I find it hard to believe that I haven't noted this title here, since it's become one of my very favorite BL manga. The Paradise on the Hill is a romantic comedy by the creator of Seven, and it's just as spare and elliptical -- and even more unexpected -- than that one.
Kijima is a language teacher at an all girls high school that sits perched atop a hill above the city. He is reserved, quiet, and serious, although he's also a terrible tease. Ono is the new gym teacher, six years younger, tall, good-looking, and somewhat shy. He seeks Kijima's advice after Kijima witnesses a student confessing her love to the younger man. The two become friends, and then start reaching for something more.
This is a wonderful, charming comedy, completely motivated by the characters of the two men. The courtship is so tentative, awkward, and unsure that, under normal circumstances I'd get pretty thoroughly fed up, but Tenzen has handled it in such a way that not only are we captivated, but we find ourselves rooting for them. Each confesses to the other that he has feelings for someone, and it turns out that someone also has feelings for someone, and given the reticence of the two, we can see that circularity going on forever, if it weren't for the intervention of Tsuda, a fellow teacher who realizes she has no chance with either of them and gives things a nudge in the right direction just when they're about to come apart completely.
There is a side story, "Summer Rain," that is one of Tenzen's more serious efforts. Motomi Takase fell in love when he was eighteen, with an older man who had a wife and child. Their love was deep and intense, but Takase couldn't take responsibility for breaking up the man's family and fled. Ten years later, he is now back in town and has received a letter signed Hiroyuki Kasahara, his lover from long before, asking to meet. It begins to rain as Takase approaches the coffee shop where the meeting is to take place; there is only one other customer, a young man who's little more than a boy. They begin talking, which eventually leads to some serious revelations.
Underneath Tenzen's stories is what I'm coming to see as her ongoing theme: the price of happiness. It's always, it seems, involved with taking risks. In the case of Ono and Kijima, the fear of rejection almost destroys what they've been building. Takase's story is a study in the much greater cost of running away, of being afraid to pay the price. (And that story is quietly devastating.)
The drawing is up to the standard of Seven, although I still consider that one her best work to date (and by comparison with this one, that's only just barely). Graphically, Paradise is superb, not only in the character designs and renderings, but in the page layouts and visual flow, and especially in her variations in tone and shading, which add body and depth to her spare, evocative style. It's a pleasure just to look at the pages.
Another one from Juné.
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