Kanrakukyuu

Author: Minami Megumu
Imprint: Hanaoto
Publisher: Houbunsha
ISBN: 4-8322-8139-9

Reviewed by Jeanne

It's always a matter of personal taste, but for me Minami Megumu has her ups and downs. The problem is that gag is a perfectly respectable genre in Japan, and perfectly respectable mangaka can do it without shame, and half the time that's what Minami does. Which is fine. But anyone can do gag, and not anyone can do the surreal erotic topoi Minami did so stunningly in her classic Hanaotoshi, and it just feels like a loooong time since I've read Hanaotoshi-style Minami. So addicts like me may rejoice in the appearance of Pleasuredom, which is erotically bent Minami at her best. Oh- and note that she really means Pleasure Dome, but hell, what's a vowel among friends?

Again, as in Hanaotoshi, these stories all have an historical setting, which suggests that Minami has only to stay away from the 20th century and all will be as kinky as heart could wish. (Ah, but if she'd done that we wouldn't have had that wonderful weepy Ombre Rose from the White Rose collection, would we?) Unlike Hanaotoshi, the settings here, all but one, are in the historical west. No matter. East, west, north or south even- Minami's past is a wonderful glittering Faberge Easter egg with diamonds inside it.

Follows summaries and mild spoilers

We start off brilliantly with the title work that runs off of The Song of Roland. Minami has a thing about this medieval legend, because she did another Roland-referenced story for her contribution to the Hanaoto anthology Gentle Monsters. This one doesn't merely borrow the names-- when you first jump into the story it sure looks like the original Roland and Olivier doing their thing. Except in this case Olivier has fled Roland after seducing his fiancee, and taken service with the beautiful young evil lord who goes on 'man hunts' to capture studly young things for his bedroom. A certain manhunt nets him Roland, come in disguise to the realm to find out why young men are vanishing. Olivier is given the task of training Roland in his bed duties. Lucky Roland, say I. Olivier is long-haired, blond, and gorgeous. Wish I could do my hair like that. I'm very partial to the horseback rides they take together as part of said training, with Roland uhh mounted in front of Olivier, impaled on the dildo carved into the saddle horn and posting prettily as he goes. Ouchy as reality and terribly hot as fantasy, as Minami is wont to be.

Then in Mumyou Bonnou (Passions of Darkness) we're in India of the Raj, where a young English captain has been captured by the patriot Hindu leader intent on driving the English from his country. Hindu leader, who looks slightly closer to a youkai than any Indian I ever met, naturally introduces Englishman to the delights of the Kama Sutra via a case of dildoes graded for size. Not ouchy in the least, because when the patriot is captured in his turn sometime later he obtains his freedom by teaching the young soldier guarding him the same things he taught the Englishman. The Englishman then sets out to recapture the Hindu. This is a story about personal attraction masquerading as political agenda, and has one of the same unresolved bitter-sweet Minami endings as certain Hanaotoshi stories.

Next to Tokugawa Japan for Datengoku (Descent into hell) and the renegade Japanese Christian turned torturer who's employed to seduce, literally, Christians back to the ways of Tokugawan rectitude. Our hero the torturer, a prostitute employed by the authorities, renounced Christianity and the Christian God after something unpleasant happened to his sister during a government inquisition and God failed to save her. My jidai-geki viewing doesn't extend to the nastinesses inflicted on 17th century Christians, so I'm not sure what it was the sister had done to her- and frankly, I think it's one of Minami's inventions, because it rather looks like she gets screwed by a horse. At any rate, our torturer meets his match, a Christian who won't renounce his faith even under the strongest sexual persuasion. And in consequence- don't ask me how, this is Minami fantasy-land at its most obscure- torturer finds himself facing the Christians' counter-Inquisition which punishes enemies of God by thrusting them into 'The Hell of the Flesh,' a stockade full of naked people. That stubborn Christian was in fact an agent who's made away with various Tokugawa inquisitioners, and now has one more to add to the list. But our brave apostate stoutly refuses to renounce his renunciation and is thrown down to hell- where he meets, who else, his sister. With one last twist, we've got ourselves a happi endo. Speaking of ends, if anyone knows why the Christian ejects several little bells from his ass after the torturer diddles him with a cross, perhaps they'd tell me?

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Off to late 19th century France for Kantarera (Cantharid), a threesome about a young man, his stepbrother, and the young Japanese who was the young man's dead father's screw. It's all about- how French- a family feud over a legacy, and involves enemas which cause the Japanese fuck-buddy to disgorge eggs from his anus. Happening in and around all this is

• a murder mystery- young man suspects his father was murdered by either the stepbrother or the Japanese lover, and is intent on uhh 'jerking' the truth out of them by methods he must have learned from that Tokugawa torturer, only he uses chains instead of ropes
• a revenge story- young Japanese's sister was a geisha who was found dead with strangulation marks on her neck, as was stepbrother's mother
• a catalogue of kinky sex- father was impotent and got his jollies watching the Japanese being screwed by an anonymous body whose identity the Japanese never figured out because the brandy-filled chocolates shoved up his ass got him too drunk to know what was happening
• an odd kind of French farce involving drugs instead of bedrooms- everybody keeps feeding everybody else mysterious potions of one description or another and lying about what they are; and
• a tender love story full of self-sacrifice. This one has to be read to be believ-- uhh appreciated.

And finally, to earlier 19th century England, apparently, for L'amour wa anata no mono (Love belongs to you). A young magnate called Cecil is threatened with an o-miai, an interview with a prospective bride. She's French, and he has a thing about French women- not the usual thing: he doesn't like them- so he wanders out into the rain, slips and falls in the mud, and is rescued by a natty type called Louis who takes him home and washes him up. Louis asks Cecil to employ him as his manservant. (Well, 'maid' is what he says, and maid may be what he means.) Cecil employs him to impersonate Cecil at the o-miai. Enter at this point a French policeman on the trail of a pair of brother and sister swindlers who prey on the rich. Cecil starts falling for Louis' charms while worrying that Louis is really the swindler. The story turns into a game of find the real swindler, with Cecil also getting himself tied up and suspended at one point (honestly, what's with the Japanese and bondage?) before being rescued by his true love. There's a twist at the end and an ambiguous conclusion, but no doubt all will be well, since love tends to conquer all in Megumu-land.