BL Bookrack

BL Bookrack: Ten Count, Vols. 1-2

January 19, 2017 by MJ and Michelle Smith 5 Comments

MJ: Wow, it’s been… a long time hasn’t it, my friend?

MICHELLE: I am scared to even verify how long it has been. A couple of years, at least!

MJ: So what’s brought us here today is the boys’ love series Ten Count (volumes one and two ) by Rihito Takarai, published here by SuBLime. From what I understand, the series has reached five volumes (ongoing) in Japan. The third volume is due out from SuBLime next month.

MICHELLE: Would you like to start?

MJ: Sure!

Shirotani is a lifelong germaphobe, resigned to his condition, though it keeps him isolated from others. Fortunately, with the help of his understanding employer, he is able to tolerate his job as secretary to a corporate CEO. It is in the corporate line of duty, then, that he first meets Kurose, a therapist at a local mental health clinic. Kurose notices Shirotani’s condition immediately, and suggests he seek help, but though Shirotani is able to make his way to the clinic, he can’t bring himself to go inside. Acknowledging this difficulty, Kurose offers to help him in a non-clinical capacity, as a friend, an arrangement to which Shirotani eventually agrees. As Kurose slowly helps him accomplish progressively difficult tasks (touching a doorknob with his bare hand, buying a book from a bookstore), the two become close in ways that complicates their relationship and threatens the fragile boundaries between them.

Fans of BL manga don’t need me to explain what that means, or probably why my greatest fear with this series would be that the therapist/patient dynamic (even in the context of them being “friends”) would create a problematic imbalance of power. And it does, though not right away. Had I read only the first volume, this paragraph would be a very different one, gratefully dismissing my fears and filled with satisfied discussion of their slowly-evolving relationship and lots of talk about how that kind of careful development is so rare and wonderful in this genre. Had I read only the first volume, I would have declared a lot of love for this series. Unfortunately, Kurose’s careful handling of Shirotani is abandoned less than two chapters into the second volume, when after declaring his love for Shirotani, he mercilessly forces him into accepting sexual contact (against Shirotani’s clear protestations), which only escalates as the volume continues. In fact, Shirotani’s germaphobia makes the situation even more brutal, as Kurose is not only performing non-consensual sexual acts with Shirotani, but also blatantly ignoring Shirotani’s boundaries regarding skin-to-skin contact without any of the thoughtful consideration he promised as part of their initial arrangement. It’s obvious that the author intended the germaphobia as a metaphorical stand-in for the typical uke resistance so popular in BL, but instead it just feels like piling on.

MICHELLE: What I found most interesting to contemplate is that Kurose does, in fact, give Shirotani opportunity to object. He warns him that he’s going to attempt these kinds of things if they continue to see each other, and asks questions like, “Did you really not like what we did a moment ago?” Sometimes, Shirotani is able to give voice to his objections, but he also holds back his disgust, and I have to think that’s because he doesn’t want to drive Kurose, the only person to whom he has any kind of close relationship, away. How much, then, does Shirotani actually reciprocate and how much is he just desperate to keep Kurose in his life?

If I had faith that Takarai was wanting us to consider this question in a thoughtful way, I’d be fairly happy. But there are a few comments, mostly in bonus stories or author asides, that make me think she is setting up a dominant/submissive paradigm in which Kurose simply enjoys seeing Shirotani squirm, and that is very troubling indeed.

MJ: Yeah, you’re right—he often does ask Shirotani for permission to do something, or for confirmation that he’s enjoying himself, but those check-ins feel pretty empty, considering the fact that he generally moves on with what he’s doing without anything resembling actual enthusiastic consent. And if she’s trying to set up a dominant/submissive relationship, she’s doing it 50 Shades style, which only furthers my discomfort. Kurose’s behavior becomes increasingly controlling over the course of the second volume, by the end of which he has not only violated most of Shirotani’s personal and sexual boundaries, but also has begun infantilizing him to a truly creepy degree. Between declaring a preference for a “childlike” hairstyle and outright asking Shirotani to agree to be “dependent” on him, Kurose has basically given up any pretense of respect or even basic acknowledgement of Shirotani’s agency as an (older!!) adult man. It is a testament to the strength of the series’ first volume that I’m even still reading this thing. But I would be lying if I said that it hadn’t broken my heart.

I understand that rape fantasy is a thing, and that it’s in poor taste to judge other people (especially femme-identified people, who are this genre’s target audience) for such fantasies. And on some level, I even understand a bit why someone’s fantasy might include giving up control, though I’d probably understand that better if we lived in a world where acknowledgement of a woman’s control over her own body was not considered a radical political act. I also understand that it’s, at the very least, pointless to wish for a story to be a different one than what its author wants to tell. I know that I should simply accept that something is not for me and move on. But after a full volume of something that *seems* to be for me, that truth can be difficult to swallow.

MICHELLE: Another thing that strikes me about the questions Kurose poses is how detached and clinical they can seem, even after a sexual act. One example is, “Were you more concerned with the possibility that I found you unpleasant than whether or not you found the situation itself unpleasant?” Leaving aside the tacit admission that he knows Shirotani could’ve been finding the situation unpleasant, attempting to reassert the therapist/patient dynamic at such a moment is, well, kind of creepy.

I’m not ready to give up on the series yet. Like I said, I want to believe Takarai is trying to make a more subtle point here, but I just don’t know. If volume three is more of the same, it might be too much for me, too.

MJ: Upsides of this series that extend beyond its fairly awesome first volume include Shirotani’s sweet, understanding boss, whose constant mindfulness regarding Shirotani’s discomfort and physical boundaries paint a picture of a pretty awesome guy. Similarly, Shirotani’s acquaintance from his company’s sales department, Mikami, proves himself over and over to be a good friend and a stand-up guy. It’s a shame that these characters, who operate without personal motive and truly seem to have Shirotani’s best interests at heart aren’t the people he trusts most. I can’t help but think that if either of them knew what was going on, they’d be the first to jump to Shirotani’s defense and help him get the hell out of the abusive relationship he’s been lured into by Kurose.

MICHELLE: I liked them, too! I really wanted to believe that Shirotani was indeed able to make progress in his therapy with Mikami, as he initially claimed to do, though we later learn he was lying in hopes that he could resume seeing Kurose. Perhaps it was some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way. Like, he tried with Mikami, and had no success, and now he believes that Kurose is the key to moving forward, thus increasing his dependence. He is able to achieve some things for these people in his life, though, like when his desire to find a book to entertain his hospitalized boss results in a successful purchase at a bookstore.

Regarding Kurose and his motivations, do you think there’s still some reveal to come? When he has Shirotani write out the list of ten activities he feels aversion for, with ten being something he thinks he could never do, Shirotani leaves that one blank. Kurose refuses to divulge his reasons for helping Shirotani on his own time until Shirotani fills in that tenth item. Do we already know that it’s because he was falling in love? Or is it something like, “I’m secretly a major sadist”?

MJ: That’s a really good question! I feel like I have no idea. I mean, on one hand, things have gone so far at this point I’m sort of just expecting the usual “tortured uke” trope to continue from this point, with more and more uncomfortable sex scenes and less and less real storytelling. So I’m not as optimistic as I’d like. On one hand, the series obviously continues beyond this, but I wonder if it will continue to really explore and examine this relationship or whether it will just turn to side characters like so many deceivingly-long BL series do.

Your whole first paragraph, though, just reminds me how much I loved the first volume! Gah! I want to be optimistic!

MICHELLE: So do I, and part of me thinks there’s still room for something great to evolve from this. I’m thinking of Tomoko Yamashita’s marvelous The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, actually, in which no sexual contact has occurred, but in which one lead (Hiyakawa) casually appropriates the body of the other (Mikado) in a way that alarms others but which the affected party chooses not to think too deeply about because with Hiyakawa around, he no longer feels alone or potentially crazy for his ability to see spirits. There are some definite parallels to Ten Count there, but Yamashita is more clearly going into a psychological direction with her story, whereas Takarai seems to be taking a more traditional, explicit route.

I will still read volume three, though. How about you?

MJ: I will probably give this series one more volume, yes, even though I don’t feel as optimistic as I wish I did. Also, I’ll second your shout-out to The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, which manages to talk about consent more thoughtfully, despite its supernatural premise. In that series, there is at least another character screaming out, “THIS IS NOT OKAY” all the time, so that we’re aware that the author knows there is a problem. It makes all the difference in the world.

MICHELLE: Indeed it does.

MJ: Bottom line, though this series starts off as a thoughtful look at the slow development of a tricky but potentially important relationship between a lonely professional who becomes friendly with a younger mental health specialist, its second volume takes a dark turn, devolving into a tale of emotional abuse, sexual assault, and deeply broken trust. We’ll probably keep reading it, but buyer beware.

BL Bookrack: Simply SuBLime

November 5, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

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.

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

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

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

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

BL Bookrack: Totally Captivated, MMF Edition

August 10, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

MJ: Back in the spring of 2010, I undertook a digital marathon read of Totally Captivated, a Korean boys’ love series by Hajin Yoo, in preparation for a review of its final volume, which was soon to be released in print by its North American publisher, NETCOMICS. It was an intense 48 hours, to be sure, and at the time, I enjoyed the series so much that this quote from my review turned up on the back of that print volume: “In its early volumes, Totally Captivated was smart, sexy, and fabulously dramatic. Now at the end of its final volume, it has also grown into an unexpectedly satisfying love story, rivaling the best of its genre.”

Since we love Korean manhwa in general (and BL manhwa in particular), for our contribution to the BL Manga Moveable Feast, Michelle suggested that we devote a column to Totally Captivated. I was excited by the idea, but a little worried that I might not love the series as much after so much time (and so much BL), and in some ways my worry was justified. Having been a relative newcomer to both manga and manhwa back then, it’s only natural that my tastes would have evolved, even over the course of just three years. Fortunately, the things I loved most about Totally Captivated have endured, and I can ultimately stand by the quote above.

So what is Totally Captivated? Since I’ve always found summarizing a story’s premise to be the most difficult part of a review (no, seriously), I’ll let my 2010 self do the heavy lifting:

Ewon Jung is a 23-year-old scholarship student in Seoul, whose curiosity over whether or not it is possible to have great sex without love (“It was possible.”) leads him to cheat on his boyfriend, Jiho.

Devastated and yearning for revenge, Jiho persuades his new boyfriend, a small-time loan shark named Mookyul Eun, to force Ewon into service at his office where he is expected to run errands, clean, and balance the books, all without payment. Unfortunately for Jiho, Mookyul soon develops an interest in Ewon, and it isn’t long before Jiho ends up shunted aside once again. Mookyul is controlling and occasionally violent, and Ewon is far from a pushover, but they eventually reach a mutually beneficial arrangement and begin living together. Things do not continue peacefully for long, however, as Ewon becomes aware that he is falling harder for Mookyul than he intended and experiences his first real taste of jealousy. Though the story’s premise initially seems contrived, its real function is to provide a stylish, humorous background to what is essentially a very moving story about two deeply damaged men learning how to love.

Care to add to that summary, Michelle?

MICHELLE: Man, am I ever glad to see you say that your worry was justified, because up to volume four I was a bit fretful that I wasn’t enjoying the series as much as I had hoped to. Happily, that did change.

I don’t think I have anything in particular to add to the summary other than the fact that it takes these guys a long time to figure out where they’re coming from, and there are a lot of scenes (especially in volumes three and four) where you wonder, “Why on earth does Ewon stay with Mookyul?!” It’s like the stereotypical sadistic seme turned up to eleven. It’s only later that you start to gain some insight into why Mookyul is behaving like he is, so it’s definitely worth it to persevere even when you’re disgusted by him.

MJ: I was re-reading my full review of volume six, and I see that I’d mentioned there how hard it was to continue to root for the relationship during a few of the middle volumes, and that’s definitely what I found even harder to deal with this time around. Yet I had a similar reaction by the end as I’d had originally—that once we knew enough about both of them to understand why they were who they were, it was actually a really romantic story. I don’t know that any other story with such a controlling love interest has managed to redeem itself with me to that extent, which makes Totally Captivated special, indeed.

The thing that makes this really work, in my opinion, is Ewon, because he’s such a consistent character all the way through, and even if we don’t understand everything about his past from the beginning, everything we learn as we go slots right into Ewon as we know him. From the beginning, he avoids commitment and real emotional connection, he’s absolutely clear with himself about what he’s willing to put up with and what he’s not, and he’ll find a way to extract himself from a situation he can’t tolerate, one way or another (I think this is why I was able to stomach him staying with Mookyul during their worst times—because when he’s done with something, he actually does leave).

But most of all, something that I think is made very clear is that (and I think this answers your question), with all that emotional avoidance in mind, the reason Ewon gets together with Mookyul, and even the reason he stays with him for a long time, is that he finds him incredibly attractive. Mookyul is exactly Ewon’s kind of hot, and he’s pretty honest with himself about the fact that this is a highly motivating factor for him, even to the end.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I know Ewon has essentially regarded Mookyul as his dream guy since middle school, but still… No matter how attractive a guy, I wouldn’t endure what Ewon endures! That said, he does also mention at one point that, because of what happened between them in the past—young Ewon pledged to wait for delinquent Mookyul to return to school, and though he did wait, his adult self forgot all about it, when to Mookyul it became a sustaining memory—he feels somewhat responsible for how messed up Mookyul has turned out. So that’s part of it, as well.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

The big turning point for me came in volume four, when Ewon’s friends pressure him to invite Mookyul out to drink with them, and it all goes horribly wrong. I loved seeing how concerned Ewon’s friends are with how controlling his new lover is, and I love the argument that results when Ewon and Mookyul get back home. “All I wanted was to introduce you to my friends. Just like other normal people get to do!”

I feel like this was the point where we realize that this isn’t going to just be some standard BL romance, but an in-depth character study. From here on out, we start to realize that Mookyul may actually be pretty clueless, despite how suave he seems to be. He has no idea how to be in a real relationship, and he’s going about it the wrong way because he can tell that Ewon is just looking for that thing that’s going to give him an excuse to bolt.

MJ: I love that volume four argument as well (and I actually adore pretty much all of Ewon’s school friends whom we meet during the series, but I expect we’ll talk about a few of them in-depth later), and the fact that Ewon never just takes any of Mookyul’s crap—there’s always a fight.

As I was reading your response, though, it also occurred to me that I think Mookyul’s bad behavior is maybe even part of why Ewon is willing to be involved with him, because he is always looking for an excuse to bolt. And since Mookyul is providing those excuses on a pretty much daily basis, it keeps that escape route always open for Ewon. Unlike with Jiho, a genuinely sweet, devoted guy whom Ewon couldn’t help but feel guilty for betraying, Mookyul is someone he could betray almost out of a sense of righteousness. Who could ever blame him for stepping out on Mookyul? He’s practically asking for it, right? And Ewon actually does this at one point early on in their relationship (more than once, if you consider his behavior with Dohoon). In a twisted way, a jerk like Mookyul is the perfect match for someone who always has one foot out the door, and that’s Ewon all over.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

MICHELLE: I can see that. I want to be clear, though, that I’m not putting responsibility for Mookyul’s horribly controlling ways on Ewon’s inability to commit. Because Mookyul really does and says some horrible things, from threatening to kill Ewon a couple of times to forcing himself on Ewon in volume four just after that argument in which it seems like he’s beginning to see the light, to concealing the fact that he’s in a sexual relationship with “Chairman Lee,” the father figure in his life, when his declarations of love had persuaded Ewon that it was safe to give his heart—that one, precious possession that he clung to when he had nothing else—to Mookyul.

MJ: I should be clear that I’m not, either. Mookyul is 100% responsible for every shitty thing he says and does to Ewon. Ewon’s only responsible for his decision to stay with him (which, even then, I’d probably still lay on Mookyul, given all the threats he makes, if Ewon hadn’t made it perfectly clear time and again that he’s totally capable of leaving when he wants to—and does at least twice over the course of the series), and that’s where I see his inability to commit coming into play. I’m saying that Mookyul’s abusive behavior is is attractive in some way to Ewon because it makes it easier for him to avoid dealing with his real feelings. But that doesn’t erase the fact that Mookyul’s behavior is abusive.

In fact, I’d say Mookyul is unbelievably lucky—much more than he deserves to be—in that he’s managed to find someone (Ewon) who, over time, is willing to wade through all his abuse and teach him how to be a person. I think it might make me angry that he gets to have that, actually, if Ewon didn’t ultimately get something he really needs out of the relationship. The fact that Yoo is able to write all this in a way I can stomach at all is pretty incredible.

MICHELLE: Yes, I agree with that completely.

It’s only in the second half of the series that we start to see that Mookyul is actually pretty desparate to keep the people he cares about from leaving him. He’s jealous of any other guy Ewon talks to, and attempts to restrict his behavior, and yet also continues to sleep with Chairman Lee because he can’t just toss aside his own “father,” to whom he owes so much. Because he’s compartmentalized those two parts of his life, it’s almost like he can’t even see that sleeping with Lee qualifies as cheating on Ewon, which is something guaranteed to drive him away.

MJ: And, you know, I have so little sympathy for cheaters (it’s a thing), you think I’d have at least a moment of satisfaction when Ewon gets a taste of his own medicine (after all, the first thing we see Ewon do in the series is cheat on Jiho), but Ewon’s so genuinely distraught when he realizes that his pain over the discovery of Mookyul and Chairman Lee’s relationship is the same pain he’s inflicted on Jiho… I couldn’t even get there. And oh, Ewon’s pain. Yoo writes this perfectly, because it isn’t just pain Ewon feels, but also the humiliation of discovering that he’d been essentially made a fool—that he’d stood by, smiling, while Mookyul was cheating on him in the next room. Ewon’s sickening reaction and his remorse towards Jiho… it’s all written with such emotional truth.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

MICHELLE: Exactly! What I really loved about all of this is that it honestly, genuinely shocked me. We’re so conditioned by romantic fiction of all kinds to believe the behaviorally challenged (seriously, I tried out and rejected ten adjectives here) hero when he claims that his beloved is the only one for him that I totally did believe it when Mookyul said so. It never even occurred to me that Yoo would let him be lying. But, of course, in reality people lie all the time, and they hurt each other like this all the time. It’s a complication to Ewon and Mookyul’s relationship that I can love deeply because it is realistic and not just some genre trope.

MJ: Yes! And actually, there is a ton of lying in this series, perpetrated by characters we care about—in fact, Ewon does more of it than anyone. He lies frequently, sometimes to save himself from grief (or serious harm), sometimes to save someone else, and sometimes just because it’s easy to do and it makes a potentially complicated situation less complicated for him. And because he’s our POV character, we know about all of it.

MICHELLE: I love that, even though he’s our POV character, Yoo still lets him do some pretty shitty things. Like when he leaves Mookyul’s place and goes straight to Dohoon, the friend he knows has a thing for him, and proceeds to sleep with him. Poor Dohoon thinks that Ewon has chosen him at last, but it turns out not to be the case. Ewon’s just distracting himself from his
pain.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

MJ: Help! I’m torn between two emphatic responses!

First, yes, I so agree with what you’ve said here. I love the fact that Ewon is not always a good guy, at least when it comes to the way he treats his romantic and/or sexual partners (and in Dohoon’s case, his romantically-interested friends). Which isn’t to say that he’s an anti-hero by any means. He’s a protagonist you can’t help but love. It’s just that he’s a mess in a lot of ways, and one of the ways in which that manifests himself is in the way he takes advantage of his attractiveness to other men.

But what I maybe love even more is the way his circle of friends feels like the real thing, in all the best and worst ways. Dohoon is a fantastic character (one of my favorites in the series, actually), but more than that, I know that guy. Not necessarily in the most obvious sense—I don’t have many close friends from wealthy, connected families—but that friend, that long-time friend with whom one has weird sexual tension that is maybe mostly one-sided, but you’d do anything for each other no matter what shit is going down… I know that guy. And Ewon’s whole circle feels like that. They drink together, they date, they break up, they sometimes hate each other, but mostly love each other to bits. They can hurt and use each other and ultimately be forgiven. Those are friends I know and love. And though Ewon’s friends are sort of in the periphery of this story, they are fully realized all the same.

MICHELLE: I find I’m partial to a guy whose name I don’t know, so I’ll just call him the Peacemaker. He’s the one in the scene with Mookyul and Ewon’s friends who is trying to smooth things out, reinterpreting what other people are saying in order to foster understanding and avoid unpleasantness. I mean, he’s just a bit character, really, and we already can tell so much about him by how he acts in that situation.

MJ: I know that guy, too! I think I used to be that guy!

MICHELLE: I pretty much am that guy!

MJ: I think you’ve articulated something here, too, that is key to the success of this series. The fact that Yoo creates a character like the Peacemaker, whose name we don’t even know, but who is so immediately familiar and fully fleshed-out for us in his tiny role—that’s exactly what she does throughout the series, and she kind of does it on the sly. Particularly early on, before we start getting into the meat of Ewon and Mookyul’s histories (which takes a while, partly because Ewon avoids thinking about his past and because he lies so often), Totally Captivated is a deceptively light read. It’s over-the-top and genuinely funny (I’d forgotten, really, how funny it is), and on the surface it appears to be pretty much just a stylish romp. But Yoo is so skillful with things like characterization, that before you know it, you’re hooked into something much deeper, and you’re not even sure how you go there.

MICHELLE: And the story is just well constructed in general. The most significant action takes the form of conversations (or arguments), which I liked, but there’s also the storyline about the power struggle within Chairman Lee’s organization, and I thought that was handled quite well. There’s not too much of the gangster stuff to make it boring, but it ties together reasonably well and impacts our leads in significant ways.

MJ: Yeah, gangster stuff is not usually something I’m extremely interested in, but not only does it support the main romantic story in various ways, especially in terms of dealing with Mookyul’s relationship with Chairman Lee (which did not play out as I expected!), but the day-to-day stuff in the office of a loan shark actually provided some of my favorite moments in the series! Obviously the main relationship is developing in that office, but I also really love the way Ewon makes a place for himself with Mookyul’s underlings, and the way they all support him. There’s a scene somewhat early on in which Ewon is studying in the office and though he’s already asked everyone if they needed coffee, Mookyul fails to ask for any until later on. When he then does ask for coffee, his guys basically reprimand him, “You should have raised your hand when he asked.” It’s such a heartwarming little moment.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

Then, of course, there’s all the stuff with Byungsoo Yoo, which is so interesting. He’s an underling working for Mookyul, who gets kicked out early on for embezzling from the organization—a feat he clumsily accomplishes by convincing Ewon to let him temporarily take over the office bookkeeping (it had originally been his job before it was Ewon’s) while Ewon is busy with schoolwork. There are a whole slew of things I love about Byungsoo’s story, though not for his sake, but rather for what his story reveals about both Ewon and Mookyul over the course of the series.

First, during the scene in which he asks to take over the bookkeeping, Byungsoo makes a homophobic remark to Ewon, and Ewon’s reaction is so much exactly who he is. He doesn’t try to defend himself (why should he have to defend his existance to anyone, especially a guy like that?) or engage him on the subject at all, he just quietly writes him off as a person.

Then later, as the increasingly clueless Byungsoo walks away, spouting promises to buy him a drink, Ewon just gives him the finger. “I don’t want some stinking homophobe to buy me a drink.” It’s just Ewon all over. He’s totally comfortable with himself and his sexuality, and anyone who’s not simply isn’t worth his concern. And yet, still, when the shit inevitably hits the fan, Ewon throws himself to the lions (Mookyul) in order to save Byungsoo from a grisly death. Which, incidentally, ends up being a surprisingly hilarious moment, in the way that Yoo creates hilarious moments.

MICHELLE: I think that was our first inkling, too, that Ewon isn’t going to necessarily be completely honest about everything. Because he didn’t ever really confess that he pretty much knew that the guy was going to embezzle, only that he wanted to take over the accounting and Ewon let him.

MJ: Yes, you’re right. This is our first really clear glimpse of Ewon’s lying for self-preservation, something that happens a lot, and which I don’t even totally disapprove of, I find, which is interesting for me as a reader.

Then, later, when Byungsoo re-enters the story, it’s Mookyul we end up learning things about—namely that he’s smarter and more forgiving than I had realized, though it all seems so obvious once it’s out there.

MICHELLE: We start to see new facets of Mookyul once he’s given up everything for Ewon. It’s like he can relax at last because Ewon has come back to him. There’s a great scene early in volume six just after they’ve been reunited when he is still clearly himself and yet exudes a completely different vibe, saying, “It’s strange… I have nothing left now. But I’m happy.”

MJ: This brings up something that’s a point of discomfort for me in the series, and that definitely bothered me more on my second read than it had originally. Both Ewon and Mookyul have epic abandonment issues that make them each who they are, and it all feels very real. It rings true, even during the most super-dramatic portions of the series. Mookyul needs to control and Ewon needs to detach—this is how they’ve each learned to cope. Obviously each character’s behavior is destructive to himself and his relationships, and we watch that happening, over and over. Nobody, including Mookyul, Ewon, and the author thinks this behavior is healthy. It just is what it is.

Where I feel uncomfortable is where they ultimately end up, but I wonder if that’s just because it pings my own issues. By the end, they’ve each finally accepted that the other *isn’t going to leave* and that’s a huge relief for them both. They can worry about losing each other to outside forces, but they’re also there to keep each other safe from those things. And I really appreciate that this intense universe of two, which is so often just written as a super-romantic vision of controlling, over-protective behavior, is instead here a mutual coping mechanism that can help these two seriously damaged men build a happy life together—one happier than either of them ever hoped to find. It’s brilliant, actually. Yoo has taken an overused, unhealthy romantic cliche and turned it into something understandable and actually not creepy.

But a little bit? I’m still creeped.

MICHELLE: I’d say I’m more concerned than creeped. It’s just not healthy to be so dependent on another person that you declare “I won’t be able to breathe without you.” But, as you said, it’s understandable given what they’ve gone through. I hope that, with time and maturity, they’ll be able to achieve the ability to function separately as need be while retaining a feeling of certainty about their relationship.

MJ: The other thing that bothers me is that I worry that Ewon doesn’t get his way often enough in the bedroom, and this also was a bigger issue for me on my second read. Now, I’m not even talking about the non-con early on. The power dynamic is seriously screwed up in the beginning, and even though Ewon proves he can get out of situations he doesn’t want to be in, it’s still clear that he sometimes goes through with things he doesn’t want just because it’s easier, which isn’t the same as actual consent. This is a problem, and though it’s handled in a more complex manner here than in a lot of BL, it’s still yucky.

But what I’m talking about here is just their general bedroom dynamic. Ewon finds Mookyul to be pretty impossibly sexy, and clearly wants to sleep with him, so that’s not the issue. The issue is that they always have sex the way Mookyul wants to have it, and I never get the feeling that this is really okay with Ewon.

Yoo tackles the whole seme/uke (if we’re talking Japanese BL tropes), top/bottom business in a way that feels more authentic than what we usually see (I’m not saying it is authentic—how would I know?—just that it reads like it is, so I’m able to buy in), but where it works well in her scenes with Ewon and Dohoon (both exclusively “pitchers” who aren’t particularly interested in experimentation, which leads to verbal sparring), the arrangement between Ewon and Mookyul (also two “pitchers”) just reads as perpetually unsatisfying for Ewon. I’m unhappy with this state of affairs, and Ewon should be, too.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

MICHELLE: I wondered a bit about that myself. I think Ewon only makes one complaint about that aspect of their relationship, and it’s not followed up on. But after he leaves Mookyul and goes on his sex-as-distraction spree, he starts off by being “catcher” for Dohoon. I’m not sure what he does with those other guys, but I kind of thought maybe he realized he liked it after all. I do note here that this title is rated 16+, so we don’t get any kind of intimate details of bedroom relations, for which I’m grateful.

And I wonder how flexible Mookyul is in that department. When Ewon discovers that Mookyul and Lee are sleeping together, he implies that Mookyul is the catcher in that scenario and Mookyul doesn’t deny it, but doesn’t confirm it, either.

MJ: Hmmmmm, perhaps you’re right. I suppose my overall reaction is based on a sense that we mostly see Ewon just exhausted from sex with Mookyul, rather than basking in the afterglow. So I kind of felt that he never really liked it as much as he could. And when he goes to Dohoon, it’s out of a pretty destructive kind of need, so I’m not convinced he actually wants the sex then either, but rather just to be wanted, which is something Dohoon can easily deliver (unfortunately for Dohoon). I mean, Ewon’s a guy who clearly likes sex, but I’m not sure that particular spree is representative of his healthiest impulses.

Speaking of Chairman Lee… wow. There are very few characters I hate more than Chairman Lee, between the semi-incestuous (and definitely abusive) relationship with his “son,” to his downright *mean* behavior with Ewon, he enraged me more often than anyone else in the series, with a healthy side of SKEEVE. Though, true to form, Yoo managed to surprise me with him in the end.

MICHELLE: While majorly, majorly icky, I still found Chairman Lee pretty fascinating. Yoo could’ve easily turned him into a mustache-twirling villain, but he never feels like that at all.

(click images to enlarge — read left-to-right)

MJ: Yeah, he’s significantly less that kind of villain than, say, Papa Dino in Banana Fish. Fortunately, he’s also never portrayed as actually sympathetic, which I don’t think I could stomach. But he is a more fully-formed character than your average sexual abuser might be, and that at least makes it easier to understand Mookyul’s extreme loyalty. And this makes it feel that much more profound when he actually does cut Lee out of his life in order to be with Ewon, too. As twisted as Mookyul’s relationship is with Lee, I think they actually love each other. It’s just that this love is constantly compromised by Lee having established a deeply inappropriate sexual relationship with Mookyul.

And speaking of twisted relationships… oh, Jiho. Poor Jiho. Want to talk about him a bit?

MICHELLE: Sure! I actually grew to like him quite a lot. I like that he was still able to care about Ewon, despite everything that happened, and felt close enough to challenge him on some of his bad behavior. I think this may be another case of someone finding love and security—Jiho eventually acquires a sweet and adoring boyfriend—and then being able to move past some of their past hangups.

MJ: I was surprised to end up liking Jiho as much as I did, even though he was initially wronged by Ewon. I thought his revenge (or what I interpreted as simple revenge at the time) was disproportionate to the crime. But he absolutely won me over, and actually his friendship with Ewon is one of my favorites in the series. It’s one of those times where I think maybe they just got it wrong the first time around, and they were always meant to be friends. I love watching the two of them care for each other, which they do over and over. And Jiho’s little declaration of independence is possibly the cutest thing ever.

And here’s another area where Yoo just really gets it right. When Ewon is going through his self-destructive sex spree, Jiho can’t help but care, and he kind of scolds himself for worrying about who Ewon is sleeping with when he’s got his own awesome boyfriend to care about now. And that’s exactly what would happen. It’s not like we stop caring about people who wrong us… if we did, they wouldn’t have been able to hurt us in the first place. So Jiho can’t help but care.

MICHELLE: And, of course, there’s that great moment above when Ewon is able to apologize to Jiho for the pain he caused, finally knowing what it feels like to be betrayed by the one to whom you’ve given your heart. I think we’re back to the “Ewon has great friends” point again. :) But actually, Mookyul has some loyal friends, too. Especially Sangchul, who’s his right-hand man in many ways.

MJ: You’re right, of course! I mean, technically Mookyul’s friends are kinda paid to be on his side, but it’s obvious that their loyalty to him is real. And later, when Mookyul really needs them, they come through, particularly Sangchul and, surprisingly, Byungsoo.

MICHELLE: I guess we are Friend Fangirls for this series. They provide a good deal of the humor, too.

MJ: It’s true, they do. Like the entire section where the the boys in the office are trying to cover up the fact that Ewon’s in hiding after having accidentally broken an important vase? That whole thing is hilarious, from start to finish.

Heh, I was going through the books to pick out some of my favorite bits of humor, and there are just so many! Humor is so much a part of the fabric of Yoo’s storytelling, I get the feeling that she’s barely trying; humor just happens. Sure, sometimes she takes the time to go all chibi-like to punctuate the humor (and her chibis are freaking adorable, I have to say). But so often it’s just part of the drama. I mean, there are are, in the middle of a life-or-death scene, and somehow there’s nothing funnier than Ewon suddenly exclaiming, “The crazy fucker that tried to grab your sac in elementary school was me!”

MICHELLE: I thought it was a good sign when I snickered on, like, page three. That “It was possible.” line is just so well-timed.

MJ: Heh, yes, it really is. I suppose this is what you get when an author is just plain funny herself, rather than trying to make jokes. She can’t help but endow her protagonist with the same natural comic timing she has. And the same self-deprectating humor, too.

We get to see that directly aimed at Yoo, even, from time to time, during occasional breaks in the fourth wall. One of my favorite instances of this is in volume two, before Ewon is sexually or romantically involved with Mookyul, and he’s gossiping about Mookyul’s relationship to Chairman Lee with Sangchul. “Hajin Yoo says she’s gonna elaborate on the relationship between Mookyul and the big boss in a doujinshi,” says Sangchul. Ewon responds, “How can you trust what that lazy-ass says?” at which point he is punched in the eye by the text bubble.

MICHELLE: Hee. I’d forgotten that bit.

So, are we basically saying that Totally Captivated has it all (save for gratuitous sex scenes)? Good points, bad points, humor, romance, well-developed characters, and loads of profanity?

MJ: And eyes! I love the heavily-lined, detailed eyes we see in so much female-aimed manhwa. Yoo totally delivers on the eyes.

But yes, I guess that’s what we’re saying. Now that you’ve laid it all out there like that, it makes me want more.

MICHELLE: Alas, this appears to be Yoo’s only work released in English. It looks like she did follow through with writing a few doujinshi based on the series, though—including one featuring Ewon’s fourteen-year-old little sister.

MJ: I procrastinated on picking up the volumes that NETCOMICS printed (they were awfully spendy) and they sold out long ago. Though, given the 18+ rating, I suppose none of these is the little sister story. Sad.

MICHELLE: I actually had no idea they’d printed any of the doujinshi!

MJ: I still have some hope for a manhwa resurgence over here, and given how much I’ve enjoyed most of the Korean BL I’ve read, more of that (and more of Hajin Yoo) is absolutely on my wish list.

MICHELLE: Mine, too!

All images © Hajin Yoo, English text © NETCOMICS. This article was written for the 801 Manga Moveable Feast. Check out Otaku Champloo for more!

More full-series discussions with MJ & Michelle:

Full-series multi-guest roundtables: Hikaru no Go | Banana Fish | Basara | Gerard & Jacques | Flower of Life

BL Bookrack: June 2013

June 15, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

Welcome to the June installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two debut series from SuBLime Manga, Blue Morning and Sleeping Moon. In Brief: Help! God of Love and KINE IN! (DMG).

Blue Morning, Vol. 1 | By Shoko Hidaka | SuBLime | Rated M (Mature) – One word that I keep seeing used regarding Blue Morning is “psychological,” and much as I would like to say something new about the work, this label really is inescapable.

Akihito Kuze is the son of a viscount, but spent the early years of his childhood living away from Tokyo with his sickly mother. When his parents die six months apart, ten-year-old Akihito inherits the title and moves to the Kuze estate, where everything is capably managed by a cold young man named Tomoyuki Katsuragi. Akihito is instantly in awe of Katsuragi, but the latter shows the child neither warmth nor sympathy, but instead piles on the studies and repeatedly informs Akihito that he must be perfect in order to carry on the Kuze line. Akihito does his best to comply, and, as he grows, eventually develops an obsession to make Katsuragi notice and approve of him.

There’s a lot of really complicated and interesting character work going on here. Akihito’s early fascination with Katsuragi makes sense, given that he seemingly lived his early life mostly among women, as does the eventual evolution of his feelings. Katsuragi’s treatment of the boy makes sense, as well, once readers learn how the man came to be in the Kuze household in the first place, and the lengths to which he went to emulate his former master, while Akihito is going about, being his own person without a care. My one complaint is that a conversation about Katsuragi’s true parentage doesn’t make much sense, but perhaps it was meant to be cryptic and will be clarified in future volumes.

Complex, dark, and a bit twisted, Blue Morning is the best BL I’ve read so far this year. And, as if that weren’t reason enough to celebrate, this is a continuing series, with volume two due out in August!

– Review by Michelle Smith

Sleeping Moon, Vol. 1 | By Kano Miyamoto | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – Akihiko’s life has been long haunted by a curse said to kill his family’s male descendants at an early age. Though his own father unsuccessfully attempted to escape his fate by leaving home, the curse brings Akihiko, now nearing thirty, back to his roots to search for answers.

Using his research in comparative religion as an excuse to visit his family’s ancestral home, Akihiko is confronted both by the awakening of his inherited paranormal abilities and the awakening of his heart, as he finds himself drawn to two very different men. The first of these is Ren, Akihiko’s free-spirited but lonely cousin who shares his ability to see ghosts and other supernatural beings. The second is Eitaro, a young man living 100 years in the past, whom Akihiko visits in his dreams, and who bears a striking physical resemblance to Ren.

The premise I just described could so easily be the worst kind of supernatural romance, filled with overblown psychic powers and cross-generational mistaken identity. Fortunately, in Miyamoto-sensei’s capable hands, it is instead the best kind.

Akihiko’s reception in his family’s home is the kind one encounters only in stories of old, well-to-do families—an odd mix of unquestioned acceptance and extreme discomfort. That, together with his supernaturally-based connection to his cousin reminds me of nothing more than Mary Stewart’s Touch Not the Cat, a favorite novel from my teens.

This sort of strained (but undeniable) intimacy between people who’ve met only at distant family functions creates an immediate sense of history and makes relationships that spring up too quickly feel somehow perfectly natural—a decided advantage in this kind of romance. In particular, Ren’s desperate need to connect with someone, anyone, who shares his fate feels urgent and genuine, helping to ground the series despite its supernatural premise. Miyamoto’s artwork is a highlight as well, nicely capturing the sense of both past and present haunting Akihiko’s every move.

The second (and last) volume of this series is due out in September, and I admit I’m quite anxious for its arrival. Highly recommended.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

Help! God of Love | By Tsukiko Kurebayashi | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Mature (18+) – One of the great things about the Digital Manga Guild is that it’s in a position to make available a lot of manga that would otherwise never see any kind of English release. This has resulted in the discovery of hidden gems like Climb On To My Shoulders, and expanded the English-language catalogues of talented authors like est em (KINE IN!) and Keiko Kinoshita (You & Tonight). Unfortunately, there are untranslated manga that would be better left alone. This is one of those manga. Between its ultra-contrived melodrama and underdeveloped relationships, Help! God of Love is one of the most poorly constructed BL manga I’ve read to date, a circumstance not at all helped by its occasionally awkward English adaptation. Not recommended. – MJ

KINE IN! | By est em | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Young adult (16+) – I’m always up for anything by est em, and even though the first thing I read by her—Seduce Me After the Show—remains my favorite, there is always something worthwhile to be found in her other works. I’ll admit that my faith was a little shaken by the opening chapters of KINE IN!, which revolve around a high school love triangle, but est em returns to form with the unrelated short stories that round out the volume. My particular favorites are “The Scenery of That Summer,” which is about a pair of step-brothers that meet for the first time for a funeral, and “The Salvia and the Barber,” in which a pair of sixty-year-olds decide to live together as family. Both stories are poignant and offer only a suggestion of romantic feeling. In fact, this entire volume is very chaste indeed, probably due to a recurring theme of love postponed. Definitely recommended. – Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Disclosure: MJ is currently under contract with Digital Manga Publishing’s Digital Manga Guild, as necessitated for her ongoing report Inside the DMG. Any compensation earned by MJin her role as an editor with the DMG will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: Blue Morning (SuBLime)

BL Bookrack: March 2013

March 10, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 2 Comments

Welcome to the March installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at Where a Person Is Most Vulnerable at JManga, while MJchecks out the latest volumes of Awkward Silence and His Favorite from SuBLime. In Brief: Punch Up!, Vol. 3 (SuBLime).

Awkward Silence, Vols. 2-3 | By Hinako Takanaga | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – As a somewhat finicky BL fan, I have a complicated relationship with Hinako Takanaga. Though I have several favorites among her works (You Will Fall in Love springs immediately to mind), I often find her romances too rushed to be satisfying (Little Butterfly). Furthermore, even some of my favorites of her work (The Tyrant Falls in Love) include elements I dislike so thoroughly that they send me hurtling from hatred to love and back again. Though Awkward Silence is far too mild-mannered a title to incite anything like hatred, its first volume fell easily into the “too rushed” section of Takanaga’s catalogue, thus robbing itself of the emotional resonance required to elicit anything close to love.

Volume two opens with blank-faced Satoru (who carefully reminds us every chapter that his face is incapable of expressing emotion) sulking over his boyfriend Keigo’s upcoming sleep-away baseball camp. Having been unable to properly express his feelings to Keigo before he departed, Satoru is tormented over the fact that Keigo may have left believing that Satoru was angry with him for going in the first place. Naturally, the only option is for Satoru to sneak into the camp in the middle of the night in order to explain himself. He does, and the two have sex.

Okay, a little bit more than that happens. Satoru’s antics lead Keigo’s baseball team to believe that the west wing of the school is haunted and minimal wackiness ensues, but the series’ chapters are so carefully formulaic, it’s obvious that the point of it all is to create an opportunity for the obligatory sex scene. And this is really the crux of the issue. While I certainly have no objection to sex scenes in a BL manga—and such scenes can contribute significantly to both plot and characterization—as is all too common in contemporary romance, Takanaga’s scenes are largely just… in the way. With so few pages available per chapter in which to develop her characters’ relationship, every panel is precious, and panels spent on perfunctory sex scenes are, frankly, nothing more than a waste.

Volume three plays a bit stronger, as it shifts its focus from Satoru and Keigo to a couple of amusingly mismatched upperclassmen (whose relationship vibe is not unlike Morinaga and Souichi’s in Tyrant), and Satoru’s charming (also blank-faced) mom is an unexpected highlight. But this relationship, too, suffers from a whirlwind approach that doesn’t feel quite earned. Takanaga’s expressive artwork particularly shines in this volume, making its shortage of emotional substance even sadder, in my view. Not recommended.

– Review by MJ

His Favorite, Vols. 2-3 | By Suzuki Tanaka | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – If I’m a sucker for any particular romance trope, it’s “friends-turned-lovers”—a predilection largely responsible for my obsession with writers like Keiko Kinoshita and Yeri Na, among others. In volume one of His Favorite, author Suzuki Tanaka proved that she’s got my number as well, with her story of childhood friends, Sato and Yoshida, whose developing “hot guy”/”spazzy guy” pairing is the best thing since Doumeki and Watanuki (with fewer ghosts and bento lunches).

In volume one, class stud Sato revealed to unpopular goofball Yoshida that he was the (once overweight, bullied) boy whom (once popular, badass) Yoshida fiercely protected all through grade school. Having nurtured a crush on Yoshida for years, Sato’s new “hot guy” status gives him the confidence to finally pursue Yoshida romantically, though the entire thing is baffling to both Yoshida and the rest of their high school class.

Volume two opens with Yoshida beginning to acknowledge that he has reciprocal feelings for Sato, though he’s desperate to hide it—not only from Sato, but from his group of misfit friends who expect him to share their unrequited longing for female companionship. This escalates in volume three when Yoshida is coerced into attending a disastrous group date. Meanwhile, Sato’s dealing with his frustration by bullying their classmates, whom Yoshida (in true form) angrily defends, leaving Yoshida feeling even more conflicted over his growing attraction for Sato. Nothing comes easy for the two of them, but despite the fact that what I’ve described so far sounds rather like a serious teenage drama, it’s absolutely romantic comedy in every way. And, really, that contradiction is what makes the series work so well.

Though nearly everything in His Favorite is deliberately overblown and played for laughs, the entire thing is firmly anchored by real emotional truth, which renders the series not only genuinely funny, but also genuinely affecting on a number of levels. Amidst the laughs, we really feel Yoshida’s inner turmoil over his unpopularity and small size, his fierce sense of fairness, and his developing feelings for a guy who pushes all his buttons in not-always-positive ways. And like Yoshida, we both love and revile Sato’s messy mix of loyal devotion and outright sadism. Tanaka’s characterization is deceptively effortless—clearly established with just a few deft strokes—allowing her to tell a emotionally complex story with the light touch of a screwball comedy. Even the story’s secondary (firmly comedic) romance, about a steadfast guy who only falls for sleaze-balls, manages to operate on multiple levels. And Tanaka’s clean, energetic artwork is just icing on the cake.

Obviously I’ve become a fan, but the best news of all is that there’s more of this series to come! His Favorite stands at five volumes and counting in Japan, so now’s the time to jump on board! Heartily recommended.

– Review by MJ

Where a Person Is Most Vulnerable | By Fumiko Shusai | Libre Publishing/JManga | Rated Mature – “I put all my short pieces I forgot about in one book,” writes Fumiko Shusai in the Afterword to Where a Person Is Most Vulnerable, and man does it show.

The anthology starts off promisingly enough. The title story is about neurotic Yamashita, who hates ants, and his bug-loving neighbor, Shimabara, who helps him overcome his fears a bit. “Strays Will Leave, Over and Over Again” is also pretty good, featuring a gigolo who keeps returning to his friend’s place every time he gets dumped. Less successful is “The End Is in a Dream, Silent,” about a guy who’s repaying a debt to a clotheshorse by cleaning his messy “room.” It’s okay, but extremely rushed.

In the titular story, the “place” in question refers to the delicate nether-regions where ants dared to crawl when Yamashita was a boy—as well as to his heart—but after the third story I began to think that apartments were somehow a theme, too. That while we might feel safe in our own homes, this complacency would also cause us to let down our guard. And it may even be true that Shusai meant to make some point along those lines, but the rest of the stories in this collection are so thoroughly disappointing that I soon began to doubt that such an intent ever existed.

Brief and insubstantial “Sculptures of Us” is about friends who get into fisticuffs over whether they had a drunken hookup the night before. “Love That Reaches the Other Side of Earth!,” about a seemingly hopeless boy and the childhood friend who takes care of him, had the potential to be something good, but is rushed beyond redemption. The real villain of the piece, however, is the horrible “Daddy, My Love” strip, all about the way in which a guy accidentally mistreats/mishandles his ex-girlfriend’s abandoned toddler, culminating with a panel suggesting they’ll become lovers in the future. EW! Gallon of brain bleach, stat!

So, are the first two stories worth 499 JManga “points”? I must regretfully conclude that they are not.

– Review by Michelle Smith

In Brief:

Punch Up!, Vol. 3 | By Shiuko Kano | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – For its first two volumes, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Punch Up!. On the one hand were the well-defined protagonists, Kouta and Maki, who had plausible conflicts and insecurities, but on the other were the frequent and explicit sex scenes that left nothing whatsoever to the imagination. Was this a compelling drama or a smutty romp? Volume three caters to my personal preferences by establishing itself clearly as a drama (or melodrama, at least) when a workplace accident leaves Kouta with no memory of the last four years and effectively returns him to his mindset as a fifteen-year-old. This development could’ve easily taken the story in a cheesy direction, but it actually doesn’t, instead providing even more opportunity for conflicts and insecurities to flare. I had debated whether to continue with this series, but now I am truly glad I did! – Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publishers.

BL Bookrack: The Heart of Thomas

January 19, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 7 Comments

MICHELLE: Thanks for joining us for the first BL Bookrack column of the new year. This time we’re doing something a bit different and devoting this month’s column to Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas, which is one of the most historically significant works influencing the boys’ love genre in Japan, and the most historically significant one currently available in print in English.

But, y’know, I feel like bestowing this weighty mantle upon the work could overshadow the fact that it’s very dramatic, emotional, and romantic. It seems best to me to take it on its own terms.

MJ: I agree, Michelle—which isn’t to say that The Heart of Thomas doesn’t earn its historical weightiness! Its influence is significant for good reason. But perhaps what I found most striking about it is just how much it has to offer without any knowledge of its significance at all. And though understanding its context is important and worthy discussion, there are plenty of critics on hand to do just that. Here in our column, I’m personally more interested in discussing it… well, as itself. If that makes sense.

MICHELLE: My thoughts exactly!

I suppose we ought to start with a summary, which is gonna be a toughie, but here goes…

The Heart of Thomas begins with the suicide of thirteen-year-old Thomas Werner. In love with his classmate, Juli, Thomas sees this act as a way to “bring him back to life.” The two had been classmates at a German boarding school called Schlotterbach, and we meet Juli on the morning the students have reconvened after Easter vacation, where news of Thomas’ death spreads quickly. After a letter from Thomas lets Juli know the death was not an accident, he’s plunged into turmoil, which only worsens when a transfer student named Erich—who bears a strong physical resemblance to Thomas, though with a much pricklier personality—arrives on the scene.

(click images to enlarge)

The three primary characters—in addition to Juli and Erich, there’s also Oskar, Juli’s roommate—have all been broken in some way, and the story revolves around their intertwining relationships and the secrets each keeps hidden. Each one is complex, and each one becomes completely beloved to the reader by the end.

MJ: I think for a story like this, that’s a perfectly good summary! And by “a story like this,” I mean a story that is almost entirely focused on its characters’ feelings and their relationships to each other—and themselves—with very little investment in plot, outside of a few significant events. That these few events are almost entirely deaths (including Thomas’ opening suicide) and other tragedies might make the book sound rather melodramatic, and I suppose on the surface it is. But in the story’s boarding school setting, this is somehow completely appropriate. In this highly structured environment, largely removed from their families and the rest of the outside world, the boys at Schlotterbach thrive on those big moments—the few sensational events that make their way in from the world—and without enough of those, they must create whatever else they can on their own.

MICHELLE: In his introduction, translator Matt Thorn writes that Hagio at one point had attempted to remake the series with female characters (to appeal to female readers), but found pressure to make things more realistic and plausible and it just didn’t work. There had to be a feeling of “other” about the characters and the setting in order for her to be able to tell the story she wanted. And once I read the manga, I had to agree that it would not have worked otherwise.

Too, while on the surface it might seem/be melodramatic, when you get down to it… it’s really all about Juli’s ability to accept forgiveness and forgive himself. And that’s not melodramatic at all.

MJ: Also, the idea that the story’s emphasis on dramatic events makes it unrealistic I think deliberately ignores what it is to be an adolescent. Even teens and pre-teens who go to regular, modern public schools essentially live in their own society that is very much separate from the rest of the world, and it’s a society that is, frankly, terrifying. I think adults often willfully forget this (and who can blame them?) but it’s true. The public tragedies are real (one of my high school teachers killed himself in the middle of our senior year—and doesn’t everyone have some kind of tragic story like this that affected their entire school?) and the private ones are even more so. Regardless of the precise circumstances, is Juli’s struggle to accept himself as a whole person really alien to any teen?

MICHELLE: Now you’re making me remember the public tragedies of my youth, some of which I’d forgotten about!

This seems like a good time to focus on Juli for a bit, since he’s really quite interesting. We don’t get all the details, but Juli’s German mother seems to have married a German citizen of Greek heritage. Juli looks a lot like his father and his unusual black hair generates a lot of commentary, from admiring classmates to his hateful grandmother, who still clings to ideals about German purity. (I did wonder what year this was supposed to be, but I believe West Germany is referenced at one point, so it’s got to be after 1949 and, thus, World War II.)

Grandma also bears a grudge because she had to take on the debts left behind when Juli’s father passed away. This fills Juli with the desire to change her attitude by becoming as successful as possible and paying her back. To this end, he attempts to become the perfect student. And for a while, he does quite well. He’s admired, he’s loved by Thomas, he loves Thomas in return, but there’s a darkness in him that leads him to accept the invitation of a creepy older student to meet him in a certain room on campus. The secret of what went on there is the last to be revealed in the story, so I won’t divulge it here, but the end result is that he’s utterly filled with self-loathing and cannot accept that Thomas really means it when he says that he loves him and coldly rejects him in public.

Oskar alone among the students knows what has happened, and has been assigned to share a room with Juli and watch over him. He’s therefore privy to the facade Juli struggles so hard to maintain and the cracks that form when Juli learns that Thomas sacrificed his angelic self for him. It takes a long time before Erich’s emotional frankness and Oskar’s example of forgiveness combine to allow him to finally admit the truth of his love for Thomas and to understand that Thomas would forgive him anything. Now he can forgive himself.

MJ: Related to this, I have to just make a comment here regarding Thomas vs. Erich, because while Erich’s ability to express his feelings openly is part of what ultimately saves Juli from his own self-loathing, Thomas was just as open about his feelings with Juli—yet his way of trying to save Juli I think only broke him more. In the end, I think it’s Erich’s rebellious, combative nature that makes the difference. After Juli’s horrible experience, he can’t believe that Thomas would love him, and he feels the same disbelief about Erich’s open confessions of love. But where Thomas’ solution was to sacrifice himself, Erich’s is to fight (and fight hard), and it’s this that finally gets through to Juli.

I bring this up specifically because this is a column about BL, and there’s a (much-deserved) stigma around older works involving same-sex relationships that end in suicide. But (aside from the fact that this story actually begins with the suicide) where The Heart of Thomas really stands out here is that, from my perspective, it views that kind of sacrifice as… well, ultimately pointless. Throughout the story, even to the end when Oskar persuades Erich to remain at school rather than retreating to his stepfather’s house, Hagio makes it clear that running away is not the answer. We’re given the romantic option of viewing Thomas’ sacrifice as beautiful and selfless, but we’re clearly shown that Erich’s instinct to fight against that sacrifice is the way to really bring Juli back to life.

MICHELLE: Very well said! I also wonder if part of it is that Erich, playing the part of Thomas surrogate (a role which he tries hard to escape, but which might actually help Juli in the end) represents someone who can love Juli and not be hurt by the sins and darkness Juli is burdened by. Erich is strong, smart, and feisty. He believes in love and in God, and despite his pretty looks, he’s not fragile but instead resilient. That’s why, in the end, Juli can confess what happened to Erich and yet feel absolved, in a way, by Thomas.

MJ: Speaking of that connection, there’s a fairly creepy scene late in the manga where Erich has been invited to visit Thomas’ family whom he discovers wish to adopt him. Erich wisely declines the Werners’ offer to become a stand-in for their dead son, but afterwards he regrets turning down the opportunity to see Thomas’ old room as he discovers more and more the feelings and philosophies they shared in common. It’s an important realization, because it’s this that allows Erich to put aside his resentment towards Thomas for looking so much like him and dragging him into so much drama, in order to be able to help Juli, and also himself. Understanding that the emotional honesty that made fitting in at Schlotterbach so difficult could actually be an asset I think is pretty huge for Erich.

MICHELLE: Definitely. In general, it’s a treat watching Erich mature over the course of the series. Another important moment comes when his mother passes away and he suddenly and viciously regrets his own selfishness in opposing her marriage. It would’ve made her happy, but he clung to her and held her back. Later, when he’s able to finally see the good in his stepfather and accept a home with him, it’s a very touching moment. Knowing he has this secure future (where he’s wanted for himself, not for any resemblance to Thomas) gives him the strength to not only commit more fully to studying at school, but to be forthcoming with his feelings for Juli.

MJ: I agree, it’s a real treat watching him grow up, especially as early on he seems the least likely character to be helping anyone else heal.

So, let’s talk about Oskar a bit. He’s actually my favorite character in the book, probably because he’s the least like me. Heh. Oskar is a terrible student who smokes, skips class, and is generally considered to be a screw-up, but he’s also utterly confident, incredibly insightful and fantastic in a crisis. He’s the guy you want in your corner because you know he can handle anything life throws at him with elegant competence, up to and including things like discovering that his father murdered his mother (or that he’s not actually his father at all). If I wrote Heart of Thomas fanfiction, it would all be about Oskar.

MICHELLE: Oskar is my favorite too, and became so pretty much immediately. He’s just got this air of… languid sorrow about him. He reminds me of someone from Fruits Basket, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s Momiji. He’s popular and has charisma to spare, but he’s also known tremendous family grief. When he came to the school (around age ten, I think), he’s described as having grown-up eyes and speaking with grown-up words. He’d seen and experienced so much that he was really no longer on the same level as his classmates. Recognizing the “difference” in Juli was something that drew them together.

Did you know that Hagio actually wrote a one-shot about Oskar’s life prior to entering school? It’s called “Houmonsha.” Hope we get that in English at some point!

MJ: I did not! Oh, how I want to read that!

I can see the Momiji comparison (especially older Momiji—Oskar is by no means cuddly), though I’d also suggest that I think Oskar is the most overtly sexualized of the main characters in the story. Hagio writes him and (especially) draws him as a sexual being, with an attractive swagger and abundant bangs, and I’m pretty sure he even gets the most action of anyone in the story (which has, overall, not much action by modern BL standards). While both Thomas’ and Erich’s love for Juli is portrayed in a very pure, innocent light, Oskar’s feelings are allowed to display a bit more ambiguity, and though nothing actually sexual ever happens between them (despite a rumor spread at one point by a jealous younger student), he’s the only one of all Juli’s admirers with whom one could imagine that it might.

MICHELLE: I hadn’t thought about that before in those terms, but maybe some of that sensuality is what I was picking up on with the term “languid.” It also probably has something to do with being a year older than the others; he’s also interested in girls (well, at least enough to flirt with the ones in town) where some of the others aren’t yet.

Talking about the action or lack thereof… are there really any honest-to-goodness on-the-lips kisses in this series that are not brought on by anger or extortion? Ante witnesses Oskar performing mouth-to-mouth and names a kiss as the price for his silence, Erich wrangles a kiss from Juli later, too, and comments upon its bitterness. The only real kiss Juli ever bestows is one on Erich’s cheek right at the very end of the series.

MJ: The closest I can remember to anything like that is actually not on the lips. There’s a really interesting moment on the day that Oskar takes Erich in to town to learn about girls. The two get into some heated discussion about Thomas that ends with Oskar warmly embracing Erich, kissing him, and holding him in a way that really does not feel platonic while comparing Thomas to Amor, the god of love. It’s a strangely intimate little moment.

Modern BL, of course, tends to include much, much more sexual content than can be found in The Heart of Thomas, but very little of it can hold a candle to Hagio’s work when it comes to musing on the value of love.

MICHELLE: Oh yes, I’d forgotten about that moment. If you were to write an epilogue starring Oskar, what do you think the chances are of he and Erich ultimately ending up together? For Erich, it’d mean another important relationship in his life that began on the basis of a shared love for someone else, but it seems at least possible to me.

MJ: Yeah, actually, that’s the likeliest actual couple in the story as far as I’m concerned, though I’d see it as something a ways in the future, for sure. I might write some sort of awkward future meeting between Oskar and Juli, after Juli has left seminary, but for romance? I’d go Oskar/Erich all the way. In a way, I think the relationship you describe is the one they already sort of have, and what’s kind of surprising about it, is that it feels healthier than one might expect. During that final scene where Oskar is convincing Erich to stay with him (and all of them) at school, there’s an unexpected sense of joy on the page—unexpected by me, anyway. Juli’s leaving, but it’s not the end of the world for anyone, including Oskar and Erich, and that sort of real optimism about their futures without him just took me by surprise. It was kind of awesome, really.

MICHELLE: I felt that, too. It is a new beginning, for everyone involved. You know, it was probably very wise of Hagio to never write a sequel wherein Oskar and Erich do get together—I mean, there must have been some sort of fan demand for this!—because she might’ve had to address the “what happens when school ends?” question. Now we can simply imagine them together instead of knowing they ended up moving on and marrying, et cetera, however poignant that may be.

MJ: Yes, given the time and place, Oskar and Erich’s story as a couple probably ends much less romantically than we’d like. We’re better off with fanfiction, I’m guessing. Which I now want to write. Oops?

Speaking of joy, I feel like we need to spend at least a few minutes here just talking about Hagio’s artwork because… oh, the glory of her artwork! You know I’m a sucker for classic shoujo in general, but Heart of Thomas is just exquisite in every way.

MICHELLE: It really is, and I definitely kept thinking throughout, “Oh, I bet MJlikes this page!”

There were quite a few pages I liked and made note of along the way. Page 157, with that top panel of the memory of Thomas haunting Juli and then in panel three morphing into Erich. Page 201, a color page wherein Juli looks dapper and elegant and Erich looks a little Bohemian or something with his interesting cross-legged pose. Page 241, where Thomas’ outline dominates the page while Juli narrates about how loving Thomas filled him with terror…. I could go on and on.

MJ: Yes, yes! What’s hardest here is trying to choose! I have particular love for a sequence early on—which I almost hate to bring up, because I know the panels leading into it are a source of pain for Matt Thorn, who surely loves this book more than anyone—but there’s an incredible scene on pages 29-31, in which Juli is dreaming about Thomas throwing himself off the bridge into his arms, that is just spectacularly eerie and expressive. Hagio’s emotional imagery is so clear throughout—she truly shows us her characters’ hearts through the artwork.

MICHELLE: I also really admired that, even though you’ve got all these kids in identical uniforms, some of whom have similar hairstyles, I was still never confused as to who I was looking at. (This also goes for Erich and Thomas, who share the same face!) And she didn’t achieve this distinction through wild appearances—though a couple of the older boys do look very unique—but just sheer drawing technique.

MJ: Yes, she pours so much characterization into body language and facial expression! It’s exactly the sort of work I long to point out to manga detractors who complain about big-eyed generic illustrations, in part because the characters indeed do have big eyes, which Hagio uses to great advantage. I could look at this book forever, and it’s possible I might.

In case it isn’t obvious to anyone reading this, I loved this manga with my whole heart. And I’ll admit that’s not exactly what I expected. I expected to find it visually beautiful and worthy as a classic, but I also expected it to be very dated and I thought the story might not appeal to my tastes as a modern fan. Instead, I found it to be both beautiful and emotionally resonant to an extent I’ve rarely experienced—especially in BL manga. This is a book I’d wholeheartedly recommend to any comics fan, without reservation. It’s an absolute treasure.

MICHELLE: After experiencing some disappointment with the story of Princess Knight, another historically significant work whose English release I had long desired, I was a little worried myself, but I needn’t have been. The Heart of Thomas was even better than I’d hoped. I hope it does well for Fantagraphics!

MJ: I hope so, too! Thank you, Moto Hagio, Matt Thorn, and Fantagraphics, for giving us the opportunity to read this gorgeous work.

More full-series discussions with MJ & Michelle:

Full-series multi-guest roundtables: Hikaru no Go | Banana Fish | Gerard & Jacques | Flower of Life

BL Bookrack: Best of 2012

November 17, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 51 Comments

MJ: As BL discussions have cropped up in comments over the past couple of weeks, both in the 2012 fannish highlights thread and in this week’s Manga the Week of, Michelle and I thought we’d use this month’s BL Bookrack column to open up some official discussion on our favorite BL of the year. We’ve seen a wealth of new BL titles hitting the shelves in 2012, though our “shelves” have been largely virtual, thanks to new digital publishers like SuBLime, JManga, and the Digital Manga Guild. So before we get down to naming favorites, let’s talk a little about the genre’s move to digital.

Given the North American BL industry’s overall shift to digital distribution over the past year, I admit I was a bit surprised by the level of vitriol aimed at Hikaru Sasahara’s recent announcement regarding DMP’s print hiatus. Though comments run the gamut from reluctant understanding to pointed rage, at least half of the fans who took the time to weigh in specifically mentioned how little they like the company’s digital releases.

Part of my surprise, I think, is due to the largely positive feedback from BL fans regarding Viz’s SuBLime Manga—a mostly-digital imprint whose print releases make up a relatively small portion of their catalogue. In our “fannish highlights” thread, for example, a reader named Lee named DRM-free digital BL as her most significant fan experience of the year, crediting SuBLime as the leader of the pack. So does fan disappointment with DMP stem from the quality and delivery method of their digital releases, or digital in general?

I’m inclined to believe it’s a little of both, and I agree pretty strongly on the first bit. Though I haven’t been a fan of SuBLime’s licenses, they crush DMP so far in terms of both visual quality and ease of delivery. While manga delivered by way of DMP’s iPad app looks like a million bucks, their Kindle releases are far from it (see this article for an example), and eManga’s built-in reader is an incredibly limiting choice for those of us who don’t enjoy reading comics on our computers. I’ve been endlessly frustrated by the fact that I can’t read books from my eManga account in the iPad app (and vice-versa), and though downloadable PDFs wouldn’t be my first choice for delivery, they are at least transferrable from one device to the next. I have high hopes for the upcoming revamp of eManga—and I hope easing off their print schedule is helping to move that along more quickly—but for the moment, SuBLime is absolutely in the lead.

And then there’s JManga. Though not specifically (or even significantly) a BL publisher, JManga’s BL releases have been some of my favorites this year. They’re also behind in terms of delivery—their flash-based reader doesn’t work on my tablet, and though their Android app has been live for a month or so, their iOS release lags behind. And the potential for downloadable PDFs is not even on the table, to my knowledge.

As far as digital distribution in general… I never thought I’d be a convert. I love the look and feel of print books, and I really dislike reading comics on my computer. But I’m absolutely in love with my tablet. Reading on the iPad—both prose books and comics—is a real pleasure. I mentioned to someone at New York Comic Con—Robert Newman, maybe—that if I could read all the manga I wanted on my iPad, in high quality, I’d never buy a print book again. That’s probably not entirely true. High-end hardcover releases from companies like Vertical, Fantagraphics, and (recently) Yen Press would always have a place on my bookshelves. But my space for books is increasingly limited, and it would be relief to be able to just carry them all with me on one small device.

MICHELLE: My experience is pretty different, as I own neither smartphone nor tablet. All I have is a Kindle—which, as mentioned, is useless for manga—and a personal computer. Still, I am not peeved at all by the move toward digital distribution.

True, reading manga on my computer is not nearly as comfortable as curling up on the corner of the couch with a printed volume. However, when doing so gives me access to books I may like to read but not own permanently—as is largely the case with BL, I’m afraid—I have no complaints whatsoever. And when doing so has the additional bonus of giving me access to books that may never have seen the light of day in a printed edition—JManga’s licenses, some of the DMG ones, as well—I really have no complaints at all.

Honestly, what it boils down to for me is company survival. If this is what DMP thinks they need to do to stay afloat as a company, or to revamp their site, or whatever their aims are, then I am fine with it. Would fans rather have no BL at all if they can’t have printed copies?

MJ: So, let’s get to our favorite titles, shall we? I probably read fewer BL releases this year than last, but time constraints ensured that I was pickier about what I read, which means I liked more of them overall.

My greatest BL highlight of the year was absolutely JManga’s release of Setona Mizushiro’s Dousei Ai, an eleven-volume epic that has everything I want in a romance story—complicated, slow-building relationships, thoughtful characterization, and a multi-layered, soap-opera plot.

From my review: “This is no casual one-shot or simplistic BL romance. Setona Mizushiro has carefully crafted a complex emotional drama with some of the best-written characterization I’ve ever seen in this genre and a long game that is pretty obviously going to offer up significant payoff for the reader. I mean, going into this it’s clear that we’re in for a killer of a ride, along the lines of something like Sooyeon Won’s manhwa epic Let Dai, only better—much, much better.”

I’m four volumes in now, and just absolutely hooked. This is my kind of romance, for sure, and Mizushiro’s old-school shoujo artwork is just icing on the cake for me.

JManga was a particularly solid source of BL for me this year, also offering up the intensely charming series My Darling Kitten Hair (more, please, more!), the adorably awkward Doukyusei, est em’s awesome Apartments of Calle Feliz, the infectiously cute My Dear Prince, and Keiko Kinoshita’s fantastic set of short manga I Love You, Chief Clerk!

Speaking of Kinoshita, she’s been a favorite of mine since I read the first volume of Kiss Blue several years ago, but her work is suddenly all over the place here, thanks mainly to the Digital Manga Guild, who brought us (among others) You and Tonight and The Boyfriend Next Door—two of my very favorite BL reads this year. Elsewhere from DMP, their Juné imprint did me a solid by re-releasing the BL “classic” Only the Ring Finger Knows, which I honestly adored.

And if my biggest disappointment this year as a BL fan has been my lack of connection with SuBLime’s licenses in general (I talk about this a bit in our roundup this week, which has been continued in comments), books I did like from them include the sweet one-shot Honey Darling, and one of the only BL comedies I’ve ever been able to tolerate, Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies, which was a huge surprise for me.

What about you, Michelle?

MICHELLE: Despite buying several of JManga’s BL titles—mostly those you mentioned above—the only one I actually managed to read this year was The Apartments of Calle Feliz which, as usual for est em, was terrific. And thanks to DMP, I was also able to read another highly enjoyable est em short story collection, the sports-centric ULTRAS.

Like you, most of SuBLime’s licenses don’t really appeal to me, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been able to find titles to enjoy. The Bed of My Dear King was a quirky and memorable set of stories, The Scent of Apple Blossoms provided yet more proof that Toko Kawai writes my kind of BL, Honey Darling was absolutely flippin’ adorable, and Punch Up! was unexpectedly intriguing, given that it’s more explicit than my usual fare and not adorable at all.

DMP was also responsible for some of this year’s favorites, starting with the engrossing, yakuza-themed Men of Tattoos (which technically came out in 2011). Mangaka Yuiji Aniya does some clever things with this interconnected set of stories that make this a title I’d recommend to any manga fan. Another title I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend is Only Serious About You, whose second volume portrayed the evolving relationship between its main characters with sensitivity and realism.

But my favorite DMP offering, and my overall favorite BL release for the year, is Momoko Tenzen’s Flutter.

In my review, I wrote, “There are so many things to recommend this manga. The atmosphere is sort of… elegant and languid, which suits mysterious Mizuki well and makes an earnest everydude like Asada stand out all the more. The growing friendship between the men is believable—and they’re both completely professional adults, I might add—as is Mizuki’s wary reaction when Asada confesses his feelings.. It’s lovely and complicated, and when the guys do finally get together physically it’s wonderfully awkward.”

Looking back, it sure has been a good year for BL!

MJ: It really has!

Readers, we’d love to hear from you! What were your favorite BL titles this year? Where do you stand on digital distribution? Let us know in comments!

BL Bookrack: October 2012

October 28, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

Welcome to the October installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at the debut volume of Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love from SuBLime, while MJchecks out My Dear Prince at JManga. In Brief: Hitorijime Boyfriend (JManga) and est em’s ULTRAS (DMG).

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Vols. 1-2 | By Yaya Sakuragi | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – I’ve confessed before that I tend to judge BL by its cover, and I must admit that had I not previously read and enjoyed something by Yaya Sakuragi, I would’ve passed on Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love. Unfortunately, however, this isn’t one of those times where the cover belies the contents. What you see is, in fact, exactly what you get. This manga is all about a shrimpy teenager repeatedly pushing his feelings on his older, tsundere neighbor.

The story begins when seventeen-year-old Ao Sawanoi has a wet dream about Ryomei Kosaka, his neighbor, older-brother figure, and priest of the nearby Shinto shrine. Ao proceeds to openly discuss this occurrence with several people, including Ryomei himself, and then becomes obsessed with making the dream a reality. He pesters Ryomei quite a lot, and eventually snags a kiss, which convinces him that he is in love. Ryomei puts up some token resistance, but when Ao takes his rejection too much to heart and ceases his daily visits to the shrine, Ryomei ends up seeking him out and encouraging his feelings. (There are two volumes yet to go of this series, so as of the end of volume two, the guys are not yet a couple.)

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love is another of those BL titles that isn’t outright bad, but it’s pretty generic. (I think I am going to start keeping a tally of how often I see that gross, obligatory panel in which a “sexy” string of spittle connects the tongues of the two leads in a BL manga.) I don’t like Ao—he’s vacuous and immature—and I don’t understand why Ryomei would be interested in him. I also don’t get why Ryomei’s friend is encouraging the relationship, but then again, this is the same guy who lets his second-grade daughter man a convenience store alone and has her cook meals for guests when it’s her bedtime.

Most likely I am taking this too seriously, but with so much BL manga now available, there are much better things to read.

– Review by Michelle Smith

My Dear Prince | By Fumi Tomoe | Published by JManga/Libre Publishing | Rated Mature – Shinta and Tsukasa (whose name can also be pronounced “Prince”) have been dating for a while—in secret, according to the adamant Shinta. The reality is that their whole class knows about them and would do practically anything to keep them together, if only to help out their beloved Prince. Tsukasa (who initiated the relationship) worries constantly that Shinta doesn’t really want to be with him, and Shinta worries constantly that Tsukasa will find out that he’s a “pervert,” but no matter their troubles, there’s a sense from the start that everything will always be okay.

If this sounds like a story with too little conflict to be engaging, that’s definitely a concern. Yet somehow, despite its overly rosy view of teenaged romance, there’s a freshness and adorableness about My Dear Prince that saves it from becoming a total snore. Tsukasa’s spells of paranoia feel mostly warranted, and thus avoid falling completely into either melodrama or camp. In fact, they’re actually quite endearing, which keeps the overall tone light. Meanwhile, Shinta’s worries feel authentic to the trials of adolescent sexuality without ever becoming creepy or pushing him into overbearing seme territory. Mostly, though, what really carries this fluffy little story along is the genuine charm of it all. No matter how unrealistic the boys’ story seems, it’s undeniably pleasant to read.

Like so many BL one-shots, My Dear Prince is only a few chapters long, leaving the rest of the volume to be filled in with several short manga—often of lesser quality. Tomoe’s shorts are a little better than most, mainly due to the same charm she brings to the title story. Even the creepiest of the bunch, “Happy Bride Project,” about a delinquent high school student who strives to become the perfect “bride” after his teacher requests his hand in marriage, is almost saved (I repeat, “almost.”) from its potentially skeevy premise and hideous devotion to traditional gender roles by the power of a cute puppy:

As you see in this panel, Tomoe’s artwork is clear and cute, and that carries over into the volume as a whole, even on a philosophical level. Problems are easily understood and solved, people are adorable—inside and out, and happiness is as accessible as a cute little puppy.

My Dear Prince is no masterpiece, and there’s no denying that amidst a stronger lineup, it would hardly make an impression. But sometimes a bit of good-natured fluff is enough to win the day.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

Hitorijime Boyfriend | By Memeco Arii | Published by JManga/Ichijinsha | Rated Mature – Back in elementary school, Kensuke parted with BFF Hasekura on painful terms. Reunited now in high school, Kensuke has a second chance to rekindle their friendship, but “friendship” may not be what Hasekura has in mind. Such is the premise of Hitorijime Boyfriend. Sounds unoriginal but potentially cute, right? Sadly, “potential” is really all it’s got. Though best-friends-turned-lovers is one of my favorite romantic fantasy scenarios, even that can’t survive the book’s relentless non-con or a clumsy English adaptation that becomes less and less readable as the story goes on. JManga has had an increasingly strong track record with BL since first launch. Unfortunately, Hitorijime Boyfriend goes against the trend. Not recommended. – MJ

ULTRAS | By est em | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Mature – Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan of BL anthologies, but the format really shows off est em’s gift for swiftly establishing her characters, enabled by her distinctive, economical, and expressive artistic style. The title story, about a pair of Spaniards who are as passionate about soccer (though for opposing teams) as they are for each other, is more than a love story, it’s a lesson in both tolerance and pursuing what you want despite what others may think. Although this is the best story in the collection, the others are pretty interesting, too. My favorite is probably “Say Hello to Mr. Smith,” which involves a conman, a pickpocket, and a monkey. I hope that someday est em decides to tackle a multi-volume work—it’s awesome to contemplate what greatness might ensue! – Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publishers.

BL Bookrack: August 2012

August 23, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 14 Comments

Welcome to the August installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at Flutter from Juné Manga and the debut volume of Punch Up! from SuBLime, while MJchecks out the first two volumes of Setona Mizushiro’s Dousei Ai at JManga. In Brief: Awkward Silence (SuBLime), Honeydew Syndrome, Vol. 2 (New Shoe), My Boyfriend the Mad Dog (DMG), and Starting With a Kiss, Vol. 1 (SuBLime).

Dousei Ai, Vols. 1-2 | By Setona Mizushiro | Published by Libre Publishing Co., Ltd./JManga | Rated Mature – When innocent middle-schooler Tsubaki tells his classmate Kaoru that he loves him, he is completely unprepared for the consequences of his words. Devastated by Kaoru’s violent rejection, Tsubaki begins to withdraw from his other friends and, as he reaches high school, enters into a sexual relationship with a male teacher in order to ease his growing sense of isolation. As graduation approaches, Tsubaki becomes anxious to get out of the increasingly one-sided relationship with his teacher. But when he tries to break up, the teacher reacts by dramatically outing him to his family—sending Tsubaki running to Tokyo to escape his parents’ visible pain and disapproval.

If the entire series was Tsubaki’s alone, his poignant tale would be more than enough to keep me hooked. But its second chapter makes it immediately clear that Mizushiro has much bigger plans, as she introduces the series’ second protagonist, Koutarou.

Having mainly been raised by his kind, domestically-inclined older brother, Koutarou is a fairly manipulative, smart-ass kid who privately prides himself on being able to “beat” his brother at anything. When his brother brings home a girlfriend for the first time, it seems he’s finally bested Koutarou at something, but the girl sneaks into Koutarou’s bed during the night, providing Koutarou with both the loss of his virginity and proof that he’s still on top (so to speak). Things take a downward turn, however, when Koutarou’s brother announces that he’ll be marrying the girlfriend, who is pregnant with a child he believes must be his. Wracked with guilt and self-loathing, Koutarou falls into a pattern of loveless one-night-stands with any women (and later, men—which eventually establishes itself as his preference) who express interest, all the while keeping up appearances as the guy who’s got it all together.

That was probably more summary than I’ve ever included in a single review in my entire career as a manga critic, but in those two paragraphs you will find evidence of both the best (and worst) things about Dousei Ai. In the category of “best,” well… wow. This is no casual one-shot or simplistic BL romance. Setona Mizushiro has carefully crafted a complex emotional drama with some of the best-written characterization I’ve ever seen in this genre and a long game that is pretty obviously going to offer up significant payoff for the reader. I mean, going into this it’s clear that we’re in for a killer of a ride, along the lines of something like Sooyeon Won’s manhwa epic Let Dai, only better—much, much better. Both Tsubaki and Koutarou are rich, genuinely fascinating characters, who somehow manage to remain sympathetic even as they fall into their individual patterns of using others in order to get by with their own pain. And as the second volume wraps up it becomes clear that the main cast will continue to grow as the series goes on. I can’t wait. Seriously, I can’t.

On the downside—and perhaps at least partially due to the era in which this was originally released—Mizushiro puts a lot of work into making sure we know just how broken her protagonists are, which wouldn’t be a problem if she didn’t also hint at their personal trauma being at least partly responsible for their sexuality. I’m giving her a pass on this so far, since it hasn’t been stated outright from an authorial point of view, but it is the one small bruise on this otherwise deliciously epic treat. And while I’ve heard the series’ old-school ’90s artwork (it began serialization in 1996) described as “ugly,” it satisfies my admittedly-retro tastes with near-perfection.

If you’ve got a hankering for lighthearted comedy or sweet romance, this series is emphatically not the ticket. But for my part, Dousei Ai may be the BL epic I’ve long been waiting for. Highly recommended.

– Review by MJ

Flutter | By Momoko Tenzen | Juné | Rated Mature – Sometimes I’m tempted to write a review that simply says, “This is really good. Go read it.” Flutter is just such a case, but I suppose I ought to present at least some evidence in its favor.

Masahiro Asada works in the sales division of a company. Although straight, he’s transfixed every morning by the sight of a beautiful male coworker, Ryosuke Mizuki, who is so impeccably dressed and put together that he almost doesn’t seem human. When a project brings them together, Asada gets to know Mizuki—and his all-too-human flaws, sorrows, and weaknesses—and finds himself even more attracted.

There are so many things to recommend this manga. The atmosphere is sort of… elegant and languid, which suits mysterious Mizuki well and makes an earnest everydude like Asada stand out all the more. The growing friendship between the men is believable—and they’re both completely professional adults, I might add—as is Mizuki’s wary reaction when Asada confesses his feelings. Mizuki’s been hurt before, and is concerned he might be tempted to just use Asada to make his ex jealous.

It’s lovely and complicated, and when the guys do finally get together physically it’s wonderfully awkward. I’m always a little embarrassed when BL lets us get to know the guys well before they start getting intimate, because then it feels like we’re spying on something we shouldn’t be seeing. Thankfully, the love scene fades to black before this becomes an issue.

Ultimately, Flutter is the best BL oneshot I’ve read in a long time. This is really good. Go read it.

– Review by Michelle Smith

Punch Up!, Vol. 1 | By Shiuko Kano | Published by SuBLime Manga | Rated Mature – Shiuko Kano has had a lot of manga published in America, but somehow, despite owning several volumes, I’ve never managed to read any of her work until this first volume of Punch Up!, which is itself a spinoff of Play Boy Blues.

The concept is pretty simple: Maki Motoharu is a gay architect with a lively appreciation for attractive men. When he learns that his lost cat has been found and cared for by Ohki Kouta, a construction worker helping to build his latest project, and that Kouta has quarreled with his landlord because of that, he offers the younger man a place to stay. Kouta soon realizes that Motoharu’s fancy digs (and cat) are woefully neglected, and ends up bonding with the cat (Nyanta) far more than her owner ever had.

Pretty soon Kouta’s concern for Nyanta translates to concern for Motoharu, and they hook up. What’s interesting about their relationship is that it’s not sweet at all. This isn’t some dreamy romance manga. Motoharu is pretty much a crappy person, but not in an over-the-top villainous kind of way. Kouta realizes this, bemoaning his own lousy taste in men, and has no expectations that their relationship is going to last. And somehow… this seems to give the story a lot of potential to go in various soapy directions while seeming at least a little more realistic than the thoughtful/adorable BL to which I typically gravitate.

Though a lot more explicit than I usually prefer, and tonally different as well, Punch Up! has at least intrigued me enough to check out the next volume, though I don’t see it becoming a permanent fixture in my collection.

– Review by Michelle Smith

In Brief:

Awkward Silence, Vol. 1 | By Hinako Takanaga | Published by SuBLime Manga | Rated Mature – With his impassive face, Satoru Tono has always had trouble expressing his feelings. He can’t even visibly convey his happy surprise when Keigo Tamiya, a popular athlete and object of Satoru’s long-time crush, asks him out. Various obstacles and misunderstandings ensue—drama over a lost cell phone charm, jealousy over a flirtatious female transfer student, and a persistent sempai with an eye for Satoru— but the boys reaffirm their affections as needed and engage in end-of-chapter “romping” with predictable regularity. If you’re thinking, “Gee, that sounds pretty generic,” you’re absolutely right. It’s not actively bad, so I might have read a second volume if the series had ended there, but it looks like it’s up to four volumes in Japan and still ongoing! I am, quite frankly, astounded that Takanaga was able to extract that much material from this tired premise. – Michelle Smith

Honeydew Syndrome, Vol. 2 | By New Shoe | Rated Teen – With Metis and Josh’s relationship well in hand, volume two of this charming BL comic turns the camera on quiet, easygoing Jay and his growing interest in Metis’ caustic friend Charles, as well as a few other members of Metis’ idiosyncratic social sphere. Though this can feel a bit choppy as a volume, the individual stories are just as engaging as the first half of the series, and perhaps more so in places—evidence of this team’s growth over the course of the series. The print version of this webcomic also includes a a terrific prose story about Jay and Charles that offers up some essential character notes on both of them and is not to be missed. Still recommended. – MJ

My Boyfriend, The Mad Dog | By Sanae Rokuya | Digital Manga Guild – Akae is an eccentric mangaka who expects his assistants to, er, “assist” with more than just artwork. Honma is a highly sought-after freelancer with ample talent for the job. If this sounds like the introduction to a little mindless porn, you’d only be partly right. Though their story is far from deep, there is some fairly nuanced characterization here, especially in Honma, who refuses to be cast as simply the blushing uke. Unfortunately, the volume’s second couple—an aspiring artist who hasn’t learned the word “no,” and his (apparently) desperate editor—is pretty cringe-worthy throughout. If you don’t enjoy persistent non-con, proceed with caution.– MJ

Starting with a Kiss, Vol. 1 | By Youka Nitta | SuBLime Manga | Rated Mature – As a fan of multi-volume BL, I’m usually pretty anxious to try out anything with a volume number in its title, though results are frequently negative or mixed at best. Starting with a Kiss falls squarely into the latter category, with its mix of confusing narrative and comically rushed romance alongside some genuinely interesting characterization. Though Youka Nitta’s yakuza are intriguing, her jumps between past and present read as awkward rather than illuminating. Furthermore, her plentiful sex scenes are hampered by unbelievable relationships that seem to form in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, with multi-volume series, there’s always hope for next time. Not yet recommended. – MJ

Review copies of most titles provided by the publishers.

BL Bookrack: June 2012

June 23, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 7 Comments

Welcome to the June installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at Honey Darling, a rare print release from SuBLime Manga, while MJchecks out Juné’s recent reprinting of fan favorite Only the Ring Finger Knows. In Brief: Kaoru Kun from the Digital Manga Guild, and an early look at The Young Protectors from Yaoi 911.

Honey Darling | By Norikazu Akira | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – In a word, Honey Darling is “adorable.” So adorable, in fact, that I am perfectly willing to forget the few minor quibbles I have with it.

Chihiro Takahashi is a young man “just drifting through life.” He doesn’t have any goals or aspirations, and he’s never had a serious relationship. When he happens past an abandoned kitten, however, he can’t just ignore her, and ends up becoming a well-intentioned, if uninformed, pet owner. When the kitty (Shiro) develops a cold, a frantic Chihiro takes to the streets where he conveniently runs into Daisuke Kumazawa, gruff but kind veterinarian. Kumazawa gives Chihiro a stern lecture about the responsibilities of pet ownership, and after Chihiro tears up at the enormity of his error, offers him a job as a live-in housekeeper, saying, “You’d be like… my wife.”

I was fully prepared for Chihiro to be incompetent at the tasks assigned, but he actually does a good job and works hard. Over time, he decides that he’d like to become a veterinary nurse. And really, it’s the amount of weight given to this plot point that really makes me love Honey Darling. Sure, a romance is slowly developing between Chihiro and Kumazawa, but the story reads like the main point of it all is Chihiro finding a place where he belongs, and discovering something to be passionate about. And that will always, always be my favorite plot ever, no matter how many times I read it.

There’s no crazy, out-of-left-field drama in Honey Darling. Sure, it’s not the most realistic thing ever, but it’s sweet and cute and cheery. I’m not fond of Daisuke referring to menial labor as the wifely role, true, and the character designs are a little bland, but I enjoyed this oneshot very much and honestly wish there were more of it.

– Review by Michelle Smith

Only the Ring Finger Knows | By Satoru Kannagi & Hotaru Odagiri | Published by Juné | Rated YA – What makes a romance story work? This was the question most on my mind as I breathlessly finished Only the Ring Finger Knows, a sort of neo-classic BL manga (based on a popular light novel series) which was originally released in English in 2004—three full years before I began reading manga, and long before I started reading in the boys’ love genre. It’s been out of print for some time, but with the final volume of the light novel series due for release this fall, DMP has reprinted the manga, allowing latecomers like me to finally join the party. And what a lovely party it is.

The setup is typical of standard high school romance. There’s a fad sweeping through Wataru’s high school, in which students indicate their relationship status by the placement of (sometimes matching) rings on their fingers. Various configurations indicate friendship, availability, or (of course) love. When Wataru discovers that his own ring (bought on a whim) matches that of a popular upperclassman, Yuichi Kazuki, the situation is primarily annoying, as every girl in school wants to know where he got his ring. Furthermore, Kazuki himself is inexplicably hostile to Wataru, though he seems to be kind to everyone else.

Of course this is BL, so we know that all signs point to love, but as with all romance, the story’s success depends on its execution, and here’s where my opening question comes up again. What makes a romance story work? I’ve stated many criteria in the past, including compelling characters, believable relationship development, emotional truth, blah blah blah, but what is it really that makes the difference between a perfectly pleasant tale of romance and the kind that sweeps us away completely, filling our hearts with joy and a sweet, sweet anxiety that lingers long after we’ve turned the last page?

I tend to be a big-picture thinker, but in this case, I suspect that the devil is in the details. Within this questionably original setup, it’s the little things that matter. The tilt of a chin, a hurried glance, the tentative movement of a hand—these are the details that accent the story’s most significant emotional beats. With these perfect details, the tension between Wataru and Kazuki is thick and volatile from the start, far ahead of Wataru’s own understanding of what’s happening in his own heart and mind. The combination of intense interest and awkwardness between the two main characters seems so real, to continue reading almost feels like an intrusion. It’s painfully delicate and honestly breathtaking in a way that only romance can be, and to a great extent, it’s reminded me why I like the genre so much in the first place.

Satoru Kannagi’s original light novel is no longer in print in English, but as much as I’d like to read it, I must admit that Hotaru Odagiri’s expressive artwork does so much of the heavy lifting here, it’s difficult to imagine the story playing out so gracefully in prose. If, like me, you missed Only the Ring Finger Knows the first time around, don’t let this reprinting pass you by. Joyfully recommended.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

Kaoru Kun | By Suguro Chayamachi | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA – Most regular readers of Manga Bookshelf are by now pretty familiar with my personal tastes in BL, including a penchant for what I once described as “quiet/ideosyncratic character studies.” Kaoru Kun fits that description to a T, while also proving that this alone is not enough—or perhaps that not enough is not enough. The volume starts strong as mangaka Suguro Chayamichi introduces Kaoru, an abused, neglected child desperately searching for affection wherever he can find it. Later chapters check in with Kaoru as his life improves and he learns to let his naturally gentle nature heal the wounds of others. Unfortunately, just three chapters in, Chayamachi (or her publisher) drops the ball, abandoning the character we’ve learned to care so much for in favor of several unrelated stories that fail to fill the gap left by his absence. Though the result is ultimately unsatisfying, Kaoru’s unfinished story is still worth reading. Hesitantly recommended. – MJ

The Young Protectors | By Alex Woolfson, Adam DeKraker, & Veronica Gandini | Yaoi 911 – Probably the greatest weakness in Alex Woolfson’s otherwise terrific sci-fi webcomic Artifice is the author’s decision to shortchange his characters’ relationship development in order to get to the juicy bits. In his new comic, The Young Protectors, Woolfson accelerates this further by putting one of those bits right up front, but perhaps with better results. As the series opens, a young superhero is caught emerging from his first trip to a gay bar by a hunky supervillain, leading fairly quickly into a semi-coerced makeout session that *just* manages to avoid feeling unforgiveably creepy by the fact that it reads more like the boy’s fantasy than anything else. In another author’s hands, starting with that kind of hormone-heavy fantasy might read like an intro to plotless porn, but in this case it seems likely that we’re in for something deeper, and perhaps by getting some of this out of the way from the get-go, Woolfson will feel at leisure to take more time with the good stuff. I’m optimistic, and you should be too. Check it out. – MJ

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: Honey Darling (SuBLime)

BL Bookrack: May 2012

May 28, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 7 Comments

Welcome to the May installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at est em’s Apartments of Calle Feliz (JManga) and the first volume of The Scent of Apple Blossoms (SuBLime), while MJchecks out western BL webcomic Honeydew Syndrome. In Brief: Doukyusei from JManga, and My Sweet Home from the Digital Manga Guild.

Apartments of Calle Feliz | By est em | Published by JManga – It seems that every time I turn around I am thanking JManga for something these days, and this quirky set of interconnected short stories from est em can now be added to the list!

Life’s not going well for aspiring novelist Luca. His editor is dissatisfied with his work, and he’s just been kicked out of his home because his boyfriend found a new guy. When he responds to a flyer advertising a room for rent, he ends up living with the landlord, Javi, instead. Luca’s intrigued by Javi, but keeps telling himself not to care about him, because it seems obvious that Javi has ousted a past lover from his apartment and Luca knows what that feels like.

Still, Javi is an inspiration, and his suggestion that Luca write stories with happy endings for the tenants of the apartment building—located on Calle Feliz (or “happy street”)—results in the tales included here. Residents include Dino and Salvator (a fashion designer and his nudist recluse boyfriend), Noe and the Twins (a man unable to decide which of a pair of twins he prefers), Matias and Pepe (a boy who reminds a puppetmaker of his lost love), and Jose and Eva (a hard-of-hearing guy and a crossdresser with a bunch of noisy roommates). A story about Javi and Luca and Javi’s past rounds out the collection.

The stories themselves are generally fun and charming—though I was disappointed that the Jose and Eva story seemed to end so abruptly—but what’s even more intriguing is wondering how much of this actually happened and how much is Luca’s imagination. Did Pepe’s lover really return to him? Did the designer and the nudist resolve their problems and live happily ever after? It’s nice to imagine they did, but est em floats the possibility that maybe things didn’t actually turn out so well, which is a narrative trick I just love.

This may not be as dramatic a collection as something like Seduce Me After the Show or Red Blinds the Foolish, but it is definitely worth reading all the same.

– Review by Michelle Smith

Honeydew Syndrome, Vol. 1 | By New Shoe | Rated Teen – A while back, I got an e-mail asking if I’d be willing to take a look at a North American comic called Two Keys from the creative team New Shoe (Chloe Chan and Aliena Shoemaker). I agreed. Included in the package when it arrived was the first print volume of the duo’s older BL webcomic Honeydew Syndrome, which immediately stole my attention with its sparse, melancholy cover art and manga-influenced character designs. I couldn’t help but read it, and though its promising first impression was marred somewhat by a small rash of typos and lettering mishaps, the truth is, I found myself rushing to my computer the moment I finished in order to read the rest (and I’ve just purchased volume two, which promises a bonus chapter and some prose stories). It’s just that charming.

So here’s the setup: High school student and emo-in-denial Metis (yes, like Athena’s mother, for those of you who are into Greek mythology) accidentally witnesses popular jock Josh being dumped by his cheerleader girlfriend, which somehow lands him in the way of Josh’s angry fist. To make things worse, he then gets paired up with Josh for a major school project. Though Metis is initially afraid for his well-being, fear soon turns to anger as he realizes that Josh has no idea who he even is, let alone that he recently punched him. Since this is BL, we know that teen angst and misunderstanding ultimately lead to love, but in romance, of course, it’s all about the journey, and this one is pretty delightful all-around.

Though romance is definitely the destination, what makes this series’ journey so worthwhile is its focus on friendship—specifically that between Metis and his collection of outsider friends, and especially his long-time best friend, Charles. Metis and Charles, with their impenetrable universe of two, embody all the best parts of teenage outcast friendship, including all the conversational shorthand, unspoken loyalty, and weirdly casual sexual tension that so often comes with the package. Other standouts include quietly colorful Jay and witheringly honest Sarah (who appears in later chapters).

New Shoe’s artwork lacks polish (at least in this early work), but it’s also unfailingly expressive, and the visual storytelling is solid. The characters’ emotional trajectory is crystal clear, panel-to-panel, even in the artwork’s most uneven moments. If I had the opportunity to register only one complaint regarding Honeydew Syndrome, it would be that there simply is not enough of it. The series ended abruptly in 2009 amid discontent on the part of both fans and creators, as evidenced by comments posted to its fan community at the time. But whatever controversy the series once generated, the existing work is well worth reading.

With its character-driven approach and thoughtful storytelling, Honeydew Syndrome holds its own alongside my small collection of Japanese and Korean favorites. Recommended.

– Review by MJ

The Scent of Apple Blossoms, Vol. 1 | By Toko Kawai | Published by SuBLime – I have yet to meet a Toko Kawai manga I didn’t like, and The Scent of Apple Blossoms proves to be no exception.

Born in America, salesman Haruna Mutsuki is a little more uninhibited than most, and when he meets the intriguing grandson of a sake brewery master during the course of business, he’s pretty forthright with his interest. The grandsom, known for most of the volume only as Nakagawa, presents a cold demeanor, but proves to be kindly in certain situations. I swear, never has the act of remaining sober so as to drive someone else home had so much sweet, romantic significance.

While this is definitely a romance, Kawai gives the story space to breathe and allows her characters ample time and opportunity to establish their personalities. While Haruna looks like the stereotypical uke, for example, and requires a bit of nursing on several occasions, he’s actually a pretty confident guy who’s very capable at his work. Nakagawa, meanwhile, is a ringer for the stereotypical gruff but sweet type who will come around eventually, but he’s actually got some legitimate reasons for shying away from Haruna’s romantic advances.

When the two eventaully get together (not really a spoiler in this sort of story), it’s a big leap for both of them that Kawai’s storytelling has allowed readers to really understand and appreciate. Although I get the sense that she was fine where the story ended in this first volume, The Scent of Apple Blossoms is actually a continuing series. The third volume was just released in Japan earlier this month, and though SuBLime’s digital release calendar doesn’t show volume two yet, I am hoping the wait won’t be too long.

– Review by Michelle Smith

In Brief:

Doukyusei | By Asumiko Nakamura | JManga | Rated Teen Plus – As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to romance, the more awkward the better, and that goes double if the characters are teens. Fortunately, Doukyusei gets this exactly right, and really so much more. Emotionally offbeat in the vein of Rihito Takarai & Venio Tachibana’s Seven Days series (but without the contrived setup), Asumiko Nakamura delicately explores the awkwardness of first love with a kind of frank delicacy, aided greatly by her unique art style and gangly character designs. The story’s themes and school-based situations may be standard genre fare, but Nakamura’s storytelling is decidedly not. Highly recommended. – MJ

My Sweet Home | By Kai Nanase | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Mature – This BL one-shot about a young real estate agent who finds himself showing luxurious apartments to an ex-lover sounds promising to start. (Adults with jobs? Check. Workplace awkwardness? Check.) Unfortunately, the book’s summary is its highlight, leading quickly to rushed, unsatisfying romance, incoherent plotting, and artwork so generic that only the change in main character names really distinguishes the book’s title story from the shorter one-shots that follow. Digital Manga Guild localizing team Kaedama Translations does their job, but there’s only so much that can be done with a clunker like My Sweet Home. With so much BL manga now flooding the market by way of the DMG, mediocre fare like this holds very little appeal. – MJ

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Other recent BL reviews at Manga Bookshelf: Apartments of Calle Feliz (JManga), Working Kentauros (JManga), Devil’s Honey (Sublime), The Boyfriend Next Door (Digital Manga Guild)

BL Bookrack: March 2012

March 22, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 13 Comments

Welcome to the March installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two debut volumes from the Digital Manga Guild, Tweeting Love Birds and You & Tonight. In Brief: About Love from Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint, and volume one of My Darling Kitten Hair from JManga.

Tweeting Love Birds, Vol. 1 (Kindle) | By Kotetsuko Yamamoto | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA (16+) – Thanks to a back cover summary that made one of the characters sound intensely annoying, I wasn’t expecting much from Tweeting Love Birds. I ended up being pleasantly surprised, but that’s not to say that the book is riveting or unique.

Daisuki Ohtaka started playing baseball because his grandfather was a fan, and even goes so far as to enroll in his grandpa’s alma mater. He doesn’t seem to have much personal love of the game, however, and once he arrives and discovers the shabby state of the team, he immediately wants to leave. After the small and cute captain, Suzume Morino (aka “Tweetie,” a nickname derived from the fact that his name means “sparrow”), blackmails Daisuke (whom he promptly christens “Taka”) into staying, he finds himself becoming more intrigued by Tweetie and experiencing jealousy when others give him attention, even while maintaining that he is straight.

Yes, this might be another “only gay for you” story, but so far it’s kind of charming. It has a slice-of-life feel that I appreciate, with any baseball action firmly in the background, and sometimes it’s even funny. I snickered out loud, for example, when a drunk Tweetie proclaims, “Taka touched my boobies.” There’s nothing much original about the plot or its execution, but neither is there anything glaringly offensive. The adaptation by DMG group Boys’ Love Bang Bang is also flawless, with no errors or awkwardness to detract from one’s reading experience.

I’m a little surprised that Yamamoto-sensei was able to squeeze enough material out of this setup for a second volume, but there is indeed one more installment to go before the series is complete. Despite first impressions, I’ll be coming back for more.

– Review by Michelle Smith

You and Tonight, Vol. 1 (Kindle) | By Keiko Kinoshita | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA (16+) – Rikuro has spent ten long years hiding his feelings for his straight best friend, Yasutaka, only to discover that Yasutaka gave in and slept with a male coworker after he begged and cried. Though the news gives him sudden hope, it also makes him begin to panic that his time is running out. But can his friendship with Yasutaka really survive the truth?

I’ve developed a bit of a love affair with Keiko Kinoshita’s work as of late, and this series has only deepened my feelings. Written in the same vein as her earlier two-volume series Kiss Blue, You and Tonight is a thoughtful, quiet manga about the delicate balance between love and friendship, and how two lifelong friends deal with the complications that arise when that balance is disturbed. Also like Kiss Blue, You and Tonight lets its characters process this sloooowly, which is one of the things that makes Kinoshita’s romance work so well. She isn’t afraid to let her characters wallow in uncertainty, and she certainly takes her time, but there’s never a sense that the story is dragging. On the contrary, there is tension in each moment, even the quietest ones.

Kinoshita’s artwork has always been on the understated side, but her expressiveness really shines here in this volume. She makes the most of her characters’ body language and subtle facial cues, working as much emotion into them as she does into her equally understated dialogue. Both Rikuro and Yasutaka process most everything on the inside, making their moments of visible weakness even more powerful. A single panel of Rikuro breaking down, alone in an elevator, springs immediately to mind. It’s an image that’s stuck with me for days after reading this volume. Digital Manga Guild localizing group Cynical Pink does a lovely job, too, providing a clean, lyrical adaptation that suits Kinoshita’s tone perfectly.

For fans of Keiko Kinoshita, this series is a must-read. For everyone else… it’s a must-read too. Highly recommended.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

About Love (Kindle) | By Narise Konohara | Digital Manga Publishing/Juné | Rated YA (16+) – I’m late to the party on this title, and I can only say that with the deepest regret. With its complicated characters and slow-building romance, About Love is absolutely my type of BL. Mangaka Narise Konohara weaves an unlikely love story between two seemingly unremarkable characters—a fresh-faced newlywed and the insecure young wedding planner who discovers the truth behind his smile—and she does it with the utmost subtlety and care. From its expressive, melancholy cover to the very last page, About Love is thoughtful, moody, and stunningly poignant. The only downside is that this title is not yet available digitally, but if any recent BL title is worth the shelf space, this is it. Highly recommended. – MJ

My Darling Kitten Hair, Vol. 1 | By Haruko Kumota | JManga/Libre Publishing | Rated Mature – This title came to my attention by way of JManga’s ABC of BL/yaoi and I could not be more grateful for the introduction. This adorable manga follows the romance between a slovenly young writer and his salaryman boyfriend who has just come to live with him (in a charming, Maison Ikkoku-like setting) after maintaining a rather chaste, long-distance relationship for six years. It’s not often we see a romance manga that begins in the middle of the relationship, and even less often that the main pairing is surrounded by convincingly queer characters who feel authentic as part of the story and not just as glorified set pieces. Even more encouraging, the series is still ongoing in Japan, which means there is some hope of us having a good, long time with it. Honestly surprising and highly recommended. – MJ

Some review copies provided by the publishers.

Other recent BL reviews at Manga Bookshelf: Ata (Digital Manga Guild)

BL Bookrack: February 2012

February 18, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 11 Comments

Welcome to the February installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from SuBLime Manga, VIZ Media’s new BL imprint, The Bed of My Dear King and Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies, as well as Rainy Day Love from the Digital Manga Guild. In Brief: volume two of Only Serious About You from Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint, and volume one of Love Pistols from SuBLime.

The Bed of My Dear King | By Sakae Kusama | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – This is my first SuBLime title—one of the first batch of digital-only releases, in fact. It appealed to me because it was described as “a suite of emotionally resonant, romantic stories.” Plus, the description included the words “unexpected” and “poignant.” So, does The Bed of My Dear King deliver on its claims? Well, mostly. Although, instead of “emotionally resonant” and “romantic,” the first words I’d use to describe the stories herein would be “quirky” and “memorable.”

The title story is about an electrician named Koga who visits the isolated mountain home of an initially surly sculptor to make a repair. The sculptor, who eventually reveals that his name is Takashi Tohno, gets a little more friendly and helpful as Koga attempts to get to the root of the problem, and when a sudden snow storm traps them together, a bit of booze leads to a “let me feel you up for my art” kind of encounter. I love Kusama’s use of big panels to evoke the wide open spaces around Tohno’s home, and though the pair decide to date pretty durn swiftly, the result is still an unforgettable story.

“Cherry” is about Ueno, an overachieving student council member who only slows down once his glasses get broken, and Tama, a boy who’s friendly to everyone in class but treats Ueno more formally than the rest. Ueno’s near-blind state results in a terribly cute “I’ll take you home by bike” scene and a promise that they can kiss or something after the school festival. You wouldn’t think a bike scene would make a story stand out so much from its BL compatriots, but it does.

The third and final story, “Flowers,” is the weakest of the three. Kumon, a runner, is curious about Ozu, his classmate. Rumors begin swirling that Ozu has impregnated a girl, and when Kumon asks him about it, Ozu trades the details for gradually escalating intimacy. This story has the potential to deal with some weighty issues, but doesn’t delve too deeply, and the ending is just kind of dumb. Kusama writes in her notes that these stories were serialized at different times, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an earlier effort.

All in all, this is an intriguing collection of stories and I’m glad I read it.

– Review by Michelle Smith

Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies| By Noboru Takatsuki | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – I’ll be honest, here. Looking over the list of SuBLime Manga’s debut offerings, my initial reaction was one of disappointment. As a BL reader whose preferences lean towards thoughtful, carefully-developed romance and long-form storytelling, it was depressing to note that the imprint’s first few titles seemed to fall mainly into the categories of short stories, fluffy comedy, and gratuitous smut. Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies could be described as all three, but to a far more satisfying end than I ever would have imagined.

Oku is a bored office drone, whose single joy in life is fantasizing about Sudo, a local delivery man from a popular shipping company. In order to see Sudo as often as possible, Oku constantly orders things online, each time fantasizing about what might happen when his dream man arrives to deliver the package. Eventually, his orders extend to porn videos and sex toys, which he soon discovers are being sold to him by the company his neighbor works for. Once this discovery has been made, the neighbor, Yokoshima, drops by often, interrupting Oku’s fantasies with overly-exuberant friendliness and requests to try out new products. Though Oku initially finds this annoying, little by little, he finds himself warming up to Yokoshima. But can a real relationship ever live up to Oku’s fantasies?

There are a number of reasons why this manga really works, not the least of which is the fact that Oku’s (often hilarious) fantasies provide the opportunity for the author to include a whole lot of deliberately over-the-top, porno-rific sex scenes that actually serve the story. While even in the most serious romantic tales, sex sequences have a tendency to get in the way of the storytelling more than anything else, here they are actually a significant aspect of Oku’s character development, and even help to forward the plot. Even more surprising, is mangaka Noboru Takatsuki’s ability to write sexually-charged comedy that is actually funny, which is not something I generally associate with humorous BL manga. Takatsuki’s artwork is a highlight as well, serving the story’s comedy and erotica with equal skill.

Though SuBLime may not yet be satisfying my desire for epic, nuanced BL romance, they’ve managed to win me over with this charming bit of humorous smut. Surprisingly recommended.

– Review by MJ

Rainy Day Love | By Satomi Konno | Digital Manga Guild | Rated M (Mature)- One rainy day, Yuta Yoshizawa is working at his family’s senbei shop when Shizuno stops by. Graceful and handsome, Shizuno was a first-year member of the shogi club when Yuta was in his third year, and soon they’ve rekindled their friendship. In the blink of an eye, Yuta confesses his feelings, whereupon Shizuno reveals that he’s been in love with Yuta since sixth grade. After a brief interlude, during which these lovebirds realize that they don’t actually know each other at all, they start focusing their thoughts on consummating their relationship.

It’s not that Rainy Day Love is bad, really. It’s just really superficial. This is what I get for routinely judging BL by its covers—and this is a really nice one—but I somehow expected, from the title, more of a melancholy story. Instead, this is fast-paced and a little frivolous, with love confessions that are so abrupt and unconvincing that they made me go “Pfft!” and many scenes where super-deformed characters have dialogue like “Eep!” There is nothing wrong with a romance being silly—and there’s certainly something to be said for a story that doesn’t take its own drama seriously—but there’s nothing really compelling about it, either.

After Yuta and Shizuno manage to get it on, their story ends and the volume is rounded out with a couple tales about Yuta’s brother, Shoichi, and his friend Seigo, who’s been in love with him since elementary school. There’s really not much to recommend this, either, honestly. I guess if you like comedic BL about horndogs, then you might like Rainy Day Love. If you like more serious BL, like I do, then you’re probably going to be bored and disappointed.

– Review by Michelle Smith

In Brief:

Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 | By Kai Asou | Digital Manga Publishing | Rated YA (16+) – If volume one of Kai Asou’s Only Serious About You impressed me with its ability to craft a real, moving love story out of well-worn genre clichés, what’s most impressive about its second volume is its ability to make me forget that they were ever clichés to begin with. Though this volume’s primary conflict is divorced dad Oosawa’s struggle to maintain custody of his young daughter, the deeper issue here is his decision to accept his feelings for former playboy Yoshioka, and come out as his lover. Though the “only gay for you” syndrome is one of the genre’s least appealing tropes, here, it barely reads as a trope at all. On the negative side, Oosawa’s custody battle is resolved a tad too easily, but this is not nearly enough to sink a title this strong. Enthusiastically recommended. – MJ

Love Pistols | By Tarako Kotobuki | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – Among the first four titles offered up by SuBLime Manga, Love Pistols would appear to be the closest to “my kind of BL,” at least on the surface. It’s a steamy, dramatic romance, told in multiple volumes (seven and counting), with some pretty complicated world-building and supernatural themes. Unfortunately so far, it’s also got a dull, controlling love interest, stunningly unappealing sex scenes, and just enough exposition to drown in. And while the tragic rarity of multi-volume BL ensures that I’ll give this series at least one more chance to win me over, there’s no denying the fact that reading its first volume was a distressingly unpleasant chore. Better luck next time, Love Pistols? Let’s hope so. – MJ

Review copies provided by the publishers. Cover art: The Bed of My Dear King © Sakae Kusama 2011, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies © Noboru Takatsuki 2011, Love Pistols © Tarako Kotobuki 2004

Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: I Love You, Chief Clerk! (JManga); Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 (Juné).

BL Bookrack: January 2012

January 22, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

Welcome to 2012’s first installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from the Digital Manga Guild, Love & Trap and My Sempai, as well as Men of Tattoos from Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint.

Love & Trap| By Kotetsuko Yamamoto | Digital Manga Guild | Young Adult (16+) – High school student Mochida Masaki will do anything to keep himself safe from bullies, even if it means using his body to “trap” someone stronger or more powerful into becoming his protector. Having only ever used sex as a tool for persuasion, it’s a tremendous shock to Masaki when he finds himself experiencing real attraction to Aihara, the class loner whose family is rumored to be connected to the Yakuza. Are Masaki’s feelings real, or is he just gravitating towards his next target?

Building a romance manga around real societal or psychological issues is tricky business, especially when one of those issues is as serious as teen prostitution, which is essentially what Yamamoto attempts to tackle with Love & Trap. Regardless of the writer’s knowledge of the subject, it’s incredibly difficult to balance complex reality with the demands of the genre, without either trivializing the issue or doling it out with an insufferably heavy hand. This balance is even more challenging to achieve if one must do so over the course of a single volume (or less).

With all that in mind, it’s not surprising to note that Love & Trap leans towards the former. Despite the manga’s dramatic setup, Yamamoto quickly resolves issues that would take most therapists years to unravel, just in time to grant Masaki his genre-approved happy ending. She fares a little better with the book’s obligatory (unrelated) side-stories, “Love Blood,” a dreamy little tale of sexual awakening that reads like a light-BL letter to Penthouse Forum, and “We’re Blooming,” a breezy workplace love-triangle romance set in a florist’s shop.

Yamamato’s artwork is a highlight throughout, clean and expressive, with an almost-classic sensibility that reflects some impressive influences, including Moto Hagio, whose character “Jeremy” (from A Cruel God Reigns) was Yamamoto’s model for the lead in “Love Blood.” On the strength of this alone, I’d be interested in seeking out her other works. Fortunately, the DMG seems to have licensed quite a few, including Blooming Darling, a two-volume sequel to the charming “We’re Blooming.” Stay tuned!

– Review by MJ

Men of Tattoos | By Yuiji Aniya | Digital Manga Publishing | Mature (18+) – I have recognized in myself a fondness for yakuza-themed BL, so when Deb Aoki named Men of Tattoos her Best New Yaoi Manga of 2011 and described it as “strange, funny, heartbreaking and surreal,” I knew I had to read it for myself.

Deb was absolutely right in her description of the series. The first four stories feature yakuza and are interconnected in various unexpected ways. “My Katagi-kun” is the story of a pair of childhood friends who reconnect and become lovers, “Dog of the Ranunculus” is about a guy who’s relatively high up in the organization falling in love with the boss’s son, “Cinderella and the Mad Shark” is about getting revenge, and “Everyone’s Song” is about dreams that don’t come true. Probably the last one packs the biggest punch, but it needs the other three stories to put it into context.

Rounding out the collection are two stories about a pair of college students who keep having dreams about each other. It’s more interesting than it sounds—and fairly steamy besides—and functions like a mental palate cleanser, as it allows the book to actually end on a happy note.

Even if you’re not a particular fan of yakuza stories or of BL in general, I’d still recommend Men of Tattoos. Aniya does some clever things with storytelling that can be appreciated by any manga fan.

– Review by Michelle Smith

My Sempai | Hebiko Habuyama | Digital Manga Guild | Young Adult (16+) – In terms of premise, My Sempai doesn’t sound terribly unique. A fresh-faced teenager, Hajime Amemiya, is being hassled by some thugs when he is rescued by cool and intimidating Saburo Ninomiya, who turns out to be an upperclassman at Hajime’s school. Immediately, a comedic tone is set when Hajime proceeds to stalk Ninomiya, pouncing on him from time to time while absurdly declaring, “I am a love vulture!!” Saburo attempts to discourage his interest at first, but when faced when Hajime’s inextinguishable belief in his being a better person than rumors suggest, he relents.

The boys start spending time together on the weekends—seeing movies, playing video games—and gradually get closer. Saburo’s not a very communicative guy, so instead of volunteering information about himself, he tells Hajime that he can ask anything he likes. It’s tough for Hajime to do this, though, so he’s pretty uncertain about how Saburo feels about him, and also feels left out when one of Saburo’s obnoxious friends (my least favorite character by far) spills the beans about a post-graduation job offer in Okinawa. They do make a cute couple, though, so I enjoyed their interactions. In addition, the chaste, fade-to-black consummation of their relationship has to be one of the happiest-looking I’ve ever seen in BL.

Habuyama’s artwork takes a bit of getting used to, as screentone (and maybe everything else, who knows?) appears to be rendered by computer. Eventually, though, I discovered that her style is particularly suited for outdoor scenes, especially at night, and there were quite a few wide-shot panels with composition worth admiring. I’m always a sucker for drawings of buildings, and there’s a particular image of a dejected Hajime standing on Saburo’s shadowy front porch that I remember as especially striking.

While some elements of My Sempai are not exactly original, I still found it a pleasant and generally humorous read. Habuyama writes in her afterword, “All that matters is that you laughed and enjoyed yourself. I draw with that intention.” I did both, so I’d call that a success.

– Review by Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publisher.

BL Bookrack: December 2011

December 22, 2011 by MJ 8 Comments

Welcome to the year’s final installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from the Digital Manga Guild, Climb On To My Shoulders and The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, as well as Pet On Duty from JManga.

Climb On To My Shoulders | By Yuhki Takada | Digital Manga Guild | Rated T (13+) – Teen computer programmers Trey and Paul want to make a splash with their tic-tac-toe program, but a chance meeting with wheeler-dealer MJcatapults their hobby to a new (questionably stable) level. Can their budding business (or their longtime friendship) survive MJ’s “help”?

This title represents very well the greatest advantage to the Digital Manga Guild, at least for readers. Though it’s probably one of the most interesting and unique BL titles translated into English to date, it’s not difficult to see why Climb On To My Shoulders might have been an unlikely choice for traditional licensing. On one hand, so few of the genre’s usual tropes are present in this book, it’s almost inevitable that it will fall short of some fans’ expectations. And while the absence of those precise elements would doubtlessly make the book more appealing to others, there is one tricky issue that may turn those readers off as well. In the end, it’s hard to say exactly who this story’s audience is, though there’s a lot to recommend it.

While 1960s high school computer nerds may not seem like obvious BL fodder, Climb On To My Shoulders proves they emphatically are, as long as you’re on board for more bromance than sex. As its “Teen” rating suggests, this manga offers virtually no sexual content, but it also steers clear of the syrupy hearts ‘n’ flowers that often accompany teen-rated BL fare.

Unresolved sexual tension and socially-awkward adolescent male bonding are what you’ll get here, written with a level of insightful nuance that sets my UST-loving heart a-flutter. The only caveat here, is that 9th-grader Trey is drawn to resemble a curly-haired elementary schooler (so much so, that it’s part of the plot), inserting a serious element of squick into what would otherwise be one of the best comedic teen love triangles to ever hit the (virtual) shelves.

Frankly, though, the squick is worth it. While pondering Trey’s burgeoning crush on MJ(and Paul’s long-standing devotion to Trey) may be genuinely discomfiting alongside Takada’s cutie-pie artwork, this book is far too compelling and quirky to miss. Thanks, DMG, for making this kind of oddball release possible. I hope to see many more like it. – Review by MJ

Pet on Duty | By Nase Yamato | JManga | Rated Mature (18+) – When twenty-something Mizuki loses his job (and subsequently, his housing), he turns to his older brother for help. Unfortunately, all his brother has to offer is a covert existence in his company’s dormitory which doesn’t allow guests. Reduced to life as a forbidden housepet, Mizuki finds himself drifting (much like a real-life cat) towards the dorm’s least friendly resident, his brother’s roommate, Kudou.

Released in print by the now-defunct Boysenberry Books, Pet on Duty represents one of the manga community’s greatest hopes for digital publisher JManga—the license rescue. Though the book is available on the Kindle by way of its Japanese publisher, Libre Shuppan, JManga’s platform makes it once again widely available to new readers.

Is Pet on Duty worth rescuing? My verdict: probably.

There’s nothing special or unusual here, and the book’s house cat metaphor gets old fast (nothing cements an unbalanced seme/uke relationship like the insinuation that the uke is actually a pet). But Mizuki’s relationship with Kudou is genuinely sweet, and the author takes care to avoid the questionably-consensual sex that so often pervades these kinds of titles by consistently making “pet” Mizuki the aggressor in all sexual situations. And though there’s little going on outside of the story’s primary romance, that tends to be a plus in a single-volume manga, where so many authors bite off more than they can chew.

Nase Yamato’s artwork is sweetly expressive, with a mix of reality and fantasy elements that work together surprisingly well. She spends a lot of time on detail around her character’s eyes, giving them a level of real-life shading and contour one rarely encounters in quick-fix romance manga, while also maintaining a kind of doll-like beauty that anchors them firmly in a fantasy space. It’s an effective combination, and it suits her story well.

Though Pet on Duty is far from original, it’s a decidedly enjoyable one-shot, suitable for most fans of the genre. – Review by MJ

The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe | By Puku Okuyama | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA (16+) – Having enjoyed Okuyama’s short story collection Warning! Whispers of Love, I was eager to try The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, a volume-long one-shot nicely translated/adapted by the DMG group Cynical Pink.

This is the story of a mismatched pair of high-school boys: small and hyper Kosuke—who earns the nickname “Ham-chan” (hamster) through a combination of looks, behavior, and an alternate reading of a character in his name—and tall and popular-with-girls Raku, who has wearied of standing out due to his ethnicity (he’s only half-Japanese) and is therefore disguising himself with hair dye and black contact lenses. They become close friends and, actually, the entirety of the book is basically their interaction as friends up until the moment they decide to become something more, complete with many comedic episodes (many of which are actually funny) and a supporting cast of quirky classmates that put me in mind of Flower of Life, even though they can’t really rival that group for sheer awesomeness.

Overall, the story is very cute and innocent—there’s really no reason this couldn’t qualify for a Teen (13+) rating, though perhaps 16+ is as low as one can currently go for a love story involving two boys. There are a few things about it that could’ve been better, though. The emphasis on comedy frequently calls for Kosuke to behave in an antic and rather immature way, making it difficult to see him as someone who is mature enough to embark upon a relationship. Perhaps it is this lack of romantic tension between the leads that forces Okuyama to employ the old oops-I-tripped-and-fell-on-you maneuver multiple times in order to get her characters to consider smooching one another.

Neither of these issues prevents me from recommending the manga, however, and I think it would probably make an excellent “gateway manga” for anyone interested in BL but averse to explicit content. – Review by Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publisher.