Akuma no Kare / My Devil Boyfriend by Anything (naop)

So, yeah, Akuma no Kare is a one shot and is exactly as dirty as the cover implies. It’s also not yaoi, but bara.

SPOILERS

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Tsutomu is a regular salaryman who, somehow, buys a grimoire and attempts to summon a demon. Initially, his plan seems to be to exact revenge on the people at his job, but the demon that appears in the magic circle is so hot that Tsutomu is like, “Nah, what I want is sex!”

Which for levels of bara hotness, I don’t necessarily think this is a bad choice on Tsutomu’s part! I mean… hello, MUSCLES!

At any rate, after the signing of the contract, the devil, Kurahato, discovers that maybe he’s the one that shoulda read the fine print because it turns out Tsutomu is a top.

Wacky sex ensues.

The end.

Maybe? It’s not clear. Baka-Updates believes it’s fully scanned and Akuma no Kare is listed as a one-shot, which it may be, but often one chapter stories are parts of anthologies and this seems to have its own cover, complete with R-Rating. Full volumes are usually 5 (or 5.5) chapters, so I have my suspicions that perhaps the scanlators got part way in, discovered that there wasn’t going to be any romance and that these were beefy, bara men and quit at chapter one. Although, who knows? Anything seems to maybe be an artist’s circle of which naop/naop-loop is part of so its possible that the rest of the manga is filled with work by the rest of the group. (It’s unclear, however. His Tumblr, however, seems to just have work by himself however, and is using the Anything name??)

Other than untangling this mystery, there’s not a huge amount that I have to say about this little demon romp. The art is very bara, but if know what you’re getting, I found it cute and smutty and funny– so, if that’s something you can also appreciate, go for it!

If not, do me a favor? Don’t read it and leave comments on how gross it is.

I noticed that the comments at Manganelo all were on par with “Ugh! My eyes! I can’t unsee it. I need Bleach!” and “What was that?” Especially since the comments (possibly from the same people) is all “F*CK HIM HARDER” (and even more explicitly gross) when its the exact same level of smut, but two bishie boys. Likewise, someone on Baka-Updates seems to have taken the time to give a one-star rating to not only this particular bara, but literally everything else nanop-sensei has ever had published, including titles that have no fan translation/scanlation. Which, maybe they’ve read in the original Japanese, but which seems more likely an attempt to make sure no one scanlates anything else of his.

THIS is why I can’t have nice things.

You know what I don’t always like? Straight romances. Yet, somehow, you don’t see me spending my waking hours going around to every single shoujo title and giving them a one star rating out of spite.

I have better things to do with my time. Like read bara.

Plus, let’s get real, this bara hate? It’s homophobic.

Unlike yaoi and Boys’ Love, Bara is a genre that is not written by women or for women. Bara is written by gay men for gay men. It’s not just hairless, skinny, androgynous, weeping, bishi twinks having sex with each other and living in some woman’s fantasy of heteronormative, deeply gender-coded “gay” life. Instead, the men have bulging chests, hair, and the stories tend to be fairly “wham, bam, thank you, man,” and not romantic at all. There’s one by nanop-sensei called, and I kid you not, Glory Hole. I am suspecting I can guess without reading it what happens in that manga…. and how hot it might be.

But, apparently, all of a sudden because the men look like men, commentors feel like they need to point out that it’s smutty and gross.

Like yoai isn’t smut?? I can point you to a few titles if you think it’s all just flowers, holding hands, and blushing. And, also, that is not to say that Akuma no Kare doesn’t have it’s cute moments…..

Making a demon blush is pretty darned cute.

I mean, none of this is news. Breaking, breaking: the homophobes are ruining it for the rest of us! is not exactly a brand new occurrence. It’s just… it’s 2024, y’all. Can we let bara exist?

It would be amazing, honestly, if we could support it? And not just the ones who we’ve decided are acceptable like Tagame Gengoroh. What would it be like to live in a world where men are allowed to have big bodies, body hair, and belly fat and still be hot as fu*k? Bara might give us a clue. And it would be nice for those of us who like that to be able to read it. If this isn’t for you, that’s okay. But, don’t get in other people’s way is all I’m saying.