Love Bus Stop

Ritsu Natsumizu's Love Bus Stop (Renai Bus Stop) contains four short stories about salarymen falling in love. In the first one, the title story "Love Bus Stop," Tsuzuki sees a handsome mysterious salaryman Fujisaki every Monday and Wednesday on a bus stop and fantasizes about having sex with him. And when he finally gathers up enough courage to talk to him... can his fantasies really come true? In the second story called "Blame It on Love," two old school friends find themselves working for the same company. Kirishima used to be so in love with Orihara but is haunted some old memories until misunderstandings get resolved. In the third story, "All My Flowers for You," a flower shopkeeper Hayama is in love with his private tutor, the shy bookish Tohyama. Tohyama is engaged to be married, but can Hayama turn his feelings around? Last story, "First Kiss," happens back in an office and tells a story about two salarymen's first kiss and consequent affair.

I was saving this book last in my latest stack of BL manga because it had all the elements that I love: a mature title with handsome salarymen getting it on. And couple of first pages seemed to cash in on all the promises with Tsuzuki's wild fantasies about taking Fujisaki... but as often with fantasies, the reality is something completely different. Fujisaki, despite his manly appearance, turns out to a blushing girl for a lack of a better description, and although there are some funny moments with Tsuzuki doting over the clumsy Fujisaki the story is mostly sickly sweet and puerile. Second story isn't much of an improvement: handsome men in suits behaving like teenage girls, complete with blushing and tears. By the third story my expectations had gone below zero and that's where the story about young enthusiastic flower boy who is in love with his, yes you guessed it, blushing shy suit-wearing tutor went... even the sex scene on the floor of the flower shop couldn't save this one. Last story is best of the bunch, with slightly different character designs and more character development: unlike the other stories that climax with the first climax (or just before), this is a story about a relationship and only one of the men is constantly blushing and crying.

Natsumizu's art is nice and the character designs are pleasing if very repetitive, with manly yet beautiful men. It's mostly very clean and mature, except for the shoujo-esque blushing and huge wet tears on fluttering eyelashes. Sex scenes, when present, are non-explicit and only the last story contains full nudity. Hottest scenes are without the doubt the make-out scenes with opened suit jackets, loose ties and passionate kisses, but like everything else in this book the foreplay makes promises it never quite fulfills.

Love Bus Stop is another solid release from Juné with honorifics intact and sound effects translated. The bonus story comes back to Tsuzuki and Fujisaki of the first story and their first time, a thinner than usually disguised BL version of the boy waiting until the girl is absolutely ready and then sweeps her in his arms to live happily ever after. My favorite part of the book is actually the mangaka's extra pages where she explains the anatomy of her fascination of unrealistic fantasies, and there is also a standard one-page thank you note from her.

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Love Bus Stop would most likely be enjoyed by someone who is looking for glossy and highly idealized romances where all feelings are considerate and misunderstandings happily soon resolved. Despite it's mature subject of salarymen, it brings very little enjoyment to someone who is looking for more serious adult stories.