Cute Beast (かわいいビースト) by Tsuge Amayo

It was on one long-awaited pay day when I was looking for local sellers who just might have Natsume Isaku's "DASH!" that I happened upon a local merchant from Livejournal. Sending her a PM, I learned that my desired manga had long since been sold to another buyer and I was given a list of all her available secondhand manga. After some contemplation and research, I bought two titles from the list that caught my interest. (Simultaneously with two others from a different store, but that's a different story.)

One of such titles was Cute Beast by Tsuge Amayo. To be honest, when I checked this title in my 'researching', I didn't expect a lot; actually I was mostly in it for the art style. I find it borderline androgynous, somewhere between what I consider a nice balance and too girly (see: my review on You & Me, Etc.) but I decided to buy it anyway because hey, why not, I thought, it's not everyday I get to find accessible sources for manga.

Front cover of the book. It's also worth mentioning that

what you're seeing is part of the dust jacket this manga comes with.

Back cover of the book. The actual covers are pretty much the same as the outside,
except that the inside is monochrome purple and without the text at the back -- pretty standard.

Was I satisfied or did I regret my decision? In some ways, it was both. I'll elaborate on that later. To start with, Cute Beast is a collection of five short stories of innocent, youthful romance. It begins with Cute Beast, the title story, as Kisaki feels someone staring at him. That person is Onizuka, the scariest and most unapproachable in the class because of his looming height, yakuza-like name and extreme silence. After trying to talk to him one day, Kisaki finds out that not only is Onizuka a huge puppy, but he's actually very handsome when he peeks from behind the glasses and beard he's hiding from. And Kisaki feels an odd desire to monopolize him when he discovers this.

A page from the first story, Cute Beast. Onizuka really is nothing but a clumsy puppy.

The second story is about Miki, a handsome, perfect high school "prince" who despite having good looks, grades, personality and athletics, continuously gets dumped by the girls he goes out with despite being the one confessed to every time, and earns the title "prince half-ass" from his classmates because everything he does is apparently half-assed. Every time he gets dumped, he again gets confessed to some time after - and this time is no exception. For the first time, a male confesses to him. That boy is small and cute Sakura from the class next door.

A page from the second story. This one is Sakura's confession to Miki.

The third story is a sweet romance between cousins who used to be inseparably close during childhood, Aki and Nao(mi). Nao has to stay with Aki because the latter's mother is leaving for France for the whole of summer break. In the past, the two of them got along well and Nao would buy Aki ramune (a carbonated softdrink) all the time because it was his favorite, but everything changed when Nao got married and moved near the college where he worked. Nao's wife, Suzu, died shortly after, and Aki, afraid and guilty of how he was glad that his cousin was single again, never went back to Nao's place again. Now that they've met again, Aki has to control the feelings he's had towards Nao.

A page from the third story with Aki sleeping adorably and defenselessly from what Nao might do.

Starting with cherry blossoms and fated meetings, the second last story starts with a soon-to-be college student named Sumio who quite literally stumbles upon a drunk man Takagi on the street who drank too much because he was dumped by his ex-girlfriend. Sumio, being the considerate person he is, takes care of the man but walks out when Takagi offends him. The next day, they once again stumble upon each other (this time in the more figurative sense, thankfully) in college and form a sort of friendship, until Takagi one day confesses to him suddenly. Sumio thinks this is only because Takagi sees him as his ex-girlfriend and misunderstandings ensue.

A page from the second to the last story. In a drunken stupor,
Takagi thinks Sumio resembles his ex-girlfriend.

The last story started with a bang. And I meant it both figuratively and literally. It starts off with Misato and the teacher he is in love with, Saishou Naoki (does the name sound familiar?) as they engage in sexual activities in the classroom upon Saishou's invitation. In class, Misato wonders how Saishou knew about his feelings for him and is horrified as he witnesses him kissing another male student. It turns out that there's a rumor going around about the teacher and how he preys on his students, male and female alike. Nishida, the boy Saishou was with when Misato witnessed them, interferes in their relationship, for better or for worse.

Cute Beast's plots are not really anything special, maybe a bit mediocre and cliched (how many "he's scary but is actually a nice guy, oh no he's hot too" stories, incestuous childhood friendship stories and abusive teacher to students (with an s) stories are there? I swear, when I read the first story, I thought for a moment that I had already read it scanlated somewhere. Turns out it was a different manga.). But nevertheless, they could still give you the fluttery feelings in your stomach over the undeniable sweetness sprinkled all over this manga.

Had to take another photo of Saishou because HOT DAMN.

Maybe because it's a collection of one shots, but I felt that there was not enough depth in the stories and they felt a bit rushed. Again, I understand that they're all one-shots but this is exactly why I try to steer clear of one shots and would prefer manga with only one focus (plus a chapter or two for the minor side story, maybe) because I usually like those with more depth and character development and originality. (Would still prefer one shots over girly ukes though.) Nevertheless, the story was sweet in its own cliched, 'quick-fix' way, much for the very same reason cheesy dramas with repetitive plot are still famous. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The art style was okay, plus points for Saishou-sensei being hot as hell, but minus points for Sakura being pretty much a girl with a dick. He reminds me of Pico from *cough* Boku no Pico, to be honest. No offense to transgenders. In fact, a cisgender boy with a face like Sakura is so rare that it would have been more believable if he really was transgender in the story. Again, I'm not saying being trans is bad or weird or anything, (In fact, I support gender minorities with a fevered passion even though I'm not one of them because of several reasons.) but canonically for Sakura to be a guy who has not undergone any sort of gender change and yet look like a girl just because of the art style isn't very believable. But in a way, it's probably part of the charm as this could be a perfect introduction to someone new to yaoi to slowly introduce them to the genre and its common storylines. On the contrary, for someone who has probably read more than a hundred yaoi manga in their lifetime, that charm isn't quite there (unless, of course, they're one of the people who actually like that type of art style, like fans of Love Stage, in which case that's totally cool.). That doesn't mean we can't get to feel the stomach flips and flutters of the sugary moments though. The other characters were beautifully drawn however, so kudos to the mangaka for that.

I think Tsuge Amayo-sensei would be great at drawing more girls though, whether it's for shoujo manga or for supporting characters in other yaoi manga. Her art style would really give some much needed depth to female characters in yaoi manga usually drawn in chibi or "extra character" type of art, if not non-existent or evil.

All in all, Cute Beast is an OK read for me. It's perfect for first-time explorers of the yaoi manga to gradually get into the genre without being scared away by the tentacles or the highly-sexualized bodies that would have them stumbling back to church in guilt and regret. (Again, no part of this blog is meant to offend, so please take that as a joke.) It's something of a quick fix for the more veteran readers though sadly there is a high chance that it's going to be one of those manga you read and forget the next day. But Cute Beast undoubtedly contains sprinkles of sweetness and adorably lovable characters that will have you fangirling (or fanboying) over the irresistable fluff.