vignette00's manga / #friends become lovers(32)

Two high school friends become sex friends, semi-permanent roommates, and then, maybe, lovers. Mostly an investigation into the boundaries we draw between ourselves and others in our life, and how much we need to negotiate those boundaries when we strive for intimacy or a deeper relationship (cue Kate Bush -- "Hello, I know that you're unhappy / I bring you love and deeper understanding"). The main characters don't fall into a traditional romance even at the end, when they reach an understanding about their feelings, and there's a wonderful scene where one of the characters confesses that the phrase "I love you" is too much for him, because he really doesn't understand what it means yet. Realistic, slow, and not much happens except for the central conflict (which is resolved, primarily, off-screen), but sweeter because of that, because you're truly cheerleading for the success of the relationship even after you turn the last page.

Two (or three) longer stories and one true oneshot to close out the volume. The first is probably Kusama Sakae at her atmospheric best (c.f. Carnivorous Animal's Table Manners), about two soldiers learning to cope with the effects of the war ending. A two-parter about isolation and reintegrating into society, it lets the perfect amount of introspection remain unspoken, and the effect is heady, humid, and affecting. More disturbing if you compare it to the real life story of Hirou Onoda, but the privilege of fiction is that you can take and leave what you like of history. And then, the Between 1 and 2/ 0 and 1 stories. Between 1 and 2 is a classic "bl chara doesn't understand that childhood friend is a dude, not a lady" story, and skims lightly across the hinted-at dark sea of, essentially, childhood sexual trauma. Kusame doesn't do much with the implied sexual predator in the story, and so the effect is simply froth (well-executed froth, but still froth). As for Between 0 and 1, though, the rape is explicit, textual, and disturbing, made worse by the fact that the characters don't really address it. It's a little like that Ono x Tachibana dj for Antique Bakery that Yoshinaga drew herself, the one that breaks open their sexual tension, only Kusame doesn't make the characters sit down and talk to each other afterwards like Yoshinaga does. Instead both of them get lost in their own heads and then they yell at each other and then they start a relationship that mostly consists of goading each other on. I don't mean to be disapproving, and I think Kusame's liner notes at the end show what she's trying to do (the characters are a mended lid to each other's broken pot). It's thematically consistent with the first story and the last oneshot -- to wit, a broken thing becomes stronger and more beautiful when it is mended with love. Whether or not you buy it depends on how you feel about the use of rape in stories. I wouldn't say that Kusame is condoning the rape, but it's certainly not treated with the weight I would think it deserved. Overall, though, worth it for the first historical oneshot.

Frustrating, slow, and not particularly well drawn, this manga still sticks with me because of the wonderful characterization of its main characters, Toshi and Kyuu. Kyuu grows up through the three volume series, and his homesickness is particularly well written. The mangaka doesn't shy away from sketching out everyone's complicated cowardice, from Toshi who won't tell Kyuu his feelings, to Kyuu who is afraid of appearing two-faced, to Kyuu's brother, Sumi, who can't stop running away. This is a manga about how to care for other people and convey that caring, and the sweetness of the end is doubly rewarding because of how hard it was to come by.