Now Reading – 8

Recently I read the following titles:

Aozora Eru (Yell for the Blue Sky) by KAWAHARA Kazune (Seven volumes at present; Published by Shueisha)

Hiroin Shikkaku (The Disqualified Heroine; She Is Not the Heroine) by KODA Momoko (Five volumes at present; Published by Shueisha)

Romansu (Romance) by TAKAMI Mako (1997, Shueisha)  — This one is “seinen” manga, for adult men.

AE is the story of a girl who joined in a very severe high school brass band.  It’s so sweaty, sportsman’s spirit type of story, which is sometimes too sticky and heavy, but this one is not bad.

HS is the combination of a slapstick comedy and a romance.  There a girl recklessly struggles to catch the heart of the boy whom she  used to believe hers, after he inclined to another girl who is plain-looking but straightforward, in other words, the alpha heroine in the usual shojo manga.  The story tries to break the conventional structure but still stays there.  But it’s not bad.

Romance is half-based on the true life of the late popular artist Takehisa Yumeji (1884-1934).  The hero is described as a rake who hops from a woman to another even after he married for love, but at the same time  as an earnest and talented artist.  His passion to the art and the women looks so persuasive that the explicit bed scenes do not look dirty.

 

P.S.: I also modified all Title Lists (Favorite Titles; D-Graded Titles; and Out-of-the-List Titles).

Kisu, Zekko, Kisu (Kiss, Break off, and Kiss)

TITLE: Kisu, Zekko, Kisu (Kiss, Break off, and Kiss) and its sequel, Kisu, Zekko, Kisu – Bokurano Bai (Kiss, Break off, and Kiss: Our Case)

AUTHOR: FUJIWARA Yoshiko

DATA: 2001-2004, Shogakukan

My Evaluation: A (Excellent)

A really pure and touching story of young lovers from their fifth grade till high school.  The episodes are retold from both the girl’s and the boy’s points of view, and so you cannot help but empathize with them.

You may say that the girl is too shy and stubborn and the boy is also too naive to be realistic, but it’s not a matter of being realistic or not.  The boy and the girl are, in my opinion, the symbol of the heart-throbbing love, the keen love that you must have experienced at least for one moment in your life.

STORY:

Mao and Hatori are the fifth grade classmates, forming contrasts in many ways.  Mao is a square and quiet, straight-A pupil, and Hatori is a noisy but very popular boy with poor grades.

Hatori always tries to draw the attention of Mao, always ends in vain.  One day, he thinks he has finally succeeded in her attention, when he boasts of his experience in kissing a girl.  Hatori gathers his courage and talks to Mao in person, but she refuses him, saying that all his boasts are lies because kissing is between lovers while it is doubtless that no girl loves him.  Hatori, shocked and confused, kisses Mao with force.

After the incident, Mao never talks to Hatori, nor even looks toward him, in the rest of the grade school years and the junior high years.  She is aware that  she cannot help chasing his view in reality, but because it is not her but other girls who have him laugh, and because she cannot deal with her own  feelings to him and the girls around him well,  she keeps him out of her life stubbornly.  There happen a few moments that they vaguely feel their emotional bond, but those exceptional moments vanish instantly.

Then, on the graduation day of the junior high, they notice each other that it will be the last day to see the view of each other.  Hatori, who has intended to boycott the commencement to disobey the teachers’ order to dye back his bleached hair, changes his mind and rushes for the ceremony.  Mao sees Hatori coming into the auditorium when she has just begun her valedictory speech…

P.S.:

Just in case you should read the half-baked scanlated version, I would like to mention the phrase I was impressed by.

Near the end of the sequel, they finally make love after many detours and conflicts.  “Mao’s mine, ” Hatori says to himself, embracing Mao.  These are the words that surely match the scene in English.  However, the original wording here is “Mao wa boku no hito da,” and the phrase ‘boku no hito (lit.: my person)’ is not commonly used.  More common phrase is ‘boku no mono‘, literally ‘my thing’.

I felt Hatori’s affection to Mao more deeply than the case he had said “she is my thing,” when I ran across this uncommon phrase.  It sounded to me that ‘boku no mono’ rather emphasizes a man’s primitive satisfaction in possessing a woman, while ‘boku no hito’ seems to more emphasizes a respect to the woman’s personality as his soul partner.

ATTENTION: There may appear a black video screen here, which I don’t know why and what, and cannot remove. Please don’t click for your safety.

Teenage Love — The Eternal Champ of Shoujo

You know that I’ve been creeping out of my snug library of favorite old shojo manga these days, expecting new encounters .  And I saw in a new light that there really are soooo many teenage love shojo manga in today’s market.

I like historical themes and fantasies (except deep Gothic pieces) in general, but they seem to be rather minorities in terms of the number of titles.  Main shojo manga shelves of bookstores are occupied by the love stories of ordinary teenage girls for ordinary teenage girls.  Surely, it would have always been so since the start of shojo manga, but it was impressive to realize it again.

The good thing about that large library of teenage love stories is that you can encounter many vividly touching stories.  The bad thing is, of course, you will also find many mediocre stories that you cannot remember the episodes clearly even a day, or a moment, after you finish them.  And because the teenage love stories are all set in similar situations in school calendar, the difference between the good and the mediocre tends to be subtle and very much subjective.

As for me, good ones are those that describe the characters’ daily worries and happy feelings delicately and naturally.  Mediocre ones are, on the contrary,  superficial.  A nasty rival, the heroin’s indiscreet lack of confidence or misunderstandings on stereotyped  happenings and  so on pop up and fade meaninglessly.

Here are some examples of my personal good and not-so-good ones I’ve run across recently.  All are still ongoing and so my opinions may easily change later.  I’m scribbling down the outlines for my memory help:

360° Material by MINAMI Toko, published by Shueisha.  Attractive so far.

Outline: Mio meets Taki, her new classmate.  Taki is a smart student but is a kind of “aloof from the world” type.  They start dating before long, but Taki knows Marui, a nice sportsman, loves Mio, and Mio suspects math-brilliant Hatano is fond of Taki.  Their love is far from being steady.

Boku kara Kimi ga Kienai (I Cannot Delete You from My Heart) by AIKAWA Saki, published by Shogakukan.  Stereotype…  I quit reading.

Outline: Kosuke’s elder brother who is the teacher at his school also loves his girlfriend Hotaru.

Bokura wa Itsumo (We Are Always…) by FUJIMIYA Ayu, published by Shueisha.  A little bit heavy, but not bad so far.

Outline: Nori meets her ex-next-door Haruna again after his eight years’ absence.  They love each other, but Haruna needs to leave her.  Meanwhile, Nori’s old pals, Sayeka and Kyosuke, are also in painful love respectively.  Sayeka is in love with a man in his 20′s, much older than her.  Kyosuke loves Sayeka one-sidedly.

Bokutachi wa Shitte-shimatta (We Noticed It) by MIYAZAKA Kaho, published by Shogakukan.  Fairly interesting but too long…

Outline: Kaji Kotori, an unsociable, love-simulation game maniac, meets popular Kaji Keita.

Kokoro Botan (The Heart Button)  by USAMI Maki, published by Shogakukan.  The hero is unique and quite interesting so far.

Outline: Nina starts dating “on trial basis” with Koga-kun of the same school.  He looked to be tender and kind at first, but she soon knows that his favorite thing is to fluster her.

Kyo Koi wo Hajimemasu (We Start Love Today) by MINAMI Kanan, published by Shogakukan.  Funny and generally good, but continues too long.  Looks as if new problems and new characters were introduced just to have the series go on.

Outline: Hibino Tsubaki, an extraordinarily old-fashioned girl, meets Tsubaki Kyota, a playboy.  They become an odd couple.

LDK (Living-Dining-Kitchen) by WATANABE Ayu, published by Kodansha.  I’d say it’s satisfactory but it seems that’s all…

Outline: Aoi and Shusei happen to live together in an apartment.  Shusei seems to care for Aoi, but he is too whimsical.

Tonari no Atashi (Me, Next to You) by NAMBA Atsuko, published by Kodansha.  Not bad, but the tempo is slow and tiresome.  Too many close-up’s of large-eyed characters.

Outline: Nina have been cherishing her puppy love to next-door Kyosuke, but he starts dating with another girl.  So Nina also dates with Miyake-kun, to stop loving Kyosuke, which she soon finds impossible.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun by Robiko, published by Kodansha.  Unique and interesting characters.

Outline: Shizuku, a grind, meets Haru, her next seat boy at the homeroom.  Haru was the top at the entrance exam, but he was queer enough to fight with other school students and be absent from school for a month.  Shizuku happens to be regarded as his first friend ever.

Now Reading 7

It’s not one of the oldies which I originally intended to introduce in this blog.  It’s not even a shoujo/shojo.  Actually, it’s not bundled to a published comic book yet…*  But Tenchi Meisatsu that started in this spring on the monthly Afternoon magazine for adult men is the manga I’m excited the most to read the next sequel at present.

Tenchi Meisatsu (I cannot translate the feel of the title well, but “The Keenest Insight” or “The Divinely Brilliant Solution” may be close…) is adapted to manga by Maki Ebishi from Ubukata To’s award-winning historical novel.  It’s a drama about the  Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Harumi (1639-1715) who made the new accurate lunatic calendar in early Edo era.   The manga has just started and one of the leading character Seki (Seki Kowa or Seki Takakazu; 1642-1708) has not appeared yet.  Nevertheless, by the thrilling story-telling and the unique theme, you are spurred on to see what will happen to the math genius Seki and his admirer Shibukawa.

*P.S. The first volume of Tenchi was served up at the end of September by Kodansha.

Another ongoing piece I enjoyed a bite recently is Pintokona by Shimaki Ako.  This is a shojo/shoujo manga about two young kabuki (Japanese traditional play acted only by men) actors and a girl whom both boys love.  Both the love triangle and the growing actor’s story are common motives of shojo, but  the twist here is that you cannot tell yet which boy might win the girl’s heart or the stardom in kabuki.  One of the boys is from an ordinary family but is making many efforts to be a good and famous actor, and he is loved by the girl since the childhood.  The other boy is the heir of the famous family which has generated kabuki actors for a long period of time but he had been lazy until very recently.  However, after falling into love with the girl who is a serious kabuki fan, he has determined to be a better actor.  Although the story seems a little more sympathetic with the latter boy so far, you cannot easily patronize one or the other.

“Pintokona” is told to be a kabuki term meaning a handsome actor with good performance and masculine appeal.  I learned the term here for the first time.

Now Reading 6

Still devouring. Today I add:

Shinobi Raifu (The Ninja Life) by KONAMI Shoko.  11 volumes at present.  Published by Akita Shoten.

The ninja hero and the modern heroine time travel.  The artwork of actions is skilled, and the story is interesting.

P.S.: I’ve added the cover photo images to my former entries.

Now Reading 5

I’m now reading some odd types:

Warau Kanoko-sama (Kanoko-sama Laughs) (3 Volumes; Complete)+ Koi dano Ai dano (Nonsense like Love) (The sequel of WK; 2 Volumes at present) by TSUJITA Ririko. Published by Hakusaen-sha.

Koi Uma — Koi-suru Tame ni Umarete Kita-no (Born To Love) by NAGAE/NAGAYE Tomomi.  6 Volumes; Complete.  Published by Shogaku-kan.

Sekai-ichi Hatsu-koi – Onodera Ritsu no Baai – (The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Onodera Ritsu) by NAKAMURA Shungiku.  5 Volumes at present.  Published by Kadokawa Shoten.

WK+ADKD is the really unique satire that makes you grin all while you are reading it.  It laughs at shoujo/shojo manga, it laughs at girl’s outward friendship, and yet it keeps the typical sizzling situation of shojo manga that the popular handsome boy sincerely loves the plain heroine.  Only, in this work, the heroine is not only plain-looking but also a twisted character.  Pretty recommendable if you have a cynical part on the inside.

KU is a hot love comedy.  The unique point is that the hero is a porn shop manager.  The art is cute, the story is not bad, and the hot scenes are not many nor so offensive either, but the story deals with porn shops rather positively.  I’d say the work be “Rated R”.

SH is a “BL(boy’s love)” manga which is the genre I usually stay clear of.  The reason I picked up this piece is that I found the TV anime based on this was pretty funny.  So when I started reading the original, it was surprising it included “rather explicit”* homosexual bed scenes that were not seen at all in the anime.

*The “rather explicit” here means that the scenes seem to keep the aesthetic rules unique to the BL, instead of pursuing to describe realistic ones…

However, it was also true that this was a good love comedy that takes place at a shojo manga magazine publisher, and the joy and the agony of love described here are the same as the hetero’s.  Or rather, I would say that the reason of this work being a BL is the author wants to describe the love passion as directly as possible.  If there was the heroine, the female readers would tend to empathize with her, and so, the expressions of the gush of passion could be felt too embarrassing.  Without the same gender protagonists, the readers can enjoy the story more easily as it is.  Besides, in this story, the hero is flustered by the fact that he is magnetized by a man, and he acts like an ingenue.  I chuckled a lot while reading.

Now Reading 4

Now reading:

Hotaru no Hikari (Lit.: Lights of Fireflies) by HIURA Satoru.  15 volumes; Complete. Romance of a working woman with lots of comedy flavor.   Not bad.

Piece by ASHIHARA Hinako.  6 volumes at present.  Drama with suspense and romance flavors. The story flashes back the past episodes of a dead girl’s life and shows the readers the jigsaw pieces little by little.  A little bit heavy but thrilling and very good so far.

Real Clothes by MAKIMURA Satoru. 12 volumes at present.  A straightforward working woman mulls over and endeavors for her work and relations with men.  The heroine’s workplace at a department store is described very vividly and the character sketch  is interesting.

Just finished:

Mayonaka dake-wa Suki-de Ite (Love Me If Only At Night) by HATA Akimi.  3 volumes; Complete.  Secret love of a working woman and a man at a rival company.  Can’t say it’s outstandingly good, but touching enough.

Only temporarily…

I move some posts to the private mode, maybe for a month or so.

Now Reading 3

I’ve read the following titles till the last or the latest volumes:

Bokura ga Ita (There We Were) by OBATA Yuki (2002-; 15 volumes at present; Shogakukan)

Kimi ni Todoke (Reach for You) by SHIINA Karuho (2006-; 13 volumes at present; Shueisha)

Hatsu-kare (The First Boyfriend) by TOMORI Miyoshi (Complete with 10 volumes; Shueisha)

It is interesting that there are two extreme patterns in shoujo/shojo manga for teens.   In one pattern, the young lovers take it as a matter of course to jump into bed or think that a virgin is a shame.  In the other pattern, both the boy and the girl are so shy that they make every detour just to hold hands.  I guess both patterns are partly truly reflecting inexperienced and sensitive girls’ mind.

All the above titles happen to be in the latter category.  KT is rather a comedy, while the other two are very serious.

I appreciate BI,the most serious one with the tragic tone, the best so far.  Basically, it’s a love triangle type of story, but it is sharp-edged and thrilling.

KT is the piece I once abandoned, for I thought I didn’t like the art.  Picking it up again, I’ve found the art is not as bad as I first thought and the story has its own charm point, but the heroine seems surrounded by too-good-natured friends to feel true.  I’m not sure if I follow the later volumes.

Hatsu-kare was very attractive till the middle, but then unfortunately, the story seemed to lose its freshness and driving power a little bit.  Still good as a whole.

Za Chenji!

Title: Za Chenji!(The Change!)

Authors: YAMAUCHI Naomi (Art), HIMURO Saeko (Story)

Data: Two volumes from Hakushensha Bunko. First published in 1986-88 by Hakusensha. The original novel was published in 1983-85 by Shueisha.

My Evaluation: C+(Good)
Using the outline of the existing Japanese classic story well, the authors had created more effective romantic comedy than the original.  It is a subtle pity that the story has a little bit sillier tinge than Nante Sutekini Japanesuku by the same authors, but it still keeps healthy sense of humor and excitement.

Story:
In Kyoto capital in Heian Era, there were a brother and a sister, born of a high-ranked nobleman and different mothers.  They were at the same age, looked alike, and both named as Kira.

They kept it a secret, except among their family and close servants, that their real genders were opposite to the ones that were believed.  In other words, the real Lord Kira looked and acted like a woman and was believed to be Lady Kira, and the real Lady Kira looked and acted like a man and was believed to be Lord Kira.

This absurdity had begun when Lord Kira’s nervous mother was gulled by a fortune-teller and decided to rear her son as a girl.  Lord Kira was forced to wear a girl’s kimono and play indoors with maids.  On the contrary, Lady Kira’s rough mother let her perky daughter wear a boy’s clothes and play outdoors with male servants.

Thus, grown into their middle teen, the appropriate age to go to the court service, the brother and the sister were caught in the problem whether they should go back to their real genders and play the proper but uncomfortable social roles accordingly, or they should keep disguising the opposite sex.

Desiring to keep her freedom that was only allowed to men, Lady Kira began the court service as “Lord Kira”, and she won the instant success. Women in the court favored her as an attractive nobleman, and men also favored her as an able but no-ambitious colleague.

But soon, she found she had been optimistic.  Once, when opposed the service by her father, she went to the family’s vacation villa for a change, and she ran across a young nobleman when she was swimming naked in the pond nearby.  She made a haste excuse, but since then she had been afraid of meeting the man again and her real sex being revealed.  And the thing came to the worst.  She met the man again in the court, and he was nobody but the Emperor.

Lady Kira thought this was the end of her courtier’s life as Lord Kira, but actually her life got more complicated.  The Emperor mistook her as the brother of his long-dreaming “lady in the pond”, and began insisting to take out Lady Kira to the court.  Now, both Lady Kira and Lord Kira were really driven into a corner…