Idol Pleasures [Paperback]

Okay I'll admit it. I was a little horrified when I got my shipment from Amazon and realized that the book is TINY. Tiny as in short. The story only takes up 155 and then there's a short afterword about the making of the book. Initial shock aside though I enjoyed Idol Pleasures. It's short but it tells a pretty decent story. The characters were cute and Hisaya surprised me more than once. I really liked him. I just wish it had been longer. And maybe had a little bit of sex. I get the feeling the sex scene would have been pretty interesting.
As the story goes Koju is the young "cool type" idol and Hisaya is his middle aged manager. In fact, Hisaya is only a manager at all because he was unemployed and his older sister dumps the job on him. Nevertheless Hisaya is a generally cheerful kind of guy and actually manages to befriend Koju, a miracle in and of itself. The befriending quickly turns into romantic interest for Koju but Hisaya repeatedly puts him off. And so goes the story which revolves almost exclusively around their (lack of a) romantic relationship and has very little to do with Koju being an idol. Most of the idol stuff is peripheral. But while doing his managerial duties Hisaya gradually begins to accept the feelings of his young (would be) lover. Actually that's the best part of the book. When Hisaya finally snaps and teases Koju back I nearly dropped the book. I was pleasantly shocked.
Otherwise the story kind of hovers around somewhere between decent and really good. Some of the characters are little more than cardboard. There were also a number of things in the character histories that could have been used for great dramatic effect. Hisaya has an ex-wife and daughter as well as a previous job that he quit for largely undisclosed reasons. Koju had an unhappy childhood with a neglectful mother. Unfortunately for the most part the story doesn't touch on these things. It stays more on the light and sweet level which I'm largely okay with. It makes up for it's fluffiness with humor, lots of chibis, and spicing it up every so often with a hint of knock your socks off sexiness by Hisaya. It really is just a shame we don't get to see any real action here.
The art in Idol Pleasures isn't the best I've seen but it's pretty good. Not as flowy and natural, it leans a little more towards the stiff side with some sparse backgrounds. The chibis are cute though and give it nice personality. The translation also seems pretty good. I didn't notice anything majorly awkward or any typos so we're good there.
This may not be a groundbreaking yaoi but I'll definitely be keeping it on my shelf. Actually it would be nice to get a sequel to Idol Pleasures. There's enough in the story to keep me interested for another round. Besides, I would still like to see Hisaya in action if you know what I mean. Here's hoping.

Idol Pleasures is about Koju Yagihashi, the idol of this story, and Hisaya Amagi, his new manager. Hisaya is a divorced father of one whose sister owns the company that manages Koju. Finding it hard to set up her unemployed brother, she decides to temporarily employ him as Koju's new manager. Koju is known to be very cool and has had issues with other managers. Surprisingly he hits it off well with Hisaya, a little too well. Hisaya mistakes Koju's feelings to simply be those of a boy looking for a father figure and not a lover but Koju vehemently denies that. Not wanting to deal with the situation, Hisaya rejects him anyway.

I found the plot on this one to be rather lackluster. I can certainly see why Koju may have developed feelings for Hisaya but for them to be full blown love is a little far fetched. Also, the details of the story are pretty weak. We never really find out just what kind of idol Koju is. He has a lot of photos taken, he acts a bit and then puts out a CD. Even the mangaka points out the lack of clarity here.

The illustrations were acceptable but nothing special. The translation seemed alright but there was one spot where I got confused as to who was saying what because it didn't seem quite right. As far as sexual content, it's pretty non-existent. This is definitely not an explicit title and even the little bit of kissing there is isn't drawn that well. I can deal with a non-explicit title if the kissing scenes are well drawn. There was also such a build up in the story that I felt there could have been at least one good sex scene as a payoff but no such luck.

The only selling point to this story is that there is some pretty good humor in it and I do like having an older man as part of the couple. Outside of that, it's not one I would tell anyone to run off and buy.

Plot = B-
Characters = B
Illustrations = B
Sexual Content = B-
Translation = B+

Overall Grade = B

Despite the lack of plot and character development. I enjoyed this story a lot. I wished it had more explicity smut scenes and plot.

Amagi has been forced to become a manager to Yagihashi, one of his sister's talent agencies problem child. However, Amagi has no clue about show business at all and his sister is only forcing Amagi into the job for matchmaking purposes. Afterall, an unemployed guy is harder to find a mate.

The more Yagihashi starts to learn about his new manager, he starts to get more and more intrigued by Amagi to the point that he becomes possessive.

It's interesting to have an older, shorter, sadistic seme that loved to tease the much better looking but shy idol figure. Plot wise it was a wash, the slight comedic moments are very light. What made the story more interesting were those sadistic Amagi moments when he enjoyed teasing the younger heart throb even though he wasn't serious about him.

The last chapter has a little more action w/ Amagi's past employment being revealed when a former coworker shows up.

One minor thing I didn't like in the story was the "Mr." parts. Japanese language often uses the last name + "san". However, continually calling someone "Mr. Amagi" even during an intimate times doesn't translate well in english. It just made any of those scenes a little awkard.

Overall, I'd recommend this book. I enjoyed it.