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Ka Shin Fu - Makoto Tateno
by shroud
A mansion owned by an extremely wealthy and politically connected family headed by an aged matriarch. Two handsome male cousins in the direct line of descent. A beautiful young woman who is the key to inheriting the family fortune. A storm is brewing over the Kourenji family, and with it sways not just the destiny of the three young ... people, but of an entire business empire. No, it's not a re-run of Dynasty, it's Tateno's Boy's Love manga, Ka Shin Fu. Having said that, there are definitely soap opera elements here that more than give a nod to the likes of Dynasty and Dallas.
Grandmother is one tough cookie, hiding a will of iron behind her elegant, aged façade. Thanks to the enormity of the family business empire, family politics are quite complicated and even outside friendships often come with a price tag. Long ago, grandmother's eldest son did a disappearing act, while two of the daughters married outside the clan. Grandmother's favoured candidate for heir is Mitsuko, but Mitsuko is not a direct heir, so is out of the question. That leaves Yuuichi and Shuu, the sons of the two daughters, and grandmother had hatched a plan so that her beloved Mitsuko can still enjoy the benefits of inheritance. All Mitsuko has to do is marry one of the two grandsons, and produce the next heir. Stifled into unwilling obedience, the two young men pay joint attendance to the young woman so that she may decide which one is to be grandmother's sacrifice.
This is of course more personally complicated than it may at first seem. Yuuichi and Shuu were lovers during high school, only separating when Shuu realised grandmother's ambitions would see them pulled apart and sent to different parts of the company and possibly far away, or even worse, married off. Calling it quits before they fell in too deep, and distracting himself with women seemed to be his best bet to keep his emotions in check. But Yuichi never awoke form his love dream, and still quietly pines deep inside his heart. Has Shuu truly moved on? He plays, but never settles for any one woman. And what about Mitsuko? Quiet, obedient, and dedicated to grandmother, everyone seems to overlook the fact that she too must have dreams and feelings. Feelings which touch off a storm and sends the family reeling and that just may leave Yuichi and Shuu free of grandmother's plottings after all. It is a storm whose beginnings actually began long ago, and whose repercussions reach forth to yet a third generation...
I quite enjoyed this volume. The story was much different than Tateno's usual offerings, but very well done. A multilayered, multi-generational tale of family fortunes, skeletons in the closet, coerced sex, forbidden loves, blackmail, corruption, and greed all make up the ingredients to a never ending buffet of delights. Shuu plays the carefree playboy, while inside, his heart is actually a mess and dedicated to only one person. Yuuichi is the reserved businessman, whose quiet demeanour masks his deeply passionate nature. Mitsuko is the quiet one whose waters run deep. Later cast additions Kaoru and Ryuugo are no mere tacked on also rans either. Kaoru's tragic past sets the stage for more machinations and provide the recipe for revenge, while Ryuugo is the face that brings the long ago past back to haunt the family, as skeletons come falling out of the closet. Is he the devil come to destroy the family? Or is he the one that can save them all? Tateno leaves us guessing right until the final page, and leaves us with a sigh of satisfaction as her carefully crafted plot is brought to a close.
Tateno's signature art style is used to excellent advantage here. Filled with clean lines, large brooding eyes that can go from calculatingly cold in one frame to smouldering desire in the next, we do get our fill of her pointy chinned beautiful men with gracefully sweeping locks of hair. She is not a one trick pony however, as we also get wonderfully detailed portraits of lovely young women, and older men and women who while not of flowery beauty are a treat to look at thanks to her graceful rendering of their ageing visages. As usual, she also makes excellent use of her backgrounds, with plenty of detail as needed, and set up in such a way that they serve almost like stage backgrounds against which characters play out their lives. The panel work is uncomplicated but combined with her art contributes to the feel of watching a play or TV drama, serving almost like scene changes.
Rated an 18+ due to mature themes and sexual situations, this tale of generational drama is available for purchase in a variety of formats. There is the traditional paperback edition, available from major manga retailers, as well as a electronic edition available for users of Amazon's Kindle platform (available to buy Amazon, of course). In addition, an electronic version for the PC is available to read online via the publisher's own Emanga site, which users can rent once, or pay to keep and have stored on their account on the publisher's own server. For those in regions where importing manga is difficult, or where one encounters region locking issues with Kindle, this can prove to be quite handy as the Emanga.com site is not region locked and can be used by anyone over the age of 18.
I'd like to extend my thanks to Digital Manga for providing me with this copy for review purposes.
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Love Water - Venio Tachibana
by shroud
Misao has only ever known life behind the gate of the "tea house" where he was born. He literally has never stepped beyond the gate, though he did try a few times as a child, in a desperate attempt to experience the world beyond. Having been severely punished for those attempts, he long gave up trying to escape that way, and ... now concentrates on buying his way out. His mother was said to have been the number one courtesan during her time there, and his father a well to do customer who fled when he realised she was to have his child. Thanks to her, he has been gifted with a small delicate body and an outer beauty that matches his innate grace. So much so that his debt is rather large, thanks to the brothel's owner having taken a shine to him as a child, lavishing him with the same lessons in dance, tea ceremony, music, and so on that the female courtesan trainees receive. In order to pay off his debt, he not only works there as a servant, serving food to patrons, lighting the lamps in the rooms at night, and so on, but flirts lightly and dances for extra tips that he can use to pay back the owner for his investment.
One day a carriage pulls up, and it is evident that a new customer has come to call. Seeing who has escorted the young man, it is also apparent that the new customer is a very important man. Masaomi Towa is the handsome and wealthy heir to a corporation and a newcomer to the rules of the pleasure district. He has come to call upon one courtesan in particular, Ukigumo, who is the brothel's beautiful head courtesan. Confused as to why she would not speak to him during their first encounter, and obviously unsure of what is happening, Misao takes it upon himself to go visit the man in his room on the sly. Not to sell his body, for Misao refuses to whore himself out. No, he goes to explain the protocols that the Pleasure District employs. It is a time honoured system filled with ritual, and Masaomi is grateful to Misao for helping him out in this regard. Giving him a tip for his trouble, Misao finds himself troubled. Masaomi is a generous, sincere man who is all too likely to be taken advantage of in the Pleasure District.
Each visit to the brothel in order to fulfil the ritual by which he can gain Ukigumo's place in his room and in his bed leads to encounters with the attendant staff, which includes Misao. Misao becomes more and more troubled, for the sincere Masaomi has captured his heart, and it is not something that he is free to give. Nor does he have Masaomi's, as he obviously is smitten with Ukigumo or else he would not have come to the Pleasure Quarter to seek her out specifically. When Towa unexpectedly reaches his hands out to Misao for one brief moment in time, Misao's cynical heart yearns to break free of his narrow world once more. But will the reality of the pleasure quarter and his indentured status keep him imprisoned? And what about Ukigumo, the one for whom Towa comes to claim, apparently wishing to buy her free in order to claim her as his own?
Set in Osaka during the Meiji era (October 1868 to July 1912 , or roughly equivalent to late Victorian to early Edwardian era), the societal hierarchies and rigid nature of traditional Japan meeting that of a Westernised modern Japanese was wonderfully evocative. Towa is every inch a modern gentleman of that age. He wears western clothes, stays in a Western style hotel, eats Western style food, and is visibly pained by the rigid system he encounters in the Pleasure Quarters,ways that beneath the graceful seeming exterior with the beautiful dancing, soul stirring musical performances, and elegant food service hides the sordid reality that the women and children of the brothels endure every day of their lives, until they either die or buy their way free.
The brothel, its inhabitants and regular patrons provide a stark contrast: the courtesans' backbitng as they jostle for favoured positions, the innocence all too quickly lost of the young maids who serve the courtesans before becoming one themselves once old enough, the male servants bound by indenture, and customers who keep hoping for a bit of even more illicit pleasure if they can bribe an employee to allow them the indulgence. In this setting, those who are somehow pure of heart shine forth, and it is because of this that Misao and Ukigumo make such an excellent rivalling pair. She is as beautiful as Misao, or perhaps more so, and an actual female. She is not just beautiful on the outside, and accomplished, but has an inner grace as well. Never cruel to her maids or the servants, Misao is in awe of her, and knows his place is far beneath her. Because it is she who has attracted Masaomi Towa's eye, Misao knows he has nary a chance against her. But things are not always what they seem, especially in the pleasure district. Just as the brothels sell beautiful lies of love, sometimes they also hide other truths. Truths which can wipe away all doubt. That is, if the truth is actually told.
I really love stories set in in this period, with descriptions of the old buildings and towns, the formal social ceremony stood upon for certain types of gatherings, and let's not forget the beauty of getting to see those fabulous hair styles and formal kimonos. The translation effort was wonderfully done, with the language flowing almost lyrically so that this bygone era appeared in the mind's eye almost unbidden. Venio Tachibana's words paint a beautiful portrait not just of a bygone Japan, but the deep emotions and insecurities of those caught in this time of change, when Japan moved from the feudalistic shogunate government model and began modernisation, rising as a world power. It is also somehow timelessly evocative, almost as if set in amber. Tooko Miyagi's signature delicate art work elegantly graces several of the pages and the cover, and are truly a delight to behold. One illustration depicts Misao dancing with a fan and it is unbelievably beautiful. The lines are so fluid that the scene is brought to vivid life.
Despite being set in a brothel, there is not a lot of sex within the pages. Misao is a servant, not a whore, so his contact with the courtesans once they enter a customer's bedroom is practically nil, save for lighting the lamps after dusk. There IS some sex, but that scene is one of tender poignancy that is rendered as elegantly as the trappings of the Pleasure Quarter itself. Likewise, there is no real violence inside, so the 16+ rating is justified. Those who prefer a gently romantic piece, Boy's Love or otherwise, will adore this piece.
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Angelic Runes - Makoto Tateno
by shroud
The people in a fairly small and isolated village have had more than their share of bad luck, and they just know two young twins must be somehow responsible. After all, their mother died giving birth to them, and all they ever say is creepy nonsense. Confronted about the troubles, they admit they are responsible and that the only way to ... top it is to bury them alive. The villagers have the eight year old children in the grave, ready to begin shovelling the earth over, when a mysterious stranger appears. Aghast at what he is witnessing, he halts the proceedings. It readily becomes apparent that he is no ordinary person passing by, but a user of magic. And he too, comes to quickly realise that these are no ordinary children. For one speaks the words of an angel, and the other passes the messages of a demon. For what reason is this so, and what does this have to do with the quest for his own father? Machinations beyond human ken are afoot, with these three at the centre of the storm. Are they mere pawns in a game between heaven and hell, or is is something more at work?
I have to admit to rather liking the works of Makoto Tateno, and while her art work here is as superb as ever and her plot idea intriguing, this title still fell rather flat. The twins, Allueh and Erudite not only have rather odd names even for a high fantasy title, but seem to be made of cardboard. Admittedly, their reticence and not saying anything but the utterances of their angel or demon is probably meant to make them seem mysterious, but the lack of any text showing their own private inner thoughts just leaves them completely two dimensional, mere props for what appears to be the main character, the young traveller Sowil. Introduction of further characters tends to be abrupt, as if Tateno is in a hurry to introduce new plot threads and twists. The volume ends without resolving any major questions, merely meandering over a side adventure that gives a hint to the past of the man Sowil seeks.
I felt very frustrated at this, having previously enjoyed Tateno's storytelling prowess in volumes such as Yellow and How to Capture a Martini. Tateno's usual skills sets the bar quite high in expectations, but if I take a step back and re-evaluate it as if it was from a nameless mangaka and from the viewpoint of the target audience (16+), I can see that my disappointment in the perceived shortcomings is perhaps a little harsh. It is perhaps pedestrian compared to her other series, but it IS just getting off the ground, and her angel/demon oracle children are a unique combination. The premise is interesting enough that I will concede that a mere 168 pages is not enough space to thoroughly set the scenario in place as the threads that re appearing seem tangled indeed, and so I shall wait and see with piqued interest how Sowil's quest shapes up. It's shoujo aimed at teens, so despite it being Tateno I guarantee it won't be a less smutty version of Yamane's Crimson Spell, but hey, a fujoshi can't have everything. It does have more depth than the marshmallow loveliness of her Happy Boys, but we'll just have to wait and see if the series tastes as sweet.
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