Thursday 6 July 2017

YAOI NOVEL: OROCHI NO YAIBA BY ITOSHI AND ALDARIA

Image result for orochi no yaiba
Orochi no Yaiba
Author: Itoshi
Art: Aldaria
Publisher: Yaoi Revolution
Pages: 450
ISBN: 978-1-943685-11-9
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes

In Orochi no Kishi we got to meet Sadao and Mouse for the first time and read their stories as they played out. Mouse came across as the outsider when he took on his role as a team mechanic. Envy from other members of the team made Sadao take another look at his new addition to the team. Mouse proved to be as useful as he was sexy, resisting Sadao's advances at first, then once Sadao opened up to him understood what kind of man he was and what he could become.

Orochi no Yaiba is a text based novel with illustrations by fan favourite, Aldaria, and if the shirtless image of Sadao isn't enough to make you want it, the even cuter pic of Sadao and Mouse in bed on the back is a sure-fire clincher. While Sadao is incarcerated in a Utah prison, his lover Mouse is missing him, waiting for the time they can be reunited. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but Sadao needs to feel his lover near him sooner than later. Sadao hopes he can have his sentence cut as he's already served two years. A visit from his lawyer could be the break he needs, but he can't understand how he got a break in the first place.

For the past two years, the only thing keeping Sadao sane are the letters sent to him by Mouse, though most have been intercepted for indecency. Seriously, there are great moments of humour from Itoshi with having Mouse write using lewd pseudonyms. As far as lessening his sentence is concerned, Sadao is luckier than most as the lawyer who interviews him has bee sent by Mouse. As expected, Sadao faces trouble from those who would like to see him stay where he is.

What I noticed from this second instalment of the Orochi series was the inner strength both Sadao and Mouse display while apart. Sadao had been set on, but not hurt, while Mouse didn't cheat on him. It would have been so easy to accept defeat, but the former gang leader and his lover don't stop thinking about each other. The story is well crafted and though it contains the story from the present day, it also has a side story for both of them from when they were much younger.

In book two, Itoshi takes us back to when both Mouse and Sadao were kids. Mouse recals how hard he and his father worked to keep them alive in nothing more than a deserted wasteland where rattlesnakes and dangerous spiders lurked in every dark corner. Each chapter gives readers another insight into Sadao and Mouse's history an both are strange, amazing and fraught with sadness. Itoshi makes the reader really feel the characters and never lets us into her secret of how she managed to produce such a wonderful second helping of yaoi goodness!


Orochi no Yaiba comes with some nice extras: a bonus short chapter and sketches of the art from inside the book (very delicious and saucy), and of course by Aldaria.