BL Bookrack: Simply SuBLime

Welcome to the latest installment of BL Bookrack! This time, MJand Michelle take a look at two titles from SuBLime Manga, The Man of Tango and Sleeping Moon. In Brief: Blue Morning, Vol. 3, Off*Beat, Ch. 14, and Tableau Numéro 20.

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The Man of Tango | By Tetuzoh Okadaya | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – So distant are the days when I found SuBLime’s selection of titles mostly unimpressive, that it’s a bit of a struggle to recall them. And, in face of a book like The Man of Tango, it’s hard to believe that I ever distrusted this imprint.

Though tango dancer Angie is irresistible on the dance floor (and in the bedroom), he’s never experienced any love approaching his passion for the dance until he meets Hiro, a biracial salaryman who finds himself unexpectedly drawn into Angie’s tango-focused world. Hiro is initially reluctant to become sexually involved with a man, but his growing passion for both Angie and the tango eventually wins him over, introducing him to a kind of warmth and happiness he’s never known.

On the face of it, this sounds like any average BL premise, even down to the reluctant “straight” man, but The Man of Tango is anything but average. Even its looks defy the norm, as the manga features bulky, muscular characters who skew more bara than BL, but given that the artist was influenced by bara legend Gengoroh Tagame, that’s no surprise. More unusual, perhaps, is the story’s fantastic female costar, Bene, whose dream of returning to Buenos Aires is ultimately left for Angie and Hiro to pursue. The self-made family created by the three of them is really at the heart of the story—perhaps even more than its romance—and this isn’t a negative thing by any means. Bene’s presence somehow brings more meaning to everything, including Angie and Hiro’s relationship.

That said, friendship and romance are hardly the volume’s only draw, which is to say that it’s pretty much teeming with sex—passionate, graphic, manly sex—the likes of which are seldom seen in BL, at least on these shores. You’ll find no grimacing, helpless uke here, which dramatically affects my perception of the story’s initial sex scene, in which Hiro is clearly too intoxicated to give consent. It’s a rare BL manga that can overcome my distaste for rape fantasy, but this is one of the rare few. Furthermore, I often complain that sex scenes get in the way of stories rather than genuinely enhancing them, but this could not be less the case with The Man of Tango. Not only do Okadaya’s sex scenes advance the story and the characters’ relationship, but they’re genuinely sexy, which is also surprisingly rare for BL manga.

In short, The Man of Tango is well-crafted, emotionally compelling, and downright hot. Recommended.

– Review by MJ

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Sleeping Moon, Vols. 1-2 | By Kano Miyamoto | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – I’ve read my share of Barbara Michaels novels, quite a few of which feature the heroine returning to her ancestral home to unearth family secrets. Sleeping Moon evokes that same feeling by sending its protagonist, 27-year-old graduate student Akihiko Odagawa, into the countryside to the home in which his father grew up, searching for the origins of a family curse that dooms the male descendents to die young. There, he reconnects with his younger cousin, Ren, but also takes dream journeys into the past, where he meets a scholar named Eitarou, for whom he soon develops feelings.

Sleeping Moon is complete in two volumes, which is a little bit of a disappointment, because it definitely seemed at first that there was enough meat to the premise for it to go on a little longer. That’s not to say the resolution is unsatisfying, though I do admit to being more interested in the origins of the curse itself than in Akihito and Ren’s rather rushed romance. Miyamoto-sensei sustains a nicely creepy atmosphere, and I definitely could’ve read lots more about the fox spirit attempting to protect the family.

I also really liked how Miyamoto depicted the home’s resident kitty. He just kind of wanders through scenes, stepping on people who are in the midst of having a conversation, etc. I hate, though, that his whereabouts are not accounted for at the end, and that no one, in fact, seems to care at all about whether he’s okay, given what happens. (How’s that for vague?) Do not introduce us to a cute kitty then not show him all safe and happy on the last page!
Anyway, Sleeping Moon is a solidly enjoyable supernatural yarn. The romance aspect is somewhat lacking, and it’s not exactly the most original story ever, but it’s still definitely worth reading.

– Review by Michelle Smith

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In Brief:

Blue Morning, Vol. 3 | By Shoko Hidaka | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – When I reviewed volume one, I wrote “Complex, dark, and a bit twisted, Blue Morning is the best BL I’ve read so far this year.” Happily, subsequent volumes of the series have only further cemented this impression. By volume three, Akihito and Katsuragi’s relationship has evolved as Akihito himself has matured and Katsuragi has begun to change in ways Akihito has yet to notice. Complications abound, however, and because so many of these arise due to the status-conscious society of the day, Hidaka-sensei spends a lot of time on this aspect of the story, with the result that Blue Morning feels more like a genuine period drama than BL romance with some token period frills. With characters this compelling and storytelling this nuanced and sure, there’s potential for much more riveting story to come, and I couldn’t be happier about that. This one is a keeper, for sure. – Michelle Smith

Off*Beat, Ch. 14 | By Jen Lee Quick | Chromatic Press | Rated YA – Because this series is American, it gets out of having to label itself “BL” (or not), but if there’s ever been a more gorgeously written love story between two teenaged boys, I certainly don’t know what it is. Part of what makes it work so well, of course, is that it reads as both YA and supernatural (or fringe science) mystery more than it reads as genre romance, and somehow that’s the magic formula for actual romance, at least in the hands of Jen Lee Quick. Her ability to capture her teens’ smart dialogue and awkward body language is, frankly, astounding, and volume 14 is absolutely fraught with these things, along with considerable romantic tension. Then she follows it up with a scene between Tory and his mother that had me nearly in tears. If you’re still holding out on this series… well, stop it. Dive in now. Highly recommended. – MJ

Tableau Numéro 20 | By est em | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – Let’s be honest, this title pretty much had me at “est em,” but even among her rather generous English-translated catalogue, it ranks among my favorites, and that’s saying quite a bit. Her style here favors short manga, as is generally expected. The book’s title story, a wistful love story between a long-dead painter and his subject, is more fanciful than the author’s norm, but no less moving. Even so, it may not actually be the strongest of the bunch. I was especially fond of “Rasgueado,” a story about a young zapateado dancer who is pulled out of a rut by an older guitarist, but each of the volume’s five short stories is a splendid work of art. Like most of est em’s work, I would consider this book appropriate for any adult manga fan, regardless of his or her preferred genres. Absolutely recommended. – MJ

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Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: Sleeping Moon, Vol. 2 (SuBLime), Off*Beat, Ch. 13 (Chromatic Press)