Having grown up in the spotlight as a renowned child actor, Chihaya is finally ready to step offstage for good.

After announcing his retirement, Chihaya is appointed to manage an up-and-coming model returning from abroad: Shion—Chihaya's childhood friend, whom he hasn't seen in three years.

The last time they saw each other, they were consumed by lust and almost crossed a line... until Chihaya stopped them. And Shion never forgot it.

Now forced to work together, old embers of desire begin to spark between them, and Chihaya and Shion must confront their long-buried feelings and decide what they are to each other before the paparazzi has a chance to decide for them...!

Waiting for You at the End of the Runway has a story by and art by ikugao. English translation is done by Carissa Tenorio and lettering by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (April 21, 2026). Rated M.

Content Warning: sexual assault

Erica Friedman
Rating:

This book begins in a bad place reminiscent of Japanese adult magazines of the 90s. So right from the first page, CW for nonconsensual sex. Shion and Chiyaha (whom Shion call Chiha) were childhood friends, but when Shion pushed them into something else, Chihaya bailed. Now, years later he can't get that moment out of his mind (sexual assault does that.) When he is asked by his father to be Shion's manager, the two pick up, not where they left off, but in a whole new chapter. Nonetheless, their last meeting weighs on them both. It takes a crisis that will threaten their new relationship to bring them on to the same page.

Honestly, this book would have been 5 stars if it had not felt the need to begin where it did. At the beginning, Shion's an arrogant jerk, Chiha's a whining jerk, but when they start to deal with their shit, they are actually cute together. By the end, when they have taken a public position about “them” one can root for them to be okay. It's just that the almost obligatory rape scene is such a bad place to start. It means that for the first half, you want Chihaya to get some therapy and Shion some jail time. But manga doesn't believe in therapy, so we watching the shout it out a few times and voila!!, no PTSD. It's BL magic.

The art is clean, the sex scenes are sexy explicit, not splooshy explicit. Seriously, though, other than the opener, the book is pretty decent. I wish it had chosen the high road.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Was there a point to this story starting off on its worst foot? I'm sure the creator thought so; by starting with Shion sexually assaulting Chihaya, it's a shortcut to showing how he thought that his love was unrequited and that he felt he only had the worst option available to get that across. It's still lazy plotting and writing, though, to say nothing of distasteful. Say what you will about the modern romance genre space, but most authors have moved beyond this unpleasant trope – no matter what country or format they're writing in. To be fair to ikugao, Shion apologizes numerous times over the course of the book for his actions, but I still hope they move beyond this particular shortcut as a creator.

And once you get past that scene, the rest of the story is really quite nice. Shion and Chihaya's slide from childhood friends to boyfriends is never too angsty, since they both do this crazy thing called “communicating” with each other. Chihaya is less aware of his feelings than Shion (no doubt in part because of the aforementioned incident), but he's also struggling with the direction his life ought to take. He's been acting since he was a child, but as he points out to his father, that wasn't a decision he made for himself – it was his mother's choice to put him on that path. After doing it for years, he's ready to hang up that particular hat, at which point his dad suggests that he become his model friend Shion's manager.

Naturally both young men are uncomfortable with the situation at first. Shion is aware he treated Chihaya badly and Chihaya's just not sure that this is a great idea for much the same reason. But neither is willing to write off years of friendship, and they slowly begin to move into something more. They have good chemistry and ikugao draws their body language well, even if some scenes appear anatomically suspect. There's a good blend of (consensual) sex scenes and the two just talking or casually touching, and it's really very sweet in all the ways that matter. It puts its worst foot forward, but if you either can stomach that or don't mind skipping a few pages, it's a pretty good book.

Bolts
Rating:

The entertainment industry can be harsh and frustrating. You would almost need to be as stubborn as a bull to find any success in such a field. So what happens when that same stubbornness causes you to be at odds with your manager, who is a former actor and also your childhood friend? Most of this book can be boiled down to two very buff men constantly butting heads with each other. Sometimes it's to validate their feelings for the other, or they're trying to find some way to deny them. This is definitely a story that plays into a lot of older tropes with boys' love, from the rather buff, wide-looking character designs to the lack of communication meant to prolong drama.

To the story's credit, there is a genuine emotional core here that does build off of a lot of those familiar tropes. Both of these leads are dealing with insecure issues that do end up manifesting as believable fears impacting the relationship. One is desperately trying to live up to a certain expectation, while the other is still trying to figure out exactly what he wants to do with his life. Those inform a lot of potentially toxic actions, but the story never goes too far. The care for each other always takes priority, even if it gives birth to another fear of breaking what's precious to them.

With proper communication, the two are able to make things work. The fact that all of this is tied into a story about trying to make it in a cutthroat acting industry was also solidly done, even if I would've liked to have seen that peak behind the curtain a bit more. Still, amongst all of the passionate, sweaty teasing and dirty sex, there was some real heart here, way more than I initially thought after the first chapter. Definitely give this one a read if you're in for a very emotionally satisfying, messy time.