Alcohol, Shirt & Kiss

I've always loved buddy stories and stories where friends and/or partners become lovers. It is certainly what has drawn me to the stories in "Fake" and "Yellow". However, the journey is part of getting there and without a story(ies) beyond how the relationship unfolds, I tend to feel a little unfulfilled. That is kind of what happened in this instance.

In "Alcohol, Shirt & Kiss" we have partnered detectives. The younger, newest kid on the block, Naru, has made a name for himself in the department for his marksmanship and courage under pressure. Kita is unflappable and, at least to most of the department, completely cool and unemotional. However, when Naru suffers heartbreak from being dumped by his girlfriend and wakes up in Kita's bed a show more whole new relationship between the two is tested. Naru quickly discovers that under his partner's enigmatic exterior lurks the heart of a man desperate for affection and willing to go to almost any lengths to secure this human connection.

Despite having very little plot and story beyond the relationship, which would have made it much better IMHO, I did enjoy reading this manga. The artwork was easy on the eyes and there were a couple very quick police work related action scenes which I liked quite a bit. I also thought that the various chapter names were clever as each word highlights a significant object or action taking place.

Another kind of unusual thing for me is that I really enjoyed the little side story, "Moon Kiss", at the end. I'm not a big fan of the manga where instead of a full book dedicated to the title story, you get half title and half other stories. In this case however, I felt that the main story between Naru and Kita had resolved itself nicely and I had no problems with an extra bonus. It certainly made me giggle and had an unexpected twist to it I thought was quite charming.

Overall I thought this was a good manga, despite what I saw was a lack of depth, that does have the added bonus of being a one-shot without further commitment to spending more on additional volumes (which is actually why I picked up this particular title). show less

Cute story in one book.