Junjo Romantica is one of those early yaoi encounters that got revisited recently: I remember that on my first reading, it annoyed me, but I decided to give it another chance. It was better this time around.
Misaki Takahashi finds himself in an odd situation: his brother's best friend is the famous novelist Akihiko Usami, who goes by the nickname of "Usagi." Usagi is elegant, beautiful, a genius, and filthy rich. He also writes boys' love novels on the side -- and pretty racy ones, at that. And he is Misaki's tutor for his college entrance exams: Misaki is not the world's best student but is determined to get into M University as a payback for his brother Takahiro, who left school to raise Misaki when they lost their parents. Usagi is openly contemptuous of Misaki's intellectual achievements, but he does start to improve. Misaki also figures out pretty quickly that Usagi is in love with his brother, but has never confessed his feelings. Things come to a head when Takahiro introduces his fiancee and announces that he's being transferred to another city. Misaki, who is more sensitive than we might expect, gets Usagi outside, where he breaks down; strangely enough, Misaki offers him comfort, and even shares his tears. Usagi offers to let him share his penthouse apartment when Takahiro moves, and soon confesses that his own feelings have changed. That does not mean, however, that their relationship is conflict-free.
The second story, "Junjo Egoist," involves an old admirer of Usagi's, Kamijo Hiroki, who finds himself, after a fair degree of badgering, tutoring Kusama Nowaki, an orphan who works a slew of part-time jobs but who wants to go to university: Nowaki needs to ace the exams because he only completed middle school. Hiroki starts to feel like he's dealing with a stray cat -- Nowaki is in and out, displays a series of unexpected skills and accomplishments, and is very, very bright. He also admits quite openly that he's in love with Hiroki, and the torch that Hiroki has been carrying for Usagi starts to gutter. Hiroki, however, finds it distinctly difficult to admit his feelings.
The thing that initially irritated me, and that I now find refreshing, is the personalities involved in both of these stories: these are not easy people to deal with. Usagi is spoiled, caustic, domineering, and downright weird, while both Misaki and Hiroki have really short fuses. Nowaki really is like a stray cat, enigmatic, self-contained, and intent on his own agenda. The interactions are very entertaining, particularly when jealousy rears its ugly head, as it does in both cases. The stories work their way through a series of events that would be improbable if these people were any more normal, but make perfect sense in this context.
The graphics are excellent, crisp, definite, expressive and very rich. Needless to say, the men are gorgeous, even when they're losing it -- which Misaki and Hiroki do with alarming frequency.
In fact, I now wonder why it irritated me. It really is engaging and highly entertaining. You don't need to take my word for it: Volume 10 in this series is due out later this year -- it's sort of popular, you think?
Another one from BLU.
No comments:
Post a Comment