insaneneko

Hanamachi Monogatari~Tsuya koiuta~ is the novelization of the BL game by Togake Ally and illustrated by Takatsuki Noboru (the artist for the game). I sort of remember seeing pics for the game a while back, and I wasn't expecting much from the novel. It was actually a lot of fun to read. Completely and totally cliched and silly, naturally, but fun. Uke is a kid working as a much-bullied servant at the brothel his mom had worked at (before she met his father), but is picked up by seme to work at seme's much nicer brothel as a prostitute. There is something hilarious about how low-class brothel=prejudiced (uke's father was English) and blind to uke's obvious beauty while high-class brothel=accepting and appreciative. Er, in any case, the uke is very grateful to seme and believes firmly that the seme is very kind at heart. No matter what the seme does. No matter how bastardly the seme treats the uke...Because uke is the time-honored whore with the heart of gold. He's spunky and cheerful and sickeningly positive. He's also in love with the seme, so of course he can't help but crave whatever contact he can get from the seme, no matter how not-nice it may be.

Seme, for his part, has issues. He grew up in a very good home but was completely ignored by his father. He left his house and decided to run a very nice brothel while his much-cherished older brother became an upstanding military officer. He is lonely and vulnerable deep in his heart, but masks his sadness with a cold and calculating demeanor. He is usually very business-like and doesn't go around treating his prostitutes badly. Of course, his typical policy is thrown out the window when it comes to uke. Not only does the seme have the uke's first fuck (and has a really thin excuse for why he did it instead of having a paying client do it), he has the uke lots of times after that in the guise of "training" or "testing." In the end, though, the uke's pure and sincere love breaks through the seme's emotional walls and they live happily ever after, running the wonderful shiny happy brothel with shiny happy prostitutes...

The art is quite nice. Frankly, I don't think I'd have liked this as much if the seme wasn't totally hot. Glasses! Properly buttoned up! Repressed! I laughed so hard at all the lame excuses he made to himself to justify the silly shit he does to the uke. I wanted to pet him on the head a lot. Uke, for his part, wasn't that interesting but wasn't particularly offensive either. Sometimes these pure and sweet characters make me want to gag from the saccharine stickiness, but he was just kind of chipper. At least he didn't angst very much, even over the seme. He was mostly resigned, in a chipper way. ^^;

Seme to the rescue! Uke was about to get gang-raped by his fellow servants at the crappy brothel when he's saved by the seme...

Seme sees how gorgeous the uke is under the grime and the abuse and the malnutrition and offers uke a position in his brothel.

Uke accepts seme's offer to come work at his much nicer brothel. He gets "tested" for "sensitivity" when he first gets there.

Top prostitute boy trains uke in the art of pleasure, mostly by sticking larger and larger dildos into uke to get him used to being fucked eventually.

The seme kisses the uke! We later learn that the seme may fuck his boys (not very often, though), but he doesn't kiss them...

This is the side sob story of the brothel bouncer. He confesses to the uke that he had been the partner of the criminal who'd killed the uke's parents because they were a mixed-race couple. The bouncer had prevented his partner in crime from killing the young uke and had given uke to the brothel the uke's mom had worked at (how did he know that the uke's mom had been a prostitute and which brothel she had worked at? did he go to a neighbor and say, "Hi, my partner in crime killed your neighbor, do you know where I can take their kid so that he's taken care of?" does it really matter?). He's really torn up about the whole business, but uke forgives him and thanks him for saving him.

Notice the cat in uke's arms. It was a stray that had wandered in. Uke was told that the seme wasn't big into animals, but he can't get rid of the cat and asks seme for permission to keep him. Lucky for him, seme agrees. We later learn that the seme had a traumatic childhood experience in which his beloved pet cat had been callously killed by his uncaring father. XD;

Seme treats the uke badly in a fit of jealous rage.

Seme comes to his senses when uke finally cries and stops the meanness.

True love prevails! Isn't it so sweet!

This only comes about thanks to intervention because the seme would've never come around to truly facing his feelings on his own.

The final consummation of their true love, in which both the seme and uke are naked. The seme had always worn all of his clothing, only taking out the important bit to do the deed before. But you know, now that they are truly together they can have real loving sex!