C. J. Michalski

Six stories, four with a light fantasy theme. The first is about an half angel/cupid trying to become full-fledged by finding the true love of an immoral pervert, the next about a normal boy in school who loves the popular guy and gets a love-water-gun-type-thing to make his wish come true. The third is a Cinderella story about a newspaper boy and the rich boy he likes, the fourth about an angel of death who falls in love with, of course, a terminally ill boy. The last two are about an ice cream stand clerk who fantasizes about one of his customers, and a waiter from a fancy restaurant who meets a very kind bum after being fired.

These stories are pure sweet, silly fluff. The first one isn't even really romantic. I mean, it's the story of a boy who finds the dreams he sought after all his life are crushed when he is raped by a man who loves him due to a Cupid's arrow. By the end his body kind of seems to like the sex, but he himself apart from that seems kind of exasperated and maybe even miserable. But, you know, it's the silly kind of exasperated and miserable. For comic relief. Haha.

Most of the rest of the stories, as you can kind of tell, just take the usual BL plots and put a light fantasy spin on them. Execution wise it's same old, though there's a bigger focus on comedy, and sometimes I did find it a little funny, though it did get a little overly silly for me sometimes.

The art here is the best part to me. The ukes are invariably light haired, big-eyed, short, cute things, and the semes tall, dark, and uber masculine, but at least it's all clean and attractively drawn. There's also more detail and skill in the clothes and backgrounds than we usually get with yaoi art, I think.

Lack of substance doesn't always mean lack of enjoyment. The mild fantasy elements were kind of refreshing and make the book stand out a bit, and it can be funny, depending on how much silliness you can take. But I read BL for the romance, and I was having a hard time finding any of this shallow, silly stuff romantic, even in the non-rape stories. I tended to be mildly entertained for the beginning, but then slightly annoyed as the characters got together quickly and with little ceremondy by the ends. For the art, fantasy, and sometimes mildly amusing humor, I'll give it slightly above average, though.… (altro)