Mostly I'm just glad that this year brought us yet another beautiful and subtly queer manga from Asumiko Nakamura.
TALES OF THE KINGDOM (Okoku Monogatari), by Asumiko Nakamura. First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2022.
PLOT:
This collection features two stories. The first is of two twins, Adalte and Adolte: one a prince, the other a prisoner. The two finally meet as young men, escape and find a degree of modest happiness until insecurity forces them apart. The second is of Shao, a servant from a far-away land. He is a man held captive not just by his terms of service but by his undying love for his royal master.
STORY:
While they may be presented as part of one collection, the two tales that makes up Tales of the Kingdom couldn't be more different in tone. "Adolte and Adalte" is almost like a fairy tale (and not just because it starts off as a bit of a riff on 'The Prince and the Pauper'). It's not without its subtleties, but the tone is more distant and mythic. It doesn't linger on the specifics, focusing more on the relationship between the titular twins as it rises and falls.
In comparison, "The King and His Aide" is more personal because we experience the story through Shao's eyes and mind. We see his strange relationship with the king grow and evolve, even if both social rank and the king's strange, morbid personality always puts them both at a distance. It's hard to get a pin on what the king himself is thinking - he seems obsessed with Shao's Chinese Mongolian Han background in a way that feels dangerous close to orientalism and keeps daring him to kill him at regular opportunities. That's even before we get a flashback to Shao's past and get an idea of how he ended up in this nondescript Middle Eastern kingdom.
If it seems like I'm being vague here, it's because Nakamura herself leaves a lot of things to implication (and because we haven't seen the end of Shao's story). This is definitely the sort of manga that coasts more on vibes than narrative. Still, there's enough that's present here to capture my imagination and attention.
ART:
I've praised Nakamura's particular brand of sinuous, stylized art before and this review will be no exception to that. If anything, this might be the finest showcase of her art yet. The linework is delicate as spider silk and yet there's a graceful, flowing quality to it that really brings it to life. She's playing a lot more with shapes and silhouettes here, using them not just to convey action or emotion but create some legitimately artful panels and pages. The first half of "Adolte and Adalte" is presented in color as well, and when contrasted with the largely blank white backgrounds I was reminded at times of Kuni Fukai's work on Belladonna of Sadness.
PRESENTATION:
Yen Press went all out with this one, between the nice blue hardback cover, the sleek, elegant book jacket, the aforementioned color art, and the fine quality paper. It's nice to see other artists get the Kaoru Mori treatment.
RATING:
This series is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 4 volumes available.
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