YURA TAMAKI

Pochi and Tama are finally moving in together after six years of dating. Their real names are not Pochi (dog name) and Tama (cat name), but they have been calling each other that ever since they met. And that's how Tama starts recollecting their past and wondering how things are going to work from now on.

From The Pink Panzer: Partners was first written 15 years ago, although it has been re-printed several times since then. It's a ground-breaking classic, in the sense that it's the very first manga to realistically depict the gay S&M scene. Set in New York in the late 1980s, Partners follows the lives of six close friends who also happen to be leathermen. The manga depicts their relationships -- both sexual and emotional -- with unabashed honesty. While the story practically explodes off the page with a continuous, unremitting and glorious parade of smut, it isn't "meaningless sex" -- these are committed couples in full-time relationships, where pleasure and pain are natural expressions of affection for one another. (You guessed it; that's where the manga's name comes from. They're "partners.") The six friends that star in this manga are split up into three pairs. The main pair consists of Marlon and Doug, around whose relationship the manga revolves. Marlon, a high-flying executive, plays sub and devoted masochist to the beautifully dominant Doug. Doug is, interestingly enough, a janitor at the very company Marlon directs; during the average workday, they barely even make eye-contact. The contrast between their private and public lives is as stark as it is lovely. The other couples also feature in major roles, and what we end up with is an intimate and moving glimpse at an otherwise unconventional lifestyle. Be warned -- these aren't willowy bishounen clasping each other in slender arms! These are very real, very authentic male bodies bending and contorting in well-established ways. If beefy shoulders and leather chaps don't do it for you, you might be in for a bit of a shock!

From Nihonmaru: A story about Vinny (a gang leader), his best friend Sean, Skip and Dick (respectively, the errand boy and the muscle of the gang), Kyle (Vinny's younger brother) and Sandy (Vinny's girlfriend). Vinny is homophobic, Kyle is gay and in a relationship with Sean. When Vinny finds out about it, troubles have their start. From Baka-Updates: There's Vinny, the gang leader, and his best friend and sidekick Sean. Skip and Dick are, respectively, the errand boys and the muscle of the gang. And there's Vinny's younger brother Kyle, whom Vinny raised from a baby after his stepfather took off and his mother died of drug addiction. Vinny also has a neat girlfriend, Sandy. Vinny is rabidly homophobic (besides having a hate-on for almost everyone else- doctors, police, social workers, the usual.) Kyle is gay and getting it on with Sean. Trouble is just around the corner. Trouble happens, but with a long fuse. Things aren't over when Vinny finds that Sean's been screwing his baby brother and beats him to a pulp.