I seem to be on a Honami kick right now. I apparently just happen to be reading the books she drew in an order where I like each successive one more than the last. No doubt this pattern can only last for so long but I was curious to see if I’d find my new favorite book of hers at the end of the trail. It might be too early to say, but this one is going to be hard to top – Constellations in My Palm is not only my favorite book Honami has worked on (the 5th of hers I’ve read), it has one of the most touching, beautiful, and tear-jerking stories of any yaoi I’ve read in a long while. Really, it’s that good.
To say it’s the ‘best Honami book’ is a bit of a misnomer, because the real strength of this one lay in Sakuragi’s story. The story was SO good in fact that it magnified the weaknesses in the art. Not that Honami’s art is bad by any means or that I dislike it, it’s just a little basic. The characters’ expressions seem vacant due to her light touch and they all often look same-y, especially her ukes, which all have literally the same face (need to update my comparison chart for anyone who doesn’t believe me). For the other four books of hers I’ve read it was perfectly fine, but a story of this caliber outshines it (in most of her work she usually only does the art and not the story).
Constellations is about two cousins, Mizuho and Enji, who were close as children but grew apart as they got older. Enji comes to live with Mizuho’s family for college and things are now awkward between them, since Mizuho had purposely tried to cut ties with him due to wounded pride and childhood foolishness (Mizuho needs a good kick in the pants for most of the book, starting here). The story is largely told through Mizuho’s inner thoughts as he wrestles with his feelings for his cousin and the undoing of their close relationship, and how they slowly regain what they lost. The title comes from Mizuho and Enji’s love of stargazing as children, and dreaming of being astronomers. Enji held onto that dream and was studying for it in college, but Mizuho chose an easier path, citing his limitations. The starry sky serves as both a metaphorical background and flashback/plot element for much of the story, and it was a lovely thematic thread used to good effect.
One thing I really liked about the story was that the characters’ sexuality didn’t really come into play in the fetishistic way it sometimes does in yaoi (‘oh no, I’m a straight guy in love with another guy!’ or ‘omg we’re both guys, isn’t this crazy?’) , and nothing in the plot really hinged on it, nor did it rely on stereotypes like beefy seme and girlish uke; the characters were multi-dimensional and presented as equals. In fact I think the story would have worked just as well with any combination of male/female characters. It was just a beautiful love story, not merely a beautiful gay love story. I mean, certainly the characters are gay (also cousins, which I mostly forgot about), but it definitely transcended that and didn’t treat it as a plot device. I don’t know why they had to be cousins in the first place, actually. Is a cousin fetish a thing? I mean, I guess anything and everything is a fetish nowdays (but I’m still not typing that into the search bar).
Mizuho has a bromance with a friend named Issei (pretty much just Hayate from Can’t Win With You) and Enji has a wannabe lover named Yoshimi, both relationships of which are the subject of misunderstandings between our two cousins-turned-lovers here. There’s even a hint that the two of them get it on at the end, which is amusing.
The sex is not exactly truly M-rated, but for this story it was perfect – it was tasteful and romantic, and the timing and length were both spot-on. Honami draws pretty decent sex scenes when they’re written in – they’re soft and romantic yet feel authentic.
This title is pretty easy to come by and really worth having in print, and I would definitely recommend checking out, especially if you love romance and good (as well as non-stereotypical) characters in yaoi. You’ll be moved. Really moved. So moved you’ll be pooping rainbow stars and racing along them like that last level in Mario Kart. Yaoi: cheaper and safer than dropping acid, or so they say.
TL;DR: This story is so beautiful, heartfelt, and well-done that you really do forget they’re cousins, so hopefully that’s a selling point and you don’t let some incest-once-removed stop you from checking out a great love story, yaoi or otherwise. Sakuragi’s masterfully-paced storywriting is really that good! Honami’s art is the same as always, pales a little bit here in comparison to the writing but perfectly enjoyable. Bring the tissues, folks, they’re really for your eyes this time…