17 Guyz- Legend of Crash Generation

Author: Nitta Youka
Imprint: Bamboo Comics Reijin
Publisher: Takeshobou
ISBN: 4-8124-5423-9

Reviewed by Jeanne

Haruhiko and Ken'ichi hang about Tokyo's Shibuya, one of the centers of teen culture in that city. For Tokyo aficionadoes, Nitta's Shibuya is the real thing. Even this reviewer, a very occasional Shibuya-goer, can identify most of the manga's outdoor settings. Our guyz are regulars there. Everyone knows them by sight, that notorious pair of roustabout street fighters. Now, it is not for a gaijin to breathe a word of disbelief about a Tokyo mangaka's settei, but myself I wonder how anyone could pick out the regulars in the mob-scene that is Shibuya. The body density on its narrow streets is close to that of a railway station at rush hour, not to mention that everyone seems far too laid back to even think of fighting. (Down and dirty Ikebukuro, now that's where I'd expect teen fighters. Supposing the yakuza who run the place allowed it. And when members of a 'bukuro gang show up in the third story, you know our guys are in for trouble.)

But no matter. Regulars they are, disaffected youth beguiling their days in various clubs and hangouts. Well-heeled disaffected youth too, because Shibuya *costs*. They've been best friends since middle school, fighting together, screwing their first women together (ah, Japanese friendship), doing everything together. But now... now when Haruhiko goes to the club where Ken'ichi has said there's a bunch of neat girls, Haruhiko gets more irritated than he can say by the sight of all this female company. He insults them all and stalks out. The girls are furious, and even more furious when Ken'ichi tells them not to diss his 'dachi and goes after him. Haruhiko says he needs a little space. Haruhiko has a kink he can't tell Ken'ichi about. Ken'ichi being a good 'dachi doesn't ask what. Ken'ichi doesn't read enough BL manga, cause everyone knows what sort of problem longtime buddies have with their pals.

(Past here are spoilers for the first and final stories. Skip next paragraphs if intending to read.)

It all comes out when Haruhiko gets grabbed by a couple of guys who are friends of the offended girls. They take him up to the roof of some Shibuya building and work him over while the girls watch. Ken'ichi learns about it from his senpai at school, Moriguchi, another Shibuya regular. Rushes off to the roof in murderous rage, batters the batterers, and stops only when the still-bound Haruhiko tells him to quit- 'Keep on and you really will kill them.' The bullies take themselves off and Haruhiko reveals what's been eating him. Ken'ichi reveals that it's been eating him too. The two erstwhile straight guys then have first-time unlubricated anal sex as the most natural thing in the world. And some people doubt that yaoi is a fantasy, she says wonderingly.

There are four stories in the 17 Guyz cycle. The first two ring the changes on what happens when Friends Fall In Love, but the second two actually have a plot about a young guy being chased by a bunch of hoods from Ikebukuro. Plot is also twisty and unexpected and very enjoyable, and happens among those photographic-quality Shibuya locales. Oh yes- there's sex as well. Not as explicit as He Hagged Hooker, but easy on the eyes.

The other draw in 17 Guyz is Moriguchi senpai. He really is a senpai, instructing his naïve kouhai in the way things are. Haruhiko confides in him, enough to make Ken'ichi jealous. What intrigues me is the *way* Moriguchi enlightens the younger guys. Sage advice is one thing, and he hands that out too. But those friends of the girls who beat up on Haruhiko? They're friends of Moriguchi's. The toughs beating up on our guys at the start of story two? Friends of Moriguchi's. The Ikebukuro gang that finds our guys and the young boy together in a Shibuya bar? No, I won't say it...

Our tough street-fighting guys harbor no hard feelings about all this. Men, she says. Their version of tough love makes the female head spin.

Finally there's two totally separate stories, stand-alones from various magazines. The last one- Asa Otoko no Yume/ A Fool's Dream- is the earliest. You can tell, because Nitta is still doing her strange proportion thing, where people's legs are twice as long as they would be in reality. It's about an apprentice hairdresser and his overweening desire to impress a certain fashion editor with his skill. He gets his chance, loses his nerve, and finds himself demonstrating his skills in another area. He asked for it, of course, but... poor bunny.

The other story, Tightrope Walker, is about a guy who lives off women. His latest woman walks out on him, having had enough, and he wonders what he'll live on till he can find a new pigeon to support him. In walks last girlfriend's younger brother, needing a place to stay after leaving home. 'Your sister's gone!' Fine, the youth says coolly, I'll take her place. He's got his savings, enough to support a gigolo for a while.

Our gigolo starts getting funny feelings sleeping next to the boy. Reminds him of someone else in his past... Our gigolo starts getting funny feelings living with the boy. Actually goes and gets a day-laborer's job, earns his first money, thinks how surprised the kid'll be and then catches himself. 'Shit, no, what am I thinking!-- I'll use this to find me a new woman.' He's off doing that in the bars- hostesses are best- when he sees his roommate getting picked up by an older man. Goes home, broods, starts looking through kid's possessions and makes his discovery.

This is a fun volume, even if, as Nitta-sensei says in her afterword, she isn't really able to draw school-aged kids. 'OK if I use one of my 30-ish characters and make him play a teenager?' she says pathetically to the editor at Reijin, who says Fine fine. May explain why you get a feeling you've seen these guys before under *slightly* different circumstances...