Product Description: Hoshimi Sudou is known as a lady-killer at the office. But Sodou leads a double life - lady-killer office man by day, awkward yet charming singer in an amateur band at night. His co-worker Hirokawa stumbles upon Sodou late one night on the street and is taken by his true face. At work Hirokawa finds himself becoming more and more attracted to Soudou and sets out to seduce him.
A Real Love Story While DMP June's "Yaoi" lineup is supposed to be romance and/or erotica, the values underlying much of their output seems to be as follows: Sex is filthy and degrading; Those who feel desire or inspire passion in others are "asking for it"; Love excuses abuse, and cruelty is synonymous with virility. To the extent that you have opposite views, finding enjoyable titles in this lineup might be a bit difficult. If you want a decent story into the bargain, even more so.
STAR is my reward for not giving up on DMP -- not only an exception, but actually something of a antidote to the mental trauma of slogging through some of their other titles. It does have a few flaws - mostly the translation, which strikes me as hasty and overly literal. This occasionally obscures the meaning temporarily ("Are you feeling numb?" turns out to mean "Are you cold?") but sometimes obliterates it altogether, which means I had to settle for merely getting the gist of the conversation. The workplace setting and supporting characters are unusually well-realized for the genre, but could have used further development. Konno admits that she doesn't know much about the work that these characters do, which was obvious.
Everything important, however, STAR gets right. The simple guy-meets-guy plot has an underlying complexity. I for one really loved the artwork. Konno does cut corners with some panels, but clear care is taken with others, and the faces are really expressive. I appreciated the more masculine build of the characters, and Hirokawa's trace of beard: But this goes deeper than appearance. Hirokawa ACTS like a man, with warm strength instead of cheap aggression. He is nurturing without being infantilizing, generous instead of needy, vulnerable without being a sap. He does not "set out to seduce" Sudou but to befriend him, and falls for him in the process. Sudou has certain vulnerabilities and issues, but he also has a life, and it is his positive side that attracts Hirokawa's interest. Sudou's past traumas are nicely human-sized -- the ordinary life experiences which do cause lasting hurt in real people -- rather than some extreme horror story.
The supporting cast includes women and straight guys, with a nice sense of simmering tensions and rivalries at the office, and camaraderie among Sudou's bandmates. Another big plus is that STAR tells the whole story in chronological order, from beginning to end, in one thick volume, with no filler side stories.
[insert bad "this title is a star!" pun here] But, honestly, it kind of is.
Two things you should know upfront: 1) Keiko Konno rocks. 2) The translation of this book does not.
2) Is especially unfortunate in light of 1). One of the best things about Konno's manga is the story-writing, which she executes with text that is fairly spare and concise. This translation manages to make it seem positively kludgy, awkward, and hermetic; if I didn't have the original to refer to I think I would've been rather confused at points.
But, should you decide to soldier on, you'll uncover an absorbing story and a sympathetic starring (sorry) pair. Hirokawa has got to be one of my favorite semes in a long time: calm, caring, attractive, direct, yet enough of a dork to be human. Konno seems to relish telling her stories from the uke's P.O.V., so it's no surprise that Hoshimi's also a satisfyingly well-rounded character. He's inexorably drawn to Hirokawa but struggling with massive self-defense complexes left over from his past. Part of the pleasure in this story is watching them have to negotiate Hoshi's emotional landmines yet still be completely unable to walk away from each other. The story is also enriched by the supporting characters, Shinobu in particular.
Konno's art style is spare, with strong lines and a good command of form. If you like more realistic masculine depictions (muscles and stubble and all) there are several scenes that will score pretty high on your hot-meter. However, if you like a prettier, more feminine style, you might not be as pleased by it.
DMP has also put out one of Konno's earlier series, Words of Devotion. If you'd like to check out her work but are hesitating because of the translation issue or the salaryman setting of this story (which might make it better for older readers), I recommend you read that first.
despite some awkward writing enjoyable w/ unusual artwork i hadn't realized this was by the same mangaka as words of devotion. konno's art in general is bolder than most other yaoi books (somewhat similar to yugi yamada's work), with heavy lines and a more rugged feel overall. the art is similar to words of devotion, but as the features an older cast the artwork is even more focused and intense, which may not appeal to the average reader. i enjoyed it though, esp. w/ one of the main characters' beard which is very unusual for yaoi and much appreciated, and there are also more sex scenes than the average yaoi. as for the story, honestly it's rather hard to follow and there are a lot of gaps in the character development, but on the second read you'll be able to enjoy the story much more. despite the sometimes awkward writing konno still manages to conjure up some interesting emotions, and if you can accept that the writing isn't perfect and if you're looking for some less-standard yaoi artwork this is def. one worth checking out.
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