Probably one of my favourite slice of life yaoi manga, and the mangaka is incredible when she steps into this kind of shortform writing (one of her other works, The Tyrant Falls in Love dragged a bit towards the end for me). I will say there is dubcon (or noncon depending on your definition) in this, but I've always dug that depending on how it's presented, and I feel that Hinako doesn't sacrifice the chemistry between the characters in the process (not to mention that it's much stronger on the story than it is in its focus on sex scenes overall). The attention to detail re: archery and the costumes was really something, and I found this one of her more visually beautiful manga. ( )

In high school, Haru fell in love with his best friend and archery rival. As his 'wicked' feelings complicated his performance, Haru's archery slowly deteriorated, to the point where he decides to quit archery and cut ties with his friend and secret love. Now, Haru is a new substitute teacher at a school, where he is surprised to find the younger brother of his high school love in the archery club. As it turns out, this younger brother, Tsukasa, was in love with Haru himself. Though Haru tries to convince Tsukasa to quell his feelings and seek an easier love life with a girl, Tsukasa vows to show Haru through his archery that loving another man can be a positive force in one's life.

Though this manga looked exceedingly typical (running away from and then reuniting with an old secret love? Brother vs brother competing for affection?), I decided to pick it up because some reviews I'd seen for it looked...well, I guess they just looked more thoughtful than the usual yaoi review. I found reading this manga to indeed be a pleasant experience, though I'm probably not as impressed with it as most. It's cliché and extremely predictable, but this manga contained no irritating stupid or jerkish characters, selfish or violent actions or feelings masked and romanticized as loving devotion, no rape, and though the characters are sometimes a bit forceful or jealous, these things are seen as flaws rather than 'sweet.' The dialogue did not turn to long, melodramatic speeches about love or anything else. Haru's eventual returning of Tsukasa's feelings wasn't too random or sudden. The archery ( ...metaphor isn't the right word. Vehicle, perhaps?) wasn't forced or overdone, nor was it just a half-baked backdrop for the usual love story. The art isn't extremely distinctive, but it's quite pretty and occasionally it has some particularly nice/expressive poses and facial expressions.

And really, that's almost the extent to which I can find good things to say about this manga. And that really doesn't sound like high praise, I know. But considering most BL are usually guilty of at least a couple (and quite often more) of those sins, this manga really does stand out a bit just for making itself pleasant to digest. It's also not just a story of love but one of personal growth through love, which is something I'm always more interested in. The personal development aspect wasn't all that well developed and was mostly just a frame for the whole story, but it was still nice to see.

This is a sweet manga that I think could easily entertain the usual yaoi fans as well as...potential yaoi fans who just don't like some of the irritating tropes yaoi often has that were mentioned above. I don't really see it having a whole lot of appeal besides that, though, and even to normal yaoi fans I probably wouldn't jump up and down to recommend it, unless I was outright told to think of ANYTHING that was pretty decent. ( )