Want to Depend on You

Keiko Kinoshita – DMP / Digital Manga Guild – 2012 – 1 volume

Yay, another Digital Manga Guild release at eManga.com! I’ve been a bit pickier about what I read there lately, but this one sounded right up my alley. I recognized the name of the author, too, but I had already finished this before I realized that I recognized her from You & Harujion. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that book (it was one of my first forays into BL), though something tells me I might like it more if I gave it another try. Want to Depend on You was good, though.

There are two stories in this volume. In the first, Yamato is grieving the recent death of his father, a professor in literature at the local university. His father’s colleagues are a common presence in the days after his death, but among them, one stands out. Onodera seems to grieve Yamato’s father more than the rest, and it is also Onodera’s duty to sort through the remainder of his father’s writings for one last book. But Yamato doesn’t realize that Onodera’s grief comes from lost love, and by the time he realizes that Onodera may see quite a bit of his father in Yamato, the two have already shared a number of passionate nights.

In the second, the featured couple is Arata and Yuuya, and their problem is a miscommunication that occurred ten years ago. As teenagers, Arata confessed his love to Yuuya, and the two made love. But immediately after, Arata apologized again and again, and Yuuya never saw him again. In the present, the two meet by chance and become close again, but Yuuya is afraid of the same thing happening over again.

I liked both stories enough to want more, and I think the biggest flaw of this book is that either of them would have made awesome one-shots themselves had they been expanded. But as is, it’s still a pretty good read. The second couple is my favorite, since the story is a rather sensitive look at the two failing to communicate their feelings to each other. I’m such a girl. It took me a bit to figure out whether Yuuya was actually into Arata’s advances the first time through, but on a second read-through, it was more than obvious that he was, and the story is that much sadder because of it. All the more so because Arata’s a fairly friendly guy that seems almost incapable of hurting anyone.

The first story was good too, but it had a rather classic set-up. You could see the problem coming ten miles away when Onodera was making it obvious that he thought Yamato and the professor were alike. I couldn’t figure out why it was Yamato’s fault that they fought at the end (the story makes it seem like he should have been more sensitive to Onodera, but I couldn’t figure out where Onodera hinted that he wanted Yamato and not the professor), but it was still a pretty fun and very romantic read.

And that’s true of the whole book. It’s nothing special, and I wouldn’t say you should rush out and buy it, but it was exactly what I look for in this type of BL one-shot. Older men, mature stories, lots of romance. It lacks the buckets of drama or touches of humor that sometimes mark my favorites, but it’s still a great read, and I would say give it a try if you’re anything like me and are constantly looking for a quick BL read.

This was a review copy provided by the Digital Manga Guild.