MANGA – 感情回路 (2006)

感情回路
(English Title: Manic Love)
mangaka: Yamagata Satomi
originally released: 2006
English translation released: 2007 (Digital Manga Publishing)
For Mature Readers Only
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“まあまた死にそ-になったら呼べや いつでも助け来てやるしよ”
(If ever you’re in the verge of death again, call me. I’ll come help you any time.)

Hrm. A lot of people would be skeptical of a manga with a lot of nudity and sex. It’s so easy to neglect the story when the characters are naked most of the time.

But Yamagata Satomi challenges herself here. In the author’s notes in the back of the manga, she outrightly says that she wanted to create a manga with lots and lots of nudity in it just to see what would come out. Manic Love is what came out.

Manic Love is mainly the story of Sonoda Maki. He’s a cram school student with a self-described baby face and he is sleeping with his teacher, Haruji. Haruji is Sonoda’s direct opposite in the area of expression. Whereas Sonoda is affectionate, Haruji believes in preserving a rather manly personality.

What Sonoda doesn’t know (at least, at first) is that when Haruji was a cram school student himself, he was also sleeping with his teacher. And his teacher happens to be Mizuguchi – Sonoda’s high school teacher who recommended him to Haruji’s cram school in the first place.

When Sonoda learns of their past, he finds himself in a bizarre love triangle that hardly involves him.

Sonoda’s character is really endearing to me. He’s not innocent and not naive but he’s rather simple. He moves with what he feels and likes telling people that he likes them. I love his musings about the degrees of liking and how unfair it is that there’s only one way to say “like”. He thinks well of everyone and I think he likes making people feel liked. I think I’m ranting about him, which shows how much I adore him.

And one more reason to read this manga is because of the awesome Ogawa. Ogawa is Sonoda’s good friend who utters the quote I placed above. He’s one of those unconditional people who does things for Sonoda just because he cares. His playground scene with Sonoda was highly touching. Great use of blank on Yamagata Satomi’s part.

I don’t suppose I should recommend this to younger folks and I’m not sure if everyone can appreciate this manga as much as I have. The nudity is kind of inevitable and not really what I would call gratuitous. The story is touching, if only for the great personalities of the characters.

Oh, and the art is really good too. Angular, sharp and with a bit of a grungy feel.

A yaoi manga is still a manga and just like there’s a good shounen manga and a bad shounen manga, there’s also good and bad yaoi. And there’s great fun in finding a really, really good yaoi read.

Manic Love? Definitely a good manga.
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Sorry, no links for this one. X_x

MANGA – ほしのこえ (2005)

ほしのこえ
(English Title: Voices of a Distant Star)
original concept by: Shinkai Makoto
adapted by: Mizu Sahara (another pseudonym of Sumomo Yumeka)
originally released: 2005
English translation released: 2006 (Tokyopop)
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“To what distance would you go for your one true love?”

Nothing is more pleasing to my eyes than a manga illustrated by Mizu Sahara (who also works under the names Sumomo Yumeka and Sasshi). I’ve always admired her for her elegant illustrations but more importantly, it’s her stories that are more engaging.

Of course, Voices of a Distant Star is only an adaptation but a lot of things can still go wrong in the process, right? It’s always a question of what to leave in and what to leave out. And with such a nice story like Voices of a Distant Star, I would have to say that putting it in another medium is a feat.

Having said that, Mizu Sahara’s manga is a good read. It retains the personalities of the characters and with additional scenes, helps you feel more for them. The manga introduces a few more characters to the story. In addition to Mikako and Noboru, Hisa and Miwa are introduced and we get to see glimpses of what Mikako went through before her first encounter with the Tarsians. We also read some of the other letters that Noboru and Mikako sent to each other and it helps complete the picture of what they were like before Mikako was drafted plus the progression of that relationship as they move farther away from each other.

The manga also made Noboru’s emotions clearer for me because I felt like the movie was a lot more focused on Mikako (which does not make it any less excellent, mind you). The twin paradox issue is more addressed in the manga too.

I think it wouldn’t matter if you read or watched the story first. There isn’t anything lacking in the movie at all and I think the manga only included scenes that are relevant.
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Sorry, no links available. X_x