Chayamachi’s Collection: BLANC
Posted: February 20, 2012 Filed under: BLANC | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Suguro Chayamachi – Digital Manga Guild – 2012 – 1 volume
It feels like it may have been a while since I’ve covered a DMG title. I think I still have at least a couple I still need to talk about (Rainy Day Love, Tired of Waiting for Love… and have I covered Faraway Places yet?), but I picked up Chayamachis Collection: BLANC last week, so I’ll talk about it while it’s still fresh in my mind.
This is a short story collection. After the first story, Jiro, it became obvious that this would be a short story collection similar to Keiko Nishi’s Kyudo Boys, where it’s sort of advertised as BL (inherently so, in this case, since DMG is only doing BL at the moment), but isn’t really. Jiro is a story told from a stray cat’s point of view. The cat is fed by an owner of a liquor store, and one day, a young man takes it upon himself to track down the owner based on clues from the cat’s worn collar. The young man stops to tell his life story to the cat, and talk about things that get him down, and we find the cat had its own sad circumstances. It’s a fine story, but nothing terribly memorable.
The second story, Tobasco and Tobacco, is about a pair of semi-delinquent/mostly just bored students. One of them was in a terrible accident, and the story becomes about him trying to catch the man that cut the brake lines on his motorcycle. The two develop a friendship at the beginning of the story, but no romance is even vaguely implied. The most they share are deep thoughts on the pointlessness and randomness of life. Again, it’s a fine story, but nothing outstanding.
The third story, Green Step, has the shounen ai content, and reminds me a lot of a 70s-era shounen ai tale. Partially because the main character’s name is Gilbert (the main character’s name in Song of the Wind and Trees), but also because… hmm, the little I’ve read of 70s shounen ai seemed more nature-oriented than classroom-oriented, if that makes sense? Much of the interaction takes place outside instead of inside the school. In the case of Green Steps, the focus is the green steps, the hookup spot at the featured school. One of the characters admires an upperclassman from afar, and during his spying, meets a disagreeable underclassman who always seems to be underfoot. The upperclassman is revealed to be in a relationship, which breaks the main character’s heart, but he realizes the disagreeable underclassman might be more of a crush than the upperclassman was. It’s short and sweet, and not overtly romantic.
Blue People mixes things up a little with a bizarre sci-fi/horror story. When a young man realizes his girlfriend is experiencing a miscarriage, he panics, and a random passerby agrees to help him. The man wants to ditch his girlfriend (the pregnancy is unwanted), and the stranger agrees to “help” him help her. The stranger has magic powers, though, and in a Monkey’s Paw-type situation, the woman is helped by having her uterus magicked out of her body, something that only the man knows about for some reason. Things escalate, until death and other things happen in true “careful what you wish for” style. It’s definitely a creepy and atmospheric story, but it’s also bizarre, and is a little too abrupt after the first few light, introspective stories. I did like that the main character’s name was Buzz, though.
Dreams, Oh Dreams is about a young man that becomes obsessed with another, who he swears he saw in the hospital ICU looking exactly the same age when he was a young boy. The ageless character dodges all manner of questions about his condition, and does his best to keep his distance from the main character. The main character is also in denial of what he believes, and even though the ageless character seems to provide all sorts of reasonable explanations, for whatever reason, the main character can’t let it go. This was a strange story, and darker again, which still felt a little jarring after the first few lighter stories. It’s also not really shounen ai at all, since the obsession in this case never really goes anywhere.
Momiji, the final story, is a tragedy, yakuza-flavored, about the bond between the son of the gang leader and one of the men. Again, not terribly romantic in nature, though the bond is a rather deep one. The tragedy strips any possible romance from this story, however. I think this may have been my favorite in the volume, since the introspection in this story was more earnest than the others.
Overall… mmm. I was a little disappointed by the complete lack of romance in this collection, which may have biased me against the stories more than it otherwise would have. The stories were okay, and the volume was a solid read, but I think I would have rather read something else. I didn’t wind up taking a liking to either the stories or the characters much at all, unfortunately, but the stories were well-written, and again, my disappointment may have had more to do with the fact I wanted a romance book and this wasn’t it. The author does have another collection coming from the DMG. I’m thinking about reading that one, actually, knowing full well what it is before I read it, just to see how I react to a second volume.
Dost thou Know?
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Dost thou Know? | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Satoru Ishihara – June – 2005 – 1 volume
My BL rule holds true once again, where if I find that I like a book, odds are the author has at least a couple more available in English. I read The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer on eManga and really liked it, and found that June had published two other books by the same author. This came out a long, loooong time ago. I think it may predate the June imprint, because there seems to be an edition floating around with a purple DMP logo instead of the pink June band. That’s how you know your BL is old. And that you are, too, for remembering the changeover.
Anyway. This is more of exactly the same thing I loved about The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer. There’s even a similar obscure sport theme, where one of the boys was an archery prodigy in The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer (although that wasn’t really a theme), and in this one, both of the boys are into kendo. This is just as much a coming-of-age story as The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer, where Tsurugi and Katsuomi are dealing with their younger brothers, the pressures of their respective dojos, and questions about what to do with the rest of their lives. Dost thou Know is also more of a romance, though, since it’s also about the two of them being mutually attracted and unsure about what to do with their feelings, as kendo rivals. The story is told mostly from Katsuomi’s point of view, and while the attraction is fairly obvious (at least from a reader’s standpoint) early on in the book, at about the halfway point, Katsuomi has to start proving himself in order to catch the eye of Tsurugi.
I like the characters that Satoru Ishihara seems to write, too. They’re a little rough around the edges, and much more manly than what you’d normally find in a BL book. Katsuomi and Tsurugi don’t spend a lot of time angsting about their feelings, and deal with confusion by training in kendo rather than crying or talking it out with someone. This feels much more natural, somehow (though I have to admit to being a fan of melodrama in other books), and the relationship develops much more smoothly and deeply because of it. There’s no physical relationship, and not even any hand-holding or kissing, really. But Ishihara doesn’t really need it to get her point across here.
I’m not sure which I like better, Dost thou Know or The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer. Both are good, and for the same reasons. I may like the couple in this book a bit better, since this is a romance and the relationship is resolved in one volume. But I like the “they’re together, so this is about their lives” strategy of The Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer, too. And the second volume of Boys has an absolutely beautiful short story in the back, so there’s that, too. I think you may just have to read them both, if your tastes are anything like mine.
Love Pistols 1
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: Love Pistols | Tags: BL 4 Comments »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 Kumakashi 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 one another, 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.
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.
Gorgeous Carat Galaxy
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: Gorgeous Carat Galaxy | Tags: BL 4 Comments »You Higuri – June – 2006 – 1 volume
Another story in the Gorgeous Carat series. Aside from the first volume, I think each installment of the series covers a separate story arc. The first 4-volume chunk is “Virtue of Darkness,” then there’s this “Galaxy” segment. Blu folded before they could publish “La Esperanza,” and Higuri is currently doing another installment, but no compilation has been released yet. Following the pattern of the series, these aren’t so much BL/romance as they are adventure stories about things that happen to Florian and Ray/Noir, in the sense that they are rich jewel thieves that live in France around the turn of the 20th century. Which is a lot! They remind me of From Eroica With Love, as I may have already mentioned. They tend to go to different locations (especially in Virtue of Darkness), are only slightly BL-themed in favor of action and globetrotting, and there’s usually some item at stake. There are no analogues to Klaus and Dorian, though. A shame.
In Galaxy, Ray and Florian are summoned out to the estate of a distant relative of Florian’s. The relative has fallen on hard times, and is hoping Ray will buy some of the art and other items from his estate. Once there, Ray and Florian are snowbound and realize there is more to the estate than meets the eye. A young girl named Eleonora lives there, and is sheltered by her relatives, who think she is mentally unstable. She is a fan of the Forest of Monsters, a sculpture garden around the estate that figures prominently in a memory for both she and Florian. There are murders, near-misses, characters long-dead that return, hidden passages, kidnappings, and all of it is confined to one manor. It’s a proper Victorian mystery, and Higuri pulls off the tale with style.
The story isn’t so much about Ray and Florian this time around, but rather use them as pieces in the mystery that unravels slowly and gains momentum gradually. I didn’t mind the fact that the story wasn’t character-centric, as the mystery plot was so well-told that I tore through all 250 pages in one sitting. I don’t want to spoil this too much, but it really is a proper Victorian horror story. The atmosphere is similar to Black Butler, actually, and just as good, if just a touch less sinister. And again, there is little to no BL content, for those who are averse to such stories, so this is a good general audience title, and You Higuri is always worth reading.
Her art is still quite good here, too. Better than in Virtue of Darkness, in fact. The clothes the characters wear, the character designs themselves, the manor, and the hidden passages and dark forest come to life, and Higuri clearly puts a lot of work into the period detail and setting. It’s a good-looking book, and while the story doesn’t give Higuri as much opportunity to flex her artistic muscles (the setting stays the same, and all the action takes place over the course of about a day, so there’s no costume changes or different characters introduced), it’s still a very nice-looking book.
You could probably pick this up without reading Virtue of Darkness, the first part of Gorgeous Carat, and still enjoy it immensely. I loved that the volume was self-contained, and the complete and very involved mystery plot took me by surprise, but was still quite good. Sadly, I don’t think this sold very well, because Amazon still has it in stock 6 years after it was released. That doesn’t bode very well for a La Esperanza release. But Gorgeous Carat Galaxy is a great book, and definitely worth a look. Someone buy that last copy from Amazon!
Tyrant Falls in Love 5
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Tyrant Falls in Love | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Hinako Takanaga – June – 2012 – 8 volumes
You knew I was all over this. I just can’t get enough. I’m sorry.
Though Souichi and Morinaga are now living together, Morinaga realizes that he’s gotten no action over the past couple months. After a failed attempt to take advantage while Souichi is drunk, Souichi announces that he will be flying to Canada for a 2-month research trip. Morinaga is devastated. Souichi seems indifferent, until he gets there and… well, context would have you believe he misses Morinaga. Morinaga finds a chance to head to Seattle for a seminar, and he manages to meet up with Souichi in Vancouver. Souichi seems more than a little bothered by Morinaga’s visit. Bothered in a different way than usual, though.
Basically, very little happens in this volume that isn’t sex. I… can’t say I mind since this is my favorite volume of the series and all. Some of it is, admittedly, a little out of character. There are hints that Souichi misses Morinaga scattered throughout some of the Canada scenes. A conversation with his younger brother Tomoe reveals that Souichi is trying to hide the fact he lives with Morinaga. While he is homophobic, and wouldn’t want Tomoe to think he’s gay, it’s also a case of Souichi wanting to hide his relationship with Morinaga, regardless of meaning. He also mentions he’s not at all lonely in the “apartment by himself” while in conversation with Tomoe, but he certainly does look lonely when he gets back to his Canadian condo later. And, more damning, is an extremely out-of-character… uh, scene with Souichi. And while all this does seem out of character, I like that it gives Morinaga and Souichi something to go forward with, in terms of finding some sort of common, mutually enjoying ground in their relationship. Morinaga is still pretty concerned with finding some sort of middle ground with Souichi, and while volumes like this do make it seem like he (or both of them) are more interested in sex, both are putting a lot of thought into how they treat the other in this volume. Especially Souichi. He gets quite a bit of time to think about how he feels about Morinaga.
And there’s not much commentary I can offer about the later scenes where Morinaga comes to Canada. To say much would be a spoiler, and really, you know where all this is going. It’s great. I don’t know why I love the sex scenes in this series so much. It’s just better here than it is in other books. It just seems to mean a lot more to Morinaga and Souichi. Plus, again, I get a big kick out of watching them bicker, which happens even in bed. For instance, here, Morinaga gets more than a little terrifying when he suspects Souichi of cheating.
There are several extras in this volume. The usual bonus story here is actually an extension of the last sex scene, and Takanaga mentions that it was material that made the chapter too long for the serialized magazine. Another story is a silly one-shot that has all the characters in the series playing in an adaptation of Cinderella. Morinaga gets to be the prince, and I loved his first panel, where he’s sitting bored at a party full of young women in ballgowns and thinks “When will they figure out I’m never going to pick a bride because I’m gay?”
The last story… is a little more troubling. It’s a two-part side story, called “Our Mistakes,” about Morinaga’s brother Kunihiro and his friend/Morinaga’s first lover, Masaki. They meet back up, and… uh, it’s basically an extended rape scene, with Kunihiro as the victim. He tries really hard to reconcile with Masaki after a chance meeting, but Kunihiro gets too drunk waiting for Masaki’s shift to end, so Masaki takes him home. And ties him up. Then sexually abuses him for… uh, days? And then Kunihiro forgives him? And is likely attracted to him? Really? What’s even more disturbing than this is that, apparently, the Challengers/Tyrant series is going to continue with this couple in Takanaga’s next series. That’s a shame, because I hate them both.
But! In the meantime, The Tyrant Falls in Love continues to be my favorite BL series of all time. This is mostly a “physical” volume, but it also appears to be the beginning of Souichi beginning to realize his romantic feelings towards Morinaga. He’s confused, and angry, and apparently resisting every step of the way, but it seems to be happening. I liked that, with all the sex, the commentary this time around was mostly from Souichi’s point of view, something we are not often treated to. I’ve gone on and on about why I love this series from the bottom of my little rotten fangirl heart, so I don’t feel the need to justify admiration for a “physical” volume. But yes. Any fan of the series is going to be more than pleased with this. Just sayin’.
Bed of My Dear King
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Bed of My Dear King | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Sakae Kusama – SuBLime – 2012 – 1 volume
Since I have been relentlessly stalking eManga, you can bet I had my eye on the grand opening of SuBLime, the new digital BL imprint of Viz Media. If this succeeds, I hope like nobody’s business to see Zetsuai and the BL work of Setona Mizushiro, which are published by Shueisha and Shogakukan, companies that… uh, own Viz.
For my first foray on the site, I picked The Bed of My Dear King. Other launch titles include Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies (which sounds a little zany), Husband, Honeymoon (which I’ll read when the second volume comes out), and Love Pistols (which is all kinds of crazy disturbing I’ll talk about at a later time because I read it anyway). I’ll probably read all of these, honestly, especially since the digital editions only cost $6 and come with a PDF. That’s still a little more than I’d like to pay for something I don’t own a physical copy of (ideally, $5 would be the ceiling), but it’s a bit better than the $7 price tag at eManga, and I’ve paid that over and over again on that site.
I suspect The Bed of My Dear King is the best of the bunch. It’s more of a josei-ish romance than the usual (admittedly shallow) BL book. It’s a collection of three short stories. In the first, Koga, a repairman, visits Tohno to repair his phone and cable lines. Tohno lives on a remote mountain, and is an eccentric sculptor whose house holds all sorts of surprises for Koga. Koga tries to get the awkward repair over with as soon as possible, but the two wind up snowbound in the house and cut off from the outside world. This leads obvious places, but the mix of timid and frank behavior from both is interesting, as are the continued and unexplained, unapologetic eccentricities of Tohno.
This was a decent story, and I liked it quite a bit when I finished it, but it’s the least interesting in the collection. The whole situation’s just a little too weird for my taste. But both characters are likable. Koga’s sexual orientation remains ambiguous throughout (so he’s not necessarily a straight man that falls inexplicably in love with a gay man after one day), and Tohno is fairly frank about his orientation, and that he’s not really interested in Koga sexually. Koga is the one that initiates, at the very end of the story. It’s a cute one, and more about Tohno’s insecurities and whatnot than it is about love or sex.
But, more to the point, what is up with all these BL books about sculptors? I suppose it gives one a reason to touch another, but it’s been coming up pretty frequently for me lately. This, Gentle Cage, the aforementioned Love Pistols, and Tonight’s Take-Out Night. All of these I’ve read in the past month. It’s a little weird.
The second story, Cherry, is a cute and light romance between two students. It’s a slow burn, and it’s nice to see the two stepping so delicately around the subject when they’re together. This reminded me a lot of the wonderful stories I’d just read in Kyudo Boys, by Keiko Nishi. It’s a fluffy, nice story to read.
Flowers, the last story, is the longest and my personal favorite. It tells the story of two students who appear to be quietly attracted to one another. The one that initiates the relationship, Ozu, appears to be forcing physical affection on Kumon, who is a compliant partner. The relationship, however, appears to be founded on gossip. As the story continues, and Kumon continues to meet with Ozu to hear the next part of the story, we find out that Ozu was involved in a local and family tragedy with a young woman. The gory details are given to reader through random lines of gossip at the beginning of the story, but as Ozu tells his side, the facts only get sadder and sadder. Kumon is mostly silent through all this, and appears to be listening to the story, but he starts to speak up towards the end.
Kusama has a knack for characters and pacing, which is extremely key in BL. Finesse such as hers makes a book like this more than simply BL. It’s a worthy shoujo/josei read, as well. Sex is only really depicted in the last story, and the physical relationship is key to the narrative and relationship there. All of the stories in here are gentle, in their way, and none of the usual bodice-rippers or high drama that I usually favor. Even the tragic final story is not so much dramatic as it is… well, just sad.
Overall, this is definitely worth a read by romance and shoujo fans who aren’t necessarily into BL. Romance is still key in all three stories, but all three study the characters and relationships in far more depth than the usual BL one-shot, and the context of all three is important as well. They read as slice-of-life, as well. I was just all sorts of impressed with this. I sincerely hope that we can see more from Sakae Kusama in the future.
Entangled Circumstances
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Entangled Circumstances | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Kikuko Kikuya – June – 2011 – 1 volume
Another day, another BL one-shot (or three, I can’t remember how many I wrote up for this update). This one is yet another salaryman volume, because I’ve been working on a theme lately.
This one was pretty great, but I don’t have that much to say about it. Shibui and Himeko work at the same magazine publishing company. Shibui is more than a little intimidated by his former classmate Shibui, who apparently made a pass at him at some point during their college career and scared Shibui off. But Himeko keeps sticking his neck out for Shibui at work. When Himeko confesses his feelings for Shibui once more, Shibui rejects him harshly. A flashback shows us that Himeko was more than a little creepy in his pursuit of Shibui in the past, but when Himeko gives Shibui up cold turkey, Shibui realizes that he misses having Himeko around. Sex is enjoyed by both parties. The end.
I’m liking the trend in BL books I read lately where nobody assaults anybody. Himeko doesn’t force anything more serious than a kiss on Shibui, and I like the way that the love story plays out here, where Himeko doesn’t force Shibui, but Shibui finally gives in anyway. It’s sweet, and fairly romantic without being drama-tastic or terribly emotional. The harshest thing we have to deal with is Shibui’s discomfort, which makes this a slightly unusual story.
The last third of the book contains an epilogue and a few short stories after the two hook up. One is a cute jealousy tale, one is a story about how Himeko tricks Shibui into a blowjob (which is actually pretty funny, in addition to not being nearly as harassing as it sounds), and another about the two finding a middle ground between sex and dating.
It’s a very good book. It’s probably among the better of the one-shots I’ve read. My tastes run towards the slightly more tragic, so I tend to rank those higher, but for a book with none of that, this still ranks pretty highly on my personal list. I have to say, I adore the number of adult-oriented BL titles that June has been releasing lately. I was fairly picky before, since it seemed like the bulk of what was coming out was school-age tales, but I realize I’ve been missing quite a bit of good stuff that’s been coming out over the past year. I’ve been scrambling to snatch them up before they sell out and become too expensive.
Career Gate
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Career Gate | Tags: BL Leave a comment »Syuko Nishimura – Digital Manga Guild – 2012 – 1 volume
Another day, another DMG release I picked up on eManga.com. I like salaryman BL stories, which is the completely shallow reason I picked this up.
At Ozaki and Shinoda’s company, there’s an elite force of salaryman that have “career gate” passes. It’s every employee’s dream to be allowed to wear one of these cards, which gives one access to the upper floors of the company. Ozaki works hard, hoping that his next evaluation will grant him the coveted “red card,” or first level access to the career gate. His partner, Shinoda, seems less interested in advancement, though his skills far surpass Ozaki’s own. Ozaki also has to work to conceal an attraction towards Shinoda. When Ozaki’s boss puts him in a position to be a boy toy for a higher-up in the company in order to let Shinoda save face, Ozaki grudgingly agrees. Shinoda, who finds out later, goes crazy and reveals that, not only is he the holder of a platinum career card (marking him as one of the most elite employees in the company), he is also crazy in love with Ozaki, and has been concealing his status so that he can continue to be partnered up with him.
And… that’s Career Gate. The romance is resolved fairly early on, and from there, the premise tends to be about some corporate backstabbing and nay-saying, trying to remove Shinoda from his position as an elite or unmasking his public persona as Ozaki’s partner. There are also several people that try to kidnap Ozaki and use him as corporate leverage against Shinoda, and Ozaki even offers himself up at one point in order to make a deal go in Shinoda’s favor.
There were… a few things wrong with this book for me. Often, when a BL book like this tries to cover subject matter that is not romantic in nature, it tends to fail at it, unless it’s a remarkable book. Career Gate is not one of those exceptions. The workplace subplots are completely ridiculous, and unfortunately fail at bringing Ozaki and Shinoda closer together since they serve little purpose aside from having Ozaki constantly kidnapped and Shinoda rescuing him. It doesn’t deepen their relationship, and they don’t really learn anything about themselves, or any sort of lesson about what not to do in those situations.
There’s also lots of non-con. There’s non-con in many BL books, and I hate it every time, but it was creepier than usual in this one since it was strangers forcing it, and not the romantic interest. Ozaki gets kidnapped and put in unpleasant situations more often than he should as an office worker. Once the situation is completely non-con, but the other two times it’s a rather pathetic display of emotional blackmail, “for the better of Shinoda.”
And the final nail in the coffin was that neither Shinoda nor Ozaki was really developed enough for me to get a feel for them. I neither liked nor disliked them, but as a result, the romance elements didn’t work for me. And when that happens, the BL book has failed me. I’m sorry, BL book.
It’s not a terrible work, and I think being a salaryman plot redeemed it a bit for me (a complete bias on my part… if this had taken place in a school, I would have hated it). It was a BL one-shot, and served its purpose as an entertaining read. But there are definitely better salaryman stories out there, and better one-shots on eManga. Even knowing what I know about it now, I probably would have still read it since I like the workplace stuff, but if your tastes lie elsewhere, you might not want to give it a try.
Boys Love
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: Boys Love | Tags: BL 2 Comments »Kaim Tachibana – DokiDoki – 2009 – 1 volume
It does what it says on the box! So straightforward. Another one for the BL Title Hall of Fame.
I ought to read more by Kaim Tachibana, who I talked about recently when I wrote up Shinesman. Really, I think the only other series available in English is Pieces of a Spiral, but it sounds like vaguely slashy shoujo fantasy, and I’m all about that. I’ve had bad luck with early 90s shoujo fantasy, but I’m always willing to try more.
This came highly recommended, and while I have to admit it is very good, it’s not so much my flavor, unfortunately. It features a character who is a “teenage slut,” a young guy who sleeps around with a different old man every night, and this is a dramatic bit of plot. Usually, when this comes up (really, for any age character), it’s not very believable, and this story is no exception. So much of the plot hinges on Mamiya straightening out Noeru that the story failed a bit for me because of this.
Mamiya is a rookie reporter who has landed his first big story, interviewing celebrity model Noeru. Noeru is a cold fish, very promiscuous, and tries to brush off Mamiya as hard as he can, but Mamiya sticks with it, hoping to get praise from his boss. But while in Noeru’s house, Mamiya studies Noeru’s paintings and finds that he is quite fond of a particular beach scene. Turns out that the beach scene contains a deceased older brother-type figure for Noeru, and it was his death that made Noeru give up on life. Wanting to pick on Mamiya more, Noeru complains to Mamiya’s publisher and wrangles a personal apology out of Mamiya, and one more face-to-face meeting. From there, the two become close as Mamiya finds that he just can’t leave Noeru alone. Noeru starts going to school, stops sleeping around, and really starts to enjoy his time with Mamiya. But one of Noeru’s childhood friends becomes jealous, and tries as hard as he can to interfere with the relationship…
It’s a shame that Noeru sleeping around was such a huge part of the plot, because otherwise there was a lot in here that I really enjoyed. I liked that Noeru and Mamiya shared a very non-romantic relationship for most of the book, and even by the end, it’s more of a bond than it is a romance. Normally older-younger relationships bother me, but Noeru and Mamiya were relating to each other as equals, so it wasn’t really an issue. I also loved the ending dearly. While romances usually need happy endings to feel complete, this one was absolutely beautiful just the way it was. And it was open-ended, too. That last page is haunting.
About the only other problem I had with it other than the whole “slut” thing was that Noeru and Mamiya felt like they needed just a touch more personality. The drama was overriding any strong character traits, and I have to really like the characters in order to be drawn into a relationship. Noeru and Mamiya were just a touch too generic for this to be truly touching. But this may just be me, because I’ve heard plenty of people talk about how much they felt this one.
It’s an excellent read, and even with the quibbles I had with it, I was quite pleased with the book as a whole. This is actually the last book Kaim Tachibana worked on, and it’s a shame she hasn’t done more since. This is really wonderful stuff.
