Il Gatto Sul G. 1 by Tooko Miyagi: B+

July 19, 2009 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
Atsushi Ikeda is your typical “nice guy.” He’s so nice, he even has this habit of bringing stray cats home. But even he is quite unprepared for what turns up at his doorstep one day… a cut and bloodied young man. The injured boy turns out to be famous violinist, Riya Narukawa.

Seeing the frail Riya arouses Atsushi’s compassion for wounded creatures. He decides to look after the young musician, even giving him a key to his apartment in case Riya needs a place of refuge. But Riya has been on his own most of his life and is quite unsure as to how to react to Atsushi’s acts of kindness. Worse, Riya actually has another personality within him that is not so frail and timid as his other self.

Review:
I omitted the final paragraph of the back cover blurb which was full of cheesy musical references. You’re welcome.

This is the story of Atsushi Ikeda, who takes in a wounded young violinist named Rika Narukawa. The boy seems disturbed and, after claiming that the spirit of his dead brother resides within him, runs off, leaving his violin behind. With the help of a friend, Atsushi tracks down Riya at school (to return the violin) and there hears the story from a teacher: Riya suffers from multiple personalities and the person Atsushi has come to know is considered an imposter. Everyone wants the “real” Riya to come back and pursue his musical studies. Atsushi defends Riya, declaring that both are equally real, and gives him the key to his place to use as a refuge, if needed.

The focus then shifts to the “real” Riya, who is determined not to rely on Atsushi, but who faces pressures at his music school. He’s not playing the violin because he loves it but rather because it’s “all that makes [him] worth anything.” On top of that, an aggressive upperclassman keeps harassing him, saying things like “I just want to see you cry” and “When I see you I can’t help torment you.” Guess who’s my least favorite character?

I’ve read some boys’ love manga dealing with multiple personalities before, but Il Gatto Sul G. is loads better. Rather than play it up for lusty shenanigans, the story focuses on how confusing and disorienting these losses of memory are for Riya and makes clear there’s nothing sexy about his situation. I also was expecting that we’d meet a timid Riya first, only to have him go all assertive and raunchy, but that is happily far, far from being the case. Instead, we meet the “imposter” first and only gradually realize that he is the one who’s supposed to be the product of mental illness.

I like, too, that the more timid Riya isn’t as wilting as he could be. Yes, he stupidly goes to the home of the upperclassman to retrieve his precious key and winds up submitting to some nonconsensual groping, but he shows unexpected resilience at times which makes me think he’s not as different from his other personality as everyone may believe.

If you’re looking for a BL manga with lots of plot—it actually feels more like a mystery than a romance at times, at Atsushi struggles to figure out what is going on with his houseguest—then this might be the one for you. Its third and final volume also just came out, so you can read the whole series at once!

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: ,

On Bended Knee by Ruri Fujikawa: B-

July 6, 2009 by 1 Comment

onbended-125On Bended Knee is a collection of short stories featuring professional adults (pediatricians, chefs, professors, et cetera) linked together by, as the back cover points out, the common theme of learning to accept one’s true feelings for another. Although too brief to achieve greatness, each story is a pleasant enough read and all are free from the nonconsensual scenes that plague other boys’ love titles.

The drawback of having a common theme is that the stories can get repetitive after a while. There are five tales in On Bended Knee and three of them follow pretty much the same pattern:

1.One member of a couple is a bit too demonstrative.
2.The more reserved member sets some boundaries like “don’t touch me at work” or “don’t try to ravish me in my sleep.”
3.The other party respects said boundaries and keeps his distance.
4.The reserved fellow begins to miss the other guy.
5.Reconciliation and a tacked-on sex scene (featuring many amusing sound effects) ensue.

Despite its flaws, On Bended Knee is pretty good. It’s not the most amazing thing around, to be sure, but you could definitely do worse.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga, Short Stories Tagged With: ,

The Loudest Whisper: Uwasa no Futari 1 by Temari Matsumoto: D

June 22, 2009 by 2 Comments

loudestwhisper-125The Loudest Whisper tells the wholly unremarkable tale of school friends Aoyama and Akabane as they experiment with acting like a couple (since rumors at school pair them up anyway). There’s nothing distinctive about the characters or the plot, resulting in a shallow and unsatisfying read.

Only 67 pages of this volume are devoted to the main series; the other two-thirds is occupied by unrelated short stories, which are all either bland, ridiculous, or icky. The only one that starts out semi-promisingly—“Cure for the Common Crush,” involving a business man who makes regular nightly stops at a pharmacy—derails into inanity when he accidentally receives aphrodisiacs instead of cold medicine.

The real problem with The Loudest Whisper, though, is the ick factor. In two linked stories, “First Stroll” and “First Help,” there are some story elements that I find disturbing, including an apparently significant age difference between the lead characters. Even “Cure for the Common Crush,” which contains a line that implies the pharmacist uke may actually be older than the seme, exagerrates his diminutive frame to such an extent as to invite misinterpretation.

Let’s recap all the adjectives used to describe this book: unremarkable, shallow, unsatisfying, bland, ridiculous, icky, inane, and disturbing. Need I say more?

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga, Short Stories Tagged With:

Brilliant Blue 1 by Saemi Yorita: B+

June 12, 2009 by Leave a Comment

brilliantblue-125Shouzo Mita had no intention of going home to the rural town where he grew up, but when his father is hospitalized with a back injury, he returns to temporarily helm the family construction business and “fix things” with his family. Shouzo’s stay is extended when his father manages to reinjure himself, and he gradually relinquishes ties to his life in Tokyo while renewing some of his childhood acquaintances. Chief among these is Nanami Ushijima, sub-contracted as an electrician for the Mitas’ projects, who has blossomed from a dim-witted and chubby kid to a slightly less dim-witted but more conventionally attractive adult. As he gets to know Nanami, Shouzo grows to understand him better than anyone else, realizing that Nanami is smarter that he seems, with a genuine talent for numbers and deciphering electric schematics, but yet so malleable that he is unable to extricate himself from an unwanted sexual relationship.

There are quite a few complimentary adjectives I could employ to describe Brilliant Blue, but I’m going to go with “utterly charming.” Shouzo and Nanami are very different—Shouzo is restrained, reserved, and responsible while Nanami is child-like and easily led—but the bond between them feels warm and genuine. You can tell a lot about someone by how they behave toward those less powerful than themselves, and Shouzo shines admirably in this regard, treating Nanami with firm kindness and helping him to end the relationship that had been causing him such distress (while keeping his own growing feelings chastely under wraps). Too, because of his obvious respect for Nanami’s talents, he manages to provide guidance without coming across as patronizing.

After Nanami is freed from the relationship—in an emotional scene in which tears of relief are shed—one might assume Shouzo would promptly declare his own feelings for Nanami. Instead, he encourages Nanami to acquire an official electrician’s license, hoping to set him on the path to self-sufficiency. Shouzo’s aims aren’t entirely altruistic—he hopes that by boosting Nanami’s professional confidence the other man will gradually become more of an adult and thus be able to consent to an adult relationship with Shouzo—but I can’t help but like him for refusing to take advantage of the imbalance of power in his relationship with Nanami.

While the characters are the chief draw, the overall tone of the story is nice, too. It’s gentle and funny and there are quite few amusing moments, mostly involving Nanami being endearing (though I could’ve done without the nose picking, personally). Brilliant Blue is published under DMP’s DokiDoki imprint, and therefore has less sexual content than other titles in the genre, which is something I appreciate. There are a few slightly disturbing scenes between Nanami and his lover, but they’re not explicit and are there to show Nanami’s helplessness in that situation rather than to titillate.

I’m also a fan of Yorita’s artwork: it’s delicate to the point of wispiness with a dearth of backgrounds, but I found that its simplicity works well for the story. It’s particularly adept at conveying comedic moments and some of the humor is amplified because it just looks so durned cute.

While I’d hesitate to call Brilliant Blue a romance just yet, it’s nevertheless a satisfying story of two men growing closer while one patiently waits for a time when his feelings might be understood and returned.

Brilliant Blue is published by Digital Manga Publishing under their new Doki Doki imprint. It’s a two-volume series; the first is available now and the second will be published in September 2009.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: ,

Future Lovers 1-2 by Saika Kunieda: A

June 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

future1“How close can we get to the rosy, happy ending I dreamt about that night?”

As our story begins, Kento Kumagaya, a twenty-five year old chemistry teacher, has just bungled a proposal to his girlfriend. After she storms off, another patron of the bar tells Kento his mistake: he had made it seem like he was only after “a housekeeper and a baby-making machine.” The two guys spend the evening drinking together and Kento winds up going back with the other man, Akira Kazuki, to his apartment. After some initial resistance to the idea of sleeping with a man, Kento is swept up in Akira’s passion and becomes an enthusiastic participant.

Kento regards the experience as a mistake, but when Akira shows up as a substitute art teacher at the school where Kento works and needs an escort home after his welcome party, it happens again. After losing his parents at a young age, Kento has a strong desire for permanence in his life, and has long cherished the dream of a sweet wife and loving kids. The more time he spends with Akira, though, the more he finds himself drawn to the other man’s guarded exterior and inner loneliness. Akira, meanwhile, has been burned before by having feelings for straight men, and claims to be content with casual relationships. By the end of the first chapter, they’ve decided to give a real relationship a chance, with Kento realizing that he wants Akira more than he wants the dream and Akira finally opening himself up enough to believe that maybe, this time, he might be the one chosen at last.

Many boys’ love stories would end here, and even had Future Lovers done so, it still would’ve been excellent. Instead, subsequent chapters (sharing perspectives between the two leads) follow Kento and Akira throughout three years of their relationship and some of the struggles they encounter. They’ve both had very different experiences in life, Kento’s leading him to make declarations about love that lasts forever and Akira’s, after witnessing the transience of his mother’s multiple marriages, creating in him a lot of cynicism on the topic. Many of their conflicts arise from this difference in outlook, with Akira repeatedly recommending that Kento find a nice woman to marry and Kento repeatedly avowing that he’s not going anywhere.

At first, the repetitiveness of these fights seemed like a flaw until I realized… that’s what happens in any relationship! There are certain topics that, no matter how often you may talk about them, nothing is ultimately resolved. Mere words from Kento aren’t going to convince Akira that he’s not really depriving Kento of his dream, and no argument Akira could raise would make Kento believe that forever isn’t possible. In a way, Future Lovers is more a slice-of-life story about a couple trying to make things work than it is specifically about two men in love.

In addition to the richness of the story and the well-developed characters (Akira is the first boys’ love character to ever remind me of an actual gay person I know), Future Lovers also employs some nice symbolism and humor. One of my favorite examples of the former is the simple comparison between the neat and tidy job one of Kento’s adoring students does reattaching a button to his sleeve and Akira’s sloppy attempt at the same task, representing the two alternative paths that Kento could take in love. Instances of humor are sprinkled throughout, some arising from reactions to Akira’s behavior and outrageous fashion sense, and also include the most awesome dream sequence epilogue ever. Kunieda’s art is well equipped to handle the comedic moments, but loveliness is definitely mustered when needed, especially in Akira’s more vulnerable moments.

Future Lovers has not only everything I want in a boys’ love story; it has everything I want in a story, period. I’ll be first in line to buy anything else by Saika Kunieda that gets published here.

Review copy for volume two provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: ,

CUT by Toko Kawai: A

May 18, 2009 by 1 Comment

“Life is kind of a pain,” thinks Chiaki Sakaguchi at the outset of this exceptional one-shot. Chiaki is bored with school; it seems so trivial compared to the painful secret guilt he carries over his father’s death. In an attempt to dull that pain, Chiaki seeks out new pain, getting involved in an abusive incestuous relationship with his stepfather and resorting to cutting himself as a way to relieve his anxiety. When he meets Eiji Yukimura, a young man with his own dark secret, he finally has found someone who might understand.

CUT is a moving story of two very broken people connecting and finding, through each other, the strength to move forward. There are some disturbing elements involving incest and masochism, but such scenes are not played for titillation, since it’s clear Chiaki is merely doing these things in an attempt to forget his unbearable pain. Later on, when Chiaki turns his stepfather away and tells him, “You made me forget something horrible by doing something worse,” it’s truly a moment of triumph.

The relationship between Chiaki and Eiji is both sweet and sad and made me teary a few times (I never knew a knee nudge could be so poignant!). By the end, neither is completely healed, but they’ve both come to a place where they’re able to live with their wounds and trust that, with time and love, they will fade.

You don’t have to be a boys’ love fan to appreciate CUT. Like the works of est em, I think what it has to offer could appeal to anyone.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: , ,

ZE 1-2 by Yuki Shimizu: B-

May 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment

When Raizou’s beloved grandmother dies, he leaves the country home where they had lived and moves to the city, where he enrolls in culinary school and takes a job as a live-in housekeeper at a mansion. There, he meets the members of the Mitou family, who wield the word-based power of kotodama, and their kami-sama, human-like creations made from paper who heal the wounds caused by using kotodama. We are told that relationships between kami-sama and their masters must be homosexual and that healing requires contact with a mucous membrane of some sort. This results in all sorts of lusty shenanigans, as one might expect.

Among those living in the house is Kon, a kami-sama without a master, since the Mitou for whom he was originally created died before they could meet. Typically, a kami-sama in such a situation would be destroyed, but Waki, Kon’s maker, keeps him around and uses him to heal paying “guests” (read: pimps him out). Kon doesn’t object, though, since he doesn’t see any purpose to his existence other than being useful. When big, kind-hearted Raizou arrives, he is immediately captivated by Kon and, as he is further exposed to Kon’s sorrow and detachment, falls in love with him.

There are some things ZE does very well, but guiding readers gently into its complicated world isn’t among them. Seven characters are introduced in the first chapter alone, and two more follow by the end of the first volume. That’s a lot of names to try to remember! Many of these characters are one-note, like Kotoha Mitou, who is happy and likes sweets, or Benio, the kami who cosplays and flashes her boobs a lot. The focus is primarily on the relationships, but there are also some hints of things to come, like a trunk of which Waki is fiercely protective and some mysterious spectral attacks that come out of nowhere. This is definitely more plot that I’m accustomed to in a boys’ love series, and I credit it with being both intriguing and ambitious, but also found it to be pretty confusing at times.

The best thing about the series is the relationship between its lead characters. Raizou has nothing but good memories of living with his grandmother, which ground him in a healthy place and provide a contrast to the world Kon has known thus far. To help relieve Kon of his feeling of uselessness, he pledges to become his kotodamashi, an arrangement that’s accepted by the rest of the family. True, Raizou doesn’t possess a magical power of words, but the warm and loving things he says reach Kon anyway and effect a change within him. The intimate scenes between the two of them, filled with eagerness and awkwardness in equal measure, are absolutely fantastic; Yuki Shimizu could give lessons on how to make such moments entirely about the characters and not merely “insert tab A into slot B.”

Shimizu’s artistic style may not be distinctive, but it is at least clean and attractive. Despite the surfeit of characters, I never had any trouble telling them apart. There are a couple of things about the way sexy moments are drawn that amuse me, like inordinately slobbery kisses and the ridiculously huge cone of light representing Raizou’s manly bits, but I positively adore the cover to the second volume. If you look at most boys’ love covers, the two leads are usually clutching each other passionately. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another that looks so genuinely loving.

While ZE has its flaws, I ultimately found it to be enjoyable and thought it improved in the second volume. Shimizu is well known for crafting long series of quality (her Love Mode, published by BLU, clocks in at eleven volumes), so I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

ZE is published in English by Digital Manga Publishing; they’ve released two volumes so far. In Japan, seven volumes have been released so far. The series is still ongoing.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga, Supernatural Tagged With: ,

Silver Diamond 4 by Shiho Sugiura: A-

April 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

When some mysterious visitors from another world suddenly appeared in his garden, Rakan learned that he possesses the valuable skills of a sanome—someone with the ability to make plants grow—and that he originally came from the other world himself. After spending several volumes getting to know his houseguests, Rakan has decided to return with them to their blighted and desolate point of origin. There, he’s mistaken for the prince, his older brother, by bandits who aim to capture him.

The plot of Silver Diamond moves at a leisurely pace—most of this volume involves the group of bandits and their hopelessness—but is still a pleasure to read because the characters are so great. They’re warm and funny and easy to root for. When Rakan steps up at the end of the volume and declares his intention to make the world green again, one is actually proud of him. He seems to be on the verge of collecting a motley group of followers, and the parallels with my favorite manga, Basara, in which a kind-hearted revolutionary leader strives to make a withered world bloom again, are not lost on me.

One other nice tidbit is that the translation retains the Japanese name order of the characters, which means that when Rakan’s protectors finally start addressing each other by their first names, the moment retains its proper significance. Though the packaging—now both floppier and thinner—may bear signs of cost-cutting measures, the material within is as good as ever.

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Fantasy, Manga, Shoujo Tagged With:

You Will Drown in Love by Hinako Takanaga: B+

April 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Part companion volume to You Will Fall in Love and part sequel, You Will Drown in Love gives Reiichiro’s perspective of events as he reconnects with his long-lost best friend, Haru, and learns of Haru’s relationship with his younger brother, Tsukasa. After Haru rejects his confession of love, Reiichiro talks it over with his employee, Jinnai, who’s been giving him advice on a variety of topics ever since Reiichiro came on board as the manager of the fabric store where they both work. When Jinnai tells Reiichiro he loves him, both men must overcome some of their own bad habits if they’re going to be able to make a relationship work.

You Will Drown in Love is the kind of sequel that enriches rather than cheapens the original. Although Jinnai does not appear at all in You Will Fall in Love, by dovetailing the two storylines together, his friendship with Reiichiro is allowed to grow while the events of the first book play out and develop into love when Reiichiro’s involvement in the tale of Haru and Tsukasa comes to a close. As a result, he didn’t feel like an afterthought, but rather as someone whose opinions informed Reiichiro’s actions in the earlier work.

Like the first story, this is one of the more romantic boys’ love stories I’ve read, free from outside obstacles to the relationship or angst that makes no sense. The problems Reiichiro and Jinnai face arise because of their natures—Reiichiro is both naïve and sensitive while Jinnai uses humor as a defense—and are far more difficult to conquer than a mere lusty rival. My one real complaint is that Reiichiro’s naïveté is overdone to the point of unbelievability—what grown man would utter a sentence like, “Guys don’t normally kiss each other, right?” I do, however, adore his final line of the volume, which I will not spoil.

With its emphasis on communication and trust, this boys’ love romance is a cut above the rest.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: ,

U Don’t Know Me by Rakun: A-

March 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Seyun and Yoojin grew up together because their fathers were close friends, and even after Seyun and his family move some distance away their friendship endures. Now in high school, Seyun is doing his best to get Yoojin to notice him in a romantic way, but Yoojin seems oblivious until the day one of his friends tells him, in a case of mistaken identity, that Seyun is “a well-known manwhore” at his school. Yoojin finally releases his pent-up emotions in a violent sex act—which I’m happy to say is not treated as being okay—and he and Seyun eventually become a couple.

Drama ensues, but always grows out of the story and the strong characters. Even the sex scenes focus more on the characters than the act itself—several times the way the boys converse throughout reminds me of similar scenes I’ve seen in the works of est em. The art is also quite lovely—I didn’t learn until the penultimate chapter that Rakun is actually Yeri Na, creator of Do Whatever You Want—with a clean but expressive style. One particularly nice panel features Seyun embracing a ghostly image of Yoojin while thinking, “What do I have to do for you to look at me?”

What I like most U Don’t Know Me is that it moves beyond the moment of consummation into more real-life concerns about being in a gay relationship. Seyun frets a lot, for example, that he can never give Yoojin children, be someone Yoojin could introduce to his employers, or fulfill Yoojin’s mother’s dream of a beloved daughter-in-law. When Yoojin’s parents eventually discover the boys’ relationship, their kindness actually makes Seyun feel worse, like he’s betraying them by robbing Yoojin of his future. It seems awfully rare that a boys’ love title actually touches on these issues.

U Don’t Know Me is not your run-of-the-mill boys’ love story. The complexity of its plot, its characters, and their emotions combine to offer an engaging reading experience on par with some of the best titles in the genre.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manhwa Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »