We’re picking teams in this week’s column! On one side is Michelle, who reviews a pair of very different boys’ love one-shots: Double Trouble from DMP and U Don’t Know Me from NETCOMICS. On the opposing side, Connie and Ken both tackle (pun intended) sports manga from Viz, with reviews of the latest volumes of Eyeshield 21 and REAL, respectively.
By Takashi Kanzaki
Digital Manga Publishing, 200 pp.
Rating: Mature
Fearful of acting on his attraction for his new stepbrother, Naruki, Kou Sawara moves away from home and into the dorm at his high school. Soon thereafter, however, Naruki transfers in. His meek and innocent personality is a hit with the guys at school and Kou works himself to the point of exhaustion protecting Naruki from their advances. When his roommate suggests hypnotizing Naruki so that he’ll be able to protect himself, Kou agrees. Unfortunately, this hypnosis manifests as a super-aggressive seme personality that has Naruki turning the tables on all his would-be seducers, Kou included.
Most of the story revolves around Kou’s conflicted feelings—he’s in love with the original Naruki, but that Naruki is not in touch with his own love for Kou. The aggressive Naruki openly confesses his affections, but Kou doesn’t want to be the “bottom” in the relationship, nor does he consider this personality to really be Naruki. Add in a manipulative roommate who wants Kou for himself, and you get the basic gist. The art and storytelling are both competent, and I did appreciate that the sex scenes are suggestive rather than explicit.
I should probably steer clear of boys’ love titles with wacky premises, though, because even though I know they’re meant to be comedic, I still end up taking them too seriously. For instance, I was really bothered that Kou never once thought about how wrong hypnotizing Naruki was. Now he’s basically hypnotically compelled to sleep with a whole bunch of guys and not remember doing so. Is that not rape? Is that not violation most profound, no matter how implausible the means?
It also really bugged me that there’s no resolution at all to the story. I might’ve liked it a bit more if Naruki had regained his own personality in the end, but as things leave off, it seems like he’ll be stuck with his split personality forever. Sorry, but inflicting permanent mental damage upon the one you love does not strike me as terribly romantic.
Double Trouble is available now.
–Reviewed by Michelle Smith
Story By Riichiro Inagaki, Art By Yusuke Murata
Viz, 191 pp.
Rating: OT
At the beginning of the school year, Deimon High School has a football team that consists of exactly two football players. But after recruiting Sena Kobayakawa and using methods ranging from flattery to blackmail to find other teammates, a full team is assembled. Their goal: get to the Christmas Bowl.
This volume is actually what the entire series has been building up to so far. The first team that Deimon plays against at the beginning of the series (and loses badly to) is the Ojo White Knights. The two teams meet up again here, except this time they are fighting for the chance to be a finalist in the Kanto tournament. Whoever wins this game will be one game away from the Christmas Bowl. But while Deimon is a team of underdogs, Ojo is a team composed of the best of the best players in the Kanto region, and they are heavily favored to win the entire tournament. Whenever a Deimon player made a significant step forward in technique, they were compared to an Ojo player, so this game is a chance for the entire team to prove themselves individually as the best players in the region.
This is secretly one of my favorite series. Every single one of the players on the Deimon team is quirky and funny, and even when the games drag on for two or three volumes, there are moments of humor that are worked in that always manage to be spot-on. Plus, this series has the best between-chapter bonus material I’ve seen. The game doesn’t actually get underway until about halfway through the book: the first half is mostly some light humor bits, special training, and things that set the tension for the game itself. We only get to see one possession before the volume ends, and considering how long this match has been in the making, I imagine that we’ll be going through several more volumes before the Deimon/Ojo rivalry is finally laid to rest. Even though I have zero interest in football, I have to admit I’m very excited to see how the various rivalries will play out.
–Reviewed by Connie C.
By Takehiko Inoue
Viz, 216 pp.
Rating: T+ (Older Teens)
Inoue pulls a bit of a fast one on us here. The book opens with the Kiyohara’s team practicing for an upcoming one day tournament, which might lead one to think that we’re about to get some lengthy basketball sequences, but no. Instead Inoue compresses the tournament into several pages and spends a good chunk of the volume in a flashback showing Kiyohara coming to grips with his injury and condition. It’s an interesting decision given that he spent most of the previous volume in similar territory with Hisanobu. It works due to the fact that Hisanobu’s story was very much an internal one set shortly after his accident showing him struggling to cope with his condition, while Kiyohara’s jumps around and shows how outside influences and friends helped pull him out of a similar state. Between them we essentially have a picture of what some people go through—from their initial injury, the discovery of what it means, to coming to grips with it. The rest of the cast is neglected for most of the volume, with only Nomiya appearing for some comedic relief as he continues to try and get his life together.
After three volumes, plus Vagabond, I’m not really sure what else to say about Inoue’s artwork that hasn’t already been said. It’s simply beautiful. Inoue manages to capture emotions wonderfully whether it’s nervous glances or full-blown sob fests. When the comedic moments occur he avoids the common manga tropes of chibis or overreactions and instead relies on the material itself to get the laughs, which it usually does with me.
The series continues to be a gripping and fascinating look at the world of the wheelchair-bound. With constantly evolving characters, intertwining stories that mirror each other and more, REAL continues to be one of the best manga series out there.
Volume four of REAL will be available on April 21, 2009.
–Reviewed by Ken Haley
By Rakun
NETCOMICS, 200 pp.
Rating: 18+
Seyun and Yoojin grew up together because their fathers were close friends, and even after Seyun and his family move some distance away their friendship endures. Now in high school, Seyun is doing his best to get Yoojin to notice him in a romantic way, but Yoojin seems oblivious until the day one of his friends tells him, in a case of mistaken identity, that Seyun is “a well-known manwhore” at his school. Yoojin finally releases his pent-up emotions in a violent sex act—which I’m happy to say is not treated as being okay—and he and Seyun eventually become a couple.
Drama ensues, but always grows out of the story and the strong characters. Even the sex scenes focus more on the characters than the act itself—several times the way the boys converse throughout reminds me of similar scenes I’ve seen in the works of est em. The art is also quite lovely—I didn’t learn until the penultimate chapter that Rakun is actually Yeri Na, creator of Do Whatever You Want—with a clean but expressive style. One particularly nice panel features Seyun embracing a ghostly image of Yoojin while thinking, “What do I have to do for you to look at me?”
What I like most U Don’t Know Me is that it moves beyond the moment of consummation into more real-life concerns about being in a gay relationship. Seyun frets a lot, for example, that he can never give Yoojin children, be someone Yoojin could introduce to his employers, or fulfill Yoojin’s mother’s dream of a beloved daughter-in-law. When Yoojin’s parents eventually discover the boys’ relationship, their kindness actually makes Seyun feel worse, like he’s betraying them by robbing Yoojin of his future. It seems awfully rare that a boys’ love title actually touches on these issues.
U Don’t Know Me is not your run-of-the-mill boys’ love story. The complexity of its plot, its characters, and their emotions combine to offer an engaging reading experience on par with some of the best titles in the genre.
U Don’t Know Me is available online at NETCOMICS.com. A print edition with extra content will be available on April 20, 2009.
–Reviewed by Michelle Smith
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