Manga-ka: Saki Okuse
Publisher: Boysenberry
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: July 2008

Synopsis: “Tsubasa is half human, half angel. Determined to become a full angel, he needs to earn love points match-making as a cupid and his big chance’s arrived: he is given a mission that should be easy to complete. But problems arise when he goes to see his target, an evil manga named Norimasa who uses women for money. Although Tsubasa is able to shoot an arrow at Norisama, he accidently pokes himself with the other arrow!”

Delivery Cupid is a collection of boys’ love short stories, many of which following a fantasy vein of cupids and love arrows. The title story is about a young half-angel named Tsubasa, who seeks to earn full angel status by bringing love to humans through a little cupid magic. Things take a twist however when he’s accidentally given a top-ranking assignment, finding himself face to face with a womanizing sex-fiend out for a good time and profit. But when an accident with an arrow leaves them both love-struck, it doesn’t look like Tsubasa is going to get his angel wings after all!

The title story makes up 42 pages of the 210 in this release. Following it are a collection of vaguely related short stories, most with two connecting characters, the God of love and his secretary (of sorts). Each story is short but sweet and moves along at about the same pace: guy falls in love with other guy and by end finds out that the guy of his affection has actually loved him as well, sex ensues. It’s a predictable formula, but it works, so it’s hard to complain. There’s nothing really to substantial to any of the stories, but they’re all too short for it to really matter and have a fun, cuteness factor that makes up for it.

I really like CJ Michalski’s artwork, which is the reason I picked up this title. I really like the way CJ draws the larger men so masculine while the smaller guys are so round and cute without looking underage (by manga standards), unless that’s what the manga-ka is going for which in other stories is sometimes the case (underage = no!). Delivery Cupid is no exception to the reasons I love the style, with manly men and cute guys all over each other with hugs, kisses and… well, you know. The style is really consistent, which on a downside does cause some overuse of very similar character designs, but there’s enough variety in this collection to keep things easy to follow.

I’d also fallen in love with Boysenberry’s work on this book. It’s my first title by them and I was certainly not disappointed by the quality. The translation was good, the font easy to read and neatly placed, clean sound effect translations and the interior printing is bright and crisp. On top of that, every page (that wouldn’t cause impact on the art) is numbered and the individual stories have listed which anthologies and date they were initially published in. The covers of the book are designed with sleek and simple in mind and the whole book has a really nice weight and feel to it. I hope they license more titles I’d like because if they maintain this quality, then I’m sold!

So good publishing, attractive artwork and a collection of short stories that makes for some good giggles and grins, makes Delivery Cupid a light-hearted read that I really enjoyed. Recommended for boys’ love fans looking for a nicely condensed assortment of fun and fluff.

Review written September 3, 2008 by Lissa Pattillo.
Book purchased from vendor at Fan Expo 2008

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About the Author: Lissa Pattillo

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.