Author: Yamane Ayano
Imprint: Be x Boy Comics
Publisher: Biblos
ISBN:4-8352-1590-7
Reviewed by Nora
I blame Yamane Ayano for my oyaji fetish. Okay, maybe Kodaka's Tooru (Kusatta Kyoushi no Houteishiki) sparked it. Fire House's Devil May Cry doujinshi featuring a masterful Vergil to hungry, horny little brother Dante fed the fires. But Yamane is the one who emptied a big ol' bucket of gasoline on what was once just an occasional interest. And now, with the latest volume in her "Love Prize" series, my lust for oyaji goes nuclear.
But can you blame me? Look at this woman's art. Just look at it. There are a lot of good artists out there in BL-land, but not many who consistently take my breath away. The lines, the shadows, the expressions, oh my. And the characters! Other artists do handsome middle-aged men, yakuza, raping semes, gentlemen, scoundrels, secret agents, and princes to the rescue. But how many artists have managed to roll all of that into one guy?
Whoops, I'm getting ahead of myself. First some background. The "Love Prize" series isn't a series in the strict sense -- it's really just a collection of short stories, not chronological, revolving around the aforementioned oyaji. This oyaji is the mysterious Asami Ryuuichi, a powerful underworld figure with connections to the Japanese yakuza, the Hong Kong mafia, government agencies, and who knows what else. Freelance news photographer Takaba Akihito wants to find out what else, so in the first story he stalks Asami with a camera. Asami finds out, lays a trap for him, and through an extended hardcore BDSM sequence teaches Takaba what it feels like to be photographed in a compromising position. Or two or three. To paraphrase Kill Bill: This is what you get for messing around with yakuza.
(Hereafter follow spoilers. Beware.)
The first lesson is a punishment, so it's necessarily the harshest. After that Asami is marginally gentler in his sessions with Takaba -- which occur nearly every time the two encounter each other. Since Takaba is relentless in his pursuit of the next big scoop, and since Asami is always at the center of whatever shady dealings Takaba investigates, they bump into each other pretty often. Takaba is understandably confused by the whole affair. He's not into bondage, but he enjoys what Asami does to him. He knows Asami's bad news, but he can't stop thinking about him. It doesn't help matters that whenever Takaba's nose for news gets him into real danger, Asami shows up in the nick of time to bail -- or shoot -- him out of it.
In the first volume, one of these incidents introduced readers to Fei Ron (usually romanized as Fei Long) of the Hong Kong mafia. Fei Long is elegant, beautiful, and utterly deadly -- in short, the perfect foil for Asami. In one of the earlier stories (in the first tankoubon, Finder no Hyouteki), Takaba got his hands on a disc containing some very sensitive information which was important to some very dangerous people. This turned out to be Fei Long's syndicate. Fei Long captures Takaba, then rapes him -- mostly because Takaba is Asami's. He lets Asami have his love prize back, but there's clearly some preexisting hard feelings between the two, because Fei Long sends them on their way with a few well-placed warning shots. It's telling that he shoots them at Takaba, not Asami. In this latest volume (Findaa no Keeji), Yamane takes us into Fei Long's past. He's the adopted son of his syndicate's boss, number two to the boss's blood-son Yan Tsui. It's clear from the beginning that Yan Tsui has some sibling rivalry issues, however. Jealousy comes to a head between the brothers, and Yan Tsui begins trying to kill Fei Long. Who should warn Fei Long of these attempts, and take on the role of his bodyguard, but... you guessed it, Asami.
From there on things get complicated. Yan Tsui's jealousy grows to involve their father as well; classic "you always liked him best!" syndrome. After a sexually charged confrontation (the first sign that Yan Tsui may feel more than hatred for his adopted brother), Fei Long storms out and seeks Asami's help in the power-struggle to come. While Yan Tsui grows more and more unstable, Fei Long and Asami grow closer, until Fei Long finally submits to Asami in a delicious scene. It skirts the question of which of these two seme-types would be on top by never going beyond a handjob, but ooh what a handjob. (And it would be silly to ask who'd be on top anyway. Asami's uber-seme trumps Fei Long's reluctant reversible any day.)
But then things get really ugly (and confusing). Bear with me -- my Japanese isn't very good and there's a lot of kanji in this section, so some of this is picture-reading and guessing. After the love scene Fei Long sneaks back into his home to try and make peace with his family. Yan Tsui confronts him. As far as I can tell, Yan Tsui insinuates to Fei Long that Asami is a plant who has infiltrated their organization to foment unrest and kill their father. In the process Yan Tsui gets very seductive; Fei Long seems so stunned by Asami's betrayal that he permits Yan Tsui's advances. Afterward, as Fei Long recovers down in the basement, Asami comes to talk to the mafia don about the goings-on with his sons. I think he's having second thoughts about the betrayal, because he's grown to care for Fei Long. Yan Tsui interrupts this scene, however, and shots are fired. Fei Long runs upstairs to see what's happened, and finds both his father and brother dying of gunshot wounds. When Fei Long asks who did it, Yan Tsui just says, "That guy." Naturally Fei Long jumps to conclusions, even though it's equally likely that Yan Tsui himself shot their father. More stuff happens; turns out Yan Tsui was right about one thing. Asami was indeed a yakuza mole working with the cops to bring down Fei Long's syndicate. Fei Long confronts Asami, cop shoots Fei Long, Asami shoots cop, Fei Long survives the shooting and goes to jail, Asami rises in the Japanese yakuza, Fei Long gets out and takes over the Hong Kong syndicate. Both still have fond memories of each other. And now we know why Fei shot at Takaba back in volume 1.
All this depth makes volume 2 a real treasure, since the main complaint I always had about volume 1 was that only about half of it had anything to do with Asami and his convoluted life. The other stories in that volume were unrelated one-shots. Volume 2 contains a one-shot also, but other than this (and an Asami x Takaba chapter that leaves Takaba walking funny) the majority of the volume consists of the Fei Long flashback.
I do miss Takaba a little. Although it's Asami who keeps me reading, Takaba's a refreshingly spunky uke who manages to retain his good heart despite dabbling in the dark side. It's inevitable that his relationship with Asami will one day corrupt him. He's aware of that and it troubles him. Asami's aware of it too, though it's less clear what he thinks of this. Stuff like this is what keeps Asami and Takaba from becoming just another pair of bondage lovers; remember what I said about nuance. But although I wish there was more Takaba in this volume, I'm also glad to see more nuance given to Asami and Fei Long. Remember the handjob? Even that has a purpose. When Asami first meets Fei Long he helps Fei Long dress a hand-wound (which Fei Long got while assassinating someone. More nuance: Fei Long, as an adopted son, perpetually seeks to prove himself worthy of his mafia family. He does so, very well. This is what makes him so dangerous, and this is why Yan Tsui is jealous of him.) Later, while protecting Fei Long from an assassination attempt, Asami gets stabbed through the hand. Fei Long repays the favor by dressing Asami's wound, which adds another layer of intimacy to their relationship. And it puts a scene in the Asami x Takaba chapter, in which Asami seduces Takaba with a very erotic hand-licking scene, in a whole new light.
Oh, yeah, baby. Gotta love those oyaji. There's definitely something to be said for maturity and experience.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention -- gleefully -- that CPM Manga has acquired the rights for both Finder tankoubons and will be releasing them soon in English via their new Be Beautiful imprint. (So now I'll finally have a clear idea of what's going on.) I'd be even more remiss if I didn't mention that Yamane-sensei is going to be at Yaoicon this year. I very much want to go because of that. I want to sit at this woman's feet and stare up at her with shining, worshipful eyes. I want to beg her to write more stories in this series. But alas, I won't be able to go this year. Say -- if you're reading this review and you're going, do me a favor and beg her to write more. (Politely, please. This woman deserves some major respect.)
By the way, that's not actually a suggestion. If you don't beg her to write more, I may have to use my mafia connections to send Guido and Big Nick over to your house. They'll have a little talk with you about... priorities.
And if you're lucky, at least one of them will look and act like Asami.