Shunta and Tamaki are one year apart, but they've kept up their friendship even as they attend different schools. Tamaki is amiable and laughs often, and Shunta loves to see his friend happy. But one day, Shunta comes across Tamaki crying, and something fundamental changes within him, awakening sexual feelings he doesn't know what to do with.

Shunta realizes that his feelings are not typical. They're monstrous. Impure. As the two navigate high school, the lines they cross increase, forcing them to contend with Shunta's growing feelings and Tamaki's own desires.

Forest of the Rabbits has a story by and art by Enjō. English translation is done by EC Renne and lettering by Rebecca Sze. Published by Viz Media (July 14, 2026). Rated M.

Content Warning: child abuse

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Tamaki may have kissed Shunta first, but that doesn't mean anything. First of all, they were in the first grade, so arguably neither of them really knew much about romantic love. But more importantly, Tamaki's kiss, and his statements to Shunta about how kissing is something you do with the person you love, is an indicator of something very wrong in his home life. Shunta argues back that there are different kinds of love, but Tamaki insists that he kisses his mom, so no there aren't. When the scene first occurs, it's easy to just brush it off as differences in family culture; maybe Tamaki's family is just more physically affectionate. But as the story goes on, it's clear that this isn't a cultural difference, it's a warning sign that things are not okay in Tamaki's home life.

Although this is definitely a romance and Shunta absolutely develops romantic and sexual feelings for Tamaki as they get older, it's also about how things can go wrong in a child's life. Shunta's biggest worry is that he's in love with his best friend; his family is otherwise very functional. But when the boys are still in elementary school, Shunta finds Tamaki sitting outside his dark apartment. Later, when they're in middle school, he hears what he thinks is porn when Tamaki opens his apartment door. By the time we get a flashback chapter from Tamaki's point of view, he's been spending most of his time at Shunta's house so that it's not really a surprise to see that his mother has sex in front of her child and allows her boyfriends (or clients; she may be a sex worker) to interact with her young son to the point where one pulls open the boy's pants. Shunta thinks that Tamaki either is straight or maybe asexual (although he never uses that word and seems confused by the concept), but to readers with a broader knowledge base, it looks like his childhood has made Tamaki sex-avoidant, which is something entirely different from naturally having an ace-spectrum orientation.

This isn't a particularly comfortable book to read, as you can guess. Shunta is trying to understand, but he doesn't have the maturity to. Tamaki is uncomfortable with Shunta's feelings for him because he's never seen that work out for anyone, plus he has at least a bit of internalized homophobia and thinks he needs to try to be “better with” girls. Shunta risks upsetting Tamaki on a deeper level than he knows by pursuing his friend, and Tamaki is just uncomfortable all the time and trying to cope with it.

But despite this, I do think the story is trying its best. By starting to talk about their feelings, Tamaki and Shunta are making the first steps in the right direction, even if they don't entirely understand that. If Shunta can learn how best to support Tamaki, even if that means just being his friend with no other feelings involved, this could be heading towards a cathartic ending. I'm not sure I entirely trust it to get there, but I also think I now need to find out.

Bolts
Rating:

This is probably the first time I've read a story that portrays a character's sexual awakening from such a young age. The idea of two childhood friends developing their sexual taste since they were very young is very interesting, especially when it's portrayed innocently. Or rather, one character's attachment to his best friend and realizing that he was gay is portrayed innocently, especially when he has to reconcile with how difficult those feelings might become as he enters adolescence. I like the fact that it feels like a slow but natural burn, and while Shunta definitely can be a bit selfish with these realizations about himself, it never crosses the line into unsettling or uncomfortable territory. In fact, a lot of this is framed no differently than how a lot of romances portray a childhood friend falling in love with his girl neighbor in a heteronormative way. The only difference is that it's two boys, so I have a lot of respect for that.

However, Shunta's story is only made more interesting by how it contrasts Tamaki's story. Tamaki is a character who is on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, where he is having his sexual interests and proclivities repressed his whole young life. I love how real this story gets with regards to how an unstable home life and upbringing can hurt a person's healthy sexual exploration. There was a scene in this book that genuinely felt difficult to read, not because I thought it was relatable, but because of how unsettling and unnatural it was.

This story leans into the idea that people can feel guilty for feeling certain things after they witness the extreme toxicity of those traits manifested in other people. What I find the most interesting is that this story creates a situation where being heteronormative is almost framed in a similar way to how people would villainize being gay because it was seen as inherently dysfunctional. Any relationship can be messy, and when that mess is put in front of an impressionable kid, they can start thinking in extremes to avoid those situations.

I love the way these two childhood friends go in completely separate directions and yet their journeys still mirror each other to develop their romance. It's natural, and it is incredibly uncomfortable, but it feels real, almost like these two needed to have these conversations or explore these things with each other for the sake of healthy sexual exploration. This is a really thoughtful and engaging story that can be equal parts sweet as it is unsettling. Please give it a read. I really want to know what happens next. It doesn't even matter if these young adolescent boys get together in the end because that's almost not as important as them learning more about themselves.