Yaoi Review: THE MAN OF TANGO

THE MAN OF TANGO
SUBLIME – @SuBLimeManga

CARTOONIST: Tetuzoh Okadaya
TRANSLATION: Ivana Bloom
LETTERS: WOWMAX Media
EDITOR: Jennifer LeBlanc
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6011-3; paperback (September 2013) Rated “M” for “Mature”
266pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Mangaka (artist) Tetuzoh Okadaya made The Man of Tango, a boys’ love graphic novel, her debut manga in 2007.  SuBLime Manga recently released a “revised special edition” of The Man of Tango.  This SuBLime Manga Edition of the book collects the prologue and five chapters that compose The Man of Tango, and also two additional tales, one an early and alternate version of the story (“El hombre del tango”) and the other an epilogue story (“Libertango”) that revisits the lead characters.

As some of you know, boys’ love (BL) is manga that depicts romantic relationships between men.  Yaoi manga is a subset of BL and features explicit depictions of sex between men, which The Man from Tango does (and boy, does it ever!).

The Man from Tango introduces Angel “Angie” Almódovar, a Latin American living in Japan.  Hailed as “the Man of Tango” because of his skills as a dancer, Angie believes that he has never truly felt the deep, fiery passion of the dance known as “tango.”  Then, Angie meets office worker, Hiromasa “Hiro” Koga, a half-Japanese, half-Latino who was born in Columbia, South America.

Angie is immediately attracted to Hiro; in fact, Angie feels seething lust for him.  Hiro tells himself that he is in no way interested in men, but what will he do when he wakes up in Angie’s bed?  What will Hiro make of those memories of physical contact and passion that crowd his hung-over addled mind?  Will he open his heart and his body to the persuasive dancer?

Perhaps, it’s just me, but I find The Man of Tango manga to be a little on the melancholy side.  There is plenty of humor, and the story occasionally brings friends of Angie and Hiro’s into the narrative mix, such as Angie’s dance partner, Benedict “Bene” Maria Cruz.  That gives the story a feeling of camaraderie and fun.

There are sex scenes in the story, and they can run for several pages.  They put the “yowza” in yaoi.  In fact, The Man of Tango does not come across as boys’ love, so much as it seems to be a gay comic.  Angie and Hiro are both so fit, so buff, and so butch that their physical intimacy has a pound-your-ass quality to it.  You can call it lovemaking, but it may be more accurate to use that “F” word for sex to describe it.

I think the melancholy comes from the darkness of Hiro’s past and the tragic fate of one of Angie and Hiro’s friends.  Plus, there is a flash-forward short story that looks at the characters a little too far into the future for my tastes.  Still, in the world of yaoi manga, The Man of Tango is definitely something different simply because there seems to be a realness about Angie and Hiro’s relationship that much of BL does not have.

B+

www.SuBLimeManga.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: HIS FAVORITE Volume 4

HIS FAVORITE, VOL. 4
SUBLIME – @SuBLimeManga

CARTOONIST: Suzuki Tanaka
TRANSLATION: Ivana Bloom
LETTERING: Annaliese Christman
COVER: Suzuki Tanaka and Fawn Lau
EDITOR: Alexis Kirsch
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4358-1; paperback (June 2013); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
194pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

What if a guy says he loves you? What do you do if you don’t think he takes anything, even love seriously?

Suzuki Tanaka, the creator of Love Hurts, also produced the boys’ love manga series, His Favorite. Boy’s love (also known by the acronym, BL) depicts romantic relationships between male characters. His Favorite can be classified as “shounen-ai,” the subset of BL that does not feature explicit depictions of sex between male characters.

His Favorite focuses on Yoshio Yoshida, an awkward high school student, and Takahiko Sato, the hottest guy in school and a guy madly in love with Yoshida. However, Yoshida thinks that Sato is not really serious about anything, especially love. Meanwhile, all the girls in school are crazy about Sato, and they think that Sato and Yoshida are just really close friends. That’s why they insist that Yoshida help them get closer to Sato.

His Favorite, Vol. 4 (Chapters 13 to 16) opens with a trip to the “House of Horrors,” a haunted house attraction at an amusement park named, “Gorilland.” Yoshida wants no part of a haunted house because he is too afraid. Sato just wants an opportunity to get close to Yoshida. Their female classmates want to use the attraction to get closer to Sato, and they’ll hurt anyone who gets in their way.

Then, go back to Yoshida and Sato’s middle school past. One was cool and popular; the other was a misfit about to be sent abroad. Next, Seijuro Nishida is madly in love with Yoshida, and now, he will wait no longer. It leads to a showdown at “Hell’s Pass.”

As boys’ love manga goes, His Favorite is light-hearted fare. The energy that fuels this series isn’t even hot-and-heavy petting, let alone actual sex. His Favorite is fueled by comedy hijinks. Yoshio Yoshida is so comical that it is difficult to imagine him sexualized or even depicted in a sex act. This may be boys’ love, but I hardly think that I can call this a gay comic or comic about gay teens.

That’s not to say that His Favorite is not enjoyable. I especially enjoy the throng of high school girls that wants Sato so badly, yet the girls cannot recognize the truth that is practically in their faces everyday. The best part of His Favorite Volume 4 is the story of Yoshida and Sato’s past, which is a surprisingly good character piece. In fact, it is an oddity in the silliness that surrounds it. That story is the reason I’m giving this volume a grade of “B” and not something below that.

B

www.SuBLimeManga.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: HIS FAVORITE Volume 3

HIS FAVORITE, VOL. 3
SUBLIME – @SuBLimeManga

CARTOONIST: Suzuki Tanaka
TRANSLATION: Ivana Bloom
LETTERING: Annaliese Christman
COVER: Suzuki Tanaka and Fawn Lau
EDITOR: Alexis Kirsch
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4357-4; paperback (March 2013); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
178pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Suzuki Tanaka, the creator of Love Hurts, also produced the boys’ love manga series, His Favorite. Boy’s love (also known by the acronym, BL) depicts romantic relationships between male characters. His Favorite can be classified as “shounen-ai,” the subset of BL that does not feature explicit depictions of sex between male characters.

His Favorite Volume 3 (Chapters 8 to 12) focuses on Yoshida, an awkward high school student, and Sato, the hottest guy in school. Sato is in love with Yoshida, but the latter things the former wants to play around too much and is not really serious about anything, especially love. Meanwhile, all the girls in school are crazy about Sato, and they think that Sato and Yoshida are just really close friends. That’s why they insist that Yoshida help them get closer to Sato.

Yoshida and Sato’s classmates, Yamanaka and Torachin, are in a similar predicament. Torachin’s frequent fights have left him with a bruised, unattractive face, which scares the girls – sometimes to tears. Yamanaka thinks Torachin is just right, but Torachin doesn’t think that Yamanaka is ever serious – about anything.

As boys’ love manga goes, His Favorite is tame. It doesn’t even have the heat of the more complicated shojo teen romances (such as a Honey Hunt). Instead, it is deliberately, almost stubbornly playful. Creator Suzuki Tanaka offers comedy and slapstick; there are misunderstandings and kissing.

Sex is far way and talked about as something that will, should, or even might happen, but does not happen in the text or seemingly even “off camera.” The characters are funny in how clueless they are, or perhaps, they are not clueless. It is a peculiar kind of tunnel vision from which they suffer… maybe.

B

www.SuBLimeManga.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux