Geekscape Reviews ‘Nights’ Yaoi *Mature Content*
******WARNING***** Adult content discussed below!
The nice thing about short story compilations is that you get multiple stories in one book. You are often dropped in the middle then taken to an engaging ending. Nights (art and story by Kou Yoneda) is a compilation of three different relationships.
The first segment, Nights, is about a young transporter, Masato Karashima, who will smuggle just about anything. He is approached by a yakuza gang member, Masaki Hozumi, who offers Masato a job. While working out the job specifics, Masato finds himself attracted to Masaki and everything escalates from there. However, there is more to Masaki than meets the eye. The story ends abruptly, leaving you wanting more, but not to worry because there is a short follow up at the very end of the book.
The second story, Emotion Spectrum, is brief but rather fun. High school student Kugo helps out his friend Nakaya by being his wingman. Kugo thinks fellow classmate, Usui, has a thing for Nakaya but that might not be the case.
The final story, Reply, is the longest and most intriguing because it is broken into two parts that tell the same story but from two different perspectives. The first is the view of a mechanic, Seki, who starts falling for the aloof car salesman, Takami. Takami does not get along with his co-workers much because he is seen as strange and somewhat emotionless. However, Seki seems to get along with him and they start developing a friendship. It does not take long for Seki to develop feelings for Takami and the first part ends with him confessing how he feels to Takami. The “reply” is what happens next from Takami’s view point. After that bit, there are a couple of mini follow ups that have a satisfying ending.
The art style is consistent throughout with handsome but not overly pretty guys and backgrounds that are simplistic yet realistic. The focus of all the stories is more on the relationships and thus the characters are the thing that stand out. The first story has lots of shadows and a darker gray scale because most of it happens at night. Emotion Spectrum has darker outlines of characters and some parts have a more sketch like quality. These slight differences give the book variety while still being cohesive. Also, the book contains a few full cover pages made specially for this edition.
All of the stories have an element of fun in the passion between the characters. The budding romances are engaging and make you want to know what happens next! The first two stories have characters that immediately see past each other’s sex. While in the third story, Takami is does not love Seki the same way at first. Takami thinks to himself, ” I don’t know what it’s like to love someone of the same sex. I’m sure it’s special somehow, not like a normal relationship.” However, everyone has their happy ending. The sex scenes are short and all lower regions are blank. Nights is much more about the relationships and desire between the characters.
NIGHTS is rated ‘M’ for Mature Readers and carries a print MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $14.99 CAN. A digital version is also available for an MSRP of USD $5.99 and offers readers two methods of digital access to the volume on www.SuBLimeManga.com – a DRM-free downloadable PDF that is viewable on any enabled eReader device and computer, and via the online manga viewer found on the web site. A free online preview is also available on the SuBLime website.
For up-to-date news and release information, please visit the SuBLime website at www.SuBLimeManga.com, or follow SuBLime on Twitter at @SuBLimeManga and Facebook at facebook.com/SuBLimeManga.
