Author: Andoh Minoru
Imprint: I's
Publisher: Ookura Shuppan
ISBN:4-87278-382-4
Reviewed by Jeanne
I'm not a fan of Andoh's art style but I read this one because it had a sad-faced blond guy with a ponytail in kimono on the cover. Very suggestively atmospheric. And the title story turned out to be- well, a suggestive and atmospheric story about two brothers and their father. Not that you could tell from their looks- they seem contemporaries- but the blond in kimono is Dad and the dark-haired guy is his oldest son. Father spends his free time in a Japanese-style house in the garden. No-one's allowed to go in there, even Mother, but the oldest son used to climb into the tree outside to watch him. 'I never knew what he was thinking. I always wanted to find out his secret.' Mom is away 'running three companies'- and when she shows up her son calls her Akeo-san, not kaa-san- and various things happen without explanation, like the younger son suddenly not speaking any more, a year ago, and father quitting his editorial job to look after him.
Older son is the usual unlikable pig that Japanese men often are and we see more than I care to of him and the female teacher he screws. I'm not sure why she's there- just to demonstrate how otoko-rashii the guy is? However. Father wins a literary prize for the novel he's been writing over the last year and there's an interview at the house and a camera falls on son's head, bringing up a memory he's buried-- his father in the Japanese house being attacked by a man and himself rushing to get a knife from the kitchen and coming to save his father, who tells him to stop-- for a reason which reveals the father's secret. Not that we're told in so many words what the whole story is; we just get some suggestive flashbacks to various conversations from which, if your Japanese is up to it, you can figure out the whole story.
Andoh BTW has a kink for father-son incest even if there's no point to it. Her second and third story here have a science student, son of a famous scientist, whose twin brother is screwing their father. Student son can't leave home until he's surpassed his father's achievements. No, don't ask me why. The story's actually about him having the hots for a baseball player, and the incest thing- and the twin thing- is just there because... Andoh has a thing for father-son incest.
Also a thing for weird anatomical proportions. You get those too in the last story, which is another pointless exercise about school guys screwing school guys. This one at least has a guy in hakama (he's on the archery team) doing it with a guy who's naked (he likes to swim in the pool.) But aside from that, little to recommend, from me. But the first story's nice.