These two manga tell the stories of two sets of brothers who fall in love, although each book stands along. Star and Hedgehog follows Ikumi, a college student who’s at home for the summer and falls in love with one of the gardeners, Harukiyo. Ikumi at first thinks that Harukiyo hates him, but it turns out that Harukiyo is just shy and intimidated by how handsome he thinks Ikumi is. They get to know each other and start dating long distance. The art here is a style that I like, a little sketchy but detailed. Their development as a couple is fun to follow along with, as they’re both shy in different ways and have to work through their jealousies and misunderstandings. Both of them are always blushing and it’s honestly very cute, as their affection for each other seems gentle and sweet. There are a bunch of extras in the back with some additional scenes, which I always appreciate. My only qualm was the extra scene where Ikumi wants to take a video of Harukiyo while they have sex and Harukiyo doesn’t want to, and it all felt a bit too pressuring for me. But overall, I thought this was cute and gentle and had the right ratio of slight angst to immediate working through of the issues.
Fox and Puppy is about Ikumi’s brother Aiichiro, who works as an editor for Harukiyo’s brother Akihiro, a novelist. This volume has a different tone, more angsty and adult than the other one, although still with a lot of sweetness and lighthearted moments. Akihiro refuses to be in a relationship and date anyone, only doing one night stands and friends with benefits situations. He’s emotionally closed off and sarcastic. Aiichiro is portrayed throughout the manga as a friendly dog and despite the fact he’s never been with a man, falls in love with Akihiro and sets out on a campaign to get Akihiro to be his boyfriend. Akihiro has his reasons in his past for why he’s like this and Aiichiro manages to learn why and persevere in the end. The art was smoother and less sketchy here, still very solid and enjoyable. I had more hesitations about this relationship working out because Akihiro was a spikier and more difficult character, and I wanted someone to be nice to Aiichiro, but there’s some psychological nuance here about past relationship baggage influencing the current self, and I liked Aiichiro’s message of needing to acknowledge and process pain.
Both books serve as a nice point-counterpoint sort of situation and I’m glad I picked up both! These are keepers for me, I liked them and the art was right up my alley, so onto the shelf it goes. There are explicit sex scenes in these, just as a heads up.
