Review: Alcohol, Shirt and Kiss by Yuko Kuwabra

Alcohol, Shirt and Kiss by Yuko Kuwabra is a manga about two police officers.  The fact they are police officers is more or less unimportant as we almost never see them actually working.  Basically cute Naru has just broken up with his girl and Kita seems intent of taking advantage of him.  However it becomes clear that emotionally distant Kita sees in Naru and opportunity to experience real intimacy and love.

The 32-pages cover 9 small stories centered around Kita's attempted seduction, with Naru's eventual collusion. It is essentially a litany of near misses as the two never quite manage to fully consummate the romance.  Overall it is a charming story that teases its way towards the inevitable 'happy ending'.

The usual cultural differences in taboos are apparent in that otherwise uke Naru repeatedly hits Naru hard enough to leave a visible bruise or cut, which is apparently consider no more than musing by their work-mates.  I am also bemused that anal sex is considered so painful for the uke by both men and women in this and other mangas. If it was rreally that godawful painful I doubt anyone would do it.  But putting that aside, this is a pretty good yaoi manga and more action dense-than most mangas.