Virtuoso Di Amore

by Uki Ogasawara

Kenzo Shinozuka is a talented but under-appreciated pianist, so when wealthy nobleman Lorenzo Carlucci offers to be his patron, he leaps at the offer. However, being patronized by Carlucci exacts a price that the pianist may not want to pay.

Genres: Yaoi, Manga, Romance

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Known as 小笠原 宇紀.

Reviews

[Sol · Rating 3 out of 5]

"... Then if I do everything you ask... does that mean you'll stay with me forever?"
"... Will you play the piano forever?"

I always find the most interesting, obscure yaoi in the "Spicy Manga" section of my local bookstore (which always has like 10 books in it, but a fun selection nonetheless), and needless to say, the moment I saw this strange-looking yaoi published in the very early 2000s for $7.50, I picked it up right away!

And this really is a strange one. It feels like such a time capsule for this era of yaoi. I didn't really become a baby fujin until about 2012 or so, so this was a little bit before my time, and therefore I found it interesting. Nostalgically, this book even has has "MANGA -- YAOI" printed on the back of the dust jacket. Good old fashioned yaoi, just like grandma used to make... /j

On to the actual review: this was such a sensual and cerebral sort of book that deals very much in the crossroads of sexuality, artistry, and insanity. It reminds me a bit of Twittering Birds Never Fly, in that the love interest is this man caught in the crossroads of mental illness, drug use, and masochism, and the conflict is in our protagonist wanting to "save him" and "take him away" from that life. Which is a fine plot, but honestly... the writing of this is just unintelligible. It's impossible to tell if it's Ogasawara-sensei's writing that's the problem, or if it's the translation team that possibly dropped the ball -- maybe both -- but many, many parts of this were confusing and hard to follow. I never quite felt like I had a full grasp on what the characters were thinking and feeling, and sometimes they'd have a sudden change of heart or mind that would make me go, "... what on Earth prompted that?"
The insight to the characters' inner lives is so slim that it made me feel a bit like I was watching a reality show about people I have no information about, or a little bit like I was jumping into a series 5 volumes in instead of starting at the beginning. You can piece together things and go along with the ride as best you can, but I never quite felt like I was grasping what was going on in this story from start to finish.

As I mentioned before, parts of this were just downright strange, and that's the only way I can really think to describe them. The love interest is said time and time again to be addicted to drugs, as well as having multiple suicide attempts under his belt. However, I kept expecting there to be some kind of twist to this, and it just never came. But the way that his drug use really shows itself in his personality is that it makes him dress up in weird costumes and act slightly different, or else lower his inhibitions completely and cause him to attempt suicide. It feels like a drug-addicted character written by someone who has no idea what drugs even are or what they do to you. It adds such an odd, fantastical element to this story that just contributes to the overall oddity. Truly, when you read this, you'll be scratching your head throughout.

To be honest, I kept expecting that the twist would be that he actually has never done drugs before, and this is just an assumption people at the Music Academy or in his life have made about him -- but rather that he has dissociative identity disorder (especially since, when he wears different clothes while under the influence, our protagonist remarks that he plays and speaks and acts completely different from usual), which sprung from past trauma and also made playing the piano a traumatic pain point, leading to his inability to play. With that theory in mind, him just genuinely being addicted to pills felt a bit like a cop-out to me, because I don't think even pills can truly explain how odd his behavior is in this book. Again, I was really scratching my head while trying to wrap my brain around some of these writing choices.

However, this wasn't necessarily a bad time. I thought that the art was so clean and charming. The print of this book was so clean despite being published in 2005! I really loved all of the character designs in this. It really gave the whole thing a mature and sexy feel. I especially liked the protagonist Kenzo's emo-looking fringe, it just gave him such an adorable look, and his partner Lorenzo's long bottom-lashes were just adorable. I thought they made a very cute couple despite this book being mostly nonsense.

Final verdict: I do feel as though this book is objectively bad. However, I still enjoyed it. :)

[(Abby) Enter the Phantom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more. The cover is so elegant and intriguing and the blurb on the back definitely made it sound like something it wasn't. But the storytelling was so clunky I had a hard time understanding it. Certainly not the musical game of cat-and-mouse I was promised.

First of all, there's a lot of exposition in the first few pages that isn't really well-explained. Everything is thrown at you all at once with no time for build up--much like the romance that follows. As the story develops, it becomes harder to follow the central conflict, and it's not really clear at times what that conflict is supposed to be. If Lorenzo dislikes being taken advantage of by performers, why does he do it? What does he get out of it? Is he just really weak-willed?

And why does Kenzo care enough about him to continue doing as he asks, even though he knows Lorenzo is breaking his part of their deal? The two don't seem to really have a lot of chemistry or believable interaction. There's hardly any build up to their first encounter and Kenzo especially seems to have feelings that come out of nowhere.

The plot is quite jumbled and feels confusing at times, which is unnecessary, because all the parts for a good story are there, they're just arranged in a really odd way and often don't feel like they really fit together. In the second half we're introduced to a part of the story that really should have been made more obvious all along, and that's Lorenzo's drug habit. It's a shame that this was brought up so incredibly late and not used to its full potential, because it could have brought a lot more to the story than just "Lorenzo doesn't play piano and no one knows why". In fact a lot of Lorenzo's relationship to the piano doesn't make a lot of sense, which seems important in a story largely about the character's relationship to music.

This really had potential to be an emotional and elegant addition to a genre that is often decried as being crass and cliche, but the story is just too jumbled and confusing. I did enjoy the lovely artwork though, so there's that. (Besides the few panels where 3-D renders were obviously employed for objects and looked out of place. But it was 2005, so I'll give it a pass.)

[Mosley · Rating 1 out of 5]

This seemed like it was trying to be dark and angsty but it came off stuffy and boring. I struggled to get through this one.

[kimberly_rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted at mangaupdates.com in July, 2008.

I found the art to be magnificient! The eyes! Wow. So beautiful.

Carlucci was the most interesting character. He had such a dark, complex mysterious personality. I think that there could be more manga made on his back story. I really wanted to know more about this masochistic, beautiful, broken but still manipulative and strong man.

The story wove along seemingly effortlessly and kept me grasping the sides of my manga in anticipation.

It was very swoon worthy. (I'm a sucker for capes and masks and phantom of the opera-esque style.)

One of those mangas I can read over and over and not get bored.

[Mati · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manga is full of psychotic pianists, who has strange fetish to mentaly parasite on each other and pretending some love romance...which is actually the point of the story. Kenzo Shinozuka was poor pianist, who was very talented but worked in lowly position and was heavily under-appreciated until he met wealthy aristocrat Lorenzo Carlucci. And yes, they fucked, so that was the point. Lorenzo was bag of complexes and drug addiction plus his promiscuity was also some issue.
Overall manga is very nice drawn and everybody in is psychotic and horny. That is a good combination, right?

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic and heart felt. I could feel the love radiating out with every page. I was captivated and caught in the story. Anyone who loves yaoi and romance will love this book. I highly recommend it.

[Reader17 Der · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this volume.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was soooooooooo mad after reading this.

[Fadime Duran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why are Bl manga’s always so …