Blue Morning Volume 1

This latest yaoi offering from SuBLime follows the relationship between a young boy who inherits a viscountship at the age of 10 and his butler. Do not worry however, as the story quickly jumps forward to when the boy becomes an adult, so there is no danger of any shotacon-like goings-on.

Akihito Kuze inherits the title following the sudden death of his father. He makes his way to the ancestral home of his family where he is placed under the charge of the head butler of the household, Tomoyuki Katsuragi. Katsuragi is not interested in Kuze however. His main interest is to protect the family name and its standing. He acts coldly towards Kuze, mainly just encouraging him to study and go to a university abroad. At first Kuze hates him, but slowly over time he begins to realise that he actually has a much closer, intimate bond with the butler.

Reading this story I did have some mixed feelings. On the downside, I did think the story did drag along somewhat slowly. On the plus side however the art does compensate, so in a way you do not really mind taking a long time to read it because you can enjoy looking at it.

One advantage with this setting is there is a slight feeling of role-reversal. For most of the time Katsuragi is the one in charge, ordering Kuze to study and to improve the family name. However, when it comes to the more sexual side of things it is Kuze who is the seme while Katsuragi is the uke. The sex is pretty rough too, so you get the feeling that Kuze is sort of trying to get his own back for the way Katsuragi has roughly treated him while Kuze was growing up.

The other plus is that Katsuragi is a rather enjoyable character. He is something of a tsundere in the way he treats Kuze at first, but like many of these characters he does slowly warm up. There are also his inner conflicts in terms of his relationship with other characters as well as that of Kuze’s late father.

Blue Morning therefore is a slow starter, but it shows signs of getting better as it rolls along.

YUU−UTSU NA ASA © SHOKO HIDAKA 2009／TOKUMA SHOTEN