Product Description: During the summer of his second year in high school, Maki Sonoda found love for the first time in the arms of his cram school teacher, Haruji Shirai. Blinded by the illusions of his first love, Maki can think only of getting to know Haruji more. But, things become complicated when Maki realizes that Haruji is really in love with high school teacher Mr. Mizuguchi. Three men find themselves intertwined in this tantalizing love triangle full of emotion.
There's something about this little series that's special First, the mangaka's other book, FAKE FUR, shares characters with this book. According to the notes inside each book, Fake Fur was published before MANIC LOVE, however, I think you will enjoy the two books more if you read Manic Love first and Fake Fur second. I found this out by pure chance. I pulled each book off different to-read piles, but right in a row, so I was able to experience them back-to-back. I don't think the secondary stories in Fake Fur would have mattered to me very much if I hadn't read about the same characters first in Manic Love. So, even though the author wrote the books out of chronological order (which seems to happen a lot in BL books, the mangakas telling the origins of characters in follow-up books, rather than writing sequels), I suggest reading the Manic Love prequel first.
Why? Because I think that's what made both books touching to me. The characters take purely emotional journeys in both books. There's real difficulty and thought put into being gay, which is unusual for many BL books. Also, there's actual sleeping around without falling in True Love, which is another rarity in BL books. These are young men trying to figure themselves out, and it only makes sense for them to experiment, have doubts and make mistakes.
While I think Fake Fur has the bigger emotional payoffs, it wouldn't have been as impactive to me if I hadn't read Manic Love first. Manic Love's main story is satisfying, but Fake Fur really moved me because of the groundwork laid in Manic Love.
As for the art, normally I do like a more lush style, but the simple pencils and light backgrounds of this mangaka helped me focus on the faces and the story. It might not be my ideal style of art, but I found parts of it beautiful and the mangaka's faces are expressive. The adult scenes are the usual for June publications - the most adult parts aren't on view here, but I didn't think that detracted from the adult scenes (of which there are plenty).
Taken together with Fake Fur, I can't recommend this story enough. I gave Manic Love 4 stars because it is a good book on its own, but Fake Fur is the real five-star payoff to this series.
It didn't hurt my brain, but... ...it didn't blow it either. Manic Love is a perfectly decent midgrade BL title, one that's nice to pick up when you want something pleasant and easy--the manga equivalent of a warm bath.
I didn't find the sex to be gratuitous at all considering that the main theme of the book is the relationship between sex and love, or rather, the all-too-common disconnect between them. The storyline is solidly constructed around the parallel relationships of Maki and Haruji, and Haruji and Mizuguchi. These relationships are deliberately set up to mirror one another (ye olde student-teacher fling) in order for us to see how differently Maki and Haruji react to the same set of circumstances.
Maki is portrayed--and portrays himself--as a free spirit, emotionally open, forward in his desire, someone who has no scruples about immersing himself completely in whatever relationship he's involved in, even to the point of flinging around the dreaded L-word. (There's a bit of humor in watching how much this disturbs Haruji.) However, Maki makes it very clear that, spontaneous protestations of love notwithstanding, he's not *in* love; he repeats several times that he's in it for the sex. In contrast, Haruji is his temperamental opposite, and in Mizuguchi's flashback to their relationship, we see just how restrained and defensive he is, the classic hard facade masking emotional vulnerability.
The poignancy derives from Haruji and Mizuguchi being in love with each other, or at least on the way to it, yet both maintaining the pretense of non-involvement. It's a well-worn trope, but it's also a valid one: the tragedy that ensues when neither partner has enough courage to admit to being in love with the other, when both base their actions on what they think the other is thinking rather than on what they're thinking themselves. This fundamental lack of honesty, with each other and with themselves, inevitably kills the relationship, if not their love. But happily, because this is a book and not real life, they get a second shot.
The agent of said shot, Maki, doesn't succumb to fear and self-deception the way the older men did. Mostly. There's a lovely scene later in the book when, after setting Haruji and Mizuguchi's reconciliation in motion, Maki finds himself literally out in the cold and calls up his school buddy Ogawa. Ogawa's gruffness is belied by the fact that he can read Maki with an accuracy that springs only from true affection, and thus sees the ways in which Maki, too, isn't being entirely honest with himself about he feels. And so we're back to the whole sex and love and self-deception thing. I'm curious enough to see how this plays out in Fake Fur that I'll plunk down for it.
If visual appeal is paramount to you in your BL manga, Yamagata's art isn't going to please you. She doesn't do the slick bishounen style of authors like Duo Brand, Yamada Yonezou, You Higuri, etc., but instead the impressionistic, rough style of June stablemates Keiko Konno and Hyouta Fujiyama. I happen to like it, but I think I'm in the minority here. Either way, it's a stylistic issue, not a skill issue.
I haven't seen the original tankobon, so I can't comment on the accuracy of the translation, but the dialogue flows well and there aren't any "Japlish" remnants in the text. As always, June's print quality and the larger trim size are appreciated.
It hurt my brain. Since I'm the only reviewer so far, I should warn you that I am pretty much always in the minority when it comes to yaoi reviews. A lot of people clearly love stuff that I hate. That said;
This one was painful to read. First off, we cannot get through the introduction/narration on the very first page without having a random sex-panel thrown in, as though we are not capable of reading ONE WHOLE PAGE without sex in it. The plot: A cram school student tells his teacher he wants to have sex with him. Teacher complies in a disinterested "oh I might as well eat a twinkie when offered, but I'm not really hungry" sort of way. Sex proceeds as follows: close the door in panel one, commence sex panel two, all done a page or so later. Back to "plot" and "characterization" in which the author seems equally uninterested, interrupt for more sex as necessary when the plot gets too boring, finish the sex up as quickly as possible 'cause that's boring too. It's depressing. The kid seems damaged, and the cram teacher bored, self-absorbed, and spineless to the extent he has a personality at all.
It has a happy ending though. The student's cram school teacher that he "loves" and his high school teacher that he also "loves" (platonic) used to be in love with each other. The kid helps them get back together. Happy reunion as follows: walk into house of lover you haven't seen in years, close door panel one, commence sex panel two, get it over as quickly as possible. The kid goes on to star in FAKE FUR, which is "wildly popular" according to the publisher.
The only good thing I can say about it is that there isn't any rape in it, although I'm blanking on the age of the kid. I assumed he was a senior because of the cram school.
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