Crushing Love is an anthology of four stories, each shorter than the one before it. Every story seems to follow a formulaic plotline, but they work well as short stories.

The first story boils down to a seme who has an icy heart because a previous lover betrayed him, whose heart is melted by a pure and honest uke. Kuroda is the cold-hearted seme. His ex-lover who betrayed him asks him for help with some financial problems. Kuroda doesn't want to help his ex, but he wants to play around with him so Kuroda tells him that he will put five milliion yen on a park bench. If someone actually returns the money to the police instead of taking it for themselves, then Kuroda will help his ex.

Kaoru comes along and picks up the bag of money. It turns out he wants to use the money to pay someone in Kyoto so his house won't be torn down. Kuroda goes with Kaoru to Kyoto to make sure that all the money is used up and won't be returned to the police. Along the way, he falls in love with Kaoru. This story was a little long and could have been wrapped up a lot quicker. It's not a very complicated storyline. The uke, Kaoru, is so sweet he'll give you a toothache. There cannot be a man or woman in the world as nice and virtuous as this guy is. Aside from these issues, the storyline may not be anything special, but the premise is pretty interesting.

The second story is about a president and his secretary. Sei is Yukihiko's secretary but he's been serving Yukihiko since they were very young. All this time, Sei has been in love with Yukihiko but Yukihiko fools around with tons of women and doesn't want to settle down. The excuse he gives to his parents is that he has Sei so he doesn't need to get married. This sends mixed signals to Sei and complicates things.

The third story is about Nakahara and Kijima. Nakahara is popular and Kijima is more like a nerd. Despite their differences, they get along well in private. They are "sex buddies" who meet regularly. The only thing is, Kijima starts falling in love with Nakahara. He doesn't know that Nakahara started this sex only relationship because he once saw Kijima crying and thought his emotions were pure and beautiful.

The fourth story is somewhat similar. Himura and Adachi are sex buddies but Adachi is in love with Himura. He sees no signs of Himura feeling the same way so he doesn't blurt out his feelings. When Adachi finds out that his family is going to move away, he starts avoiding Himura to make the separation easier to deal with.

The art is clean and good to look at. The storylines are straightforward and there was no trouble following them. The volume is worth looking into at least for the attractive art. ( )

One story about a guy trying to get over his former lover while he keeps helping another guy he meets and not knowing why. One story of childhood friends, one promiscuous and gay, and the other in love with him but convinced, as always, the other must not love him back. And two more about “sex buddies” (Yes, in a row, even.), both with the 'one mistakenly thinks the other's just in it for sex' trope, the main differences being in that the second couple is much more earnest and blatantly in love.

And I really don't know what else to say. This is a pretty empty offering. The first story, while the longest, was actually the worst of all, I think, with the characters having barely any personality besides a vague niceness in the uke and a vague moodiness in the seme. It tries to give itself depth, I guess, by having the seme talk about trying to get over his old lover, and he does apparently in the end, but the progression feels random and senseless.

The other stories are the usual yaoi story lines and nothing more, which I usually might dislike only they were kind of a relief after the misguided attempts at character development in the first story. These, at lest, made yaoi-universe sense, if not real-life psychological sense. Didn't find the art particularly attractive, either.

If you have a particular thing for any of these story types, you might find some enjoyment in this, but otherwise I don't see much reason to buy this, it's quite bland. The most amusement I got out of it was actually in the afterward, where the mangaka gives a little mini-comic on how even things like hardware stores and certain snacks can may her think about yaoi. ^_^; ( )