Content Warning: Sexual content, domestic violence (present in the second story), mentions of animal abuse
Synopsis
Kiriyama Taiyou has to decide what to do with a stray cat when its adoption falls through. When he tries to sneak the cat into his apartment, where pets are forbidden, he is immediately spotted by the building manager, Taira Asahi. Taiyou begs Asahi to take in the cat while Taiyou looks for a forever home; Asahi accepts in exchange for Taiyou being his gofer. The two men grow closer as they spend time together.
A second story in the manga follows a romance between two neighbors living in apartments with balconies that face each other.
The Good
Asahi is hilariously contradictory. He takes care of the building on behalf of the landlord while working as a translator on the side. Yet he’s a massive slob at home. This is where Taiyou comes in. There’s a great panel where Asahi is fist pumping with one hand and holding the cat Nyasuke in the other, while Taiyou is being forced to clean the filthy apartment. Their whole dynamic is right there: Taiyou is a massive pushover, while Asahi has a personality that is sharp, but also still kind. While these personality flaws could ruin a story, Taiyou and Asahi’s imperfections only enhance how relatable they are.
Fuuki Maru is great at dropping hints leading to why Asahi is the way he is. If you’ve ever read a scenario in passing, thought “this sounds like the beginning of a Boys’ Love story,” and then actually have that gut feeling pay off – it’s just perfect when a character reaches the same conclusion as the reader. It was a genuinely painful and delicious twist when Taiyou realized that he had been missing the information that was right in front of him about Asahi’s crush the entire time.
Getting to know Asahi over time feels more impactful because the story is told from Taiyou’s perspective. As the reader, I can see all the cute and soft parts of Asahi hidden under his sharp tongue, and I can understand why Taiyou likes Asahi, even if it takes the two of them a while to sort out their feelings.
Somewhere In Between
Asahi is the “building manager” of Taiyou’s apartment. He’s not the landlord, even if Taiyou mistakes him for one at first. So it’s a little too perfect that Asahi is the only person able to keep a cat in the building, since everyone else that lives there isn’t allowed.
The cat Nyasuke plays a part in helping Taiyou and Asahi get together, but is not the main focus. In one scene, the cat is nearly taken away by an animal abuser, but nothing bad happens in the end.
The second story in the volume, which is titled “My Neighbor with an Eastward Window,” opens on the first page with office worker Amane Youichirou trying to smoke on his balcony at home. Instead he gets an eyeful of his neighbor Izumi Ayato being railed by a man on the balcony. This short manga has Maru’s signature clean art and humor, but is weaker than Laughter in the Sunshine’s main story. People who have experienced retail or customer service hell may not buy the reason that Ayato stays at the job where he met Youichirou. The couple in this story move fast, have many communication problems, and make major relationship moves without thinking through the consequences. It’s frustrating to see this kind of behavior from grown adults, even if they figure it out together at the end. Some people might find this couple’s struggles cute, but I personally think how the second couple solves their main conflict highlights the couple’s incompatibility when compared to the main pair.
The Verdict
Laughter in the Sunshine is a cute BL story with imperfect characters with endearing sides as you slowly peel away their layers. The main story has enjoyable characters and humor, and as long as you don’t sweat the small details, the manga as a whole is a sweet romp with a little drama and spice on the side.
Laughter in the Sunshine is available in print and digitally from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and Indigo.
Credits
Story and Art: Fuuki Maru
Translation: Nomnom Namako
Adaptation: Casper Kazor
Lettering: Giuseppe Antonio Fusco
Cover Design: Mariel Dágá
Copy Editor: B. Lillian Martin
Proofreader: Joshua Hardy
Production Designer: Ria Linn Johnson
Editor: McKenzie Carnahan
Published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment
Thank you to Seven Seas Entertainment for providing a review copy. Receiving this copy did not affect the reviewer’s opinions as expressed here.
Article edited by: Anne Estrada
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