The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Anyhow, the Rabbit Is Infatuated with the Puppy

What's It About? 

Office worker Usagi Akira lives for two things: shojo manga, and the spare moments when he can log into his favorite MMO, Tail Earth. There, his avatar is a beautiful bunny girl, and he's able to go on adventures with the charming wolf-boy Gakuto. When Gakuto asks if Akira wants to meet up IRL, Akira agrees. Sparks fly between the two guys--so Akira and Gakuto decide to date. Neither has much experience when it comes to romance, but these two are eager to figure it out together!

Anyhow, the Rabbit Is Infatuated with the Puppy includes art and story by Nie. The English translation is by Yui, the lettering by Carolina Hernández Mendoza, and the adaptation is by Claudia Summer. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (November 28, 2023).

Content Warning: Nudity

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Fall appears to be the season for BL romances with age gaps – over at Yen Press, we've got Minato's Laundromat, and in Seven Seas' BL imprint, we have Anyhow, the Rabbit Is Infatuated with the Puppy. Both stories feature romances between high school boys and adult men, and of the two, I'd say this one feels less unsettling about it. That's because Akira Usagi, the twenty-five-year-old office worker, is emotionally insecure. Back in high school, he discovered a deep and abiding love for shoujo manga, which led to him feeling isolated from his peers. Now an introverted adult, he's still unsure how to interact with coworkers, mainly because they make him so intensely uncomfortable. He doesn't want to go out drinking after work; he wants to go home and play his MMO and read his manga. It makes him uncomfortable when his pushy boss tries to get him to hook up with ladies, both because he's not into ladies and because he's a private person. The book's underlying theme is coping with social pressure and finding things and places that make you feel safe and grounded.

That's true of the younger protagonist as well. Gakuto's in high school (we don't know what year, but I'm guessing second or third), and he's also not quite sure what all the fuss is about girls and sex and whatnot. The first time he seems to feel sexual attraction is when he meets Akira in their online game; the two begin dating there (where Akira plays a female character named Usaco). Gakuto's surprised when he still finds IRL Akira just as attractive as Usaco. He's much more proactive than Akira, but he's also very concerned about getting his consent and doing his research, so despite the age gap (and bearing in mind that this is fiction), their relationship is pretty healthy for this kind of story. Gakuto and Akira find a safe space with each other, and that's a lovely concept.

This is one of Seven Seas' more explicit releases, and there are an impressive amount of sex scenes for such a short book. (And hey, we know that they're using protection!) The most uncomfortable aspect of the volume has nothing to do with sex, though; it comes in the form of Gakuto's uncle and Akira's boss, who has exactly zero concepts of boundaries and what one does and does not share without someone's explicit consent. I'd caution readers about him more than the rest of the book because, at the end of the day, Akira and Gakuto are good for each other, and that's what I like in my romance fiction.