Zenmon no Tora Koumon no Ookami

Author: Mizukami Shin
Imprint: Be-boy Comics
Publisher: Biblos
ISBN04-8352-1309-2

Reviewed by Jeanne

'Tiger at the front gate, wolf at the back.' From an old Chinese saying which means, as far as I can tell, that while you're busy driving the tiger away from the front gate the wolf slips in by the back one. (There seem to be some variations as well. Anyone who knows more, please instruct.)

This is A/U ancient China. Vice-Fearless Leader needs to do a gallery on Everything I know about historical costume I learned from manga. This round-eye knows only that hair in topknots = Han dynasty sort of, though surely it could as easily be Ming? Anyway, ancient China. And A/U in the usual BL/ yaoi way of Guys want guys is-that-a-problem?

Staunch upright honest and hence never-promoted captain of the Guard Jotetsu (slow iron) is sent off to capture a bunch of mountain bandits along with his aide Shunrai (spring thunder) and old servant Uncle Kou. Suggestion is that Jotetsu's honest ways are a nuisance to the corrupt court officials and they want him elsewhere. This suggestion goes nowhere, BTW. In the mountains they come upon the bandits who've just attacked a government baggage train. Jotetsu gallops down to their aid but comes too late. Up rides the bandit chief Rou (wolf)- one-eyed fur-and-brocade wearing and Beautiful! as Jotetsu says at once, promptly adding, 'Come and marry me, but you have to stop being a bandit!' Bandit chief strips off the fur and brocades to reveal his willowy frame. 'Glad to, but alas I'm barren.' Jotetsu is all 'A guy?! He's a guy??!! Such a beautiful face belongs to a guy!!??' Uh- innocent, you know, and not bright enough to realize he's in a BL manga. Even when bandit chief invites him to his bed.

Glib-tongued Shunrai (never trust a man who calls himself atashi) spins a tale of their being impoverished aristocrats from the capital and Rou believes them- Government men would never ride to anyone's protection- and takes them back to their hidden fortress. Rou's second in command and childhood friend Rekko (fierce tiger) dislikes and distrusts them. He has the hots for Rou but Rou doesn't screw his friends. So we have a love triangle here and a love pairing over there, with Shunrai and a one-armed boy called Taoist Flower, and Uncle Kou pushing Jotetsu to carry out his mission and get back to court.

There's some expected developments- all the bandits are really honest men driven to crime by corrupt officials; and a few BL switches- Shunrai can call himself atashi as much as he likes, he's the seme here, and Jotetsu can be as inflamed as he likes, he's a virgin, and both of them think the solution to everyone's problems is to come back with them to the city, which you recall is full of corrupt officials who want these bandits' heads. *You* recall: the characters don't, and don't need to.

Oh well, it's a manga. Consistency and likelihood aren't major concerns. Love and sex are, and damn the conventions. People go from indomitable leaders to rapable ukes and from raping villains to raped ukes, all in a matter of pages without many hard feelings to be seen. Just an ordinary day in yaoiland, basically. Enjoy it for what it is.