Midnight Stranger, Vol. 2 (Yaoi Manga): The Trouble with Strangers

Roi is back, along with his fiery-tempered master Xiu. The two have settled down to domesticity. But their love affair is far from smooth.Roi still retains a determination to help human beings. In spite of the fact that it lands him in trouble again, he doesn’t waver from aiding human beings. Xiu has learned to accept this—grudgingly—as well as his allegiance to Roi’s little human friend, the boy Masato. The manga charmingly winds their love affair through dealings with human beings, as Roi combats demonic entities, an angry ice goddess and Xiu’s own insecurities.It’s the latter that makes this graphic novel so fetching. In the first novel, it was mainly Roi who suffered from self-doubt. Now it is Xiu-Sama who wonders if Roi would prefer to be with his human charges rather than stick with his master. It brings a touching vulnerability to the fire god as he literally worries himself sick over his fears that Roi would abandon him.The main story is accompanied by a short that deals with an uncle and his forbidden affair with his nephew, a willful, handsome youth. Incestuous pairings are common in manga and love among family members is something I’ve encountered in the past. The subject is handled with a certain amount of guilt and yet there is no coercion or subjugation involved. However, if this kind of thing makes you queasy, avoid this manga.All in all, the relationships are tender, the sexual images of gorgeous men are worth drooling over and the stories run the emotional gamut. I liked this a lot and it’s a satisfying conclusion to this short series.

I really loved the first "Midnight Stranger" (which was actually my first foray into yaoi manga), so I, of course, had to pick up Vol. 2. I didn't get around to reading it for awhile, though, due to being busy and whatnot...but now I've finally returned to give it a proper reading!First off, the story starts off with a brief recap of the first volume, but then it pretty much picks up from there as a true sequel. This means that if you haven't read the first book, you'll likely be a bit confused because the story here references characters, events, and settings from the first volume. Story-wise, it's just as fluffy as the first book, and while there's a bit of tension, everything feels pretty cute and safe overall. I quite enjoy fluffy stories sometimes, and I enjoyed it here. As for the characters' personalities, I can't really say that they have developed much – Roi still has a bit of an inferiority complex, and Xiu is still just a little arrogant. Oh well, for the fluffy story it is, it's not so bad.On the negative side, I feel like this volume wasn't quite as good as the first one. The little mini-stories involved didn't seem to feel quite as compelling as the ones in the first book, at least in my opinion. Speaking of which, there is another inexplicable bonus story in here, too, which I actually felt was more compelling than the rest of the book. It features the (consensual) relationship between an uncle and his nephew. I personally found it very sweet, but I have a higher tolerance for 'unusual' relationships in fiction than most people, so you may wish to steer clear if that sort of thing offends you. Another negative I can point out is the censorship of the artwork. In the first book, the sex scenes were somewhat censored due to the use of creative angles to cover the naughty bits for the most part, but here the censorship is just irritating. There were scenes where a penis was literally shown, but instead of being drawn in, it was just a blank white space outline of a shape. It was really obvious and jarring to the artwork, and I really didn't care for it.Well, overall, I still enjoyed this book despite its few flaws. According to the ending, it seems this is the conclusion of this story, and while that's a bit of a shame, I do understand why that is. It does seem while this could have gone on forever with lots of tiny little developments, I'm glad the author chose to end it on a positive note before she ran out of steam with it and it got too lackluster. I daresay it's better to end on a high note than to let a series get stale. Either way, I'm hooked on her work now, and have even gone back and bought a couple of her other English releases (Three Wolves Mountain, and Yokai's Hunger). If she releases any other books in English, I'll surely pick them up! As for this book, if you are interested in yaoi, or this author's works in general, I'd definitely start with Volume 1 - it's cute and sweet and you'll probably enjoy it!

The ending was sweet. My only complaint is that there aren't more. The artist is no more shy in this volume. Than the first. Infact less so. The characters are charming and relatable.

it completed the series for me.

I really like this series. Xiu and Roi are both really cute in their interactions and respective insecurities, and the plot, while not very deep, is mostly sweet, a little angsty, but overall not too intense (you always know things are going to be fine). Sad that this is allegedly the end of it, because these two are very cute together (as are the side couple they interact with).I have the same problem with this volume, however, that I had with the fist. There is an unrelated story at the end and I did not like it. It was VERY dark and not at all what I was into. It depicts the (at least consensual) sexual relationship between an older man and the nephew he has practically raised and that was just so not okay for me. It did not fit with the sweet feeling or loving tone of the Midnight Stranger series and was much, much darker and more serious.My advice is buy it for the main story and skip the bonus story, unless that's something you want to read I guess?

still great story line... mini episode of uncle and nephew was abit much for me(not a fan) but the main story is awesome

A good series with something for everyone.

I wish there was more of this lovely manga

I love Bohra Naono, she's one of my favourite mangaka! so it's great to actually see one of her works published in English!Sadly, it is edited when it comes to the sex scenes. but the publishers looked like they tried to keep it as little as possible.

I've adored this series from the moment I've read the first pages, it's definitely one of Naono Bohra's best works...and an absolutely must-read even for those who are just approaching the yaoi genre.

Good art and story. This builds on the previous novel and introduces new characters and challenges.

Le livre est moyennent épais au niveau du poids. Très jolie illustration en couleur comme page de couverture ! L'histoire est intéressante mais dommage que l'auteur est décidée de mettre des petites histoires dans l'histoire principale afin de compenser le peu de pages à celle-ci ! Le graphisme reste fidèle au style de l'auteur. Intéressante mais déçue à la fin

The shipping was really fast and this is an amazing book!