"Passionate Kiss Anthology 01" by Umbrella Studios

This is a 76 page anthology, featuring shounen ai manga by four different Umbrella Studios artists. Bound with a very nice color cover by... I dunno. I couldn't find any credit.

"Cat Toy" by Megumi

The anthology starts out with this yaoi story of a pretty young man named Devon, and the catboy he purchases, Kaji. This is a plot, what plot? smut nugget with very little dialog.

And that's fine with me! Megumi's linework is a little crude, the characters look somewhat plastic. But she shows a superb talent for composition; with absolutely inspired body language and facial expressions! And frankly, that's the far more important part. With practice, an artists linework inevitably improves, but some never learn how to inject this kind of soul to the figures. Megumi is going brilliant some day.

"Hand Job" by Tammy Lee

Nero and Reven meet again after a long seperation. They seem to have been assosiates in an organization called the 'Slingers. Nero has been on the run, since betraying the team. Reven cares a lot for Nero, and has confessed his love for him, but Nero is the loner type. So when he leaves alone, he winds up in a very dangerous situation...

I was mostly confused by this story. It appears to be at least third in a series. But it's fairly entertaining, given Tammy Lee's trademark style of interspersing delicate shoujo style art with sudden bursts of SD.

"Color Me Blood Red: Experiment 1" by Lime B

A very moody story of forbidden love, set in part in a hedonistic socialites club, and a forest. A very intriguing mix of a technological world and a fantasy world. Zai, a soldier, and Rudei, a mischevious spryte, meet again and remember the time when they met and fell in love during a bout of steamy passion, only to have Rudei's nature make it impossible for them to stay together.

I am so in love with Lime B's style! It's very rich and beautiful. Influences of Japanese visual rock and fantasy illustrations are apparent. It's indescribable, you simply *have* to see it for yourself! And Lime B even tells the best story in the anthology, as well.

"O+" (an excerpt from "Charm") by mdbl

A small sample of a larger work, setting the premise of a young man and his transgendered (male-to-female) lover.

This has to be one of the most effective teasers I've ever seen. I've got to have this book!

The first story, "Cat Boy" by Megumi, has a clean, no-frills artstyle with little to no background. Occasionally ziptones are used to take advantage of the negative space, but mostly the panels focus on the action rather than the environment. And yes, there is quite a bit of NC17 action in here.

It's basically a plot-what-plot story of a young man named Devon who orders a catboy in much the same way one would order a mail-order bride. The catboy (whose name is Kaji) is very shy and timid, but Devon finds ways to... comfort him. The catboy was too wimpy for my tastes; his face always seemed to have an expression that said "weepy uke," but that's just my personal preference. I found the idea of ordering a catboy from some sort of catboy service enormously funny, and I wish the author would have poked fun at it a bit, because Devon seems to take it too seriously at certain points. But this story isn't really about the finer points of the plot. It's about seeing Devon screw Kaji silly. The indulgent 13 page lemon scene is pretty well-handled. There are a few panels here and there that seem a little ackward, but it's a good scene nonetheless. The part where Devon uses a razor blade to slice Kaji's bindings was a nice touch.

The next story is part one of "Hand Job" by Tammy Lee. The layout and artstyle are more complex than the previous story, and this one has definite plot. Details of the story are revealed bit by bit as you read along, but the jist of things is that Nero, who belongs to a gang called the 'Slingers, betrayed them not long ago because he fell in love with one of their enemies. As punishment, they mutilate one of Nero's hands. I think he loses the use of that hand, because he refers to the incident as "losing his hand" although its still attached to his body. At some point the girl with which Nero fell in love died, and Nero seems to blame himself for it. This all comes out through a conversation he has with a fellow gang member named Reven who, it is also revealed, has feelings for Nero which he has confessed but was rejected by a still-heartbroken Nero. After his conversation with Reven, Nero is followed by another fellow 'Slinger, Jemes, who is intent on exacting revenge on Nero for his betrayal, but Nero's not going down without a fight. The story ends with the appearance of a ditzy girl who has apparently taken 2 more 'Slingers hostage.

Obviously, the plot of this story complicated, and since this is part one, everything's just getting set up. I really liked this story because of how I had to weave my way through it to get my facts straight. I enjoy it when things aren't always straightforward and there's a bit of mystery involved, and Nero is an interesting character with a dark past to explore. It's quite an enticing taste of what's to come. I'd like to read part 2.

The art was nice in the way characters jump from regular to super-deformed. The switches occur at the most appropriate times, so they don't interfere with the story at all. I feel like the author has really studied professional manga because of her mastery of this technique. The layouts also have a strong pro-manga feel to them. Their shapes lend themselves to the action occuring within them. I really liked the fine lines of the drawing style too.

Next in the anthology is an excerpt of "Charm" by mdbl. It seems to be a more realistic (as opposed to fantasy yaoi) story of the relationship between a man and a male transvestite. From what is shown of the art, the style looks slightly realistic also, with smaller eyes and more normal body proportions. The use of white on black for a few panels was striking and beautiful. I'm very curious about this story.

The last story in the book is "Color Me Blood Red: Experiment 1" by Lime B. In other words, this is part one of Color Me Blood Red, and each part is a different experiment. The artstyle of this story is really nice, probably my favorite out of the book. There's a lovely tonal range, from the blackest black to the whitest white, and then different grays created through fine cross-hatching and ziptones. I admire all the work that went in to drawing the intricate backgrounds. The manner in which the faces are drawn is very distinct, and it appeals to me. One of the characters reminds me strongly of Kyo, the lead singer of Dir en Grey.

Eventually we learn that this character's name is Rudei. He's not human, but a "spryite". These creatures have the ability to control magic and are tied closely to nature. Somehow Rudei has ended up being the head of a club where its attendees call him "Master" and he sits on a throne looking bored. We hear his thoughts in the beginning of the story about his lost love, and his bitterness ("Love. I hate that word.") Rudei's lost love, Zailocke, happens to visit the club one day, and Rudei isn't sure whether to embrace him or cut off his feelings for him when they confront each other. In a flashback, Rudei tells the story of how Zai's soldiers came to the forest he lived in during the war that occured not too long ago. They fell in love, but when Zai professes his love, Zai's form melts away into the ground. He hasn't been able to find Rudei until this day. Again Zai professes his love, but it angers Rudei, and he sends everyone away. Why is he so resistant to falling in love? We'll have to find that out in the next part... I'm mystified, but completely intrigued. I liked the part in the flashback scene where Rudei demands of Zai: "Do it like your soldiers boys. Hard like that." It illustrates his naivete and childish abandonment in a cute way.

This is a great anthology. It contains a variety of styles and stories, and it's a satisfying length. For the hentais out there, the lemon scenes will definitely make you happy. I'd recommend it for the little hentai in us all, who also enjoys a decent read. You're bound to get hooked on one story or another.

The cover is in color (cool!) and has a picture of an unnamed pink-haired fellow by an oddly uncredited artist.

"Cat Toy" by Megumi: This is a sweet and mildly kinky PWP about a young man, Devon, who orders a "house pet" catboy through a catalog service (!). The art in "Cat Toy" is simple (with the semi-standard lack of any scene setting except a bed), slightly on the cartoony side but not too much. As you would hope for in a PWP, the characters are shown in many different body positions, and there are panels where a hand, a torso, a face, is emphasized, making for a variety of panel content. Characterization-wise you don't see much of Devon, but "Cat Toy" is a showcase for the catboy Kaji and his moods as they change throughout the sex scene. Although the two begin as absolute strangers you can definitely tell they have a great affection for each other at the end. I don't know if there are further chapters to this story. It works well as a one-off, but more would be welcome, also!

"Hand Job" by Tammy Lee: This is an story set in an alternate world. Nero has retreated from his "group" (whose nature isn't made clear in this chapter) due to various Very Bad Experiences. Reven, a friend from this group, catches up with him in a bar, Nero retreats and ends up in a fight with Jemes, who is pursuing him. The characters dress in a variety of styles: Reven in medieval garb, Nero in trenchcoat and turtleneck, Jemes in vague TV-sf. I like how Tammy plays around with panel layouts and panel-to-panel flow in this story! One thing that struck me is the wildly varying emotional tones in the chapter: from tortured-past angst to slightly sad romance to SD temper tantrum to comedic battle-game scenario to sneering villainy to sweatdrops. It reminded me of the Fushigi Yuugi manga, where drama and ludicrousness are never too far from each other. The backstory and world is kept in the background. I would like to see this work as it deepens, as it develops flesh on its so-far somewhat bare bones. I do like the characters and how their relationships are set up thus far!

"Charm" excerpt by mdbl: This is a six-page snippet about a man with an unusual lover. mdbl uses closeups for atmospheric effect, evoking a morning ritual with a few simple images, and our character's mindset (in memory) with a few choice words. Of the artists in this anthology, mdbl seems most consistent and confident, showing good skill with white, black, screentone, layouts, and figure drawing. At the same time the art seems more studied, not as exuberant as I'd expect a dj to be; I'd classify it more as a comic in the Western style than a doujinshi-esque one. There are hints in this small section that make me very interested in seeing what happens after the scene ends, and where our narrator is today.

"Color Me Blood Red" by Lime B: This first chapter about a "Spryte" and his lover is subtitled "Experiment 1" and definitely gets the anthology's highest marks for uniqueness! Each page is bursting with teeny-tiny linework and odd romance. The romance is played out in two different settings (which may not be so different after all); a Midsummer Night's Dream scene, creating its dream in its lack of specific background detail, and a sf-like realm chock full of wires and screens and fragmented imagery. The love story is a classic forbidden love between "fae" and "human" with an interesting twist and loads of atmosphere. I love Rudei's cyber-world costume and the ornamentation on his face, the weird-looking phone on p. 2 that reminded me somehow of Paul Pope's work, the closeups of hands interspersed throughout the story, the fact that I've pored over the story three times now and still haven't picked up every little detail of the art! Fascinating stuff, I'd love to see more!