The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

All or Nothing

What's It About? 

The last thing Oka and Mao expected to find out at lunch was that their two friends Hasumoto and Kadoi were dating.The four boys were classmates, friends, and even neighbors in the dorms. The sudden revelation sparked something within Oka and Mao―as they begin noticing each other in new ways. But what started as playful curiosity quickly grows, and each moment the two spend together threatens to bring them closer than they've ever been before…

All or Nothing has a story and art by Shikke, with English translation by Leighann Harvey. This volume was lettered by Nicole Roderick. Published by Yen Press (November 19, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

All or Nothing is clearly intended to be a light romantic comedy, and in some ways, it very much succeeds. Mao and Oka are shocked when the other two members of their friend group announce that they've been dating, and are even more surprised when it turns out that Oka's dorm room has exceedingly thin walls and they can hear what their friends are getting up to. Naturally, because this is romance (and BL at that), hearing the deed makes Mao curious about doing the deed with the partner at hand – Oka. Sexual experimentation ensues.

It's also where the book loses me a bit. Mao is all-in on this new type of relationship, but Oka has genuinely never thought about it before. In a longer series, there would have been space for Mao to convince Oka, to show him that this isn't just about sex and sexual curiosity, but actual attraction on an emotional level. But this is a one-and-done single-volume story, so instead Mao more or less peer pressures Oka into beginning a physical relationship and moves much faster than Oka is comfortable with all the way through the volume. Does Oka eventually become comfortable with it? Yes, but that's not quite enough to make up for the fact that most of this is a relationship of dubious consent to meet the pacing needs of a one-shot.

Of course, I may be putting words in the creator's mouth, because the short story that's included also features a friends-to-lovers plot that relies heavily on one partner being much more eager than the other. And if that's your preferred romance flavor, awesome. This book will probably be much more enjoyable than I found it. And even with the dub-con, I didn't dislike the volume entirely. I liked all four of the main characters and the way that Kadoi, one of the official dating pair, kept encouraging Mao and Oka to talk things out. I liked the art, which errs more on the side of realistic than many other BL titles even in this guide (if you're looking for ridiculously huge dongs, might I suggest The New Recruit?), and there was a clear effort made to give each boy a distinct design. I guess the best I can offer is to read with caution – this isn't fully consensual, but it's still got a few things going for it.

We have reached max BL capacity: in All or Nothing, all six featured characters are gay. It's only that some of them don't realize it for a while. But curiosity gets the better of our dual leads in this hot and heavy boarding school romance, which is full of exactly as many nighttime dorm room escapades as you're thinking. On one side of the coin, it's an earnest and open story of first love. On the other side, its frank discussions about love and sex from a teenage perspective were a bit of a cringefest. The realism of teen experimentation keeps the story grounded but be ready to feel secondhand embarrassment all the while.

At a high school for technical skills, Oka and Kadoi are on the mechanic track, while Mao and Hatsumoto are on the design track, but the four friends still arrange their schedules to eat lunch together every day. One day, Kadoi and Hatsumoto shake up the dynamic with the surprising announcement that they've been dating for weeks. Mao and Oka reply with good-natured ribbing and not a little bit of jealousy, bemoaning their inability to get girlfriends. But the reason for the lack of female companionship in their lives soon becomes clear in the next few pages: Mao and Oka spend every waking (and sleeping) hour together! One night when they have a sleepover in Oka's dorm room instead of Mao's as usual, they hear Kadoi and Hatsumoto canoodling through the wall. This sets off a chain reaction of not-so-heterosexual thoughts and actions as Mao and Oka bring their relationship to a decidedly more X-rated level. Mao tends to spill Too Much Information, like when he gets the bright idea to tell Kadoi and Hatsumoto that he heard them, embarrassing the latter so much that he runs away. But it's clear Mao isn't malicious, just that he has no filter when later, he shares the play-by-play of his exploits with Oka with his friends while asking them for relationship advice. It made me cringe when Mao kept opening his big mouth, but I can't deny that it felt exactly how an outgoing teenager would react to being in a new romance. It's funny, dirty, and painfully honest each step of the way.

After Mao and Oka's story wraps up, All or Nothing transitions to a short story called “The Starting Period” about a completely different couple in college. Masaki and Keito are childhood friends who unexpectedly reunite in college and begin a sexual relationship. Masaki is standoffish but has secretly pined for Keito all along; Keito is outgoing, oblivious, and openly gay. Their sex scene is a little rough: Masaki voices his unwillingness and Keito replies, “[C]ould you just go with it for a bit?” Though it's made clear Masaki has always been interested in Keito, the dubious consent here is less than sexy. Then, as if nothing happened, we're back to “Extra Innings,” a story with the previous four characters. The whole thing is a bit of a mishmash, but All or Nothing's portrayal of these six characters taking turns using a single brain cell as they stumble into love is as entertaining as it is embarrassing.