The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Lethal Dose of Love

What's It About? 

He'll never forget him—his ex-classmate Yuu, that is. College student Ryousuke was devastated when Shinobu confessed and then promptly disappeared from his life without waiting for a reply. After desperately searching for years, he is overjoyed when they suddenly meet by chance. His happiness is soon eclipsed by the fact that Shinobu walks off into the arms of another man...

Lethal Dose of Love has a story and art by Yosumi, with English translation by Amber Tamosaitis. This volume was lettered by Dietrich Premier. Published by Yen Press (October 15, 2024).

Content Warning: Sexual abuse of a minor

Is It Worth Reading?

If you're looking for a sweet BL romance, you have come to the wrong place. Lethal Dose of Love does have a rewardingly lovely ending and does trade in ideas of true love being the greatest force on earth, but the road there is filled with dark twists and turns, and even those are stymied by the fact that this is a one-volume story, which hampers the character development a bit.

The more developed of the two protagonists is Yuu. After confessing his love to his best friend Ryousuke in middle school, he vanishes, moving, Ryousuke later learns, to Tokyo with his mother. But what Ryousuke doesn't know is that Yuu was sexually abused and raped by his stepfather and that his mother began verbally abusing him because of it, ultimately abandoning her son when he was in high school. Unsure of his worth, Yuu begins using his body to keep himself fed and sheltered, and there's a strong implication that his various lovers weren't always kind to him. Through it all, he clung to his memories of Ryousuke as the last good, pure thing he knew.

So when Ryousuke steps out of his past and into his present, Yuu is understandably on edge. What he doesn't realize is that Ryousuke has always returned his feelings, and he moved to Tokyo for college specifically to find Yuu. The bulk of the story is between Ryousuke trying to convince Yuu to give him a chance and that he's genuinely in love with him and flashbacks of their past, which tend to be dark and harrowing. The happy ending is deserved, but it can be a lot getting there, and most of Ryousuke's characterization is told to us rather than naturally shown through his actions. There's a real sweetness to the finale, and the testament to the all-consuming power of First, True Love™ is very appealing. The art does a good job of showing the emaciated body Yuu has unfortunately ended up with in comparison with Ryousuke's healthier form, as well as the difference in their body language. But it's not a cute, fluffy story, so go into it with that in mind.

When a BL story is angsty and includes heavy topics like child sexual abuse and prostitution, I think of it as a throwback to the '00s. But stories like Lethal Dose of Love remind me that there's nothing retro about Sad Boy Yaoi—it's still getting published every day. Nobody dies in this book (just want to get that out of the way considering the title has “lethal” in it; I think it's actually supposed to be a reference to this Rod Stewart song) but one of the guys has a seriously bad time. It's your standard yaoi book with a blonde seme and a black-haired uke, differentiated mainly by its leads' allergy to clear communication.

In a just world, Lethal Dose of Love would have found its happy ending almost immediately after it began. The story starts with a love confession from one middle school student to another. Ryousuke is thrilled to hear that Shinobu likes him, and plans to deliver his reply the next day: apparently, it would be against tradition to reply immediately. But the next day, Shinobu is nowhere to be found. With only one clue (his teacher says Shinobu moved to Tokyo), Ryousuke attends college in the big city hoping for a glimpse of his lost love. You'll never believe what happens next! You'd think reuniting would solve all their problems but no—Shinobu is living with a much older man, exchanging sex for housing. Not to mention Shinobu has some serious childhood trauma and is hesitant to let Ryousuke in. Drawn in a throwback style with plenty of screen tones and big yaoi hands, it's difficult to place this story in a specific time period. Overall, this story feels interchangeable, like a modern AU fanfiction template for any pair of characters. While we get deep into Shinobu's worst experiences, we don't know what else is going on in his life. As for Ryousuke, all we find out is that he's an extrovert and popular at school. Like I said, he could be anyone.

I might be getting a little harsh with Lethal Dose of Love, which is a perfectly acceptable BL romance. It has a clear storyline and for all the obstacles it throws at its protagonists, it culminates in a happy ending. But after reading so many more interesting BL stories for the manga guide, it's going to take more than these cookie-cutter leads to make an impact.