Last Waltz 2

Author: Nitta Youka
Imprint: Hanaoto
Publisher: Houbunsha
ISBN: 4-8322-8104-6

Reviewed by Jeanne

When we last left our heroes, young Ishii had gotten himself drunk after spending the evening with perfect!Takaaki (in order to keep him out of his boss Iwaki's bed, and no it wasn't his idea.) Luckily they were drinking in a hotel bar, and Takaaki helps him to a room. On the last page of part 1 Ishii falls into Takaaki's arms.

Guess which happens next:

1) Ishii spends the night puking into the sink, is put to bed by Takaaki, and wakes up next morning with a splitting headache.

2) Ishii kisses Takaaki madly, spends the night making love to the series' designated uke, and wakes up, stunned, to the realization that he's just screwed his boss' lover and the man his best friend loathes.

Here, boys and girls, is the difference between an amateur djka and a pro mangaka. Nitta is a pro. The correct answer is 1).

When we last saw Kenzaki he was off to Iwaki's apartment to remonstrate with his boss about boss' perverse obsession with Takaaki, his former kouhai at the host club Schnapps. Guess how he does this?

1) He plays on Iwaki's self-respect and control-freakdom by suggesting that there's something less than manly in upsetting the business of his own clubs because he's unable to think about anything but this host from a rival club.

2) He takes off his clothes and gives Iwaki head.

Nitta is also a *BL* mangaka. The correct answer is 2.

Mild spoilers below.

Volume 2 continues the themes of volume 1 ie everyone getting themselves thoroughly worked up about everyone else. Theme song: "You Really Got a Hold on Me." ('You treat me badly, I love you madly...') Ishii being puking drunk doesn't stop him from falling victim to the awesome perfection of Takaaki, which overwhelms even his attachment to Kenzaki and Iwaki. Kenzaki's straightness doesn't stop him from being so jealous of Takaaki that he'll have sex with his boss just to get his attention. Akogare rules OK. This book is full of akogare-driven people screaming at either Takaaki or Iwaki, and occasionally bursting into tears from the force of their feelings. What puts Iwaki on the top of the heap, I suppose, is that he only screams at Takaaki, and he takes his time about doing it, and he regrets showing his feelings afterwards.

Even perfect!Takaaki, who knows quite well how Iwaki operates and explains it in detail to Kenzaki, isn't willing to give up his idealistic infatuation for the man. A lot of the tension in this story runs off of people foisting their ideals on other people and demanding that they live up to that image. Benignly, as when Takaaki basically forces Shinkawa out of Schnapps so he can reach his full potential elsewhere; and less than benignly, as when Iwaki tells Takaaki to stop being a host if he wants to go on being Iwaki's lover. Of course, each of them believes that their idealistic version is the truth. Takaaki's insistence that Iwaki isn't really an underhanded little manipulator is probably intended to save that underhanded little manipulator from himself, but me I think it's a waste of energy. Even Iwaki knows that he's an underhanded little manipulator. He can't avoid it-- he sees Kenzaki trying to do it to him, not once but twice, out of the same desperate attachment that makes him do it to Takaaki. All it does, of course, is make him brutal to Kenzaki.

It takes the return of perfect!Takaaki to get them to make up. The thing that Takaaki can do that Iwaki never manages, and Shinkawa only rarely, is to connect with people on a basic human level. It's why he's such a good host. He gives full weight to people's feelings and they can't help but respond. It leaves Kenzaki, of all the unlikely people, weeping in Takaaki's arms because Takaaki is the only one who understands what he feels and who can make it stop hurting.

It isn't wholly the fault of the people who fall for Takaaki and Iwaki that they fall for Takaaki and Iwaki. All the akogare and pedestal-placing doesn't happen in a vacuum. There's a lot of unconscious seductiveness coming from both Takaaki and Iwaki themselves, that makes other people want to be like /them/. Shinkawa and Ishii both get bitten by Takaaki. (We see how Shinkawa was first drawn in in the sidestory at the end of this volume.) Takaaki and Kenzaki both got bitten by Iwaki. There's room for an interpretation of host = vampire. Sexual, seductive, cold, living off of others, and having their only real connection with the person who got them into this business in the first place.