A laid-back yakuza heir and a striking cross-dressing beauty start an unlikely love affair.
A yakuza heir indifferent to the family business butts heads with the stunning proprietress of a nearby drag club. When his yakuza grandfather starts putting on the heat regarding the family business, he runs straight into the arms of the masculine beauty!
Masahiro, heir to a yakuza syndicate, has been skating through life without much purpose, until the day he unknowingly stumbles into the drag club his childhood friend Hana works at. Drunk and obnoxious, Masahiro causes such a stir that the beautiful master of the club is forced to deal with the yakuza brat himself. Is one good spanking all it will take to put the heir apparent on the right path in life…and love?
CW: Degrading Sexual content, Consent/Noncon, Punishment, Homophobia
This was a good start to a series, and the art was really nice. I will say this is the third book in a series, and the prequel series isn't localized in English. I found myself a little lost with the story. We follow a Yakuza member, heir to his gang, who goes into a drag bar and starts harassing guests. The owner, an androgynous person ends up punishing him and starts a spicy somewhat toxic relationship with him. I like that they use "they/them" pronouns, though their identity isn't explored much yet. I'm looking forward to the next volume.
This was so much sweeter than anticipated. There are 2 couples featured here and I love them both. The main cover couple is an unexpected pairing between a reckless and rude young man, and the person who is able to see how that persona is actually masking insecurity. I'm really looking forward to seeing their dynamic develop. The other couple is already established at the start of the book, so most of their scenes are pure fluff in the best way.
The writing and pacing is nice, could honestly be read as a standalone with how it ended! I also enjoyed the plot, though I wish I got more insight into the characters pasts, little glimpses here and there, I was just kind of wishing for more when it came to characters and less when it came to sex, but I did set myself up for that when it comes to the BL genre lol
I so badly want this book series to be given a chance to become one of those amazing series with great character development, beautiful art, and hot sex.
Trigger Warning: Possible Dubious Non-Consent Moon & Sun follows a Yakuza member and a performer who cross paths when the yakuza member spots one of their friends in a club. I am going to be totally honest and say that I did not like this manga what so ever. The redeeming part of it for me was the fact that they used they/them pronouns for the one character but other than that, this wasn't for me. I found out after reading this first volume that this is a spin off of another magna series the manga writer does that's only published in Japanese. I thought that this story didn't have enough legs to stand on its own. The parts with the characters from the author's other story were the most interesting and the characters felt well fleshed out and real. This manga just fell flat for me. It felt as if there was really no plot or plan for how this was going to go. It was about smushing the two characters together as soon as possible. I also felt very uncomfortable with the fact that the yakuza character seems to be interested in exploring their sexuality but never explicitly gave permission to the other character to do anything to them. It was all very much forced on them and these characters felt forced together. I didn't really feel I could get a feel for the characters personalities as this moved so quickly. This is a series I will not be continuing but if you are interested, I encourage you to give it a try. It just wasn't for me.
Un BL que trenca construccions de gènere? Living ♥ Tercera part de la sèrie després de 花にくちづけ Hana Ni Kuchizuke i 花といっくん Hana to Ikkun , en què els protes són el Tsubaki, maquillador i "master" del Hana, i el Masahiro, germà mig yakuza del Shouta a qui l'Ikkun fa de tutor. La veritat és m'ha encantat veure com el Masahiro deixa de ser un homòfob i gai reprimit quan s'enamora del Tsubaki, que alhora no encaixa amb el prototip d'homosexual que està acostumat a veure (per la seva amistat amb el Hana). El Tsubaki, malgrat la seva aparença andrògina i la seva passió pel maquillatge, té un cos musculat i és el seme de la parella. Brutal l'episodi en què el Masahiro diu que és un inútil, un merda, amb l'autoestima per terra (perquè no vol heredar el negoci familiar de yakuzes, no treballa i no és bo en els estudis) i el Tsubaki li contesta "shit is vital nourishment for beautiful flowers, so perfect for me" ♥
Manga muy entretenido, que aborda el tema LGBT de manera graciosa, pero con ese toque de picardía y drama que atrapa. Se logra empatizar con los personajes.
El protagonista (Masahiro) es el típico chico algo holgazán que no encaja en su familia (abuelo Yakuza), los miembros de su familia con vidas bien trabajadas, triunfadores de alguna forma, sin embargo, él no se encuentra a sí mismo.
Podría decirse que es un tema de autobúsqueda, dentro del tema LGBT, creo que se podría considerar al protagonista como alguien que de manera inicial se puede discurrir más asexual que gay, aunque la verdad no estoy seguro de ello, seguro alguien me podrá corregir al respecto.
Me gustó el manga, lo recomendaría si no tiene aversión a los temas LGBT (lo cual, no creo como podría se esto posible). Sin duda alguna, adquiriré con el segundo tomo
*note: the review below may have misgendering. The “femme man” mentioned below is implied more heavily to be nonbinary/bi-gender in later volumes of the English translation. They seem to have no pronoun preference and respond well to being called a man and a woman, but those who respect them often use “they” in the translation moving forward. I’m keeping the review as is because they accept he/him pronouns and descriptors, but I’ll be using they/them pronouns moving forward. I’m also keeping the review as is to show how their gender identity/pronouns were hard to grasp in volume 1.
I’m on the fence bc there are some neat ideas, but definite dubious consent. These specific events (most of the first volume btw so spoilers ahead) got me uncertain how to feel: 1. Basically, a mafia heir with friends harasses, including sexually harasses (like telling them to “show their p**sies” 😬), drag queens/femme men during their performance, so the femme man in charge at the moment gets pissed at his refusal to apologize, pulls the back of his pants down (in private room), and spanks him because he’s acting so childishly. The heir eventually apologizes and gets a playful kiss on where he was spanked, which leads him to run off. He later realizes that he was really turned on by the treatment from someone so attractive. 2. He returns to vandalize the club, but throws paint on that same femme man in his efforts. He agrees to help clean the paint out of his hair and then clean the paint at the door. After talking with him and after he finishes cleaning, the femme man grabs his ass to tease about the spanking, while the heir asks the femme man to stop, but it turns the heir on, which leads the femme man to kiss him. When they’re interrupted, the heir runs off embarrassed and masturbates to a photo of the femme man and the encounter. 3. Later, wondering about his future, the heir really wants to talk with the femme man and hear what he thinks, after having talked with him before. He arrives during him taking a bath and drinks some champagne he finds. Tipsy, he needs to pe*, but the femme man is still bathing, so he tells him to just go even if he’s in the room. He’s got pe* anxiety over it and asks him to leave the bath, and he does, but only to “help” him, which turns them both on. They have non-pen**rative sex mostly “offscreen.” The heir wakes up later, not upset, just asking about something kinda kinky they did. After discussing their feelings and the heir’s self-deprecation, the heir returns to move in, feeling he may have found what he needed.
So, there’s a line between consent issues and kink here that is hard to pin down, and there’s a lot of reliance on nonverbal consent. Idk what to think. It’s a lot better than a lot of BL but I don’t recommend this to anyone with issues with dubious consent or lack of verbal consent or kink elements. I’m giving it one more volume because the other couple in the bonus content is mostly good about consent, so now that the main couple is loosely officially together, I think there’s a chance that consent will be handled better. We’ll see.
Warnings for dubious consent, partial removal of clothes without consent, spanking as punishment, groping and kissing without consent, kinky stuff, homophobia, and misogyny
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
🤨 Maybe this is part of the plot, but when is Masahiro gonna start acting like he has absolutely no agency in his life? Tsubaki literally marked him and possessed him, and I'm not sure if Masahiro is okay with that, but he definitely seems swept away??? His confidence and sense of self worth is so trash it hurts.
But, Tsubaki really carries the story. I love them so much! I really hope that Masahiro will be encouraged to grow and become the badass I expected from an Heir to the Yakuza Syndicate character!!
Also, as Masahiro and Tsubaki's story seems to be a spinoff of another series by the same author (that is, sadly, only available in Japan), we got to see a glimpse of Hana and Ikkun's love story as the focus of a couple chapters and they are so CUTE.
tw: homophobia, degradation, the mildest of piss kink
While reading this I thought "oh this is like the side character story of a main novel" but that is evidently the case. I'm not familiar with Abe's other work, and definitely haven't read the two previous books. For me this is not a dealbreaker, because I was not particularly engaged by the younger couple. They were sweet, and not offensive, but I wasn't drawn to how they got together.
I do love the relationship between the two leads in Moon & Sun, and the plotting was interesting to me. Will definitely seek out Volume 2.
So I give this more of a 3.5 really. I liked the characters and their design, but I was a little confused by the story. I kind of wished it was more of a Yakuza story then it really is, it's definitely more Sensei/student (tho not young student, he's an adult) story. There's also two chapters of a side couple that felt a tad out of place but it's mentioned in the authors note at the end that it's an separate ongoing manga only available in Japan. So I liked it as a whole but it's not my favorite? I'll keep it for my collection and read the second volume for sure at least 👍
Um not usually my style and I definitely felt a little lost trying to get into the story, it’s weird that this story being vol 1 is the 3 part to another series? So it took me a minute to get into things and figure out what was going. I’d have to read move of M&S to really give a full opinion? But I didn’t hate it 🤷🏻♀️
2.5 rounded up to 3 because it's not the book's fault that Sublime thought it was totally okay to translate this (second) series first when seems we needed to know whatever tf happened in the two volumes of hana and ikkun's story for this one to not feel as disjointed.
That being said, I LOVE MY ENBY BAE, TSUBAKI TO MY CORE... hate masahiro, though... he doesn't deserve any good things.
I preferred the chapters of Hana and Ikkun to the main storyline, but both couples were ok. I am kinda interested in the characters and I would like to see where the relationship goes and how Masahiro develops, but I also don’t feel a burning desire to continue so it’ll be a ‘if I come across volume 2 cheap’ case rather than rushing to get my hands on it.
The art is nice, and I always appreciate gender-nonconforming characters. The premise felt promising, but the plot, pacing, and characters ended up lackluster. I could forgive all that if the author wanted to focus on pretty art and spice, but as I've said to my partner, "it's not even that hot."
I'm sure it hits some people's buttons but not mine.
The only downside to this was I wish I'd known it was a spin off of another series, as I was just like ??? At Hana and Ikkun's stories. But I don't think they are available in English.
In any case, Masahiro was such a little shit and Tsubaki a gender non conforming queen that put him in his place. Really liked their part.
CW: Toxic relationship, violence, sexual content, explicit, harassment, homophobia
Sensei, the wild person they are, has their way with a yakuza heir, and yes it's absolutely a mess of a story already. The other sappy couple’s chapters are a fun and lighten the mood. Apparently there's a book or two previously published about Hana’s relationship that I hadn't known beforehand.
LO AMÉ, no tengo más palabras... El sensei, es lo más 👌🏽 y el amigo de la Infancia es para matarlo. Un amor que se va cociendo a fuego lento, además de ver cómo los personajes van madurando, no sólo como personas, sino en su relación y en la relación con los demás.
Side note - Bewildered as to how sublime can justify translating part three of a series and not one and two. I’ve read one and two through unofficial means, luckily, because otherwise I’d have been lost.
I accidentally thought this was strictly a Josei, but it sure wasn’t! Still, it was cute and fun, although the story flowed very weirdly with all the different couples. Like, there’s a prequel series with the first couple?
It is about Mashiro that dealing with insecurity that why he acts the way he does and Tsubaki knows this they are in the start of a relationship. We also follow Hana and Ikkun and been in a relationship longer they are so cute.
I could not help but fall in love with the stupid muscle and the strong but femme type. I honestly had no idea what this one was gonna give me, but I'm glad I picked it up.
Such a cool premise. Unfortunately, the execution is not there. The leads are bland and the romance is lackluster. If anything, Hana is the most interesting character here and he's not even the lead. I don't get why Sublime licensed this but not Hana ni Kuchizuke.
This was one I picked up because it popped up in the library catalog when I searched "yakuza". I feel like I would have enjoyed this more if it focused on Hana and Ikkun, and not Masahiro and Tsubaki as much. But I'm not sure. This isn't the type of manga I'd usually pick up.