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Lily Hoshino’s Love Quest begins with that most Japanese of high school traditions: the love confession. Since this is a yaoi manga, it will come as a surprise to readers that the confession is made by a boy, to a…girl?! Never fear though- this is the only brief flicker of heterosexuality anywhere in this manga.

Unfortunately for high student Akabane, the object of his affections turns him down, saying she likes a guy named Moriya better. Furious Akabane goes in search of this Moriya fellow. The moment they meet, however, the sidewalk suddenly opens and swallows them whole.

They land in the middle of a forest (one, of course, coming to rest in a suggestive position atop the other). Almost immediately they are menaced by a huge dragon/dinosaur, but are rescued by a half-naked warrior woman. Marion can teleport the trio away from danger, but her magic energy needs a boost- a boost that can only be provided when two humans from our world exchange bodily fluids. Moriya doesn’t mind French-kissing a dude, but Akabane’s not too keen on it…at first.

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1001 Nights (or Arabian Nights) is a collection of stories gathered over many years by Middle Eastern scholars. The stories themselves are less famous than the framing tale in which they were placed: Shahryar, a mad sultan, begins taking girls into his harem, spending one night with them, and then having them executed in the morning. Scheherazade is a brave woman who agrees to stay with the sultan. But that first night she begins telling him a story…fascinated by her endless collection of tales, the sultan keeps her alive so he can hear more.

Jeon Jin-seok sets his manhwa of the same title in the same place, and with the same sultan. In the Middle East, sometime during or just after the Crusades, and unnamed country is ruled by the young sultan Shahryar. After a nasty experience with an unfaithful wife, Sharyar creates a rigid schedule: Every night he has a lovely young virgin brought to his palace; he sleeps with her and, in the morning, has her beheaded. Even crueler, the women are made well aware of their fate beforehand.

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