Blue Morning 2 by Hidaka Shoko

Rating: 6
Sublime 2013 - Tokuma Shoten 2009
5+ volumes
Translation: Jocelyne Allen

Volume 1 ended at an extremely unsatisfactory point with student Viscount Kuze Akihito forcing his butler Katsuragi Tomoyuki into a relationship in exchange for acceding to Katsuragi's mission of promoting Akihito through the ranks of society. Most of the volume had been spent on setting up the story, its characters and background, and when the romantic storyline made a first showing late in the volume, it did so rather abruptly and unpleasantly with an act of sex shadowed by violent overtones. I didn't think much of either character by the end of the book and hoped that volume two would change my mind. Which it has done. This volume has totally got me rooting for the couple and fearing for what can only be a future laced with tragedy for them.

The main problem with the first volume was that there was very little to like about Katsuragi. The story was mostly told from Akihito's point of view which established the character of Katsuragi as a cold, efficient, unflappable butler. This second volume is told mostly from Katsuragi's point of view and what a difference that makes because finally we get a character we can sympathise with. The reader is fed tidbits about Katsuragi's mysterious past through the course of the volume and confirms what was hinted at in the first volume, that Katsuragi is not a biological son of the Katsuragi family and was taken in by the former Viscount Kuze with a view to raising him as the Kuze successor, a plan that ended with the birth of an heir, Akihito. The story paints a picture of a young boy, rejected by what he thought was his birth family, given the chance to begin afresh with a new family only to be rejected again, in the end not belonging to either family and having no place in the world except for the job given him by the former Viscount. It's easier to understand Katsuragi's obsession with his task of raising Akihito, given the sad circumstances of his upbringing.

What really makes Katsuragi a likeable character, and not just a pitiable one, however, is the change in feelings he experiences, the thawing of his coldness. Akihito is relentless with his love, demanding that Katsuragi look at him as a person and not as the Viscount Kuze, and bit by bit, Katsuragi does start seeing Akihito for the person he is, for the man he is becoming, and as new feelings develop inside Katsuragi, he begins to stray from the single-mindedness of his mission. He's never known love of any kind in his life and he doesn't know how to deal with Akihito or his own emotions. As despicable as Akihito's behaviour is, his very forcefulness turns out to be his redeeming feature as nothing less will get through to the Katsuragi so entrenched in the belief that he must fulfil his duties to prove his worth.

This second volume is all about the romantic storyline and it's developing into a strong one; unfortunately, this happens at the expense of everything else. To put it bluntly, Hidaka just isn't very good at writing intrigue. The plot requires Katsuragi to be a manipulator but the bare bones scenes of him wheeling and dealing in business and society are not particularly interesting. There's a distinct weakness in the secondary characters. Their sole purpose is to provide information about Katsuragi and Akihito and there is not a single one that I find interesting in and of themselves. Anything of consequence that happens in the plot, and there is very little that does happen, only occurs in order to further the romantic storyline. The result is that whenever the story strays from the romantic thread, it becomes rather dull and has the feel of a mandatory scene required to move the plot along. However, Katsuragi and, to a lesser extent, Akihito are strong enough characters that they carry the story comfortably, enough so that the slower patches of the narrative can be endured for the sake of learning more about the pair.

On the romantic front, volume two has delivered and I look forward to seeing how this relationship unfolds. On the story front, I'm disappointed. The plot is thin and I see little hope of that improving. On the series as a whole so far, it's interesting but not exciting. I'll still continue reading but I doubt I'll be jumping on the fan bandwagon for this particular series.

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There are some issues with the translation which I've written about in a separate post: here.

Embracing Love 1-2 by Nitta Youka

Rating: 10
Sublime 2013 - Biblos 1997/Libre 2007
14+ volumes
Translation: Adrienne Beck

GO BUY IT.

The end.

No, really, that's my review, go buy it. If you've not read it before, what's stopping you? It's one of the most well-known and popular BL manga ever so you've probably heard of it. Is it the age? The outdated art and fashion? (The perma-tans are scary, I admit) That's understandable but all surface, there's a reason Sublime are publishing this in 2013 and that's because it's a thumping good read that's stood the test of time; it's as close to a modern BL classic as you can get. It's a must-read manga, not because you'll definitely like it, obviously there's no such thing as a universally-loved piece of work, but because in the case that you do like it, there's a big fat massive chance that you'll not only like it but love it.

And when I say go buy it, I mean, go buy it, don't read the scanlations, because they are shite. The English scanlations are poorly translated pretty much through all the volumes, with early volumes missing entire conversations. Do yourself a favour, skip the headache of deciphering crappy translations and just go buy it. Sublime have done a decent job and even left in the honorifics (which they don't usually do) to please the fans who clamoured for them when the license was first announced.

Embracing Love (which I'll refer to by its abbreviated Japanese title Harudaki because I can't think of it as anything but that) is probably my favourite BL manga of all time. I say probably, because there's so much manga that I love and it's hard to choose between them, but while other series have fallen in and out of favour, Harudaki has always remained, unbudging, at the top of the pile. The story begins with a pair of porn actors and rivals, Iwaki and Katou, competing for a role in a movie that promises to give one of them a break into mainstream acting. Eventually, they both break through and fall in love along the way, and the series follows their relationship over a number of years.

I think this is the only fictional relationship of any genre, of any medium, that's made me think, I want a relationship like that. This person understands me, this person accepts me for who I am, this person loves me. It sounds simple enough but we all know what a rare thing it is, but Harudaki manages to depict just that sort of love. It's an emotional struggle all the way but as our couple gradually learn more about one other, bit by bit they come to love each other, step by brutal step they tear down the other's defenses and eventually embrace love, souls bared. Do I sound overly dramatic? Well, this is dramatic soap opera kind of romance, it's emotionally charged and tense, there's no room for wishy-washy feelings here, these are manly men and their love is bold and manly, too. Not that it's lacking in sensitivity, Nitta's skill is in how she guides her characters towards understanding of themselves and of others; all too often, here and in reality, it's a matter of learning to accept yourself before you can allow others to accept you.

The series is one of those rare manga that goes beyond the honeymoon period and also explores how a relationship changes after the love is established. A person changes with age, with life, and the story shows how the couple adapt to each other and how their relationship continuously evolves. Of course this doesn't all happen in volume one of this omnibus edition, which sees the relationship getting off to a rocky start, but we do see the seeds of love being sown and can look forward to at least another six omnibus volumes of that love blossoming.

A couple of notes on this 2-in-1 edition: the cover uses the original volume one cover illustration but unfortunately, the original volume two cover is not included inside. Even more of a shame is that all the chapter title page illustrations are missing. I assume this is because of the tracing controversy that forced Nitta to bring the series to a hasty conclusion a few years back. It was brought to light that Nitta traced photo spreads from fashion magazines for several of the title page illustrations in the Harudaki series. I think she only did this for some of the latter volumes but I suppose the publisher (probably on the Japanese side) decided to remove all the title page illustrations for good measure.