B-Boy Zips 16: Nice Middle part 2

6) Koi no Yume by Kanzaki Takashi. 1957, twelve years after the war ended, a man of 40 lies dying in hospital of leukemia, his wife and daughter by his side. 'In spite of the war I've lived a good life,' he muses as he begins to lose consciousness. 'I'll slip away watched over by my loving family-- what greater happiness is there?' But somehow he finds himself returned to the war, when he was a soldier assigned to the service of an outspoken young lieutenant. Lieutenant is sent to the countryside for making dangerous remarks like "Japan's losing the war," and man goes with him. 'I'm dead,' the man thinks, 'why am I having this dream again?' He experiences the events as if he's actually there, a passive watcher who knows he's really lying paralyzed on his death bed. One evening his lieutenant chews him out for following a stupid order lieutenant had given him. 'How can you stand being treated this way by someone younger than yourself? Where's your pride as a soldier- as a human- as a man?! If I ordered you to act as my woman, would you do it?!' Man replies in exquisitely respectful Japanese, 'Even on your orders the structure of my body makes that an impossibility. However I can at least console you. Excuse me,' he says politely, pushes his officer back onto the table, and proceeds to grope him. His officer yells at him to stop and he does. But a few minutes later the lieutenant lets his subordinate have his way. The man tells himself it's only because he hasn't seen his fiancee in so long- because the lieutenant wants him to- and various other things. When it's over and the man tries to apologize, the lieutenant tells him to forget it's happened. 'That's an order.' Man does, pretending the whole episode was just for sexual release, in order not to hurt his lieutenant's pride or his own notions of himself. 'But now I realize,' the dying man thinks, 'that I wanted to hold him- to kiss him- that I loved him--' And then Japan surrenders and the lieutenant is ordered back home. Man watches him go. 'I never admitted it was love and I never saw you again after that. But I respect you from the bottom of my heart, because you had the courage to act on your beliefs.' The lieutenant turns. 'What did you say?' The man is stunned. This wasn't part of his memories, but he realizes that now he can make the body he's in move as he wants. He grabs his lieutenant and kisses him. 'One tiny little opportunity- and my feelings overflowed...' The memories of his wife and his daughter and his married life begin to fade, and instead come the memories of the other life that he had- living with his lieutenant, taking care of him in his last illness... He looks over at the family picture on his bedside table. It's now a picture of himself and his lover. 'I'm slipping away,' he thinks, 'to be where you are.'

7) Hitoribochi no Boku-tachi ni by Kitasato Ami. For us two lonely guys. Fluff, about a pair of 30 year olds who can't get married (one's too baby-faced- 'I keep getting shota-con women and older guys'; the other's only good at sports and can't get to first base with women) who wind up pretending they're married to each other. Babyface likes housework ('There's no point in cleaning my own place when nobody ever thanks me.') Big guy likes being taken care of (surprise surprise.) Big guy proposes in earnest. 'I like you more than anyone I've ever met.' Babyface agrees: 'You're the only one who needs me.' Big guy decides to be a man for once and jumps Babyface's bones. And has second thoughts next day. 'Hey, you mad?' 'It's ok. After all today you're going to be the wife.' 'You're kidding!' big guy gasps. 'Yeah, I'm kidding,' Babyface says, to the disappointment of all the gaijin in the audience. The rest is happiness. Medetashi medetashi.

8) 'Shihai suru' to iuu geimu by Akai Toreno. The game of 'domination'. Akai Toreno, she of the uhh 'burly' characters (like oxen) and egregious angst, has also changed her style. The younger guy here is almost slim. The angst remains the same: sourceless, obscure, and there. We start with a guy kissing another as he lies, evidently unconscious, in a car out in an open space in the middle of nowhere. He then empties a bottle of alcohol over the guy and pushes the car into the water. 'Good-bye, Gerald.' Young guy is president of his mother's company. Gerald is the assistant she hires for him to guide his youthful steps. In short order Gerald gets himself engaged to Mom, buys out 51% of the stock, takes over the company and tells president he's not the president any more. All this we find out in flashback while president is being blackmailed by vice-president who took photos of the murder. How the VP could have taken close-up photos on a dark night with no flash that still come out clearly, or how he could have taken them with a flash and not been noticed by pres, is a question we won't ask. Telephoto infrared can only do so much. But never mind.

In flashback too we discover that company president never wanted to be company president. He wanted to be a pool-hall hustler. We're all OK with that? Good. Then you won't mind that what Pres is being blackmailed into is being screwed by a bunch of guys in a hotel room, as a result of an arrangement the VP made in which they get Pres' ass in return for signing a contract with the firm. This only happens in the yaoi world where the incidence of gayness is reversed from reality and 90% of men want to screw butt. 'It's just a game,' VP assures Pres, 'like those billiards you love so much.' Anyway we discover that Mama died of bad temper when she found out what Gerald had done and Pres hasn't the faintest notion of why he's doing any of what he's doing, which makes two of us. Pres goes home. Gerald is still alive (he was conscious and he can swim.) 'You're an idiot,' Gerald says. 'You wanted your freedom and I gave it to you.' 'And if you'd said you'd wanted the company, I'd have given it to you!' Pres cries. 'You lied to me. You stole from me!' 'My parents hated me from the time I was born,' Gerald explains (poor sweet bay-bee alert), 'so I can't be satisfied unless I steal what I want.' What Gerald stole was Pres' heart, of course, and Pres couldn't forgive him for that. As the two explain to each other while screwing mightily on the billiard table, and Pres happily loses the game of domination.

9) Sonzai Riyu (raison d'etre) by Nitta Youka. There's something vaguely irritating about Nitta Youka, like crumbs in the bed. Start with her name. In the Japanese system of romanization, the kanji for that 'you' is properly written (and pronounced) 'yuu'. In the Japanese system of romanization, the letters 'y-o-u' are properly pronounced 'yo-o'. But you see- giggle giggle- the English word spelled y-o-u is pronounced yuu. Fufufu- kawai ne? (Higuri You does it too. It grates.) The characters in this story come from Nitta's series Haru wo daku. That means approximately 'to embrace spring' (spring having connotations of the water-trade prostitution business, and daku being a common yaoism for 'screw') She translates this herself as 'He Hagged Hooker,' to demonstrate her deft hand with assonance and her fluency in English and her inability to tell the difference between a and u. And she has the most irritating uke since Flowering's Sirius. And she draws her charas to look like weasels. Stoats. Wolverines. Wide forehead, narrow jaws, feral teeth. Bleah.

Main couple are two show biz types, the older uke Iwaki and his unfortunate younger seme Katou. I don't know how old Iwaki is supposed to be. Old enough to know better, you'd think. Being geinoukai (showbiz types) the two are out to the world and an item in the gossip columns. So when Katou's picture appears in the paper showing him in New York in company with a blond woman, under screaming headlines about 'KATOU UNFAITHFUL!!???" the press descends on Iwaki to ask what he thinks of this. Iwaki says nothing, just cancels the shoot of his next scene so he can go up and weep on the roof in best Insecure Uke fashion. 'I always knew this day would come, when he no longer cares for me... But ohhh if he no longer cares, why did he say he wanted to be part of my family...?' The obvious answer doesn't occur to Iwaki, naturally. Returning with his manager or whatever, he gets a call from Katou, frantic, who says the whole thing was a setup. He was leaving the building with several other people who got cropped out of the picture. Sulky Iwaki won't take the call, and forces Katou to tell all this to the manager instead. They go to a hotel to avoid the press mob. Katou has rushed back from New York and forces his way into Iwaki's room to explain again. Iwaki won't listen. 'Why are you explaining? If you've changed your mind about me, I don't care. It isn't like you to talk nonsense like this.' Katou is frantic. Why won't Iwaki believe him? In best male fashion, he attempts to reassure him by making love to him. Iwaki won't respond. Katou begs him to say his name. Iwaki won't. One longs to slap him. And why is Iwaki sulking like a slug? Well, it isn't that he doesn't believe Katou. He does. But you see, he knows in his Insecure Uke's heart of hearts that some day Katou will leave him, and to avoid being hurt on that day he'll reject Katou today. Logic.

As he leaves, Katou tells Iwaki he'll be doing a TV interview day after tomorrow and he'd like Iwaki to come see it before it gets cut for TV. Iwaki says nothing. Next day the phone rings. Iwaki isn't accepting offers for interviews- 'Go and be laughed at by everybody!'- but in fact it's Katou's father on the phone. Cut to the tv interview with live audience. Iwaki hasn't come. Interviewers are asking impertinent questions, as is the Japanese way with showbiz types. 'And what has Iwaki-san said about all this?' 'He won't forgive me,' Katou says. 'I don't know what to do. There are so many things I want to say to him...' 'We've had a letter,' the other host says, 'but actually it's from your father.' Katou is surprised, as well he might be, though apparently not surprised that someone else has been opening his mail. The geinoukai, I tell you... Katou's Papa says Katou always was a handful, determined to do what he wanted in spite of what people around him said. 'We were always the last to hear about what you did- becoming an actor, moving in with Iwaki-san. I thought nothing you did any more could surprise me, but when you called me, so upset, to explain what had happened- yes, I was surprised. I'd like to meet with you and see how you are, but I know there's someone you want to see more than me.' The host says, 'Yes indeed. We'd intended to bring Katou-san's father here for the program, but in accordance with the old man's wishes, we've brought instead- Iwaki Kyousuke!' Pandemonium in the audience as Iwaki appears. Katou walks out to meet him. 'Your father begged me to come,' Iwaki says. 'I've come here for his sake. If you've something to say, I'll listen.' Katou bursts into tears and apologizes because Iwaki was hurt. Iwaki hugs him. 'Only then did I understand how much Katou had been suffering'-- since I was too busy nursing my own precious feelings to spare any thought to his-- 'and so this affair passed.' The show was aired uncut and it turned public opinion against the scandal-mongering newspaper. 'But it left little thorns of fear in our breasts.' Katou is a neat character, Katou's Papa is a neat character, Iwaki is a toad. The architect of his own misery and that of everyone near him. 'Dump him, dear, he ain't worth it.'

To sum up the collection- well, I'd keep it for Private 40 and the Asagiri Yuu story alone. The understated melancholy of Bubble days is rather nicely done, in its pastel Japanese fashion, as is the underlying sexual tension in the war story. The Akai Toreno is, like most Akai Toreno stuff, worth it for its unrestrained over the top quality. And the rest is- well, yaoi. Nice if there'd been more older men in it, though.

Return to previous review