Irokoi 1 (Passion)

Author: Nitta Youka
Imprint: Hanaoto
Publisher: Houbunsha
ISBN4-8322-8175-5

Reviewed by Jeanne

EmiA said once that the When a Man Loves a Man series has a doujinshi feel to it, and it's easy to see what she means. There are five main characters to date, possibly six if that guy from vol.1 ever comes back. They interact with each other and fall in love with each other and fall in hate with each other and bed each other in the mix 'n match fashion of those old five-man anime teams, once the doujinshikas had done their work on them. Think St Seiya or Ronin Warriors (Samurai Troopers), except that here *all* the guys are hot, and their feelings for each other are rather more convincing than the arbitrary attractions given to, ohh, say, Ikki and Hyouga or Rowan and Sage. (GW doesn't count as a five man team. GW was all calculated fan service from the start. Some of us consider GW yaoi a step backwards for just that reason.)

Japanese names are infinitely confusable, so we'll simplify. We have the basic triangle of the Designated Uke and the uber-Seme and the Rival, that has occupied three of the four previous volumes. We have the Underling, who adores the Seme and hates the Uke, and has in the past tried to separate them. That's another triangle. Then the Underling is made an underling to the Rival, whose guts he hates as well. That pairing has possibilities of violence. There's a second Underling, who also starts by adoring the Seme and hating the Uke, but who gets won over by the Uke's admirableness somewhere in vol. 2. We don't see too much of him here because the focus of this volume is the double pairing of the Seme and the Uke, and the Rival and the Underling, and what's happening in those two relationships.

Underling Kenzaki is working with Rival Shinkawa in one of the Seme Iwaki's clubs. Shinkawa became manager of the club in Kenzaki's place when Kenzaki said he'd quit rather than have Shinkawa there. (He quit, Shinkawa took his job, and then Kenzaki came back again, unable to leave Iwaki's side.) But you know how it is. You may hate a guy's guts as a person but have this grudging respect for him as a pro. And Shinkawa is a pro. Those late nights spent going over the books together start to eat away at Kenzaki's prejudices. Being Kenzaki, he expresses his feelings by getting mad at someone. So now he starts being pissed that an impressive guy like Shinkawa is still carrying a torch for that damned Uke Takaaki and trying to become the perfect host in order to be worthy of him.

Our Uke, Takaaki the golden boy, is loved by everybody. Even the pugnacious and slightly dense Kenzaki admires him even if he dislikes him. Takaaki is in the process of getting back together with his first love, our uberSeme Iwaki. Iwaki... oh well. I'm prejudiced. I still don't think we're meant to trust him entirely. There's something fishy, something not quite right about Iwaki, but you know he's Takaaki's fated partner sigh. But messing the mix up is Rival Shinkawa. Shinkawa is no wimp. Shinkawa is pretty impressive, and I trust his feelings much more than I trust Iwaki's. It's a problem that he's so straightforward and so honest, because he makes his feelings quite clear to Takaaki (and the world.) And it's a problem that Takaaki is an honourable man, because he doesn't want to keep Shinkawa dangling when it's settled that he'll be with Iwaki. And so--- prompted by Kenzaki, he does something very honest and very noble and quite, quite unforgivable. One wonders if Takaaki will ever forgive himself. The tragedies of love are the most painful of all, because they're unavoidable. No right, no wrong, just people suffering. As here.

As a plus, this volume gives us more of Mama Eriko, the grande dame of the hostess clubs in Shinjuku and an old friend of Takaaki's mother. Oh, and there's something up with Takaaki's mother. More angst in the making. I wish the next volume of Irokoi would come out, and soon.