Ninth Life Love by Kojima Lalako

Rating: 5
Juné 2012 - Taiyoh Tosho 2011
1 volume
Translation: Jocelyne Allen

Happy, sweet, mellow, Ninth Life Love is a very 'nice' manga, and delivers pretty much what you would expect it to from its soft and pretty cover illustration. It's a pleasant leisurely read, the artwork is pretty in its fluttery gentle way, the character illustrations are expressive and have a natural feel to them, and for some people this is exactly the sort of thing they look for in BL manga. Me, I need, I don't know, a bit of ugly in my manga? Which you certainly won't find in this book, everything's just too nice. There's nothing ostensibly wrong with it but then there's nothing remarkable about it either, it's an easy read for whiling away an hour or two but otherwise forgettable.

There are four stories in the book with the main story, Ninth Life Love (what a tongue-twister), taking up half of the volume and three additional one-shots. The main story, about a boy whose dead cat comes back to life as a human (with cat ears and a tail), is actually pretty good. The condition God gave to the cat was that he couldn't have sex otherwise he'd turn to foam and disappear, a rather strange condition if you ask me but this is BL so whatever. So although the couple are overjoyed at reuniting, the danger of the cat-boy disappearing is a constant cloud over their heads, a setup which gives the story a bittersweet taste throughout as the reader wonders whether they'll get a happy ending.

When I say this is an easy read, I mean that the story quickly pulls me in with little effort, I become absorbed in the feelings of the characters and the pace of the story guides me to the end without my attention waning. This is something the manga accomplishes easily. What it fails to effect is any deep or lasting impression. The characters in all the stories lack personality, there's not enough depth to the stories, not enough exploration of feelings nor themes. I think the premise of the main story offers a wealth of themes to explore, like the concept of a second chance at life, the transience of life and feelings, the constancy of love, none of which was really touched on by the mangaka. This could possibly be due to the limited number of pages she had to work with, the ending was certainly rushed, but whatever the reasons, I felt that there was a lot of potential to the story that was unrealised.

In the afterword, referring to the last one-shot the mangaka says, "I get told that my story feels like uke x uke, just because they're sweet guys who love flowers..." I think the uke x uke comment applies to most of the couples in the volume, the characters are all a bit wishy-washy sweet, which is part of the reason I didn't personally care much for any of them since I prefer a manlier man myself. Of course there are many readers who do like these types of characters and this style of story so I'm not surprised that there are fans of this manga out there (it made the top 20 of the popularity poll Kono BL ga Yabai! 2012); so although not one for me, there's still enough good about it to recommend it as a one-off read to readers whose tastes lean this way.

Starting with a Kiss 1-2 by Nitta Youka

Rating: 6
Sublime 2012 - Libre 2011
 2+ volumes
Translation: Adrienne Beck

I should start by saying that Nitta's modern classic Haru wo Daiteita (to be published by Sublime later this year, whoop!) is probably my all-time favourite BL manga, which colours my opinion of her other work, though not necessarily in a bad way; if anything, I'm more critical than a nonpartisan reader since I will always be making comparisons with her biggest hit and inevitably nothing can compare. Starting with a Kiss is no exception though it's a solid enough series from Nitta, displaying many of her signature elements including proud hot-blooded men, lashings of sex, an involving story, and a love for which the course never runs smooth.

It's a yakuza story and, surprisingly, is actually Nitta's first yakuza story, as we learn in the afterword. Why she held off for so long in writing one I don't know because the yakuza world suits her type of characters perfectly: strong prideful men with hidden agendas. Tohru is the son of a yakuza boss and Mutsumi is the son of the gang's second-in-command. When a gang feud threatens to erupt, the two are packed off to a remote island to keep them out of harm's way. Two young horny guys alone on an island in a BL story, what could possibly happen? Sure enough, serious studious Mutsumi is immediately attracted to the beautiful fiery and impetuous Tohru and the pair are soon going at it like bunnies. However, because this is Nitta writing, things are never as straightforward as they seem.

Tohru was charged by his father to persuade Mutsumi, an elite Tokyo University student, to join the gang. When Tohru sees that Mutsumi is falling for him he is conflicted on a couple of fronts. First and foremost, his pride as a man coupled with the insecurity he's always had over his effeminate looks make him doubt Mutsumi's feelings and wonder if he's merely using Tohru as a woman-substitute. If Mutsumi's love is real then Tohru doesn't want him to join the gang just for Tohru's sake. Mutsumi, ready to swear his life to Tohru, wants to join the gang exactly for this reason.

The first volume explores these complicated feelings and sets up the beginning of an interesting relationship between the two. In volume two the pair are back in Tokyo and a proper tale of yakuza drama and intrigue unfolds, centered around a battle for power and succession rights. The yakuza narrative alone is enough to keep me reading, which is good because I find that I'm not that into this couple. While I find their personal conflicts interesting I'm not particularly rooting for them as a couple and I think this is mostly because of Tohru's personality. On the one hand he doesn't want to tie down Mutsumi to the gang just because of love but on the other he can't get enough of his dick and still has sex with Mutsumi. Mutsumi has to be stoic and accept whatever Tohru gives. There's an inconsistency to Tohru's character, whether intentional or not, that doesn't agree with me.

I hope that Tohru improves with future volumes and that I'll come to like him more. There's no question that I'll continue with the series, even with its problems Nitta's intelligent compelling writing ensures that it's still more interesting than the majority of BL titles out there.