Sometimes, you just can’t help but fall in love with bad boys. Like Taylor Swift, it’s tempting to turn bad boys good for a weekend, right?
That’s what happened when Yata crossed Momota who was in the middle of cleaning his ass in a public bathroom’s sink. Unable to resist Momo’s puppy dog eyes, Yata offers to help him change his life. In Yatamomo, Harada shows us that it takes a lot more than kindness in domesticating a wild sexy dog like Momo.
Yatamomo is about the relationship of two polar opposites. On one hand, we have the highly sexual Momo. Momo’s quite the slacker and the trainwreck you don’t want knocking at your door. While he is not the hikkikomori kind, Momo is the penniless guy who acts like he has a trust fund. He likes drinking and gambling and when things fall short, Momo pays it with his body. With a life like his, things fall short all the time. Hence, it’s no mystery when Yata found him cleaning his ass in a bathroom sink. On the other hand, Yata’s a straight laced blue collar worker who works hard to make ends meet. While he isn’t exactly an innocent angel, his kindness unto others, particularly to Momo, is nothing short of a miracle.
Their odd relationship is highlighted by the first chapter where we see Yata coming home and Momo welcoming him with a really good blowjob. Of course, such services don’t come free and it doesn’t take long for Momo to ask a reward for his good job. It’s honestly fucked up. Their story goes backward showing Momo’s life before Yata, his life once Yata saved his ass, and his hedonistic past haunting him as he reunites with his old patron, Suta. Throughout the comic, Yata questions his relationship with Momo. Fortunately for Momo, Yata’s been wired to be a good guy and he thinks it’d be such a pity to abandon Momo. Against his better judgment, Yata stays by Momo’s side. Momo, in turn, tries to be a good boy for Yata.
Harada’s Yatamomo is quite an engaging read not because it has a brilliant story but because of how Harada manages to weave an interesting tale around her best talent: drawing schmex. Among Gintama fans, Harada’s best known for her circle, Paraiso. Her works under Paraiso had some crazy wicked GinHiji kinks so for her readers familiar with her dojin work, Yatamomo‘s no disappointment. My favorite kink in this are the balcony schmex scene with Suta and the tenga schmex scene. YES. A sex scene involving tenga!
But more than the sex, what I also love about Yatamomo is despite the nature of their fucked up relationship, their story flows quite pleasantly. I was expecting some heavy drama, maybe a whole lot of PWP sex, but Harada was not careless with her story. Everything, from the sex to the tenga, happens with a reason. It’s surprising to read how interpersonal issues are resolved with some personal reflection and copious amounts of sex. Does that make sense? It sure does in Yatamomo. The story doesn’t feel forced nor does the sex feels uncalled for. I think it’s due to Harada’s care in constructing both Yata and Momo’s characters. Momo’s lascivious character justifies all the crazy sex happening and Yata’s level-headedness and kindness balances all the madness. Yata and Momo make an interesting pair.
I have read this story time and time again, wondering why I’m drawn to it despite its reckless abandon. Perhaps I sympathise with Yata, falling in love with someone who was a total disaster and finding some happiness in the other’s growth. Or perhaps it was the fact that Harada illustrated and wrote the story in a way that I found Momo endearing rather than annoying. Momo was totally cute despite being the older useless pain in the ass. He is also really erotic and is such a pleasant tease to read. Or perhaps it’s the interesting schmex the title brings in the bedroom. From the use of tenga to balcony schmex, I honestly don’t know if I’m reading an H-manga or BL. Clearly, since they kinda fall into each other’s arms, it’s still within the formula of BL. But it’s wickedly and deliciously porny that I can’t help but wear a nasty smile when Momo cries Yata’s name.
Yatamomo is quite an enjoyable read. It has enough plot to make the fujoshi in me giggle and it leaves the pervert in me very satisfied. Yatamomo’s the first title I read from Harada and I picked it up out of general curiosity over the popularity of Harada’s previous work, Henai. My story with Henai is for another review but I’m very happy I picked up Yatamomo. Harada’s unforgiving eroticism is the kind of bad stuff I needed for my BL. I am officially hooked on Harada.
Series Information
Yatamomo by Harada
Serialised in QpA
Published by Takeshobo
Buy in AmazonJP and EbookJapan.
Thanks for this! I got curious about Harada after reading the interview in the BL special issue of 美術手帖. The images they used with the interview had some serious sexy times, but also cute and funny moments. There’s a whole section on sex and love in Yatamomo that piqued my interest too. And then I read your great write-up here, and I guess I am putting this one on my overly long reading list. We are a bad influence on each other.