The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Cover My Scars With Your Kiss

What's It About? 

Seiichi Kurusu is the handsome eldest son in line to inherit a large company. After running into insecure dentist Nao Seto not once but twice coincidentally, Seiichi wonders if fate is at play. When Nao reveals that Seiichi reminds him of the man he's been unrequitedly in love with, Seiichi proposes a deal with him: for the length of time he receives his dental treatment from Nao, the two of them will date. Nao's tragic love history, combined with Seiichi's status as family heir and the impending countdown... can something good come from such a relationship?

Cover My Scars With Your Kiss is a manga with story and art by Io Amaki. Christine Dashiell provided the English translation. This volume was retouched and lettered by Vibrrant Publishing Studio. Published by TokyoPop's LoveLove imprint (March 5, 2024).

CW: This manga contains graphic depictions of sex and is intended for mature readers only.

Is It Worth Reading?

This is probably one of the most solid and tightly written boys' love manga I have read in a long time. Not only is it a believable and well-paced romance story from beginning to end, but it even avoids a lot of the typical trappings you see in other boys' love stories. If anything, it subverts a lot of what we typically associate with boys' love media and uses those tropes as a pivotal turning point in the development of our characters. I'm not kidding when I say that by the time I reached the end of this volume, I was completely satisfied and genuinely impressed with how everything came together, which was a stark contrast from what I felt at the beginning.

Cover My Scars With Kisses has its foundation set on a massive coincidence. The main thing that gets the ball rolling between our two leads is that they bump into each other a bit more than the average person reasonably should. But even that has attention drawn to it as a character motivation for one of our leads. They don't believe in destiny, so they see the coincidence as a sign that maybe it's time for them to take a chance on a new type of relationship dynamic. I love how one of our leads embodies the suave and rich playboy type without devolving into someone who pushes lines of consent or is generally disrespectful.

Oh, there is a character exactly like that in the story, but Io Amaki uses them sparingly and as a means of facilitating the character development of our second main lead. One of our lead characters very much wants to engage in a gay relationship, but their first experience was with somebody who saw it as a fad, one who didn't understand the emotions and uncomfortable pressures they were setting on someone who genuinely loved them. It's not only reflective of how a lot of people see non-straight relationships, but it's even reflective of how these types of romance stories handle them. Having that be the impetus for character development in a genuinely healthy and progressive relationship was absolutely brilliant.

Honestly, this is one of those manga I could probably go on for hours about, but I need to keep this condensed. I highly recommend the story if you're a fan of romances in general, not just boys' love. Even if you take the well-established genre tropes out of the equation, it's still a well-presented romance story with characters that communicate and attempt to understand each other like proper adults. No moment feels wasted; the sex scenes are incredibly intense, and if you are a fan of this genre, then this might end up feeling like a breath of fresh air.

It's a good thing that one of the romantic leads is a dentist because I think this sweet tooth-rotting manga just gave me a cavity. If you like a hefty dose of fluff with your smut, Cover My Scars With Your Kiss delivers both in spades.

The story first introduces us to Seiichi, the eldest son and heir of a company president. (The company is never described. Why would it be? This is porn!) After he bumps into a stranger in front of a cafe, he offers to wash his coffee-stained shirt at his apartment. One thing leads to another, and the sex starts on page 20. But what was supposed to be a one-night stand turns into something more when Seiichi goes in for his dental appointment the next morning and runs into who else but Nao, his handsome hookup from the night before.

The rest of the manga follows their alternately sweet and steamy adventures in love, though "adventures" is pushing it, considering their romantic bumps in the road are more like specks of gravel. This story has an element of hurt/comfort since Nao is recovering from a painful first relationship and expects more of the same treatment from Seiichi. Most of the story's tension occurs in Nao's head when he expects Seiichi to grow cold and reject him, and Seiichi continues to be the perfect man. It's a wish-fulfillment scenario.

A note about the erotica (and there is a lot of it here): I was surprised by how heavily censored it was. Certain body parts appear to be nearly invisible. Here's where it gets even stranger. After reading this review copy, I used my own money to purchase the sequel Cover My Scars With Your Kiss 2, and the art was not censored. So, what happened between the volumes? I don't have an answer.

Having read both volumes, I can say that the first one stands independently. The author even put a note in the second volume about how she was happily surprised to be able to add more to Seiichi and Nao's story, which makes me think it wasn't originally in the publishing plan. The plot is predictable and nothing groundbreaking, but it's a cute and sexy genre-typical love story.