30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 25: Kizuna volume 4

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Y’know, I should just stop making promises about when this yaoi challenge is going to wrap up. But, I do expect to have more time to read manga this upcoming week, so maybe it’ll happen sooner that I think? I suppose the key thing is to remember that this is a casual manga blog and that I’m just coming off a long hiatus.

Kizuna volume 4 by Kazuma Kodaka

You know how last volume I said I was really tired of the main characters getting pulled into yakuza shenanigans? (Aside from Masa, since it’s his job to be involved in yakuza shenanigans.) Well, this volume is blissfully free of that kind of drama! Instead, the focus shifts to Kai and his rocky relationship with Masa for most of the omnibus.

After Kei recovers from his wounds, his father shows up and offers him and Ranmaru a free trip to a Kyoto onsen inn as thanks. Of course, Kai butts in when he hears Masa is going.

While Kei and Ranmaru endeavor to get it on, Kai and Masa try to understand the nature of their love for each other and how to best navigate the tempest. Unfortunately, Kai has a flash back to the time he was raped when he and Masa try to have sex. This prompts Masa to leave early, further complicating things between them. Interestingly enough, though it makes Kai realize the terribleness of what he had done to Ranmaru before and apologize for raping him. Luckily for Kai, Ranmaru doesn’t even consider it rape.

During all this, Ranmaru does decide to take up kendo again and Kai immediately asks to have a match with him, one of his lifetime goals. This brings us to the next part of the volume which is pretty much all about the two training for the match, then the actual match itself. The result is that Ranmaru feels empowered again and Kai feels like he’s chased his inner demons away so he can be with Masa.

This was a great volume. I honestly wasn’t bothered at all by the relatively drama-free plots, it was more than made up for by the intense character-building that Kodaka did here. It was actually something of a relief to get to see Kai and Masa worked out, and it was nice to see Kei and Ranmaru have lots of sexy fun like a normal couple would. It was also awesome to see Ranmaru get a lot of screen time, since he tended to be ignored at times beforehand. Finally, it was a nice surprise not to have to deal with rape for one volume.

The art went back to the standards of volume 2, which makes me wonder if Kazuma Kodaka just decided to re-draw select volumes way after the fact. I do prefer this style, I just don’t understand why the quality of the art varies from volume to volume.

 

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Kaori Yuki MMF: I Think I’ll Stick to the Victorian Goth Manga

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Another Manga Movable Feast is rolling by this week and it’s about another mangaka (Kaori Yuki) whose seminal work I haven’t read in its entirety. Luckily, this time I’m prepared! I just happen to have bought all of Angel Sanctuary at last year’s Fanime and hadn’t read it yet.

Now I’ve read volumes 1-3 of Angel Sanctuary before, but after rereading those volumes and up to volume 5, I can see why I prefer the Cain Saga and Kaori Yuki’s less “modern” works. Here’s a list:

1. The Whole Setsuna/Sara Relationship is Creepy!

Abusive relationship? Why would you ever think that?

A potentially abusive relationship? Why would you ever think that?

This is the only mainstream manga where I’ve come across that’s featured incest so…romantically and NOBODY SEEMS TO MIND. Say what you want about Marmalade Boy, but at least those kids weren’t blood-related. Maybe I’m missing something here, maybe in the next 3/4ths of the series we discover that Sara and Setsuna aren’t actually related, but it’s still setting off all my icks. And anyone who opposes their True Love in the series is painted as an enemy. Um, hello? Incest is taboo for reasons other than sharing blood! 1) Your kids could have mental and physical health problems; 2) most incestuous relationships involve abuse of power, which brings us to: 3)most people in incestuous relationships are being raped or are the rapist. So I just don’t feel it’s entirely right to show such a relationship in such a completely romantic lens.

It also kills my suspension of disbelief when Setsuna calls Sara a bitch during a particularly spoiler-ific moment about three volumes in. That’s your True Love, dude. The one you spent most of the last three volumes pining over and fighting for. How could your True Love ever be a bitch to you, even if you’re mad at her? It’s like this moment of realness that happens in non-fictional relationships, except since Setsuna and Sara’s romance is so fictional the realness just makes it look even more fake.

2. The Angels in Nazi-like Uniforms Are Creepy Too.

All you need is an armband.

I wonder why everyone keeps mistaking me for an SS officer…

Perhaps this is just a visual cue to emphasize the dictatorship that the angels live under without saying it, and I’m just being too sensitive about this. But even if there are no swastikas shown, I get the feeling that Kaori Yuki has fetishized the style of the uniforms and that makes me uncomfortable. I’ve seen too many instances of Japanese pop culture creators forgetting the horrors that the Nazis brought upon the world and making their iconography, or even the Nazis themselves, into something cute or sexy. That’s just wrong.

But this is a very personal reason why I’m not fond of this series, though, so you are free to discount it if Nazi-esque uniforms don’t bug you.

3. So Many Characters, So Many Secrets!

Would you believe me if I told you this is *just* Team Setsuna?

Would you believe me if I told you this is *just* Team Setsuna?

One of the biggest downfalls of Angel Sanctuary, from a more objective standpoint, is that the manga introduces so many characters so quickly, that all of these characters are important, and that you will have to remember them and their motivations because they are relevant even if they’re dead.  Even worse, many of these characters have secrets or mysteries surrounding them, so you have to remember all that while new characters pop up. I’ve seen large ensemble casts in manga go well, but I’m already doubtful that this is going to be one of those manga. There is such a thing as too much political intrigue.

4. Setsuna is a Bit of a Gary Stu Sometimes.

I dare you to be more emo than me.

I dare you to be more emo than me.

I’m five volumes in and I don’t see much from Setsuna except massive amounts of angst-ing and convincing people that they shouldn’t get in the way of his incestuous relationship. Setsuna is surrounded by other people who either already love him, have just been persuaded to love him, or other mysterious people who are already on his side. These folks always save him from the scrapes he gets himself into. If he wasn’t saved by other people, he was saved by the secret reincarnated angel inside of him. By the way, that reincarnated angel is everyone’s savior. Setsuna would be Jesus reborn, if this manga was about Judeo-Christian mythology as a whole and not just the structures of Angelic society.

5. This Series May Be About Angels, But Enough with the Deux Ex Machina.

So far, the character of God has been asleep throughout the entirety of the series, so technically what’s happening isn’t necessarily Deux Ex Machina so much as Adam Kadamon Ex Machina.

It's cool Setsuna, I got your back.

It’s cool Setsuna, me and my bajillion different kinds of angel wings got your back.

Adam Kadamon, also called Seraphita, is the highest of the angels and a practitioner of lost magic that no other angel can perform (except Setsuna/Alexiel!) Of course, he mysteriously disappeared ages ago and no one’s seen him…UNTIL SETSUNA GETS HIMSELF IN TROUBLE. Then Adam Kadamon conveniently gets him out of trouble. Multiple times. Of course.

I like Kaori Yuki, she has her hits and her misses story-wise, but her artwork is so solidly gorgeous and fun to look at. However, it seems like she really dropped the ball when it came to writing Angel Sanctuary in ways that I can’t easily ignore.  There are just too many characters and not enough of them are fleshed out nicely to make the story compelling enough for me to collect this series, had I not already done so. But, I am only 1/4th of my way through the series. Things could change drastically in the next 15 volumes, and I fully expect that they will like they did in the first five volumes.

For more on the Kaori Yuki Manga Moveable Feast, you should visit Foxy Lady Ayame at The Beautiful World.

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30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 24: Love Makes Everything Creepy

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Yeah, I’m being reaaaaaaaaal bad about finishing up this challenge, but I have a legit excuse: I was working my part-time job and house-sitting for 4 days. The house-sitting included dog-sitting, so I was working 9-to-5 and dealing with three dogs (two more than usual for me), two of whom are jealous of each other.

It was sooooooo relaxing.

Love Makes Everything Right by Sanae Rokuya

Mizuha is an out-of-work college graduate when he suddenly gets an odd offer to run a company from his college’s employment agency. He gets the feeling that the company is shady, and he’s right. They sell sex toys, but that’s not the shady part. He gets the job after answering two questions: “Are you seeing anyone?” and “Would you be a sadist or a masochist?” But his interviewer, Satake, is  so creepy that Mizuha immediately tries to get out of the job. Instead, he winds up having phone sex with Satake and signing on anyway.

The two work together for a few weeks and Satake keeps saying weird, vague things about knowing Mizuha for a long time. A creepy photographer with a thing for Satake abuses Mizuha for information, and somehow Satake and Mizuha fall in love. Turns out Satake owed Mizuha’s late father a debt, and the company is Satake trying to pay that debt. But when Satake found out (before the story begins) that Mizuha was gay, he started lusting after Mizuha. Thus the creepiness?

Next is a story about a quiet business man who has a one night stand with another man who claims to be straight. Because of the unusual situation, the two wind up having a very wild night… Wild enough for the straight man to offer up a lucrative business contract when the two meet on the job, but only if the gay man sleeps with him again. Sweet, right?

But the gay man refuses, so the straight man proposes a game in which he chases the gay man for a week. If he catches the man, they sleep together, if he doesn’t the gay man gets the contract. Of course, over the course of the week, the man successfully evades his stalker, but finds that he kind of misses the guy. So the gay man decides to catch the “straight” guy and they end up happily ever after.

So, in case you haven’t noticed, I found this manga to be a little creepy. I mean… Holy stalkers, Batman! They’re everywhere in this book!

It’s kind of the same problem I have with the rapists. Why is stalking attractive to the creators? And the editors? The readers? I can understand that someone devoted to you is attractive, but stalking is going beyond devotion and into obsession. How is that attractive? It’s like being objectified! A relationship like that is just never good and usually strains suspension of disbelief. How many reliably true stories do you hear about people getting with their stalker? Probably none.

The art is alright, but everyone’s either grumpy or an ever-smirking bastard.

So yeah. I can’t recommend this one. It wasn’t rape-y, but this manga set of all my ick-senses and I am honestly finding nothing positive to say about Love Makes Everything Right.

I’m going to end this post by saying that I’m going to do the 30 Day Yaoi Challenge every other day for now. I really want to participate in the Kaori Yuki MMF that’s happening this week, so I need the time to read Angel Sanctuary as well as yaoi manga.

I know I haven’t been totally reliable on trying to finish the Yaoi Challenge, but the whole point of it was trying to get myself to blog again. So I think I can forgive myself for further delaying the end of the challenge to do more blogging-related things.

Happy reading, everyone!

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30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 23: A Cock of Peerless Beauty

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Yeah, you read that blog title right.

Thank goodness for this crack. I was starting to get really, really bored.

I’ve Seen It All volumes 1 & 2 by Shoko Takaku

Chihiro is a doctor specializing in male health (The term is andrology, apparently,) and has to see a lot of nasty-ass dicks as part of his job. He’s feeling a little bit down because of it, until he sees (through someone’s pants) a cock of peerless beauty.

Oh yes, folks. Not only did he lay eyes on a cock of peerless beauty, but he recognized its brilliance underneath layers of clothing. This is apparently what happens when you are an andrologist and you look at a ton of dicks all day.

Chihiro’s pursuit of Ayumi (he of the most glorious cock in Japan) begins to read like any old romantic comedy. Chihiro’s colleague screws up his confession of love; Ayumi feels super self-conscious about Chihiro obsession with his dick; Chihiro and Ayumi have trouble getting intimate; they screw up dates; they get jealous of other people and go to wild lengths to please each other.

This would all be very ordinary if it weren’t for the focus on dicks. Ayumi starts comparing his dick to porn stars’, Ayumi gets erectile dysfunction because he’s worried that Chihiro is into a guy who might have a prettier cock, there are weird penis-related haiku up on the walls of the clinic, colleagues gush about getting to work with pretty cocks, dates get cancelled because someone broke their dick…

But despite all the crack this was a solidly written series. Chihiro has reasons to love Ayumi beyond his dick, those who are not gay are solidly not gay, there’s no non-consensual stuff and you actually see the doctors (and a dentist) doing their jobs. Gotta love a yaoi manga that doesn’t ignore the outside world.

The one thing I didn’t like was Ayumi’s character. I wanted him to be some kind of amazingly handsome and fierce guy with a wonder cock, but he’s a really drippy guy that I’d probably find annoying in real life. He just doesn’t have enough backbone, and Chihiro doesn’t quite have enough personality to make up for it when he’s not obsessing over cock. (And that includes the dick involved in his chosen profession.) I just could have done with more powerful personality from both of them, even though Chihiro is quite the understanding, wonderful boyfriend and that makes me go “d’aawww.”

The art is very wispy and sketchy, which does fit the main characters better than if they were fierce. It’s so innocent-looking though, that it’s hard to believe there’s so much cracky and raunchy action behind the sweet blushing faces and the honest eyes.

Anyway. I’m tired and this review is going nowhere, but I’ve Seen It All is worth it and I’m going to check out more of Shoko Takaku’s manga, which all seem to be published by June. Today’s lesson: if your boyfriend is an andrologist and he tells you that you have the most beautiful cock he’s ever seen, YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. He’s seen it all, gurl.

(I’ve been watching too much RuPaul’s Drag Race. Sorry.)

Edit: Now that I’m slightly more awake, why haven’t we seen a manga with this premise before? A manga about a gay man with the most gorgeous cock in the world and his adventures would really work! (Especially if the character was more interesting than Ayumi.) The closest I think I’ve ever seen is Ono, the gay of demonic charm, from Antique Bakery, who was hilariously good at seducing men.

Seriously. Someone get on this. This manga needs to happen.

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30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 22: A Case of the Blahs

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Yeah, I kind of purposefully forgot to post yesterday. I needed too. I was just too spaced out. I can’t say this next manga did anything to inspire my inner writer…

Love Circumstances by Aco Oumi

This manga comprises of four stories about four different couples.

First off there’s two teenage boys who went from being best friends to lovers. While Takagari is all-in, Yamaguchi is much more self-conscious and hesitant to mess with their relationship. They go through the ups and downs of high school life, Takagari must force Yamaguchi out of his shell. (And Yamaguchi does have quite the shell.)

The next story is about two co-workers, one who came into the company through ordinary means, and the other who is part of the rich elite and landed the job through connections. Through sheer coincidence, the ordinary joe finds out that the elite dude is working as an escort to pay off a tremendous debt. Throughout the course of their conversation, the elite dude determines that all the stuff the ordinary joe knows about him must mean that the ordinary joe is in love with him. Cue sex.

The third story is about two boys who live together in a dorm room. One boy has a girlfriend, but swiftly gets dumped. The other has had a long-time crush on his friend. Of course, they get together and have sex.

The final story is about a lingere company salesman and a lingere store manager who slowly fall in love, but find that aspects of their work relationships getting in the way of the romance. Just as they fully realize their feelings and hold hands, the story ends.

Much to my rage.

Seriously, the cutest story in the book, the one that induces the most feels in me, ended before there’s any real satisfaction!! (And it’s in an unusual setting that doesn’t ignore women!)

The other three stories in the book were overly melodramatic and the line between consensual and non-consensual was often fuzzy at best. The dominant males were more reminiscent of that jerk boyfriend one usually has in high school than that special someone with whom gender wouldn’t matter.

The art wasn’t much better. The bodies were too large for the faces that accompanied them. Yaoi hands were rampant, and there was too little difference between characters.

I just can’t find anything else to talk about other than that the last story was the saving grace of the whole book. I wish it had taken up the whole of the book, but alas.

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30 Day Yaoi Challenge, Day 21: I’m Not Gay, But…

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Hi everyone! I’ve returned to the 30 Day Yaoi Challenge as promised! Only slightly late because yesterday I spent the time I meant to be blogging on dealing with back pain instead. (I am having terrible luck with my health lately. =.=)

Good Morning by Ritsu Natsumizu

One day Hayashi, a salesman, wakes up naked next to a known-to-be-gay client/friend named Shinohara. Hayashi got too drunk the night before to remember how he managed to get into bed with Shinohara.

Shinohara decides to play like they actually slept together, but Hayashi quickly discovers that they didn’t, making Shinohara blush in shame. Hayashi finds this adorable, and this propels the story into a lot of Hayashi questioning his sexuality.

Hayashi is so confused by his feelings for Shinohara that he gets jealous when Shinohara meets an old gay professor of his. This eventually causes Hayashi to try and pressure Shinohara into various sexual acts, all of which go nowhere and setback their relationship instead of moving it forward.

Finally, Hayashi figures his feelings out, but Shinohara is so upset that he ignores Hayashi and runs to his old professor for comfort. This causes Hayashi to literally pull him away from the guy on a busy street and confess his feelings for Shinohara as he bickers with the professor about who Shinohara should be with.

Of course, the two of them have sex and everything’s great. Shinohara even gets back at Hayashi by trying to play the “you slept with me and forgot everything” trick again, even though Hayashi is more than happy to have done so now.

The second story is about two co-workers, Fujino and Kuraki, who have never really spoken to each other until Kuraki puts down Fujino for liking plain melon bread (with no filling) a lot. Fujino is upset, thinking that Kuraki finds him inferior, and Kuraki starts a challenge to find an interesting melon bread that Fujino will like.

The tense air between Fujino and Kuraki begins to clear up when Kuraki acknowledges Fujino’s dedicated work ethic and tolerance for putting up with his boss’ scapegoating. This allows Fujino to discover Kuraki’s feelings for him, and the two begin dating soon after a steamy mutual masturbation scene.

The next chapter is about Fujino and Kuraki trying, for the first time, to have anal sex, but fumbling because Kuraki is harebrained enough to immediately whip out the sex toys. Fujino isn’t prepared to get that kinky yet, so it causes him to think that Kuraki is only interested in sex, a mind-trap made worse when he discovers Kuraki about to embark on a group “date” with some girls. Turns out though that Kuraki was forced into the group date by his boss, so he could get the time off to have a more intimate date with Fujino and the two finally get it on.

Good Morning is cute and even humorous at times, but I can’t get behind Hayashi and Shinohara’s relationship. Parts of it are annoying (“I’m not gay, but…”), kind of offensive to gay men (“I may be a homosexual, but I’m a well-behaved homosexual!” among other awful lines that implying that gay men are predatory) or just downright abusive (the way Hayashi pushes Shinohara into awkward sexual situations, which cause Shinohara some emotional trauma, not to mention Hayashi’s jealousy over Shinohara’s relationship with the professor.)

Thankfully, Kuraki and Fujino are a way better couple. The only problem with them is that their second story is ridiculously melodramatic and it winds up playing more like they’re in a male/female relationship sometimes. Still, there are some good parts like when Fujino decides that the more stylish Kuraki is a “strawberry custard danish” and proceeds to call him things like “strawberry custard danish asshole.”

There’s just nothing in this manga that grabs me enough to care or to seek out more works by this mangaka, even though there feels like there should be something. Ah well, can’t win ‘em all.

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30 Day Yaoi Challenge Going on Hiatus

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Hi everyone,

Thank you to all of you who have supported and enjoyed my 30 Day Yaoi Challenge thus far. It has been a great success for me in terms of getting an education in yaoi manga and making me get back into the blogging game in a manner that I find engaging.

Unfortunately, I have to put the 30 Day Yaoi Challenge on hiatus for now. You may have noticed that I missed the past two days already because I managed to get sick after WonderCon. I didn’t notice anything was wrong except a bit of fatigue until Sunday night and by Monday I could tell I had to do some serious resting if I was going to recover in time for my trip to the Bay Area on Wednesday. I’m doing better, but most of the time I feel too woozy to get any blogging done. (This is a rare moment of relative clarity.)

So, I’m just going to cut my losses and say that the 30 Day Yaoi Challenge will resume on April 12th, a few days after my trip, so I can recover properly.

Thanks for understanding!

Daniella

 

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