June's editon will keep this image, but remove the Japanes cover copy.

Rated “M” for “Mature Audiences 18+”

Manga-ka Shouko Hidaka weaves a suite of interconnected tales set in the world of male models for Restart, a yaoi manga (boys’ love comics that feature explicit sex between male lovers).

Tadashi Yoshizawa is old by modeling standards, and he doesn’t get the modeling gigs that were once almost automatically his.  One thing that he does seem to be landing is the dark-haired rising star, Akihiro “Aki” Kudo.  A drunken night of sex sparks a relationship between the two, but Tadashi envies Aki’s red hot status in the modeling world.  Maybe, Tadashi doesn’t know how Aki really feels about him, so will the younger model’s meteoric rise get in the way of love and passion?

THE LOWDOWN:  VIZ Media calls its “Shojo Beat” line of manga, “Manga from the Heart,” but sometimes Juné Manga’s randy yaoi manga also manages to be from the heart.  The stories in Restart, which involve several characters beyond Tadashi and Aki, focus on the birth, growth, and development of romantic love and romantic relationships.  Of course, there are a few sex scenes, but the fire in this narrative’s belly fuels itself on the love that comes before the sex.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  For the romantic.

B+