Delivery Cupid

I must admit that this was one of the most entertaining – albeit exceedingly weird – yaois I’ve ever read. Delivery Cupid comprises of a series of short stories, mainly revolving around the idea of cupids who are sent out to make sure that the right people fall in love. These cupids are organised and given their orders by a rather wily God, who sits up amid the clouds and seems to derive endless entertainment from sneakily making hot guys fall in love with each other (well wouldn’t you?). It feels a little like a case of “If fan girls ruled the world”, but then again that’s probably no bad thing.

The stories of Delivery Cupid are consistently sweet and amusing (if sometimes horrifically cheesy). The first sees Tsubasa, a half-angel hoping to earn his wings, being sent off with a Cupid’s bow and arrow to try and pair off the sleazy owner of a “massage parlour” with his true love. Only problem: his true love would seem to be Tsubasa. Whoops. Nothing original there, nor unsurprising, but it’s fun, it’s cute, and lots of sex with a protesting angelic uke ensues.

A later story is effectively Cinderella retold with a poor paperboy in love with the beautiful young son of a rich family; the role of the fairy godmother is played by our whimsical God, who makes sure that our young paperboy gets a tux and an invite to a certain party being hosted by a certain family. You probably get the gist. It’s all very charming stuff, with silly plot twists and cute naïve guys. The biggest surprise is the fourth story which, out of nowhere, is actually rather moving. In it we see Kurou – an angel of death – fall in love with the sick young man whose soul he’s supposed to take to heaven.

The artwork in the manga fits the material perfectly, it’s all very clean-cut, straight-forward, and not overly-artistic; the ukes are pretty, the semes handsome, and the elderly God is just hilarious. What more could you want? Occasional strokes of genius bring out the humour too; in one story Riku, a teenage ice cream seller in love with his customer Kyosuke watches him as he sits on a bench licking his ice cream. The view of Kyosuke’s lapping tongue leads Riku’s mind to wander a little, and gets him rather “warm” in the summer heat. The bottom frame of the page shows an ice-cream-sized Riku blushing furiously as Kyosuke licks him like a popsicle. It’s all extremely silly but very cute, and very funny. I’m not sure if many people would find it particularly hot, but then I don’t think that’s really the idea.

While not as nice as DQ or 801, Boysenberry do a good solid job with their manga. Delivery Cupid felt very nicely produced, with good quality paper, a colour front page, and a nice glossy cover. Holding Delivery Cupid in one hand and a random June title of a similar length in the other, the Boysenberry title seems to be a fair bit weightier, so props to them for good quality paper and binding.

Delivery Cupid is a rarity for me: a collection of short stories that actually worked. It sets up a premise and explores the various humorous (and sometimes not so humorous) situations that arise. It’s nothing more than fluff, but it knows that fact well, and so plays to its strengths. The characters are cute, the writing funny, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. A good light read for a lazy afternoon.