Beyond My Touch

Beyond My Touch is a collection of three short stories by Tomo Maeda, the first of which corresponds to the manga's title. The first story is about Mizuno, a lonely high schooler, who is haunted by the ghost of his recently departed classmate, Mamoru. Mamoru believes that the only reason he cannot pass on to the next world is because he regrets that he never received a kiss from Mizuno. The second story, "Cool Lips," involves an awkward friendship and a misinterpreted kiss between two high school classmates, and the third story, "Recipe," is a fluffy tale of one boy trying to bake the perfect sweets for another.

These three stories are some of the cutest, fluffiest shonen ai I have read. Though all three stories were adorable and enjoyable, "Beyond My Touch" is by far the best of the three. There is some very serious character development, and the relationship between Mizuno and Mamoru has a slow, interesting growth that could easily have been continued for the entirity of the manga. In fact, I would have preferred that. As the story progresses, a cute, unsubstantial tale becomes a moving and emotional story about uncomfortable family situations and lonliness. The other two stories are pure fluff, and the third story is simply slashable without any difinitive pairing.

Though the three stories are unrelated, the characters in each look almost exactly alike, which I found to be slightly confusing and a little disappointing the first time I read the manga. While the character designs are pretty and consistent, it would have been nice to see a larger variation between the characters. The backgrounds for the panels are mostly sparse and white, but not so bland as to make the page feel empty. Rather, they help to offset the emotional expressions on the faces of the characters. One element of the manga's appearance that I love is that the panels are easy to follow.

Beyond My Touch is a sweet, adorable manga that has its moments of substance, but many more moments of fluff. If you are looking for an enjoyable, heart-warming read, I would definitely recommend it.