Well, 801-chan is out right now, but she still wanted to announce the runner-ups to the contest since she mentioned she was going to announce it soon.  So she asked me to announce the runner up!
Here’s the runner-up’s entry:

“I am the 1337 one out of the trio.
I can never let my yaoi go. I pwn 801-chan and Kampai.
Please write what you think of us.
For example, Kampai SUCKS! (since she disqualified me.)”

Hey~! That’s my poem. <3  I guess 801-chan isn’t completely stoopid after all!

I’m happy.  Now where’s my prize?!

~Tomo-chan

801-chan here admitting defeat on the reviews! I will get them all posted eventually. So on to the winner of the Meeting You Poem Contest!!!

Our lucky winner is Passhenette1 with her lovely poem:

“I am a better person for having known you. Now I know the meaning of true love. I will always consider you my one and only, and I will never let you go. From the beginning to the end, you are my first and last sweetheart. My heart is yours. It has always been …since meeting you.”

Passhenette1 will get her name in the book along with a cool prize! (I have forgotten what the prize is, but I am certain it is awesome!)

Yay! I will post the runner-ups later this month!
~801-chan

Reason #1:

Stick me with a fork and call me well done! >_< The Devil's Secret and Love is Like a Hurricane Volume 5 arrived to our office safe and sound. Albeit a little late! So hop on over to the 801 Media Inc. store to pick up your lovely copies. Our distributor will be by in the morning to pick up their copies. So expect to see these lovelies at your retailer of choice in about 2 weeks!

~801-chan (^ ^)

I admit defeat on the reviews. I seem to add more reviews to the list faster than I can post them. So I am taking the punk way out of the reviews. >_< We are going to switch from the long format to the short format...

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The King of Debt by Sanae Rokuya
Both the Lincoln Heights Literary Society and The Comic Book Bin had nothing but good things to say about The King of Debt.“I was pleasantly surprised.” exclaims Kris at LHLS, “Many of the stories were a little more original than you usually see in the genre. The thing that was most refreshing, however, is Sanae Rokuya-sensei’s art style.”

Leory at Comic Book Bin gives it an A- and the stamp of approval, “Rokuya’s eclectic scenarios and shamelessly physical boy loving makes King of Debt an exceptional read for yaoi fans.”

All of these glowing reviews translate to “BUY ME.” But if you need more convincing, click on the links for the full reviews. If I need not say more you can get your very own copy at the 801 Media Inc. store or Amazon.

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A Foreign Love Affair by Ayano Yamane
Wiggle over at Boys on Boys on Film knows a gem when she sees it!”A Foreign Love Affair by Ayano Yamane, widely known by its Japanese title Ikoku Irokoi Romantan, stands apart as one of those BL manga titles that nearly every fan knows, and one which many yaoi readers already loved long before it was translated into English. Luckily for us, and luckily for A Foreign Love Affair, this title was licensed by 801 Media, a company who, despite having the highest price point in the current BL manga market, has earned widespread admiration among the yaoi fan base for their excellent presentation and quality in publishing. The English version of A Foreign Love Affair succeeds mostly on its own merits, but is wonderfully enhanced by a high-quality, respectful treatment from its English publisher.”

And Kirs at Manic About Manga has excellent taste in manga as well.

“801 Media doesn’t disappoint with this volume of manga. The dust jacket has a beautiful pearlescent lavender background with Al in his uniform and Ranmaru sitting with a wide open, disheveled kimono and wearing only a fundoshi underneath. Mmm, mmm good! You’ll check it out if you know what’s good for you (I’m channeling my inner Yakuza, what do you think?)!”

I need not say anything other than, buy this one here or here.

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Steppin’ Stone Series by Shiuko Kano
Cat over at Lincoln Heights Literary Society was very pleased with volume 1 of this manly series:
“I was quite pleased to receive a 801 Media copy of I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone: Shameless because Shiuko Kano is known for providing blatantly sexy and lanky guys; tongue-in-cheek approach in storytelling; generally intense and explicit portrayal of sexual situations, and good times. Not only that, many male characters in her works are famous for putting ‘C’ in cockiness, ‘T’ in testosterones, ‘M’ in machismo, ‘Z’ in ‘zest for life’, ‘H’ in humour, and sometimes, ‘F’ and ‘U’ in attitude.”Kirs from Manic About Manga chimes in on volume 1 and 2.

“I really wish that the construction workers in my area looked like Shiuko Kano-sensei’s. The ones around here are usually bald and fat. One must say that Kano-sensei’s manga is always filled with mega attitude and comes straight at you like the Three Stooges double eye poke. If you aren’t prepared to see some major male nudity and hot male on male action you best prepare with some of Kano-sensei’s other work like Affair (also published by 801 Media). Her works are always really top notch. Her character development, her art, everything is fantastic. Her men are actually MEN. Not girly looking like some other mangaka erm…Lily Hoshino for instance.” - Volume 1

“I LOVED this manga. It was cute, funny, heartwarming, etc., etc., etc. Kano-sensei can do no wrong. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite mangaka. Not only for her amazingly hot men but her great storytelling. She can tell a touching story with the perfect amount of humor and boy can she draw uber-hot sex! Out of the two (there is a third one related to this series but it hasn’t been licenced here in the states… yet [hint, hint!!!]) Maybe I’m Your Steppin’ Stone: Loveliness is definitely my favorite.” - Volume 2

You can buy these lovelies here and here from the 801 Store, or here and here from Amazon.com.

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Yay! Only a few more to go and then we will have the winner for our poetry contest!~801-chan (^ ^)

We just got from Book Expo America and I made out like a bandit. We were a couple of booths away from the lovely people over at Hint Mint. They were an awesome group of people who specialize in designer mints. (They make candy and they like manga - that equals cool peeps in my book!)

Anyhoo, as they were cleaning up their booth, they had a lot of samples left over that they didn’t want to take back home. So the 801 Mafia cleaned up! We got 4 flavors of mints - green tea, chocolate, cinnamon, and black licorice. These lovelies will be finding their way into all domestic orders for 801 Media Inc. books. (Sorry international folks, but I think I will get in trouble shipping food products across the border.)

Let us know if you enjoy the mints and we will start carrying them on the 801 Media Inc. store. They come in really awesome reusable tins. Now, if only they would make a limited edition tin with a yaoi artist on it…. *pout*

~801-chan (^ ^) - 2nd only to Kampai in her quest for free stuff!

Only 8 more reviews to go and 801-chan will be caught up…hopefully. This time we have 4 lovely reviews of Ayano Yamane’s A Foreign Love Affair for your pleasure.

Over at Lincoln Heights Literary Society, 801 Media’s release and Yamane-sensei’s art pass muster:

“The art for this manga is drawn with great detail and top of the line, as expected from Ayano-sensei. Since the graphic novel is also released by 801 media, I knew that I would be expecting steamy scenes and I was not disappointed at all. There are plenty of hot scenes in the book, well worth it for the price of $15.95. Quite sad to actually see it sold out at Amazon.com. Until the press and publisher prints out more books, then that means that not a lot of people at this time would know this excellent graphic novel.” - Linda

Don’t worry, there are plenty of copies of A Foreign Love Affair floating around in the world. And Linda has plenty more good things to say about A Foreign Love Affair, you can read the complete review here.

Julie over at Manga Cast has been patiently waiting for another 801 Media Inc. release and is pleased with A Foreign Love Affair:

“Yay, it’s been a while since there’s been a new 801 Media release. Once again, we have a beautifully packaged book, with a striking dust jacket and a full color illustration featuring characters from “The Love Guide,” a bonus short included in the volume. The cover is quite lovely, with Ranmaru dressed in a provocatively disheveled kimono and fundoshi, and the dashing Al in his crisp uniform. Ah, all that eye candy.” - Julie

Yup, all those lovely men to drool over! It gives new meaning to “fan service.” Anyhoo, you can read the rest of Julie’s review here.

Finally, Rachel over at Active Anime adds to the adoration of all things Ayano Yamane:

“There’re a lot of gasps, excitement and thrills both naughty and nice for readers to frolic with. The art is sexy. Get that cold shower ready! Plus to make it even prettier, there’s a full color cover page as well. And there’s a bonus story about an aloof scientist who needs to step out of the lab (and out of that white coat!). He goes to a pretty guy to help him find his match, but this matchmaker might just be the right guy for Mr. stiff upper lip!” - Rachel

You can read the rest of Rachel’s review here. And if that doesn’t entice you to pick up your own copy… >_<

A Foreign Love Affair is currently available NOW at your local retailer. Or... you can always pick it up directly from us!

~801-chan (^ ^)

Waaaaaaaaah! Sooo many reviews! And you don’t get to find out who won the Meeting You contest until they are all posted.

So we are going to take a look at 3 “new” reviews from our good friend over at Kuriousity! (Isn’t the little avatar of me running off with Kampai’s books at the top of the page just cute!)

Sensitive Pornograph

Any yaoi fan who hasn’t heard of this one can’t really consider themselves a true yaoi fan! As Lissa puts it:

“Few veteran yaoi fans haven’t heard of the popular Sensitive Pornograph: a collection of steamy short stories that spawned the equally popular OVA of the same name. With six stories spawning about 180 pages, 801Media brings Ashika Sakura’s hit to English shores.” - Lissa

I personally think the manga is better than the OVA. But really there is no reason why you can’t own both. You can pick up a copy of the manga here at amazon or here at the 801 store. The OVA is released by Kitty Media, but usually their website doesn’t work for me. Your best bet is grab it at Akadot Retail or Rightstuf International. And of course you can read the rest of Lissa’s review here.

Ichigenme…The First Class is Civil Law Volume 2

Two time Eisner nomiated Fumi Yoshinaga is a genius at every genre of manga including yaoi, shoujo and seinen.

“Volume two of Ichigenme is considerably more sexually graphic than the first. The sex scenes, like the interactions before and after it, feel so real that it puts so many other depictions to shame. From the often awkward posing to a strong sense of weight and tension, Fumi Yoshinaga will not disappoint her readers. A combination of these visual attributes along with the passionate cries and honest intimacy makes Ichigenme volume two a steamy finale to this short series. Most impressively of all, however, is how often the sex scenes occur and yet how seamlessly they flow with the story, rarely ever feeling like mere gratuitous fan-service.” - Lissa

Yoshinaga-sensei is a goddess when it comes to yaoi. >_< Ichigenme is by far my favorite title with Flower of Life (shojo) coming in a close second. So be sure to check this one out. You can read the rest of the review here. And you can find copies of the book here and here.

The Sky Over My Spectacles

Kampai’s favorite book! Lissa has definitely enjoyed some of our other titles a lot more, attributes it to the drawing style:

“Mio Tennohji’s art style isn’t one that will immediately appeal to all audiences. While aspects of the drawings are very solid, such as the line quality and screen toning, the manga-ka’s approach to proportion is at times a stretch at best. With heads that don’t quite seem to fit on their long-necked bodies’ or arms that seem to go on forever, things can look a little off at times. Folds in the character’s clothing also seems overdone at times in a way that makes even their attire seem the wrong size for the characters. It’s not an unattractive style, and has a professional feel to it, but is one that’s definitely subjective to people’s tastes.” - Lissa

I like the slightly disheveled look on my ukes. It makes them look cute in a dork kind of way. >_< So if that is your thing, don't miss out on this book. You can read the rest of the review here and pick up your own copy here and here.

More reviews to come!

~801-chan (^ ^)