret, but the groveling was good and the HEA earned.
This was a stand-alone, but I'd love to read more. Art was good, and there's some spice in the extras.
October 22, 2025
I’m a seamstress, self-taught, who’s spent many years making costumes and clothes for myself, my wife and friends. So it really shouldn’t be any wonder that I’m drawn to the world of fashion and clothing creation, heck just creation in particular when it comes to the fiction I read. Stories like Paradise Kiss, My Dress-up Darling, Princess Jellyfish and many others always provide super interesting insight into the world behind the clothes and costumes we wear every day. Punks Triangle joins this group right in a particular niche I especially love. In Punks Triangle (and in life in general) fashion can both function as a way to tell the world about yourself and a shield to protect yourself from that same world. Because, what better way is there then to have control of how the world perceives you then wielding the clothing and style you wear?...
Read the full review at Well, Are They? A Queer Review Blog:
https://wellarethey.blogspot.com/2025...
Read the full review at Well, Are They? A Queer Review Blog:
https://wellarethey.blogspot.com/2025...
May 19, 2025
This story was so cute. I love the fact that fashion, Punk fashion to be exact was a big part of this story along with it being a love story. Chiaki is such a fun main character and he’s so relatable. His feelings for his idol Al is so cute and his relationship with Enaga is cute as well. Spoiler alert but Al and Enaga are the same person and it’s really nice that, that secret is something that gets explored and touched upon. Anyway this story was really cute really fun and the romance is really great. Also the smut is nice
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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