Reviews in Brief: Shiuko Kano's I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone: Shameless

I know, I know -- I skipped last week. It was a bad week, OK? But here we are again -- it's Sunday.

Another one I'm surprised I haven't commented on here. Shiuko Kano's I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone, along with its pendant story, Maybe I'm Your Steppin' Stone, is another reason to boot Kano to the upper reaches of my list of favorite mangaka.

Kazuya Sakai, called "Ippachi" from the alternate pronunciation of the kanji characters for his name, is a construction worker, a middle-school graduate, 23, and small and really hunky. While working on an addition to a private residence, he falls for the family's daughter, Natsuko Ezumi. When he asks her brother, Masashi, if she has a boyfriend, he is met with scorn -- Nacchan only goes for well-educated men. Ippachi decides to take the high-school diploma exam, and Masashi offers to tutor him -- for a price. Masashi's not interested in money, but Ippachi does have other resources.

This is another story driven by strong characterizations. Ippachi is not very bright but determined -- call it "stubborn." He's so clueless that he doesn't even consider what he's doing with Masashi to be sex, until Masashi decides to go all the way. Ippachi then freaks out, until he realizes that there's a little more involved -- for him, at least. Masashi is manipulative and, when it comes right down to it, not very nice -- he suffers from always having been compared to his sweet-natured, open-hearted sister and coming off second best. When he finds himself emotionally entangled with Ippachi, he's forced to make some changes in his world view.

The drawing is fully up to the task of sharing the narrative load. Kano's style deploys strong-featured, expressive faces and freewheeling layouts to move the story along. While character designs aren't as finished as those in Yakuza in Love, they are very appealing and fit the characters perfectly. Sex scenes are fairly graphic, both in image and dialogue -- very little is left to the imagination.

Yup -- another winner. I'll probably write up Maybe I'm Your Steppin' Stone soon, and Kano says there's a third volume in the works. This one's from 801.