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loveless

3 Things Thursday: It’s Problematic

October 23, 2014 by MJ 10 Comments

As we near the end of my first full year at my new job, I’ve once again been finding more time to read and talk about manga (and hurray for that, I’d like to say). As a side-effect of that, my once music-centric Tumblr has seen an increase in manga-related posts and reblogs. This is mostly a perfectly fine thing, but given Tumblr’s fandom-heavy vibe, I think it’s safe to say that I must have experienced some kind of temporary loss of wits a week or so ago when I chose that as my venue for a brief rant on a popular(ish) manga ‘ship. Fortunately, Tumblr fans were fairly kind to me over the incident, but really, what was I thinking?

If you dared to click, you’ll know by now that my rant centered on a particularly destructive and tragic canon relationship between the two male leads of CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon, and my lack of ability to understand why or how fans could actively ‘ship a pairing that was born pretty blatantly out of deception, cruelty, and (at best) sick curiosity. And I’ll admit that, though I now have a deeper understanding of their devotion to the ‘ship, I simply can’t get on board. As much as I love Tokyo Babylon (and I really, really love Tokyo Babylon), I’ll never be able to view Seishirou’s carefully calculated seduction of Subaru (and its significant collateral damage) as anything but horrible.

“Well, that’s just fine,” you say, “Judge McJudgy-pants.” And okay, I see your point. And before you add “hypocrite” under your breath, I’ll be the first to admit… YES. I have some pretty problematic ‘ships in my own catalogue. And even if maybe no part of them ever murdered anyone’s sister (ahem) I can’t deny that there are… issues. Really serious issues. Sometimes. Okay. Whatever. *sigh*

3 Problematic Relationships I Accidentally Love (or something like that):

1. Hachi/Nobu (NANA) – She’s a married lady (*@#!@^&#*^@&* Takumi grrrrrrr) whose poor judgement and inability to deal with romantic confrontation completely destroyed him and he’s a sweet but kind of codependent musician whose weakness and privileged upbringing will almost assuredly cause him to lose his current girlfriend (like it did with Hachi, whether he knew it or not). But even after all this time, and increasing unlikelihood that we’ll ever find out what really happens in this series, I CAN’T LET IT GO. Like Nobu, I’m always going to be hanging on to that tiny piece of hope, even when it’s obviously, irretrievably gone. And like Nobu, I’ll probably hate Takumi forever. Screw Hachi’s legal and emotional commitments. And… her children? GAH. Um. She belongs with Nobu. Damnit. Sorry, that’s just the way things are. Also, along these totally destructive and morally questionable lines? Shin/Reira. I ‘ship it. Sorry, I just do. Here, have some pictures:

(click image to enlarge – read right-to-left)

2. Seth/Shonach (Moon Child) – This one is really tough for me, but there’s a part of me that can’t let it go. So. Seth is a genderless fish alien who has yet to mature into female mermaid form (yes, seriously, this is a thing), and Shonach is a freaking human jerk who fails to recognize the awesomeness he has at hand. It’s hard for me to admit that I ‘ship this pairing at all, because, well… from our discussion of the series: “… it really bothers me that his [Shonach’s] obsession with Benjamin’s [Seth’s sister] beauty (her beauty only—he doesn’t care about her as a person at all, really) keeps him from being able to appreciate the best parts of Seth, to the point that even at the end, when Seth has matured into a female, he can only see her as Benjamin. That the only expression of true affection Seth ever really gets from Shonach is when he believes she is Benjamin really breaks my heart.” Also, that my personal justification for the ‘ship (“because Seth wants it”) is pretty much exactly the same as one fan’s justification of her Subaru/Seishirou ‘shipping (“because Subaru wants it”) has not escaped my notice.

(read right-to-left)

3. Ritsuka/Soubi (Loveless) – I can’t even really believe I’m putting this on the list, because not only is it just wrong on so many levels, but I don’t even want it as a romantic or sexual relationship. But the difference between this age-inappropriate ‘ship (Ritsuka: twelve; Soubi: … not twelve) and a few others I notably enjoy (Amu/Ikuto in Shugo Chara!, Alice/Rin in Please Save My Earth) is that, though it is the only one that is not explicitly romantic, it is by far the most sexualized, and there’s no getting around that. Yun Kouga does not let us get around that, as I’ve lamented many times. So I feel that to not include it on this list would be pretty dishonest. No, I don’t want to see Ritsuka and Soubi’s relationship become more romantic/sexual than it currently is. No, I am not even comfortable with what it currently is. Yes, I want them to be able to be together and stay together, whatever that means, because Soubi (especially) needs it—you know what, they both need it, and I’m sort of willing to accept that that’s probably awful. And. Yeah.

(read right-to-left)

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So there’s my own sort-of ‘shipping shame. What about you?

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: loveless, moon child, nana, shipping

Off the Shelf, MMF Edition: Loveless

July 20, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 27 Comments


Warning: This column contains SPOILERS for all volumes of Yun Kouga’s Loveless currently available in English.


MJ: Hello readers! As you know, Manga Bookshelf is currently hosting the Manga Moveable Feast, a monthly virtual book club in which the manga blogosphere comes together to discuss a single manga, topic, or mangaka. This month’s Feast features the work of Yun Kouga (read my introduction), a versatile artist whose work runs the gamut from RPG-style shounen fantasy, to josei romance, to boys’ love, and more. But in North America, Kouga-sensei is best known by far for her ongoing series Loveless, a shoujo fantasy involving supernatural intrigue, spell battles, and cat ears, but most of all, heartbreak. Lots and lots of heartbreak.

loveless-2006Originally published in Ichijinsha’s action-heavy, BL-tinged shoujo magazine Comic Zero Sum, Loveless was a great fit for Tokyopop’s lineup, alongside titles like Kazuya Minekura’s Saiyuki Reload and Shiho Sugiura’s Silver Diamond, but after the demise of Tokyopop’s North American publishing division, fans of the series were left hanging with no new releases after 2008’s release of volume 8. Fortunately, Viz Media has come to the rescue, not only releasing the series’ subsequent volumes (now standing at 11, both here and in Japan), but also re-releasing its earlier volumes in omnibus format.

As a latecomer to Loveless, all I really knew about it going in is that it featured cat boys and (possibly) some kind of sketchy shota relationship—either of which would have been enough to send me running quickly in the opposite direction—but as Michelle and I delved in to the series’ first two volumes, I quickly discovered that the series has much, much more to offer. Viz’s second omnibus release (encompassing volumes 3-4) inspired me to rave excitedly on camera, and further reading has only increased that excitement. Events of the third omnibus (volumes 5-6) led to this ode, Lovesick over Loveless. I’ll let that post speak for itself.

The truth is, Yun Kouga’s work (and Loveless in particular) hits so many of my personal storytelling kinks in so many instances, it would be prohibitively time-consuming to catalogue them all. But perhaps more significantly, she manages to address several of my usual turn-offs (and at least one known deal-breaker) in a way that makes them somehow palatable, even to me. As a result, my reaction to Loveless has begun to resemble nothing more than a kind of romantic longing, characterized by ever-wandering thoughts and a persistent love-struck haze. in short, I’m lovesick over Loveless.

Now that Viz’s omnibus releases have finally caught up to the newer volumes, I’ve been able to race through what’s available in this series, and though I think the latest volume may have broken my heart beyond repair, I’ve invited Michelle to become broken along with me. I hope she’ll forgive me. Michelle?

MICHELLE: As someone who wishes for more unhappy endings in manga, I certainly don’t object to heartbreak! And Kouga-sensei offers the best kind, as it’s not her style to simply serve up dramatic and/or tragic plot twists, but rather to focus on what these upheavals mean and feel like to the characters. And it’s in the understanding and the relating that lies the heartbreak.

MJ: Well said, Michelle! For those who may just be joining us, I’ll briefly go over the story’s premise, and some more recent plot points.

Ritsuka is a 12-year-old who has suffered a couple of major tragedies. First, two years prior, he experienced some sort of massive amnesia which left him with no memory whatsoever of the person he was before that time. This sent his mother into an increasingly unstable condition in which she does not believe that he is her son, and physically abuses him whenever he betrays himself as not “her Ritsuka.” More recently, his older brother, Seimei, to whom he was very close, was found horribly murdered—burned beyond recognition—with no explanation other than a cryptic message left for Ritsuka blaming his murder on an organization called “Septimal Moon.”

As the story begins, Ritsuka is approached by Soubi, an art college student whom Ritsuka has never met or even heard of, though he claims to have known Seimei. Soubi introduces Ritsuka to an underground society in which spell battles are fought by two-person teams made up of one “fighter,” who performs the spells, and one “sacrifice,” who directs the battle and takes all the damage for the team. Ritsuka, he is told, is a sacrifice, like his brother before him. Furthermore, Soubi was his brother’s “fighter” and has been bequeathed to Ritsuka upon his brother’s death.

(read right-to-left)

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This situation is difficult for Ritsuka, as he struggles to get used to the idea of Soubi, who wants (needs?) to be completely dominated by him, but as the two find themselves forced to fight together, they eventually form a meaningful bond. Just as Ritsuka’s starting to get used to his new circumstances, things get even more complicated when, in volume seven, he finally discovers two very painful truths—that Seimei is alive (and had someone else killed in his place) and that Soubi is still bound to him.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to these points (the second one, in particular, becomes absolutely heartbreaking in volume eleven), and much more has happened than what little I’ve stated here, but I expect these things will come to light as the column goes on.

MICHELLE: Yes, there’s so much that I hardly know where to start. I guess I’ll go chronologically, and start with the fact that I’m absolutely fascinated by whatever it was that happened right around Ritsuka’s tenth birthday. It’s not just amnesia, and it’s not just a personality shift—even the subjects he’s good at in school are suddenly different! That might be, to me, the most ominous thing. Where did that ability come from? Was it always latent in Ritsuka? What on earth happened to cause such a psychic break? I have a feeling it has to be something absolutely horrible perpetrated by Seimei, and I wonder how many years it’ll be before readers finally know the answer.

loveless-amnesia

And, of course, the massive betrayal in learning that someone you loved and thought you knew was never really that person in the first place? And this is exactly what I meant in my response above—the reveal to readers that Seimei is alive is handled with absolutely no fanfare. Kouga-sensei is not attempting to shock the readers, she’s forcing the readers to watch Ritsuka find out, and that’s where the real drama is.

MJ: Yes! That whole thing is just brilliantly executed, in my opinion. Some of that realization starts slowly, as Ritsuka finds out, little by little, that the Seimei he thinks he knew doesn’t resemble the one anyone else knew in the slightest, and that even he knew on some level that Seimei was really frightening all that time, but hid those thoughts away, even from himself. Just that is horrifying enough. But then he discovers the truth–that Seimei is alive–in the cruelest way possible, from a third party, as he faces Seimei’s new fighter in battle.

What I love most about all of this, though, is that Ritsuka gets to have real, complicated reactions to all of it. There’s no switch inside him that turns off his love for Seimei or, to a great extent, even his trust in Seimei, despite the genuinely awful truths he’s learned. Seimei isn’t the person Ritsuka thought he was, but Ritsuka’s version of Seimei doesn’t just die. It can’t. It’s too much a part of Ritsuka himself.

There’s a scene in volume 8, where Ritsuka is finally face-to-face with Seimei (who has slaughtered his way through the building to get to him, even writing “Ritsuka, I’m back,” on the walls in blood), and he’s thinking, “The fact that Seimei is here… it’s proof of so many lies.” Yet his first real reaction is gratitude that his brother isn’t dead after all. And that’s not a feeling he can just put aside.

(read right-to-left)

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MICHELLE: It happens a lot of times in Loveless that Ritsuka is allowed to feel two different things simultaneously, which is not something I’ve seen a lot of in manga, come to think of it. In the earlier volumes, this happens most often regarding Soubi, whom Ritsuka simultaneously wants to see and wants to avoid. And just when he decides to believe in Soubi, Seimei comes back and puts everything in turmoil.

Soubi’s reaction to learning Seimei is alive (in volume six) is heartbreaking as well, as you so eloquently (and with perfect visual aids) write about in your Fanservice Friday post. I love how this just really cements the realization that Soubi, despite appearances to the contrary, isn’t some simple creepy seme type. He’s a broken and vulnerable person who feels more Loveless than Beloved. He’s been cast aside with apparent ease by the person who was his “God,” and is desperate for Ritsuka to make their bond stronger. He must know that his bond with Seimei still exists, but would now rather have Ritsuka for his “master.”

MJ: I’m glad you brought this up so quickly, Michelle, because it’s Soubi’s place in all this that has broken my heart most gravely, and it’s ultimately a greater source of pain for Ritsuka, I think, than his brother’s betrayal—at least by the time the end of volume eleven rolls around. The danger signs are there early on and, as you say, even when he is first struck with the truth of Seimei’s betrayal, there’s a sense that he already understands the potential ramifications of that in his relationship with Ritsuka. Even before we’re made fully aware of the … inseverable nature of his fighter bond with Seimei, it’s clear that something’s up, and as Ritsuka’s face-off with his brother looms closer, Soubi becomes more and more visibly desperate to belong to Ritsuka, and Ritsuka alone.

The scene in volume seven where Soubi entreats Ritsuka to fully accept him so that he can fight for him against Seimei’s new fighter, Nisei, is one of the most affecting in the series—and in a series like this, that’s saying a lot. “If you accept me, Ritsuka… If you forgive me, Ritsuka… If you want me, Ritsuka…” Soubi says with startling calm, like he was reciting a sutra, as the brand Seimei marked him with bleeds painfully on his neck. It’s a stunning scene, made more so by the fact that Ritsuka’s left to wrestle with his own motivations—his fear that by accepting Soubi he’s simply manipulating him.

(read right-to-left)

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MICHELLE: Ritsuka really does have all the power. More than he wants to have, really, especially when Soubi insists that Ritsuka treat him like an object. It’s rather hard for me to understand wanting so desperately to be dominated, but in Soubi’s case it seems to have some connection to wanting to forget that he is a person and the emotional pain to which people are susceptible.

MJ: There are some pretty powerful scenes around this same time-frame on that subject, too. I’m thinking particularly of the beginning of volume seven, which is when Ritsuka finds out that his brother carved his name, “Beloved,” into Soubi’s neck. It’s Soubi’s friend Kio who lets the cat out of the bag, as he opens Ritsuka’s eyes to Seimei’s violent tendencies. The whole scene is pretty powerful, with Ritsuka demanding that Soubi show him the damage Seimei did to his body. But the bit that really strikes me is the conversation afterwards, in which Soubi explains that, from his perspective, Seimei’s brand isn’t violence, but rather a bond—one that he entered into willingly.

It’s complicated for the characters and for us as readers, as we try not only to wrap our heads around the world as Soubi sees it, but also try to reconcile that with the knowledge that Seimei really is violent, and that his bond with Soubi was only forged to serve himself. I really like the fact that Kouga portrays Soubi’s subservience to Ritsuka and Seimei as being both the same (from Soubi’s viewpoint) and totally different (from Ritsuka and Seimei’s viewpoints).

(read right-to-left)

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MICHELLE: I found that whole sequence absolutely chilling, somehow. Perhaps it was seeing normally upbeat Kio delivering a line like, “Oh, I knew him. I hated him.” It just sets the tone for all that follows, as Ritsuka begins to realize all the weird little things that would happen when Seimei was around, like fish mysteriously dying and such. Ritsuka pushed these niggling doubts aside and convinced himself he wasn’t afraid of Seimei and that he loved him, but the truth was, he knew something was off all along. Just more evidence to the support the “Seimei did something awful” theory for the amnesia onset.

MJ: Yes, I agree (I can’t wait until we finally get some answers about that), though I wonder, of course, how Seimei is the way he is, too. I mean, is he just a sociopath? That’s the simplest answer, but I don’t necessarily expect things to be simple in a Yun Kouga manga.

I was going back just now to the first omnibus, which I hadn’t read in quite a while, and was struck anew with Soubi’s surprise at discovering that he actually loved Ritsuka. He’d gone to him, because Seimei had ordered him to do it, and had told Ritsuka he loved him, because Seimei said he must. But he somehow hadn’t expected to really feel that kind of love. At the time that just kind of went right by me, but now that we know so much more about Seimei, and especially about his relationship with Soubi, it makes so much sense. He’d only learned to be subservient to these really horrible people—first Ritsu, then Seimei—and had no idea that a master like Ritsuka even existed. It’s heartbreaking, really.

MICHELLE: It is. It makes you wonder what kind of person Soubi could’ve become without these influences. Not that he’s at all a bad person as he is, of course. But he certainly isn’t free; it’s the last thing he wants.

Your comment does bring up the point that there’s tremendous reread potential in Loveless. There are all manner of nuances that the reader puzzles over initially, and perhaps that’s why I’ve seen some reviews describe the series as confusing, but which might make a great deal more sense in retrospect. Even though the series is kind of notorious for the time it’s taking to unfurl, that’s actually due to the publishing schedule and not to any lollygagging about in the story itself. At least, I don’t think so. I get the sense that Kouga knows exactly what she’s doing.

MJ: I agree, though I think we’re definitely at an advantage being fed all of it at once. Still, as you say, there is tremendous re-read potential in this series, and I expect I can keep myself busy during the year-long wait between volumes revisiting what’s come before. Just the short time I spent with the first two volumes today made me want to re-read the entire thing from the start—and I’ve barely just finished!

You know, as anxious as I am to find out what happened to Rtisuka’s memories, I feel like it might break my heart to lose the Ritsuka we know now.

notknowsmMICHELLE: I was thinking last night that Ritsuka’s plight reminds me some of Echo in Dollhouse, in that the protagonist has this other/earlier self that s/he’s trying to regain, believing it to be superior to their current self. (Ritsuka even believes that his being who he is now is “a sin for which I deserve to be punished.”) But what will happen to the person s/he is currently? In Dollhouse a melding of sorts happened, if I recall rightly, and I hope that we’ll get something like that in Loveless.

Because Ritsuka really is very endearing and very consistently characterized, too. One of the things that most impresses me about how he’s written is how his most strongly held opinions and desires are clearly the result of the things he has been through, but Kouga just lets readers notice that themselves rather than putting up flashing arrows pointing it out. He’s yearning for someone to love, he jumps at the chance to “make memories” and leave people with photographs of himself so they won’t forget him, he’s utterly opposed to inflicting any kind of violence, and he absolutely hates secrets and lies. When Kio apologizes after bringing up Seimei’s violent tendencies, Ritsuka reacts with, “There isn’t anything that I don’t want to know! Not knowing is the worst!”

He’s an honest, gentle, and caring boy in a way that isn’t cloying at all.

MJ: And he’s just willful enough to take charge in the way Soubi needs him to as well, without being a sadist like his brother. There are a number of scenes that spring immediately to mind for me when I think of Ritsuka and the moments that have most defined him for us over the course of the story which I’d love to discuss with you. I’m glad you mentioned Ritsuka’s burning need to “make memories,” with people, because the there was an early scene along those lines that struck me much more profoundly a second time around.

I was startled to recall as I paged through the first omnibus volume again that the very first thing he does with Soubi after meeting him is to drag him off to “make memories.” The guy’s a complete stranger and an adult, but since he identified himself as a friend of Seimei’s (or, well, he let Ritsuka identify him as such—I think that’s an important distinction), that was good enough for Ritsuka. Then, my heart broke to pieces in just one panel, when Ritsuka insists that he’s sure Soubi will forget that Ritsuka was even there with him if he doesn’t take pictures. It’s a tiny thing then that we don’t fully understand until later, but it just shattered me.

MICHELLE: Practically the first thing I thought when Ritsuka immediately buys into the “a friend of Seimei’s” claim is “Nooo, don’t go with him, little boy!” And, y’know, Ritsuka’s not a stupid kid. I’m sure he knows not to go off with strangers, but he was desperate for any kind of link to his beloved (no pun intended) brother, and so he just lights up and his demeanor changes entirely.

His assertion that, without photos, Soubi will just forget he was ever there makes me wonder if something like that has actually happened to him. It doesn’t seem that Misaki, his troubled mother, has forgotten him particularly so much that she doesn’t see the person he is now, unless it’s to accuse him of not being “her” Ritsuka.

MJ: I wonder this, too, and it keeps on coming up, over and over again, in various ways. Then later, in the battle with Bloodless—a pair who use their enemies’ worst fears against them—we find out that Ritsuka’s worst fear is not just that he’ll be forgotten, or even that he’ll forget himself again, but that the few memories he actually has will be proven false as well. He’s already lost the memory of most of his own life, and now he’s discovered that his most precious memories of his brother may be nothing but lies as well. So if Seimei is a lie and Ritsuka is also a lie, what does he even have that’s real at all?

I’m thinking it all comes around to the memory loss in one way or another, compounded by the revelation of Seimei’s massive deception. In another scene that comes to mind from early in volume seven, Kio expresses disbelief that anyone could forgive the kind of violence that Seimei perpetrated on Soubi and accuses Soubi of being a “total fool.” Ritsuka responds by calling himself a fool as well. “You’re a fool and a masochist, Soubi, so you’re happy no matter what’s done to you! And Seimei is a sadist, so he can do anything to you, right? And I’m a fool for sticking my nose into this, aren’t I?” Then he thinks to himself, “But… I can’t let go of anybody’s hand.”

His response is very much in character, in that it’s yet another admission that he’s afraid to let go of anyone he loves (and who might love him), but it’s what he does afterwards that I find the most telling. He turns to Soubi and starts buttoning up his shirt so that he won’t catch a cold. For all he’s been through and how much he’s found to be scared of, more and more as the series goes on, his instinct is to become the grownup and take care of other people. (His speech to Soubi late in volume eleven takes this even one step further, but I expect we’ll come back to that later on.) Partly I think he has found, time and again, that he can’t trust adults to take care of themselves, let alone him, but also I think he’s desperately trying to hold things (and people) together on his own, every little bit that he can, lest he lose one more thing.

(read right-to-left)

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MICHELLE: I really love the imagery of the “I can’t let go of anyone’s hand” moment, too. Another thing that strikes me about that shirt-buttoning scene is what Ritsuka says during it: “Y’know… I could never do anything like that for you.” Even though he finds violence abhorrent, it’s still his instinct to give Soubi what he needs/craves, and it saddens him that this is something that he simply cannot do.

MJ: Yes, yes! The fact that he words it that way, “for you” rather than “to you” (which is surely the way Kio sees it) acknowledges its importance to Soubi, and makes it clear that, even if Ritsuka can’t quite understand why Soubi would want something like that, he understands that he shouldn’t just dismiss Soubi’s feelings about it. It’s really touching, actually.

MICHELLE: Another scene that really stands out for me happens in volume five. It’s late at night and Nisei has tipped Misaki off that Ritsuka is not at home—he’s at Soubi’s house using the video-game interface to get information on Septimal Moon—and when Ritsuka finally shows up, she tries to contain herself but cannot. The ensuing abuse is incredibly disturbing, and I’m fascinated by Soubi’s reaction to it and his realization about Ritsuka. “Ritsuka is the way he is because of his mother. Ritsuka is searching for someone to love. He wants to find that person so badly. And when he thinks he’s found them, he gives them his all. But that kind of unwavering trust that won’t budge a millimeter… that in itself is madness.”

I think it’s important to note here that Soubi—his own acceptance of Seimei’s violent tendencies aside—knows that the face Seimei showed Ritsuka was not his true one, but isn’t going to be the one to shatter his illusion.

MJ: There’s something else that connects these two scenes, actually, and I never would have noticed it had we not discussed them together! I just realized that in the scene you mention in volume five, it’s Soubi who is taking care of Ritsuka, giving him his coat so that he won’t get cold. And it’s somewhere in between these two scenes—I think probably at the point in which Soubi discovers that Seimei is alive and his world gets shattered—Ritsuka becomes the adult and Soubi the child. When I think about it, that’s the turning point. Everything between them is different after that.

MICHELLE: I think you’re right! I think that’s when Ritsuka—and the reader—realizes how much power he truly has over Soubi. I must admit I now have geekbumps because YOU HAVE FOUND THE CRUX OF LOVELESS.

MJ: Hee! Well, it may be too early to identify it as the crux of the whole series, but I feel excited by the discovery all the same. I admit that I was surprised to read Sarah Ash’s feelings about Ritsuka’s shifting character, because to me he’s grown up drastically in the past few volumes. And it really does all start just at the moment that Soubi falls apart. As many times as I read it, I’m still blown away by that scene in volume six when Soubi arrives at Ritsuka’s house, broken to pieces and begging Ritsuka to run away with him. It’s the last page of chapter four where it happens. Ritsuka, stunned by Soubi’s sudden earnestness thinks, “If you’re serious… then… I’ll be serious too.” And suddenly he’s the grownup. I mean, he still has his moments of childishness and uncertainty here and there, but that’s really when he takes charge, and we see this build all the way through volume eleven, up to the point when Seimei takes the opportunity to crush him.

And really, that’s significant to me, too. Even after Seimei’s return, he’s held it together pretty well, still taking care of Soubi (that one of the first things he asks Seimei when he confronts him is “Why are you scaring Soubi?” is, to me, indescribably touching). But you know how, no matter how grownup and independent you become, it can be almost impossible not to regress in the company of your family? For instance, I’m senior management at my job, but when my parents come to visit the office, I find myself struggling to maintain that “in charge” version of myself in front of them. It’s so hard not to become the child again in those circumstances. I realize we don’t yet fully understand Seimei’s motivation for destroying Ritsuka, but I almost feel like his part of his objective in volume eleven is to show Ritsuka that he’s still the little brother–as helpless and dependant as ever–and that even growing up is something he can’t do without his older brother’s permission.

MICHELLE: That scene where Soubi arrives and shows Ritsuka his emotional pain reminds me of an earlier time when a wounded Soubi turned up at Ritsuka’s window, but then wondered why he came and decided to go away again and spare Ritsuka the sight of his injury. Now they’re so close that he can show Ritsuka, if not the full truth of what’s happened at least some sign of his despair.

Another moment that really sticks out for me the most in the post-Seimei aftermath is when Ritsuka shows up at Soubi’s place to cook him an omelet. He wants to do something to cheer him, and he’s twelve so he can’t do much, but he can make an omelet with an inspirational ketchup message on it! I like that it was a sort of grown-up thought to be having, but an age-appropriate execution.

loveless-childishcropMJ: What a wonderful way of putting it, Michelle! A “grown-up thought to be having, but an age-appropriate execution” is exactly right, and that’s the kind of thing Yun Kouga does really well, too. Even as she’s having Ritsuka take on the adult role with Soubi, it’s not like she turns him into an adult. In fact, ruminating on the ideas of “adult” vs “child” is a major theme in this series, and I love all the ways in which she explores that topic.

I’ve already gone on and on about how brilliant I think the whole cat ears thing is—how she uses a common (and fairly silly) manga trope to both comment on our society’s obsession with the significance (and ramifications of) losing one’s virginity, while also providing silent notes on all her characters—but she’s got a lot of things to say which reveal themselves in other ways.

There are a few scenes in particular that spring immediately to mind, two of which are in volume eleven. First, I thought of Ritsuka’s conversation with Yuiko early on (I adore Yuiko, by the way, in case I haven’t mentioned that). He’s trying to figure out what to do or even think about his brother, the sociopath—something no kid his age should be having to figure out—and though Yuiko has no idea what’s going on, she’s trying to help. Twice in that conversation she mentions the fact that they’re just kids, and that this means that they can do what they want. “Even if we make mistakes, it’s okay because we’re kids!”

And of course, that’s the whole problem. Ritsuka’s just a kid, but he’s being put in this position where his mistakes might have truly dire consequences, both for him and for others. Meanwhile, it’s the adults in the story who are acting like kids—allowing their own issues to get in the way of being the grownups, even when they’re dealing with children. (Maybe even especially when they’re dealing with children?)

“Lately, I’ve met a lot more adults,” Ritsuka tells his psychiatrist, just a few scenes later, “And I think adults are actually pretty childish.”

Well said, Ritsuka. Well said.

MICHELLE: The way adults interact with children seems to be something Kouga is particularly interested in. Earlier this week, I read your post about Crown of Love, and was struck by the dialogue “If you think I can’t lie to you when you look me right in the eyes… then you really are just a kid. If you think adults are always nice to children, you’re making a big mistake.” And then in volume nine of Loveless you’ve got Nagisa saying that Ritsuka “understands all too well that adults are not always kind to children.” That’s a neat insight into how Kouga views the comparative maturity of these two characters.

And, I note, I love Yuiko, too!

MJ: But, true to form, even while acknowledging that adults often fail to act as adults and are often unkind to children, she doesn’t straightforwardly vilify them for it. She has a way of writing a character from the point of view of “Wow, you fucked up,” without just abandoning them, much as Ritsuka doesn’t abandon those who have failed him, for better or worse. Meanwhile, she lets the kids show us how it’s done, without making them into perfect saints either.

One of my favorite scenes, post-Seimei, comes immediately after his escape from Seven Moons Academy—an escape ultimately facilitated by Soubi, who is unable to refuse Seimei’s order to essentially break him out. There’s a lot packed into that event, as it’s when both Ritsuka and we are confronted with the true power of Seimei’s bond with Soubi, and the extent to which their shared name, “Beloved,” is able to maintain that bond, even against Soubi’s will. Soubi is devastated by his own betrayal of Ritsuka, and reverts into what Ritsuka calls “toddler mode,” and though Ritsuka is not completely sure how he’s supposed to handle it, handle it he does, basically by ordering Soubi to get over it and go to sleep. Ritsuka’s grumpy and tired, and not as nice as he might like to be, but he’s still taking care of Soubi and keeping him close, rather than letting Soubi distance himself or wallow in his own regret.

MICHELLE: I like that scene, too, ‘cos it’s like Soubi—having been compelled to obey Seimei—is repeating the refusal (“don’t want to”) that he wishes he could have made. And, of course, with Ritsuka he would’ve been allowed to make such a rejoinder without repercussions, but when he rejoins Seimei in volume eleven he’s ordered not to speak until given permission. “I don’t want to hear your voice.” Soubi would be so much happier if he could serve only Ritsuka.

(read right-to-left)

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I wonder… is the bond really a thing that’s compelling him, like supernaturally, or is it just Soubi’s internalization of the bond that renders him incapable of disobeying? And, actually, I wonder why this Fighter/Sacrifice system exists at all, especially with the academy. Why was it established? Surely not for the purpose of all this infighting! Is there a greater threat out there to which we’ve not even been introduced?

MJ: There’s definitely a lot we haven’t been told yet, including the entire purpose of Seven Moons Academy and Septimal Moon, and I think whenever we finally find that out, we may understand a lot more about the bond between fighters and sacrifices. But I feel like there are a few scenes that have been intended to let us know that the name itself is a powerful supernatural bond that can’t be broken, especially when the fighter is a “blank” as Soubi is—or certainly Soubi’s been made to believe that this is the case. He’s told repeatedly by both Ritsu, who trained (and abused) him and Seimei who claimed (and abused) him that it’s impossible for him to betray his sacrifice once he’s been marked with his name. That said, I specifically pointed out that both have abused him (both physically, emotionally, and in Ritsu’s case, sexually), because it certainly seems possible that, between them, they’ve brainwashed Soubi into believing something that’s not actually true.

I wonder, though… one of the things I found most heartbreaking about Soubi breaking the window for Seimei to escape, is that I got the impression in the previous volume that Soubi thought it might be possible, if Ritsuka truly wanted him and accepted him as his fighter, that he could actually become his fighter. He’s been told that a blank’s ownership is absolute (yet non-exclusive for the sacrifice, how cruel is that?) but the later flashback to Soubi’s first meeting with Seimei, in which Seimei describes his marking of Soubi as allowing him to be “reborn” as his property, makes me wonder if Soubi though it just might be possible to reborn once more, if only Ritsuka would fully accept him. And I wonder if he is pleading, hoping for the same thing later in the graveyard in volume eleven.

MICHELLE: I got that impression, as well. Soubi wants their bond to be real. I’m not sure Ritsuka fully grasps that, though, because as Soubi is walking away, he thinks, “In the end… all those times… Soubi only ever listened to me as an indulgence.” Perhaps he thinks he was being pitied or humored by Soubi when the latter would “consent to obey” him, but it wasn’t really like that for Soubi.

(read right-to-left)

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MJ: I think that’s what I found most painful about that whole sequence of events, actually. I mean, what happens is obviously heartbreaking, with Seimei cruelly taking Soubi from Ritsuka, as if Ritsuka hasn’t lost enough already. But even more awful, in my opinion, is Ritsuka’s misunderstanding of Soubi’s feelings on the matter. That’s what ultimately broke me, and it really did break me, to an extent from which I’ve yet to recover. The fact that this misunderstanding seems to have been Seimei’s intent? I just… wow. He actually waits to remove Soubi from Ritsuka just at the moment when it would hurt Ritsuka the most. And Soubi.

I realize his true objective must be larger than this;there’s no reason for him to need to hurt Soubi, for instance, for whom he feels nothing, unless it serves some other purpose to do so, which means it has to be Ritsuka he’s really trying to hurt. But why? Is it related to the memory loss? Is he trying to punish Ritsuka for something? Is he trying to break him down in order to control him as well? Or is it even bigger than that?

Time will tell, I realize, but in the meantime, I mostly just want to kill Seimei. Possibly with my own bare hands.

MICHELLE: He’s the one that put them together in the first place, with orders for Soubi to love Ritsuka, so he is obviously enjoying getting them to really care about each other and then ripping them apart. Somehow I get the feeling he’s trying to trigger something in Ritsuka. I don’t know. But it’s almost like… Seimei did something that got Ritsuka to the person he is now, and now he’s trying to make him into something else that he can use. I thought it was interesting to see that Seimei’s actually been creepy from day one, as his first thought upon seeing his baby brother was that his mother had created Ritsuka expressly for him.

MJ: Heh, yes. Though, it’s so difficult to figure out what Seimei actually enjoys. I mean, it certainly seems like he must enjoy hurting people. Yet he’s so cold about it all.

reason-smallThere are a number of other fighter/sacrifice pairs introduced over these later volumes, and we’ve barely talked about them at all; I’ll the first to admit that I’m too focused on the major players right now to give them the attention they deserve. One of the darker stories, however, comes from Mikado, another sacrifice who felt a kinship with Seimei when they were both training, because of their shared inability to comprehend emotion. Mikado describes them both as “empty inside,” which absolutely jives with what we’ve seen in Seimei. And when Seimei orders his fighter, Nisei, to rape her and cut off her hair, she’s horrified, less by the act itself, and more by the fact that, from her perspective, Seimei broke their “code,” by doing it (in his words) for “no particular reason.” So is it really that he enjoys hurting people? I’d say that’s absolutely true of Nisei, who revels in watching Ritsuka cry. But what’s the deal with Seimei?

MICHELLE: I found the Mikado reveal very shocking. I mean, yes, Seimei has definitely killed at least one person (the guy whose body was used as a Seimei stand-in) and slashed a couple characters with his knife, not to mention inflicting all sorts of mental and emotional anguish, but this just seemed exceptionally horrible, even for him. Ritsuka is sure Soubi would never do such a thing, but if commanded by Seimei… I am not so sure, and that kind of makes me feel ill. I would hope Soubi could break the spell, either literally or figuratively, if it came to that.

This incident did put something else in perspective, storytelling-wise. After the major Seimei drama goes down at the end of volume eight, it’s as if the story takes a step back from the precipice. Our characters go back to their lives, Ritsuka goes back to school, where Youji and Natsuo enroll and act like brats. One starts to wonder where the story’s momentum has gone. But in the midst of that there was a story about Yuiko being bullied and when Ritsuka confronts the girls, they admit they have no reasons for their actions. He’s angry at them, and yet, here is Seimei giving the same answer. What’s it going to take for Ritsuka to stop feeling like he’s “on Seimei’s side” in all this?

MJ: That’s a very good question, and… yes. “Yes” to everything you’ve said here. I find myself wondering if Seimei is escalating his most gruesome behavior almost to see how far he can go. How far can he push his fighter? Are there limits to his control? Or maybe even, is there anything he can do that’s awful enough to make him feel regret? What are his own limits?

I admit I kind of don’t even want to think about how far Soubi would go if commanded by Seimei. I love Soubi too much to handle it. Yet, I suspect Kouga will confront me with it sooner or later, anyway. Probably sooner. She’s never been afraid to push her readers into uncomfortable places, of course, which is one of the things I love best about her.

Speaking of which, this is a bit of a shift in topic here, but wow does she push at my boundaries with Ritsuka and Soubi’s relationship. We see this again in volume eleven, when Ritsuka is ordering Soubi to “take action” in a way that looks very much like physical action, because Soubi never believes his words. Obviously, we don’t actually see anything truly inappropriate take place, and she’s been really careful to draw a line there, but it’s absolutely uncomfortable. And part of why it’s uncomfortable is that she makes clear all along that it’s problematic, though we can’t help rooting for them as… something. Something close, but not that close.

(read right-to-left)

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MICHELLE: I honestly don’t know how I feel about that aspect of their relationship. I feel like it’s going to end up getting physical eventually, but probably not before Ritsuka grows up. (Soubi, perhaps, not wishing to do what was done to him?) And that it will be because of who they are and not what their roles are. Like, Soubi has suggested that he’d want to be “taken” in that scenario, which I don’t interpret simply as being the uke, but just in terms of “the ball is in your court, whenever you want me I am here.” But it’d be better if Soubi wanted it because Ritsuka is Ritsuka and not just his master.

Does any of this make sense? It’s a bit rambly.

MJ: It does make sense, and I guess I’m there with you. I mean, I can’t help wanting to see them together for the long term, I just don’t know what that really means, or if it’s in the cards. I mean, out of all the mess, Kouga does seem to like giving her characters happy romantic endings of some kind. And there’s no denying that Ritsuka and Soubi’s relationship feels… well, kinda romantic—for the reader, at least. I admit I’ve occasionally wondered if part of the purpose of the cat ears is to constantly reassure us that Ritsuka is still a child, at least in the Loveless universe’s sense of the word.

On a somewhat related note, I find it particularly ironic that Soubi doesn’t trust Ritsuka’s words in a story that is largely about the power of words. All the teams’ battles are fought with words, Seimei’s greatest weapon during his initial confrontation with Ritsuka is the power of his words (and the possibility that he’ll force Ritsuka to use words to somehow subjugate himself). And Ritsuka has this fantastic revelation in volume nine about words and how important they are. Yet Soubi doesn’t believe a single thing he says, at least not as far as his own worth to Ritsuka goes.

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MICHELLE: At first, I found the spell battles kind of silly, but they’re actually depicted rather well, with Kouga showing some subtle differences between fighters at different levels of skill. And even the sacrifices are able to impact the battle by imparting words of encouragement upon their fighters.

About Soubi, he probably just can’t believe that someone would tell the truth to him when they weren’t forced to do so, given all the abuse and manipulation he’s endured.

MJ: I agree, I’ve found the spell battles to ultimately be pretty spectacular, not just because they’re extremely well-drawn (they really, really are), but because they’ve offered us both numerous character notes for our leads (and supporting characters, of course) and what feels like a rather fresh take on the idea of the power of words, which is a pretty common theme in manga. I admit that I’ve always been fascinated with stories that include variations on kotodama, and this feels like a modern take on the concept.

loveless-bestMICHELLE: This is a somewhat out-of-the-blue topic shift, but before we conclude I want to make sure to talk at least a little about Yuiko and Kio, who are the closest friends of Ritsuka and Soubi, respectively. We’re privy to Yuiko and Ritsuka’s meeting in volume one, during which she’s persistent and he thinks she’s a ditz, but it’s not until volume nine, during which Kio is being held hostage by Seimei’s group, that we learn that he and Soubi actually became friends under very similar circumstances.

Both characters keep our leads grounded in the world and support them with positive attitudes, which is why hints that they may be involved on a deeper level are kind of.. troubling. There’s a rather random reveal in volume ten regarding Kio, for example, and I also can’t help wondering whether upbeat Yuiko could possibly be the real Loveless fighter. After all, Youji tells Ritsuka that it’s someone he’s probably already met, while Yuiko notes in volume six that, “When I’m with Ritsuka I feel my best… He makes me feel like I can do anything.”

I should clarify that I don’t mean “troubling” in the sense that these characters aren’t absolutely genuine, because I believe they are. But I would like to keep them out of harm’s way, especially Yuiko, who seems to be leading a relatively happy and normal life.

MJ: I’ll admit that, deep down, I’d prefer that Yuiko remain the grounded, non-supernatural friend she is to Ritsuka now, because I think she’s really good for him like that (and of course, she’s a lot safer out of the fray), but I’m not sure what the chances are, since we’ve had this rather stunning reveal regarding Kio’s secret life. I really like both characters, though, and I appreciate the fact that they are, in their individual ways, true, devoted friends, even if they can’t completely understand what Ritsuka or Soubi are really about. I’m also glad that both Ritsuka and Soubi have come to value their friends, despite their initial resistance.

I’m not completely sold on Kio’s odd backstory at this point—I rather liked his place in Soubi’s life as it was—but I’m willing to trust that Kouga will win me over to it.

Is it terrible that I harbor an unfounded hope that the name “Loveless” might appear on Soubi, instead of… well, anyone else? I know that, as a blank, that’s supposed to be impossible. But I can’t help wishing it could be true.

MICHELLE: I wish for it, too. And the fact that Ritsuka’s name has yet to appear on his body gives me at least some hope that something special is going to happen for this particular pair.

MJ: Of course, it will be a long time before any of our questions or hopes are answered, and after having the opportunity to essentially marathon this series on our first read, I suspect the wait for volume twelve will be difficult to bear. But I’m so very glad that Viz provided us the opportunity to give this series a real chance. It has won my heart completely.

MICHELLE: And mine!


100-COLUMNS2


All images © Yun Kouga. Original Japanese edition published by ICHIJINSHA, INC., Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with ICHIJINSHA, INC., Tokyo. Published by VIZ Media, LLC.


To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to melinda@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

Filed Under: OFF THE SHELF Tagged With: loveless, Manga Moveable Feast, MMF, Yun Kouga

Loveless Vols. 1 and 2

July 20, 2013 by Anna N

I’ve had the first omnibus of Loveless for a fair amount of time. I tried reading it once when I was a bit distracted and put it aside after a few pages. The Yun Kouga manga moveable feast was the perfect opportunity to give this series a second try, and I’m glad I did. Some manga seems a bit too edited or mass produced. Unless you’re seeking out manga from some of the more alternative magazines, most mainstream manga isn’t all that weird. The pinnacle of enjoyable manga weirdness in my mind is Est Em’s Working Kentauros. That manga about the slice of life tribulations about Centaur salarymen provides the reader with a peak into a manga creator’s subconscious and ability to be creative without boundaries. Loveless isn’t as unconventionally weird as Working Kentauros, but its combination of cat people, light bondage, magical battles, mysterious organizations, abusive parents, master/servant relationships, and occasional licking definitely add up to a manga that’s a bit more distinctive and quirky than one might expect.

The world of Loveless features cat-people who seem to lose their extra cat-ears when they lose their virginity. So all the teens in the book have cat-ears and tails, while the adults look like normal humans. Ritsuka Ayoyagi shows up for the first day at a new school, attractive, mysterious, and bedecked with bandages. He’s still dealing with the emotional fallout from the murder of his beloved older brother Seimei. Ritsuka’s home life is difficult. He sees a counselor. His personality evidently shifted a few years back, and his mother treats him like a changeling and scapegoat. Ritsuka’s personality is understandably abrasive, and he promptly rejects the girls in his new class except for the persistent but simple Yuiko who appoints herself his new friend.

Ritsuka’s life takes a sudden turn when the college student Soubi shows up at his school and announces that he’s a former friend of Seimei. Soubi pledges his love for Ritsuka and announces that he’ll protect him, and they’re suddenly thrown into a mystical battle with a pair of fighters. Soubi casts spells, while Ritsuka serves as a sacrifice absorbing the pain of the others’ attack. Kouga’s art is graceful and dynamic, making the fighting scenes look very stylish with plenty of dramatic yelling and flowing hair. She’s particularly good at making Ritsuka appealing and sympathetic, as his facial expressions shift from closed-off to beseeching and vulnerable.

I’m glad I read this omnibus, because I probably would have been a bit unsure about continuing the series after just the first volume, but in the space of two volumes Kouga builds an intriguing world and made me invested in seeing what would happen next for Soubi and Ritsuka. While Ritsuka is allegedly the the one in charge of giving Soubi directions, Soubi is snarky and sophisticated enough to make the reader question who is really in control. The mystery of Seimei’s death, Ritsuka’s shift in personality, and the presence of the organization Septimal Moon all add up to a lot of plot points to explore in future books. I enjoyed Loveless more than I thought I would after my first reading attempt, although I can see myself getting a bit frustrated if answers to some of the questions raised in the first two volumes aren’t explored thoroughly in the manga series as a whole.

This two-in one omnibus has plenty of extra author’s notes, side stories, and character illustrations, and I think it would appeal to fans who already bought the first part of the series when it was published by Tokyopop. At roughly $12 per volume now on amazon, the first three omnibus volumes are a solid value for readers.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: loveless, Manga Moveable Feast, Yun Kouga

3 Things Thursday: Kouga’s Women

July 18, 2013 by MJ 3 Comments

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any significant amount of time, you’ll know that I gravitate towards female writers—a tendency I wasn’t even fully aware of myself until the moment I realized that nearly all of the series that made my personal top ten list a couple of years ago had been written by women. Fortunately, this preference tends to offer me a fairly spectacular array of terrific female characters to meet and fall in love with, and I’ll be grateful to the Japanese comics industry forever for nurturing the talent of so many incredible female artists and publishing them in such volume.

Unfortunately, there is one female-dominated manga genre in which female characters are drastically under-utilized (and often vilified), and that would be boys’ love. And yes, I do realize that a love story in which both members of the primary romance are male will inevitably have male characters at its center, and that there isn’t often room in the romantic universe of two for anyone else of significance. Still, I admit I long to see relatable female characters as essential parts of any story, and I tend to hold BL authors who agree in the highest regard.

The male-centric sensibility often applies to shoujo manga as well—particularly those penned by creators who enjoy a strong undercurrent of BL subtext in their work, and this absolutely describes Yun Kouga. After all, even Gestalt‘s kick-ass heroine, Ouri, is actually a man temporarily endowed with a female form. Still, Kouga-sensei does not let me down! Female characters are always part of the fabric of her stories, even the most BL-rific of her worlds. For today’s 3 Things Thursday, I’ll look at three of these!

3 favorite female characters in the worlds of Yun Kouga:

1. Gestalt: Suzu – Ouri is a scene-stealing character from Gestalt‘s start to its finish, but I admit that my true heart belongs to dark elf Suzu, who begins as an antagonist, sent by the church to capture and return Father Olivier, and slowly but surely becomes part of our heroes’ party. Though she’s a character who is slow to open up, even to the reader, this scene in volume three in which she finds the courage to battle her sisters, by whom she’s been made to feel inadequate for pretty much her entire life, really begins to reveal who Suzu is. And that Suzu is awesome.

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2. Earthian: Elvira – Though Earthian‘s romantic drama revolves largely around its primary couple—partnered angels Chihaya and Kagetsuya—a major key to its larger plot is human/angel hybrid Elvira, daughter of the fallen angel Seraphim, who fell in love with a human woman. Her role is complicated in many ways, but it’s her persistence that brings to light the angels’ true plans for the Earthian. She’s smart, angry, manipulative when she needs to be, and I can’t get enough of her.

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3. Loveless: Yamato & Kouya – It may seem like I’m cheating by choosing these two characters together, but together is the way they belong, and they’re willing to risk life as they know it to ensure that it’s how they’ll remain. The story of this “Zero” team is one of my favorites in Loveless‘ early volumes, and I particularly love the way that Kouga-sensei references and then rejects the trope sometimes known as “Bury Your Gays” by setting these two up to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their love, and then turning that completely on its head. Also, they just kick ass.

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Do you have favorite female characters created by Yun Kouga? Share them here!


To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to melinda@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: earthian, gestalt, loveless, Manga Moveable Feast, MMF, Yun Kouga

Guest Contribution: A Letter to Yun Kouga

July 15, 2013 by Sarah Ash 4 Comments

A Letter to Yun Kouga (written with love, respect, and bafflement.)

Dear Kouga-sensei,

Way back in 2006, I reviewed the first volume of your new series Loveless:

Seimei, Aoyagi Ritsuka’s older brother, has been murdered. Ritsuka, who has been suffering from amnesia for two years, is left to live with his abusive and disturbed mother who keeps demanding that he return the ‘real’ Ritsuka to her. Loveless, by Yun Kouga, is a twisted tale of loss, awakening desire, and magic. In this alternate version of our own present, children are born with cat’s ears and tails which disappear when they lose their virginity. (Ritsuka’s teacher, Shinonome-sensei, still has her ears and tail, which causes some comment in the school corridors.)

On the first day at his new school, the aloof and prickly Ritsuka is adopted by Yuiko, a sweet but needy latch-key child, tall and well-developed for her age, who constantly refers to herself in the third person. Yuiko may seem a bit of an airhead but she is quick to notice that Ritsuka is skilled at presenting a cheerful front to the teachers. ‘Sorry. I just can’t stand when people worry about me,’ he tells her to which she says, ‘You’re weird. Like you live a double life.’

On leaving school, Ritsuka is met by a good-looking stranger who introduces himself as Soubi – and tells Ritsuka that he was Seimei’s friend. Ritsuka instantly demands that Soubi go with him to ‘make some memories’ and proceeds to take photographs. ‘We have to take pictures or you’ll forget all about me.’ When they are alone together in the park, Soubi begins to behave very strangely and having assured Ritsuka that he won’t do anything to him, kisses him. Now Ritsuka finds himself bound to Soubi in an intense and dangerous world of spell battles against Septimal Moon, the mysterious organisation that killed his brother.

Yun Kouga reveals this perverse and compelling tale through her beautiful and evocative artwork; two colour pages are a bonus, further demonstrating her range as an artist. If any readers feel uncomfortable with the underlying implications of this work, especially the developing relationship between the student Soubi and twelve-year-old Ritsuka, they should first read the fascinating epilogue by adaptor Christine Boylan, ‘Words as Spells in Loveless.’ The first volume leaves the reader desperately eager to unravel the mysteries surrounding Ritsuka; will he and Soubi track down Seimei’s killers? What happened to Ritsuka two years ago? Can Soubi be trusted? Excellent, distinctive artwork conveying a compelling piece of fantasy story-telling: Loveless is manga at its best. Volume 2 is promised in June…

Obviously, I was smitten. Love at first sight! And I continued to follow Loveless faithfully through the anime adaptation as well as the subsequent volumes of the manga. But something has gone wrong. Here we are, ten+ years on, and, Sensei, you’re still – sporadically – producing chapters of Loveless. In the meantime, you’ve done the character designs for two major anime: Gundam Mobile Suit 00 and Un Go. You’re also working on another ongoing shoujo series Blood High School which is now being turned into an anime. Great! I don’t blame you, Sensei, for working on several projects at once; it’s a tough old world out there and mangaka, like other authors, have to seize every opportunity that comes along.

So what’s so compelling about Loveless? The art, for starters. No other mangaka can draw eyes quite as eloquently as you, Kouga-sensei. Your gorgeous colour pages are an added bonus. Storywise, you deliver a dark and disturbing tale that – in those early volumes – resonates with passionate and forbidden feelings. Yet you also have a gift for delightfully quirky yet believable character interactions; for example, any time Natsuo and Youji (the Zero boys) show up, their outrageously unconventional and unpredictable approach to life always enlivens the action. Then there are the spell battles, the intriguing concept of ‘fated partners’ and the mysterious Fighters and their Sacrifices. You’re not afraid to deal with serious issues either: child abuse; obsession; identity. I could – maybe should – devote paragraphs to the shota conundrum: is Soubi’s relationship with Ritsuka inappropriate? Nothing is ever that straightforward in your work; we learn that Soubi was an abused child and, even though he may be an adult in years, Ritsuka is often depicted as the more mature of the two. And even though you tease us with suggestively Boys’ Love situations (and you obviously have fun doing it!) the complex web of feelings that binds Soubi and Ritsuka together can’t be so easily labelled and packaged; you’re too subtle and original a writer to resort to clichés.

But when it comes to the questions that you set up to tantalize us in the first volume, alas, very little has been answered. In fact, everything about the way your manga has (slowly) been evolving suggests a haphazard, scattershot approach. As more plot tendrils are introduced and go merrily shooting off in all kinds of random directions, the strong story at the heart begins to fade and die. Too many new teams of fighters ending in ‘less’ (all with emotional baggage and back-stories) resulting in ‘I could care…less.’

I find myself faced with a fundamental issue about the function of plot, or story, if you will, that crops up time and again in manga. Even though many eminent nineteenth century European novelists like Dickens and Dumas also produced their work as serials, in regular instalments, they usually brought their novels to a satisfying conclusion, and resolved the conflicts and mysteries they had set up to hook their readers in. But the mangaka working for a monthly magazine like Zero Sum can go on indefinitely – or so it seems – with no other impetus than to produce yet another chapter to advance the story, but not to resolve it. For a reader, though, this eventually becomes a turn-off; the everyday interactions between Yuiko, Yayoi, and Ritsuka that once seemed both cute and pertinent (such as the discussion on what they’ll do when they grow up in Chapter 5 of #6) now seem like pointless filler (‘A Guppy’s Observation Log’ in #11.)

Some of the basic questions that you really need to answer are:

  • Assuming that the Loveless name will appear somewhere soon on Ritsuka’s body (as it should according to the rules set out in the story) – who is the other Loveless fighter?
  • What was Ritsu’s connection with Soubi’s mother? (And if it isn’t relevant, why was it so strongly flagged?)
  • What’s going on with Kio and his (twin?) sister?
  • Why did Ritsuka lose his memory two years ago? What will happen when/if he gets it back?
  • Where is Aoyagi père? And the social services? (Ok, wipe that last question, even if it’s set in the present, it’s an alternative fantasy present…)
  • Who is Madam Chiyako? Is she connected with Septimal Moon?
  • What is Septimal Moon and why do they hold spell battles?
  • And… why does Ritsuka look younger in recent volumes than in the earlier ones? It’s as if, Kouga- sensei, you’ve unconsciously altered the way you portray him; surely he should be showing signs of growing older by now? Does time pass differently in this world of cats’ ears and tails? He also seems to be behaving in a much younger way; the sullen, strong, angry Ritsuka (skilled at concealing his vulnerability) that we met in the earlier volumes is now depicted as a much more passive, dependent child. I wondered if this might be because you wanted to show Ritsuka at a loss when he learns the truth about Seimei… Or is this the ‘old’ Ritsuka who ‘disappeared’ two years earlier? If so, it needs flagging more clearly, so that the reader can reflect on what might have precipitated this change.

I’d love to hope that you will answer these questions – and many more – when you bring Loveless to a conclusion. But I suspect that – as your attentions are diverted elsewhere again – the once urgent need to resolve Ritsuka’s tale has faded. The intensity of those early volumes has just…melted away. This may well be because the anime version created a resolution (of sorts) based on the material you had produced at that time and now you’ve simply moved on and lost interest in working with these characters. (sob)

Is the much-desired commissioning of a TV anime series the kiss of death? The pages of Zero Sum have spawned several anime other than Loveless: 07-Ghost, Karneval, Amatsuki, and now Makai Ouji; Devils and Realist. Smaller in scale than ongoing shounen sagas like Naruto, the makers of these TV series have to devise an ending even when the mangaka is nowhere near reaching a conclusion. I can’t help wondering whether – once the anime series is done – somehow the material doesn’t seem like the mangaka’s ‘own’ work anymore and she/he loses some of the creative impetus to finish it (because someone else has already ‘finished’ it for them.)

Before the handsome new Viz volumes came out (and they are very handsome) I had resigned myself to never seeing a conclusion to Loveless. I had decided to appreciate the plus points and try to forget the minuses. I was ready to admire again the accurate way that you depict children on the verge of adolescence (and their teachers!) capturing the cruelty and the intensity of their interactions. Your damaged adults are just as fascinating: Soubi grimly painting the butterflies he says he hates so much because they’re stupid enough to let themselves be caught and killed. Shinonome-sensei breaking down in tears in class when one of her class answers back, unwittingly using the same words Soubi has used to reject her.

My frustration as a reader stems, I guess, from the fact that there was – is – such potential in Loveless that I can’t bear to see it being frittered away. It could have been so good. But by Volumes 10 and 11, the vital spark seems to have faded and that compelling intensity seems to have been significantly diluted. Such a shame…because Loveless is special to me. Different. Perhaps my suspicions are unfounded. Perhaps you will answer all those questions of mine (and many more.) You would make your readers all over the world so very happy!

Sarah (AnimeUKNews reviewer) www.animeuknews.net


To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to melinda@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS Tagged With: loveless, Manga Moveable Feast, MMF, Yun Kouga

MMF: Introduction to Yun Kouga

July 14, 2013 by MJ 6 Comments

gestalt-pervert23“I wonder, does that make me a pervert?”

When one of Gestalt‘s dual protagonists, Ouri, asks this question in volume four, it’s impossible not to wonder if the series’ author is really talking about herself. And as a reader, it’s pretty difficult not to apply this to oneself as well, because if there is one thing Yun Kouga excels at, it is creating characters whom we will find surprisingly relatable and endlessly fascinating, even as we’re exploring the darkest corners of their hearts and minds.

And it’s not only her characters’ minds that Yun Kouga seems intent on exploring. Her awareness of and ability to express her characters’ darkest desires, simply and without apology, also serves as an exceptionally unflattering mirror for the reader. Her characters are so real and so human in both their complexity and their selfishness, it’s impossible to ignore the reality staring us in the face.

Those deep, dark thoughts you were sure nobody else shared? Those self-destructive urges you’ve (mostly) controlled all these years? That private fantasy you keep quietly to yourself? That thing you always do when you need to hide your real feelings? Yun Kouga’s got your number. And she’s got no mercy.

“I keep thinking of all these different things I want to do with you. Like this… and that… But that’s okay, right? As long as I’m just thinking about it, it’s not wrong. I haven’t done anything yet.”

– Hisayoshi Tajima, Crown of Love

While undeniably attractive, super-confident teen stalker Hisayoshi is carrying on this conversation with himself, we’re thinking, “God, he’s creepy!” and then, “Well… I guess it’s not wrong just to think about things…” and finally, “I had almost that exact thought that time when… oh, fuck.”

And there she leaves us. Yun Kouga just leaves us like that, permanently, irretrievably stuck with the cognitive dissonance and muddy morality that simply is grown-up human life—no excuses, no justifications. It’s not pretty, but it’s effective, and I find myself thinking about a Yun Kouga manga (and the emotional chaos it brings along with it) long after I’ve finished reading.

fear-sm2But if she leaves us unable to deny our darker impulses, she at least doesn’t leave us alone. There’s a sense, always, that Kouga loves her characters fully and without conditions, even when they’re at their worst. We’re all ugly and beautiful in Yun Kouga’s world, and there’s nothing to do but to try to navigate the mess as best we can.

“Mess” is a key word here, and though Kouga-sensei’s artwork is a consistent highlight—genuinely gorgeous and a real treat to behold—one might say that her greatest talent is in making a mess. She writes messy characters in messy relationships, and if these are often accompanied by some messy plotting as well, perhaps that’s an unavoidable side-effect.

Not that the messiness is wholly unintentional, or even close.

“I forgive you, Seimei!” and “I’m mad at you, Seimei!” young Ritsuka shouts in the same panel in volume 8 of Loveless.

We may not quite be with him (at least on the first bit), but we surely understand, because we’ve been there and back, over and over again, about someone (everyone?), most likely in the same chapter, and definitely in the same story.

Kouga’s messiness extends not only to her characters and their relationships, but also to the way we feel about them as they draw us in. We love them, we hate them, we’re angry, we’re confused, we identify with them when we least want to, and all we can really count on is that it’ll all get significantly messier before the day is done.

loveless-normal-crop3 Fortunately, “messier” is just the way I like it.

There’s a passion to Kouga’s messiness and to her willingness to jump head first into it all that reminds me less of the polished world of publishing and more of the best parts of fandom, where rabidly pulling apart characters and their motivations is largely the point. And though any speculation on my part about the influence of Kouga’s doujinshi roots would be simply that, it should be understood that, in my view, it’s a compliment that it even came to mind.

Unlike her characters, Kouga’s plotting generally begins with grand disorder and tidies itself up over time, especially in her earlier series, and wading through the initial flurry of chaos is, in my experience, always worthwhile.

Despite a rather hefty catalogue, ranging from RPG-style shounen fantasy, to josei romance, to boys’ love, and even to parts of the Gundam franchise, only four of Kouga’s series (and a single chapter in Dark Horse’s Neon Genesis Evangelion: Comic Tribute) have been published in English to date.

These series include Earthian (BLU/Digital Manga Publishing), Gestalt (Viz Media), Crown of Love (Viz Media), and Loveless (Viz Media).

Here’s a brief introduction to each:

earthiancover Earthian
4 volumes, complete (BLU/Digital Manga Publishing)


From the pages of Shinshokan’s idiosyncratic shoujo magazine Wings, and originally translated in print for Tokyopop’s BL imprint, BLU, this tale of angels in crisis is the earliest of Yun Kouga’s works currently available in English. And available it is, despite BLU’s demise, thanks to digital re-licensing by Digital Manga Publishing, though only three volumes are available for sale at this time. It is also the only translated series of hers that I haven’t read.

I’ll be introducing myself to the series this week, and I’m counting on Yun Kouga’s special talents to win me over, despite the fact that David Welsh once credited it with awakening him to the fact that he “never needed to consume another piece of romantic fiction featuring an angel.” For a more favorable opinion, try Riyka’s Reviews.

Previews of the first three (DRM-free) volumes are available at eManga.

(click image to enlarge – images read right-to-left)

Earthian, Vol. 3 © Yun Kouga


Earthian, Vol. 3 © Yun Kouga




gestaltGestalt
8 volumes, complete (Viz Media)


Originally serialized in the pages of Square Enix’s female-friendly shounen magazine GFantasy and later distributed under Ichijinsha’s Zero Sum imprint, this quirky fantasy follows the adventures of roving priest Olivier and mysterious slave Ouri, as they quest to Gestalt, a remote island supposedly cursed by the gods.

From Gestalt, Vol. 2:
“Another charming element is the series’ complete and utter honesty about the fact that it is playing out an RPG. The straightforward announcement of each character’s race, skills, and magical level continues, and in this volume they even visit a local shop to purchase magically-enhanced weaponry. It really seems like this kind of structure should be tedious but it’s hard to be irritated when the author is so up-front about it, and with a story so light and breezy, how can one complain? Humor is key in this series and there is never a moment in which things are allowed to become serious enough to obscure that.”

(click image to enlarge – images read right-to-left)

Gestalt, Vol. 1 © Yun Kouga


Gestalt, Vol. 1 © Yun Kouga

Other articles at Manga Bookshelf:
Gestalt, Vol. 1
Fanservice Friday: A Girl’s (G)Fantasy, including Gestalt

crownoflove Crown of Love
4 volumes, complete (Viz Media)


This josei series from Shueisha’s Comic Crimson (marketed as shoujo here in North America) follows the story of Hisayoshi, a rising teen idol who entered show business in order to become closer to Rima, a struggling idol he falls in love with at first sight. As he works to manipulate his circumstances and fights his jealousy over Rima’s crush on her (married) former manager, Rima fights hers over Hisayoshi’s seemingly effortless rise to stardom.

From Crown of Love, Vol. 2:
“This series’ hero, Hisayoshi, continues to be both intensely creepy and surprisingly relatable. It’s a combination guaranteed to make most readers uncomfortable, but it’s also one of the series’ greatest strengths. Watching Hisayoshi perilously straddle the line between crushing teenager and bona fide stalker quickly becomes a rather terrifying series of ‘There, but for the grace of God,’ moments for anyone who has experienced unrequited love (in other words, roughly everyone). His inner thoughts echo the kind of late-night self-confessions that rarely see the light of day, tucked firmly away in those dark, hidden corners where shame and denial conveniently coexist.”

(click image to enlarge – images read right-to-left)

Crown of Love, Vol. 1 © 1998 Yun Kouga


Crown of Love, Vol. 1 © 1998 Yun Kouga

Other articles at Manga Bookshelf:
Off the Shelf: Too Many Books, featuring Crown of Love, Vol. 4
Off the Shelf: Six for Six!, featuring Crown of Love, Vol. 3
Crown of Love, Vol. 1


loveless5-6Loveless
11 volumes, ongoing (Viz Media)


From the pages of Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum, this supernatural fantasy revolves around 12-year-old Ritsuka, whose brother’s death sweeps him into a world of magical fighting teams who use the power of words to disable, injure, or even kill their opponents. Now bound to 21-year-old “fighter” Soubi, Ritsuka is determined to uncover the truth about his brother’s death.

From Fanservice Friday: Lovesick over Loveless:
“The truth is, Yun Kouga’s work (and Loveless in particular) hits so many of my personal storytelling kinks in so many instances, it would be prohibitively time-consuming to catalogue them all. But perhaps more significantly, she manages to address several of my usual turn-offs (and at least one known deal-breaker) in a way that makes them somehow palatable, even to me. As a result, my reaction to Loveless has begun to resemble nothing more than a kind of romantic longing, characterized by ever-wandering thoughts and a persistent love-struck haze. in short, I’m lovesick over Loveless. ”

(click image to enlarge – images read right-to-left)

Loveless, Vol. 8 © 2008 Yun Kouga


Loveless, Vol. 8 © 2008 Yun Kouga

Other articles at Manga Bookshelf:
My Week in Manga: Episode 6, featuring Loveless, Vols. 3-4
Off the Shelf: Off the Shelf: Loveless, Puzzles, Infernal Devices, featuring Loveless, Vols. 1-2


Obviously I’m a fan of Kouga’s work, and I’ll continue to talk about why as the week continues, but whether you’re a fan, an anti-fan, or somewhere in-between, all discussion is welcome at the Manga Moveable Feast!

To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to melinda@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

Let the Feast begin!


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. Juné, 801 Media, DokiDoki and Digital Manga Guild are all imprints produced by Digital Manga Publishing or their parent company, Digital Manga, Inc.

Filed Under: FEATURES & REVIEWS Tagged With: crown of love, earthian, gestalt, loveless, Manga Moveable Feast, MMF, Yun Kouga

Pick of the Week: Loveless & More

June 10, 2013 by MJ, Michelle Smith, Anna N and Sean Gaffney 2 Comments

potw6-10MJ: It’s a bit of an odd week in the shipping department, and though I’m certainly tempted by volume four of SuBLime’s adorable His Favorite, and intrigued by Kodansha debut series No. 6, I going to do the predictable thing by choosing the latest volume of my beloved Loveless. Though I won’t be able to dig into my copy until next month, when Viz’s omnibus releases finally catch up with their single volumes, I’ll be treasuring it all the while. For an emotionally complicated, morally challenging, and thoroughly engaging read, you can’t do better than Loveless.

MICHELLE: While I’m also anticipating being able to get caught up on Loveless, I’ll award my pick this week to Kano Miyamoto’s Sleeping Moon. Some of her works were previously published by Deux Press (remember them?), and I found Lovers and Souls in particular to be touching and memorable. And I also like it when BL attempts to have a genuine plot, so this supernatural historical mystery seems to be right up my street.

ANNA: There’s not much on the print manga front that truly excites me. I’m going to pick Alice 19th #1, since it is newly released on Viz’ digital platform. This is one of my favorite non-Fushigi Yuugi Watase series, and as you might expect the art is gorgeous.

SEAN: Hrm. Yeah, it’s one of those weeks. I guess I’ll pick Atomcat. It’s one of Tezuka’s sillier ideas (as well as a horrible pun, something I’m sure he loved), but it sounds like a lighter, fluffier Tezuka title, which makes for a wonderful change of pace from his more serious stories we’ve seen Lately. Heck, even Unico was a bummer most of the time. Let’s hope Atomcat cheers me right up.

What looks good to you this week?

Filed Under: PICK OF THE WEEK Tagged With: alice the 19th, atomcat, loveless, sleeping moon

Fanservice Friday: Lovesick over Loveless

May 3, 2013 by MJ 17 Comments

loveless1-2By now I’m sure that every regular Manga Bookshelf reader is aware that I’ve fallen for Loveless, Yun Kouga’s supernatural fantasy series currently running in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum—a magazine known for action-heavy and often BL-tinged titles for female readers, like 07-Ghost, Saiyuki Reload, and the upcoming reboot of Wild Adapter. It’s notable that both Naked Ape’s Switch and Yun Kouga’s Gestalt moved to Comic Zero Sum after their original runs in Square Enix’s GFantasy, a shounen magazine known for its generous female-aimed fanservice.

Given my well-established fondness for both girl-friendly action series and Yun Kouga, it’s no surprise that I fell for Loveless (if a bit late). Even so, as I make my way through Viz’s new omnibus editions, I can’t help but be startled by the intensity of my own feelings. I threw myself into the latest omnibus just as soon as I’d acquired it—reading not at my usual breakneck speed, but at a deliberate, luxurious pace intended to truly savor each page. I even stopped from time-to-time to scan in pages that felt particularly meaningful, as if to assemble some sort of visual database of my own emotional responses.

loveless3-4The truth is, Yun Kouga’s work (and Loveless in particular) hits so many of my personal storytelling kinks in so many instances, it would be prohibitively time-consuming to catalogue them all. But perhaps more significantly, she manages to address several of my usual turn-offs (and at least one known deal-breaker) in a way that makes them somehow palatable, even to me. As a result, my reaction to Loveless has begun to resemble nothing more than a kind of romantic longing, characterized by ever-wandering thoughts and a persistent love-struck haze. in short, I’m lovesick over Loveless.

Of course, when you’re lovesick over something, the most satisfying thing in the world is to talk, talk, talk about it—generally up to (or even well past) the point at which all your friends wish to throttle you. Fortunately, it’s my job in this column to obsess over what I like, so let’s dig right in!

Yun Kouga’s greatest strength as a storyteller, in my opinion, is her ability to delve deep into her characters’ weakest, messiest personality traits and present them honestly and without apology. As I discussed at length in episode six of My Week in Manga, it’s clear that she not only loves her characters despite their flaws, but often because of them, and since I also tend to find people’s flaws to be as beautiful or even more beautiful than their strengths (both in fiction and in real life), this is an approach that works especially well for me.

loveless5-6Two characters who fit into this discussion particularly well are the series’ main leads—Ritsuka, a 12-year old boy who is thrust into a strange, supernatural underworld after the death of his older brother, Seimei, and art college student Soubi, whom Seimei bequeathed to Ritsuka at the time of his death. In this underground world, Soubi is a “fighter” in a two-person team that fights with the power of words, while Ritsuka (like his older brother before him) is a “sacrifice.” The sacrifice takes all the damage for the team, but this is not a passive role by any means, as the sacrifice directs the entire fight by giving orders to the fighter. Though each fighting team we’ve seen in the series so far handles that relationship a bit differently, it’s generally understood that the sacrifice is in charge.

Ritsuka and Soubi have a particularly complicated relationship, partly because Soubi was Seimei’s fighter first and is still bound to his orders from the past (the full nature of these we do not yet know) and partly because, though Soubi is trained to accept (and actually require) total domination by his sacrifice, Ritsuka is opposed to violence in general, leaving Soubi with a fairly serious conflict to contend with when confronted by dangerous enemies, especially early on. There is also the matter of their age difference, but let’s leave that discussion for a bit later.

Previously in this column, I’ve discussed two particular storytelling/characterization kinks of mine, one of which I referred to as “intimacy porn” (which is of course about emotional intimacy, and not porn at all), and the other as “the human touch”, referring to non-sexual or casual touches that reveal the intimacy in people’s relationships. Yun Kouga manages to ping both of these simultaneously in this scene between Ritsuka and Soubi, in which Soubi confronts Ritsuka regarding the fact of Seimei’s death, which has been challenged by Seimsei’s former colleagues—a group called “Septimal Moon.” Note Soubi’s body language—the way he desperately grasps Ritsuka’s arms—and the way Ritsuka lets him despite his verbal protests, betraying their closeness and their reliance on one another even under stress.

(read right-to-left)

loveless
lovelessnew
lovelessnew2

Ritsuka’s inner monologue here is a great example of another of Kouga-sensei’s strong points—her willingness to reveal her characters’ weaknesses and doubts in nearly any situation. It’s not only these things that she focuses on, though. I’m also a big fan of her characters’ discussions regarding the nature of love (or “like” in some instances). Case in point: this scene between fighter Mei and sacrifice Mimuro.

loveless7

Their relationship is complicated in its own way, as Mei clearly has a crush on much older Mimuro, and even tries to appear more boyish because she believes that he is gay. Also, I am surprised to note that this is now the second manga series I’ve read involving a defensive attack with rubber duckies. Who knew?

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

loveless10
loveless11

Do I need to point out how adorable that is? I hope not. But it’s not even the most significant aspect of this scene for me. I’m struck more strongly by Soubi’s attack and the rare glimpse of his neck, revealing Seimei’s brand carved into it. Have I mentioned that Seimei’s “true name” was “Beloved” while Ritsuka’s is “Loveless”? I think little more needs to be said about how much it sucks to be Ritsuka, though I will actually say more, since it relates to one of the major aspects of the story that normally would be a real obstacle for me.

One of the story’s plot points that has yet to be resolved (at least where I am in the series—please don’t spoil me!) is that Ritsuka has suffered memory loss so great that he essentially became a completely different person at the age of ten, with no memory of the boy he’d been before that. While there are many questions one could ask regarding how this happened (my money’s on Seimei, but we’ll get to that in a moment), the most dire consequence for Ritsuka is that his mother has been unable to get over what she perceives as the “loss” of her son. While she, on some level, knows that Ritsuka is still her child, she has suffered some kind of mental break that has left her convinced that he’s also a stranger. She often abuses Ritsuka when he betrays himself as not “her Ritsuka” and because of this, he’s always injured (something that’s really finally noticed and acted upon by an actual adult with authority in this volume).

Whether deliberately or not, physical abuse of all kinds is often romanticized in manga—especially BL manga and other genres for girls—and for that reason, I’m generally leery of it as a plot point. Yun Kouga, however, manages to portray this abuse and even give us a taste of the mother’s own internal conflict over it, without romanticizing Ritsuka’s suffering or sympathizing with his abuser.

loveless8

We are witness to his mother’s turmoil and her declining mental condition, but we’re not asked to excuse her or to identify with her own suffering. Instead, the focus is on Ritsuka’s desperate refusal to blame her and his determination to maintain her love, through the eyes of Soubi, who finds it all pretty horrifying.

loveless9

Of course, Soubi has his own issues, and Kouga doesn’t let him off the hook for them, even here, betraying his secret desire to see Ritsuka cry in the midst of it all.

So, about Seimei… it’s pretty impossible to talk about him without revealing the fact that, in this volume, we find out for sure that he is, indeed, still alive. This discovery has a number of consequences (particularly for Soubi, and surely for Ritsuka, though he hasn’t yet been told). Meanwhile, we’re finding out a lot about the kind of person he really is, and especially how different he appears to be, contrasted with Ritsuka’s memories of him. I can’t help but wonder if Ritsuka’s memory loss has something to do with concealing Seimei’s true personality, but in any case, Ritsuka’s impressions of Seimei as a devoted, affectionate older brother don’t jive at all with anyone else’s—nor with ours as we see him in this volume do things like sending enemies after Ritsuka and trying to convince Ritsuka’s mother to kill him.

Here’s a bit of insight on Seimei from Seimei himself:

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

loveless12
loveless13

Again, Yun Kouga gets right to the heart of the matter, revealing the truth of both his weakness and his ruthlessness in one short bit of dialogue.

Despite the cruelty displayed by his efforts to get his own mother to try to murder his brother and his other behavior in general (aside from his apparent brotherly relationship with Ritsuka back before he staged his death), the most obvious victim of his machinations so far is Soubi, who is devastated to learn that, not only has Seimei been living on without him, but that he’s even gotten himself a new fighter, which really cuts Soubi to the core. Before the scene in which Soubi found out that Seimei was still alive, it seemed like he might have known something about that himself, and that he was lying to Ritsuka about it. But Soubi’s raw reaction to this discovery makes clear that it was a surprise to him, too, and there is really nothing that could have hurt him more.

Though I suspect that there are still many truths—both about Soubi’s relationship with Seimei and Soubi’s past in general that have yet to be revealed (at least in the volumes I’ve read), at this moment, it’s impossible not to feel for Soubi, whose apparently fragile ego is absolutely shattered in this volume.

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

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This new truth affects Soubi so strongly that he goes to beg Ritsuka (who has been bound up and kept prisoner in his home by his increasingly unstable mother) to run away with him. It’s a pathetic and touching scene. What strikes me most strongly about it is the weight of Ritsuka’s realization that usually-flippant Soubi is actually being serious and how hard he struggles to formulate an appropriate response.

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

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And here we arrive at the ‘shippy fanservice that would normally be a deal-breaker for me. Minors in romantic/sexual relationships with adults is a pretty common trope in manga, and particularly in BL manga (which this is not, though I was surprised recently to find it shelved as such when I bought it at Boston’s awesome, manga-friendly comic shop, Comicopia) from which Kouga borrows many of the series’ tropes. Previously, there have been maybe two or three examples of manga that haven’t seriously skeeved me out with this kind of content (notably Alice/Rin in Please Save My Earth and Amu/Ikuto in Shugo Chara!—though in both cases the older characters are high school students and the relationships are very chaste), and I was pretty concerned going into Loveless, given what I’d heard. And though Ritsuka’s relationship with Soubi is currently relatively chaste as well (the most we’ve seen is some kissing), it’s made very, very clear that Soubi’s idea of being “dominated” by his sacrifice/master extends to physical domination as well.

What’s astonishing to me is the way Kouga is able to make this palatable by giving all the power in the relationship to the minor, Ritsuka. Thanks to the universe Kouga has set up here and the way she’s written the fighting teams—Soubi’s character in particular—the adult (Soubi) is actually incapable of taking any action towards Ritsuka that Ritsuka does not explicitly command, which puts all the power in Ritsuka’s hands. Soubi simply can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to. I was surprised how dramatically this affected my view of their relationship, but then I thought about the reasons why I would consider that kind of relationship to be objectionable in the first place, and it has entirely to do with the sense that an adult in that situation is abusing his/her power over the minor, which is obviously reprehensible.

Kouga has managed to remove that issue from the picture, leaving us with something that is still unsettling but oddly relatable. Soubi’s anguish over Ritsuka’s denying him the total domination he seeks is strangely sympathetic, and not so far removed from unrequited feelings of all kinds—something we’ve all experienced at some point or another. (It seems significant that the only requited love in this series so far has been between the two Zero girls, Kouya and Yamato, who defy their leader and choose to “die” as Zeroes and be reborn in order to stay together, but I am not sure yet exactly how.)

Still, she doesn’t let us off the hook. We find ourselves sympathizing with and caring deeply for both Ritsuka and Soubi, and even rooting for them somehow, on some level, but it’s decidedly… uncomfortable. And Kouga just leaves us like that.

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

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Incidentally, I think it’s notable, too, that Seimei apparently still has his cat ears and tail (which characters in this universe lose along with their virginity), suggesting that he never offered Soubi total domination when he was Soubi’s master, either. So that’s an interesting character note.

Going back to Soubi’s “Beloved” brand for a moment, another thing that struck me particularly in this volume was how completely the fighters submit to their sacrifices’ identities. The way Soubi announces their team when entering a fight, “We are Loveless,” hit me hard in this volume, but not exactly in a bad way. While I admit to being horrified by Beloved’s name etched into Soubi’s neck, there’s also some part of me that is fascinated by and drawn to the idea of a two-person unit so completely bonded that they become a single identity. I’ll admit, also, to being pretty uncomfortable with my own fascination, and again, Kouga just leaves me like that. There are no warm fuzzies to soften the blow.

Later, when Ritsuka wants to ask Soubi to take him to Septimal Moon, Soubi tells him, “Then don’t ask. Order me. Don’t treat me like a human being. I want to be treated like an object.” Ritsuka gives him the order, but I can’t help worrying about where this ultimately goes. So far, Ritsuka has resisted treating Soubi the way he wants to be treated, but he’s a kid with a strong will. How long before that power goes to his head? How long before he becomes like Seimei? Whatever the answers to these questions turn out to be, I bet they’ll be messy—and that’s the way I like ’em.

More than anything, though, I’m just blown away by how compelling Kouga-sensei’s characters are, and how completely they’ve engaged me. I read this volume nearly a week ago, and I’m still thinking about them now. Kouga’s characters lie to each other (and sometimes, themselves), they tell the truth, or often something in between. But whatever they do, they do it with a core of emotional truth that is simply stunning to behold. That’s Yun Kouga—and that’s Loveless.


All images © 2005-2006 Yun Kouga · Original Japanese edition published by ICHIJINSHA, INC., Tokyo. · English translation rights arranged with ICHIJINSHA, INC.

Filed Under: Fanservice Friday, FEATURES & REVIEWS Tagged With: loveless, Yun Kouga

Pick of the Week: Excel Saga & some other stuff

April 8, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 5 Comments

potw-4-8-13SEAN: (flat stare)

MJ: There’s quite a bit on the menu for this week, but honestly not too much for me, which makes it incredibly easy to go for an older series that’s one of my new favorites. That, of course, would be Yun Kouga’s cat-ear-sporting, battle-filled, BL-tinged fantasy Loveless, currently running in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum and recently licensed-rescued by Viz. I’m a Kouga junkie of a sort, and Loveless delivers on everything I crave most from her series—idiosyncratic characters, complicated morality, and messy, messy relationships. My reaction to the release of a new omnibus volume is pretty much, “Gimme.”

MICHELLE: Yeah, not much for me on this list, either. Still, Punch Up! really has grown on me of late, so there’s no way I’d miss its fourth and final volume!

ANNA: Not a lot for me on this list. I’m going to go with Crimson Empire 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble though, just because I decided not to resist the siren song of yet another Quinrose manga and I ordered it! We’ll see if I regret this pick once I actually read it.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Filed Under: PICK OF THE WEEK Tagged With: crimson empire, excel saga, loveless, punch up!

3 Things Thursday: Late to the Party

March 28, 2013 by MJ 7 Comments

Having become a manga fan quite a while after its arrival to North America, I often find myself in the position of being “late to the party.” Which is to say, I’m often discovering newly beloved series years after everyone else. Though I’ve occasionally acquired such series slowly and painstakingly (and often expensively) long after they’ve gone out of print, new trends in omnibus and digital re-releases have recently made such discoveries much easier and more accessible than ever before. With that in mind, here are a few series I’ve belatedly discovered over the past few months!


3 older series to which I’m (fashionably?) late:

loveless1-21. Loveless | By Yun Kouga | Viz Media – This series should not have been a surprise for me in the slightest, given my well-established fondness for Yun Kouga’s work, notably Crown of Love and Gestalt. Yet somehow, it was. After rescuing its license from Tokyopop’s now-defunct North American publishing division, Viz has not only continued where Tokyopop left off (volume 9), but has also begun re-releasing Loveless from the beginning in 2-in-1 omnibus format, making it possible for latecomers like me to catch up with relative haste. Viz’s third omnibus volume (containing volumes 5-6) comes out in just a couple of weeks, leaving only one more to collect before I can finally dig into their new releases, and that day can’t come too soon. Yun Kouga’s genius for wrapping up complex characterization in the most decadent genre tropes may leave her generally underrated—but certainly not by me. For my thoughts on Viz’s first two omnibus editions, check out Off the Shelf and My Week in Manga.

fromfaraway12. From Far Away | By Kyoko Hikawa | Viz Media – I’ve talked about this series a lot lately, but it’s been just that difficult to get out of my mind. As part of Viz’s new wealth of digitally re-released shoujo epics, the reappearance of From Far Away is what I’ve long dreamed of, even just in concept. And in practice, it’s even better. Its high fantasy setting, fast-paced adventure, and brave, determined heroine add up to pretty much my ideal shoujo fantasy, trumped by Yumi Tamura’s Basara perhaps only due to length. From my review of the first volume: “Another factor in From Far Away‘s success as fantasy-adventure is its overall complexity and sense of intrigue … everyone is a potential enemy, and it’s not clear at all whom we should be rooting for—including Noriko herself!” I’ll take fourteen volumes of that any day. Thanks, Viz, for giving this series a second chance!

kurosagi13. The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service | By Eiji Ōtsuka and Housui Yamazaki | Dark Horse Comics – This horror manga about five Buddhist college graduates who use their (sometimes supernatural) abilities to provide paid services to the dead had always sounded intriguing, and with other members of the Battle Robot (along with half the manga blogosphere) frequently singing its praises, you’d think I’d have hopped on board without question. But I’ll admit that series’ high (still rising) volume count and the sketchy availability of its early volumes kept me at arm’s length. Fortunately, its availability on Dark Horse’s iPad app has given me the opportunity not only to obtain the first few volumes without having to rely on Amazon third-party sellers, but also to feel comfortable buying and reading at my own pace, for a reasonable price ($5.99 a pop) on the device I most prefer. I’ve just finally read this series’ first volume, and I’ve become a fast fan.


Readers, what manga parties have you been late to?

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: from far away, kurosagi corpse delivery service, loveless

My Week in Manga, Episode 6

January 20, 2013 by MJ 9 Comments

After a week off, MJcontinues this her video feature with a look at what she’s reading this week, including a discussion of Yun Kouga’s Loveless.

This week’s manga:

Dawn of the Arcana, Vol. 6 (VIZ Media)
The Heart of Thomas (Fantagraphics)
Loveless, Vol. 2 2-in-1 (VIZ Media)
The Flowers of Evil, Vol. 4 (Vertical, Inc.)
Claymore, Vol. 21 (VIZ Media)

Links:

BL Bookrack: The Heart of Thomas

Off the Shelf: Loveless, Puzzles, Infernal Devices

Edited by MJ
Music (“Stickybee,” “20/20,” “Stars Collide,” & “Swansong”) by Josh Woodward

Filed Under: My Week in Manga Tagged With: loveless

Pick of the Week: Girl Friends, Loveless, 07-Ghost

January 7, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 1 Comment

girlfriends_vol2_fullSEAN: There’s nothing that really inspires me on this week’s Midtown list, so I’ll go with something that my own comic shop is getting but Midtown isn’t. The second and final omnibus of Girl Friends completes the collection, and I am pleased that we got a print release of it from Seven Seas even with JManga releasing it digitally earlier in 2012. This is a different and more fluid translation, but mostly I enjoy just having this coming-of-age yuri story in my hands as a book. There aren’t many yuri stores that make it over here, so I cherish each one. And they’re a cute couple, too!

ANNA: I will pick the second volume of 07-Ghost. I enjoyed the first volume more than I expected to, and I’m hoping that the interesting world building and mystical action continues to entertain in the second volume.07-ghost2

MJ: There are a couple of things I’d like to pick up this week, enough that it’s difficult to choose, but in the end I’ll give my vote to the second omnibus of Loveless. From my review of omnibus volume one: “There’s so much going on … that it comes close to being a train wreck, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that there is no train wreck I love more than a Yun Kouga train wreck. And this, I think, really comes down to characterization. Like a couple of my other Kouga favorites, Crown of Love and (the very different) Gestalt, the strength of the story is that everyone is really interesting. Even when she’s adhering to standard tropes (in this case, BL and shoujo tropes), Kouga doesn’t write standard characters. Everyone in Loveless is kind of a weirdo, in the same way as most actual people are weirdos. They have layers of sometimes-contradictory issues, little idiosyncrasies, both attractive and unattractive flaws—and these are all a real part of the story.” More, please.

loveless3-4MICHELLE: I’m also going to cast my vote for Loveless. I’d heard a little about it when TOKYOPOP was releasing it, but mostly it was all the potentially squicky bits. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy it as much as I did, and that’s entirely due to the endearing characters. In the Off the Shelf column MJlinked to, I compared its strong characterization and somewhat hazy plotting to Pandora Hearts, and I continue to stand by that comparison. It’s not just any manga that can make me stop worrying about things making sense, but these two series manage it!

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Filed Under: PICK OF THE WEEK Tagged With: 07 Ghost, girl friends, loveless

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