Samejima-kun and Sasahara-kun by Koshino

Rating: 6
Juné 2012 - Tokyo Mangasha 2011
1 volume
Translation: Phillip Rankaboshi

Recently a friend told me about a list she saw a while ago of the top ten BL manga in Japan last year, though she could only remember a handful of titles from it; I tracked down the list which turned out to be a poll of readers' votes conducted by some fujoshi fan magazine (Kono BL ga Yabai!), unrelated to any of the manga anthology magazines, as far as I could tell. Top of the poll was Samejima-kun and Sasahara-kun, beating out some very good titles including the next five on the list: Merry Checker by Suzuki Tsuta, Ze by Shimizu Yuki, Yuutsu na Asa by Hidaka Shouko, Castle Mango by Ogura Muku, and Equus by Est Em, all of which I'd readily recommend. This I had to check out out.

Conclusion: someone's going to have to explain its popularity to me because I'd easily rank all those other titles and many more published last year ahead of Samejima-kun and Sasahara-kun. I quite enjoyed reading it but for me it's nowhere near the instant classic its ranking would imply it is. So here follows a rather lacklustre review but since so many Japanese fujoshi have spoken and given it a resounding thumbs-up it's probably worth giving it a try anyway to see if it inspires the love that has completely eluded me.

Samejima and Sasahara are two students who work part-time at the same convenience store and also attend the same college. The story begins with Samejima's awkward confession of love to Sasahara. The confession comes out of the blue for Sasahara who'd always thought of Samejima as a good friend and it takes him half the story to come to terms with Samejima's feelings and the other half to get their stumbling relationship out of the starting blocks.

Two things I like about this manga: first, the bickering couple - I always like a funny bickering couple - and second, the ordinariness of the characters, their conversation, the setting, of everything; there are no heroics nor drama, no tragic pasts nor emotional baggage, the story's just about two plain regular guys getting together, and it's as simple as that. The dialogue is the star of the manga; Koshino is very good at writing natural easy conversation that you'd expect to hear between friends, and is often very funny to boot. The couple are very believable and one of the most realistic I've seen in BL manga, and I suspect this is a big reason behind its popularity.

Unlike many a BL manga, there isn't any contrived romance, in fact it's one of the least romantic BL manga I've read, and that's one of its good points. Koshino constantly grounds the relationship in reality, it's not some fairytale pure unadulterated love, it's two normal guys with plenty of faults and quirks apiece to their personalities feeling their way through the minefield of a new relationship, trying to discover if they are compatible as lovers. The sex scenes are real gems that capture the nervousness of two people getting it on for the first time; it's not just about the smut but about the couple taking the next steps in their relationship with each new physical intimacy a milestone in its progression. The story really takes the time to build a credible portrayal of a budding relationship.

However, Koshino's strengths also lead to her weaknesses. The manga is conversation-heavy and while it's mostly entertaining, at times it drags on for too long and the characters start to sound whiny. Both characters are rather timid about embarking on a love relationship, especially Samejima who, scared that he'll put off Sasahara, backs off numerous times to the extent that I got really annoyed with him and was wishing he'd grow a pair and get on with it. At first, I quite liked his character as one half of the bickering idiotic couple and was amused by his awkward attempts at persuading Sasahara to change their status quo (an alcohol-fuelled incident early on in the manga sees them renting a gay porn video with Samejima declaring that Sasahara must formally become his boyfriend if he can get through the video without running away) but he becomes increasingly wimpy as the story continues, to a point where Sasahara has to do the chasing instead of the other way around. As a result, the manga became a story of two halves for me, an enjoyable first half and a frustrating second.

Perhaps it's exactly because they spend so much time arguing and questioning how much they like the other that I didn't get enough sense of love between them; their story doesn't move me in any way, and that's the biggest failing I can think of in a romance. I guess the fans are the ones who were moved and, though it remains unfathomable to me, according to that ranking poll there are plenty of fans who can attest to that.