Hinako Takanaga is another very popular mangaka doing BL manga who has put together a loose series involving two brothers and their amours that mark an exceptional level of accomplishment.
You Will Fall in Love relates the story of Haru Mochizuki, who has gotten a job as a substitute teacher at a private school. Haru left home four years before to attend university without telling his best friend, Reiichiro Shudo. The two had been fast friends and competitors at archery, in which both counted among the highest ranking archers in the high-school division. Haru was also in love with Reiichiro, which he regarded as a shameful secret. It so happens that one of the first students he meets at his new school is Tsukasa Shudo, Reiichiro’s younger brother, captain of the archery team, for which Haru is soon drafted as coach. Tsukasa has turned from a boy into a young man while Haru has been away, and there is something very important he has to tell Haru: he has always loved him. Things get complicated when Reiichiro discovers that Haru has returned.
The two volumes of You Will Drown in Love relate Reiichiro’s story; volume 1 actually occurs in a time frame surrounding You Will Fall in Love. The manager of Fujinoya, a fabric store specializing in fine silks for kimono, has decided to retire, and the assistant manager, Kazushi Jinnai, thinks this is his chance — until he meets the new manager, Reiichiro Shudo, the president’s son, fresh out of college. Reiichiro has no interpersonal skills to speak of, is blunt-spoken and completely tactless, and has no idea what he is doing, although he is quite modest and willing to learn. Jinnai, who tends to be somewhat volatile and sarcastic, reacts as might be expected. And then, one night he goes to Reiichiro’s home to apologize for a particularly egregious outburst and Reiichiro offers to resign. Jinnai, quite to his own surprise, won’t hear of it — and suddenly he realizes how beautiful Reiichiro is.
You Will Fall is a straightforward romantic drama, driven by Tsukasa’s determination and optimism against Haru’s inability to forget his love for Reiichiro and his unshakeable conviction that loving either brother would be wrong. You Will Drown, on the other hand, turns into a sometimes hilarious comedy driven entirely by the characters of Reiichiro and Jinnai. Reiichiro really is completely naïve about most things, particularly the ways of men together, although Jinnai is more than happy to teach him. Reiichiro’s reactions, however, continually throw Jinnai for a loop. Reiichiro, in turn, thinks Jinnai is weird for loving him — he’s fully aware of his own shortcomings.
What elevates this series above any of Takanaga’s other titles, and above most examples of BL manga I’ve read, is not only the relative quality of the stories — she has tended in earlier releases toward broad comedies which, while driven by the same sort of mismatched characters, have much less substance — but the graphic work, which is among the most accomplished I have seen in any manga. Formally, Takanaga brings every element — figures, frames, dialogue balloons, narration boxes, even geometric inserts of tone and shading — into compositions that spill from page to page and are sometimes just breathtaking. It was this series, in fact, that led me to the idea that for manga artists, the basic unit is not the frame but the page, and that in shoujo manga, at least, pages are not just laid out, they are designed. This whole series is worth reading just for that.
The drawing itself is of a similar caliber. It’s firmed up from earlier works and, probably because Takanaga is dealing with young men here, she’s able to drop the big-eyed uke, which I generally find annoying, if not an outright distraction. It’s very fluent and sure throughout. The covers give a good idea of the interior art, which is not always the case.
For those investigating BL manga, this would be one of the high points at which to start. The stories have enough body to keep the reader engaged, and the graphics are beautiful.
(BLU, 2008, 2009, 2010)
Comments