アフターグロウ [Afterglow]

by Wagimoko Wagase, 吾瀬わぎもこ

Higuchi Kiyotaka è un promettente medico in procinto di specializzarsi in chirurgia, ma un incidente traumatico lo costringe a trasferirsi lontano. Qualche tempo dopo trova lavoro come medico generico in una cittadina rurale nel Kyushu. Il giovane vive in un profondo stato di depressione, non riuscendo a sfuggire a quel senso di colpa tanto soffocante da togliergli il respiro. Una notte, trascorsa a bere fino quasi a perdere i sensi, incontra Tenju, un misterioso yakuza. L'uomo promette di aiutarlo a dimenticare tutti i suoi problemi, almeno per una notte. Higuchi annega in un mare di piacere, facendosi mille domande su quell'uomo affascinante.

Genres: Manga, Romance, Yaoi, LGBT, Boys Love, Contemporary, Adult

188 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2014

Reviews

[aleksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5

Read it because one mc has a tattoo (yes, I’m weak for guys with tattoos





unfortunately).

[zy忍 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars cuz the art is pretty but the story and character background were lazy and uninspired.

[Peppa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where there are yakuzas, there I go🙏🏻 A good plot and the smut is delicious and hot. Very nice art.
They both make a very good couple!!

[kiara ✾ ·˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

”For a man who doesn’t need anyone’s help, I want to be your only salvation”

shoutout to yakuza bl gotta be one of my favourite sub genres fr

[Lydia Ralte · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art - Delicious (and warning - uncensored)

The plot - Uncomplicated ( Morally Gray though)

Enjoyable

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

•4 stars•

The artwork was gorgeous, and even though the story moved a tad too quickly, it stayed narratively cohesive and compelling. Plus, I’m a sucker for anything involving the yakuza~ A solid vibe read with low angst and smutty seggs 😍

[Cas ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another soft-hearted yakuza? Please inject them directly into my veins at this point (might as well add something fun to my infusions 😂 jkjk).

This was so good. I adore that both the doctor with PTSD MC and the yakuza with a sad backstory ML get a chance to be vulnerable despite being a shorter story. Their chemistry was so good too, beyond just being two lonely men seeking comfort and to forget for a bit.

The beginning starts a little dubious due to the alcohol factor & Doc being a skittish former virgin, but ML is so likeable that it’s easy to hang in there for the explanations/backstory and their bond to slowly form.

[Eric Novello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy's love de máfia publicado no Brasil pela New Pop.
Ele é volume único, o que é uma vantagem, mas no final tive a impressão de a história ter sido planejada para um arco maior e a autoria ter dado uma enxugada para fechar em apenas um volume.

Ele conta a história de um médico cardiologista que, depois de ver um paciente morrer "nas suas mãos", não consegue mais operar e vai trabalhar como clínico num hospital menor de uma cidade pequena. Enquanto tenta superar o trauma ele esbarra com um mafioso que fica a fim dele, e a partir daí temos o vaivém de sempre, com o mafioso também lidando com seus problemas de disputa por território, liderança das gangues, etc (você sabe como funciona).

A arte é muito bonita, acima da média, e é um dos pontos fortes do mangá. Isso contribui para o impacto das muitas cenas de sexo protagonizadas pelos dois ao longo da história. Os momentos sexuais intensos são intercalados com interações mais fofas em que um personagem ajuda o outro a superar os seus problemas e com contextos e backgrounds de ambos. Mas o foco mesmo é o romance e isso tem um arco bem fechado.

Sobre o background de cada um e as histórias para além do romance, ser volume único claramente deu uma prejudicada. Não duvido que no futuro a autoria se dedique a escrever uma versão mais desenvolvida da história, trazendo mais personagens para ajudar na missão.

Para quem quer distrair a cabeça ou para quem curte cenas de sexo bem desenhadas, vale muito.
Para histórias mais elaboradas, sugiro ir de "Noite além da janela triangular", com dez volumes.

[rory (jess' version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

the art is so good !! the characters are all pretty. their romance might be too good to be true but damn this was incredible

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich bin überrascht, dass für die Menge an Sex sogar wirklich noch sowas wie ne Story dazu gekommen ist :D weil wir fangen eigentlich ziemlich pornomäßig an *snort*.
Der Sex is unzensiert und SEHR steamy im vergleich zu einigen anderen BLs, die Charaktere sind wirklich extrem schön gezeichnet und die kleine Hintergrundstory ist überraschend süß und nachvollziehbar. Beide Kerle wirken ziemlich erwachsen udn selbst der Yakuzakerl, von dem man erst denkt, oh das is wieder so ein typischer Proll-BL-Typ, ist viel vielschichtiger als man denkt.
Ich mag auch die ganze Idee mit dem Arzt und seine Anxiety weil er eine OP verkackt hat und was daraus alles gewachsen ist. Dazu kommt dass der Band (trotz der 01 im Titel) eigentlich auch gut abgeschlossen ist. Dazu kommt kein typische misskomunikations-Drama, wie man das gerne hat, es ist irgendwie super ruhig - wenn nicht gerade gevögelt wird *snigger*.

[nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Maria Lago · Rating 4 out of 5]

La gente que dice que le hace falta más historia a esta trama está ENFERMA.
PD: El detalle de que los niños bilingües sean incapaces de aprender bien ambos idiomas es falsísimo; palabra de lingüista.

[Mychelle Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love men who have tattoos.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[anyi · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25

[ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

[⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5]
—> brought to attention by (happy) accident when I saw someone selling the physical copy of this on Vinted and wanted to ask my bf is he’s read it, but spent two days trying to find the book (w/ Nawel’s help) when I ended up forgetting the title💀🙏🏽

a bunch of panels were missing on the site I read this on, but it seemed a cute and moderately well paced one shot! it was also great how the side characters also got some development despite the short format (shoutout to Ryuu)
⚠️the only “problem” was how much Kiyotaka was overshadowed by Tenju’s general charisma despite his being the main character/the effort put into detailing his PTSD struggles

[Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
the art style and the characters + their characterisation and dynamic was everything. i do feel like this could’ve been slightly longer and given them a bit of a better first meeting as it felt incredibly abrupt and sort of random. it would’ve been nice for there to have been more talk then, made the scene even just a little longer, perhaps also see more of them spending time together around the city/town like that one car ride we got, maybe even another in a different place after the time jump? but overall i had fun reading this

[Elena Rodríguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

El dibujo precioso pero los personajes dejan mucho que desear. Levántemos un par de banderines rojos.

Me explico: puede ser que la premisa haya sido buena, sin embargo, yo pongo un límite en el momento que no hay consentimiento explicito del protagonista para tener relaciones. Me ha dejado incomoda, pero como eran pocos capítulos me lo terminé y así poder hacerme una idea general de la historia.
No entiendo este tipo de argumentos y como pueden gustar, sin embargo, sobre gustos no hay nada escrito.

[Nayli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me sorprendió que me gustara, fue incluso más soft de lo que esperaba, no es tan común con yakuzas i guess

[Zephorah Dove · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 3.5

[Emily Chimento · Rating 4 out of 5]

ins for 2026 reading yaoi <3

[Gracie (gracie.belle.reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow that was smutty lol. I’m not complaining though. This was cute and I love me an intimidating, tatted yakuza who is actually a big softie on the inside.

[Lainy122 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sexy story about finding healing and forgiveness in the last place that you would expect.

[Tati · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the story would have been longer to show more depth in the plot and characters.

but the smut and the art was really nice 🤌🏻

[Janina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expliziter als erwartet haha. Ich hatte nur den Klappentext gelesen, aber wenn man den Manga umdreht, steht da noch fettgedruckt drunter 'Hot - sehr explizite Erotik im Yakuza-Milieu' lol. Aber hat mir gut gefallen, obwohl der Dirty Talk etwas gewöhnungs-bedürftig für mich war. Die beiden Hauptcharaktere mochte ich zusammen, bin aber etwas verwirrt, weil die Geschichte sehr abgeschlossen wirkte, es aber 01 heißt. Vielleicht ein anderes Pärchen in der gleichen Welt?

tw/cw: Mafia, traumatisches Erlebnis, Sex / mit und ohne Spielzeuge/Extras

[Hayeley Norris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite 💖

[Frank Chillura (OhYouRead) · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! They are so hot!!! A Yakuza and a Doctorate student, both of which have a lot of past trauma, finding and saving each other. This was trauma porn, but also actual porn and I loved it.

[ross! ★ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me habría gustado que hubiera más desarrollo. Usualmente, no me atraen las historias que empiezan con gogogo; prefiero aquellas que avanzan lento pero seguro! Aun así, estuvo bien 👍

[空 · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a traumatic experience, Kiyotaka, our “elite doctor”, is serving as sort of a GP, listening to patients’ complaints instead of performing high-octane surgery or whatever. It’s here that he meets “Tenju”, who is part of the local yakuza, and his life is ~irrevocably changed.

I mean, for one thing, he gets fucked on the regular.

This manga seems largely self-indulgent and I’m OK with that. I know we can’t be all “THIS ISN’T REALISTIC,” when nothing about BL is remotely realistic, but for realsies, Wagimoko was like “I want to draw a hot man with a back tattoo, and he will have a happy ending.”

Here follows a mix of thoughts and spoilers, you have been warned:


✦ Tenju is unreal. He’s everything Maya (see 酷くしないで) wishes he could be, only Tenju actually is a bad boy. Scratch that: he’s a bad, bad man. Possibly an actual killer—he has definitely beaten up a lot of people in his lifetime—but the manga is like, “shhh, don’t look at that. Don’t think about that. Don’t you see how sweet and tender he is towards Kiyotaka? How crazy he is about Kiyotaka?” This person does not exist in real life, only in manga—and only in アフターグロウ.

But this is not a complaint, because I am on board with Wagimoko’s self-indulgent manga where, despite Tenju not leaving the organization, they have a happy ending (a happy for now ending?). Tenju can be happy with a カタギ, and apparently his indulgent adoptive father (also the head of the organization) is happy to have Tenju shack up (for all intents and purposes) with someone outside of the family. That said, it’s probably useful to have a medical doctor outside of the family very closely linked to someone in your organization. And also it’s probably good to reward loyalty (Tenju was so loyal he took a bullet for his adoptive father); you don’t want to alienate the man who saved your life.

Aside: I do like the idea that at some point Kiyotaka will no longer be quite so “clean.” I imagine him being persuaded to offer under-the-table medical services to members in the organization. Everything you touch, Tenju, will fall into shadow. Tenju would absolutely be so torn up about it, because he is that kind of dramatic fucker.

✦ Kiyotaka is also this remarkable combination of sweet and sexy, and you can totally understand why Tenju went nuts for him. I can’t believe he was like, “I don’t care about what you do! I’m not going to interfere!” (*cue Backstreet Boys’ As Long As You Love Me in the background*) when he was confessing his love to Tenju.

It was a good monologue though, coming on the heels of Tenju telling Kiyotaka to “leave and never show your face here again”:

お前の生きてる世界が危険だってことも
そこから逃げ出す気が更々ないことも
覚悟はできてる
お前の生き方に干渉するつもりはない
でも
この俺を落とした責任とって
せめて傍にいさせろ

I mean, that’s why Tenju afterwards tells Kiyotaka:

落とすつもりが
落とされたんは俺のほうやったか

✦ I couldn’t help but root for Kiyotaka and Tenju though, despite thinking how much of a mindfuck it was to root for the happiness of a man who probably beat someone to death and is engaged in distributing illegal, possibly lethal drugs, and potentially also the skin trade. You ignore all of that because the manga tells you to ignore all of that. It’s not really all that important to the story, only that this is a love story and don’t these two hot dudes deserve a happy ending?

Sure, why not. Tenju and Kiyotaka are hot together and apart, so they absolutely deserve to be happy.

✦ I can’t help but think of some of the dark paths their story could end. They could die together old and happy. Or they could die together in a shootout or beaten to death. Or someone could kidnap Kiyotaka and use him as leverage against Tenju, only to kill both him and Tenju after. Or Tenju could die first, leaving Kiyotaka to live the rest of his life alone, unable to regret giving his heart to someone who he knew could die anytime, and also unable to move on (because how do you move on from Tenju). But sure, we can go with the very first option.

✦ To end on a more upbeat note: Wagimoko’s art is so good. Tenju and Kiyotaka are both grown, actual men who reasonably have means to get fit and keep being fit. (Tenju is 32, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how old Kiyotaka is. He’s got to be in his 30s considering he’s a doctor. 35?) I’ll be on the lookout for more of Wagimoko’s work.


In conclusion:

♪
I don’t care who you are
Where you’re from
What you did
As long as you love me...