Merry Month of Manga Review: LOVE STAGE!!

What happens when you take one hacky BL mangaka and pair her up with a boring one?  In today's case, you get something unexpectedly wonderful.

LOVE STAGE!! (Rabu Suteji), written by Eiki Eiki with art by Taishi Zaou.  First published in 2010 and first published in North America in 2015.

PLOT:

Izumi Sena comes from a family of actors, but he has no interest in taking up the family trade.  He has much more interest in becoming a mangaka in spite of his complete lack of artistic skill.  The only exception to this was a commercial he did as a child where he posed as a girl, and this commercial become so beloved that it merited a sequel.  That's where Izumi meets once more with popular actor Ryoma Ichijo.  Ryoma has spent the last decade pining for the cute little girl he met making the original commercial.  How will he handle it when his dream girl turns out to be a cute otaku boy?

STORY:

The creative duo behind this series should inspire anything but confidence.  Eiki Eiki was something of a big name in BL in the 90s, but she's also kind of notorious for making some really exploitative works.  Even her shoujo works aren't much better.  Meanwhile, Taishi Zaou (a.k.a. Mikiyo Tsuda) is best known for being kind of boring, with her best known solo work being Princess Princess.  How then can these two come together to produce a story that's so very funny and charming?

I think what I like most about Love Stage!! is that while Izumi and Ryoma do fit somewhat broadly into the uke and seme dynamic, they do get to show some character beyond those points.  As the protagonist, Izumi gets the most opportunity to build up his personality between his otaku interests and his interaction with his family and the manager (who might as well be family).  These moments are almost always played for comedy, but it never crosses the line into mean-spiritedness.  As for Ryoma, he's generally quite good-natured and affable for a seme.  His interactions with Izumi are friendly and supportive, even after he learns that his dream girl is a dude.  He only crosses the line once, and even then Eiki Eiki does two things right to diffuse this.  First, she has Ryoma knocked out before things can get too hot and heavy and plays this off as slapstick.  Secondly, she makes Ryoma genuinely sorry for going too far.  A seme with a sense of decency?  How novel!

That broadness and good nature extends into the plot at large, which only makes the proceedings all the more delightful.  I don't know who was more amusing: Izumi's older brother Shogo, who fawns over Izumi when he's not fawning over himself or trying to tease Ryoma, or Rei the long-suffering manager who is always caught between trying to appease Izumi's family and to serve as something of a (rather blunt) father figure to Izumi.  Again, the comedy comes naturally from the characters' personalities and relationships and not at their expense (well...maybe not quite so much for Rei) so the jokes land often and land well.  I actually care about all of these characters and enjoy reading about their exploits instead of waiting and hoping for the next bit of groping.  Love Stage!! is entertaining and well-written in a way that few BL works can aspire to be.  It truly is amazing what a decade or two can do to hone a writer's skills.

ART:

I also have to give credit to Zaou for her artwork.  Her style was always somewhat close to Eiki Eiki's stylistically, particularly around the eyes, but she's got a far better grasp on expression, movement, and fashion than the former ever did.  It's hard to believe that from the cover art, which makes Ryoma look way more aggressive than he gets in the book.  The only thing she's a bit shaky on are the noses, as they have a tendency to disappear when not in profile.  She clearly likes to show off those attractive faces and lively expressions by keeping the panels close to them, but that just helps with the jokes and emotional moments more than anything.  She also clearly LOVES drawing the moments where Izumi tries his hands at manga art, and every crude, blocky attempt at drawing Lala Lulu is always a delight.  Finally, I love the few bits of color art we do get, including the cover.  The bright, almost neon colors catch the eye and fit the tone of the story well.  It gives Love Stage!! a style all its one, one that helps it stand out from the rest of SuBLime's books.

RATING:

Love Stage!! is charming, pretty, and fun in a way that makes it a standout title in modern BL.  It's easy to see why this series was picked up for television and it's absolutely one that BL fans should pick up for themselves.

This series is published by Viz under their SuBLime imprint.  This series is ongoing with 6 volumes available.  5 volumes have been published and all are currently in 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: THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN

Supernatural-themed BL is not too uncommon, but today's review might be a first.  After all, how often do you read a manga about gay werewolves?

THREE WOLVES MOUNTAIN, by Bohra Naono.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2012.

PLOT:

Kaya Susugi leads a lonely life.  He spends his days running a quiet café and his nights guarding a mountain cemetery from both natural and supernatural threats.  During one of his patrols, he stumbles across a strange man and a large wolf that turn out to be a pair of werewolf brothers.  The younger of the two, Jiro, is drawn to Kaya's cool demeanor and understated kindness.  The two are forced to come to terms with their feelings when elements from Jiro's world and beyond threaten to tear them apart.

STORY:

Supernatural romances might be a dime a dozen in the world of manga, but this has to be the first time I've seen a BL one delve into the strange and kinky realm of werewolf sex.  What's strange is that the most unappealing part isn't the fact that the story involves screwing wolfboys.  After all, once you've read something like Love Pistols it's going to take quite a lot to top THAT. No, the part of it that doesn't work for me is the way that Naono forces her main couple to get together.

I can kind of see what she was going for here with Kaya and Jiro.  Jiro is meant to be the cheerful, honest ingénue that defrosts the heart of the kind yet tormented ice queen (or should that be ice king?)  The problem is that Naono doesn't give the reader opportunity to understand these two as characters in their own right.  Without that, Jiro's declarations of love don't feel like heartfelt emotion but instead something like Dug from Up declaring that he loves you because you are his master.  It's a literal case of puppy love!  Weirder still, Kaya returns this feeling almost instantly with no build-up whatsoever.  One moment, they're having a conversation, then BAM! Sexy time!  Later chapters only get more shameless with their excuses for sex, be it Jiro going to into heat or him simply wanting to get on top at times.

Since Naono throws these two together so quickly, she has to throw in complications to keep them apart just as fast.  It seems Kaya's got an older brother who has stuck around as a ghost, and this part gets kind of awkward.  In Naono's universe, ghosts stick around solely to mess with the living for their own selfish pleasures and Kaya's brother is no exception to this.  He's not only envious of Kaya's life, but he's also disturbingly touchy-feely with Kaya thanks to the years of sexual abuse at the hands of their uncle.  Still, this forces Kaya to not only come to terms with his past but also to reaffirm his devotion to Jiro.  Now this sounds like a perfectly fine conclusion for the both of them, right?  Well, this happens a third of the way through the volume.  We're not even halfway through the volume and Naono has already blown her narrative wad prematurely.  So what do you do when you're struggling to pad out your gay werewolf story?  Add more werewolves!

Yep, Kaya gets to go meet his kinda-sorta-in-laws when he goes off to meet Jiro's family.  It's fluff for the most part as we see that Jiro comes from a mixed-race family, with a strict human father and a ditzy yet forceful werewolf mother.  Then another evil werewolf comes along to threaten them all, and after a bit of post-injury comfort sex the whole gang comes to live at the café and it becomes one big half-furry family.  At least this arc gives Jiro's older brother Tarou something to do in the story.  He turns out to have an intimate connection to the evil werewolf and it gives Tarou something to do other than offer snark and advice from the sidelines.  Still, it all wraps up in a neat, tidy, and cozy manner.

I went into Three Wolves Mountain expecting something utterly bizzare.  What I got was instead something that was rather forced, badly paced, and too shallow to make its happy ending feel well-earned, and all of it with werewolves.

ART:

I've got to be frank: the werewolf designs here are kind of ridiculous.  Jiro's is basically the lupine version of a catgirl and when Tarou isn't in his normal, fully canine form he looks like a guy wearing a wolf mask.  There's an in-plot explanation for this (Jiro and Tarou are only half-lycanthrope), but mostly this is so Naono can dodge the whole bestiality angle.  Still, she could have done something to sell these guys to the reader as werewolves without drawing something so goofy! 

Aside from these two, though, the character designs aren't bad.  They're not great by any means; they tend to be on the awkwardly long and lean side of things and she sometimes struggles with drawing hands and faces.  Still, she does a nice job with the shading and she draws clothes that actually move and drape like actual cloth.  She also does a great job at drawing actual wolves, and the same hatching she uses for shading helps to convey the texture of thick, fluffy fur.  Her grasp on the scenery is much shakier, though.  She seems to be more comfortable relying on screentones than on capturing the mountainous scenery where this is all meant to be set. Naono's not a completely wretched artist, but she needs to work on the basics and she needs to find a way to draw a sexy werewolf without making it look like bad cosplay.

RATING:

I want to give Three Wolves Mountain some credit for sheer originality in its premise, but once you get beyond the werewolf angle all you have is a pretty mediocre story with some serious relationship and pacing issues along with some mostly ho-hum art.  It's just passable enough to not stink, but no one is going to mistake this one for an overlooked classic.

This book is published by Viz under their SuBLime imprint.  This book is currently in print and available as an e-book through sublimemanga.com.

Merry Month of Manga Review: MR. FLOWER GROOM

I've covered most of the notable BL publishers, but did you know that Yen Press dabbled in the genre at one point?  Well, you do now!

MR. FLOWER GROOM (Hanamuko-san), by Lily Hoshino.  First published in 2005 and first published in North America in 2009.

PLOT:

Souda family tradition dictates that their younger sons must marry other men from the same clan.  Kouichiro is no exception to this, having recently married his childhood friend Ritsu.  Of course, just because they are married doesn't mean that their relationship troubles are entirely over.  Between some cute classmates and a lot of misunderstandings, their newfound marriage will be put to the test!

STORY:

Reviewing this one is a little tricky considering that it's meant to be a sequel to a book I have yet to read.  Still, it's not hard to get your bearings about Mr. Flower Groom as the premise is the only thing about it that stands out at all.

Our leading couple is horrendously dull.  There's very little to distinguish either Kouichiro or Ritsu as characters other than some vague uke and seme-ish qualities.  That's why Kouichiro is terse and Ritsu is kind of fussy.  If there's one quality they do share, it's a fondness for jealousy.  The two of them get bouts of it thanks to a former classmate (in Ritsu's case) or a close relative (in Kouichiro's case.  Also, ew.)  Of course, that jealously doesn't last for long and it's really only there to serve as an excuse for make-up sex at the end.  Worst of all, it's all handled in the most dull and lifeless way that this final coupling isn't the release after a lot of dramatic build-up but simply just something else that happens. 

That's a big problem because there's nothing else here for them to do.  These characters are simply too young and too boring to have anything else going on in their lives beyond their gimmicky marriage.  That may be the reason why the rest of the volume has to be padded out with unrelated side stories.  If so, that may not be the best strategy because the side stories are more interesting than the main event.  The first of them, "Only You Would Know," is a fairly simple story of an abrasive high school kid named Shinoda getting together with a more popular kid named Koidara after losing his contacts.  It's not terribly original, but Shinoda's harshness gives his dialogue a bit of bite and the two treat their coupling more like a dare than anything else.  It's unusual, but it also means that this chapter has more appeal and smoulder to me than most BL can offer in a single volume.  The second story, "Omamorihito Hanana," is more of a typical star-crossed lovers sort of story, as a pair of teenagers trying to bring blessings upon their clans end up falling in love in the face of rules forbidding such a thing.  It's not quite as good, but it's another place for Hoshino to indulge her love of crossdressing and/or really feminine ukes, as the uke here spends most of his time in a very ceremonial and feminine kimono. 

Maybe Mr. Flower Groom would have been more compelling if I had read its predecessor first.  Maybe I would be more invested in the leads as a couple.  As it is, there's simply nothing here to get invested in.  The cast and story alike are too dull and too rote to inspire any interest and Hoshino's low-key approach to the drama makes it even more boring.  We know Hoshino can do better because we can see it with at least one of the side stories here, so why can't she bring that same sense of verve to the rest of the volume?

ART:

I'm always of two minds about Hoshino's art.  On one hand, her character designs are appealing overall.  They have dark, glossy eyes that draw your own eyes to them on the page, and she's got a sort of visual austerity that stands out in a genre used to all sorts of visual excess.  That being said, her characters do tend to be kind of stiffly drawn, and her ukes are drawn in such a feminine manner that she might as well be drawing flat-chested girls.  Ritsu doesn't suffer from this nearly as bad as some of her other works, but it's always been something of an oddity of hers.  Her sparseness also applies to the backgrounds.  While what we do see of the Souta home is nicely rendered, she mostly gets around this with a lot of close-ups.  Even in the art, we don't get much escape from Kouichiro and Ritsu's barely simmered drama, and it only adds to the stifling boredom of their story.

RATING:

I can't say how Mr. Flower Groom works as a sequel, but as a stand-alone book it's merely a sparsely-drawn snooze.  It's perfectly competent, but it doesn't exactly inspire me to seek out Hoshino's other books.

This book was published by Yen Press.  It is currently out of print.

Merry Month of Manga Review: CROQUIS

Obviously, boys' love deals a lot with homosexuality, but it's very very rare to see any of them even consider the other parts of the LGBTQ spectrum.  Today's review is one of those very very rare expections.

CROQUIS, by Hinako Takanaga.  First published in 2004 and first published in North America in 2010. 

PLOT:

Ever since he was a preteen, Nagi wanted to become a girl.  He thought it was the only way he could become normal.  So, he spends his days modeling at an art school and his nights working at a gay bar so he can someday afford the surgery he needs.  Then he starts getting close to art school student Shinji, and Nagi starts to question if he needs to change his sex to be worthy of love.  Meanwhile, the quiet and reserved Kamota comes to terms over time with his crush on his best friend Tori and Sei tries to find the courage to confess his feelings to his starry-eyed friend Daiki.

STORY:

You almost never see trans individuals in manga, BL or otherwise.  There are a fair share of transvestites in manga, but even then they are rarely treated as anything more than a joke, as a bunch of hairy buff guys unconvincingly wearing drag.  That's why it's nice to see someone treating a trans kid like a person, even if the trans part doesn't really stick.

That's the big caveat with the main story: Nagi thinks he's trans, but it stems not from a real issue with his gender but as an overreaction to his homosexuality.  He's so paranoid about being outed and mocked that he feels like a sex change is the only way to make his desires socially acceptable.  Still, Takanaga takes his struggle seriously and it's hard to not feel for the poor kid.  She also surrounds Nagi with a lot of transwomen as part of his night job.  They do tend to be rather catty about Nagi's love troubles and none of them are truly distinct enough to be characters in their own right, but again she treats them like people and not like gags.  If anything, they are Nagi's mentors in love, bringing a more jaded and snarky counterpoint to his giddy heights and hysterical lows as well as stressing that becoming a transwoman won't solve all of Nagi's romantic problems.

It's good that we have characters like that because on his own, Nagi's emotions are so extreme that it starts to get exhausting after a while.  Even after he and Shinji become a couple, he freaks out over everything: how androgynous Shinji's painting of him is, why they aren't having sex, Shinji spending all of his money on art supplies, etc.  It's a good thing then that Shinji is so mellow in comparison. He's the one that usually initiating the explanations instead of jumping to conclusions.  He's the one who is able to talk Nagi down from his hysterics and to demonstrate that his affections are true.  He's precisely the sort of chill pill that someone like Nagi needs and in that sense they're a perfect pair.  That being said, I also like that he's also not completely perfect.  It would be all too easy to make Shinji the perfect boyfriend, but instead she makes him a flake when it comes to money and conflicted between his love of rough sex and his desire to not affect Nagi's part-time modeling.  There's some decent characterization here in what is a relatively short amount of space, and it's a credit to Takanaga that she makes it work so well.

It doesn't stop there, though.  The next story, "My First Love" is a very down-to-earth take on one teenage boy's first crush on his outgoing best friend.  It's an unrequited sort of love, but it's not played for melodrama.  Instead, there's a lot of humor, mostly because Kamota's friend Tori is such a gregarious goofball to begin with.  Despite that, she manages to end it on a really great, bittersweet note.  The two meet up again as adults, having drifted apart after high school.  A lot of BL would have this lead to a sudden but mutual confession of love and the two getting together.  Instead, Tori is happily married, the two are able to reconnect as friends, and Kamota is able to give himself a sense of closure to his crush.  It's a very mature take on unrequited love, one that's so good that not even a frankly unnecessary side story from Tori's point of view can completely taint it.

The only story that didn't work for me at all in this collection was "Wish Upon a Star."  In some ways it felt like a retread of the title story, with one boy being simultaneous very repressed yet very emotional and the other being so caught up in their particular interest that they don't always notice something wrong.  Here, though, Sei's reluctance doesn't have any real cause so his inability to just say "I love you" is just frustrating, especially since the story keeps dragging things out.  The resolution is sweet enough, and I like the fact that for once the main couple stops in the middle of the post-confession foreplay and takes that action to a more private place like sensible people. 

Croquis is a pretty solid anthology of BL when taken as a whole.  Takanaga manages to get a lot of character into these short stories and even explores some ideas that I've not seen done elsewhere.  This may be one of the few anthology-style BL manga that I would recommend to others.

ART:

While I do like Takanaga's art overall, I do wish she would change things up when it came to her character designs.  She's got a preference for pairing up tiny, boyish, light-haired boys with taller, dark-haired ones, and she tends to recycle designs a lot from one work to another.  As a fan of her works, it's hard for me to look at Nagi or Sei and not see Tatsumi from Challengers or how much Shinji looks like Morinaga from The Tyrant Falls in Love.  Even if you've never read any of her other works, it's not hard to spot that the pairings in this book do all bear a bit of resemblance to one another. 

It's a shame because there are some great things about them as well.  While her faces are pretty conventional for BL art, they're wonderfully expressive and she actually has a grasp on how to draw bodies and decent-looking hands.  On the other hand, I wish she didn't feel the need to always cover up so much of her faces with messy bangs and big, hatchy blush marks.  She's also kind of messy when it comes to her paneling and composition, especially here when there's simply so many inner monologues to fit on the page.  At times it can obscure those good parts and make things feel more frantic than what the story would suggest.  The short story format makes those flaws a little more obvious than normal, but overall it's still a notch above average.

PRESENTATION:

The translation is not bad for the most part.  It can get a little slang-laden in place, but it's not frequent or weird enough to distract the reader from the text.  What I do have a problem with is that in the early chapters there are some random German words in said text that is very distracting.  It's clearly a mistake whenever it happens and it makes me wonder if this wasn't translated by Tokyopop's German branch first or if the same translator was working on both translations.  Since no translator is credited anywhere, it's hard to say for certain.

RATING:

Croquis is not without its flaws, but Takanaga does a lot more good here than not.  You might come to this work for the sympathetic take on transgendered characters, but it's worth sticking around for the generally good character writing and above-average art.

This book was published by Tokyopop under their Blu imprint.  It is currently out of print.