is a Japanese yaoi

Yaoi

In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...

 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written and illustrated by est em

Est em

is the pen name of Maki Satoh, a Japanese manga artist who debuted with three yaoi collections after being scouted in art school. She was a student of Matt Thorn, who provided translations for some of the English licenses of her work. Her work has been praised as having unusual maturity and depth,...

. Initially serialized in Mellow Mellow, the individual chapters were published in a single tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

volume by Ohzora Publishing

Ohzora Publishing

, also known as Ohzora Shuppan is the leading josei manga publisher in Japan, founded in 1990. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, it publishes Japanese manga, manga magazines and comic anthologies. The company is headed by . Kitawaki also runs affiliated American company Aurora Publishing, established...

 in January 2008. The volume also includes some one-shots, including "Baby, stamp your foot" and "Tempos extra", that were originally published in the gay men's manga

Bara (genre)

, also known as the wasei-eigo construction or ML, is a Japanese jargon term for a genre of art and fictional media that focuses on male same-sex love and desire, usually created by and for gay men. The bara genre began in the 1960s with fetish magazines featuring gay art and content...

 magazine Gekidan.

It is licensed for an English release in North America by Deux Press

Aurora Publishing

Aurora Publishing, Inc. is the American subsidiary of Japanese publisher Ohzora Publishing, the leading josei manga publisher in Japan. Headquartered in Torrance, California, it licensed and published Japanese manga for the North American market...

 which published the single volume in December 2008, with English translation by manga scholar Matt Thorn

Matt Thorn

Matt Thorn is a cultural anthropologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Manga Production at Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Manga in Japan. He is most well known in North America for his work dealing with shōjo manga. He has appeared at multiple anime conventions, including...

. The "Best and Worst Manga of 2008-09" panel at Comic-Con

Comic-Con

Comic-Con, Comic Con or ComiCon may refer to any of the following Comic book conventions, none of them affiliated to any other:*San Diego Comic-Con International, annual fan convention in San Diego held since 1970, also known as Comic-Con or San Diego Comic-Con*Dallas Comic Con, annual fan...

 2009 nominated Red Blinds the Foolish as "best adult manga" of the year's offerings.

Plot

Red Blinds the Foolish
A matador, Rafita, and Mauro, the butcher who disposes of the bulls' carcasses, have sex and then fall in love, leading to Rafita losing his concentration in the ring.

Corpse of the Round Table
A prequel to Red Blinds the Foolish, tells how Mauro became a butcher.

Baby, Stamp Your Foot
A shoemaker discovers a pair of high heels in his lover's closet, and figures out how to bring back the spice to their relationship.

Tiempos extra
The brother of a soccer player and a security guard at the soccer field fall in love.

Lumiere
A dying man reminisces about a failed relationship between a dancer and his instructor.

Reception

Debi Aoki from About.com describes Red Blinds the Foolish as "Carefully researched and drawn with the depth of style and content that readers have come to expect from est em." Andrew Wheeler says, "I have to admit that yaoi is very far down on the list of things I’d typically read, but Est Em has a scratchy, exceptionally expressive line and a feeling for real characters and settings". Comic Book Resources says, "There is an intensity and realism to her work and the men she creates always feel like real men, experiencing love, lust, and friendship." The Comic Reporter notes est em's "richly drawn characters and angular, unconventionally attractive art." Slightly Biased Manga calls it "stylish" but finds it "hard-pressed to call it great." The Journal Of Lincoln Heights Library Society says that they "just have a hard time with it."

External links

• Review by Anime News Network
  Anime News Network
  Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
  
  
• Review by PopCultureShock