Yellow Omnibus 1

Makoto Tateno – June – 2009 – 4 volumes
this is an omnibus edition that collects the series into 2 volumes

This is exactly what I wanted when I read Fake.  I’m not sure why I like this series so much better, but it may be because it ditches almost all the humor, and is much more… I don’t know, there isn’t narration on one side or the other, so it seems like Taki is doing a good job of resisting Goh’s advances, and the gun pulling business seems pretty serious.  And yeah, it’s just much less goofy, and I like that more in my romance series.

I’m surprised I liked this as much as I did.  I seem to go less for the action-oriented BL titles, with a few exceptions, and I usually dislike series that follow an episodic format like this.  But Yellow was pretty great.  I liked pretty much everything about it, from the way it doesn’t overblow the main drug snatching missions, to Goh and Taki’s perfectly matched teamwork, their entertaining banter, and, again, the way the characters aren’t just hopping into bed with one another.  There are a lot of nice things working in this series.  I do wish there was a little bit more of an overarching plot, aside from the obvious use of the character’s pasts, but I’m pretty entertained by everything else the series has to offer so far.

The missions are very fun.  Taki and Goh usually wind up in sticky situations, and what usually seems like a previous steamy encounter, or rejection on Goh’s side, turns out to be the two communicating in their near-telepathic way in order to solve whatever mess they foresaw themselves getting into.  It’s a pretty fun formula, and there’s just enough triumphs and close shaves to make everything very exciting.

There are some forehead-slapping moments, though.  The way that Taki focuses on female mistresses and Goh on male seems to limit their early missions to bisexual drug lords, though that is shown not to be a standard formula later, and either Goh or Taki will do the seduction depending on gender.  I’m not sure what would happen if they ever ran into a straight man, but whatever.

I do like the emphasis on “I love you, but I don’t want to have sex with you” between Taki and Goh.  This is a theme that’s brought up early on, and Taki pretty much sticks to this through the entire omnibus volume here.  There’s even a short story with the same situation that makes the two reflect on that even more.  It’s nice, and definitely a breath of fresh air from the standard yaoi series.

I’ve read other books by Makoto Tateno and liked them okay, but I think Yellow is my favorite so far.  I’m sad I’ll have to wait for March for the followup omnibus volume, but it’ll be great when I can read the new sequel right after.