In a rural country town where nothing exciting ever happens, a new face suddenly appears at the library: a former city man who starts to show up every week without fail. With each visit, the librarian, Hagiwara, can't help but notice little things about this new regular, Yabumi--his punctuality, his demeanor, his strangely methodical approach to reading every single book by a single author... Slowly, without realizing it, that simple observation blooms into a deeper interest that draws Hagiwara in, until he can't help it! He wants to get to know Yabumi better. But how will he bridge the distance, when there's no talking in the library? Flip Flip Slowly has story and art by Mame Ohtako. English translation is done by Adrienne Beck and lettering by Dietrich Premier. Published by Kodansha Comics (December 16, 2025). Rated M.

Content Warning: homophobia

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

It feels a little disingenuous putting this in the 18+ Guide, because there's really very little that's R-rated about this volume. The only sex scene is a short bonus chapter, and it's actually much tamer than most. But it shows penis and digital penetration, so into the smut section it goes. But the material point is that if you're looking for explicit BL content, you might want to pick another book, because this one is far heavier on the emotional side of things. Also it features a lot of bonding over reading, which is what makes it appealing to me personally.

Set in a rural area of Japan, the story follows Hagiwara and Yabumi as they form a relationship. Hagiwara is a young librarian who first notices Yabumi when he realizes that he's checking out all the books from a relatively obscure publisher in order. He's fascinated, and when he one day has the chance to talk to the older man outside of work, he seizes it. As their conversation shifts from books to the perils of relying on public transportation in rural areas, the two men form a fledgling friendship…and when Hagiwara begins asking Yabumi questions, Yabumi realizes that the other man has been sounding him out to find out if he's also gay and might be interested in dating him.

Yabumi isn't so much disinterested as he is concerned. Although I in no way realized it until it was explicitly stated, Yabumi is thirty-four to Hagiwara's twenty-three (the art doesn't show this well), and he's also had a rougher emotional life than Hagiwara. Those eleven years can make a lot of difference when it comes to the politics of being out, and his father was old-fashioned enough to reject his son out of pure homophobia when he learned his orientation. Yabumi sees himself as having run away, even though it was done less out of fear and more out of self-preservation. Should he have stayed with a homophobic parent instead of going someplace that was safer? The teenager self still living in his soul isn't sure.

The story doesn't go too deeply into any of this, although it does take pains to show that Hagiwara's father is much different. Despite being very sweet, the book also feels a bit surface-level, like it doesn't want to deal too deeply with fraught issues. It does just enough to cover them and to show that Yabumi needs to do some self-care in order to admit that he also wants to be with Hagiwara, but don't go into this expecting it to do any heavy lifting. Still, it's very sweet and I'd say manages to cover its difficult topics adequately. It's not faint praise when I say that this is just a nice book and a generally cozy read.

Bolts
Rating:

There's a line in this book that one of our leads throws to the other about finding a companion. In the context of the story, they're talking about finding a fellow closeted gay man that they can feel comfortable with and confide in. However, there were a lot of layers to that statement just like how there are a lot of layers to this story. Flip Flip Slowly is a slow burn, focusing on the relationship between a libertarian and mysterious customer who keeps visiting. What I love about this is that the story is not really about the romance between these two even though the chemistry they share with each other is definitely a strong selling point. Rather, it's about how finding a kindred spirit can sometimes spur on the complicated feelings that one has about how they present themselves and how they reveal themselves to the people that they care about.

This is very much a story about feeling ashamed or scared to come out for being different. The idea is how uplifting it can feel to just share moments with somebody who understands the same pain you do and how that goes a long way. There's nothing complicated or overly dramatic about the story and in fact, you could argue that one of the main sources of drama that is talked about in the story happens before the story even takes place. But all that drama ties into the characters and how they talk about it. THAT is the real meat of the story.

Being an adult story, there isn't much in the way of spiciness and that is a little disappointing. But I found the dialogue so refreshing, relaxing, and charming that I almost didn't even notice until I ended up getting to the first genuine sex scene. It almost sneaks up on you, but I mean that in a positive way because I was just so enraptured with the conversations the two leads were having. I love how they notice the little details about each other that nobody else would pick up on both overt and subtle. I love how they help each other reflect on the relationships they've lost with people and the relationships that they still have a chance to preserve.

There is this idea of people holding themselves back out of fear or constantly worrying about how they will be perceived which I think is a very real fear that most people should be able to relate to whether you're gay or not. I think if you are somebody who has ever wondered or been scared about being open about who you are, then this is definitely a story that I think you'll find a sense of kinship with. Take the time to find comfort in the characters just like how the characters find comfort in each other.