Just a short intro, I decided to start doing some short reviews for various BL manga out there just cause. Hope to make this a regular thing. The beauty of short BL manga is that I can briefly cover all the chapters. Please know that that means that there will be spoilers. Also sorry about the length. When I go, I go hard.
Ok, so let’s start off. Welcome to Romantic Love Insect Poison.
Now when I first picked up this title, I won’t lie that it was the main cover that drew my attention. Let’s examine that for a bit. Look at this beauty… this Majesty…
So the story starts off with these two Japanese Honey Bees (named Honey and Bee OHOHOHO SO CLEVER) falling asleep in this random spider’s den ~~cause this seemed like a good plan of action~~ and they say that this is the only place they can stay cause they got kicked out by the Queen Bee. Or something. Honestly I wasn’t paying much attention due to the pain. Normally I don’t get a headache this early in a story but the way that the bees were portrayed just… really hurt me. So our main spider, for the sake of my bad memory I will just call him “Spider-Man”, allows the bees to stay with him cause his Praying Mantis roommate convinces him. Mantis friend also explains that Spider-Man doesn’t eat bugs which just really makes you wonder what exactly he eats to like, you know, stay alive??? NO TIME FOR THAT THO. Cue to the bees having “congrats to finding a new place to live” sex. Cause yeah of course they’re a couple because of course they are.
Moving on, the bees are here for like 5 seconds or whatever but then they accidentally rip a tapestry or something that the spider has hanging right by his bed. Spider-Man is pissed at these bees wrecking his shit so he kicks them out immediately. As Spider-Man tries to repair it, the Praying Mantis is just like “They might die tho”
AND JUST AS THAT HAPPENED, HONEY AND BEE COME UNDER ATTACK!!!
So for some reason these two male bees who are unneeded in the hive anymore are being attacked by female bees from the hive because… we needed conflict? Normally when you toss trash out you don’t go out and start kicking the bin on the side of the curb, but whatever, you do you. So of course our hero Spider-Man comes in and manages to bind all the female bees up in his webs and uh… I think the mantis kills them? They really don’t make it clear what happens to them. Maybe they eat them? shrugs
The chapter legit just ends here. They all go home and then the bees go and have some more sex off screen. Oh also he fixed the tapestry somehow cause idk he’s a spider and has magic sewing powers so there was like legit no reason to get so angry at the bees but WE NEEDED CONFLICT. Time for the next chapter tho.
So here in Chapter 2 we get into Spider-Man’s back story a bit more. Flash back to Not Too Long Ago when Spider-Man was having some trouble finding food cause of some heavy rains or something. There he finds that a lone Butterfly got stuck in his web. Upon seeing Spider-Man tho, the butterfly freaks out and ends up accidentally tearing one wing off (their wings hang off their heads for some reason. No I don’t get it)
Spider-Man nurses the butterfly back to good health and promises to not eat him cause it was Love At First Sight. Wow, you can feel the emotion just leaking off the page. Then like two weeks later maybe, two ladybug kids get stuck in the web as well but the butterfly begs Spider-Man to not eat them cause they’re just children. Butterfly saying Spider-Man should just eat him if he’s so hungry. Spider-Man swears to not eat them either and then he finally goes in and lays one on his Butterfly beau.
So going to the present time in Chapter 3, we find the Praying Mantis messing with the Ladybug twins. No of course I didn’t bother learning their names. Moving on they bond with the bees or whatever and talk about boring stuff. Not much really happens here. Just filler.
Chapter 4 and we’re out of the Spider’s Den and now following this rando human who's badly photosensitive, allergic to the sun essentially. He laments about how much he hates summer cause he can’t go outside. Then suddenly a random naked man appears in his room with an ugly boa thing and with only a cloth to cover his junk, claiming to be a cicada.
The kid is reluctant cause he doesn’t even have friends. Time goes by and as they deadline is nearing, they go to a festival or whatever with each other and the cicada suddenly collapses. So they go back to the kid’s place and finally have sex. Now the thing is, they keep stressing that the cicada is gonna die, but they never address what is gonna happen to his body. Does he turn back into a cicada? Does he stay human and leave the poor kid with a body to clean up and dispose of? WHO CARES?? THE AUTHOR SURE DOESN’T. Anyway, after the cicada goes and dies, the protagonist learns how to make friends and finally enjoy summer. He now goes outside at night to hang with others. His growth was nice to see in this garbage fire.
So after those two chapters of a distraction, we return back to the Spider Den where the kiddos pull in an arm. Like, just a disembodied arm. Turns out it belongs to a Walking Stick bug and that he’s Also the ex boyfriend of the Praying Mantis. Yes, of course he was also gay. Was there ever any doubt?
Anyway they like fight a bit about their previous break up but I think they reconcile. I don’t really know. He was just here basically to pass on info that GASP
Spoiler, click to view
Midori is still alive. They go to tell Spider-Man that it turns out that he’s being held captive in Venom’s lair.Spoiler, click to view
Spoiler, click to view
to save his manSpoiler, click to view
Spoiler, click to view
So then they fight or whatever the next chapter and then they win so there was like, nothing to worry about. They head back home to the Spider Den together but they can’t even fuck cause everyone keeps cock blocking them. I now dub this a Tragedy cause Spider-Man is gonna have forever blue balls. Guess it’s ok tho since he got his bf back.Now here’s the part of the manga where the author tries to redeem the main villain by humanizing him and giving him his own love interest.
Spoiler, click to view
So I will only share this other moment in it where he got betrayed by some Evil Spiders and resulted in him not trusting anyone anymore.Spoiler, click to view
The final chapter of this volume, not including the Extra chapter cause don’t worry I plan to tear that one apart as well, would be one where a dude just moves into an apartment in Tokyo or something and there’s a cockroach living there. Now the great thing about this roach is that it’s all alone so there’s no infestation on this apartment, but also he’s a cute twink so this dude got at least some attractive ass to pound. The cockroach has some issues with humans tho cause like, cockroaches are gross and I can’t think of any sane person that would want to romance one. Thankfully the dude that moves in is totally fine with the idea or fucking this roach. Behold, some more bad anatomy:
All I have to say for this is HOLY SHIT WHAT WAS THIS?? Ok so I have this personal vendetta against authors writing in random plot contrivances to solve situations or write themselves into a story for the sake of Character Interaction. Like keep that shit for doodles or something, your social media account but not for a published release. I know it’s silly to ask for something realistic from something that involves Ikemen Bugs buttfucking, but just for the sake of immersion, don’t break the fourth wall.
See, my problem here mostly lies with the two extra couples with the Cicada and the Cockroach. What I should start with first I guess would be that the author CREATED THIS GOD THAT JUST FLIES TO EVERY COUPLE AND FIXES THINGS??? Like, no reason. Just to make you feel better for all these characters you totally felt so hard for. I don’t know. My brain died back in chapter 2, but I had to keep on trucking.
Spoiler, click to view
Starting with the Cockroach, the god just… turns the roach into a human???? It’s dumb.Spoiler, click to view
Spoiler, click to view
So remember that Cicada that died? Remember how him dying had changed the protag of that story to become a better person and work to get around his sun allergy? Remember? Yeah fuck all that, the god brought the cicada back to life so what was the point of all that progress even.Spoiler, click to view
Story – 3/10
Because it was kinda a collection of short stories, I just took the grades I gave each story and then listed the average. For individual scores, I’d say they were like this:
- Spider-Man x Butterfly: 4/10
It was ok. Bland, but not terrible. If anything the bees were the worse part of it. That and the Walking Stick that did nothing.
- Cicada x Allergy Kid: 3/10
You know, this could’ve gotten a higher score. If only it weren’t for that extra chapter.
- Venom x Shouta Spider: 3/10
This felt like a rushed story just for the author to draw more fucking. Also calling out bullshit how the only spider we get to see have sex is the evil one, not our PROTAGONIST ON THE FRONT COVER OF THIS SHIT but I digress.
- Business Man x Cockroach: 2/10
This… had no reason to exist. But they’re happy together so whatever I guess.
Art – 3/10
As you can see from the images littering this page, the art is nothing to really behold. The author gets their ideas across, but there are a lot of things that I wish were maybe shown or explained. Oh and the proportions get me dead too so Low Score There Friend.
Characters – 5/10
To be honest the characters were all so bland for me. Like the romances never really touched my heart. Not that I hated anyone in particular, I just didn’t Care…
In conclusion: It was Meh. One way to pass the time, that's for sure...
(written by Whim)