A little disclaimer before starting: this is my first time writing a review and English is not my first language. Also, I thought this was a single volume series, but apparently there’s a second volume (which I thought that was a separate continuation, since it was called “Joy Second”). I’ve only read the first volume so far, but I can tell this is one of my favorite BL manga ever, that’s why I’m posting this review even though I haven’t actually finished reading it.
I’m fairly new to BL to be quite honest, I’ve only started reading it earlier this year, but I think I’ve read a good amount of titles to know what kind of stories I enjoy more than others.
Joy is a cutesy slice of life kind of manga. The story is sweet and get to see the feelings between the main characters developing as the story progresses.
There’s a tiny bit of angst on it, but it’s not a major theme on this manga.
Our main characters are Go Okazaki, a mangaka that writes shoujo manga under the name Ponko Tsuda, and his assistant, Akune Yuusuke. They’d been working together for a while when Go finds out that Yuusuke is gay. It’s shocking for him at first, but he never has any negative response to it.
Shortly after that discovery, Go decides to accept his editor suggestion of writing a BL manga. After talking to Yuusuke about how it feels to be in love with a man, Go decides to pretend to be in love with him, following what he said. He wants to feel those feelings himself so he can get them on paper. (Despite of what the synopsis here says, they never get to that “fake dating” trope. Go never tells anyone about his plan.)
Besides the “fake” feelings that start to become way too real, we also have some drama with Yuusuke’s friend, Hibiki, who sometimes acts like a hindrance to the main characters’ developing relationship. Also, we see that Go struggles with some self-esteem issues (to which I could relate way too much), and Yuusuke tries to help him overcome that.
I really enjoyed this manga, it was really refreshing to read something that cute, and I think every BL fan should give this title a shot!

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2023: First BL I've read: cute, wholesome, with a bit of an annoying protagonist in the beggining and the miscommunication trope, which turned me off a bit from it.

2025: This impacted me way more the second time I've read it. There is still some things that I find a bit weird in the beginning but overall I related to some of the stuff the protagonist went through.
The second volume fixed some of the issues I had with the first, exploring some of the side characters and the dynamic between the protagonists. Needless to say, I think I enjoyed the first one more. That is a personal opinion though.

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