Caramel by Okuyama Puku

Rating: 6
Juné 2012 - Taiyoh Tosho 2012
1 volume
Translation: Jocelyne Allen

Caramel is a sweet, cute and happy story that's utterly harmless. It's generic in its setup, character types and plot but Okuyama has a cute quirky style to her art that gives the story a refreshing unique feel and sets it apart from the myriad of BL manga that use similar storylines.

Iori is off to Tokyo to start university and needs to find a place to live. He sees an advert for a free room in exchange for doing all housework and, used to looking after the house and caring for his three young siblings, decides it's the deal for him. Things get off to a rocky start when he meets his roommate, 28 year old wealthy businessman Roku, who is decidedly strange. Roku is abrupt, bossy and likes to tease Iori. He insists on Iori cooking him a meal as soon as he arrives, later Iori discovers that Roku has forgotten to buy any furniture for his room, and to top if off, in the middle of the night Iori wakes up to find that Roku has crawled in to sleep beside him on the sofa. As much as Roku infuriates him, Iori can't turn his back on him when he sees Roku happily eating his cooking and snuggling up to Iori in sleep like a trusting child.

Iori is an adorable, caring, innocent, bubbly soul and Roku is the more worldly, crotchety, egocentric grown-up. They play off each other as a decent comedic duo and, though there's not much depth to their characters, they're both very likeable and carry the story well. Iori is often drawn in cute chibi form, usually to comically illustrate his disbelieving reactions to Roku's antics, whom he views as a big kid he has to take care of, one that's less well-behaved than his own younger brothers and sister. For Roku, who has been living the lonely bachelor life, Iori brings the warmth and affection into his life that he hadn't known he'd been missing.

Nothing much of dramatic significance happens in the story, it's mainly about the two getting to know each other and gradually falling in love. The pace is unhurried, the relationship is given time to develop and, unlike a previous Okuyama title I read, there's a nice satisfactory ending where they have some sexy time after mutual declaration of their love. There are no surprises and not much in the way of originality but all in all, it's a very nice manga that's pleasant to read with just enough offbeat individuality to stamp it as an Okuyama title.

Warning! Whispers of Love by Okuyama Puku

Rating: 5
Juné 2011 - Taiyo Tosho 2010
1 volume
Translation: Sachiko Sato

Warning! Whispers of Love is a collection of romantic comedy stories, where the emphasis is on the comedy over the romance. The title story takes up half the volume and a bunch of one-shots fill up the rest of the book. Okuyama has a cute lively style to her artwork and story telling, the stories are fairly amusing and I found all of them quite entertaining. However, I also found every story rather unsatisfying; there's a definite lack of depth to the characters and an unwillingness throughout the volume to shift gears into a more serious tone, with the result that this collection is never more than lightweight fluff.

The title story has a very simple premise that's wrung for all its comedic worth: a guy with a fetish for cleaning ears... Hajime is excited to start high school life but he immediately catches the eye of Nagura-senpai, the ear-cleaning obsessive who chases him around campus everyday with an ear-cleaner. It's funnier than it probably sounds. Although not laugh-out-loud funny, the characters are still cute enough and quirky enough to amuse. The story zips along easily and you look forward to the couple blundering towards a happy ending. Except that the story zips right through that happy ending as well. Not enough time is spent on those important romantic moments, as soon as the story gets a whiff of the mood turning the slightest bit serious it immediately skips back into lighthearted mode. There's not enough emotional substance to the story, which is a shame because otherwise the writing is quite solid.

My favourite story in the volume is a one-shot entitled 'My Room' about an introvert guy who meets a cheerful stranger one night who asks if he can crash at the introvert's place for two weeks. The story spends more time on the falling-in-love side of things and though it's only one chapter long, is consequently more satisfying than the main story.

Although this collection of stories was rather average, there's still a charm to Okuyama's work which would impel me to check out more of her stuff and hope to find better in another title, something I believe she is capable of.