Beyond My Touch (Yaoi)

I hesitated to buy this book at first because the cover was unappealing (silly me). However, I had been reading the artist's other work, Black Sun Silver Moon and was enjoying it tremendously. Soon after I realized Beyond My Touch was by the same artist! So on a second go-around I decided to give this book a chance. The book contains three very sweet stories. The and first story, which is titled the same as the book (Beyond My Touch) is overall the best one (they're all good~). It focuses heavily on the loneliness of a young man's soul and how a ghost(dead) can breath life back into him by haunting him everyday. Or something like that. The artist displays her talent for portraying inner emotions quite well in this story. The second story I feel is the weakest of the three. Although I loved reading about the protagonist Hoshiba's feelings and sexual confusion. His reaction to his friend (a boy) kissing him for the first time was very believable, "Next time I see him, I'm gonna punch him a couple more times. I'm gonna say every cruel thing I can think of. And then... And then...What am I gonna do after that? ... Is that the end of it? Can we go back to the way we were - as if nothing happened?" The third story was very cute and hyper, which is not the artist's usual style but she pulls it off. A young man bakes sweets for his childhood friend everyday to get him to say "it's delicious" not just "tasty". At first he treats his baking as a challenge to prove his self-worth - but eventually he finds out that he wants to bake sweets for his friend for different reasons ;) At the end of the book the artist actually apologizes for the stories not being smutty enough. She also says this was her first try at boy's love and understanding homosexuality. I think she portrayed human emotions perfectly and therefore made a perfect boy's love manga ... no smut necessary :) This book is great. Like the best hot cocoa.

I bought this book because the summary sounded interesting/strange enough that I may as well check it out. I read it at the same time as several other titles (including Antique Bakery, Only The Ring Finger Knows, and Yellow vol 1) and found it to be very refreshing. There is no forcing of love from one to another in this, but it is definitely shounen ai, and not yaoi. The most that happens in the entire manga is kissing and hugging. This book is actually three stories, which really confused me at first because there is not a clear distinction between the end of Beyond My Touch and the beginning of Cool Lips. There is only a small title in the corner, which I thought was just the title of a new chapter. Plus, the dark-haired, bespectacled boy could have passed for an older version of Mizuno, which I mistook him for at first. All three stories have similar-looking main characters (in that there's always one dark-haired long-banged boy and one messy-haired blond boy) but I didn't find it to be too repetitive. There is enough difference that even if they were all lined up next to each other, I'd be able to distinguish them. Tomo Maeda *does* work with .. somewhat similar character types, but they are not all carbon copies of each other. There tends to be one quiet, aloof character, and one upbeat one, but there are differences in their personalities that do appear, and the characterization is worked into the plotline differently each time. The distinction between the second story, Cool Lips, and the third, Recipe, is far more obvious with a large cover page. The main storyline is about Mizuno, a quiet, dark-haired boy who remains aloof in the corner of his high school room. At the funeral of his recently-deceased classmate, Mamoru Takayama, he finds himself rather surprisingly haunted by Mamoru's ghost. Mamoru's one regret from life is that he never got to know Mizuno better (specifically, he never kissed him), and so he must follow Mizuno around until he can fulfill his wish so he can pass on. Mamoru is now hell-bent on kissing Mizuno, who seems more interested in ignoring the hyperactive ghost than working with him, and wondering why in the world he's been cursed with this ghost's grudge when he wants to lose himself in silence. Despite how that sounds, Mamoru does not force anything on Mizuno, and over time Mizuno comes to realize what he really feels for Mamoru, and how empty his life was before. Mizuno lives alone, so he is accustomed to having no one around... but now he can see what life could be like -- silence and being alone can become loneliness, and it could take a ghost to make a person become truly alive. I absolutely *loved* that first story. There are some really cute moments, other places made me laugh, and other scenes were bittersweet or.. heartwrenching, except not quite so strong a word. Mamoru is upbeat and cute, and Mizuno is pretty and quiet. It's funny to see the two interacting, since they have such different personalit

I have a tendency to reread my mangas after a while. Beyond my touch was no expection. On first reading in 2005, I like it and rated it 4 stars. But on second & third reading in 2006, I appreciate this shounen-ai manga simply for its sweetness and innocence. Beyond My Touch is a good break when one is into Yaoi/Slash/Gay romance & eroticas like me. Also, I love this mangaka's fluid and graceful artwork, especially the facial expressions which are vividly alive.

Pros: Not a series (this book finishes it), GREAT artwork, adorible stories, humor and cuteness. Cons: Softcore (if that's not what you're looking for), stories are short (again, if that's not what you're looking for). To sum up, if you're a fan of Eerie Queerie (aka GHOST) or HANDS OFF! (I haven't read it, but I've heard that it's similar), then you'll probably like Beyond My Touch. This book includes Beyond My Touch, a three episode story - Gift, a short epilogue to BMT - Cool Lips, a one episode story - and Recipe, another one episode story. The plots for all three, especially the last two, are very original and well-done. The first one is a bit cliched, but the adorible-ness and interesting way it's done make up for it. For the record, the farthest any of these stories gets is a chaste kiss. Which is totally fine if you're looking for fluff, which I actually really like. But if you're looking for the more "hardcore" stuff, then this isn't it. Sooooo, final verdict... ART: 5 STORY: 4 OVERALL BOOK DESIGN: 4 OVERALL EVERYTHING: 4.5