Ai Ore 1

Mayu Shinjo – Viz – 2011 – 10 volumes

I’ve been looking forward to this series since I started reading Sensual Phrase not too long ago. I can see the appeal of Mayu Shinjo. She knows how to hit all the right shoujo manga buttons. Sensual Phrase is smutty and has some… unlikely story developments, to say the least, but it is a lot of fun to read. But the internet has been in an uproar over this book, and I started really worrying that it was going to be outright offensive, which would be a true shame coming from a writer who so clearly knows her audience.

Akira is a feminine boy who goes to an all-boys school, and Mizuki is a masculine girl who goes to an all-girls school. When the lead singer of Mizuki’s girl band Blaue Rosen leaves, Akira auditions and wins the spot, despite being a boy. Then he does everything he can to get into Mizuki’s pants. Mizuki is uncomfortable with her emotions, to say the least. Gender confusion adds a little spice to the mix. Later, Akira winds up taking part in the all-girls field trip to the hot springs.

I was afraid that Ai Ore had crossed the line into yaoi manga non-con territory, judging by some reviews. While Akira is a persistent jerk, he never outright forces Mizuki into anything, and there are far bigger jerks out there in the world of shoujo manga, ones who care far less about the heroine than Akira. Also, Shinjo has a knack for putting characters into situations that are romantic in her hands, but might be uncomfortable elsewhere. It’s all in the character reactions. Mizuki is embarrassed, but not outright harassed. And maybe I have read too many yaoi manga, so my view of this issue is distorted, but I don’t think it gets close to crossing a line. They don’t even have sex in this volume, though they do get close in one scene. I do think it’s aware of what it’s doing though, judging by some of Mizuki’s early protests that she “doesn’t like men!” while being forcefully courted by Akira, only to find out later that she doesn’t like them because she falls in love easily.

I don’t like Mizuki and Akira anywhere near as much as Aine and Sakuya in Sensual Phrase. While Sakuya and Akira do share some of the same possession and single-mindedness issues, Sakuya is more of a white knight than Akira, and Aine was in love with him from page one, whereas Mizuki needs to be convinced (she’s been in love with him since childhood!) and Akira is being more of a jerk than a romantic. Mizuki is not quite as likable as Aine at this point either, which is sad because there’s not much to Aine outside of her interest in dirty song lyrics and Sakuya. Mizuki is just a little too indecisive, wimpy, and excitable for my tastes. She could eventually develop into someone interesting though, whereas I don’t think Aine ever will.

I’ve read some discussion about Ai Ore as a satire. It does use a lot of shoujo plot devices in interesting ways, and again, I think Shinjo knows what she’s doing and has a lot of fun with them. I doubted this manga briefly, then about halfway through, Akira pinned Mizuki to a table and there was a double-page spread of him saying “Instead of singing about love, drown yourself in me.” It’s the original title of the series, and a terrible line, but Shinjo is like the goddamn manga Shakespeare of crappy shoujo dialogue. She comes up with the worst lines, then uses them in the most amazing ways possible. In context, it’s a game-changer for the characters.

Anyway, I got off track. As much fun as Shinjo is having here, I don’t really think it’s a satire, because it takes itself too seriously. It’s not really making any jokes about its plot or characters, it’s just rolling along with them. It’s a shame that it doesn’t, because at this point, it’s still just a slightly better than average shoujo manga with a lot of the same parts as others.

I was disappointed that more wasn’t done with the gender role reversals. I was excited at the prospect of the “prince of the girls’ school” plot device, because I’ve read too many 70s shoujo manga, but Mizuki and her bandmates… well, there’s nothing feminine about them, and the whole point of that plot device is that the characters are strong female role models. For Mizuki and company, there’s nothing feminine about their demeanors, attitudes, appearance, or personalities. They also wear men’s uniforms at their all-girls school. So if they look like boys, act like boys, dress like boys… why are they “girls”? Even Mizuki, the heroine, is more like a submissive BL character than a girl. It doesn’t matter to me what gender they are, I just can’t figure out why it matters to this series. The same isn’t true of Akira, though, who looks and sometimes acts like a girl, but his personality is all dominant male. That’s slightly more interesting, though he’s still not likable.

And yes, I do have a problem with the end of the book. It’s like Peach Girl all over again. I loved that series so much, but I never really recovered from… well, that.

So what was my opinion of the first volume? So far, I like Sensual Phrase better. I think this could eventually be the better series though, since there’s more room for dynamic characters. I don’t like any of them right now, but I like the book enough that I’ll watch them grow and see what happens. Shinjo’s talk of making Mizuki more and more feminine throughout the series sounds interesting. I’m also disappointed since there was almost no chemistry between Akira and Mizuki here, and that’s the point of a romance manga. But maybe that will change as Mizuki mellows out a little. I’m also hoping for a little more about Blaue Rosen and less… well, hot springs chapters.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.