M.J. Lyons's Blog, page 5

GLog: Days of Love at Seagull Villa Vol. 1

GLog                       girls love, yuri (◔◡◔)
BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

Days of Love at Seagull Villa Vol. 1
Story and art: Kodama Naoko
Translation: Amber Tamosaitis
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: November 24, 2020

This isn’t a bad year to explore themes of pain, loneliness and social isolation.

Only in the case of Days of Love at Seagull Villa, heartbroken city-girl Kikuchi Mayumi’s isolation is chosen after her boyfriend and best friend reveal they’re pregnant together. Instead of confronting her life in shambles, Mayumi takes a teaching course and gets a job in a rural fishing village, going into self-imposed exile, running away from all of her problems to something she hopes is simpler.

When Mayumi meets blonde-haired, brash Ioki Rin while she’s on a bridge looking out at the ocean for the first time, the rural gal assumes she’s going to jump. She mistakenly tries to stop gloomy-faced Mayumi from ending it all and they accidentally take the plunge together.

With earthy, country-girl aplomb, Rin insists on hauling Mayumi back to her place for a bath… which she joins, admiring Mayumi’s “big honkers”. Naked and in the bath together they discover that Rin owns Seagull Villa where Mayumi will be staying!

Maybe it’s just because I don’t read as much girls’ love and yuri, but I get the sense it can be even more formulaic than BL, if that’s possible–and I say that with love. It’s actually a joke of a friend of mine and I, there’s always a bubbly pretty girl with light hair and a socially awkward glasses girl with dark hair. I actually have Days of Love at Seagull Villa and volume 1 of Ajichi’s Failed Princesses sitting side by side on my bed at the moment–I’ll be reviewing the latter in the next week or so–and you could easily convince me Failed Princesses is a prequel to Days of Love.

Again, I say that with love, I think the tropes and formulas is one of the reasons manga is so comforting and easy to access, why its the thing we return to over and over again. Tropes and formulas aren’t a bad thing depending how storytellers use them.

And also how they subvert them, and Days of Love at Seagull Villa has some delicious subversion.

For starters, Rin isn’t a school uniform-wearing pretty girl, but a rough and tumble hick, and also a business owner and adoptive mother to her adorable niece Hinata. She also doesn’t take any shit, from Mayumi or others. When a group of elderly people show up at Seagull Villa to welcome the new teacher, one of the men taps Mayumi on the butt, saying she’s got a “perfect set of child-bearin’ hips on ya”, horrifying Mayumi. Rin grabs his hand and tells him to keep his hands to himself, while the older ladies chide him–“The young people call that ‘sexual harassment.'” A horrifying, sexist moment, but not done for laughs. Mayumi’s more passive about people, Rin clearly isn’t, which the young teacher admires.

There’s a subplot as Mayumi settles into her new life with Rin and adorable Hinata; there’s a young girl Mayumi meets at Seagull Villa, who’s babysitting Hinata and friendly with Rin, who ends up in her homeroom, Saitou Ashima. A mean-girl classmate named Sakura, flanked by two other mean-girls, tells Mayumi that Ashima is a literal bastard, fathered by Sakura’s dad on a “prostitute”, and allowed to stay with Sakura and her mother. Mayumi sees how socially isolated Ashima is and struggles to connect with her, but the young girl seems bitter about the attempts and pushes her teacher away. The only place she smiles is with Rin.

Although there’s a hint there’s something strange going on between Ashima and Sakura.

Like Our Dining Table, Days of Love is an understated domestic drama and romance, very much about the importance of chosen family over societal expectations. Its adorable to see Mayumi slowly begin to make a life with Rin and Hinata, and care for them, her troubles beginning to fade away as she comes to love them. And it subverts some of the more toxic romantic tropes, and the typical socially isolated dumpy girl thing by characters challenging Mayumi’s choices, or not simply opening up to her because she’s there. It’s interesting and human, even as it leans on GL tropes, and in the end its about finding your family; chosen, in this case. I’m looking forward to returning to Seagull Villa in volume 2.

Level of Problematic: Trust no bastard; honestly, this manga is pretty wholesome and lovely, also its nice to see two women together, even completely naked, in a girls’ love manga that aren’t immediately hypesexualized and sexual. The Ashima storyline with a hint of her worrying relationship with Sakura is the only eyebrow raising thing, but I’m still curious to see where it goes.

Level of Adorable: Find every acorn; chosen family stories are my shit, and Hinata is so freaking cute.

Level of Spiciness: Honk every honker; other than the bathtub scene there’s not a lot of spiciness… yet…

BLog: Toritan Birds of a Feather Vol. 1

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

Toritan: Birds of a Feather Vol. 1
Story and art: Kotetsuko Yamamoto
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: August 11, 2020

MISSED CONNECTION: I was a 24-year-old guy in a black sports jacket, slacks and a white t-shirt, floppy long ash-blond hair, saving a baby bird that fell out of a tree. You were a crow.

Inusaki is a cat loving, coffee-drinking, errand running, old-lady-helping, bird-hating, twenty-something dumb bisexual. He can also talk to birds. He learned this as a child when, on a trip to the park…

The official thug-pigeon translation was:
“What the fuck are you lookin’ at, brat? You wanna die?”

Toritan: Birds of a Feather Vol. 1 is the misadventures of jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none Inusaki, a detective who does very little detecting, and instead spends his days running errands for his friends and neighbours; grocery shopping for little old ladies, dog walking, minor repairs.

He is utterly annoyed that he can talk to birds, and birds are typically astounded a human can speak to them and understand them. Why can he talk to birds? Who knows. Does he fall in love with a suave, coolheaded, unflappable crow who helps him save a baby bird? Absolutely.

Kotetsuko Yamamoto’s approach to BL reminded me a lot of an earlier title from this year, Don’t Call Me Dirty. Not a lot happens. The drama of Toritan is all in the interpersonal relationships… or interspecies? After Inusaki meets the crow that just seems “cool” he names Kuro he has to confront two things: being in love with a crow, and being in love with a guy (who is also a crow). This is complicated as Inusaki gets to know Mitsuru–an older high schooler, the son of Inusaki’s landlord–and Mitsuru seems interested in Inusaki’s interest in Kuro.

And Mitsuru’s voice sounds STRANGELY like Kuro, too.

Worst detective.

If you’re looking for something new, mind-blowing or challenging in a manga, maybe pass Toritan by. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it’s an odd little story that wanders. That being said, if you’re looking for something cute, fluffy, with a lot of adorable animals–honestly, the biggest selling point, especially the recurring character of the baby bird and the big fluffy dog Jackie–that hits all the BL right notes, Toritan is right up your alley.

The stranger elements that don’t seem to pan out into much are twofold; firstly, the fact that Inusaki is a detective is utterly passed over in Volume 1. He does zero detecting, and can’t even seem to connect the very obvious fact that Kuro is Mitsuru. Maybe it’s a large leap in logic to figure out that a bird is also a human, but Inusaki can magically and fluently talk to birds, so is it really out of the realm of possibility?

That’s the second element; that Inusaki can talk to birds and just sort of shrugs it off as a minor annoyance, as opposed to a really incredible superpower. At least in Cherry Magic the strange little virginity-enabled power of being able to read someone’s mind is complicated by the fact that the main character has to be touching them–ruining his chance to lose his virginity to a sex worker. Being annoyed by catching ambient thoughts on the subway or at work is understandable. In Toritan the only limitation seems to be that Inusaki wants to keep it a secret since people won’t believe him, or think its strange. Understandable, but imagine a story about a detective who uses a network of bird informants to help him solve mysteries! Maybe that’s the point? That Inusaki is a layabout who would rather complain about his power and help people with household tasks. Maybe there’s something lost in translation? Or maybe the detective work will come in later volumes?

All this being said, I still enjoyed Toritan. I found it odd and charming, cute and funny enough that I could overlook the bizarre narrative choices that don’t pan out. It hits all the right notes, the blushing glances at Kuro, the inevitable visiting-your-crush-while-they’re-sick-in-bed scene, the veiled conversations between Inusaki and Mitsuru–who clearly has feelings for the dumbass detective. The odd little secondary characters, the baby bird, Mitsuru’s mom, the old people around the neighbourhood Inusaki helps, endear the manga to me. Perhaps its not the most mind-blowing story, maybe its strange and wandering, but it’s a pleasant, easy journey, like laying in the grass and watching songbirds on a warm summer day. If that sounds enjoyable you will enjoy it like I did. After all, birds of a feather flock together.

Level of Problematic: The just-turned-eighteen-years-old crush; oh manga, what is your obsession with adults having romances with high schoolers? Mitsuru turns 18 in the middle of the manga, and nothing actually happens in the way of a physical relationship before that, but its still very clear from the moment we meet him that Mitsuru/Kuro is the love interest. Otherwise quite fluffy and innocuous.

Level of Adorable: The not-a-cat-café-we-just-happen-to-have-cats cat café; this is where Toritan shines. Cute characters, cute little flirtations (with a crow, mostly), ADORABLE animals. The cats of Café Kuroki, owned by Mitsuru’s mom, Jackie the dog, all the birds Inusaki runs into–even when they threaten and swear at him. Animals are the subtle and ADORABLE driving force of this weird little manga.

Level of Spiciness: The do-I-feel-uncomfortable-about-my-feelings-because-he’s-a-guy-or-because-he’s-a-crow romance; more fluffy and cutesy rather than spicy. Bizarrely it’s rated M for Mature, and has an explicit content warning on the front even though there is absolutely zero explicit content. Maybe it’s because a pigeon says the “fuck” word? I really hope there’s not a human-bird sex scene in volume 2…

BLog: Given Vol. 4

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Given Vol. 4
Story and art: Natsuki Kizu
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: Nov. 10, 2020

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ Spoilers for Given Vol. 1, 2 & 3 ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

Sad bisexual boys in a band intensifies.

After the ensemble performance of volume 3 we pull back further, away from boyfriends and Given’s lead guitarist Ritsuka Uenoyama and lead singer Mafuyu Sato, to focus on the relationship between sensitive, caring bassist Akihiko Kaji and emotionally messy drummer Haruki Nakayama.

Not long after meeting Mafuyu and coaching him on composition, Ugetsu Murata, sometimes roommate and sometimes extraordinarily volatile lover of Haruki, kicks the drummer out. With nowhere else to go, he turns to Akihiko, already dealing with his own dilemma, confronting the bassist over his romantic feelings for the drummer, and possibly damaging their relationship, maybe even the band the band, indefinitely.

Volume 3 felt like an exploration of harmony in the band as Uenoyama and Mafuyu figured out their relationship, and everyone began to pull Given together as something more than four friends jamming. If that was the case, volume 4 is about discordance, like two instruments scraping up against one another, strings snapping, drums punctured. While simultaneously dealing with Haruki’s injured volatility, Akihiko is considering substituting for a bassist in his (female) ex’s band, which runs the risk of spooking the other members of Given and ending up back in her orbit after a bad breakup.

Aside from the interpersonal strife, there’s an added layer of creative tension. Neither Akihiko or Haruki feel like they live up to their band members’ talent–Uenoyama’s dedication and Mafuyu’s previously untapped musical genius. Akihiko also struggles with his relationship with Ugetsu, a violin prodigy that pulls Akihiko in as hard as he pushes him away.

In the Given oeuvre, volume 4 feels a little jarring. Previously Akihiko and Haruki played band mom and dad, respectively, offering advice and helping Uenoyama and Mafuyu through the early stages of their relationship, often being comic relief to the BL drama. Now they are the main focus of the BL, and it really ramps up as Haruki invades Akihiko’s space, forcing himself on his friend and bandmate, while knowing that everything is going wrong. Ironic, of course, that Haruki was the one who told Uenoyama not to get into a band relationship, and it’s his own that threatens Given.

Ugetsu’s role in the manga is perhaps the most mysterious–I’ve only seen episode 1 of the anime, no spoilers!! He seems to simultaneously play toxic lover (to Haruki) and musical sage (to Mafuyu), and we learn more about his relationship to Haruki… but to what end?

While I’ve written, at great, great length on so many titles, about sexual assault in manga–enough so that I’m weary to do it again–the interesting development in Given volume 4 is that, after a dubiously-consensual interaction between Haruki and Akihiko, the latter does not accept the standard BL role as passive victim to a domineering, cruel lover. He pushes Akihiko away, hard (in a manner that made my jaw drop), and the two begin to reassess their relationship as roommates and band members after the violent revelations Haruki pulls them into.

For me, BL is always walking a difficult line between being too much of a slow burn or boring, and too overwrought and melodramatic. Given‘s always been very dynamic, with great characters and interesting interpersonal relationships, that’s what keeps me coming back. Volume 4’s the first time it’s felt like it’s tipped into melodrama, but not enough to be a dealbreaker. I’m still cheering on these stupid bisexuals like the raving fan I am. Akihiko’s journey in volume 4, especially, is what keeps me coming back. Like a strange but interesting new track from your favourite band, I want to see how this all plays out.

Level of Problematic: Poor life decisions don’t excuse poor sexual politics; I’m interested to chat with my fellow manga nerds about the Akihiko-Haruki scene. The scene is not played as being particularly sexy or hot, and Haruki’s punished for it, which is an interesting development on the “rape to love” trope.

Level of Adorable: Sad, sad gays; all those beautiful gay tears… it sustains me…

Level of Spiciness: Lots of shirtless drummer; again, the closest this volume gets to sex isn’t played as sexy, but still some good bad boy drummer fan service. No complaints.

BLog: Birds of Shangri-La Vol. 1

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Birds of Shangri-La Vol 1.
Story and art: Ranmaru Zariya
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: November 10, 2020

“Welcome to paradise.”

That’s Phi’s welcome to Shangri-La’s new teaser, Apollo. Apollo may not be the most qualified teaser the hedonistic resort has ever seen, he’s straight, after all, and the teasers are a stable of men prepared to get the resort’s all-male “little birds” like Phi going, readying them for an evening of earthly delights in bed with visitors. But the owner assures Apollo that his “birds” have been clambering for a teaser whose main appeal is as a naive straight guy. To which Apollo is fairly well qualified.

The concept of Birds of Shangri-La is a lovely little sexual fantasy, a sort of utopia for male sex workers where nothing matters more to the resort’s owner than his little birds. Membership is by invitation only, and the boys have the ultimate say if guests are welcome or not, and what they do with them. The resort is there as much for the boys’ enjoyment as the guests. The owner’s philosophy towards Shangri-La is a sort of bespoke sex work resort where every desire is individually curated–the lush, edenic garden engulfing the resort was created by a single “Eastern Master” who did all the work himself over seven years. “I have love only for art created by one mind, one vision, one hand. Anything else is… lacking.”

While the little birds are there to fulfill the desires of guests, the teasers are there to fulfill the desires of the birds… to a point. They’re there to give something between foreplay and the boyfriend experience, caring for the little birds, washing them, turning them on, with the rule that there’s no orgasms, penetration, and no falling in love.

As the naive straight guy, tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, brooding Apollo becomes the Gulliver to the strange new sexually Lilliputian world of Shangri-La, with sexy, hot-blooded, possibly sexually addicted, mercurial Phi showing him the ropes… all the ropes. Despite the explicit rule of no penetration, Phi is insistent on Apollo fucking him, although the straight teaser refuses. He needs money, after all, which is the thrust (no pun intended) of his narrative arc in volume 1. Without getting into the exact specifics, we learn why Phi is sometimes as volatile as he is, including being sexually manipulative and lashing out at guests. He was orphaned at a young age, started prostituting himself early, plenty of emotional and sexual trauma, which sets him off every once and awhile. With Apollo emotionally raw in the early stages of a bitter divorce, and Phi’s occasional explosions, the two begin to get to know one another and navigate something less than a relationship and more than (sexual) coworkers.

I have a confession, I love the romantic, empowered sex worker narrative in general, a call back to sacred prostitute characters in stories. I love the sexually utopian framework Birds of Shangri-La lays out. I also love the “straight boy seduced” trope, and in Birds of Shangri-La‘s defence I don’t see Apollo’s role as merely a sexual fantasy; he doesn’t do the BL thing of simply falling into a sexual relationship because it comes along, he has his own motivations, needs and desires, and pushes back against Phi’s sexual obsession. He comes to Shangri-La needing lots of money fast and willing to do the straightforward job of taking care of the owner’s little birds and turning them on. Phi becomes an interesting complication in his story.

That’s the good. The bad is there’s some dubious- or non-consent, like Apollo telling Phi to stop and the hot-headed little hooker… not. Further, there’s only a single female character, Apollo’s wife, on the pages of the manga, and she becomes both inciting incident and villain, while being neither named or depicted in her entirety, like a bad memory of a woman. As she’s the only woman, she becomes a stand-in for all wives and girlfriends, left behind on the “mainland” for Shangri-La’s all-male paradise. A complicated statement about women’s roles in BL/yaoi relationships, to say the least.

Still, we are talking about BL, where female characters are usually/unfortunately going to take a backseat to boys gettin’ gay and horny. What may be lacking in positive female representation is made up in lovely, complex male characters. Apollo and Phi are both interesting and complicated, making what could have been simply a smutty, trashy sex romp an interesting little exploration of two people with messed up pasts coming together. Apollo’s tragic backstory is tempered by the first time Phi actually gets to see him smile, Phi’s is made more palatable by glimpses of vulnerability and Apollo’s genuine desire to care for him–and the complex reasons for both sides of that horny coin. The secondary characters, too, I’m hoping we’ll get more of a chance to learn about, be that the enigmatic owner, competitive, long-lashed little pretty boy Karna, freckled cutie Miller, blond, muscular Patrick.

I think there’s a lot to be said for manga, especially BL, that rises above the standard fare of formula and tropes. Like with Liquor & Cigarettes, Ranmaru Zariya’s strength comes from characters that aren’t just one dimensional BL babes. Sure, there’s lots of hot sex and fanservice, especially around Phi, but that alone isn’t an interesting story and character exploration. The dips into vulnerability and backstory, the characters’ love for one another, even beyond Phi and Apollo, is what kept me reading. I’m looking forward to returning to paradise.

Level of Problematic: “Get off me.”; BL/yaoi can often feel ludicrously hypersexual, and sex often feels unrealistic, but Birds of Shangri-La‘s whole premise is a male only sexual paradise, which makes the sexual focus of the series palatable in a wonderful way–I’d compare this to Yarichin Bitch Club which, despite the equally sexual premise, doesn’t feel as well balanced. That being said, we’ve still got the usual problems with depictions of women and non-con/dub-con, but Apollo isn’t a passive sexual victim, and there’s nothing deal-breaking for me like with Caste Heaven.

Level of Adorable: “Welcome to paradise.”; I adored Phi as the hot, hot-headed prostitute with a tragic backstory–that’s like catnip to me. Even beyond him I loved the other boys of Shangri-La, especially freckled Miller and dark-lidded Karna, and the eccentric, sexually visionary owner. I hope we get to see more of the wonderful secondary cast in future volumes.

Level of Spiciness: “Maybe some other time.”; Why, why I ask you, must Ranmaru Zariya do the same thing as Liquor & Cigarettes, where its a single degree away from completely explicit?! Like in her other manga there’s lots of sex and naked, horny men, but it’s still in a weird middle ground between hardcore and softcore. I whine because her art is so fucking hot, and Shangri-La is definitely more explicit than Liquor & Cigarettes, I just want full on hardcore horny paradise because I am a degenerate. SHOW US THE DICK, PLEASE.

NBLog: Love Me For Who I Am Vol. 2

NBLog                    enby love, gender-diverse smut [image error](◔◡◔)
BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Love Me For Who I Am Vol. 2
Story and art: Kata Konayama
Translation: Amber Tamosaitis
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: October 20, 2020

(｡ó﹏ò) Content Warning: references to fictional transphobia, homophobia, misgendering (ó﹏ò｡)

What happens if you’re a straight boy who falls in love with a non-binary person? What happens if you’re a queer cisgender girl who falls in love with a transgender girl?

With things settling at Question, a maid café where all of the maids are otokonoko, girls in boys bodies. Or, at least that’s the way it was before Mogumo showed up. Now the best way to describe Question is a gender diverse or non-binary maid café. After a tense introduction, especially with trans girl Mei, who felt her own evolving gender identity challenged by Mogumo’s non-binary identity, the maids are excited about the introduction of a new summer menu, and new summer outfits!

Mogumo and Mei take a step back in Vol. 2, giving us more room to learn about Tetsu and Kotone–Mogumo’s crush and childhood friend, respectively. At the end of Vol. 1, Kotone confronted Tetsu about his relationship with Mogumo, dumping water on him and tell him to stay away, that he was hurting Mogumo pretending to be interested in them. Tetsu is sure of his feelings for Mogumo, but is unsure what those feelings make him. We learn more about Kotone, how she’s had difficulty dealing with her attraction to girls since she was a kid, and how this turned to an agonizing resentment for boys. Mogumo is the only “boy” Kotone has ever liked, but she was as confused about her feelings for them as she was about everything else.

When fashionable Kotone is invited to help the maids sew their summer uniforms, adorable Chinese-inspired outfits, she finds herself overwhelmed with cosplaying Ten-chan’s boyish excitement, gay boy Suzu’s relationship and, of course, Tetsu’s confession that he likes Mogumo, and that they like him back. Fashionable, girly Mei is the only one Kotone doesn’t seem to have a problem with, in fact she blushes and thinks Mei is “lovely”. Curious.

If Vol. 1 was about explorations of gender identity, Vol. 2 is more about sexual identity and desire. There’s some absolutely fantastic moments. As Tetsu tries to sort out his feelings for Mogumo early on, there’s a fantastic scene where he has an emotional conversation with his big sister, Question owner Sacchan. She asks Tetsu that even if dating Mogumo made him gay, would that stop him? The scene is maybe one of my favourites from this year, there’s just something so wonderful and wholesome about a high school boy coming to his trans older sister and confessing his feelings for a non-binary person, and his insecurities around it. Her response is, “Don’t talk around it! There’s nothing to be ashamed of… Get it all out.” Wonderful.

Kotone’s journey is the more difficult one–the cover is her clutching her chest with tears streaming down her face after all–but things seem to be going better after she gets used to the maids… that is until Tetsu confesses his feelings for Mogumo. She says very early on that she doesn’t like boys, she’s introduced to the maids by Mogumo who says she doesn’t get on well with boys. This does a lot to explain her anger with Tetsu, but also touches on the “man hating lesbian” trope… only it’s more complicated than that. Like in volume 1, where we learned that gender is an evolving identity, not something binary and set in stone, we see in volume 2 how binary attitude towards gender and sexuality cause more agony than confronting those complex feelings straight on. Tetsu is able to move past his own agonizing from introspection and the help of the wonderful people around him, while Kotone shuts herself off from people, unable to process her own complex feelings about her own desires and the way they’re complicated by the diverse people around her, with a healthy (or unhealthy, rather) dose of internalized homophobia thrown in there as well.

It’s hard to imagine how an already fantastic series will improve on itself. Easily one of the best series to come out this year, both in terms of its politics and it’s fantastic cast of characters–Ten-chan still being the ultimate precious little cinnamon bun. Speaking of Ten-chan and Suzu, while they’ve been secondary characters with the Love Me For Who I Am formula there’s no doubt they’ll take centre stage in a future volume. Suzu’s relationship seems to perfect, but is also largely a secret except at Question, so it’ll be interesting to see how the series complicates that. Ten-chan, we know, has strict parents and is pressured to excel in schoolwork–he can’t focus entirely on making the costumes because of prep school. Is his electric happy-go-lucky exterior another cosplay?

Perhaps the best thing about Love Me For Who I Am, though, is that in answer to the opening questions, as Tetsu says to his crush, “You’re Mogumo. No more, and no less.” Nothing as lovely as that.

Level of Problematic: “I should have loved the stories of princesses falling in love… but they always left a sour taste.”; Kotone is certainly one of the more challenging characters of the series, dancing on the edge of the “man hating lesbian” trope, but she’s neither entirely sympathetic or despicable, leaving plenty of room for fantastic character development. It’ll be especially interesting to see what happens if she develops feelings for Mei, as Vol. 2 hints.

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Level of Adorable: Ten-chan?; Ten-chan! That is all.

Level of Spiciness: Watermelon summer treat; that’s not really the point of the series, more squee-worthy relationship moments, especially between Mogumo and Tetsu as they confess their feelings for one another and start dating.

BLog: My Androgynous Boyfriend Vol. 2

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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My Androgynous Boyfriend Vol. 2
Story and art: Tamekou
Translation: Jocelyne Allen
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: September 22, 2020

Even more than the first volume, the second volume of My Androgynous Boyfriend is an exercise in compersion.

For those who don’t live in poly world, compersion is the concept where you derive pleasure from a partner deriving pleasure from someone or something other than you. In the polyamory context that usually applies to a relationship or sex with someone else, but compersion is by no means limited to those two things. Lots of writers point out how happy it makes us when something good happens to our partner, like job successes or getting really excited about a personal project… even enjoying a good meal or playing a video game. So it’s not a difficult concept to understand when your partner loves someone else, or someone else makes your partner happy. Even when it’s your partner, not you, getting those positive vibes from something we can still feel intensely happy from their happiness.

For publishing professional Machida Wako, her compersion derives from other people’s adoration of her androgynous boyfriend, Souma Meguru. One of the early sections of volume 2 sees Meguru up for a role in a “Netflax” (AHAHAHAHA) reality TV series called Log House, where a revolving cast of six attractive young Japanese people live in house together, hang out and go on dates–based on the very real franchise Terrace House.

As they’re discussing the opportunity, Wako falls into an extended fantasy in which Meguru shows up at the house where three girls (a model, a university student, a dancer) and two boys (a surfer and a former basketball player) are waiting. He helps the university student do her makeup, helps the dancer do her hair, talks diets with the model, feeds rice porridge to the ailing surfer and washes and darns the favourite shirt of the athlete.

They all proceed to fall in love and ask Meguru out… all together.

Even more than the first volume, the second furthers the argument of Wako and Meguru’s queer relationship. They don’t use that word, but hear me out. While Meguru’s the obvious fixation, the story is Wako’s. At various points in the manga we see she and Meguru going home to the Machida residence where both of her parents are head over heels for Meguru. There’s the ongoing misunderstanding of one of her co-workers that Wako is in a relationship with a woman, which she does not correct, the two take a trip to Hiroshima to see Wako’s favourite idol group perform, and she worries about them appearing as a couple in case any of Meguru’s fans notice, but feeds the fandom by obsessively taking pictures of her androgynous boyfriend.

This even extends beyond Wako to a couple subplots. One sees a teenage boy, Sasame, paired with Meguru as a debut androgynous boys model duo called Unicorn Boys. Sasame gets frustrated with people thinking he’s cute or pretty, and is obsessed with his “bro” (not actually his brother), a very famous, very masculine musician named Exaila Aki, and wants to be just like him, and every choice he makes is based on whether his “bro” will think it’s cool or not. When Sasame realizes Aki and Meguru are Twitter-friends, and that Aki’s maybe a little in love with Meguru, Sasame commits to the partnership and leans in hard to his androgyny, with Meguru’s help. The final subplot grows from this partnership, a listless mangaka in Wako’s stable who made a brief appearance in volume 1 returns. After an early success with a horny, high concept fetish manga, he struggles to recreate the success in BL, a genre he feels no passion for. When he sees Meguru and Sasame’s debut appearance by chance, he’s inspired to create a manga about the two in love, to Wako’s bemusement.

I have a few layout, editing stylistic issues, there’s a few missing words here or there, and the speech bubble pointers–there must be a better term for that, the pointing shape to show where a speech bubble is coming from–sometimes don’t point in the best direction, or even away from the character whose speaking. That feels like a weird thing to complain about, but it’s a pet peeve of an artist lover of mine I guess I’ve picked up. But these nit-picky criticisms pale against one of my favourite series. The art and story are harmoniously gorgeous, hence my only criticism being about speech bubble pointers.

When I say characters are in love with Meguru, I don’t necessarily mean romantic or sexual love, but just that kind of beaming, sunshine bright love you can feel for another person who you enjoy seeing or being around, social media at its purest and least toxic where we obsess over our favourite artist’s work, or go gaga for sexy Instagram models. My Androgynous Boyfriend Vol. 2 celebrates the way love goes in every direction, be that Wako’s love for Meguru being to share his overwhelming beauty with the world and experience the world loving Meguru, or Sasame’s love for Meguru because his “bro” loves him, so being closer to Meguru is a way of being closer to his “bro”. Or the straight mangaka’s love for Meguru and Sasame’s androgynous beauty reinvigorating his passion for creating manga.

That’s why the polyamory concept of compersion is so useful to thinking about this series. Love for our androgynous boyfriend flows all ways, and we all love him, and our lives are all better for it.

Level of Problematic: My androgynous, wholesome, perfect little unicorn boy; like I said in my review of the first volume, My Androgynous Boyfriend is not boys love in the sense that it’s about boys in love, but it’s about a boy we can all love. It combats toxic masculinity, and some of the more problematic elements of manga. It’s wholesome and good, like Meguru.

Level of Adorable: Getting imaginary compersion imaging the entire cast of a reality TV show in love with your androgynous boyfriend; honestly, Wako as the lens through which we see Meguru is what makes this series such a delight. There’s an absolutely adorable scene where we get to see the moment Meguru asked Wako to be his girlfriend. *chef’s kiss*

Level of Spiciness: Leaning in for a kiss after your loving girlfriend slams a beer in an elaborate Evangelion reference; painfully chaste. I know it’s rated “Teen”, but I’m desperate to see our androgynous boyfriend get a little frisky.

BLog: BL Metamorphosis Vol. 2

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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BL Metamorphosis Vol. 2
Story and art: Kaori Tsurutani
Translation: Jocelyne Allen
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: July 28, 2020

Why do we read BL?

That was going to be the question to attempt to answer in this review of the second volume of BL Metamorphosis. The first was easily one of my favourite manga reads of this year, with its quiet gravity and understated exploration of loneliness.

Fortunately a few people have already thought about this question, including Lisa Marie Cooper at the Right Stuf Anime blog. There’s the intoxicating (ostensible) freedom from gender roles and tropes between men and women (although plenty of coded or outright sexist crap ends up in BL). There’s the community element of fandom. There’s romance and, yeah, often times its spicy.

Really spicy.

(I was recently making fun of myself for finding fictional cartoon characters hot, and a lover pointed out that humans through the ages have whacked it to illustrations of all kinds. Perspective.)

Let’s circle back though, lest we forget the BL adventures of elderly Ichinoi and her high school companion and fellow fudanshi, Urara. Volume 2 continues where we left off, with the budding friendship at J Garden, a medium-sized summer BL fair in Ikebukuro. After Ichinoi’s feet give out and she needs to sit for a bit, she sends Urara on ahead planning to meet in line for mangaka Komeda-sensei’s new release, even though the teenager’s phone died. Urara shows up at the booth to find there’s been a delay in the new book arriving, and so sales have been delayed. She feels awkward and flees, looking for some place to plug her phone in. Ichinoi, undaunted by the crowds, presses on into the convention looking for Urara–and maybe buying some smut on the way. Once they reconnect Urara encourages Ichinoi to head to the line without her, not feeling particularly confident about the first exchange at Komeda’s booth. Ichinoi promises to save her a spot, which encourages Urara enough to come along.

This both continues elements from volume 1, while setting up what volume 2 explores, a subtle, understated exploration of loneliness, isolation and, of course, aging–both Ichinoi’s advanced age and Urara’s burgeoning adulthood and all the painful discovery that comes with adolescence. I could go on, at length, how much I adore Tsurutani’s pacing and the moments of quiet devastation. One Ichinoi moment stands out to illustrate this when she’s getting her hair done at a salon, and she thinks to herself, “Ah, dear me. Having someone touch my hair… feels so good.” It’s an extraordinary talent for a storyteller to create such a heartbreaking moment with nothing more than a little old lady going for a haircut.

Those deeply emotional moments don’t stop at Ichinoi. We get to see Urara much closer, her shyness and loneliness, whether that’s at her first BL fair, dealing with her handsome childhood friend and his relationship problems, or seeing as she hesitantly opens up to Ichinoi. There’s much more of Urara and her personality, and just as many heartbreaking moments in her life. There’s also glimpses at other characters and their own lives, Tsumucchi, Urara’s childhood friend and maybe (probably) crush as he struggles in his own small way with what growing up looks like. We even get to see Komeda Yu, the fictional mangaka of Ichinoi’s favourite series You’re the Only One I Want to See–there’s a fantastic moment at the BL circle fair when Ichinoi encourages her to get out volumes a wee bit faster. We start to learn about why Komeda writes and draws her story. We also get to see the boys from You’re the Only One I Want to See, Sakura and Yuma, as they grow up and struggle to connect and stay together–pure BL.

Volume 2 also seems to ask the question: why do we read BL? The answer being… some form of connection, between the characters, the stories, fellow fans, the fandom, the artists. BL fandom can be super toxic, like any group of fans; BL can have plenty of harmful tropes, but there’s something to be said for a cultural product that brings so many people together–and depicts boys or men in love in the process. Urara gets to explore fantasies of friendship, romance and sex that are missing from her humdrum, lonely little high school life. Ichinoi reminisces about the relationships in her life, either lost or fading, her late husband, her absent, grown up daughter, even the calligraphy students that move on into the crushing demands and monotony of modern life.

That got me thinking about why I love BL so much, why a lifelong obsession’s crystallized in all the stories I’ve picked up this year. Other than English anime dubs of questionable quality on YTV (Sailor Moon made me gay), my first exposure to anime/manga was a piece of Taichi/Yamato fanart my cousin showed me online, I can still see it clear in my mind’s eye, just the two boys in profile, face to face, reaching out and holding each other’s faces tenderly, as if they just kissed or… even more tantalizing to a repressed queer kid, they’re about to. I fixated on that image, and it gave me permission to fantasize about best friends who were more than best friends, even if I wouldn’t come out until years later, and wouldn’t have my first kiss for years after that.

“Not everyone who reads BL is female,” writes Cooper on Right Stuf Anime. “There also are many male readers, and for a while it was the only reliable way for some gay friends of mine to find stories about gay men outside of adult sites.” She goes on to point out that BL isn’t perfect in terms of tropes and poor depictions of homosexuality, but a lot of it is fluffy, romantic, sexy, positive, much more positive than the trope-filled, hand-wringing, trauma-porn depictions of gayness in Western media I grew up. I would take the small heartbreak and romance of Our Dining Table over soap opera melodrama of depictions of gay characters on North Western TV.

Beyond that though, I think there’s something to be said for a connection to other fudanshi/fujoshi. I have a co-worker who I always lend manga to, and when I do I’ll be dying to discuss our favourite manga, and BL boys too. I was messaging her about how BL Metamorphosis Vol. 2 was breaking my heart, and she responded, “I want to become unlikely friends with a sweet old lady low key obsessed with Boys Love.”

That is the dream. Connection.

Level of Problematic: You’re the Only One I Want to See; wholesome and pure, and exploring parallels between elderly loneliness and adolescent isolation. Wholesome. And. Pure.

Level of Adorable: The Magic Garden; I had my first heart-clenching, heartbreak moment 12 pages in. This may not be BL, but like BL these are characters who are so easy to love.

Level of Spiciness: The Two Kings; just hints at the spiciness that is BL, but not that kind of story, ya pervs.

BLog: Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu
Story: IKUNIRAPPER
Art: Misaki Saitoh
Character Design: miggy
Translation: Beni Axia Conrad
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: May 5, 2020

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ Spoilers for SARAZANMAI ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

SARAZANMAI is about three teenage boys who unwittingly become kappas by having their souls sucked out of their anuses to fight supernatural monsters, removing the monsters’ twisted desires from their anuses and, in the process, become closer to each other and those around them, eventually toppling an evil empire.

But even writing that doesn’t begin to capture the strange cultural product that is SARAZANMAI, and explaining it does the anime a disservice. The show is ultimately about how three boys push each other and the people in their lives away, and how they connect.

And then also there’s a cucumber-loving kappa prince that eats the boys and poops them out as kappas.

And an otter that runs a stand-in for Evil Am*zon.

And two dancing, singing, dramatic, gay, homicidal police officers who transform people with twisted desires into kappa zombies by shooting them.

It’s a lot.

Speaking of the dramatic gays and the strange twists and turns SARAZANMAI takes, hot-headed, blond-haired, sharp-toothed Reo and cool-headed, glasses-wearing, cooking-loving Mabu start out as agents of the Otter Empire, using their position as police officers to find people with twisted desires and extract them, transforming them into the aforementioned kappa zombies. And then reveal the transformation, through an elaborate dance number, to absolutely no one.

With me so far? No? Don’t worry, it gets weirder.

In fact, Reo and Mabu are actually kappas themselves, servants to the kappa prince who were turned after the fall of the kappa kingdom, when Mabu’s heart was replaced with a mechanical one by the evil otter to save his life. The evil otter let Mabu live on the condition that he can never express his love for Reo again on threat of death–twisting his desire, get it? No? Reo believes this new, colder Mabu isn’t the same as the kappa-man he loved, but stays with him out of love. Eventually both are erased out of the world, but then return as the kappas and servants they once were.

Alright, that at least gets us somewhat to Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu. Phew.

If you, as I’m sure many fans are, come to this spinoff manga hoping for more answers about Reo and Mabu you will be disappointed. If you are looking for something as strange, perplexing and adorable as the show you will be very satisfied!

Reo and Mabu are living in an apartment above the police box located in the Niima Cooker building–the iconic chef’s head–when they discover a baby girl on a large plate in the middle of the street. They name the baby Sara, the Japanese word for “dish”, the only word she knows. As they care for her as their own and half-heartedly search for her parents, the two end up in bizarre slice-of-life moments, helping locals and tourists in Asakusa, a district of Tokyo and the setting of the series. Mabu continuously attempts to improve his baking skills, Reo looks out for his eccentric partner while chasing down robbers and rescuing lost hats. Dishes continue to pop up in their lives, from Mabu eating a mysterious pile of pancakes on a dish in the middle of the road, to dishes mysteriously delivered to the police box by a young boy.

The good news is Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu is as thoroughly bizarre as the show, although weirdly not as explicitly gay, despite being about two men in love co-parenting a magical girl. We do get glimpses of their personalities without them running around murdering people. In the show, Mabu is constantly cooking for Reo, which we learn is his way of showing affection without showing affection. In the manga we learn that Reo makes “a special face when you eat something delicious” (emphasis theirs), and that it makes him happy when Reo likes what he cooked, which Mabu confesses, blushing. Reo’s dedication, as well, is illustrated time and time again as he goes any distance to help people–even leaping onto a boat to retrieve a teenage runaway’s lost hat that his mom gave him. This goes a long way in explaining show-Reo’s dedication to show-Mabu, even when Mabu’s not the lover he once knew.

But where does Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu sit in the SARAZANMAI story? Is it a prequel? A sequel? Outside of the story completely? I once again broke my rule of not reading other reviews to try to see if anyone online knew, or if there were any clues I missed. There’s evidence for a prequel, which I won’t get into because of spoilers, but the same argument could be made for the manga being a sequel based on the same development. Some fans on Goodreads theorized the manga may be a “human AU”. Reo and Mabu don’t make any references to their kappa origins and they aren’t using their magical desire extraction gun to murder people in the name of the Otter Empire. Sara very well may be Sara Azuma, the idol from the show, or some version of her, but how or why she comes into their lives is never explained.

I have my own theory. In the show, Reo and Mabu are both killed at the hands of the Otter Empire, erased from existence, but a part of themselves remain chain together as small emblems kept by the kappa prince, eventually resurrected as kappa servants in the renascent kappa kingdom. What if, in their reduced state after almost being erased, they were given a world where they could be happy together, even given a daughter to raise together? A sort of dream world while they awaited being reawoken.

But that’s just a theory. Even more so than in the show you have to interpret Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu if you want to find any meaning. Otherwise all you have is a bizarre little slice-of-life story with two gays and their magical baby. I do wonder if something is lost in translation. The show is very culturally specific and does a great job at giving a little more context in some of the more bizarre or esoteric cultural moments. Trying to find out if the strange, iconic chef’s head building was real in Asakusa, I learned that Reo and Mabu live on Kappabashi Street (KAPPA!), a street renowned as a cookware and restaurant supply district (DISH!)–they literally live in a building with a giant chef’s head on top, a kitchenware store (DISH!). Plates (DISH!) are a recurring theme, and we know that Sara Azuma is eventually revealed as the kappa princess (KAPPA!) in the show. Sara is, of course, the Japanese word for dish (DISH!), but in regards to the series name, SARAZANMAI:

Sara on its own commonly refers to a plate and can also be used as a person’s name, like the idol Sara Azuma in Sarazanmai. The plate interpretation is the most interesting, because “sara” is also the term used to describe the top of a kappa’s head. The yokai is thought to have an indentation, like a plate, that holds water. As long as water remains in the kappa’s sara, it can leave its aquatic home and walk about. But if its sara dries up, the kappa is weakened and could even die.

Sara is also a loan word taken from the English world ‘salary.’ -zanmai as a suffix refers to indulgence. It’s the act of being so caught up in something that you lose sight of anything else.

… sanmai is another close variation of -zanmai. (When written in hiragana, the only difference is the presence of a tenten on the syllable sa.) Mai serves as a counter for flat objects while san indicates three. Thus Sarasanmai could also be read as “three plates”, implying the three kappa boys in the story.

“Here’s What We Know About SARAZANMAI” by Lynzee Loveridge, Apr 10, 2019

DISH! KAPPA! DESIRE!

So taken literally, Sarazanmai could mean “plate desire”, the thrust of the show being the three boys are after the Dishes of Hope, that grant wishes. But there are also three kappas in Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu! Reo, Mabu and Sara, and Sara is possibly granting them their wishes, which often seem to involve plates in some way!

I’m sure all of these little puns and wordplays are obvious to Japanese speakers, but you have to dig into the meaning a little as a non-Japanese reader. I’m not complaining, I adore it. Like in the manga, if you want to enjoy it you have to come up with your own meaning, dish!

Level of Problematic: I Want to Connect, but I Have No Idea What’s Going On; aside from the unfortunate lack of gay, and the unfortunate abundance of confusion, Sarazanmai: Reo & Mabu is actually quite wholesome!

Level of Adorable: I Want to Connect, but My Gay Lover and I Found a Baby on a Dish; between Mabu’s cooking adventures and Reo’s adoration of Mabu and Sara, there’s plenty of squee to go around. Although I still wish there was more gay.

Level of Spiciness: I Want to Connect, but I’m Rated “TEEN”; honestly, you could give this manga to an eight year old–although they’d probably be a very confused eight year old. The sauciest the manga gets is Mabu cooking shirtless and Reo in short-shorts. I’m starting to wonder if “teen” stands for “gay potentiality”. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I wish there was more gay. It’s weird, because in a show Reo and Mabu are constantly depicted together as… well…

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BLog: Therapy Game Vol. 1

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Therapy Game Vol. 1
Story and art: Meguru Hinohara
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: June 9, 2020

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ Spoilers for Secret XXX ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

Blond bombshell and decidedly unattainable Minato swears revenge on previously heterosexual Shizuma. Bemoaning a brutal breakup with his girlfriend, Minato spends the evening taking care of the straight boy before getting him to a hotel room where blackout drunk Shizuma was a little more affectionate than misanthropic Minato was prepared for. Never one for dating or love, Minato starts to wonder if maybe there’s something special between them.

Until Shizuma wakes up the next morning not knowing who Minato is, and being harsh about Minato’s desire for some quick, dirty sex.

Surrounded by a cadre of drag queens–what do you call a group of drag queens? An extravaganza?–at elderly queen Mama’s bar, Minato swears he will seduce Shizuma by soothing his aching heart and then dumping him, crushing his heart and kicking him to the curb.

Despite being a spinoff of Secret XXX, Minato and Shizuma’s story stands very well on it’s own. Although if you haven’t read Hinohara’s debut you may wonder why two servals are terrorizing Shizuma in his house. Unbeknownst to he and Minato, he’s the older brother of Shohei (and living in his veterinarian mom’s household) like Minato is the younger brother of Secret XXX‘s Mito, Shohei’s boyfriend.

(I actually had to stop and think about how close to incest territory this takes us, but if I married my brother-in-law it might be a little odd and unconventional, but no incest. I’m sure that manga exists, anyways.)

For a manga that’s advertised as being about a guy who is “recently dumped, and very straight”, Shizuma doesn’t seem particularly bothered by the fact that he ended up in bed with another guy, and commits himself to making it up to Minato romantically. He’s the literal straight guy, serious but caring, kind and affectionate to Minato’s… what’s the opposite of a manic pixie dream girl? Calculating demon nightmare boy? Minato uses Shizuma’s kindness to seduce and connive his way into the “straight” boy’s heart, but following a devastating breakup he hardly need make an effort. Shizuma seems willing to throw himself into a loving relationship with abandon, even if its with a man.

Like Secret XXX before it, Hinohara’s strength is in the balance between romantic fluff, dark angst and hot sex. Actually, Secret XXX felt a little like the test run for the Therapy Game series, some of the elements that didn’t sit well in the fluffy bunny sex romp work a lot better given this manga’s themes of heartbreak, isolation and emotional wounds. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of fluffy, adorable moments, but from the start Minato admits that he doesn’t like people, doesn’t want a relationship, doesn’t even particularly want to be touched. I was wondering why, is he just a prickly emotionally scarred gay boy? But then Therapy Game explores the melodramatic family history of Minato and Mito, which I found jarring in the middle of Secret XXX, but works better in the context of Minato’s emotional pain, and his desire to hurt someone else as a lark.

There’s another interesting element to Therapy Game; in a lot of ways the manga is also about boundaries, and is an antidote to the creepier noncon in BL manga. In the first scene, after they’ve woken up side-by-side the morning after, Minato takes his favourite choker and uses it to bind Shizuma’s wrists, saying that he knows Shizuma’s a nice person and wouldn’t want to break it. I was prepared for the inevitable “no but I really mean yes” sex scene, but instead Shizuma throws Minato off, literally screaming “NO MEANS NO!” And there are other instances of this, Shizuma’s anger at his friends’ homophobic treatment of Minato, a sex scene where Shizuma tells Minato time and time again he wants to focus entirely on Minato’s pleasure, instead of letting Minato use him for secret revenge. It’s refreshing to see healthier (sexual) relationships in a manga that’s all about trauma and secret pain.

There’s also the aspect of Minato being an emotionally damaged gay with familial trauma that keeps him from the relationships he actually needs. He claims all he needs in life is his brother, his grandmother, maybe a few friendly drag queens, otherwise getting close to people doesn’t lead to anything good. And then he gets what he wants.

Level of Problematic: Return of the evil gay dad; like I said, Minato and Mito’s melodramatic family history works a lot better in a manga that isn’t about cute boys and bunnies. We also learn a little more about their mother, and the way she isn’t innocent either, and it seems like there’s still more to learn. Still, “death by homosexual husband” is a lot, and I still find the backstory heavy-handed and trope-y. We’ll see how it plays out in future volumes.

Level of Adorable: Return of the household servals; like Secret XXX, Hinohara has a talent for crafting beautiful men that are easy to care about. We love Minato even as he’s scheming to destroy Shizuma’s life, and we love Shizuma because he’s precious and gives Minato all his love. And we love Shohei and Mito’s cameos. And we love the servals. Serval spinoff next please.

Level of Spiciness: Return of the uncensored dicks; my jaw actually dropped a little when Minato whips out Shizuma’s dick for a little straight boy roadside blowjob. Not as much sex as we all want, but here’s hoping volume 2 gives the fujoshi/fudanshi what we want.

BLog: Given Vol. 3

BLog reviews recent boys love, yaoi and LGBTQ+ English translation manga.

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Given Vol. 3
Story and art: Natsuki Kizu
Translation: Sheldon Drzka
Publisher: SuBLime Manga
Release Date: Aug. 11 202

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ Spoilers for Given Vol. 1 & 2 ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

Immediately following their first concert together, surrogate band mom and dad, bassist Akihiko Kaji and drummer Haruki Nakayama, respectively, listen to fans raving over the performance, especially mysterious high school frontman Mafuyu Sato’s singing. Friend of the band Koji Yatake encourages them to get serious about the band on social media, and to start doing other concerts and events.

Back at home Ritsuka Uenoyama, lead guitar and high school classmate of Mafuyu watches his sister have a mini-breakdown over a breakup and realize… with dawning existential horror…

… he kissed Mafuyu backstage after the show. And he has no idea what Mafuyu thinks about that.

If volume 1 focused on Uenoyama’s discovery of Mafuyu and introducing the band, and volume 2 on Mafuyu’s story, along with Uenoyama’s developing feelings, then volume 3 is an orchestral composition and we see variations on the overarching theme from each of the sections throughout.

Akihiko and Haruki make up the woodwind and percussions, as light and airy as they are forceful and sparring. Akihiko reminisces on his meeting bad boy, playboy Haruki. He remembers how it took all his courage to invite Haruki to jam with Akihiko and Uenoyama when he realized the intimidating musician was a drummer as well as a violinist. Akihiko’s grown his hair out ever since, a sort of symbol of his unrequited love for mostly straight Haruki. He plans to cut it off some day, but it’s never seemed like the right time. He also considers how much better Haruki’s behaviour has gotten since they met… but is that really the case, band mom?!

After days of avoidance, when Mafuyu and Uenoyama finally talk about their feelings it becomes a variation of the ponderous, regal brass section with the mournful, divine and sometimes dramatic sound of strings–Mafuyu’s contribution, for sure.

The most mysterious variation, perhaps we could say led by a violin soloist of exceptional talent, comes from the introduction of Haruki’s roommate–a prodigy concert violinist, see what I did there? After seeing a video of Mafuyu’s raw first public performance, Haruki–whose relationship with his roommate is… complicated–invites the singer to his performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35. Mafuyu thanks Haruki for the tickets, who responds, “Well, it’s not really from me. We have them because… he likes you. He thinks you’re interesting.”

Variations on a theme is actually a very helpful way to think about volume 3. For the first time we get to see each of the characters in equal light, instead of a focus on either Uenoyama or Mafuyu. Akihiko and Haruki get just as much stage time, and it’s an absolute delight. I would read an entire spinoff series about those two dumb, beautiful bisexuals. Interestingly there’s a darker, hidden side to their friendship that subtly threatens to tear the group apart, even if none of the boys realize it yet.

Meanwhile, as Mafuyu and Uenoyama’s relationship develops we get the just bubblegum sweet painfully cute adorableness of two boys in love, with a dark sliver between them to keep us on the edge of our seats. Unlike the earlier volumes that are much closer to a single character, volume 3 wanders in an out of the boys lives, oftentimes montaging through time periods, a fantastic device to depict a band as they grow in talent and popularity. We also finally get to find out why they end up calling themselves Given, a scene delightfully underplayed in its meaningfulness. Mafuyu offers the suggestion, and then when the band accepts and moves on he’s adorably miffed. There’s a lot of wide-eyed, Pomeranian-Mafuyu in volume 3, if that sweetens the pot.

At the risk of repeating myself, Given may be one of my favourite series, cemented by Natsuki Kizu’s third volume. This is peak BL to me, an exquisite orchestral theme of rapture and melancholy without feeling overwrought, where interpersonal relationships play out in turns of darkness and light. Cute boys with lots of feelings and maybe not always making the best choices, and then occasionally kissing. Encore!

Level of Problematic: Violin soloist; there’s actually not much to say here, aside from the potentially evil gay that has emerged. We shall see!

Level of Adorable: Secret gay band relationships; I mean, we get the requisite sickbed crush visit, we get gay obsession over long hair and boys complimented on their braids, we get messy haired violinists. I just don’t know what more it will take to convince you!!

Level of Spiciness: Naked solo violinist; there’s a sexy edge to volume 3 that wasn’t in the other two, especially around a certain relationship, and a pinup style image of the aforementioned violinist that is sexy, vulnerable and a little menacing. So you can imagine the appeal.