Gay Ninja Romance! Shinobu Kokoro!
Written: Mar 28 '08 (Updated Feb 11 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Steamy little yaoi book.
Cons: Three stories, one might have been expanded to fill the book. Homosexual content may offend.
The Bottom Line: This yaoi novel has three interesting sets of characters. It is traditional yaoi, and follows many conceits that seem strange to westerners.
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| talyseon's Full Review: Shinobu Kokoro: Hidden Heart |
Shinobu Kokoro : Hidden Heart by Matsumoto Temari.
ISBN: 1598150214
Warning: This is a Yaoi review. Yaoi is a form of Japanese graphic novels, a manga featuring gay romance. Usually written by women, for women, this stories range from sweet romances to extremely steamy sexual adventures between men. If this is not your cup of tea, well, you have been warned.
Shinobu Kokoro is a collection of six tales featuring three couples. The first and therefore most important set are entitled Shinobu Kokoro and Secret Outfit. These stories center of Subaru. Subaru is a young ninja in training. One day, he is called before his master Yuuzuki-sama. Subaru is to begin running missions as a ninja. He is to infiltrate a household, distract the master, and steal an important document. However, he needs additional training to be able to carry out the mission.
Subaru is perceptive enough to see that there is something making his master hesitate, but he has no clue what it is. However he has bigger distractions ahead. He learns that the man he is to rob is fond of boys, and there is a very specific way he will be expected to distract him. And for that he will need training.
And Master Yuuzuki is to be his instructor. His training takes a while, partly because Yuuzuki’s touch is frequently enough to make him explode.
Subaru is concerned. He has trouble maintaining the focus he needs as a ninja. So when he learns that he has been taken off the mission, he is ashamed and pleads to be given a chance. In his excitement, he blurts out his feelings for the Master Ninja, and stops, frozen by mortification.
But Yuuzuki has a confession of his own; he removed Subaru from the mission because he has become far too attached. So Yuuzuki takes Subaru and finishes his lessons teaching him how to accommodate his lover. And thus the happy couple is born.
The second story involves Subaru’s mission to observe a facility outside the ninja village. Subaru sees lots of lads his own age in uniforms. He manages to secure one of those uniforms to show his master what kind of military instillation he has stumbled onto.
Well, it seems what he stumbled onto was a high school, and the uniform a school uniform. And here is where we discover that Yuuzuki is a fetishist pervert. It’s a cute and steamy little story.
The next pair of stories features another pair of ninjas. From the same village as Yuuzuki and Subaru, Asagi is a serious young ninja, very intense. Hiiragi is older larger and easier going. After a failed mission, their third partner was lost. But Yuuzuki sends them out together anyway. Asagi is worried; ninja go in threes so that if one turns traitor, there is little chance that he can overcome both his companions. Hiiragi (and Yuuzuki) is not worried; he knows he will be absolutely loyal, and he knows why.
After a near fatal fall, the two talk, and Asagi discovers why Hiiragi doesn’t worry; he is totally in love with and totally loyal to Asagi. He seduces his partner, making him order him around, something that he finds quite arousing. Even though Hiiragi is the Seme (the aggressive partner, or pitcher) he wants his Uke (passive partner of catcher) to be the one in control. What follows is a very steamy sex scene.
Their second story is nothing more than a long and protracted sex scene, very steamy, in what is called in Yaoi parlance, a reverse story, where the younger partner is in control. Matsumoto admits that she prefers this story structure.
The third couple is very different. They are not ninja, and in fact, one is not even human.
Hanaoka Futaba took a spill in a snowstorm and woke up naked next to a very pale long haired man named Miyuki. Miyuki is a snow spirit. When he came across Futaba he was freezing to death. Unable to warm him, he instead made him able to stand the cold by sleeping with him! At first Futaba is outraged, but then as it sinks in that he is functionally a snow spirit himself, he begins to realize that Miyuki has been watching for a very long time. And the man’s exotic beauty is compelling, and he says he wants to make Futaba his bride.
But when Futaba initiates a sexual encounter, Miyuki walks away! Futaba is crushed! It seems that if Miyuki sleeps with him again, it will undo the magical cold adaptation, and Futaba will be free to leave.
But Futaba does not intend to live as the celibate object of Miyuki’s affections. He announces his love for the snow spirit and submits joyfully to his sexual advances.
The last story is the story of Futaba and Miyuki in the summer. Miyuki goes to visit Futaba even though he is very weak, because he does not want his lover to be lonely. There is no sex, it’s just very sweet.
Matsumoto’s art is very graceful. Her Ukes are much smaller than her Semes, and have the huge eyes you find in manga. Her Semes are lean and graceful without being girly.
The sex scenes are very hot and rather detailed. She tends to just sketch the out line of the penis and suggest its shape by hands, but it is actually drawn in, if lightly. She avoids direct depiction of penetration, but does not have any compunction about oral sex. All in all, she draws a scene well enough to satisfy most western gay males.
While she uses half tone shading, she does not use it for characters, saving it to color clothing and for use in backgrounds. Figures are fairly well drawn out without much shading. She does shade, but rarely, and with specific effect.
All in all, this is a satisfying Yaoi, but it falls short of greatness. The only thing that I would down grade her on is the fact that her Ukes all look too young. Outside of that, good stories and great art. Four stars.
Try these Yaoi reviews:
Shards of Affection
Romantic Illusions
Ruff Love
Thunderbolt Boys Excite Vol 2
Thunderbolt Boys Excite Vol 1
Pathos
Pathos II
The Crimson Spell 2
The Crimson Spell
Incubus
Incubus Volume 2
Incubus Volume 3
Love + Alpha
Yellow
Yakuza in Love 2
Yakuza in Love
Beyond Scandalous Seiryo University
Return to Seiryo University
Scandalous Seiryo University
Wild Rock
Man's Best Friend
Shinobu Kokoro
Midaresomenishi: A Legend of Samurai Love
Stallion
Gerard & Jaques 2
Gerard & Jaques 1
And Yaoi Anime!
Kizuna, Volume One
Kizuna, Volume Two
Recommended:
Yes
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