Oh. My. God.
It's been a while since I've been this *shocked* by a book. Shocked by how good it was. And shocked by the fact that I have to wait more than a year to read the next volume.
But mostly shocked by how good this was.
I actually hate using phrases like, "this isn't just BL anymore", because it makes it seem like being just BL is a bad thing, and I don't think it is. But manga like this? Transcend the genre, while probably only being possible because of the genre.
This is not a happy manga. The main character is a victim of child abuse (both physical and sexual), and it's really disturbing in parts. And because this is the first volume, there is no kind of katharsis, which.. definitely doesn't make things easier for the reader.
Yutaka is the son of a former boxer working as a trainer at his father's gym. He's gay, but he's hiding it from everyone around him, especially his father. One day, while out with his boyfriend, the two of them are dragged into a fight and finally rescued by a foreign-looking young man who seems to know his way around a fight. Yutaka invites him to come to their gym, and a couple of days later Kei - the foreign-looking young man - does just that. He says he wants to become a professional boxer, and after seeing him train Yutaka's father agrees, letting him live in the gym's dorm. When Yutaka shows him around, Kei threatens to expose Yutaka's homosexuality if he doesn't let Kei do what he wants - it turns out Kei isn't all that serious about becoming a boxer, he mostly just wants a place to live. Yutaka cannot accept that, and so Kei forces him to have sex with him instead. After that, Kei keeps living at the dorm and working out at the gym, and Yutaka continues to have sex with him. And as time passes, Kei gets better and better - and also more and more dependent on Yutaka.
There's more to the plot than that, of course. What struck me most was the visuals - first, only the cover looks "BL-like" - the interior art could also be that of a seinen manga a lot of the time, I feel. And I love, love, LOVE what she did with Kei's memory/flashbacks. They're told in a video game style, and while it seemed odd at first, it really really worked.
I bought the ebook when it was on sale after seeing it mentioned again and again, and I am so glad I did. I definitely need a physical copy as well, though.
This is definitely going on my "best of the year" list - it's absolutely fantastic. If you have a chance, please buy it and read it. In a better world, more manga like this would be licenced and translated, but sadly I don't see that happening. But honestly? Learning Japanese so you can read things like that is absolutely worth it.