The Desert Prince (Yaoi) by ShuShuShu Sakurai

The Desert Prince (Yaoi) Reviews

• 
  Mary

  1st. Read: 6/6/11
  
  ****The Desert Prince: Zaeek, also referred to as The Desert Prince has always felt disillusioned with life; that there's something missing. Pressured to marry, he escapes to the desert where after a mishap with his camel, he meets Haruto. Haruto is an archeology student on a search for 'The Desert Rose'. He comes upon Zaeek, offering him water and bread. Zaeek moved by Haruto's kindness decides to make him his bride. Haruto manages to escape, but his supposed happiness is temporary...because his prince has traveled a long way to get back his bride to be.
  
  Okay, this is my favorite merely because I'm a sucker for Sheikh stories. I liked that Zaeek is so over the top, going to extremes to prove his love for Haruto. Haruto is just overwhelmed; trying to deal with Zaeek's overzealous and fiery overtures, but he's a sweet and down to earth kind of guy.
  
  ****Spoiled Hero, Shining Knife & Howling Crook, Cherry Blossom Blizzard: These 2 shorts are a combination of old fashioned Yakuza traditions with a modern gangster flair. The sex scenes are very hot and raunchy, with a sexy guy wearing a fundoshi as a bonus (slurp).
  
  Nuinosuke is a 19yr. old who is to become the successor of the Ootsuka Clan and Ryuhei is the temporary leader and Nuino's current guardian. Ryuhei is doggedly tenacious in his protection of Nuino; there is no limit to what lengths he'll go to, to keep him safe. Nuino believes he'll get some freedom-and out of Ryuhei's watchful eye-now that he's going to be attending school. But a rival clan has his eye on Ryuhei, so now Nuino has to show Ryuhei where he really belongs.
  
  ***Hold My Soul: This is a tender story about a man trying to repay a kindness. Shoichi is a 27yr. old freelance systems engineer. He gets a surprise when a salesman-Tanaka-tries to sell him a roll away bed. After hearing the exhorbitant price, he agrees to pay it-if Tanaka takes care of the household chores, then sewing his shirts, preparing his meals and satisfying his sexual needs. Soichi starts wondering why Tanaka would go along with it, even go so far as not to take the payment for the items that he continues to bring to Shoichi's apartment. Tanaka suddenly disappears after Shoichi saves him from a dangerous situation at work. Now Shoichi's memory of a childhood friend is the key to realizing who Tanaka is.
  
  ***Mister Y's Lover: This story is really nice and sort of comical in a cute sort of way. It's a May-Dec. romance involving Takahiro, an older man in a relationship with Jesse, a young foreigner, who tutored Takahiro. The first story is a flashback of how they met; while the second is about their anniversary and Takahiro's reticence in giving himself fully to Jesse.
• 
  Rebecca

  This was so unexpectedly wonderful. The first two stories were hilarious and the second two had me tearing up. After being disappointed by Sakurai's other titles, Junk and Missing Road, I was hesitant with this one, but I'm so glad I tried it. Plus the men are gorgeous.
• 
  Heather

  Initially I was disappointed in this manga. Though it's called "The Desert Prince," very little time is spent in the desert. A Japanese student and his professor visit Arabia, where a prince takes a shine to the young man and has his way with him. When the boy returns to Japan, the prince follows him, professing his love. I thought it was pretty ridiculous, and I'm not generally a comedy fan; but the second chapter, where he tells the prince off but then regrets breaking his heart, was much more to my liking.
  
  The second story is about rival yakuza. A young clan leader is repeatedly threatened by a rival, and his bodyguard puts his life on the line to save him, but the boy can hold his own, too. The villains were quite comical, but once I got used to it, I began to enjoy it a lot! The story was filled with colorful characters and I think it would make for a great anime.
  
  The third story is my favorite in the book. A beautiful boy is working for a home shopping network-type company and it's his duty to sell all kinds of stuff. But his boss treats him like a personal possession. One day he sees someone from his childhood who was kind to him, and wants to return the favor. So he keeps giving him freebies from his company, but the guy doesn't recognize him and takes advantage of him. But when the man sees how the boy's boss treats him, he becomes genuinely angry and his memories of their childhood together come flooding back. This was a more serious story and I really enjoyed it.
  
  Finally, there's a story about a young man whose husband is elderly and suffering from dementia. The old man finds himself very attracted to the younger one and wants to ask him out but is afraid of rejection. Each time his younger lover gently reminds him they've been together for years and his memories come back, he promises again and again he'll never forget him. But it keeps happening. It was written in a light-hearted tone, but it was also at times sad. The old man is the uke, which was unexpected, and he cries a lot. It was a sweet story.
  
  As others have mentioned, it's got a nice amount of graphic material but there's also a lot of plot, and it's not just the same-old, same-old. Highly recommended!
• 
  Dean MacKinnon-Thomson

  4/5
  
  Kawaii and adorable. This is a must read for yaoi manga fans everywhere.
  
  Plot is a tad run of the mill, but this isn't a problem since the quality of the manga art is superb. Really, its up there with the best of them. There isn't even any typical body dimorphism which can happen if the technical angles are got wrong.
  
  Characters are so cute its sickening. One problem I do have is that it is typical to the yaoi genre in how it super-imposes hetero-normative gender roles. Or to put it another way you seem to always be faced with the 'masculine' and the 'bishonen/effeminate' characters. Let me give you guys a clue here: being gay means we don't have heterosexual normative roles. That is kind of the frikkin point!!!
  
  That aside, the drawing quality is superb (as already said).
  
  All in, a must read and one of my guilty pleasures and favourites. I must have read this manga at least 5 times (and its one-shots inside the manga novel are to DIE for, just as excellent as the main show!)
• 
  Cat

  What can I say about Sakurai-sensei's work? I think this mangaka is one of those 'love em or hate em' types. All Sakurai's works have great artwork and there's no doubt as to the intention of the plotlines towards being humorous PWPs. I think the humor is where the 'love em or hate em' concept truly lies. Just like a comedy show of any type, some people will think its funny and some won't.
  
  If you find Sakurai's brand of humor interesting and fun then you'll definitely want to pick up this title for its lovely artwork, outlandish plot and great sexual imagery.
  
  For me personally, I can enjoy and understand what Sakurai's work intends but I can never read it more then once or really feel anything rich from the experience. The humor seems too silly for my tastes.
• 
  Marker

  Primera historia: Principe Zaik y estudiante Haruto.
  Zaik se enamora a primera vista de Haruto, quien lo rechaza aun después de haber pasado la noche juntos.
  Haruto huye pero Zaik lo encuentra de nuevo, Haruto lo vuelve a rechazar, Zaik se marcha pero ahi es cuando Haruto descubre que también lo ama, y ahora es Haruto quien lo persigue.
  
  Segunda historia: Kanzaki, lider del clan y Nuinosuke heredero del clan.
  Dos yakuzas que han vivido toda su vida juntos Kanzaki es el cuidador oficial de Nuinosuke, pero secretamente esta enamorado de él.
  Nuinosuke también esta enamorado de Kanzaki, al final ambos estarán juntos con noches llenas de sexo.
  
  Tercera historia: Soichi, ingeniero en sistemas y Masato un vendedor.
  Reunión de dos personas que se amaron desde niños y ahora 20 años después se reencuentran.
  
  Cuarta historia: Yamamoto, hombre de tercera edad a punto de jubilarse y Jesse un profesor de inglés.
  UN amor senil de Yamamoto que poco a poco empieza a perder la memoria y Jesse se queda su lado para ayudarlo pues lo ama de corazón.
• 
  Karissa

  I can see now why I don’t remember reading this one. Utterly forgettable. It’s going in the “to sell on eBay once I get organized” pile.
• 
  Daesy

  uhm...the graphic isnt bad, but the story yes.