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榎田尤利作品集 #2
ハンサムは嫌い。
身為美容師的若葉不愛美男子，反而愛普通不起眼的男人。而若葉的老闆真壁雖然長得帥，卻很隨便，因此這兩個人天生八字不和。可是自從知道真壁的另一個真面目後，若葉卻漸漸被他吸引，心裡對他的感情日益複雜……。就在某次兩人對立僵持不下時－－「我再怎麼樣也不會讓它勃起！」卻不小心把這句話說溜了嘴！這場笨拙的成人之戀將如何發展－－？
Tankobon Hardcover
First published February 15, 2006
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March 8, 2015
I think I'm actually reading these compilations of Eda Yuuri's earlier works in reverse order.. not that that's bad or anything. "Handsome wa kirai" collects the title story as well as "Musahou na Shinshi" and a short story called "Hisho to Ichigo" that's connected to "Musahou na Shinshi". I'd rate the first story with four stars and the second with three, rounding up the entire rating to four because overall I really enjoyed reading this book.
"Handsome wa kirai" is set in a small beauty salon, run by Makabe Hideo, a handsome but lazy guy in his early thirties. When his salon doesn't make the numbers she expects, his mother whose in charge of the company the salon belongs to sends him Yui, a star among haidressers. Yui and Makabe don't get along at all - Yui dislikes handsome guys and Makabe doesn't like gays - Yui, being really attractive himself has a thing for the wallflower kind of guys. It turns out there actually is no real reason for Yui's dislike of attractive men, and as for the reason for Makabe's homophobia.. well. It's an *unusual* reason, I guess. It wasn't exactly, um, convincing, but whatever - if you accept this as a light and superficial romcom that has a pleasantly surprising number of female characters (something that's almost always true for her novels though) this is really enjoyable. Makabe, despite being an asshole, actually changes a lot of his worst behaviour, and he and Yui make a really cute couple. It also helps that their relationship pretty much defies all the usual BL clichés. (While I don't condone *all* of his actions, I do love Yui a lot.)
As for the second story, my main problem with it was that the plot didn't quite come together for me *and* that there is the kind of scene that I dislike the most and one that Eda Yuuri sadly seems to like a lot. This was the fourth or fifth time I encountered a scene where the main character was about to raped in front of a camera in order to get control over him. I didn't like the first time I read a scene like that and I didn't like it now.
Anyway! The protagonist of this story is Ouhiko, the youngest of three children of the owner of a huge company. When their father is hospitalized, a fierce battle of succession begins, which results in Ouhiko almost freezing to death during a snowstorm - a situation created by his older sister. Luckily, he is saved by the grumpy but gentle Katsurou, a charcoal maker (to be honest, until I read the novel I didn't know such a profession existed, so I don't know whether that's the right name for it, but anyway, Katsurou lives in a tiny hut on a mountain and makes charcoal). At first, Ouhiko isn't exactly impressed by Katsurou's living arrangements, but during the time he has to wait until Katsurou can drive him down the mountain, he begins to see the appeal. When they leave the mountain, they stop by an onsen and one thing leads to another ending with Katsurou jerking Ouhiko off because of a misunderstanding, but it's not like Ouhiko did mind *that* much especially since a cleaned up Katsurou is really hot.
During what's supposed to be their good-bye dinner, Ouhiko is struck by a brilliant idea how to take revenge on his sister and distract her - he asks Katsurou to seduce her. Katsurou is less than impressed by this plan, but Ouhiko more or less forces him to do it. Because of Katsurou's rather rough appearance, what follows is a "My Fair Lady" kind of education, during which Ouhiko begins to realize he doesn't exactly like the thought of his sister together with Katsuruo. And what is his older brother planning? Spoiler: nothing good, involving a video camera.
While there were some nice "kyun" moments (especially when Ouhiko dances with Katsurou), it felt like there was a little too much going on, and it felt like there could have been even nicer scenes between Ouhiko and Katsurou. It wasn't exactly a bad novel, but it didn't grab me the way I like BL novels to grab me, and the attempted rape scene didn't help.
The short story at the end is about Ouhiko's father and his secretary and to be honest I want to read a whole story about them... at any rate, combined with the rather sweet ending of the main story, this was a good conclusion to a satisfying volume. I really had fun reading most of this, and I my love for Eda Yuuri was once again confirmed.
As for Ogura Muku's illustrations, I felt they fit the mood of the story very nicely, and there was one that was especially lovely at the end of the first story. I really love Yui on the cover as well.
"Handsome wa kirai" is set in a small beauty salon, run by Makabe Hideo, a handsome but lazy guy in his early thirties. When his salon doesn't make the numbers she expects, his mother whose in charge of the company the salon belongs to sends him Yui, a star among haidressers. Yui and Makabe don't get along at all - Yui dislikes handsome guys and Makabe doesn't like gays - Yui, being really attractive himself has a thing for the wallflower kind of guys. It turns out there actually is no real reason for Yui's dislike of attractive men, and as for the reason for Makabe's homophobia.. well. It's an *unusual* reason, I guess. It wasn't exactly, um, convincing, but whatever - if you accept this as a light and superficial romcom that has a pleasantly surprising number of female characters (something that's almost always true for her novels though) this is really enjoyable. Makabe, despite being an asshole, actually changes a lot of his worst behaviour, and he and Yui make a really cute couple. It also helps that their relationship pretty much defies all the usual BL clichés. (While I don't condone *all* of his actions, I do love Yui a lot.)
As for the second story, my main problem with it was that the plot didn't quite come together for me *and* that there is the kind of scene that I dislike the most and one that Eda Yuuri sadly seems to like a lot. This was the fourth or fifth time I encountered a scene where the main character was about to raped in front of a camera in order to get control over him. I didn't like the first time I read a scene like that and I didn't like it now.
Anyway! The protagonist of this story is Ouhiko, the youngest of three children of the owner of a huge company. When their father is hospitalized, a fierce battle of succession begins, which results in Ouhiko almost freezing to death during a snowstorm - a situation created by his older sister. Luckily, he is saved by the grumpy but gentle Katsurou, a charcoal maker (to be honest, until I read the novel I didn't know such a profession existed, so I don't know whether that's the right name for it, but anyway, Katsurou lives in a tiny hut on a mountain and makes charcoal). At first, Ouhiko isn't exactly impressed by Katsurou's living arrangements, but during the time he has to wait until Katsurou can drive him down the mountain, he begins to see the appeal. When they leave the mountain, they stop by an onsen and one thing leads to another ending with Katsurou jerking Ouhiko off because of a misunderstanding, but it's not like Ouhiko did mind *that* much especially since a cleaned up Katsurou is really hot.
During what's supposed to be their good-bye dinner, Ouhiko is struck by a brilliant idea how to take revenge on his sister and distract her - he asks Katsurou to seduce her. Katsurou is less than impressed by this plan, but Ouhiko more or less forces him to do it. Because of Katsurou's rather rough appearance, what follows is a "My Fair Lady" kind of education, during which Ouhiko begins to realize he doesn't exactly like the thought of his sister together with Katsuruo. And what is his older brother planning? Spoiler: nothing good, involving a video camera.
While there were some nice "kyun" moments (especially when Ouhiko dances with Katsurou), it felt like there was a little too much going on, and it felt like there could have been even nicer scenes between Ouhiko and Katsurou. It wasn't exactly a bad novel, but it didn't grab me the way I like BL novels to grab me, and the attempted rape scene didn't help.
The short story at the end is about Ouhiko's father and his secretary and to be honest I want to read a whole story about them... at any rate, combined with the rather sweet ending of the main story, this was a good conclusion to a satisfying volume. I really had fun reading most of this, and I my love for Eda Yuuri was once again confirmed.
As for Ogura Muku's illustrations, I felt they fit the mood of the story very nicely, and there was one that was especially lovely at the end of the first story. I really love Yui on the cover as well.
Displaying 1 of 1 review