Sabaku no ou wa ryu wo daku written by Shuhdoh Rena and illustrated by Lightgraph II

Sabaku no ou wa ryu wo daku by Shuhdoh Rena and illustrated by Lightgraph II is, to put it in one word, shiny. No, really. It's shiny. It's such a simplistic and conventional (and utterly ridiculous) story, but it hits a lot of my moe points and didn't irritate me once (though a couple of cliches did induce somewhat of a gag reaction). It just made me cackle in delight (even the gag reaction-inducing crap). Running full speed with cliches (and not letting any logic stop you) can work at times, after all.

I remember making fun of this book a while back because it just sounded too silly for words (also, the title can be translated into "The desert king embraces the dragon" or "The desert king fucks the dragon"--personally, after reading the book I go with the latter! XDXD). It is too silly for words, but if you like yakuza, dragon tattoos, snarky servants and happy-go-lucky yet noble princes (and lotsa sex) this book is right up your alley. (The only thing that bothered me is that the Arabian prince is once again a Caucasian-looking one. What is up with that? If Japanese artists are so enamored of the Arabian prince with his riches and harem and absolute power thing, can't they use a normal non-blond one instead?)

Because I'm too lazy to actually write something original I'm cutting and pasting my initial comment on this book:

I was attracted by the stupid title. This doesn't have a blurb, but the reviews are hilarious! From what I can gather a wounded yakuza (with a dragon tattoo) is found and rescued by a prince who happened by. One reviewer took the story to be a comedy, because so many improbable things happen starting with the intense sex the two engage in waaay before the yakuza is even close to being healed. She apparently had a good time laughing while reading the story. XD

I actually think it work as more than a pure comedy. The characters are actually fairly fleshed out rather than the paper cut-outs like most stupid comedy BL characters tend to be. I was (sort of) moved as well as amused by the story. Whodathunkit?


( the summary )

( the pics )