Hate To Love You

by Makoto Tateno

The Konoe and Kagetsu families have been fighting like cats and dogs for generations. Masaya Konoe and Yuma Kagetsu attend the same elite high school and are known to all as arch rivals, but do they really hate each other? Masaya still cherishes a childhood memory of a time when Yuma shared a "treasure" with him. Now they share a secret attraction. Can they hide their passion? Burning desire has a way of erupting into flames!

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Queer, LGBT, Boys Love

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Name (in native language): 立野真琴

Birth Date: March 23

Also writes under the pen-name of Shinjuku Tango.

Makoto Tateno is an extremely prolific mangaka, having created 30+ series of manga in both the shoujo and BL genres. However, she is probably most well known amongst English-speaking audiences for her yaoi series “Yellow,” published by DMP. She debuted in 1986 with the short story "Yuraete Tamago Boys," published by Hana to Yume.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost a love triangle with three childhood friends/rivals, but excludes the girl. She does have ONE good moment where she refuses to get married, but it's not really about her! They're playing a bit too much to tropes here - the uke is afraid of pain, etc - when realistically, they probably wouldn't get any farther than grinding against each other; they're inexperienced high schoolers. I found the bonus story at the end to be too creepy for my taste, by which I mean BOTH the male leads were creepers - an impressive feat, perhaps?

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t that bad as far as old yaoi goes. It was entertaining, but a bit shallow? I feel like a lot of the og bl feel that way like it’s all rushing to the next conflict or sex scene and there’s not much character and relationship building. It was a cute story, with some problematic situations as is common, but I liked it.

[kimberly_rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally published at mangaupdates.com in August, 2008.

The bonus story at the end is a serious, but incredible story. I would love to see a continuation of that. Or maybe the ending is what makes it so powerful - the way it hangs at a precipice of 'what to do next?!' The story line was so unusual.

The antagonist was not typical for a yaoi story. Fascinating. It was more like a graphic novel of a short story that could have been written by David Klass (author of You Don't Know Me) or Chris Lynch (author of Lie No Lie). The main character was so very realistic and so very young and innocent. I wanted to love him!

The main story was also engaging. The seme was sometimes annoyingly cocksure and I wanted to see him broken a little more - a little more dependent or recognizing the importance and devotion of his little uke. He was forgiven too easily on reasons too flimsy for major transgressions. The story was excellent though and kept me up at night.

The brief glimpses of Masaya's father tickled my funny bone. He speaks of 'Romeo and Juliet' and yet he plays along with the front of the boys are 'fighting'. The humour reminded me of Until the Full Moon by MATOH Sanami.

The mangaka said in the afterward that this was her first yaoi title. She was very likable and approachable in her personal note. I found it humourous to note that her editor told her that the drawing of A. (there was a girl who played a prominent role and -surpisingly- i liked her since she knew just the things to do for our boys!) on one particular page needed to be smaller because the story is about the boys! It made me giggle.

Worth the purchase!

EDIT: The bonus story at the end that I refer to is the one with English licensed Duex book that I own. It is about a young boy and his obsessive/stalker-esque fascination with his neighbour and the darkness of expectations turned around. It is different from the one that was released with the Japanese licensed Biblos book. That one is about love between two brothers that they are desperately trying to reconcile in their minds: Also, an excellent story, but not as outstanding as the one in the Deux release.

[Luru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong 3.5 stars. Nice, engaging stories (even the short bonus story). I liked the art, the characters, and the story, which wasn't quite as dramatic/soapy as many other manga like this I've read. I would have liked to spend more time with these characters, definitely.

[Anna C]

Hung up this after Yuuma kept cheating on Masaya and his reason was only because Masaya won't have sex with him, and Yuuma never even apologized for that. Scum.... Couldn't read this manga anymore...

[orannia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

[DeeNeez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast read. Rival families set up this Romeo-Juliet type story. This is an old publication with a much older art style. Not as soft and detailed as her later works. But the story was still great.

[Sem · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much to it and the supplementary story is creepy.