vignette00's manga / #sports(17)

The first story is about your run of the mill high school basketball athletes, one of whom is quietly and forcefully devoted to the other, and, well, to call it a homophobia plot would give it too much drama. The second oneshot is about a policeman and a runaway and a pair of old shoes. Both chapters are resting on pretty, i.e. Yamada Sakurako's art, which is fluid, dynamic, and attractive without too many flourishes. Overall, solid but not memorable.

"Prince Charming" is not going to be to everyone's taste, but if it's to your taste, like it is to mine, then whooo boy are you in for a treat. Start with a main character (Asahina) who loves sex and is indifferent about teaching but then is about to lose his job bc of his sex hobbies, add in a feisty student (Yuasa) who has a boy's curiosity for Asahina and a man's possessive interest in being with Asahina, throw in Akemi Takaido's trademark humor and characterization with Yuasa's meddling friends Nagai and Kagami, and then add a vigorous and delightful dose of two almost love triangles that collapses into a love square, and you have Prince Charming. What's wonderful about this series is that the plot climaxes never quite come where you think they will. Yes, all the characters in this series are less than sexually monogamous, and yes, Asahina and Yuasa's primary motivations are to have their cakes and eat them too, but refreshingly, sex in this manga is neither the focus nor the answer. Instead, it's more focused on the tangle of relationships: Yuasa's constantly evolving friendship with Nagai, Asahina and Kagami trading teacher and student roles as they navigate sexual attraction and looking after Yuasa, Asahina and Yuasa trying to work out exactly how much commitment and investment they need from each other to feel satisfied. Takaido's characters are filled with contradictory desires, but instead of picking between them, they often try to take all of them at the same time, and instead of rescuing them from their messes, Takaido lets them wallow. Asahina should know better than to sleep with Yuasa -- he doesn't. Yuasa should know his friends and articulate his desires better -- he doesn't. Kagami should just let things well enough alone when it doesn't involve him -- he doesn't. And Nagai should either be hands-off and cool or passionate, not both -- but of course he is both. Which makes for a story that feels like it's full of false starts and promiscuous, distasteful characters, but I find them incredibly realistic and, more importantly, charming. Because the other thing about the people in Prince Charming is that they're never cruel or vengeful. In the middle of an ever tangling love square in volume 2, Kagami and Yuasa put themselves in harm's way for friendship more than for love, and there's a sense in volume 3 that the collapsing of Kagami's leg in the love triangle is more because he can't stand to keep betraying Yuasa's friendship than because he doesn't love Asahina. Kagami's last line in the main story is pretty telling ("I have so many kind people to take care of me!") because the atmosphere of Prince Charming is a happy, caring one. Asahina isn't the best teacher, but he wants the best for all three of his students. No one wants to be the bad guy, even when they're sleeping around. It sounds crazy and against everything bl manga usually stands for. But it works, and miracles of miracles, all four characters make it through to the end of three volumes as, reluctant or otherwise, friends. Probably the only thing that doesn't work for me here is the way Nagai's storyline is bundled up, with a graduated senpai and a blackmailer. The epilogue tries to shed light on the relationship, but only serves to confuse the themes without actually connecting them to the main story. Still, he's a strong enough player in the first two volumes, and is the wry, cool-headed character that the quartet needs, so I can't complain too much. A note that the scanlation job here, after the first volume, consists of someone taking pictures of the book. It's hard to read, faint text, and double pages.

This is one of those beautifully quiet and elliptical love stories that Akemi Takaido exceeds at. The main character Ryuuzaki, a star runner, finds himself grappling with his feelings about his childhood friend, who has recently found himself a new boyfriend. Coincidentally, he also crosses path with Toya, the star swimmer of the school, an idol among the girls, and possibly someone who knew Ryuuzaki a long time ago. There's a romance, but it's in the style of Wong Kar Wai's "In the Mood For Love" -- all looks and brief touches and pained conversations. Like all the best romances, it's not obvious, but convincing, why Ryuuzaki and Toya might be drawn to each other, and they meet first on an emotional and intellectual level before moving onto clandestine flirting. The first four chapters -- the only part that's been scanlated -- wraps up Ryuuzaki's arc with his childhood friend and hints at the beginning of Toya and Ryuuzaki's own scandal. I'm a sucker, as always, for Takaido's pacing and goofy humor, and how she surrounds all her main characters with tons of their own friends so that the romance is rarely the only thing on the table. Her art is cool and sultry at the same time, and there's a star quality to her characters that is consistently intriguing