On the off chance that someone out there has not only read this series but is also thinking that this isn’t technically a yaoi or even a shounen-ai, well, you’re right. However, it’s closer to being a shounen-ai than two roaches on a bacon bit, and the proximity about as “ugh!”-inducing – albeit for totally different reasons. But the main reason I’m reviewing it is that it’s a hidden gem of a release that needs more attention, which is my favorite reason to review anything. Are you into shojo sci-fi with BL subtext that’s heavier than metal? Well frens, read on…
I’m wondering if part of the reason this short series never got much attention is that it was mis-marketed as ‘sci-fi/action/adventure,’ according to the back of the book…which makes it appear far too appealing for a (straight?) male reader. Although it is sci-fi, it has hardly any action, no female characters, and the male characters are as pretty as pageant queens. Additionally, it is mostly about relationships between the main bishounen, has long talks about inner feelings, and even prominently features cooking – more cooking than action, even. The no-female-characters part is particularly puzzling because there’s several secondary characters that would have been really easy to make into boob-mobiles to appeal to male readers. Why this was not more clearly presented as what it is, have no idea…action/adventure is kinda deep in the pool of adjectives I’d use to describe this series overall. ‘Sci-fi fujo-bait’ sums it up fairly accurately and is shorter to boot. The marketing is not only a questionable decision on the part of CMX, but an unfortunate one, because this is actually a great manga that probably never reached much of its intended audience…but maybe we can remedy that a bit with this review. Better late than never.
When I picked up these three books I thought I might like them because it was a short, complete series and looked like it was mainly just gorgeous guys talking to each other (as it turns out that wasn’t too far off the mark, although…wow is that literally like 3/4 of all BL? Just guys talking to each other and occasionally fucking? I may have just had a revelation here…) I had no idea it was basically a shounen-ai in disguise, so I mean, that turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The best kind of surprise! Actually it was a guy on the back of one of the books in a military uniform that sold me, because that’s one of my top five weaknesses – so my thought process was, ok well if it sucks it’s only three books and it has some really nice eye candy, I’ve spent a worse $15 for sure.
So uh, damn, talk about exceeding expectations. Not only was the story good, the art was good! That’s like, the best two things a manga can have! Well, besides copious amounts of gay sex that is, though I’m sure that opinion is less widely shared outside of our circles. I don’t really read much sci-fi manga, nor am I really into sci-fi series at all, because I feel like more often than not the writer(s) start jerking off on superfluous universe-building and things get way too convoluted while losing sight of the human element of the story. Limited by hard deadlines and page limits, manga tends to be far less a victim of some kind of ‘this doesn’t have anything to do with the story but look what my brain can think up’ ego trip, but bad western sci-fi has pooped in the brownie batch when it comes to my personal tastes.
The story centers around a boy named Aoi, an orphan ‘ravant’ (android) in a world where their life spans are determined at birth – and Aoi’s is about to end, at age 18. He gets mixed up with two older – opportunists? – a priest named Tris and his friend Dis, and together they all get entangled with larger forces at work, and each other. In many ways it’s a classic bishounen-in-distress story that gets pretty predictable, but to me that never really worked against it because it was well told and fun to read. I particularly liked how organically the backstory of the ‘world’ they inhabited was handled. It never became confusing or overbearing, and focused on the emotional element rather than lingering on the how/why/where – things were explained or shown only when they became relevant, and suggested much further complexity, which built intrigue.
This book spends A LOT of effort not being a shounen-ai. It might as well be rolling a boulder up a mountain in that regard and ends up messing with the story in the sense that, since there is no actual kissing, to make up for it there is so much touching and hugging to the point that that kind and length of general ‘closeness’ and touchy-feelingness *without* kissing or dropping the L word becomes awkward and unrealistic. This is especially apparent towards the end – after a lot of stuff has happened and the reality that two certain characters are gay and in love is so fucking obvious that it’s insulting the readers’ intelligence by not openly acknowledging it – they decide to go, ‘ok, let’s just hug for 5 minutes and touch each other and I’ll rub your hair and then that’s enough. Then we’ll do that again a bunch more times.’ For fuck’s sake, even straight guys are probably going, ‘hey can you guys just fucking kiss and get on with the story so that I don’t have to watch you almost-kiss for like 20 panels?’ I mean, I have read actual shounen-ai with less actual shounen-ai in it than this series. Aoi spends about 60% of the time being hugged by various characters while various deep conversations are being had, and any straight guys brave enough to have made it to the last book wondering when the action is going to pick up will most likely be disappointed.
No fujo bait here guys, move along:
Just two straight friends talking in a totally straight way:
So as you can clearly see, nothing even resembling shounen-ai here in this book.
Although the plot is pretty interesting, it’s also quite spoilable, so I won’t go too much more into it (and I redacted some of the more telling dialogue in the included screenshots). But I will say, I would have loved for it to be longer, because it was a great concept and the ending felt a bit rushed – I also think it also would have made a great anime, because of the variety and visual quality of the settings. This author (Toshimi Nigoshi) did at least two other sci-fi series, the Flat Earth Exchange (also licensed by CMX), and Paradise of Rubble, curiously the only true yaoi title she did and the only one unlicensed. (Its tags on Mangaupdates include ‘pedophilia’ and ‘prison,’ which may point to a possible reason for that…). She also drew some Togainu no Chi and Ai no Kusabi doujinshi, in case we needed more evidence of her true inclinations, but surprisingly there are not many other credits to her name besides a couple josei romances that were done more recently – which is too bad because I think Nigoshi has real talent for both art and storywriting. I will definitely be checking out more of her work!
TL;DR This obscure three-book CMX gem puzzlingly tries to hide its true nature, but make no mistake, this is a boys love story that just won’t admit it. The sci-fi plot is predictable but still manages to be interesting and compelling, so to me that doesn’t equal bad in this case. It also has beautiful boys giving the readers a decent bit of fanservice, so as long as you resign yourself to being fujo-baited, it’s a short and enjoyable read.