Net Comics: Boys Love With a Twist
Manga, or manwha as it is called in Korea has been published for a while by Net Comics. They have manga for every taste and genre including an array of titles for the shonen-ai or boys love market.
Tamer titles like Boy Princess by Seyoung Kim are aimed at ages 13+, Roureville by E. Hae is aimed at ages 16+ while Let Dai by Sooyeon Won is aimed at age 16+ as well. In stark contrast, U Don't Know Me by Rakun has a Parental Advisory notice and is aimed at those readers who are 18 or over. And it's not hard to see why when there are intense sex scenes and nudity in places.
Titles like Boy Princess, Let Dai, and Totally Captivated don't show the sex scenes normally associated with yaoi rather than shonen ai. Instead they use romance, storytelling and the possibility the lovers in the manga might be separated to create some conflict. In Seyoung Kim's Boy Princess, Nicole, a boy is sent to a a neighbouring kingdom to pose as a girl princess to marry their prince and in turn unite the two kingdoms to prevent war. Instead Nicole has an accident with some apples that convince Prince Jed that he is not a princess. What he doesn't expect is him falling in love with the young man. In the manga, you will only find partial nudity, mild sexuality and romantic situations that serve to bring the couple closer together.
Roureville by E. Hae is a supernatural tale of New York Times reporter Evan Pryce being sent to find a story in a remote backwater state. When he gets no sign of a story, he is ready to go back there to get an earful from his boss, but when he takes a wrong turning to a mysterious place called Roureville, he finds a story hidden beneath the veneer of a small out of the way town. Evan's interest is in the cute, long-haired Jayce who the people have warmed to over the years and it isn't long before he attracts the reporter who though he would be bored to death in a new location. Build as fantasy shonen-ai, Roureville is written by the same author who wrote Not So Bad.
Sooyeon Won's Let Dai series has Jaehee, a shy studious kid who conforms to society while Dai Lee is the opposite. He comes from a well to do background but always gets into trouble as he is the leader of a gang. The two become intimate after Dai gets Jaehee initiated into his gang. As Dai looks so confident and handsome, it is hard to believe he has jealousy for Jaehee's female friend later on in the series. As it runs for over fourteen novels, it is one of Net Comic's more successful titles. As the other titles only contain fantasy, romance and violence Rakun's U Don't Know Me is a lot more explicit, veering toward yaoi territory with Seyun and Yoojin. Seyun is a sensual, handsome blond who turns on the athletic and popular Yoojin who can't hide how he feels about his former childhood friend. Now that they have got back together they wonder if they really know each other at all. When Yoojin gets annoyed at Seyun looking through his new package of lube, poppers and condoms, he becomes embroiled in what looks like a rape scene, as Seyun clearly doesn't want sex at the same time he does. Yoojin, intoxicated by the blond, gets carried away with how he feels about him and the sex scene reflects that.
Net Comics has plenty of genres and authors who write what we want to read about. They are sometimes funny, serious and ghostly, but always readable and worth buying online.
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