BL Mechanics and Car Shit

Happy Father's Day, people! I'm going to laugh my ass off if I actually release this post on Monday, though, which is definitely happening. Why I thought it would be a good idea to start my Father's Day post way after dark, I'll never know. Oh, well! I've been lazy as hell lately; what are ya gonna do?

I didn't start taking my blog seriously in time to adequately prepare a post worthy of my favorite BL daddies, so you're getting a post about mechanics and whatever car shit in BL comes to mind to commemorate the holiday. Consider it a continuation of the series I mentioned at the end of my baseball yaoi post because feeling out specifically for mechanics in BL is on the niche-ier side.

Spoilers for surprisingly little—maybe Keisuke's good end in Togainu no Chi.

Note: An addendum was made on June 23, 2020 because I forgot the most important car yaoi of all time.

I'm justifying the topic at hand because my dad is a mechanic IRL. His grease-stained clothes and car shop smell from my childhood memories has conditioned my brain to correlate my dad's profession with the idea of fatherhood itself.

I'm pretty proud of my dad's work, too, for it's inherent use and practicality. He can fix tons of stuff besides cars and is a regular at the local junk yard; he's just that kinda guy. Our relationship is a weird and fraught one for lots of complicated reasons, though, so let's get to desecrating my fond reflections with some BL stat!

Scent-Filled Days

The thing that comes to mind when I think about mechanics in my BL orbit. Scent-Filled Days is the opening oneshot in the Body Talk Paradox tankobon, and is its best story if you ask me! The main feature about an introverted gay tattoo artist is pretty good, too, so don't sleep on it, but the other stories besides are just meh.

Scent-Filled Days focuses in on Ryosuke, who works as a mechanic at a family-owned car shop. The shop in question is directly attached to the owner's house, which I mention because the story's main conflict centers around how the owner's son, Kazunari, has started giving Ryosuke major fucking attitude ever since he hit adolescence. We open with Kazunari telling Ryosuke to stay away from him because he stinks.

It's a funny, short story and I recommend it if you're in the mood for something lighthearted and kinda dumb seemingly on purpose, or if you're into older ukes. I just learned that this couple got a spin-off called Retsujou Fragrance. I'm sad af because it hasn't been licensed, nor is anyone scanlating it under the table to my knowledge. Looks like I gotta do things the old-fashioned way and buy the native manga to get the gist of the plot from the pictures: C'est la vie!

Keisuke's Good End (Togainu no Chi)

I like to call this Keisuke's third bad end because I fucking hate Keisuke, but whatever. If you play through this route, our boys end up working as mechanics together. The two share an embrace in dirty coveralls in the CG for this ending. Btw, you know it's a post-apocalyptic world because it's been years and these two still got the same fucking t-shirts on underneath their coveralls. Fs in the comments section.

Sono Suki Honto

Alright, so the mechanic aspect of this one is real incidental, but it's explicitly a car repair shop of some sort where our heroes Hase and Nadaguchi work… I think. Hase meets Nadaguchi's childhood friend because he comes in to get his scooter fixed, and there's a car in the background, so…????

This story is real sweet and not explicit at all from memory. It follows the story of two men who knew each other in high school, "dated" briefly as a result of a punishment game, and become coworkers in the present. The two work through their misunderstandings to cast aside the bitterness and regret they feel about their high school days.

Plus ten points for the fact that this actually shows students working through actual academic info for a millisecond longer than most BL plots that involve peer-to-peer studying or individualized tutoring sessions.

Kitaru Harekake no Ashita yo

I had a hard time deciding whether this story should be included on its own or just get an honorable mention. I would say this story is more about two fix-it men, but they have their own shop slash junk yard dedicated to their work, so I'm allowing it.

How our two heroes Harehito (the mechanic) and Oujirou (computer guy) meet is strange and requires a good deal of belief suspension, but this is a great story about healing through partnership that you won't want to miss. The mangaka's closing remarks explain that she wanted to use the concept of taking in cast offs even if they're broken literally and figuratively in this story. The mission is totally accomplished, but laid on rather thick towards the end. It also features an older uke, younger seme if that's your jam.

For the record, the mangaka for this one is named Ueda Aki, which is 👀👀👀 if you're a Honto Yajuu stan.

Honorable Mentions

You think I would know more BL with car mechanics, but weirdly a lot of mechanics in BL work on planes instead of cars. The following honorable mentions do manage to have some car-related or fix-it man thread that surpasses the "irrelevant" threshold, if just barely.

Okane ga Nai [No Money]

Lmfao this is totally not where I thought Okane ga Nai would be making its debut on my blog, but whatever! The larger story framework is at least in the royal family of tropey (and problematic) BLs: rape slash forced prostitution, non-existent uke autonomy, crazy body proportions, homophobic seme, uke that basically looks like a woman, uke that attracts every not-gay male character somehow; the list really goes on and on.

Anyway, there's a side plot in which one of the Kuba twins, Homare, has to take Ayase, the uke, to a place he used to hang with his car-enthusiast buddies before working at the financial firm Ayase's seme owns. Plenty of car shit to be had, if just for this brief moment in the timeline.

I can't even say I recommend or don't recommend Okane ga Nai as a whole because it was a BL that I read back when I still believed I had to read certain BL titles in order to call myself a fujo, so it was never really a matter of liking it or not. The best way I can describe it is that it's a BL that I periodically revisit just to confirm that it's as bad as I remember… but clearly it's still good enough for me to be willing to reread to check if it's bad??

Benriya-san [Mr. Convenience]

We're using Benriya-san as a synecdoche for all fix-it men BLs because it's so fucking good and an entire volume featuring jacks-of-all-trade, aka "convenience men. Everyone should read it, but I gotta say that I prefer the second story with the detective seme.

The seme from the first story does fix a "car" after it has an "accident," though, thank you very much:

If you like Benriya-san or Kitaru Harekake no Ashita yo, then I bet you would also like Machi no Denkiya-san [Our Town's Electrician], a CJ Michalski two-shot.

Car Shit That Comes to Mind

Just having some fun with it. Drop your favorite car shenanigans in the comments section.

Yashiro's Fucked Driving

Yashiro, masochist yakuza power bottom from Twittering Birds, cannot fucking drive and it kills me. (I relate.) We learn this fun fact a few volumes into the story when Yashiro has to drive himself literally around the corner in the middle of some high-stakes yakuza shit. His shitty driving does a lot to relieve tension at this point in the manga, so it's memorable for how little space it takes up.

Driving Dates

Heroes going on a day trips or short overnight driving trips are a staple in a lot of longer BL series, especially in works by Yamamoto-sensei. There's usually explicit commentary on driving and/or cars during these plot threads, even if it's barely incidental in depth. I've also seen a fair share of these dates featured as an omake in shorter stories. My favorite omake driving date is from Sensei wa Butchozura Shite Yatte Kuru (shown above).

That Car Salesman in Hand Which

Even though it might seem like my favorite mangaka is definitely Yamamoto-sensei based on how much I talk about her on this blog, I always list Suzuki-sensei first when answering this "favorite things" question for a reason. I stanned her for years and I still stan her. I've reread her stuff so many times I remember the most inane details about her work, even if it's been a minute. That a character in Hand Which is a car salesman is one such thing.

At any rate, great BL tankobon, just not my favorite from her, which is almost to be expected because I think it was her first.

Sasucar Vroomchiha and Caruto Cruisemaki

I do not know the origins of this image, either who ran these Naruto x Disney Pixar Cars cross-over roleplay accounts or if they were dead ass or ironic, but we all have to admit no one can top this car yaoi. Iconic.

Anyway, what memes did y'all send your dads yesterday? My dad got these:

Fun fact: My dad basically learned English from my mom, so he says the funniest shit all the time. His emoji game is very powerful, as you can see.

See you on the other side of my last big work-related writing project of the year… I cannot wait.

Notes

Post History

This post was migrated from WordPress to Neocities site version 3.0 formatting in May 2025. Some minor grammatical changes were made during the transition.