Blue Exorcist 2
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Blue Exorcist 1 Comment »Kazue Kato – Viz – 2011 – 8+ volumes
Okay, I’m ridiculously addicted to this series. I liked volume two so much that I left work on my lunchbreak and went to a bookstore to buy the two volumes I didn’t have. And I work at a bookstore. It’s hard to justify spending my lunchbreak driving to another bookstore and buying something there, but for Blue Exorcist, I did it. It was that good.
This gets more into the story of the True Cross Academy and the exorcist cram school, introducing the other students and showing a little bit of how Rin keeps his true nature hidden from them. But mostly its a nice, gentle introduction to the other characters, including Izumo, Ryuji, and a little bit more about Shiemi. Kato is quite gifted at balancing all the characters and giving them equal parts in the story without overwhelming the reader or, really, branching the fights off too much to give the characters a chance to shine with their “specialty.” I really like the exorcist training theme, because each of the characters has a strength, and a role to play in battle, so they help each other out against one enemy instead of facing four or five different enemies split over six volumes or whatever Bleach does.
And while balancing the side characters, the emphasis hasn’t shifted away from Rin, either. His secret keeps coming up, and every time he can do something others can’t, it’s a tense moment, wondering if the other characters will give it much thought. There’s a strange scene in this volume where the other students test to see if they can summon demons and fight as a Tamer Exorcist, and for whatever reason, Rin completely doesn’t do this. I wonder if this will come up later.
I have to say, I love that Rin and Yukio are twin brothers, too. They don’t seem particularly close, and yet, they are brothers that seem willing to stand up for one another. Yukio has a massive inferiority complex despite being a good enough exorcist to be the freaking teacher at the training academy, and I think that will be a problem later, too. But I like that they have completely opposite personalities, and that always seems to lend itself to a lot of banter.
Honestly? I really like Rin. He’s clearly the Monkey D. Luffy of the story, super-powerful, able to gather allies like nobody’s business, and dumb as a brick. The last quality works against Rin more than it does Luffy, since Blue Exorcist takes place at a school, but it’s really hard not to like characters like Rin.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a shounen manga I’ve been into as much as this. Blue Exorcist is definitely something special, and definitely worth a read if you’re a shounen fan that haven’t picked it up already.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Black Jack 15
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Black Jack Leave a comment »Osamu Tezuka – Vertical – 2011 – 17 volumes
The last volume of Black Jack has come out since the last time I talked about it here. I need to catch up. Writing these up is difficult, and for very good reason.
There is a story in here about a little boy that sprouts green buds all over his body. His brother calls Black Jack, and shortly, the little boy turns into a full-on cactus man. Black Jack removes a parasitic Brazilian cactus. The little boy is okay.
The story after this is about a girl suffering from anemia. Her teacher is concerned, so she goes for a home visit to see her parents. At the mansion they live in, the teacher runs into Black Jack, who insists the family is after her blood. There is an elaborate medical reason for this. The head of the family is staked at the end of the story.
The next story is about medical cadavers. Where they come from, who they are, how they wind up at medical school. There’s a story about a medical student struggling over why he should be a doctor, and another one about a thankful prisoner on death row.
What am I supposed to say about that?! I mean, the stories are all good. Every single one of them is a great read. The bizarre cactus boy. The vampire story. The sensitive story about medical cadavers. All of them are amazing reads. Every single one of them is bizarre in its way, whether because the story is outlandish in any context, outlandish in the context of Black Jack, or outlandish because it’s a sensitive story that followed two completely insane ones. Reading every book in this series is an amazing roller coaster ride, and you literally have no idea where any of these stories are going or what the turn of a page will bring. It’s truly an experience.
And that’s about all the elaboration this volume needs, I think. Black Jack is pretty much a must read for anyone, whether you read manga or not. It’s just great.
Love Pistols 1
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Love Pistols | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Tarako Kotobuki – SuBLime – 2012 – 6+ volumes
I hate myself a little bit for even entertaining the idea of reading this series. I’ve read the first four volumes before, but I thought I’d wait to talk about it until the SuBLime edition came out. Mostly as a procrastination measure. You can read it digitally on their site, no print edition has been planned yet. I couldn’t tell you what momentary impulse made me pick this up in the first place, or even read four volumes of it. But the part I’m most ashamed of is that I kinda like it. It’s the concepts that terrify me, but to be fair, Kotobuki’s execution is pretty great. She takes these bizarre concepts and pulls them off.
In the world of Love Pistols, there is a race of people called zoomans (high five for the pun!). Most humans evolved from primates, but zoomans evolved from other animals, including cats, dogs, dragons, snakes, bears, et cetera. A regular primate human cannot detect the animal soul of zoomans, but zoomans can sense another zooman, and which animal soul they possess.
Primate humans can’t tell that there are zoomans, but their special power is that they have no problem reproducing. Zoomans have trouble conceiving amongst themselves, and a primate partner will always produce a primate human, so zoomans are quite rare. There are also three different “classes” for each of the zooman animals, and the more powerful and rare the zooman soul is, the harder it is for them to conceive a child like them. The characters don’t really have animal powers or anything like that, but they do rely on powerful animal instincts when it comes to choosing a partner. And they are obsessed with procreation.
If this wasn’t weird enough for you, keep in mind that this is a yaoi manga, so the partners are all male. Males obsessed with fathering children. So yeah. It goes there. It’s only mentioned in volume one. It’s explained later. I don’t like it at all. It puts me off horribly. But I read it anyway, because it’s strangely compelling.
The first volume is about Norio and Kunimasa. The story starts with Norio suddenly seeing everyone in the world as animals, and landing in the predicament of having every single person he meets fall passionately in love with him. After being relentlessly pursued by giant bear-man Kunimasa and sexually harassed by Kunimasa, Kunimasa explains that Norio is a type of zooman called a “missing link.” Missing links are from primate human families that have a zooman somewhere in their background. Sometimes, a missing link will develop, like Norio, who has his ancestor’s cat soul, but the fertility of a regular primate zooman. For whatever reason, this makes Norio extraordinarily sexually desirable for both zoomans and humans of both genders. Norio, despite being completely straight, finds himself with a great deal of sexual attraction towards Kunimasa. Kunimasa, an asshole, makes all the time he can for Norio as well, but refuses to commit in a relationship, or even admit that he wants to have sex with Norio for any other reason aside from procreation.
They resolve their problems eventually, and there’s another storyline involving Kunimasa’s brother Yonekuni and a classmate of his. What the relationships boil down to is that zoomans are controlled a great deal by animal instincts, and in the case of Kunimasa and Norio, despite the fact that those two don’t even really like each other, there’s not a whole lot they can do about the fact that they are only sexually attracted to each other once they meet. Things work out after this is resolved, but I like that the two characters are bound together like that. Love Pistols tends to move from couple to couple, rather than focusing on Kunimasa and Norio, and most of the couples have problems like that. It makes for an interesting read in that way.
But yes. It is all sorts of crazy. Amazingly, as confusing as all my explanations are, Kotobuki’s in-text explanations are not. She actually designs a lot of charts and children’s books for Norio that make things easy to figure out and simple to remember. I had to refer to the chart again and again the first time I read the series, but it’s included with every volume (as far as I remember), and surprisingly, it doesn’t really take me out of the story. Even more shocking, is that all this zooman nonsense works in the context of the story she’s writing. It’s… weirdly not forced. It is batshit insane, and she does use a lot of weird humor to make everything work, but it works. That doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with the read, or the reproductive angle of the whole thing, but I’m still reading it, because it’s worth it.
So yes. I find I have to give it a very cautionary, shamefaced thumbs up. You can see why I would hate myself for liking it, but it is a pretty good story. Perhaps better than most, for making all that craziness work for it. It’s not the most sensitive, or the best, or even really respectful towards the characters at all. But it is different.
Natsume’s Book of Friends 5
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Natsume's Book of Friends 1 Comment »Yuki Midorikawa – Viz – 2011 – 13+ volumes
This is my favorite volume of this series, and I have to say, it will be hard to surpass. There are three stories in this volume, all of them the same sort of quiet, enthralling monster encounters that show you just a bit more of Nyanko-sensei and Natsume every time. I also like that yokai are both good and bad in these stories. Sometimes bad, but misunderstood, other times simply evil, and sometimes they just want to be friends. They’re always just a little quirky, be they mermaids, gigantic monsters, or little guys that seem to scare everyone with their mustache. Chobi Mustache was my favorite in this volume, simply because he hung around far longer than necessary, and everyone screamed when they saw his face and adorable mustache.
The first story is about a mermaid and a little-girl-turned-old-woman. I’m fond of Japanese mermaid legends, and I was fairly excited when the story introduced the myth of mermaid flesh here, that one who consumes blood and flesh can live forever. It turns the story around, though, since the little girl asks for it for someone else, and then the mermaid turns it around one more time in the end. The moral of the story, though, is that once again lonely humans and yokai are finding each other, becoming friends, and parting. Leaving off on Nyanko-sensei and Natsume on the last pages of these stories is always a little hard to take.
The second story introduces Taki, a girl in Natsume’s class who can draw spell circles that, if yokai step into them, make them visible to her. This is also the story with Chobi Mustache, who comes into the story when he tries to get Natsume to convince Taki to stop drawing the spell circles. Chobi Mustache serves absolutely no purpose after that, but hangs around anyway and is more or less a friend by the end of the story. I love characters like Chobi Mustache, especially that they’re given cute nicknames like that due to the nature of the binding contract a yokai’s real name can make.
Anyway, Taki’s story is a sad one. A yokai that wandered into her circle one day cursed her so that, in a year’s time, the last 11 people whose names she’s called will be killed. She inadvertently calls Natsume’s name, so he’s drawn in to helping her find this yokai. The yokai is unrepentantly evil and human-hating, and at one point he blinds Natsume from seeing yokai. There’s a rather heartbreaking scene where Nyanko-sensei transforms into his yokai form, and the two of them sit in Natsume’s room, Natsume unable to see him and Nyanko-sensei remaining silent. Anyway, both Taki and Chobi Mustache come out the other end of this story as reoccurring characters.
The third story is about the couple Natsume lives with, specifically his uncle. The house is cursed by a yokai, and his uncle reveals that the strange “hauntings” have happened before, and when he was younger, a lonely, eccentric girl (who is almost certainly Reiko Natsume, the owner of the Book of Friends) put a stop to it. Natsume still can’t tell the couple about what he sees, for fear of being ostracized once again, but he does want to protect them from the yokai that haunts their house. Again, it’s a good story, but also a little sad, a little touching, and it develops the relationship between Natsume and the couple just a little bit more. It was also really nice to see Reiko Natsume in action, after hearing so much about her. She’s also a sad, lonely person, but doesn’t show it too much in this story.
There’s a short story at the end of the book that re-introduces Tanuma, the priest/classmate that can also sense Yokai. Tanuma tries to get closer to Natsume in this story, but makes the observation that what Natsume sees means that he lives in a world that is completely separate from the one everyone else lives in, and one that Natsume isn’t willing to open up about to other humans. It somehow makes Natsume an even sadder character, but it’s nice that so many humans and yokai are now in his circle of friends, most of them exactly like Tanuma, wanting to simply be there for him.
It’s a beautiful series, and this volume is just about the best example of why. I love that more and more characters are coming in and out of the story now, and yet there aren’t too many to remember. They are simply people, and we don’t have to remember their entire backstory, or really, anything about them. They are simply friends. As are the yokai.
Future Diary 9
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Future Diary Leave a comment »Sakae Esuno – Tokyopop – 2011 – 12 volumes
This volume is all about trying to figure out what kind of diary 12th has. It’s a huge mystery, though it’s obvious from fairly early on that his diary is somehow omnipotent. Aside from that, unusually, the focus shifts to Uryu. She has been a persistent minor character throughout the whole series, and I’m surprised she’s lasted as long as she has. I was even more surprised when this volume developed her character as much as it did.
12th collaborates with the matronly diary user and a supercomputer in an attempt to give every citizen in the city a future diary of some kind. Uryu tries to stop him, as does Nishijima, the cop. Nishijima has a rather shocking and very persistent confession to make to Uryu. Said confession is not really in the spirit of the series, and hilarious out-of-place during the lengthy action scene that takes up this entire volume. After trying to blow up the computer that would serve a future diary to all the citizens, Yuno and Yukiteru show up to try and help her stop 12th. Dropping Yuno into any action scene makes it way more horrifically gory than it needs to be, and things get quite ugly as both 12th and team Yuno/Yukiter/Uryu attempts to one-up each other.
At the end, all the diary owners are still standing, though some are not exactly whole. I won’t lie, I’m only writing this up so that I can move on to volume ten. The fact that the conclusion to this series will never be released in English is horrible, and again, I lament the death of Tokyopop. I’m going to read volume ten, and hope that some sort of groundwork will be laid for an ending that will last for two volumes. Then I’m going to have to buy the last two volumes in Japanese, because I will need to know how this ends. This series is so crazy, I doubt it has a happy ending. And, in fact, it probably doesn’t, since the main character’s wish is to bring his dead parents back to life, and that will never happen. All the same, I NEED TO KNOW.
Arata: The Legend 8
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Arata: The Legend Leave a comment »Yuu Watase – Viz – 2011 – 13+ volumes
Hm. This volume lost me a bit. Granted, I’m not the most faithful reader of this series. I’ve only read three of the last four volumes. But still, I’ve read enough that I should be able to follow along. It is a fun series, and I tend to like it when I pick it up, but this was mostly a shounen battle, with Arata Hinohara and his party approaching one of the Shinsho and the various battles associated with that. There’s lots of caring involved, with some of the major plot points revolving around Kanate in particular, and Mikusa to a lesser extent. And as big an event as the Kanate storyline was… it moved too fast, and I just didn’t like Kanate enough for that to have had as big an impact as it should. To me, he’s mostly just a plucky group member. I have no opinion on whether he stays or goes. Granted, this was the most elaborate thing that could have happened to a side character, but still. It brought the story to a grinding halt, and I just didn’t enjoy it that much.
I can’t say much more than that about Kanate. I’ve probably said too much already, but I don’t want to spoil this volume for those who do enjoy the series. There’s major goings-on, to be sure, but as a casual reader, I couldn’t get into it. Fans will almost certainly enjoy it, though.
Similarly, this volume has a lot to do with the Shisho of wind and his Zokusho, and the weight of what it means to be a Sho and who Arata can subjugate, et cetera. Again, maybe it’s just because I don’t read the series super-regularly, but I was having trouble keeping the terms straight. This is likely my fault, since there are Shinsho and Zokusho under them, and there’s not much more than that to it. But there are a lot of people tied up with the Shinsho of wind, all of them have titles, and it’s a little hard to keep everything straight.
The Zokusho of wind himself was pretty entertaining. He labors under some sort of curse, and has an aversion to men, which means that the Arata party has to sneak in disguised as women. Arata, of course, gets into the most humorous situation possible under those circumstances. It’s cute, if not entirely unexpected.
I was a little sad that there wasn’t more Arata-in-the-present for us to see. I kinda get that Arata Hinohara is the one having the adventure, but I like the idea of the story being split between the two. This isn’t a new development, though, as there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of Arata-in-the-present in the volumes I’ve read.
Usually I enjoy these volumes, but this one has me on the fence. Even with the good ones, I don’t like the story quite enough to follow it regularly, so when a volume like this involves the side characters and introduces a lot of incidental enemy characters, I have trouble following along and my feelings cool even more. I don’t think I’ll ever be a fan of this, but I’m willing to admit that it’s likely just a matter of taste. I do like this far better than other Watase series I’ve read (with the exception of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden), so if the plot sounds appealing, you’ll probably like it. It’s not really for me, though.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Ratman 3
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Ratman Leave a comment »Sekihiko Inui – Tokyopop – 2011 – 9+ volumes
Ugh. I’m still not over the death of Tokyopop. I had forgotten I hadn’t written up the second half of this series here, which is an oversight I plan to rectify immediately. It absolutely deserves to be read.
The first storyline in the volume continues from last time, where Shuto is fighting Ankaiser and is horribly disillusioned about professional heroes. He is also completely outclassed by Ankaiser, a professional hero. Good thing that the Ratman suit has its own innate, and really terrifying abilities. Seriously. The mouth on that thing gives me nightmares. The abilities aren’t particularly benevolent, or something that Shuto would be happy about, but they do get the job done.
There’s a bit more about Shuto being on the fence on the Ratman situation, too. Crea tells him he’s basically at the point of no return, but Shuto chooses once again to be a hero-villain, complete with awesome line. The post-fight Ratman discussions take place at the hospital, and involve both of the girls from Shuto’s school as well. The whole hospital scene is a bit of a character-building moment, and is nicely handled.
There’s a short story after this, mostly silly, about Shuto finding a limited edition hero collectible and getting it stolen by rampant thieves in Akihabara. We get to meet the holy maids that patrol the area, and see that they’re a kind of hero, too. Best of all, we get to see Shuto and Rio geek out about hero collectibles again, which is always a treat. Later, we’re introduced to the hero Fatman. He’s a mascot for a Pizza chain, and a hero. Shuto gets to meet him and his sister, and they have a nice little hero adventure together. There’s another Rio story in the back, too.
Mostly, it’s the sense of humor mixed with the inherent silliness of heroes and the story’s ability to still make them look cool at the right time that endears me to this series. It’s hard not to laugh at all the strange heroes, but it’s even harder not to get caught up when a serious fight is going on. Things never get too terribly serious, but it’s just enough to enjoy what’s going on.
I haven’t really done this book much justice, but it really is an enjoyable read. I’m crushed that we’ll never get to see the rest of it, but in the meantime, the first four volumes are more than worth your time.
Mars 9
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Mars Leave a comment »Fuyumi Soryo – Tokyopop – 2003 – 15 volumes
The House of 1,000 Manga column this week covers Mars, courtesy of Shaenon Garrity. It’s an awesome series, and that article pretty much sums up why better than I ever could. It reminded me I hadn’t written it up here in awhile. I finished it some time ago, but was having trouble tackling the volumes after the fact (one of the reasons I tend to write things up as I read them… but Mars was so good). I figured now was as good a time as any to try and finish it up here.
So, this volume. Parent issues. Kira’s issues figure largely in this volume, though Rei’s stepmother shows up at the end of the volume, promising us his time will come. Which is fairly obvious, considering he lives in a run-down apartment and supports himself. But Kira’s are enough to occupy us for the time being.
Again, I strenuously disagree with the decision made by Kira’s parents last volume. For me, this series is fairly realistic, and does a good job of portraying Rei and Kira’s feelings extremely vividly through well-written, well-considered conversation, facial expressions, actions, and the sensitive artwork in general. It blew my mind when the secondary characters seemed okay with an extraordinary violation of Kira’s well-being. It’s annoying that, by this volume, Kira is trying to be okay with it too, because she really shouldn’t be. It was even more annoying that the justification was that her mother was too sick, and needed the support. She really shouldn’t have to self-sacrifice in that situation. She should be able to get the hell out.
That’s not even really the main issue in this volume, though. The main issue is that Rei can’t deal with not having a physical relationship with Kira. From his perspective, if their relationship can’t progress any further, why bother? As callous as this sounds, the story actually treats it with quite a bit of respect. Rei is genuinely hurt by the fact he can’t get close to Kira, and he goes through quite a bit trying to separate himself from her. Kira is worse off, however, since she has put herself in a bad situation that she was relying on emotional support from Rei to get through. Plus, she doesn’t want to break up with Rei. You know.
This volume is actually painful to read, since it goes through quite a bit from Rei’s perspective without offering his thoughts. He goes through the motions of being with women, trying to find a date, et cetera, all without telling anyone how he really feels. Again, while it seems rather harsh to sympathize with Rei in this situation, the volume does a good job of showing his side, and the fact that I did speaks a lot towards the writing. And again, it’s not really belittling Kira at all. Rei’s just doing more while she’s playing a waiting and regretting game.
Basically, this series is still an amazing read, and I’m glad we’re slowly getting through the rather distasteful section of story. That the plot will inevitably shift back to Rei’s family after this is something I’m not really looking forward to, but all the same, it will still be an amazing drama that will be worth the read.
Blue Exorcist 1
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: Blue Exorcist Leave a comment »Kazue Kato – Viz – 2011 – 8+ volumes
Honestly? I knew better than to pick this book up. Demons? Fighting demons? Slightly quirky art? The main character is the son of Satan? This series practically has my name on it. It’s a wonder I held out as long as I did.
So yes, that’s the premise. Rin is a scrappy young lad raised in a monastery with his twin brother. Rin gets into a lot of fights, but stands up for what he believes in. His guardian, Father Fujimoto, gets on his case about his fights, and wants him to get a real job. Rin grudgingly listens to Father Fujimoto, and goes to the interview he arranges, but along the way, he gets into yet another fight and is nearly eaten by what appears to be a demon. Father Fujimoto shows up to exorcise the demon, but then drops a hard truth on Rin: Rin is not a normal human, but the son of Satan, and he needs to get away from Father Fujimoto as soon as possible. Rin gets upset at first, but something terrible does indeed happen to Father Fujimoto. Resolved to become someone who eliminates demons rather than be consumed by his demon side, Rin joins up with a group of exorcists at an elite high school and is taught the ways of exorcism… by none other than his weaker younger brother, Yukio.
This series is so full of awesome I don’t even know where to begin. How about Father Fujimoto? He’s a rough love kind of guardian, but still dotes on Rin in a fatherly way. And the notes in the back reveal he’s got a healthy appetite for women too, which is always a plus. Rin himself? He’s kind of a scrapper, but at one point, he’s sobbing in bed over a copy of Tegami Bachi, which made me laugh. The demon transformation designs are bad ass, and I love the way he can apparently exorcise demons while being a full demon himself. Plus, DEMONS. There are very few series I will turn away that have demons for main characters. How about Yukio, the wussy younger brother-turned-badass-assassin? The parts with him in the second half of the book are highly enjoyable, since he turns out to not be the weak, helpless foil that he appears to be at first. There’s also Mr. Mephisto Pheles, who is some sort of super powerful overlord character that dresses like a clown, turns into a cat, and has a complete disregard for what anyone thinks of him.
If this series were any cooler, I don’t know what I would do with myself. It got me with the knee jerk reaction to all of the above. Maybe the plot will get formulaic later, but HOW COULD IT I MEAN LOOK AT ALL THAT STUFF.
The art, and character designs in general, are also all kinds of amazing. I mentioned Rin’s demon design, which is great, but the real winner here is the city/school that Rin and Yukio go to. True Cross Academy has a kind of old fashioned supercity design that I could never get tired of looking at. There’s lots of detail, buildings upon buildings, and little windy castle passages to look at, and everything is a little grungy and old fashioned, while the accessories in the character’s clothing suggest a more modern look. The goofy facial expressions on Rin are a pleasure to look at, and I love all the fashion design flourishes.
I don’t know. This first volume doesn’t do anything wrong. The premise is the kind of thing that sounds like it will go south fast, just reading the back, but the first volume delivers so hard that I’m probably going to go out and get the ones I’m missing tomorrow. It’s that good. Or, at least, it suits my taste that well.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Men of Tattoos
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: Men of Tattoos | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Yuiji Aniya – June – 2011 – 1 volume
This book. Not only is it a mature romance, with yakuza and police officers and the sort of gritty crime angle I can’t resist, it has actual gay men in it who meet at a bar, and it also has a highly unusual narrative structure. A really good one. Not quite nonlinear, but it definitely jumps around a bit and brings everything together at the end. Someone pinch me, I’m dreaming.
I thought this was a collection of short stories. The first story in the volume is about a couple named Katagi and Kubota. Katagi is a yakuza, and Kubota is kind of his caretaker. The first story is mostly the two of them lazing around Kubota’s apartment while Kubota mentally goes through how they met and what it is that Katagi does. The story opens with the two of them watching a news report about a gang-related shooting, and Katagi keeps trying to get away to meet his boss, with Kubota continually delaying him. But it turns out that Kubota is an undercover police officer, and when he finds a gun in Kubota’s coat, he arrests him. But he really does love Kubota, or so he says.
The second story is about a couple named Arima and Mutou. Arima is the son of the boss of Mutou’s gang, and Mutou is a kind of sub-boss. Arima is also the son of a woman that Mutou was deeply in love with. It would seem that Arima is in love with Mutou, but Mutou dare not lay a finger on Arima, despite the blessing of Arima’s rather callous and uncaring father. You can guess where this goes. The story ends with Mutou telling one of his underlings to meet him at a ferry at 10am the next morning, the implication being that Mutou and Arima are running away together.
The third story is about an extremely violent gangster named Nogami. Nogami, while squeezing protection money from a brothel, sleeps with one of the women. The woman turns out to be a man, who Nogami has sex with anyway while nearly beating him to death. Turns out the man is an undercover cop. And actually, the undercover cop is Kubota from the first story. The man that Nogami was threatening to rape while beating Kubota? Coincidentally, it was Katagi, Kubota’s lover from the first story. Kubota arrests Nogami, but not before beating him within an inch of his life right back. Then you realize that the underling that Mutou was bossing around in the second story was Katagi, and that the 10am meeting at the end of the second story was what Katagi was trying to leave for during the first story. And the activity that Mutou and Katagi were planning in the second story was what Katagi and Kubota were watching on the news in the first story.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t bother to memorize names in these books, so this was all lost on me until I made the connection of “undercover cop who arrests yakuza he has sex with.” Then I connected that character from the first story. Then everything else fell into place.
There are several more chapters. Everything in this book made me go back and re-read the stories before, assigning new meaning to them. It’s difficult to figure out what’s going on in one of them, and I actually finished the book and read it again before I could place all the events and everything that happened. This is not a bad thing. The feeling I got when everything lined up was overwhelming, and it made the story, really, that much better. The short stories stand quite well by themselves, but to have them all snap together in an overarching narrative… it’s almost too much to ask of any book, but this one does it. There is a reunion between Katagi and Kubota in the end, but it’s… tragic. It deals with an issue that never comes up in BL manga (let alone BL manga that might take place in a prison and deal with… Katagi’s particular trial), likely because this issue is a little too harsh for many to deal with in a casual read like this. And to be fair, it’s not really dealt with here, either. It’s merely something between Katagi and Kubota. It took me a minute to process what was going on and to re-interpret what Kubota was saying, and how Katagi felt about it, but it… did make me tear up. It also dealt with a realistic after-effect of what led to said issue. I thought that was a nice touch, too, and made the ending that much more haunting and heartbreaking.
There’s a short story that takes up the last quarter of the book that almost spoils the tone of the excellent main piece. It’s about a young man who falls in love with a classmate, but can’t admit his feelings. But every night, a near-solid ghost comes to said young man’s room, and the two have sex. There are… apparently real-world repercussions for this. This is never explained. It’s a little silly, although it’s still a sweet love story.
I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. It’s one of the best BL one-shots I’ve ever read, the right mix of gritty, romantic, utterly tragic, heartbreaking, and touching. The nonlinear narrative makes it that much better for me, because I love it when a story can break itself up and come together like that, especially one that’s essentially a simple romance like this. And yet, it isn’t a simple romance. There are certainly love stories, and revenge stories, and yakuza violence, and lots of other things. It’s so well-written. And the art is wonderful, too. Everything about this book… it’s just about perfect. The only thing I would change is the unrelated story in the back, and I would have liked even that in any other context.
Really. If you’re into BL, and enjoy the tragic/depressing books like I do, you have to read this. It’s great. Get your hands on a copy.
