If I don't forgive you... Who else can?”

Shen Feng, the youngest of the Shen family, once vowed to surpass his childhood mentor and first love, the powerful and graceful Xiao Xing.

But when a deadly feud erupts between their families, their bond is torn apart by betrayal and bloodshed. Ordered to destroy the Xiao family, Shen Feng defies fate and spares Xiao Xing—knowing it means losing him forever.

Fifty years later, after his father's assassination, Shen Feng returns home... only to come face to face with the man he thought he'd lost for good. As past and present collide, can love survive the shadows of loss and regret...?

Touched by Twilight has story and art by Yukiaki Uno. English translation is done by Christine Dashiell with lettering by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (December 23, 2025). Rated OT.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

It may sound odd to say that Touched by Twilight is BL masquerading as danmei, but that's precisely what it feels like. While the differences between the two related genres basically come down to cultural elements, even other China-set BL I've read has felt more like Japanese BL than Chinese. This work specifically uses bits and pieces more common in Chinese works, such as spiritual cores and extended lifetimes for practitioners of specific martial and spiritual arts, making it a work that feels like it's trying to bridge the gap. It mostly works, but at times there's a definite disconnect between the worldbuilding and the actual story.

This typically comes down to the background details, which aren't particularly well filled in. Shen Feng has adored Xiao Xing since he was a child (and Xiao Xing was already an adult, possibly a young one), but after his mother died and his father blamed the pharmaceutically-inclined Xiao family, things soured between them – mostly because of what the Shen elder made his youngest son do. Suffice it to say that his beloved Xiao Xing became the only surviving member of his family, and Shen Feng distanced himself from his beloved. But now that the Shen elder has died – or been murdered; figuring that out is part of the plot – Shen Feng has the perfect excuse to get involved with Xiao Xing again. After all, the older man is a doctor.

There's a mix of tormented yearning and straightforward investigating in this introductory volume. Shen Feng, it must be said, doesn't seem all that invested in figuring out what happened to his father, whose directive to kill the Xiao family clearly harmed his son's mental health. He's much more interested in rekindling his friendship with his childhood idol, with the hope of moving their relationship into something more. It's less clear how Xiao Xing feels, but he's apparently not too upset about the kiss Shen Feng presses on him, and given that they both look like they're in their twenties despite it having been fifty years since they last saw each other, I daresay the age gap isn't an issue.

At the end of the day, this is a book that I wish I had stronger feelings about. I neither fully liked nor disliked it, and I do think it has potential as a series. If I found the second volume on sale or at a library, I'd likely pick it up – the characters aren't all that deep or developed, but I sort of want to know if they manage to work things out and if Shen Feng's eldest brother has something to do with their father's death. I guess the best word for this is “mid.” If you're itching for danmei or BL set in Ancient China, I'd pick up Heaven Official's Blessing before this one, but it'll do in a pinch.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

“Who bears a grudge against your father and the Xiao family?” Herbalist and martial artist Xiao Xing is the likeliest candidate and knows it well. He uses his mystical powers to disguise himself as a woman, when Shen Feng comes home to find out who killed his father. Xiao Xing immediately identifies the technique used to commit the murder as a Xiao family ancestral technique to boot. Shen Feng scandalously shares a room with Xiao Xing, who is still disguised as a woman, in order to solve the mystery of the Shen patriarch's death, as mysteries and complications pile up. What is the role of the family that supplied the drugs and what is the oldest son, Shen Ling's feeling about all this?

The questions keep coming, as Xiao Xing and Shen Feng travel around looking for clues. While traveling Shen Feng also starts to deal with the guilt he feels about killing Xiao Xing's family on his father's orders, and trying to sort out his feeling after he kisses Xiao Xing. It's all a bi ol' mashup of love-hate and family rivalries, mysterious poisons and block acupoints in this messy but mostly entertaining story.

The art is pretty good as well, it's easy to tell folks apart, we're shown what other people see when they look at Xiao Xing, which helps us deal with his mystically managed appearance.

However, there is one aspect I found uncomfortable. This story is originally a Japanese manga, set in China, running in digital manga magazine from RED from Shu Cream Publishing. As such, the original uses Japanese honorifics. The localization by Christine Dashiell maintains the Japanese honorifics, so upon returning home, we get “Shen Feng-sama.” I usually come down on the side of keeping honorifics, but in this case it felt wrong, but am not sure that “Master Shen Feng” would have been any less uncomfortable. Colonialism is a helluva drug to get out of a system.

That aside, this is a nicely BL-ish story with some light gender bending murder mystery story that was actually pretty fun.