YAOI REVIEW: Close the Last Door Volume 2

“Nagai and Honda have been a (mostly) happy couple for an entire year. In fact, they’ve dealt with teasing in-laws, competitive gift-giving… and even an exhausting hunt for their own apartment! Bust just when everything seems too perfect to be true, sweet and sneaky Saitou pops up to cause a little broken-hearted mayhem. Will this face from the past succeed in tearing Nagai and Honda apart for good?

Close the Last Door teases and tempts with the story of a love triangle that refuses to topple! Nagai, Honda and Saitou love to push one another’s buttons in and out of the bedroom. But can these bold men bear the strain of secret meetings, business trips and non-stop flirtations? It’ll take a little flexibility and a lot of hard work if this threesome is going to keep everyone happy!”

Plot/Readability:

Close the Last Door Volume 2 continues the love triangle started in volume 1 between Honda, Nagai and Saitou except this time it comes to a head and decisions have to be made. In volume 1, Saitou’s actions come off as very innocent whereas in this volume his intentions and desires become clear. As our couple Honda and Nagai go through many relationship ‘firsts’ (holidays and living together), Saitou starts to wedge himself further between them causing much friction. Honda grows more and more insecure when it comes to Saitou, and Nagai is pulled between his love for Honda and his friendship and longtime crush on Saitou.

We are introduced to Honda’s (Kenzou’s) brothers Shouichi and Shunji in this volume (although Sensei swears we met them in volume 1, it was actually in Open the Door to Your Heart, which was published just prior to this one where Nagai meets Honda’s two brothers). Although they are a pretty good part of this story, don’t feel like you have to have read Open the Door to Your Heart first. You can easily read this volume and then go read their complete story in Open the Door to Your Heart and it will still make sense. For me it actually made more sense this way.

If I have one complaint about Close the Last Door Volume 2 is that it seems very disjointed. The individual acts are really individual stories and although they do push the story of the relationship further, they just don’t seem to flow as well as volume 1 did. That being said, if you are a big fan of the OVA and want to know the outcome, you’ll be very happy to read this. I know after I watched the OVA I was left feeling desperate to know more and volume 2 filled that need.

Character Development:

The three main characters develop nicely in this volume. Although Nagai is competitive and very much his own man, you can see how deep his feelings have become for Honda. Saitou also develops more into his little devil role and some of his actions I think will surprise you. Honda tries to be the cool, collected seme but his insecurities about Saitou show a lot more.

Sexual Content:

There is good sexual content in this volume with most of the longer scenes happen towards the end. I found I enjoyed the sexual content in volume 1 more than this volume although I wouldn’t say there is anything wrong with this volume. If anything, Nagai becomes a much more willing partner and experiments more.

Illustrations:

As with volume 1 and most of her works, Yugi Yamada’s strength is more in how she shows her characters expressing themselves than in the detail of the illustrations themselves. They are still rather simple but I still enjoy her style and you won’t confuse her characters with any other mangaka’s.

Final Thoughts:

I was a little disappointed in the flow of this volume or lack thereof and the fact that DMP decided to go with the smaller size when they had already published volume 1 in the larger size. That being said, I am very happy with the story itself and it has filled the void from the lack of a 2nd OVA. If you have volume 1 already, you’ll definitely want to pick up volume 2.

Plot/Readability: B+
Character Development: A-
Sexual Content: B+
Illustrations: B

Overall Grade: B+