There was a time during middle school when I would wake up, go to class, come home, and read Japanese manga and fanfiction every day for hours. To me, this odd culture was completely interesting, and I wanted to know more and more about it. However, over the years, I’ve drifted away from manga. There are loads of great series out there, but I can’t seem to find any right now that interest me.

When a friend is talking about a certain title, I’ll say how awesome it was at the time I was reading it. But that was two or three years ago, and I’m just not into it anymore. Sometimes I feel like others think I’m lying to them about being a fan of manga, but it’s been so long and I haven’t kept up with new titles.

As a preteen girl, I really, really enjoyed yaoi/shounen ai manga. This obviously refers to manga with man/man or boy/boy themes. I think this fascination was the downfall of my interest in manga. There are many titles published in the US that are considered to be of this nature, but when you look at them, how different are the titles from one another? A lot of the titles could be grouped into the same category, such as boy/boy high school romance. The characters in these stories are usually androgynous, and sometimes the reader can’t even tell the characters apart. That’s fine for so long, but eventually a craved something more. Something more real. I was tired of the same ‘Oh, I love you!’/'I love you, too! But no one can find out about us.’ or ‘Oh, I love you!’/'Oh, isn’t that so cute? My classmates love each other.’ kind of deal. I moved on to other slash fandoms; slash refers to man/man relationships in non-Japanese media. In these other fandoms, the male characters seemed more real. I want rugged, manly men, not frail, smooth-skinned guys who seem to never hit puberty.

At this time, I’m rereading a manga called FAKE. I realized the only reason I can tolerate it is because it does have a yaoi theme, but also it’s a cop/mystery manga. The romance is squeezed in just enough, but the main theme revolves around the two characters’ police lives. The cover of the first volume has the ‘traditional yaoi manga’ pretty men, but these pretty men have chiseled jawlines and guns; however, they’re also surrounded by flowers, to imply the soft yaoi themes.

Basically, if you’re in a yaoi manga rut and tired of the same ol’ stuff, I recommend FAKE. It’s just the right length, only seven volumes, and the story is never dull.

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