365 Days of Manga, Day 179: Love Recipe!

LOVE RECIPE • Kirico Higashizato • DMP (2007-2008) • Frontier Works (2005-2006) • 2 volumes • Yaoi Otaku Romantic Comedy • 18+ (explicit sexual situations)
Bashful, innocent young Tomonori is hired to work as an editor at Rose Boy, a Boy’s Love magazine produced by the (fictional) publishing giant Shukokan. Eager to please but boggled by Boy’s Love, he finds himself hired to work as a sexual drawing model for Sakurako Kakyoin, a male BL artist who has three cute girl assistants in maid outfits. This extremely weird book seems almost not yaoi at all, with a hyperactive, spastic shônen manga art style and off-puttingly male plot elements such as maids, moe references, and busty women. The sex is almost an afterthought, but the in-jokes about the manga publishing business are entertaining, and the self-referential mood (and teeny-tiny, barely male main character) is vaguely reminiscent of Gravitation. Higashizato later wrote a followup manga, “Love Portion.”

Today’s winner is Mike R. of Virginia. Congratulations, Mike!