The English edition will keep the cover illustration and will replace the Japanese cover copy.

“18+ Mature Content”

By day, Father Mauro ministers to a small rural community.  His is seemingly a life of peace and tranquility.  By night, however, Raoul Berkeley, a demon that Father Mauro found in the bushes of the church garden, keeps the young priest in the throes of passion.  But how can Mauro exorcise this demon when the love he gets from him is real love?

The Devil’s Secret, a boys’ love (yaoi) manga by Hinako Takanaga, certainly has a scandalous and sacrilegious premise – a priest has hot and steamy gay sex with a demon, and the story’s execution certainly plays out this shameless scenario to its X-rated fullest.  Still, the boldest statement of The Devil’s Secret is that romantic love doesn’t care about impropriety or bad taste.  Raoul and Mauro will love each other; the hell with what the rest of the world – here and beyond – thinks.  Takanaga’s good-looking figure drawing serves these tales of physical love quite well.

Two other stories round out this collection of stories about the perseverance of unlikely love.  They’re mildly entertaining, but the best material is the Mauro/Raoul stuff.

B+