Yaoi manga is boys’ love comics that feature explicit sex.  In Picnic, a collection of yaoi tales by Yugi Yamada, scenes of explicit sex go hand in hand with coy romance.

The title tale has two young men, the hunky, dark-haired Koreeda, and the girlish blond boy, Tomoya Noda, navigating the tricky landscape of love between two young men who have vastly different personalities.  Koreeda is the pursuer, and Noda is insecure and neurotic about the romance.  An encounter with someone from Noda’s past, however, just might be the thing to clear out the air between Koreeda and Noda.

In “But Sometimes You’re Kind,” a street hustler who steals from his male customers finds himself stuck with a homeless kid, who just might ruin his business.  In “What Will Happen to Us,” Konishi finds himself attracted to Andou, a co-worker who moonlights as an amateur novelist, but Andou is transferring to Tokyo.  Andou also relies on Konishi, an avid reader, to be his critic/editor.  Now, will distance end their friendship and will they ever stop dancing around each other and just admit their true feelings?

THE LOWDOWN: Yugi Yamada’s art is nice, but the writing is better in the shorter tales.  The title story, Picnic, is all over the place, padded, and the drama doesn’t really heat up until the last chapter.  Much of the writing is cold and sometimes stiff, but Yamada excels when it comes to passion and hot sex.

FOR READERS OF:  Fans into yaoi for explicit sex won’t be disappointed, as there are numerous scenes in this volume.

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