MJ Review: My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor

[Eric]

Title: My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor
Manga-ka: Kazuka Minami
Originally Serialized in: (Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.)
Genre: Yaoi
Licensed by: 801 Media, Inc.
Price: $15.95

Yukito’s less than pleased when he finds out that his former childhood best friend will be living with Yukito’s family while the two boys take college entrance exams. Even though Hokuto goes to the same school as Yukito, they’re in different departments and haven’t seen each other for several years. When they finally meet again, Hokuto has changed a lot. He’s even more handsome than before and when he offers to show Yukito everything about sex, it’s almost more than a guy can stand. Throw in a horny teacher and a mysterious new friend of Hokuto’s, and Yukito will find studying to be the least of his problems.

The cover, with Yukito still in his school uniform top, but in only his bikini underwear on bottom, pretty much defines the audience for this title—yaoi fans looking for pretty school boys who have very hot sex, a lot of it. If you’re looking for manly men, this is not the yaoi for you. Minami’s boys, especially her ukes, could easily be flat-chested girls. Though there is a lot of focus on various manhoods, readers hoping to get detailed art are going to be disappointed. Details are vague and often have sound bubbles overlapping them. One does get enough sense of scope to wonder how Yukito is able to fill out the briefs he’s wearing on the cover, however.

The plot is minimal, as is character development. Yukito is the wide-eyed clueless uke who doesn’t realize that he’s a hot commodity at his school and Hokuto is the narrow-eyed, glasses-wearing seme with a devious plan of seduction. I’m assuming that Yukito and Hokuto go to a boys’ school, but I also got the sense that Minami just didn’t want to bother with any of those troublesome girls getting in the way of her boys breathing hot and heavy on each other. No explanation is given for details like why Yukito doesn’t want to be touched and his emotions range from “I hate homos” to “Oh, I’m in love with my childhood friend” without much stopping in-between. After an obligatory bout of angst, everything is smoothed over by a teary-eyed confession or two and our heroes move on to the all important last chapter of sex.

The last 27 pages are nothing but sex as our boys get to spend a weekend alone and these pages are the best part of the whole book. The sex scenes are believable, especially if you consider the age of the participants, and hot enough to make a yaoi fan’s face flush. Unfortunately, they don’t quite justify the cost of purchase of the entire book, especially since the characters are so forgettable. All in all, an okay one-time read, but not a requirement for your yaoi collection.

Reviewer: Snow
Proofer: Eduardo Menendez
Editor: Lissa Pattillo