Bukatsu no Kouhai ni Semarareteimasu by Koshino

Let's talk about Bukatsu no Kouhai ni Semarareteimasu.

You might know this or not, but a lot of professional manga-ka have cut their creative teeth in fandom. CLAMP, of course, is the most common example. They started up making Captain Tsubasa parody books (of the slash variety, of course), and look where they are now, entertaining millions of fans with their strange, confusing plots and constant ship-teasing. They made it.

Other artists continue making fancomics even after they debut. Murakami Maki, the creator of Gravitation, for example, has done doujinshi for her own comic. And she isn't the only one.

It's not something you come across back home, is it? You usually don't find a professional using his skills to make fan parodies...

It was a bit of a stretch, and I'm (not) sorry.

Which brings me to Koshino. She, too, has done (and continues to do) fanbooks, mostly Fullmetal Alchemist slash. She also has found success with Bukatsu no Kouhai ni Semarareteimasu (I'm going to start calling it BKS from now on), a comic series that you can find on Libre Mobile's web service. It's done so well that they've produced an audio version (which is can be bought via Libre Mobile.)

I don't deal with Libre Mobile (and I'm pretty sure you can't either), so when I came across BKS for the first time in Magazine Be-Boy, the May 2011 issue, I thought it was a one-shot. Little did I know...

He even cooks for Moriya. It's sweet.

The story in the 'one-shot' is simple: Moriya, a senior on the basketball team, is dating one of his underclassmen, a very energetic guy named Yoshitake. The problem is that Moriya has trouble accepting the relationship. He thinks of Yoshitake as an over-enthusiastic 'bride'. At the end, however, he finds out (in a ouchie, hot, sex-in-the-supply-room sort of way), that Yoshitake is actually the 'groom'.

The one thing that stayed with me was that very joke. Mind, it's a very funny joke, but does one of the guys have to be the wifey? It's something that happens too often in bad slash: the bottom ends up being a little too fem. It doesn't happen here, thank goodness, but I spent a few hours thinking about how women write gay men. (Nothing really came from it, sadly.)

You can find Koshino's webpage [here]. To enter, you'll have to click on the 18 and older (18歳以上) link, so be warned, it's for mature audiences only.

I don't know when (or if) this series will be bundled in tankoubon.

Next time, something more substantial.