Takeru Azuma: You have two handsome men fighting over you. How do you feel about that?
Yoshida: I'm in hell.
Yoshida: I'm in hell.
His Favorite (Aitsu no Daihonmei) is a Boys' Love series by Suzuki Tanaka which started out as a one-shot for a theme of Ugly Boy Romance. The manga began serialization in Magazine Be x Boy in 2008, and is still ongoing. The author seems to have a steady pace of one volume per year. All volumes have been officially released by the Viz Media subdivision SuBLime.
The main character is Yoshio Yoshida who's the local Beady-Eyed Loser. He hangs out with Fatty Akimoto and Doodle Face Makimura most of the time, but lately, the school's Bishounen Satou has taken a bizarre kind of interest in using Yoshida as an excuse as to why he won't go anywhere outside school with the Estrogen Brigade, teasing him all the time, and kissing him where no one else can see.
Oh, yeah. Satou wants to date Yoshida.
Satou and Yoshida end up together almost immediately, though it does take a few chapters for Yoshida to accept it. The series is otherwise about the school antics, romantic shenanigans in which no less than 3 people ask Yoshida out, and Satou being the Center of the Universe to everyone around him even though Yoshida is the main character. The Other Wiki even believes Satou to be the main character because of this.
As the series goes on it gains more or less a plot, getting a wilder backstory and breaking out of the School Romance BL genre it was in at times. Many chapter plots also revolve around school holidays, events, and other things that show how popular Satou is and how while Yoshida can handle this, Satou starts getting jealous rather easily if Yoshida receives new positive attention.
His Favorite contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Often how new characters are introduced. Yamanaka, Torachin, Murakami, The Nozawa Twins, Azuma...the list goes on. It's possible the author uses new characters to break out of writer's block as they appear frequently and when needed.
- Affectionate Nickname: Yoshida and Toranosuke were classmates in middle school who had other classmates who shared their names, so the nicknames were necessary. However, Yoshi-Yoshi and Torachin are honestly weirdly cutesy nicknames for them to call each other given they're both in relationships with other guys, especially since there's been no mention of the other similar-named characters even going to the same school anymore.
- Art Shift: When the perspective changes to outside the school to signify how much time passed in the manga, it becomes more crudely drawn.
- Backstory Horror:
- Satou's missing years that he refuses to talk about may have started out as
Fridge Horror to some of the more perceptive readers, but the author later discloses a few details of what happened that transformed it into true Backstory Horror. - The author also discloses family details that also qualify for Satou. In general, Satou has had a lot of horrifying things happen to him...
- Satou's missing years that he refuses to talk about may have started out as
- Beach Episode: Tsuyako essentially forces Satou, Yoshida, Akimoto, and Makimura into one of these except it's an entire island with no one else on it and lots of luxurious extras such as fireworks hidden up trees.
- Beady-Eyed Loser: Yoshida, especially the part about characters commenting on how ugly he is while the Fans think he's not. Though there are fans who still think Yoshida's ugly, the author comments that she's surprised that so many have said they think Yoshida's cute.
- Beat Panel: Yoshida and Satou's stunned shock of seeing Makimura's beautiful mother and his resemblance to her in spite of it lasted three entire panels before either of them saying anything else.
- The Beautiful Elite: Somewhat real to life in that it is set in a high school and the elite are the popular boys and girls who seem to have money.
- Beta Couple: Akimoto's relationship with Youko is secondary to Yoshida and Satou and the only opposite-sex pairing amongst the cast (an inverse Token Minority Couple if you will). That said...
- Bickering Couple, Peaceful Couple: They're the most stable, loving pair in comparison to the realistically healthy relationship between Yoshida and Satou (they may undergo rough patches but still genuinely love one another regardless) and heavily contrast the hot dysfunctional mess of Yamanaka and Torachin.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Satou has the mask of an indulgent popular guy, but if Yoshida says something about you that makes him jealous, you'd better have a good excuse. Poor Yamanaka.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Yoshida does it often when Satou starts going too far in his violence or . The Nozawa Twins engage in this as well such as introducing themselves again to the readers in case they forgot them after their debut.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The girls and Makimura have many back-and-forth arguments throughout the manga with valid reasons on either side. For example, when he, Yoshida, Akimoto and the 2 other ugly boys in the class were picked to be cheerleaders for a ball tournament, Makimura objects and suggests they would score more points if the girls in miniskirts cheered instead. The female class representative snaps back at his blatantly sexist remark and claims it's too late for suggestions after the final decisions. However, Makimura was proven to be right since their cheering singlehandedly made the school lose two games in a row due to the boys' ugly looks demotivating the players.
- City with No Name: Not a city but the school where the main setting takes place.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Satou's backstory is insane in that the Fat Camp he was sent to as a kid seems to have been some sort of ongoing experiment with the human genome and the limits of human strength. All the people in the camp are shown to be extremely attractive after a few years there, and can fight tigers, huge snakes, and cheetahs with their bare hands.
- Deconstruction: The Seme-Uke relationship between Satou and Yoshida respectively. Yoshida is clearly uncomfortable when Satou goes too strong with his sadistic tendencies and sexual advances, getting more angry and upset than attracted or aroused. Satou is like this because of his horrendous upbringing, childhood bullying and the dreaded fat camp, making it hard for him to express his feelings normally. Their relationship only deepens once both grew out of these roles when Yoshida becomes more open about his feelings and Satou learns to be more gentle and go easy on the torment.
- The Determinator: The girls at school constantly hit on and surround Satou every chance they get, despite having absolutely zero chance of ever hooking up. The thought of first Satou having an incredibly beautiful but fake girlfriend and then him outing his relationship with Yoshida actually made them more fired up and persistent than ever.
- Makimura is no slouch in the department either, being as determined to get a girlfriend as the girls are to Satou. No matter how many times he was rejected, turned down, or said no to, he gets back up like it was nothing and tries again.
- Disguised in Drag: Murakami when he tries to get Yoshida to date him so he won't have time for Satou.
- Dropped After the Pilot: In the first chapter, Koike was the first girl to be named and bear some significance towards the plot by being the one Yoshida had a huge crush on but, like many of the girls in school, had fallen victim to Satou's charms. However, when the second chapter rolled around, she was completely forgotten and never mentioned again which is especially jarring since the chapter was a direct continuation of the first one.
- Easy Amnesia: In one of the more recent chapters, losing and regaining your memory is as easy as slipping on one of the many mysterious banana peels scattered around campus. Satou, being who he is, tries to have fun with this. He quickly regrets and fixes it though, simply because Yoshida not remembering him is too painful. When you remember that Yoshida has forgotten Satou before...
- Forgotten First Meeting: Yoshida forgot that he used to know Satou in elementary, due to the fact Satou went away for Fat Camp and came back after he slimmed down and went through a growth spurt.
- Genre Shift: Starts off as a school romance BL, transforms into a comedy series with established romance, and the flashbacks hint at an entirely different type of story.
- Hate Sink: The girls for not only seeing Satou as an object of affection to constantly harass for and treat others like crap, especially when taking out their aggression on Yoshida, but continue to act this way after Satou reveals his relationship with Yoshida in hopes of them taking a hint.
- Hypocritical Humor: The girls often turn down Makimura harshly because of how he degrades himself and repetitively asks them out on dates, not knowing they'll do exactly that to Satou in a heartbeat but much, much worse.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming:
- Averted. Satou does not assist in more common bullying such as the girls at their school calling Yoshida names or cornering him when Satou uses him as an excuse. However, this is probably because that is one of Satou's controlled forms of teasing and he knows how to casually fix things if the girls go too far.
- Played straight when Satou knows Tsuyako wants Yoshida to be the M to her S.note She quickly backs off when she realizes Yoshida is his.
- If It's You, It's Okay: Yoshida doesn't feel the same way for guys as he did with Satou since he immediately rejects the advances of Yamanaka early on and Nishida but his opinion on finding girls attractive didn't change. This puts Yoshida's sexuality as leaning bisexual, mostly heterosexual with the exception of one same-sex attraction to Satou.
- Insult of Endearment: Satou insults Yoshida a lot, including calling him a Kappa or just generally insulting his face.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: In terms of same-sex couple dynamics, Yoshida and Sato are the Nice, Nishida and Azuma are the In-Between and Yamanaka and Torachin are the Mean.
- In spite of the hardships and the rough start, Yoshida and Satou have a mostly healthy relationship and are very intimate in private. Why "mostly" is they still have issues, like Satou's extreme sadism stemming from a Dark and Troubled Past and Yoshida's difficulty in fully accepting and openly admitting their relationship, to sort out but nevertheless accept each other's flaws.
- Nishida constantly pines for Yoshida but still has feelings for Azuma who likewise wants Nishida to only focus on him. The tension started when Azuma reached his growth spurt and both went to different schools where Nishida met Yoshida. It's gonna be a long time before either can resolve their conflict and enter a relationship once more.
- And then there's Yamanaka, Torachin and the toxic mess of a relationship they have. They bring out the worst of each other, Yamanaka will make repeated, lecherous passes at women to which Torachin beats him bloody every single time he caught wind of this. Yet the two are still together because of their terrible reputations, with Yamanaka being a depraved playboy while Torachin has a Face of a Thug compounded by unsavory rumors from hanging around the former, which further isolated them from everyone else except each other and consequently makes their problems worse.
- No Name Given: Only four of the background female characters were named in the manga despite its ongoing fourteen years run. The male background characters have it worse with none of them being named because they're way less important than the girls.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Yoshida, Makimura and Akimoto are drawn less detailed and more cartoony, more so with the latter two, which sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the attractively, realistically drawn cast.
- Only One Female Mold: All the females, whether she is a background character or not, have the same body type (Slim with an hourglass figure) and are around the same height while the guys are all of various shapes, sizes and heights.
- Opposites Attract:
- Yoshida is a Beady-Eyed Loser and type II Tsundere while Satou is a Broken Ace Sadist who is So Beautiful, It's a Curse. An interesting combination that ended up together by the first chapter which also didn't come without its problems.
- Yamanaka and Torachin are an even more extreme case since the former is a Depraved Bisexual, womanizing playboy and the latter is an aggressive yet kindhearted delinquent with a Face of a Thug.
- Pair the Spares: Just about everyone except Makimura of the main cast and even the side cast started to do this a couple of volumes in. As of now, there's been three same-sex couplenote , one opposite sex-couplenote and a brief Ship Teasenote .
- Pretty Boy: Satou is canonically called a Bishōnen. He even gets Bishie Sparkles when he gets sick with a 42 degree Celsius/107.6 degrees Fahrenheit fever and doesn't even notice it.
- Running Gag: A common occurrence in the manga is when the girls in school would have fainting spells around Satou, whether out of infatuation or shock, lying haplessly in the hallways and evidently stepped on because of it.
- Sadist: Satou is often labeled this canonically because he teases Yoshida mercilessly and sets up situations that make Yoshida uncomfortable just to see his 'cute' face. He's gone so far as to let the girls in school bully him unhindered and feeds him chocolate filled with hot peppers. It's later revealed Satou is looking very specifically for someone who is not willing to do whatever humiliating thing he asks just because of his looks and charm. Of course, Yoshida is exactly what he's looking for.
- Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Nishida to Yoshida and all the girls in school to Satou with them thinking they are much better match despite how obviously they're absolutely not since the two are happily in love with one another and find them irritating nuisances from going out of their way to prove themselves.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Akimoto to his super cute next-door neighbor Yoko. Yoko makes it no secret that she's his girlfriend, and seems annoyed when he denies it.
- Single-Target Sexuality: After what he went through at fat camp, the now drop-dead handsome Satou is constantly lusted over by girls (and the occasional guy) and had even slept with older women in the facility. In any case, it's a hormonal-ridden, harem-seeking teenage boy's fantasy but in Satou's, the whole situation is incredibly frustrating and/or boring. This is because of his combined sadism and nihilistic personality making him unable to harbor any attraction towards anyone whatsoever. That's what Satou thought until he encounters Yoshida again and realise his feelings for him for not only standing up to his bullies in grade school but also his resistance towards any particularly sadistic desire and acception of his true self regardless.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Satou and Yoshida became a couple right off the bat but it didn't come without its problems. You see, Satou is madly in love with Yoshida but the inverse wasn't necessarily true since the former basically pushed the latter into a relationship without any input. As a result, it took Yoshida a lot of time and angsting to reciprocate Satou's feelings and even longer to accept their relationship since he isn't as open about it as Satou. Later on in the manga, Satou acknowledges that it wasn't right how he started dating him in the first place due to his domineering, sadistic personality and wished it went differently.
- Opposites Attract is also bound to have its downsides as the main couple's conflicting personalities and goals are one of the many obstacles they had to overcome early on in their relationship. Torachin and Yamanaka are the more extreme example to point of borderline Destructive Romance and co-dependency.
- While this is no justification for their behaviour, Satou is unwilling to drop his Nice Guy facade so he makes excuses, plays along and/or gives in to the girls' advances instead of outright rejecting them. This came back to bite him hard as leading on the girls for so long made them evidently lose their ability to back off and see what's socially acceptable in pursuing romance, viewing him superficially as a handsome and "perfect gentleman" they must have as the object of their affections. Satou dug himself deeper when he use the girlfriend bluff (Even employing Murakami in drag) and then outed his relationship with Yoshida but didn't bother to change his attitude towards the girls. As such, it Goes Horribly Wrong as the girls slowly become immune to whatever obstacle is hurled at them, despite how blatantly hopeless their chances are, as they chalk Satou up as playing hard to get.
- Unwanted Harem: Satou and, believe it or not, Yoshida has enough of their share of Abhorrent Admirers to go around. They usually caused most of the problems in the manga, especially the former's harem. The "unwanted" part is heavily emphasized by the fact that both are the main couple since the beginning and their admirers still won't back down once their relationship is outed to the entire school, becoming even more aggressive and determined in their pursuits.
- As the series progresses, Yoshida has no more than three people lusting over him besides Satou.
- First there's Nishida, complete opposite to Satou with a bad case of Chronic Hero Syndrome. He's been in love with Yoshida ever since he laid his eyes on him but before he had the chance to confess his love, Satou already took him. Despite Yoshida making it clear he finds Nishida nothing more than an overly-friendly acquaintance/nuisance, the latter doesn't give up because of the deluded belief he's a better fit for the former than Satou.
- Next is Tsuyako who is an unbelievably attractive Sadist like Satou but her preference differs in her very much liking to be obeyed and submitted to. Since Yoshida knows her true self but still has a liking to girls, he gets too flustered and/or scared to turn down her advances despite knowing the morally dubious intentions behind it. Satou is usually the one to nip her efforts in the bud and Yoshida is grateful for that.
- Satou has it off even worse with the entire female populace in the school district. They all have the idiotic notion that Satou is the only one good enough to date so it's okay to constantly pester him, harass Yoshida and disregard other available boys.
- As the series progresses, Yoshida has no more than three people lusting over him besides Satou.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Murakami without any doubt who takes pride in dressing up in a girl's school uniform and wig so he can prove to be the prettiest girl in school to the point of narcissism.
- Yandere: Satou is a mild example, as are many of those associated with him. Just look at what happened to Yamanaka after he was caught trying to corner and kiss Yoshida. Satou wanted to strangle him to death, only stopping because Yoshida asked him to. And there are rumors that are going around that have made Yamanaka fall from the second most wanted man to an outcast with Torachin as his only companion. Satou is heavily implied to have started 'every single one of them'. Satou will still punch him in the face if he sees him just out of principle.
- Yaoi Genre: The manga focuses on Satou and Yoshida and their budding relationship though interestingly enough, they're identified as demisexual and leaning bisexual respectively instead of outright gay or bi. Played straight with the other two pairings, Yamanaka and Torachin and Nishida and Azuma.
