Review: A FOREIGN LOVE AFFAIR

It's time once more for me to dive into my boxes of BL and find a fresh new handful to talk about this Pride month.  We'll start off simple with an early work from a familiar name.

A FOREIGN LOVE AFFAIR (Iroku Iroku Romantan), by Ayano Yamane.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

On a luxury cruise in the Mediterranean, the young yakuza heir Ranmaru Ohmi is supposed to be enjoying an Italian honeymoon with the daughter of a rival family.  Instead he's picking fights with everyone on the ship, from his new wife to random passengers.  It's up to cruise captain (and secret Japanophile) Alberto Valentiano to keep the peace.  He's instantly smitten with both Ranmaru's looks and insistence on wearing kimonos, and he swiftly seduces Ranmaru.  The two are reunited when Ranmaru goes missing, but that's just the beginning of their truly tumultuous love affair.

Merry Month of Shojo Manga Review #10: UNICO

Let's look at a slightly unconventional bit of old-school shojo, one that's better known for its animated adaptations than the original source.

UNICO, by Osamu Tezuka.  First published in 1976 and first published in North America in 2012.

 

PLOT:

In the days of the old Greek gods, there was a lovely little unicorn named Unico.  He was the beloved pet of the princess Psyche, whose beauty and gentle nature has caused Cupid himself to fall for her.  Enraged by this betrayal but unable to lash out at Psyche directly, she decides to hurt Psyche by taking away Unico.  Venus commands the west wind to steal him away, erase his memories, and take him as far away in time and space as possible so that he cannot make friends.  Yet everywhere Unico goes, he finds others in need of his power and his friendship in order to find their own happiness.

Recipe: LOVE RECIPE

The only thing worse than a bad BL romance is a bad BL romance that ruins an otherwise good concept for a manga.

LOVE RECIPE, by Kirico Higashizato.  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

Tomonori Ozawa was hoping to get the journalist job of his dreams, but instead he's working as an editor at a BL magazine.  His duties force him to cross paths with the magazine's most successful mangaka, Sakurako Kakyoin.  It turns out that Kakyoin is a man using a female pen-name, one who is drawn to Ozawa's innate adorableness and determined to turn their professional relationship into a very personal one.  Will Kakyoin ever get the message across to his oblivious editor?  Will Ozawa ever feel comfortable with the world of gay romance?

Review: ONLY THE RING FINGER KNOWS

Central Park Media might have been the first manga publisher to tackle BL, but DMP became famous for publishing nothing but BL, starting with the very book I'll be reviewing today.

ONLY THE RING FINGERS KNOWS (Sono Yubi Dake ga Shitte Iru), based on the light novel series by Satoru Kannagi with art by Hotaru Odagiri.   First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

No one could be more handsome or perfect than Yuichi Kazuki.  That's what Wataru presumes, at least until he encounters Yuichi one day in the bathroom.  Yuichi is haughty and rude to him, and by accident the two exchange one another's rings.  The rings are a school trend that indicate one's relationship status, one where best friends and couples exchange identical pairs of rings, and the coincidence sets the rumor mill churning.  The more that the two interact, the more Wataru finds himself fascinated by Yuichi and the possibility that his cold demeanor hides a much stronger emotion.

Review: BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN

 When it wasn't churning out one mediocre BL manga after the next, manga boom-era DMP would sometimes go out on a limb and license something crazy like this.

BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN (Banbi), by Atsushi Kaneko. First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

A mysterious email was sent out to every assassin, hitman, and petty crook in the era.  There was a little boy stolen by a woman with a pink gun known as Bambi.  The reward for him is 500 million dollars, so long as he remains unharmed.  

Of course, to get to him they have to get past Bambi.  That's no easy feat, as she has no respect for others and no reservations about shooting anyone who gets in her way.  Her motives are as mysterious as her background.  She doesn't even seem to be all that fond of the kid.  All that is certain is that she's going to get him to the old men she keeps talking about, one way or another.

Review: FINDER

 We are rested and ready to return with a month's worth of bad romance manga!  Let's begin with...well, "classic" would be too strong for this series so let's say a notable one from BL of the past.

FINDER (Fainda), by Ayano Yamane.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Akihito is a freelance photographer who wants to use his skills to expose the seedy underbelly of the criminal world.  Alas, he's quickly capture by the powerful gangster Asami, who proceeds to rape Akihito, ruin his film, and set him free.  Akihito hates what Asami did to him, but remains determined to fight crime in his own way.  Meanwhile, Asami finds himself increasingly drawn to Akihito, protecting the young man even as he pursues him for the sake of his own pleasure.

Review: KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD

Of course, Weekly Shonen Jump has always had more than gag series and straightforward adventures.  It's been home to more than a few romance stories over the years.  It's just debatable how well they have aged (or even if they were any good to begin with).

KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD (Kimagure Orenji Rodo), by Izumi Matsumoto.  First published in 1984 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Kyosuke was just wandering around the park in his new hometown when he met with Madoka.  He was instantly smitten with her, but has a hard time believing that the same sweet girl he met in the park could be a standoffish deliquent at school.  That doesn't stop him from crushing hard on her, something that only becomes more complicated when he ends up stumbling into a relationship with Madoka's spunky best friend Hikaru.  Can Kyosuke sort out his relationship problems and keep his family's psychic powers a secret?

Review: THE TYRANT FALLS IN LOVE

As always, BL doesn't want for bad romances and today I think it's finally time to discuss what might just be the guiltiest pleasure sitting on my shelves.

THE TYRANT FALLS IN LOVE (Koisuru Bokun), by Hinako Takanaga.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

For the last five years, Morinaga has been pining for his lab partner and fellow graduate student, the extremely tempermental, homophobic, and generally grumpy Souchi.  This emotional stalemate might have lasted forever, if not for Tatsumi going on an angry drunken bender and accidentally drinking an aphrodisiac forced upon Morinaga by a friend.

Morinaga takes full advantage of the situation, but afterwards Souchi's seemingly back to his old self.  But what will he do when Morinaga tries to quit school and slink away in shame?

Merry Month of Manga Review: THAT WAS GOOD

Oh CJ Michalski.  Your manga is always okay at best and you've got a disturbing fondness for shotacon, but I can never fully your work.  WHY CAN'T I QUIT YOU?!

THAT WAS GOOD (Gochisosama), by CJ Michalski.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2011.

PLOT:

Hiroto was just another nobody working in a convienence store.  Then he managed to impress a curious (and hungry) little toddler with his homemade bento, and now he's the live-in housekeeper for the tall, handsome pilot Suguru.  All seems to be going well until Suguru's younger brother throws him out.  Will Suguru come back in time to save Hiroto from homelessness?  Meanwhile, the promiscuous high-school student Youhei falls for the tiny, delicate otaku Takumi.  To win him over, Youhei immerses himself into otaku culture and Takumi's favorite series in the hopes of winning him over.  Finally, Riku decides to help his twin sister marry the man she loves by becoming the hostage of her fiance's controlling older brother, only for the two to fall in love in turn.

Merry Month of Manga Review: ALL NIPPON AIR LINE

Comedic BL stories are always in short supply, and that shortage is not helped by books like this one.

ALL NIPPON AIR LINE (Rakuen Sanman Feet - All Nippon Air Line), by Kei Azumaya.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT: 

There is no airline quite like All Nippon Air Line.  It’s renowned for both its service and staff.  Each crew member is more handsome than the last, and each one is irresistible to crew and customer alike.  Their first class lounge is spacious and comfortable.  Their pilots are some of the best in the industry.  But mostly it’s renowned for the epic amounts of gay sex had by everyone in the company, from the director all the way down to the lowliest steward.  They sleep with each other, with other pilots, with the customers.  It seems no one can resist the alluring men of A.N.A.L.

Merry Month of Manga Review: MR. MINI MART

It was inevitable that I would cover some BL manga this month, so if I must then I want to talk about ones worth talking about like today's example.

MR. MINI MART (Konbini-kun), by Junko.  First published in 2011 and first published in North America in 2014.

PLOT:

Thanks to years of bullying, Nakaba has spent most of his teen years as a recluse.  As a way to try to bring him out of his shell, his family gets him a job as a clerk at a local convienence store.  The only problem is Yanai, another clerk with a rough face and an even rougher tongue who rubs Nakaba the wrong way.  When the two start to bond over a stray cat, they learn that their feelings may run deeper than mere friendship...

Review: KABUKI: FLOWER

There are loads of BL manga with flowers in their title, just in case that you might miss that these are manga targeted towards women.  This particular one brings in a reincarnation angle, but is it truly timeless or not?

KABUKI: FLOWER (Kabuki - Hana no Shou), by Yukari Hashida.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

Over 500 years ago, the young lord Kounosuke and his page Kagaya took their lives in ritual suicide instead of surrender.  Before they died, they vowed to find one another in another life, no matter how long it took.  Kounosuke awakens afterwards in the modern day, the scion of a wealthy family who was recently orphaned in a fire.  He sees signs of his beloved Kagaya in three generations of his servants, but which one is the reincarnation of his true Kagaya?  Can he find him before forces beyond his control kill him a second time?

Review: THE DEVIL'S SECRET

Just as there are many BL books about angels, there are just as many about devils, including this one from one of the genre's best loved creators.

THE DEVIL'S SECRET (Akuma no Himitsu), by Hinako Takanaga.  First published in 2007 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

Father Mauro is a priest in a small, rural village.  One day while out on a walk he finds a strange, badly beaten young man in the bushes named Raoul.  Raoul can't remember a thing, much less why he was injured in the first place or why he has horns on his head.  He swears he can't be a devil, yet the more he molests Mauro the better he feels.  When the truth is revealed, Mauro has to decide how much he values Raoul over his faith.

Review: DON'T RUB YOURSELF AGAINST MY ASS!!

Of course, I can't let this year's holiday roundup pass without covering some BL titles. That being said, I didn't want to include a DMP title originally.  After all, I kind of made a big deal out of rejecting their company this summer.  Unfortunately, I contributed to a couple of their Kickstarters before that point and found myself with a handful of BL books that I needed to review if I was going to get my money's worth out of them.  It's not like they released anything else otherwise this year.

DON'T RUB YOURSELF AGAINST MY ASS!! (Ore no Ushiro ni Tatsu na!!), by Sakira.  First published in 2015 and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

Jin used to be a policeman, but he has fallen on hard times.  These days, he's forced to work as a private investigator to get by, and even then he's struggling to stay afloat.  Thus, he's all too eager to take Anri's offer for a case with a cheating girlfriend.  Quickly enough, he learns that there's a lot more going on in this case than meets the eye.  It seems that Anri has connections to Jin's past and that Anri is determined to make Jin understand with his body.

Merry Month of Manga Review: THE PRIME MINISTER'S SECRET DIPLOMACY

It's kind of surprising that we don't see more BL about politicians.  It's the perfect excuse for well-dressed men behaving badly behind the scenes.  Maybe Japanese politicians don't deal with as many sex scandals as ours do?  Anyway, today's review shows how well the two can mesh.

THE PRIME MINISTER'S SECRET DIPLOMACY (Koushi Kakka no Himitsu Gaikou), by Youka Nitta.  First published in 2006 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

Thanks to his family connections, young Tomohiro Shiraishi finds himself working with Koushi Yoshinaga, a well-regarded minister of foreign affairs.  He catches Yoshinaga hitting on another man while out on the town, but in return for his silence Yoshinaga manipulates Shiraishi into sleeping with him.  It seems that Yoshinaga lives for thrills, be it the thrill of tense negotiations or the thrill of seduction, and he often finds ways to combine them both for his gain.  It's a quality that Shiraishi finds irresistible, and he finds himself torn between his desire to one-up Yoshinaga and his desire for the man himself.

STORY:

Youka Nitta is a big name in BL, but she's also got a tendency to undermine the seriousness of her premises through ridiculous levels of melodrama.  Thank goodness that she restrained herself this time because it means that The Prime Minister's Secret Diplomacy works as both a dark romance and as a story about one man's cunning rise through the political ranks.

A lot of BL relationships are messed up in unintentional ways thanks to their strict adherence to the seme/uke dynamic.  That's not the case here with Shiraishi and Koushi.  Their relationship is purposefully messed up!  Koushi treats Shiraishi like he treats everyone else: as pawns for him to manipulate to his advantage.  Even those closest to him are still held at a distance and at any moment he's prepared to pit them against others for gain or to dump them as he sees fit.  He's an emotional sadist but he's so goddamn clever and nuanced about  it that like Shiraishi we can't help but admire it from afar.  It helps that Shiraishi isn't just another victim of his wiles. 

Sure, he starts out as very prim and proper and he's thoroughly shocked at Koushi's behavior.  After his seduction, he feels guilt as his admiration of Koushi's political maneuvering runs up against his guilt for his growing desire and his betrayal of his sister (who also happens to be Koushi's fiancée).  Slowly but surely, he surrenders to his darker impulses and becomes a manipulator in his own right just so that he can remain at Koushi's side.  These are not the romantic figures that so many BL works present but instead two deeply flawed but fascinating men who use sex as just another tool in their own personal power struggle.  There will never be a happy ending for them both, but the tension (sexual and otherwise) is so glorious to behold that you never truly want it to end.

This tension is interwoven into their public lives, and in comparison to them the actual political drama is quite dry.  It's not like Koushi is negotiating any sort of major accord, but instead is engaged in juggling the happiness of other, mostly Western nations with Japan's need for a strong front on the international stage.  This is done mostly through extended conversations where every word choice and turn of conversation can carry great meaning, and it's only implied that Koushi also uses his body to keep select figures sweet.  Nitta's clearly done her research here and she captures both the polite formality and the subtle machinations of politics.  That being said, it doesn't smoulder with the same sort of tension found in Koushi and Shiraishi's personal conversations, and those seeking straight-up smut will likely come away disappointed in this book.  That's fine by me, as Nitta uses the few instances of sex here very well.  They are not mere fanservice but instead serve as actual plot points, the punctuation to the dramatic high points of the relationship.  Every instance has some degree of fallout afterwards that impacts the plot.  Nitta knew that anything else would simply be gratuitous and would otherwise ruin what is both a well-written political drama and a compelling tale of two men corrupted by their own needs.

ART:

Nitta has always been one of the best artists in BL, and that skill is put to full use here.  I've always liked her character designs.  They strike the right balance between masculine handsomeness and the sort of stylized beauty that BL so often demands.  She's also got a wonderful grasp on both body language and expression.  Their bodies look and move in a way that shows that Nitta knows how a man's body works and their faces perfect match the emotion of every scene.  She's very restrained when it comes to sensuality here.  It's not just that most of the sex scenes don't go on for very long, but it's also in how she mostly avoids showing genitalia and instead focuses on their hands, their faces, and the banter between Koushi and Shiraishi throughout. 

That wouldn't mean much if she didn't know how to present it all, but the presentation and pages here are top-notch.  Nitta's backgrounds are lavish and lovingly rendered, allowing the reader to soak in the elegance of the high-class setting.  She shows them off often in her panels, but she's also very good at using visual angles or a well-timed close-up for dramatic effect or how to cut back and forth between points in a conversation without merely turning it into a parade of talking heads.  Even her composition is smooth, as the panels flow in a way that suggests an expression slowly shifting or switches to dramatic wedges during a revelation or shift in power.  Even the color artwork, here shown off on the covers both inside and out, shows off both her confident skill and her fondness for rich color choices.  It's a beautiful looking book from beginning to end, full of both the skill and nuance such a story deserves.

RATING:

The Prime Minister's Secret Diplomacy is a masterwork that combines serious drama with a nuanced and complicated cast to craft a compelling story fueled by tension and passion in equal measure.  Best of all, it's supported by brilliant art made by a one of the genre's best and brightest.  It's one of Youka Nitta's best works and one that comes highly recommended.

This book was published by Digital Manga Publishing.  It is currently out of print.

Merry Month of Manga Review: ICHIGENME...THE FIRST CLASS IS CIVIL LAW

As much as I love Fumi Yoshinaga, I can frankly acknowledge that her BL works are far more spotty in quality than her non-BL works.  That being said, today's review covers one of the high points of that part of her career.

ICHIGENME...THE FIRST CLASS IS CIVIL LAW (Ichigenme wa Yaruki no Minpo), by Fumi Yoshinaga.  First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2007.

PLOT:

Tamiya is an upperclassmen at university, but sometimes it feels like he never left high school.  He's stuck in a seminar full of spoiled rich kids who hope to coast through school with a minimal amount of effort.  In the midst of this crowd is Touhou, the class clown who skips class all the time but still manages to charm everyone he meets...that is, everyone but Tamiya.  As the year passes, the two find a way to bond and their relationship starts to deepen into something more.  If Tamiya doesn't stop denying his feelings soon, then the end of their education may split the two up before their relationship can truly begin.

STORY:

I've always preferred BL that prioritizes story over smut and Ichigenme positively spoils me with the sheer amount of story it has to offer.  It's loaded with plenty of well-written and nuanced characters and it's one of the few BL works that's truly mature instead of being merely mature in rating.

Yoshinaga's choice of setting is particularly intriguing.  There are hundreds of BL titles set in high school, but comparatively fewer ones set in college, much less the Japanese equivalent of law school.  A good part of the story deals with getting the reader up to speed on zemis, the workshop-like classes where learning is based more on discussion than rote memorization.  Such effort is not necessary towards advancing the romance but it does wonders for establishing the context of Tamiya and Touhou's world.  She applies this same level of effort towards the supporting cast.  Many BL works have a myopic focus on their leading couples and the supporting cast exists more as potential plot devices than characters in their own right.  Thus it's quite unusual to see a BL manga with such a large, nuanced, and gender-balanced cast of characters.

As in any good BL manga, we get to see the main relationship evolve bit by bit, as Tamiya's annoyance and Touhou's flip attitude evolves into mutual respect in response to a scandal in Touhou's family.  As roommates we get to see them enjoy casual moments together simply cooking meals or playing what appears to be a Super Famicon.  We even see Tamiya struggle mentally with defining and coming to terms with his sexuality, and these moments are handled with a maturity that has far more impact than any number of dramatic epiphanies. Together they may have a long way to go before becoming a couple, but it's a way that's just as full of late-night conversations as it is with attempted midnight foreplay from Touhou.  That careful approach makes every little step forward all the more satisfying because we truly understand these two as characters in their own right as well as part of a potential couple. 

Ichigenme truly is more than just the story of two law students who end up becoming...well, not quite lovers yet, but something more than mere friends.  Their classmates get just as much personality and backstory as our leads, and their stories are interwoven deftly alongside them. We get to see them chat amongst themselves, gossip about their classmates, talk about their families and their futures, wheedle their way into getting Tamiya's notes, and so much more.  It's little moments like these that give the world of Ichigenme all sorts of depth and color and it really lets the reader immerse themselves into the world of these characters.  It's easily one of Yoshinaga's best written works and one that could easily stand toe to toe with her better-known, non-BL efforts.

ART:

It goes without saying at this point that the artwork for Ichigenme is exceptionally good.  It's all rendered in her usual style where lightly drawn, handsome, square-jawed folks express themselves sincerely and with great subtlety.  I've always had a particular fondness for how Yoshinaga draws hair, and I love how she draws Touhou's long, wavy locks.  They are usually drawn pinned up in a way that not only visually communicates Touhou's lackadaisical ways, but it's also just plain attractive and stylish.  The backgrounds are sparse as always, but she always makes the most of it to frame a particular emotion or to enhance a particular atmosphere. 

She also uses a lot of silent montages here, far more than any other work of hers I've read.  Most of these montages are used for Tamiya and Touhou's furtive sexual encounters in the dark, all of which are framed in such a way to be fairly discreet.  Shifts in position are communicated just through a flash of arm or leg and completion indicated with only a tiny spurt.  Yoshinaga isn't interested in showing off the sex here as she is focusing on how it affects the characters and it's the right choice for such a character-driven story.  Art like this is perfectly normal for Fumi Yoshinaga, but if you're not used to it then you're in for a real visual treat here.

RATING:

Ichigenme isn't just Fumi Yoshinaga's best BL work, it's one of her best works period.  Even the biggest BL skeptic would find it hard to resist getting caught up in such a well-written and attractive manga.  If you've not picked this one up yet, you are truly missing out.

This series is published by Digital Manga Publishing.  This series is complete in Japan with 2 volumes available.  Both volumes were published and are currently out of print.

Merry Month of Manga Review: PASSION

Of course, for every good or mildly interesting BL book in print, there are easily half a dozen books like today's offering: some boring, forgettable piece of crap with an equally boring and vague title.

PASSION (Netsujou), written by Shinobu Gotoh with art by Shoko Takaku.  First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Our story starts out with our leading man, Hikaru, in the middle of some afternoon delight in an empty classroom.  His partner is Shima, his homeroom teacher.  They've been having an affair for some time.  Hikaru struggles with this as he's prone to emotional outbursts in the first place and frequently declares his love to Shima.  Shima is mostly indifferent, content to play things casually until Hikaru graduates.  This leaves Hikaru frustrated to the point where he tries to read into Shima's every word and gesture for signs of affection.  Things only get worse when Shima's ex is hired on as a new teacher, and he's determined to get his man back by any means necessary.

STORY:

zzzzzzz....

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

...huh?  What?  I'm sorry, I must have dozed off there for a bit.  I can hardly be blamed, though, when confronted with such a tiresome premise.  The teacher/student angle is nothing new, the dynamic between the leads is horrendously dysfunctional, and the emotional beats are constantly forced.

For the most part Hikaru is no different from any other uke, but he's burdened with a ridiculous amount of desperation.  He loves Shima for no good reason and he's so desperate that he'll try to spin the smallest gesture into proof of affection.  In the hands of a better writer, this could be genuinely tragic.  In Gotoh's hands, though, it just makes Hikaru look pathetic to the point of disgust.  It's also hard to see just what Hikaru sees in Shima in the first place.  Shima's only defining characteristic is an aloof sort of douchiness.  He's clearly toying with Hikaru to fill the time and he hasn't the slightest concern for the boy's feelings.  He also has no concern for professional ethics, which is why he has no issue whatsoever with sleeping with one of his students.  Finally there's Amamiya, and all there is to say about him is that he has a candy shell of joviality concealing a desperate and rapey center.

With characters like these, it was impossible for me to give the slightest damn about the plot.  It's nothing more than Hikaru desperately lashing out for affection and Shima shutting him down, interspersed with the odd bit of sex.  Even with Amamiya's addition, all that promises to add some non-statutory rape.  With something this dull and forced, you can see how this book would bore me so badly, right?

ART:

The artwork is no more interesting than the story it illustrates.  Everyone is as generic as you can get in BL.  That means every is long, lanky, flatly drawn, and they all pretty much have the same face.  At least most of them can emote, save for Shima.  Because he is a stereotypical seme, he's determined to retain a look of perpetual boredom.  Even in the middle of sex, he looks like he couldn't care less.  I guess that doesn't say much for Hikaru's skills as a lover.  Even the backgrounds are sparse and flat as can be.  Shoko Takaka either doesn't care about her art or is just that thoroughly bad at it.

PRESENTATION:

This book came out very early in DMP's history, and it's clear that they weren't entirely discerning when it came to translators.  It's kind of awkward to read and there are more than a few typos as well.  It's so notable that it's explicitly mentioned in the series' Wikipedia page. 

RATING:

Passion couldn't be more misnamed if it tried.  There isn't the slightest bit of it to be found within its pages.  It's not in the story, the cast, or the art.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to -

zzzzzzzzzzz.....

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

This series was published by Digital Manga Publishing.  This series is complete in Japan with 4 volumes available.  All 4 have been published and all are currently out of print.

Merry Month of Manga Review: HEY, CLASS PRESIDENT

It's always a shame when a promising premise in a manga is derailed by its own creator.  Today's review is just one of many examples of that in BL.

HEY, CLASS PRESIDENT! (Seito Kaicho ni Chukoku), by Kaori Monchi.  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Chiga can not believe it.  His spacey teammate Kokusai got elected as class president and Chiga was made vice president!  What this means for Chiga is that he spends his days running interference between Kokusai and everyone who tries to molest him, be it fellow students, teachers, and even random strangers on the train.  Kokusai even manages to get molested in his own home while sleeping!  As Chiga tries his hardest to keep Kokusai on track, he finds himself being drawn to Kokusai romantically and having to resist his own urges.

STORY:

I was so disappointed with this series.  The first couple of chapters suggested that this was going to be a comedic sort of manga, one where Chiga has to constantly guide Kokusai through a daily gauntlet of perverts.  Handled well, that could actually be pretty fun in an outrageous sort of way.  Instead it quickly devolves into a middling mess of conflicted feelings and lack of communication.

Maybe I was just projecting because it's not often that we get genuinely funny BL.  Most books tend to be so serious and overly dramatic that I find myself wanting a bit of levity once in a while.  It's not like this series didn't have a good starting point.  Monchi makes it clear early on that Kokusai is perfectly average in every way.  He's not extraordinarily handsome, bright, or talented, but has some unknown quality that lures men to him in droves, regardless of their orientation.  Worse still, Kokusai is completely oblivious to their intentions.  He just presumes that every guy who tries to get their hands on him is simply really friendly.  I can't be the only one who looks at a character like that and sees comic gold.  Like the song goes, though, they had to go and spoil it all by making the protagonist say something stupid like "I love you." 

After those first few chapters, Chiga ends up falling hard for Kokusai because he's so helpless and naïve.  That's right: Chiga falls for him because he's just too damn moe.  The rest of the volume is thus spent watching these two dance around their feelings, as Kokusai starts to fall for Chiga himself.  The only other thing that happens is the half-baked mystery around who molested Kokusai in his own home.  Then the story completely forgets that drama shortly after it happens so we can enter a neverending circlejerk of jealousy.  Even after Chiga and Kokusai finally talk to one another about their feelings, Kokusai starts getting jealous of Chiga's ex-girlfriends, his classmates are jealous of all the attention that Chiga lavishes on Kokusai, and Chiga is jealous and overprotective of Kokusai because that's pretty much what he's been doing since the beginning.  Worse still, there are no quirks or foibles to counteract all this jealousy, and the student council angle is dropped so quickly that one wonders why Monchi bothered in the first place.  In that case, you have to wonder why she bothered with the comedy if all she was going to do was a bunch of tedious jealousy-fueled drama like everyone else.

ART:

Monchi's art is also all too typical of BL as a whole.  Her character designs are weirdly lanky and long, which means just about everyone has giraffe necks and spidery hands.  Chiga in particular is so lanky that he's constantly slouching just so his back and arms can stay in frame.  The only thing that does work about the character designs is Chiga's rather stylish haircut (complete with long bangs and the occasional headband) and the thick, tasteful frames on his glasses.  At least he's fairly distinct, which is more than can be said for the rest of the cast.  Otherwise the art is very mediocre - nothing notably wretched, but nothing remarkable either  This is true whether the pages are about jealousy drama or actual sex.  The sexual bits aren't sexy by any means, neither are they a disaster of limbs and invisi-peen.  By the low standards of BL, it's pretty average looking.

RATING:

Hey, Class President! starts strong but slides down fast thanks to pointless drama and rather middling artwork.  Thus it goes from OK to completely forgettable, just like the majority of other books under DMP's label.

This series is published by Digital Manga Publishing.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 7 volumes available.  5 volumes have been published and all are currently in print.  The first volume is also available as a e-book through emanga.com.

Merry Month of Manga Review: KING OF DEBT

Of course, not every BL work can be as good as the last one.  Nor are all of them stand-alone stories.  Many books, much like today's selection, are anthologies of short stories where the author can explore all sorts of ideas and concepts.  It's just that also like today's selection, it's a mixed bag in quality at best.

KING OF DEBT (Shakkin Daio), by Sanae Rokuya.  First published in 2007 and first published in North America in 2008.

PLOT:

In the titular story, we follow former college buddies Taketora and Souta.  Souta has managed to hold down a steady job, but Taketora seems to spend his days bumming money off of Souta and repaying him with...well, his bum.  Their relationship changes when Souta learns that Taketora isn't quite as broke as he lets on.  After that is "Rush," a story about a boxing student and his coach.  Then we move on to "My Dear, My Bear," where a young man discovers that his teddy bear, a keepsake from his beloved older brother, can now turn into a young, attractive, and frequently nude man.  Finally, there is "VS.," where the competition between a couple of hosts becomes something far more heated and complicated.

STORY:

BL is a genre that's not normally known for long, epic stories.  Many BL managaka are lucky to come up with enough material for a volume or two, and that's presuming that they get popular enough to merit a longer story in the first place.  As for the fans, many of them have no further use for the story once the seme and uke confess their love to one another.  That can be a problem because it doesn't leave them a lot of space to build up the plot or the characters beyond the basics, which goes a long way towards explaining why so many of them use and reuse the seme/uke tropes so much.  This problem is only magnified when it comes to anthology works like King of Debt. 

There are five stories here total, but honestly they are all so brief and bland that they all blend together into some inchoate mass of gay sex.  The only one that stood out in my mind afterwards was "My Dear, My Bear," and that's simply because it's about a guy who spends most of the story believing that his precious childhood toy can come to life and wants to have sex with him.  I almost want to give such a bizarre premise points for originality.  Of course, they all end up the same way: the couple confesses their love and celebrates with sex.  That can be titillating if built up properly, but the characters are such ciphers and the sex scenes are so rote and censored that you might as well be watching someone slap a couple of Ken dolls together.

I wish there was more to say about the other stories, but they are so short that the summaries I listed above are pretty much all you get.  At least Rokuya found a way to tie such disparate stories together in a way that's mildly clever.  The final chapter has all of the characters from the preceding stories interacting with one another at the same bar, and their barroom conversations serve as the epilogues for their own respective stories.  It's a shame that she couldn't bring this same level of cleverness to the rest of the stories here.  When it's not blasé it tends to be weird, and neither of those are substitutes for qualities like 'good' or 'interesting.'

ART:

Rokuya's art is very conventional.  Unfortunately that means that every guy here is pointy, gangly, stiff, and flatly drawn.  Regardless of what expression she is trying to capture, every guy's face seems to be stuck at 'mildly pissy' or in a lecherous leer.   Blushes are nothing but blotches of hatch marks awkwardly placed over faces.  The awkwardness of the bodies carries over to the sex scenes, as they all tend to be rather vague and plainly drawn.  She tries to make up for this by keeping the panels large but closely focused on the characters, leaving only a bit of room for some screentone at the edges.  Finally, she piles them all on the page in a rather messy manner, with lots of panels layered over one another without a lot of rhyme or reason.

RATING:

The King of Debt is king of nothing but boredom, awkward art, and a bit of occasional weirdness.

Seriously, screwing your teddy bear? What the hell.

This book was published by Digital Manga Publishing.  The physical volume is out of print, but is currently available as an e-book at emanga.com.

Merry Month of Manga Review: DEEPLY LOVING A MANIAC

I've been dying to post this review for a while.  There's a lot of bad BL out there, but it takes a real hack to create something that's so odd and ugly that it stands out from the crowd.  You Higashino is one of those hacks, and this but one of her many masterpieces of awfulness.

DEEPLY LOVING A MANIAC (Cho Maniac ni Aishite), by You Higashino.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2011.

PLOT:

Morita is a shy, obsessive, neurotic otaku.  Sakura is a popular, confident athlete.  Against all the odds, these two have fallen for one another and demonstrate their affections for one another on a frequent basis.  Will that love stand up to bouts of doubt, cosplay, track and field, and attempted rape?

STORY:

Deeply Loving A Maniac doesn't so much have a story as it does a concept: a jock and an otaku are in hot, sticky, sweaty love with one another.  That's not a bad place to start, but the problem is that Higashino just stops there.  She doesn't build upon it in any meaningful way.  She doesn't explore who these characters are, she doesn't develop their relationship beyond random bouts of sex, or try to do anything beyond shoving in a lot of BL clichés.

Neither Morita nor Sakura receive any scrap of development or backstory beyond what I've noted above and the story suffers greatly for that omission.  There's plenty of story potential in such a pairing.  What would make a guy who would normally go for waifus and hugpillows fall for a flesh-and-blood man?  What would make a popular athlete notice a social outcast like Morita?  We never find out, as the two are already a couple when the story starts.  There's very little that challenges or changes that status save for a brief fight or two between them. 

It's also a very slight and episodic story.  It tends to follow a fairly predictable and noticeably one-sided formula: Sakura picks a fight with Morita over some petty thing, Morita tries to change himself somehow to make Sakura happy, Sakura sees the error of his ways, and the two have make-up sex.  The only time that Higashino changes the formula is when she has another man kidnap and attempt to rape Sakura because he resembles the animated character he created.  Worse still, she thinks that the best response to 'I saved you from imminent rape!' is 'So let's have sex right here in the rapist's bed!'

So Higashino didn't bother much with a plot, but she didn't want that to be obvious.  So like many a lazy BL mangaka, whenever she needed to fill space or wrap up a chapter, she can just make her leads screw.  She presumes that if you're distracted with sweaty guys tumbling, licking, and screwing one another in any way possible, then you simply won't notice the story's faults!  Of course, without any character or motivation behind their couplings, there is no passion between these two and thus no reason to give a damn about any of their sex scenes.  It takes effort to make so many explicit sex scenes so boring but that's what happens when you care more about sex positions and fluids than you do about character or plot.

ART:

Higashino's not a good writer, but it's her artwork that truly makes her a hack.  It's just off in so many ways.  The faces on the characters are so long and triangular that they look positively equine with their narrow eyes and huge lower lips.  They all look like they got their chins stuck in a vacuum.  Those horse faces are usually stuck on 'constipated' unless they are screaming in anger or orgasm. Their bodies aren't much better as their necks and shoulders are weirdly beefy and their limbs and torsos are bizarrely long.  If you don't believe me, look at the cover image above.  You tell me where the blond's hips are supposed to be because he either has a freakishly long torso or freakishly long legs, and both are feasible when it comes to bad BL anatomy. 

Speaking of anatomy, the sex scenes are unusually uncensored and unusually sticky and fluid-filled.  There's nothing wrong with showing sex as messy, but the sheer amount of semen, spit, and sweat on display here is the sort of thing you don't usually see outside of hentai doujin.  She all but fetishizes it.   Meanwhile, her pages as a whole are unfocused and her panels tend to stay claustrophobically close even when they're in the middle of sex.  She can't even frame her sex scenes in a way that makes them look the least bit erotic.  It's just an ugly book from cover to cover.

RATING:

It's said that the term 'yaoi' is an acronym for a Japanese phrase that roughly translates as 'porn without plot.'  Deeply Loving A Maniac certainly lives up to that term and then some.  It has only the barest wisps of conflict to keep things moving from one empty sex scene to the next as acted out by a bunch of hideous horsey creatures posing as men.  I can't imagine a single soul seeking this book out even as masturbation material, and it's best left that way.

This series was published by Digital Manga Publishing.  It is currently out of print.