Not Ready?! Sensei

Reviewed by Nora

Kazuma Kodaka's fans are probably very familiar with her "Sebiro no Housekeeper" anthology series, which featured a variety of stories too short to be made into their own tankoubon, but funny or interesting enough to deserve publication. "Not Ready!? Sensei" began life as one of those shorter tales, originally published in two parts in each of the "Housekeeper" volumes. The story finally gets its own treatment now, in new chapters (some published in BeXBoy) recently compiled into a tankoubon. For the benefit of those who aren't raving Kodakaphiles like me, I'll summarize the earlier stories, because the new volume sort of requires some familiarity with the original. Murakami Hiroshi is the star of the story, a young male shounen mangaka who is a none-too-subtle Marty Sue of the author herself, at least in his daily artistic troubles. In the "Housekeeper" chapters, he is a struggling artist unable to get his foot in the publishing door---until he meets, by chance, a shy and hapless fellow named Kagura Toshiaki, apparently a mangaka as well. Toshiaki immediately falls for Hiroshi, but is initially too shy to do more than dreamily sketch and fantasize about him. They meet again later when Hiroshi's girlfriend refers him to a coveted assistant's job, working under the famous published mangaka Kagura Tsubaki... which turns out to be Kagura Toshiaki's pen name. Kagura-sensei really does have two distinctly different personalities, for when he's in his Tsubaki role, his shyness vanishes and he becomes tyrannical, supremely confident (even suave), and extremely aggressive in his pursuit of Hiroshi. This last characteristic is what lands them in bed the first time, not entirely consensually (Hiroshi is drunk). The second time, Hiroshi reveals his own dual personality; when Kagura brings him to the publishing world's version of a debutante ball and helps him network, Hiroshi gets drunk again---and this time seduces Kagura quite thoroughly. Both times, however, Hiroshi is quite confused by the whole relationship---Kagura alternately sexually harasses him and helps him advance his career, and Hiroshi himself veers between lusting after Kagura and refusing to accept his own attraction to the man. To top it all off, Kagura's specialty is shoujo manga---specifically of the shounen-ai variety. Naturally Hiroshi is a bit upset to notice a disturbing familiarity in some of Kagura's manga love scenes.

This latest version of the series takes place perhaps a year later. In part thanks to Kagura's sponsorship, Hiroshi has finally managed to land a contract with a shounen magazine, and is a published artist in his own right. But now he has all the problems that come with being pro---namely, grueling deadlines. So a new character is introduced---Tanabe, a mysterious and striking fellow who's a surprisingly good artist, older than Hiroshi... and perfect seme material. A fact which Kagura immediately and jealously notices.

Tanabe has his own problems, though, as we come to discover. It turns out that Tanabe, who's more than good enough to be published, once worked for a mangaka named Shinozaki, who mentored him the way Kagura has mentored Hiroshi (without the sexual harassment). The relationship ended badly, however, when Tanabe fell in love with Shinozaki and committed an impropriety---he kissed his mentor. Shinozaki, confused and upset by this and his own feelings, subsequently fired him and essentially blacklisted him throughout the manga community, so that Tanabe was never able to publish himself, and is still stuck as an assistant. Kagura, who's a friend of Shinozaki's, decides to intercede when he realizes that both Shinozaki and Tanabe still care for each other. He has to work quickly, though, because Hiroshi's finding himself attracted to Tanabe, and vice versa. The story arc follows their romantic quadrangle over four chapters, until it finally ends happily for all parties involved---with the possible exception of Hiroshi's girlfriend Rumi, who somehow still doesn't know her boyfriend's been screwing his mentor, even though the entire publishing world seems to be talking about it.

Fans who've been following this series will probably be pleased to know that in this volume, both Kagura and Hiroshi get a more well-rounded treatment than before. Hiroshi's slowly coming to accept that he enjoys sex with men, and particularly with Kagura. He's also quite surprised to discover (as the reader might be) that Kagura isn't just out to screw him---the older man is truly in love with Hiroshi, and shows it this time around (something that was only hinted-at in the earlier stories).

Little additional nuances like this, which couldn't fit within the short story format of the "Housekeeper" chapters, make this latest incarnation of "Not Ready!? Sensei" a joy for any Kodaka fan to read. And new fans will almost surely enjoy the silly sexy comedy of the new volume, which is undiluted from the original stories. Hiroshi's still hapless, Kagura's still certifiable, and this time around they've got new friends to torment. For those who enjoy goofy romantic comedies with a little steamy sex thrown in, this is a must-read.

A last few notes: while this is a humorous, fictional account of what life is like in the Japanese manga publishing industry, it may still be of interest to those who are curious about how one "breaks in"---it's clearly a who-you-know business, just like here in the US, although the sempai/kohai dynamic puts a Japanese twist on it. And, as Hiroshi shows, it may sometimes be a matter of sleeping one's way to the top.

Oh---and there's an additional story in this volume, too--- "Toki o Okibi," which finally puts a story to that mysterious random image of a shaggy-haired monk and a bishounen ninja that was in the Kodaka Illustrations volume. Looks like the start of another new series. More on that later.