vignette00's manga / #psychological(36)

The story seems simple in the beginning: Legna is an Oracle, a kind of fortune-teller meets courtier for the king (who is himself a teenager). In order to unlock the answer to his most recent dream, one in which someone intends to kill the king, Legna undertakes the Aruosumente, a dream trial where he must match up ten tarot cards with ten people in his life, so that he may turn the wheel of fortune and discover the would-be killer. Except that's where things get tricky. Legna, it turns out, has been living in a little cocoon, completely shielded from the politics surrounding his own position as Oracle, the death of his father, and even the circumstances of Lante, the captain of the Black Guards and one of his fellow courtiers To complete the tarot-matching stage of the Aruosumente, Legna must begin unraveling the years he's spent turning a blind eye towards the complexities of the outside world, and in the process, reevalute his role in the court and the intentions of everyone around him. Aki's art is fluid, simple, and mesmerizing, and her characters are a fascinating mix of expected tropes (the headstrong king, the strict but deadly loyal adviser, the day-and-night twins, the wiley scientist) and unexpected twists. Sometimes the twist is that Aki's not interested in making any one character too good or evil. Legna is loyal, inflexible, trusting, and blunt -- Aki is smart enough to not compromise on any of those traits in an attempt to appeal to the reader. The same with Lante, who starts off as if he's a joker hiding a heart of gold and tears, but turns out to be much more complicated, in part because that characterization is exactly who he is. But where Aki succeeds the most is the knitting together of court intrigue and dream logic. Tarot cards are an easy crutch to lean on, as it adds perceived """depth""" and a pre-constructed way for your narrator to arrange the other characters in the story by traits they may not have yet displayed, but Aki uses it to her full advantage. At every turn Legna turns over another interpretation of the people in his life, especially Lante, and the tarot cards only underscore, never trample, on the plot. Legna goes through his trial like the protagonist in a video game, and part of the appeal of Aruosument is how very much it feels like an open world honeycombed with mysteries waiting for you to discover. Even when the story gets a little too videogamey (a shady conversation with a disgraced character in a dungeon, really?), there's always a little touch of humor or the unexpected. This is Game of Thrones meets Persona-4, and that's 100% meant as a compliment.

Of Jaryuu Dokoro's stories, probably the sweetest. The title story, Yakozen, puts its main character Monji in a friends with benefit situation with his friend Chiba and then surrounds Monji with unrequited love -- his best girl friend Chie is in the same situation, and eventually it comes out that another character has an unrequited love for Monji. There's a really important lesson to learn here about balancing selflessness with self-love. Monji puts himself second and Chiba first, and soon becomes beholden to ever one of Chiba's heartless and selfish whims. It's not that Chiba is sadistic or likes making Monji miserable -- it's just that he's not even thinking of Monji's feelings, and there's a great line where Monji asks Chiba if Chiba thinks Monji won't be hurt no matter what Chiba does. The great "twist", as it were, is that Monji's friendships save him, through two conversations that tell Monji that his happiness is just as important as the happiness of the people he loves (and, as a corollary, that true love is wanting to see the person you love happy). Cue Rupaul: "If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else?" A sensitive and realistic story about learning to love yourself, whose happy ending for everyone involved genuinely makes the reader happy as well.

Aijin wa Korosareru is, I think, less about love than it is about rejection and abandonment and the pure instinctual fear people have of not being wanted. That's what makes this story so strong. Hikari is deeply, deeply traumatized by his father's departure and his mother's insanity/emotional issues, and it makes him desperate for acceptance and love, so much so that when Kizaki reaches out even that little bit, Hikari grabs on. Which makes Haizawa and Hikari's relationship all that more painful, because Haizawa is one of those amazing characters that I think can only be found in sad, heartrending yaoi manga. Haizawa is sarcastic, and caustic, and manipulative, and mysterious from the beginning, and he probably has abandonment issues the length of his arm, but he thinks he's survived. He thinks he's over them, living his life, being a new man, and Hikari frightens him because Hikari hasn't. Hikari is a pure boy with pure emotions and he is at once drawn and repulsed by Haizawa, but Haizawa is scared and now I'm just psycho-analyzing this manga too much. Umetaro makes deeply flawed characters who are alive and emotional and filled with dimension, especially with Haizawa and Kizaki. I love how at first you think Kizaki is just going to be a minor character but then Umetarou draws Kizaki closer and closer to the heart of the story. Umetarou always gives Haizawa this subtly adult and mocking smile, which will become important later of course, and Haizawa is a man with so many faces and so many sides but the story makes them all believable. And this is a story about change, about growing up, about dealing with abandonment, about wanting just one person in the world to be happy that you were born, and I love it because even though there are not serious plot twists, what you think is going to happen doesn't. There is room for so many cliches, but the story doesn't go there. It takes middle ground, and takes you with it.

Seems like Ogawa Chise read Motoni Modoru's "Rika the Breeder" and was inspired to make her own version -- right down to the system of Kings, Queens, and Jacks. 'Course, since only Motoni Modoru can be Motoni Modoru, "Caste Heaven" is far less twisted and sick and has sex scenes that are probably designed for you to feel sexy about them, instead of disgusted and morbidly intrigued. Ogawa Chise has a thing for badly codependent relationships, with a "weaker" character hiding the fact that he's manipulating his "stronger" companion into remaining with him for better or worse -- and it's always worse. Ogawa makes an argument in the latest chapters that this kind of manipulation is, in some ways, just a way to "protect" a love that would otherwise be crushed, but just like the caste game itself, Ogawa's fondness for unhealthy possessive relationships is like the air itself to this story, and every twist is designed to make a pure feeling dirty.