Showing posts with label Bohra Naono. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bohra Naono. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Yaoi Review: THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN

THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN
SUBLIME – @SuBLimeManga

CARTOONIST: Bohra Naono
TRANSLATION: Adrienne Beck
LETTERING: Annaliese Christman
COVER: Bohra Naono and Fawn Lau
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4346-8; paperback (June 2012); Rated “M” for “Mature”
218pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Although she is a prolific creator of manga, Bohra Naono has not had many of her manga published in English. One of her English-language releases is Three Wolves Mountain.

Three Wolves Mountain is a collection of interconnected yaoi manga short stories from Naono. “Yaoi manga” is a subset of boy’s love manga (BL) and it usually depicts romance and explicit sex between male characters. The four stories that make up Three Wolves Mountain center on a human and the two werewolf brothers he takes into his home.

In the opening story, “Three Wolves Mountain,” we meet Kaya Susugi, a young man who runs a small café by day and guards a nearby haunted cemetery by night. One night, he encounters two werewolf brothers. There is the older Tarou Tsukihara, who is gruff and is fully in control of his powers to transform. Then, there is Tarou’s cheerful and klutzy younger brother, Jiro. The pupils of Jiro’s eyes don’t match in color, and he is not fully capable of transforming. He sports a long, bushy tail and wolf ears, but is otherwise human. The Tsukihara brothers need a home, but will Kaya, a loner, give them one? And how will Kaya handle Jiro’s romantic feelings for him.

In “Moonlit Forest,” Jiro meets Kaya’s older brother, Kai Susugi, a meeting which spills the secrets of the Susugi brothers’ dark and troubled past. In “Baby, You Are My Home,” Kaya meets Erika and Jin Tsukihara, the parents of Jiro and Tarou. In “Dark Matter,” grave-robbing ghouls attack the cemetery, and also, Kaya takes in Akihi, another troubled werewolf and a distant relative of the Tsukihara’s.

Three Wolves Mountain was actually published in the U.S. last summer (specifically in June of 2012). Somehow, it disappeared down the memory hole that is a giant pile of review copies in my home. I wish I’d told you, dear readers, how good Three Wolves Mountain is when the book was still fresh on the market.

Loving, touching, sucking, fingering, tea-bagging, salad-tossing, and screwing: yes sirree, the explicit sex is quite present in Three Wolves Mountain. You’ll get high value for your yaoi dollars. However, Three Wolves Mountain is also deeply romantic and surprisingly poignant. In a way, the sex scenes distract from the emotional engagement that the characters have with one another.

The dominant theme of Three Wolves Mountain is family, but creator Bohra Naono does not spend much time worrying about the differences between traditional and non-traditional families. This story depicts bonds people form when they become family by being related, uniting as a couple, living together, or connecting in profound friendship.

In this series of stories, characters actually talk to each other – as in conversation, which allows the reader to get to know them. Dare I say we can see through the window into their souls? Yes, the characters do reveal so much; they’re naked and vulnerable… and not just for sex.

Three Wolves Mountain is certainly a special yaoi manga volume. When I came to the last pages of the story, I was sad to see it end.

A+

www.SuBLimeManga.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


Thursday, June 14, 2012

SuBLime Debuts "Honey Darling" and "Three Wolves Mountain"

GLOBAL YAOI/BOYS’ LOVE MANGA PUBLISHER SuBLime DEBUTS FIRST PRINT RELEASES WITH “HONEY DARLING” AND “THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN”

Bold Yaoi/Boys’ Love Manga Publisher Releases Two Acclaimed New Titles This June

SuBLime, the global yaoi manga (graphic novel) publishing initiative between VIZ Media and Japan’s Animate, Ltd. (Animate), delivers its first pair of print editions with the worldwide debuts of HONEY DARLING, by Norikazu Akira, and THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN, by Bohra Naono. Both new manga (graphic novel) are available now, are rated ‘M’ for Mature Readers, and carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN.

Digital versions are available worldwide in a download-to-own format for $5.99 each from http://www.sublimemanga.com/, are viewable as a PDF on any enabled eReader device or computer, and also may be accessed via the online manga viewer found on the web site.

HONEY DARLING by Norikazu Akira • Rated ‘M’ for Mature Readers • MSRP: $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN • Available Now!

Chihiro drifts through life with no purpose, going from girl to girl, until one day he finds an abandoned kitten in a box. He quickly falls in love with little Shiro and couldn’t imagine his life without her. One evening, Chihiro finds Shiro has fallen ill. While searching aimlessly for an animal hospital, he runs into Kumazawa, a local vet who takes Shiro into his care. Watching Kumazawa in action, Chihiro realizes he wishes to learn the value of life and asks Kumazawa to consider hiring him at the vet clinic. Kumazawa agrees, but only if Chihiro serves as his live-in housekeeper. Has Chihiro finally found his purpose in life, or will living with the handsome vet be a little too much to handle?

Norikazu Akira is also the creator of the manga series Twin’s Labyrinth, Heart Strings, and Beast & Feast.

THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN by Bohra Naono • Rated ‘M’ for Mature Readers • MSRP: $12.99 US / $14.99 CAN • Available Now!

Way up in the mountains, far from any major cities or towns, Kaya Susugi runs a small café by day and guards a haunted cemetery by night. Then, one night, he comes across werewolf brothers Taro and Jiro. Cheerful but klutzy younger brother Jiro quickly falls head over heels for the capable loner Kaya. What results is a dive into the hot, tail-twitching delight of werewolf mating season!

Bohra Naono has created over 20 manga series, some of which have been adapted into drama CDs. She has also published “doujinshi” (independent comics) under the pen name of “NAIFU.” THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN is Bohra Naono's second English-language release, with her first being Yokai's Hunger.

“The summer heats up in a sexy way with our publication of THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN and HONEY DARLING in June,” says Jennifer LeBlanc, Editor, SuBLime. “THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN creator Bohra Naono is one of the most requested creators among yaoi fans. In THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN, readers will learn of all the strange things that go bump in the night at a foreboding cemetery as well as the love that binds two people together – even if one of them is a werewolf! HONEY DARLING is also not to be missed with its heartwarming tale of an unlikely love between a vet and his live-in housekeeper.”

For up-to-date news and release information, please visit the SuBLime website at http://www.sublimemanga.com/, or follow SuBLime on Twitter at @SuBLimeManga and Facebook at facebook.com/SuBLimeManga.


About SuBLime
SuBLime is a global yaoi/boys’ love manga publisher, and is a partnership between VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, and Japan’s Animate, Ltd. (Animate). This bold, global publishing initiative will present English-speaking fans everywhere with a broad selection of high quality titles. SuBLime will offer titles digitally worldwide available at www.SuBLimeManga.com, with many available in Download-to-Own format, and selections in print also available in English-language editions worldwide.