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紙の舟で眠る [Kami no Fune de Nemuru] #1
Sleeping on Paper Boats, Vol. 1
A young screenwriter who has skyrocketed to success on the back of his groundbreaking writing abilities discovers his pen is poisoned when all the people he has based his characters on meet untimely deaths. When a new love interest sparks his creativity, will he risk further misfortune or retire his pen forever?
Kindle Edition
First published December 27, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
September 30, 2025
I love me some tragic, troublesome bl. I’m interested if this will reach a deadly conclusion or if there’s hope for joy. Right now I’m thinking the former.
April 24, 2026
The emotional damage is real :)
June 16, 2026
Wasn’t really planning to write a review but now I must rtc
September 16, 2025
Yeah, I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time.
This in a way felt like it was written specifically for me because it had every element and themes I love in a book.
Cursed screenwriter Kei ends up leading all the people he bases his protagonists off of to death. Defeated, he decides to take a break from writing until he befriends an aspiring photographer, Yoichi. He reinspires Kei to pick up the pen again and together they form a connection becoming each other's muses. However, the curse continues to loom over Kei’s head.
It was so angsty with a doomed undertone. The emotions in this really jumped right off the page. I was constantly blown away by the character’s facial expressions. The second half of this felt like gut punch after gut punch.
The dialogue and writing was also just SO GOOD! My book journal spread for this is about to have a long list of quotes. Let’s just say the codependency really jumped out so of course I was like HELLO!
I can’t wait to see their fate in volume 2!
Thank you so much to SuBLime and VIZ Media for providing me with the eARC.
This in a way felt like it was written specifically for me because it had every element and themes I love in a book.
Cursed screenwriter Kei ends up leading all the people he bases his protagonists off of to death. Defeated, he decides to take a break from writing until he befriends an aspiring photographer, Yoichi. He reinspires Kei to pick up the pen again and together they form a connection becoming each other's muses. However, the curse continues to loom over Kei’s head.
It was so angsty with a doomed undertone. The emotions in this really jumped right off the page. I was constantly blown away by the character’s facial expressions. The second half of this felt like gut punch after gut punch.
The dialogue and writing was also just SO GOOD! My book journal spread for this is about to have a long list of quotes. Let’s just say the codependency really jumped out so of course I was like HELLO!
I can’t wait to see their fate in volume 2!
Thank you so much to SuBLime and VIZ Media for providing me with the eARC.
June 28, 2025
ชอบชื่อเรื่องภาษาไทย "นิทราบนนาวากระดาษ" แต่พล๊อตหม่นมาก เรื่องราวของตัวเอกนักเขียนบทภาพยนตร์ กับช่างภาพ ปมเยอะ อ่านแล้วหม่นไปกับตัวละครแต่งานภาพและลายเส้นสวยค่ะ
May 8, 2024
A complicated BL manga set in post-WW2 Japan, Sleeping on Paper Boats explores the complex relationship between Kei, a messy homme fatale and screenwriter, and his muse/savior/puppy Youichi, who Kei sees as the harbinger of death. The men share a fate that transcends the boundaries of ordinary human connection. This review is written after reading Act 3, and to my knowledge the story is still ongoing (follow along on Pixiv or your site of choice!)
After a mass-death incident in which Kei and Youichi are the only survivors, their perception of humanity is altered as they split and grow into adulthood. Kei, as if possessed by an otherworldly force, finds a talent for screenwriting. However, the models for his protagonists become cursed and die without fail.
Youichi, an amateur photographer living in a brothel, finds both artistic inspiration through Kei's films and an intrinsic purpose through being in his orbit. The two men forge an unbreakable yet unequal bond, and the reader is left with questions: are they merely human, or is there something more to their existence? What is Youichi hiding, and how much of Kei’s suspicion is a product of his own delusion?
Kei unwillingly embarks on his comeback film, a project that may either free him from the shinigami's curse and allow him to write as a “human” or consign him to oblivion, alongside his friend.
At parts, I feel like the beginning of the story was rushed. I’ve also found some parts confusing, but I am not a native Japanese reader. However, overall Yatsuda Teki nicely weaves elements of tragedy, romance, and the supernatural, keeping me incredibly engaged so far. At parts their dynamic reminds of Marukido Maki’s PORNOGRAPHER, which is one of my all-time favorite BL manga.
The cherry on top is the incredible character artwork. The perfect amount of detail is given to characters in panels (such as shinigami Youichi in Kei’s nightmares) to enhance the emotional depth and complexity of the characters and of Kei’s personal hell. It brings everything to life in a beautiful way.
If you like a good historical setting, supernatural elements, and complex character development/relationships, give this a shot. I’ll probably update this review as I keep reading.
EDIT: Got my hands on the completed physical volume! WOW, it gets even more intense :] final rating: 4.5/5
After a mass-death incident in which Kei and Youichi are the only survivors, their perception of humanity is altered as they split and grow into adulthood. Kei, as if possessed by an otherworldly force, finds a talent for screenwriting. However, the models for his protagonists become cursed and die without fail.
Youichi, an amateur photographer living in a brothel, finds both artistic inspiration through Kei's films and an intrinsic purpose through being in his orbit. The two men forge an unbreakable yet unequal bond, and the reader is left with questions: are they merely human, or is there something more to their existence? What is Youichi hiding, and how much of Kei’s suspicion is a product of his own delusion?
Kei unwillingly embarks on his comeback film, a project that may either free him from the shinigami's curse and allow him to write as a “human” or consign him to oblivion, alongside his friend.
At parts, I feel like the beginning of the story was rushed. I’ve also found some parts confusing, but I am not a native Japanese reader. However, overall Yatsuda Teki nicely weaves elements of tragedy, romance, and the supernatural, keeping me incredibly engaged so far. At parts their dynamic reminds of Marukido Maki’s PORNOGRAPHER, which is one of my all-time favorite BL manga.
The cherry on top is the incredible character artwork. The perfect amount of detail is given to characters in panels (such as shinigami Youichi in Kei’s nightmares) to enhance the emotional depth and complexity of the characters and of Kei’s personal hell. It brings everything to life in a beautiful way.
If you like a good historical setting, supernatural elements, and complex character development/relationships, give this a shot. I’ll probably update this review as I keep reading.
EDIT: Got my hands on the completed physical volume! WOW, it gets even more intense :] final rating: 4.5/5
October 18, 2025
I disliked
A Home Far Away
so much that I seriously debated whether to preorder this series. I like Sublime as a publisher, but I've been pretty disappointed lately by their small number of new licenses, and the titles they choose...
The only reason I kept my preorder was because I looked it up and confirmed that this has a happy ending. So that had better be true; I have some pretty strong trust issues after the absolute mess of their other angstfest, where the endless misery was entirely the point.
I get the sense that's just how this author operates - to them, wallowing in despair makes the story more...literary, maybe, or at least that's the attempt. While this one pulls off the navel-gazing a little bit better - possibly due to Sublime's superior translations - the overall story is kind of muddy and doesn't really make sense.
It's incredibly unclear whether the two main characters are simply massively depressed, edging heavily into constant suicidal territory, or if there really is some sort of supernatural element to it.
They're the sole survivors of a tram wreck from their childhood, when an army truck crashed into the tram and killed everyone else on board, including a number of kids who were on their way home from school, and Yoichi's mother, who'd shielded him with her own body.
Kei honestly seems to have had a pretty decent life after that. His family isn't mentioned, but he'd been on the tram by himself, so he seems to have been raised by his family in a pretty normal way once he recovered from his injuries, and by age 19 he was selling screenplays and becoming an overnight sensation. But he was constantly miserable, with "Death" haunting his steps.
Here's where it seems like it's a supernatural story, because there's this whole poison pen element, where every time he writes a screenplay, the real life counterpart of the main character dies in some abrupt and seemingly unnatural way. Kei also has constant hallucinations of a child who looks like him, whom he'd first seen in the wreckage of the crash, whom he's determined is Death, giving him his words and taking lives as punishment.
So Kei decides to stop writing and puts his pen down for three years, trying to use alcohol and other terrible choices to drown out the voice in his head that still wants to create words.
This could all be very interesting, but it mostly comes across as just some sort of torture kink. He doesn't seem to be doing anything to fix the problem...like, say, therapy. Or maybe writing stories that aren't ripoffs of other people's lives? If you don't thinly veil a real person in your narrative, then there's no real life person who would die?
When he meets Yoichi, he basically replaces Death as his muse, and Kei clings to him as someone who can free him to write again. So he writes another screenplay, which of course is hugely successful, like everything he does (this all seems unrealistic too), but then the producer mentor who'd jumpstarted his career insists that he write a screenplay about himself next - the screenwriter whose pen kills people. He basically threatens Yoichi and his dreams of a photography career to get Kei to do it.
So Kei breaks up with Yoichi without explaining why, and they both sink back into angry misery again.
Mixed in here is a lot of weirdness with Yoichi starting to violently choke Kei every time they have sex, with Kei's neck constantly covered in visible dark bruises as a result. And some more of the "supernatural" oddness with them having the same dreams at the same time, and Yoichi saying dialogue or living through scenes that Kei has only just thought of in his head, or started to put down on paper.
I kind of don't get the sense that there's going to be a real answer about whether any of this is actually happening, or if Kei's kind of going crazy or something? He does close out this volume by finally telling Yoichi he's in love with him, and that he doesn't want to die and leave him, which is a start.
But Yoichi is possibly even more messed up than Kei is...after his mother's death, whom I think was a post-war prostitute, he gets taken in by the other women at the brothel, and spends his entire life living there and working for them as a handyman, etc. He also gets his virginity taken by one of the women when he's still pretty young - and she tells him in the process that the only way he'll ever get anyone to love him is to remain an empty shell so people can project whatever they want onto him.
He has a pretty major breakdown after he loses Kei, because even being an empty shell for him didn't work. I guess it's meant to be progress that he shows some true emotion and some of the anger that's actually being boiling underneath all this time.
But to me, the overall story just...feels kind of equally empty. I liked it okay after I finished reading it last night, but as I'm thinking through it more in the light of day, it really does feel like that same "misery is beautiful and life is pointless and terrible" message from that one-shot I hated. I just have to decide if I'm interested enough to read the conclusion in the second volume...and right now, I'm kind of not? I don't even like either of the characters that much.
There is a whole deeper meaning to this story, with the post-war disillusionment and economic/creative devastation that took a long time to rebuild. But if you're looking for something that explores those kinds of topics, I'd recommend I Can't Get Through the Night Alone instead.
The only reason I kept my preorder was because I looked it up and confirmed that this has a happy ending. So that had better be true; I have some pretty strong trust issues after the absolute mess of their other angstfest, where the endless misery was entirely the point.
I get the sense that's just how this author operates - to them, wallowing in despair makes the story more...literary, maybe, or at least that's the attempt. While this one pulls off the navel-gazing a little bit better - possibly due to Sublime's superior translations - the overall story is kind of muddy and doesn't really make sense.
It's incredibly unclear whether the two main characters are simply massively depressed, edging heavily into constant suicidal territory, or if there really is some sort of supernatural element to it.
They're the sole survivors of a tram wreck from their childhood, when an army truck crashed into the tram and killed everyone else on board, including a number of kids who were on their way home from school, and Yoichi's mother, who'd shielded him with her own body.
Kei honestly seems to have had a pretty decent life after that. His family isn't mentioned, but he'd been on the tram by himself, so he seems to have been raised by his family in a pretty normal way once he recovered from his injuries, and by age 19 he was selling screenplays and becoming an overnight sensation. But he was constantly miserable, with "Death" haunting his steps.
Here's where it seems like it's a supernatural story, because there's this whole poison pen element, where every time he writes a screenplay, the real life counterpart of the main character dies in some abrupt and seemingly unnatural way. Kei also has constant hallucinations of a child who looks like him, whom he'd first seen in the wreckage of the crash, whom he's determined is Death, giving him his words and taking lives as punishment.
So Kei decides to stop writing and puts his pen down for three years, trying to use alcohol and other terrible choices to drown out the voice in his head that still wants to create words.
This could all be very interesting, but it mostly comes across as just some sort of torture kink. He doesn't seem to be doing anything to fix the problem...like, say, therapy. Or maybe writing stories that aren't ripoffs of other people's lives? If you don't thinly veil a real person in your narrative, then there's no real life person who would die?
When he meets Yoichi, he basically replaces Death as his muse, and Kei clings to him as someone who can free him to write again. So he writes another screenplay, which of course is hugely successful, like everything he does (this all seems unrealistic too), but then the producer mentor who'd jumpstarted his career insists that he write a screenplay about himself next - the screenwriter whose pen kills people. He basically threatens Yoichi and his dreams of a photography career to get Kei to do it.
So Kei breaks up with Yoichi without explaining why, and they both sink back into angry misery again.
Mixed in here is a lot of weirdness with Yoichi starting to violently choke Kei every time they have sex, with Kei's neck constantly covered in visible dark bruises as a result. And some more of the "supernatural" oddness with them having the same dreams at the same time, and Yoichi saying dialogue or living through scenes that Kei has only just thought of in his head, or started to put down on paper.
I kind of don't get the sense that there's going to be a real answer about whether any of this is actually happening, or if Kei's kind of going crazy or something? He does close out this volume by finally telling Yoichi he's in love with him, and that he doesn't want to die and leave him, which is a start.
But Yoichi is possibly even more messed up than Kei is...after his mother's death, whom I think was a post-war prostitute, he gets taken in by the other women at the brothel, and spends his entire life living there and working for them as a handyman, etc. He also gets his virginity taken by one of the women when he's still pretty young - and she tells him in the process that the only way he'll ever get anyone to love him is to remain an empty shell so people can project whatever they want onto him.
He has a pretty major breakdown after he loses Kei, because even being an empty shell for him didn't work. I guess it's meant to be progress that he shows some true emotion and some of the anger that's actually being boiling underneath all this time.
But to me, the overall story just...feels kind of equally empty. I liked it okay after I finished reading it last night, but as I'm thinking through it more in the light of day, it really does feel like that same "misery is beautiful and life is pointless and terrible" message from that one-shot I hated. I just have to decide if I'm interested enough to read the conclusion in the second volume...and right now, I'm kind of not? I don't even like either of the characters that much.
There is a whole deeper meaning to this story, with the post-war disillusionment and economic/creative devastation that took a long time to rebuild. But if you're looking for something that explores those kinds of topics, I'd recommend I Can't Get Through the Night Alone instead.
July 21, 2026
The panels are literally works of art, I feel blessed. The story is very interesting, even tho I'm not sure I've really grasped how the plot unfolds.
March 2, 2026
Disappointing. I love a good psychological horror BL, but this series does not deliver. It's desperate to impress yet lacks depth. The romance is unconvincing, not to mention the dialogue is stilted. Also, I kept getting distracted by all the 3D assets. I've read my fair share of manhwa so seeing 3D assets isn't anything new, but I've never seen them used to this extent, to the point where it jolts me out of the story.
March 16, 2025
4,5/5
Ho preso questo volume (e il seguente della duologia) solo al sentire il nome dell'autrice, la stessa di home far away, e non ho avuto nessun dubbio sul fatto che sarebbe riuscita a tirare fuori qualcosa di fenomenale.
Premessa: penso che il suo esordio sia un filino migliore di questa opera per via di un solo e specifico punto narrativo che mi ha fatto storcere il naso, per il resto chef's kiss.
Mi piace un sacco come lei scelga un tema principale e utilizzi la storia attorno per sviscerarlo: che sia il trauma religioso (home far away, che essendo nata in una famiglia italiana colpisce particolarmente vicino) o l'ossessione fino al punto di morte (quest'opera) lei riesce a dargli una svolta più che interessante attraverso le voci dei protagonisti, entrambi posseduti da demoni diversi che li portano non solo a distruggersi a vicenda, ma anche a produrre le loro opere, rinchiudendoli in questo circolo vizioso senza fine. Arrivi a pensare che forse quello che stai leggendo sia solo nella testa del protagonista perché così calato nella sua ossessione/possessione sembra non capire più cosa sia la realtà e cosa la fantasia.
Questo volume descrive quella parte della storia egregiamente. (non voglio fare spoiler)
Poi arriva il secondo volume, dove per me c'è il nodo principale del problema nel quale la scrittrice stessa si è ingarbugliata- (scrivo nel prossimo volume)
Ho preso questo volume (e il seguente della duologia) solo al sentire il nome dell'autrice, la stessa di home far away, e non ho avuto nessun dubbio sul fatto che sarebbe riuscita a tirare fuori qualcosa di fenomenale.
Premessa: penso che il suo esordio sia un filino migliore di questa opera per via di un solo e specifico punto narrativo che mi ha fatto storcere il naso, per il resto chef's kiss.
Mi piace un sacco come lei scelga un tema principale e utilizzi la storia attorno per sviscerarlo: che sia il trauma religioso (home far away, che essendo nata in una famiglia italiana colpisce particolarmente vicino) o l'ossessione fino al punto di morte (quest'opera) lei riesce a dargli una svolta più che interessante attraverso le voci dei protagonisti, entrambi posseduti da demoni diversi che li portano non solo a distruggersi a vicenda, ma anche a produrre le loro opere, rinchiudendoli in questo circolo vizioso senza fine. Arrivi a pensare che forse quello che stai leggendo sia solo nella testa del protagonista perché così calato nella sua ossessione/possessione sembra non capire più cosa sia la realtà e cosa la fantasia.
Questo volume descrive quella parte della storia egregiamente. (non voglio fare spoiler)
Poi arriva il secondo volume, dove per me c'è il nodo principale del problema nel quale la scrittrice stessa si è ingarbugliata- (scrivo nel prossimo volume)
February 3, 2026
Great art, really stunning. As for the rest... it lost me somewhere in the middle. I'm fine with dark, twisted stories, and I liked the creepy vibes here. But at some point, it crossed into depression and suicide galore, clearly trying to appear deeper than it actually is, in this emo quasi-literary style that I'd totally fall for as a teenager... but I just roll my eyes at it now.
Some of the other reviewers used the word "empty" to describe this manga, and after some thought, that's probably the word I'd use too - because despite an interesting premise and hauntingly beautiful panels, the story isn't terribly original so far, and the parts that at first appear intriguing, on second thought turn out to be there mostly for the shock value. The characters, too, seem like empty shells, just disappearing from my mind as soon as I move my eyes away from the panels. Perhaps all that was the mangaka's intent, but it's just not working for me.
Some of the other reviewers used the word "empty" to describe this manga, and after some thought, that's probably the word I'd use too - because despite an interesting premise and hauntingly beautiful panels, the story isn't terribly original so far, and the parts that at first appear intriguing, on second thought turn out to be there mostly for the shock value. The characters, too, seem like empty shells, just disappearing from my mind as soon as I move my eyes away from the panels. Perhaps all that was the mangaka's intent, but it's just not working for me.
July 23, 2025
WHEN THE MLM IT’S NOT MAN LEAVING MAN😍😍😍
November 24, 2025
MY FRAGILE AND DELICATE HEART 😭🫶🏽
May 10, 2026
El dibujo me gusta, la historia otro BL más entre lo chungo malrollero y el sexo CNC.
No es mi rollo.
No es mi rollo.
October 14, 2025
*Original Review 2/14/2025*
Honestly a little confused by what the hell is going on, but I really enjoy this author's writing and art style. They do emotional tragic bl so well. I have no clue what to expect from the ending, but I am expecting it to hurt.
*Reread 10/14/2025*
Still pretty confused, but I feel like this whole thing is meant to be a metaphor for ptsd and trauma. Maybe once I read the second volume it'll all come together for me. I'm not really expecting a happy ending considering the other bl I've read by this author, but I'm looking forward to the conclusion.
Honestly a little confused by what the hell is going on, but I really enjoy this author's writing and art style. They do emotional tragic bl so well. I have no clue what to expect from the ending, but I am expecting it to hurt.
*Reread 10/14/2025*
Still pretty confused, but I feel like this whole thing is meant to be a metaphor for ptsd and trauma. Maybe once I read the second volume it'll all come together for me. I'm not really expecting a happy ending considering the other bl I've read by this author, but I'm looking forward to the conclusion.
March 11, 2026
El arte y el talento artístico de Yatsuda-san es, como siempre, impresionante. En ese sentido, es una absoluta delicia visual. Pero en esta obra, la autora se enreda en una trama a mi parecer bastante confusa y complicada, que no acaba de convencer y que te deja con más preguntas que respuestas.
La parte romántica también sucede muy deprisa, no tiene suficiente desarrollo y se siente como que "falta algo".
A ver cómo se va desarrollando la trama en esta segunda parte ♥️
La parte romántica también sucede muy deprisa, no tiene suficiente desarrollo y se siente como que "falta algo".
A ver cómo se va desarrollando la trama en esta segunda parte ♥️
May 12, 2026
El punto fuerte de esta obra es el arte, que complementa muy bien con su atmósfera oscura y decadente.
Tratar la muerte desde cualquier parte del prisma es algo que siempre me ha interesado, pero llega un punto en el que me ha parecido que todo toma un cariz depresivo y suicida que llega a cansar. Aún así seguiré con el vol. II
Tratar la muerte desde cualquier parte del prisma es algo que siempre me ha interesado, pero llega un punto en el que me ha parecido que todo toma un cariz depresivo y suicida que llega a cansar. Aún así seguiré con el vol. II
May 31, 2026
the artwork in this was STUNNING and im a sucker for a toxic, twisted romance and a curse that feels impossible to escape unscathed so yeah im here for this. im interested to see how this all wraps up in the second volume! happy almost pride month y’all everyone get more evil and more gay NOW!!!!!!!!
July 20, 2026
Unsure how I feel about this one.
I went in blind after seeing some beautiful panels. After having read it, I can say the artwork IS beautiful, I’m just not sure how I feel about the development of the plot. I’ll read the second to determine how I feel about it as a whole, but as for right now… eh.
I went in blind after seeing some beautiful panels. After having read it, I can say the artwork IS beautiful, I’m just not sure how I feel about the development of the plot. I’ll read the second to determine how I feel about it as a whole, but as for right now… eh.
August 2, 2025
I fear I'm eating this one up. full review to come after I finished reading the second volume
October 30, 2025
3⭐️
Good, but went a bit too fast
Good, but went a bit too fast
November 3, 2025
Teki Yatsuda no decepciona
January 8, 2026
I loved this, yeah, but please stay doomed please stay doomed PLEASE STAY DOOMED
January 10, 2026
Me ha producido una sensación parecida a la de cuando vi por primera vez una pelicula de wong kar-wai
March 29, 2026
The art is beautiful.. even the creepy moments. I’m not 100 percent sure on what’s going on but I’m interested enough to finish the story.
March 30, 2026
I loved everything about this
April 13, 2026
I have no words really, just that this is one of my favourite books
5.75/5 ⭐️
5.75/5 ⭐️
July 5, 2026
gorgeous
February 5, 2025
خیلی خیلی دوست داشتنی و زیبا بود.
March 24, 2025
a mani basse il mio manga preferito, fine
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews