Posts Tagged ‘Takarai Rihito’

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テンカウント・1
Release Date: 2014/12/18

Summary:
When the President got into an accident, Shirotani Tadaomi met Kurose. On their very first meeting, Kurose could tell right away that Shirotani is Mysophobic and said that it’s pretty bad while suggesting it would be better to consult a doctor about it. Shirotani was left perturbed by the encounter. Who is Kurose? And how was he able to tell Shirotani’s condition? (Source: Canis Major Scanlations)

この世にあるものは、すべて汚い。

無愛想なカウンセラーと潔癖症の社長秘書、
センシティブな恋のセラピー。

≪ストーリー≫
潔癖症の社長秘書 ・ 城谷は偶然出会ったカウンセラーの黒瀬から
潔癖症を克服するための個人的なカウンセリングを受けることになる。

10項目を1つずつクリアする療法を進めるうちに、次第に黒瀬に惹かれていく城谷だが …… ?

Cast:
黒瀬陸: Maeno Tomoaki 野智昭
城谷忠臣: Tachibana Shinnosuke 立花慎之介
三上: Fukushima Jun 福島潤
倉本: Chiba Ishii 千葉一伸
医師: Koji Takeda 武田幸史
城谷の父: Daiki Hamano 濱野大輝
少年城谷: Yoshida Asami 吉田麻実
ウェイトレス: 中田沙奈枝

Pairing
1. 前野智昭x立花慎之介
Maeno Tomoaki x Tachibana Shinnosuke

Rate:
H Rate:
Blab:

Hana nomi zo shiru
花のみぞ知る
宝井 理人 (イラスト)
3 volumes, complete

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

Rate: 9
Blab: TAKARAI RIHITO BANZAI
Arikawa Youichi x Misaki Shouta, third year college students. One in law school, the other studying botany.
If you want something just simple and sweet with amazing art, this hits the spot.

This is one I’m sure to re-read in years from now and fall in love with once again~

*spoilers from here on*
(more…)

Nise Ouji Pina
にせ王子ピナ
大鳥 香弥 (著), 宝井 理人 (イラスト)

AmazonJP

Rate: 8/10
Blab: Yet another book grabbed because of Takarai Rihito’s art.
Simple names to work with in this novel, Pina (covering for Pearl Ouji) and Asuran. Pina is an orphan who had been living off trash, and by sheer coincidence ends up becoming the Prince’s double when another kingdom attacks. In order to survive, he has to become Asuran’s slave, yet everyone still assumes Pina was once the real Prince. And part of being a slave requires sleeping with the master once a week. Complicated feelings ensue, waii \o/
The cliche setups aren’t really getting to me, and Takarai has had more interesting illustrations in other novels, but I’m enjoying what I can out of the novel anyway. xD In fact, this is the first one I’ve read outside of a normal modern-day Japanese setting, if I don’t count visual novel games such as Lamento and such. o.O;

The book almost spends more time just delving into the uke’s mind as events turn about him than the actual relationship development. Fortunately, I really like this particular uke, so I could read through it all and I could sympathize. It kind of had to happen, seeing as the seme kept going in and out of the picture every other page. Busy busy man… |D…

*SPOILERS FROM HERE ON*
I totally lol’ed when Jeek barged in and told Pina that the whole “sleeping with the master once a week” thing was “optional”.
And that ending was the fluffiest I’ve ever read so far. XD At least I was in the mood for it.
The H, while hot, wasn’t as thorough as I wanted it to be, even with the scene where the uke was on drugs. But still hot. xD

Naranai Denwa ga Koi wo Tsutaeru
鳴らない電話が恋を伝える
坂井朱生 (著), 宝井理人 (イラスト)

AmazonJP

Rate: 9/10
H Rate: 9/10
Blab: Yet ANOTHER book I picked out solely for Takarai Rihito’s art. The single review on amazonJP (at the time of this writeup) rates this book with only 3 stars, but it seems the reviewer just has something against sweet-talkers. I don’t have a problem with it as long as it’s done tastefully. :P

I like this author’s style of writing. Maybe because I suck at doing dialogue so much myself, but this author has a pretty natural way of going about it. I felt there was a good balance of dialogue, monologue and descriptive whatever else. Kyouji’s everlasting tsun and Akiu Takayuki’s unrelenting sweet talk, moemoemoemoe. Even during their H, which fired me up in all the wrong ways XDDD

But because of that good balance, even with half the book spent on Takayuki hitting on Kyouji without getting any real affection back, everything still felt very good. XD;;; In fact, banzai for all that time because it gave me all these “IT WAS ALL WORTH IT, you’re such a good man” feels at the end.

There’s also an age gap, with Kyouji being 19 and they never confirmed Takayuki’s age, but he was probably around or close to 30. M.o.e.

I couldn’t help but feel like Kyouji’s brother Ikuya’s presence was there mostly to just lead off to a possible spin-off of Ikuya and Takao’s relationship. o.O; I can’t say I care much about their story at this point though… (poke me again if Takarai does art for it~).

Oh and 3 beautiful H scenes, big thumbs up XDDDDD;
Definitely want to reread this one sometime.

Oborozuki Yoru ni, Aitai.
朧月夜に、あいたい。 (幻冬舎ルチル文庫) [文庫]
真崎 ひかる (著), 宝井 理人 (イラスト)

Rate: 9/10
Blab: Another book I picked out for Takarai Rihito’s art. + Piano involvement. For what I paid for it, it was very worthwhile so I’m giving it the 9. XD
Finally a karami that went into some detail XD;
Some good kyunkyun on my piano-playing days. The author didn’t get too deep into the actual mechanics of playing, which is fine, but it was good enough to know that at least she wasn’t a stranger to how the music world works. I also really liked the couple as individual characters quite a bit, even though the seme had it so easygoing, envious~. The uke Niina Keito had an interesting complex with his own name, and the seme Aihara Hiroshige was… an interesting personality all-around. Dahahahahaha. It made the second half even more interesting than the first half in ways, actually. For that, I give it good plus points. I do kind of have to agree with one of the reviews on AmazonJP though, there’s really not much relationship goodness to finish up the story after they do the deed. The resolution with the parents was a good thing, but I’m kind of picky like the reviewer and would’ve wanted more too.

Also, the double-layering plot with “Nao-chan” and the piano bit didn’t quite fit in with me. I kept feeling like the Nao-chan part was just unnecessary, even though the title of the book is based on that part. But then the piano part would be the part that seemed “extra” even though I prefered that part… =w=;;; Well, it’s only a very slight complaint, and at the end it does come together a bit.

The extra part written for the volume was mostly an expansion on “Nao-chan” which I honestly skimmed through. It was generally interesting, but I just wasn’t generally interested. XD; The ending part with Aihara’s perspective was very interesting though. Ohohohoho.
The age gap for this one was the good kind of moeeee.

There’s apparently a spin-off 有明月に、おねがい for Tomosaka Masubi’s coupling also with Takarai’s art, but I don’t think I’m interested in his character enough for it. XD;

Otonaki Sekai
音無き世界
by 杉原 理生 (著), 宝井 理人 (イラスト)

Rate: 7/10
Blab: An awful lot of general storytelling about the characters in their careers as freelance film directors/photographers which honestly didn’t interest me much. My eyes scanned through and found all the parts pertaining to the development of the pair itself XD;
Also, there was zero meaning to having the seme smoke. All he did was pop it out on occasion and ruin the atmosphere unless I ignored it altogether, and since I was already doing that with other parts of the book, I was able to do that. I just wish that part just hadn’t been part of the setting in the first place
The H was kind of hot~ Most of the BL novels I’ve read are extremely light in H content (and I’m fine with it that way), but I liked the slight daringness this piece has and I would’ve been fine seeing it go even deeper. XD

The book is divided into two parts, and the first part ends with the seme’s commitment while the second half ends with the uke’s. The age gap was moe. The basic personality differences between the two was also moe. The first half was considerably more interesting to me than the second half, especially since the second half gets into long flashbacks about alcohol abuse and domestic violence from the uke’s father, blahblahblah. That was on top of the usual career talk I didn’t have interest in. XD;

But at least Takarai Rihito’s art makes it totally worth it

Corn Soup ga Ochitekite
コーンスープが落ちてきて
05/2009
Written by: Matsumae Yuri
Illustrated by: Takarai Rihito

Rate: 8/10
Blab: I picked this up for a random BL novel exploration and wanting to see more of Takarai Rihito’s nice art after re-reading Seven Days (and this title in particular because WHAT these characters look so much like the Seven Days couple, but their personalities are really different).~ It was pretty easy to get into and read through. It read like a long slice-of-life high school setting fic I would read for my favorite fan pairings XD; While it didn’t do anything AMAZING to my heart, I still felt some heart-throb and had a good time reading this piece. Wouldn’t mind seeing this one get a CD Drama some day, although I guess it’s not likely?

Title, Original Japanese: セブンデイズFRIDAY→SUNDAY
Title, Romanji: Seven Days Friday – Sunday
Released: 10/2009
Listened: 10/27/2009

Pairings
1. 中村悠一 x 福山潤
Nakamura Yuuichi x Fukuyama Jun

Manga DL

Rate: 10/10
H Rate: N/A. 100% shounen-ai
Blab: Continuation of Seven Days Monday → Thursday
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
It was fun comparing the subtle places that were changed from the manga and drama. Mostly ones I’d predicted anyway. XD I was hoping they’d dramatize the extra section at the end of the manga too, but I suppose that would’ve been pretty difficult, since it was mostly dealing with pictures. XD; But it was still so adorable. moerunaaaaaaaaaaa. And JunJun talks about it in the free talk at least <3 ~ Nakamura said he wanted to do it in the booklet XD~ I wonder what all the shuffling was in the Free Talk though owo; The scripts I guess... XD; Still... total OTP. This one will be getting many re-reads and re-listens. March 2011 note: Re-read the manga recently. This work stands the test of time for me. ~ Takarai Rihito's works stalking, begin! :D