飼育係・理伙 [Shiiku Gakari Rika 1]

Shiiku Gakari Rika #1

by Modoru Motoni, Modoru Motoni

New boy Natsume Hiro comes to a boarding school unlike any other school in existence to solve/resolve something that happened in his past- but even that fact takes a while to emerge.
The school is a hotbed of bullying and rape kept slightly in check by a feudal organization called the Salon. The Salon protects its members from random abuse by specifying who can/must rape whom (yeah, there are must rapes here) under what circumstances, and punishing those who rape/abuse without proper permission. All this to be decided at the whim of the Salon head.
Sex at the school is both an overwhelming obsession, as befits an all-male society where there are no other outlets for stress, and a matter of down-and-dirty power politics, not unlike an American jail.
When you throw in the Byzantine institution of the Salon, you have a scenario reminiscent of the surrealistic, closed, hothouse world of British boys' schools. But the Rika world is even more bizarre than that.

Genres: Manga, Yaoi

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

MOTONI Modoru: 本仁戻

Well known for her random-style of writing, not everything has to make sense with Modoru Motoni-sensei.

She started in 1988 in a circle with ISAWA Mauo called "Joe's KiraKira" and with a copy-book text doujinshi based on the series Saint Seya called "BALLAD".

Her circle now is MAQUNICALIS.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little horrified by some of the content but still a very good book. Interesting, has a little mystery and thats always good.

[Zi Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

生活不会如此阴暗,但是同样绝望.

[Loveliest Evaris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This manga was always hard for me to understand. I thought it was because of my lack of ability of deciphering the common trope of Japanese mangakas adding poetic narratives that are supposed to be "deep" and "mysterious" when really they fail to connect to me as a reader because I find them so banal and damnit, I didn't come to read heavy-handed BS in this manga.

No, what this manga suffers from is exactly what I stated above, along with a very murky plot that is hard to decipher. In fact, it was up until the third-to-last page in chapter 5 of this volume that I even understood what was trying to be conveyed, that being (and I quote) "Every man has a mother complex. Become "Mama", Rika".

I had no idea why the hell everyone referred to Rika as "Mother" or "Mama". I thought it was a gimmick and I was very confused with the labelling as they seemed very flimsy at best when it came to denoting the standings of the various characters as they seemed to be interchangeable with other names like "Breeder", "Pet", etc. Labels were dropped and it was up to me to figure out what the fuck everyone was talking about, and I failed for the most part.

Reading this for the nth time and actually, actually, ACTUALLY putting some real think-thought-brain-matter into the pages, I began to roughly understand what the author was trying to tell me, and it's so freaking simple I don't know why they had to write a big to-do and dance around it without giving me some concrete facts. This isn't a mystery but it sure as hell felt like one with all of the important information cut out like it was nothing.

Basically, Rika is the Queen Bee of the high school in a group called the Salon which rules over the all-male student body. In order to prevent shit from going haywire he offers himself as a receptacle for everyones' lust--that is, if they're part of the Salon. He is referred to as "Mother" during sex by the other guys, and during this twisted roleplay he is acting out the incestuous relationship that Rika's peer Tetsuo fantasized of having with his (Tetsuo's) younger brother Hiro. Hiro and Tetsuo watched their mother be raped and subsequently take her own life. Tetsuo committed incest with Hiro while being very aroused by the idea of ---if I'm understanding this correctly--raping his mother while she whimpers "Save me, save me, save me". Hiro fulfills that slot, as someone who is raped would obviously say something along those lines in that situation.

When Tetsuo met Rika they had an S&M relationship, with Tetsuo trying to break Rika into becoming that willing body, that "Mama" figure that would beg for him, and Rika enjoying the pain that Tetsuo gave him while brutalizing him during sex while holding out on what Tetsuo wanted most. Eventually Rika gave in after Tetsuo basically manipulated him into thinking that he wouldn't torture Rika anymore and became "Mama", much to his chagrin.

Eventually Rika became a full-fledged Queen.

The "initiation" into the Salon by "Jacks" (students that are not a part of the salon) involves being brutalized and horribly raped. From what I gather their spirits are supposed to be wholly broken to the point of near-lunacy before they are "saved" by Rika's divine hand of stopping the torture, and it is then that Rika will serve himself as a reward to them for withstanding the trials (though that's debatable) and as a Mother figure.

This is all very Freudian, if you haven't guessed.



So that spoiler right there explains what I've gathered, and to be super honest this manga does a piss-poor job at conveying its ideas in a coherent fashion. I rarely have a hard time remembering names and faces in manga (maybe 1 or 2 series every once in a long while) but damn did Modoru Motoni succeed in spinning my head around and confusing me.

Regardless, I will try to finish it to say that I have, nothing more.

[Gothdoll666{In Rue's Pocket} · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and disturbing. This manga definitely illustrates sexual abuse in school done to girl and boy children. I also love Tetsu and Rika. There is just something I like about this manga, even though it is so,so disturbing.

[Magan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Top notch mystery that is all the better for being incomplete, I think. (It was dropped. )