i love good manga recommendations. Yellow was also rather well balanced.
I think the smoking/drinking thing is a cultural gender-stereotyping and bad boy combo. most manga (and i know, not all) stick rather closely to traditional gender roles. MARS, which was a heterosexual relationship but still awesome, was very similar. he guy smokes and drinks to what seems to the Japanese extrodinary levels.
remember, when water was too impure to drink, the British (and therefore american by proxy) invented beer and spirits. the Asian's invented tea. there's your cultural shift.