Yaoi Manga Review: Say Please

Say Please by Kano Miyamoto has a straightforward plot, a character named Sakura who is a school teacher at a Catholic school, he is also gay. He meets a male prostitute named Ryoichi and the two of them spend the night together and of course they have sex. Later on as the story progresses, Ryoichi discovers of picture of Sakura and his ex boyfriend. Suddenly Sakura’s ex decides to show up while he’s out while Ryoichi is there. Some drama ensues when Sakura comes to discover his ex. An altercation occurs which in the end and Ryochichi tries to get Sakura to open up but he only lashes out at him and calls him a whore. Ryoichi decides to leave, however Sakura proceeds to engage in sex with Ryoichi, through some force.

Up to this point, this is where the plot line becomes somewhat interesting. Sakura doesn’t seem to be a likable character up to this point. For one, he’s very stoic and lashing out at Ryoichi and then suddenly engaging in awkward sex? It didn’t seem to make much sense. You’ll have to ask, “what happened here?” At least that’s what I asked myself. You do get some glimpses into their lives, but that doesn’t do much to improve the story. The issue of Sakura’s homosexuality is brought up, you have the typical female character that you find in some yaoi stories where she likes one of the men, but he doesn’t like her because he likes men, or a another male character. The ending was happy, which is good considering the fact that Say Please was an average manga. The sex scenes were just awkward. The artwork wasn’t all that bad, but it wasn’t stunning either.

It does offer a short story at the end of an American who is gay and living in Japan and a young man who committed a horrible crime. This story was actually better than Say Please, the characters seem a bit more interesting, and their relationship is a lot more emotional. The sex scene was even better. Overall, I’d give Say Please a five and a half.

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