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Okay, so several people have been poking me for manga/shosetsu summaries as well. So I will attempt to do them, with three caveats: I don't necessarily read the newest stuff, my tastes don't necessarily coincide with the majority of yaoi fen's, and I'm probably going to have to spoil what little plot there is to explain why I do or do not like a given volume.
And with that out of the way, we will start with Sakurai Shushushu's Ice Eagle * Fire Hawk, which looks like this:
As you can see, the cover makes it seem as if this is a story about two guys with the power to summon fire or ice. Given Shu's recent spate of scifi offerings, this wouldn't be a bad assumption...it just isn't a correct one.
Fire Hawk's hawk is one Gojo-kacho, a balls-to-the-wall bank employee in the manner of Takarara's Okazaki, who starts the manga off in a pique because his beloved superior Kikuda-bucho has been exiled to a remote district to make room for some old boy's network former Diet member replacement. Low and behold, it turns out the new bucho is none other than former Finance Ministry official (and Ice Eagle!) Miyagi, whom, in typical yaoiplot fashion, Gojo had picked up for a one night stand the previous evening.
They continue to have ambivalent!sex throughout the next several chapters while Miyagi remains mysteriously aloof and Gojo wonders just what has happened to Kikuda-bucho and why on earth he can't get a bead on Miyagi. He sends his journalist friend out to do just that, but the journalist seems to have been blackmailed by some mysterious figure who has it in for Miyagi. (Given the volume's fourth chapter, which we'll get to in a moment, I think I know who this might be.)
Speaking from a technical standpoint, it's clear Shu got away with this manga because of her standing in the yaoi world. Upon finishing the first chapter I was convinced she was slumming, because there were so many loose ends and plot points that were never clarified. Later chapters abused me of this notion. Indeed, Shu appears to be close to fulfilling one of my main yaoi fantasies; namely, that she or Bohra Naono be permitted to do a proper multi-volume series. Ice Eagle isn't quite there yet, but it comes a lot closer than anything else I've seen. Instead of the typical yaoi "series" where the mangaka revisits characters from a previous, self-contained one-off, the majority of Ice Eagle's chapters peak at cliffhangers instead of denouments. A lot of stuff doesn't get cleared up until the volume's latter chapters, and even the obligatory "how the obsession began" flashback (which takes place at the very end of the volume instead of within the first chapters) creates as many new questions as it answers. In fact, the story is more open-ended at the volume's end than it is at its beginning. Even the one-off story at the end bucks several yaoi tropes. Good stuff.
The sex follows a similar trajectory. All the usual Shu elements are there, but they don't show up where you would expect them too. And it is very, very prettily drawn. So yay for Sakurai Shushushu! I happily await the next volume.
これで以上です。
And with that out of the way, we will start with Sakurai Shushushu's Ice Eagle * Fire Hawk, which looks like this:
As you can see, the cover makes it seem as if this is a story about two guys with the power to summon fire or ice. Given Shu's recent spate of scifi offerings, this wouldn't be a bad assumption...it just isn't a correct one.
Fire Hawk's hawk is one Gojo-kacho, a balls-to-the-wall bank employee in the manner of Takarara's Okazaki, who starts the manga off in a pique because his beloved superior Kikuda-bucho has been exiled to a remote district to make room for some old boy's network former Diet member replacement. Low and behold, it turns out the new bucho is none other than former Finance Ministry official (and Ice Eagle!) Miyagi, whom, in typical yaoiplot fashion, Gojo had picked up for a one night stand the previous evening.
They continue to have ambivalent!sex throughout the next several chapters while Miyagi remains mysteriously aloof and Gojo wonders just what has happened to Kikuda-bucho and why on earth he can't get a bead on Miyagi. He sends his journalist friend out to do just that, but the journalist seems to have been blackmailed by some mysterious figure who has it in for Miyagi. (Given the volume's fourth chapter, which we'll get to in a moment, I think I know who this might be.)
Speaking from a technical standpoint, it's clear Shu got away with this manga because of her standing in the yaoi world. Upon finishing the first chapter I was convinced she was slumming, because there were so many loose ends and plot points that were never clarified. Later chapters abused me of this notion. Indeed, Shu appears to be close to fulfilling one of my main yaoi fantasies; namely, that she or Bohra Naono be permitted to do a proper multi-volume series. Ice Eagle isn't quite there yet, but it comes a lot closer than anything else I've seen. Instead of the typical yaoi "series" where the mangaka revisits characters from a previous, self-contained one-off, the majority of Ice Eagle's chapters peak at cliffhangers instead of denouments. A lot of stuff doesn't get cleared up until the volume's latter chapters, and even the obligatory "how the obsession began" flashback (which takes place at the very end of the volume instead of within the first chapters) creates as many new questions as it answers. In fact, the story is more open-ended at the volume's end than it is at its beginning. Even the one-off story at the end bucks several yaoi tropes. Good stuff.
The sex follows a similar trajectory. All the usual Shu elements are there, but they don't show up where you would expect them too. And it is very, very prettily drawn. So yay for Sakurai Shushushu! I happily await the next volume.
これで以上です。