BAD BOYS, HAPPY HOME (Dousei Yankii Akamatsu Seven), written by SHOOWA with art by Hiromasa Okujima. First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2021.
PLOT:
Everytime Aisuke needs to blow off some steam, he picks a fight with Seven, the tough guy who keeps hanging around the local park. Eventually Aisuke notices that Seven is struggling, so he offers to let Seven stay at his place for a bit until he gets back on his feet. As the two get to know one another, Aisuke begins to wonder if what he feels about Seven is stronger than just a desire for a worthy opponent.
STORY:
Bad Boys, Happy Home is very different from a lot of the BL books out there. It's got a scrappy, macho edge that gives it a very different sort of atmosphere. Yet it's those qualities, combined with the character writing, that makes it so good in the first place.
It's been a long time since I've come across a BL manga with such nuanced and natural character writing right from the get-go. Aisuke and Seven feel like guys that a lot of us knew in our teens and early 20s: hot-headed, not great with words, but decent and helpful even when they were totally broke. It's so easy to fall for these lovable lunkheads, especially with Adrienne Beck's equally natural-sounding translation helping things alone. It makes their transition from antagonists to friends to tentative lovers all the smooth.
That's not to say that it's all heartwarming. Aisuke turns out to be on the outs with his dad because he was outed as gay. While the rest of his family do their best to help him out, it's not until Seven meets up with a few visiting relatives and gives him the push he needs to swallow his pride a little and attempt a reconciliation. As for Seven...well, clearly his drama is going to be the subject of later volumes, but clearly it's a lot more complicated. So far, all the reader knows is that it involves dead parents, the Yakuza, and possible hints at a history in underage sex work. It's complicated stuff, to say the least, but the author has made more than enough of an effort to keep me hooked.
ART:
The artist for this series works primarily on shonen and seinen titles and you can totally tell from looking at it. These characters are tall, tough, cut, and not particularly pretty or androgynous. They wouldn't look out of place alongside characters from stories like Great Teacher Onizuka or Tokyo Revengers. Despite that, they're so lively in expression and pose, and it gets across so much of their personalities and the feelings they can't quite bring themselves to discuss.
He also brings a homely touch to the world of this manga. The neighborhood around these two could be any residential backstreet in Tokyo, and Aisuke's barely furnished apartment will feel familiar to anyone who recalls their first rented room or apartment. I also have to give him credit for not being a coward about the more erotic material. He might have to white out the boys' dicks, but otherwise he draws them in the same blunt, uncompromising way he tackles everything else and it's a good match for the material. I kind of want to see what his non-BL work looks like now because he's clearly talented.
RATING:
This series is published by Viz under the SuBLime imprint. This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available. 2 volumes have been published and are currently in print.
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