vignette00's manga / #reencounter(43)

A hodgepodge of bl tropes (fell in love when they were children, rape after a misunderstanding, jealous possessive seme, the "third man" who is just an old friend) that are straightforwardly trotted out. The second couple is barely more interesting if only because one of the characters is a trickster who bullies the people he loves and literally says out loud "did you know that during sex, no means yes?" which cracked me up but not for the reasons I think the mangaka intended. Passable art with too many close-ups of people's enormous sparkling or troubled faces. It reminds me a bit of the infinitely superior "How to Capture a Martini," (http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/martini_kouryakuhou/) but at least Tateno Makoto knows how to write a good hot-and-then-cold object of desire.

Naoyuki is reunited with his ex-boyfriend Okada, who turns out to be the apprentice bartender of Maria Elena. What starts out as a one-off date with his girlfriend ends up being Naoyuki's ticket back to a relationship with Okada. Main character Naoyuki is as sweet as a Kamikaze, with just as much depth. The story starts and ends with him mooning for his old senpai, and when Maria Elena's boss lets him part time at the bar, he's more than willing to jump at the opportunity to get reunited with his first love. But when Okada pushes him back-- and Okada does, more than once, with different degrees of forcefulness-- Naoyuki eventually has to step down. It's a neat little drama that Tateno Makoto enjoys writing over and over again in each of her series: the beloved who believes for one reason or another that he has to refuse the lover what he wants, and the lover who after a while feels as if he's backed the beloved in a corner, and thus steps down. Sadly, Martini Kouryakuhou starts to fall apart towards the emotional climax. The beauty of Naoyuki and Okada's situation lies very much in us and Naoyuki having no clue as to the reason why Okada disappeared from Naoyuki's life. So we're intrigued and swept along for the ride, because we keep wanting to know why. It mounts and mounts for so long and the explanation, when it comes, makes so little sense and is so strangely frustrating that you're tempted to rewrite it and elaborate it yourself, because you just so badly want Okada to live up to his earlier standards as a character. That too, I guess, is a sign of a good manga, but really, I was so ?!?!?!? about the ending that most of the time I purposely forget the reason Okada left, just so I'll enjoy the manga more. The art is Tateno Makoto standard-- neither mindblowing impressive nor anything short of good craft. Kousaka, the main bartender, is just funny and real enough for Tateno Makoto to have made him the star of Side Car Seigyohou. And there's the issue with the owner and the owner's brother, which, well. You'll see.

A man re-encounters a childhood friend -- and victim -- of his who isn't ready to forgive or forget his past transgressions. One of those stories that fits strictly within bl manga rape logic, where rape is just a declaration of unrequited love, this story always seems to be teetering on the edge of a much more dramatic tragedy (c.f. Fusa Juuji's The Gospel http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/the_gospel/, which similarly chickens out of the dramatic "bullets-fly-everyone-dies" ending it seemed to be headied for), but settles instead for an unrealistic, but satisfying conclusion where the two mains forgive each other and themselves. The climax, which involves an attempted double suicide, a hospital visit, and a very emotional confrontation on a stairwell, is well-manufactured if you ignore rape-as-romantic-window-dressing. I can't help considering this to be "Kunieda Saika's B-team," even though I think Fukai Youki is competent enough in her own right.

The official summary and first chapter of this story hides the lede and makes it sound like the pet dog aspect between Kaede and Noro (the childhood friend) will play a bigger part than it actually does. The reality is that this story is very much about Kaede trying to understand and move on from his brother's death, especially his belief that he caused his brother to commit suicide. Noro's own unhappy childhood is hinted at, but Amagakure resists the temptation to make the whole story about people's deeply unsettling family tragedies and instead gives most of the Noro screentime to his fascinatingly complex feelings towards Kaede. Chapter 2 is a standout, with Noro musing over Kaede's selfishness and his own desire to both monopolize and be monopolized, and it neatly sets up Kaede's own fear that he causes pain to the people around him by being demanding and nosy. The intrusion of a friend of Kaede's brother in the last two chapters is a little too convenient, but on par with the themes of self-discovery, acceptance, and regret. Tonally, the art is sparse and kinetic, with a lot of white space, which may be surprising for readers of Amagakure's other works, like "Amaama to Inazuma."