“Mari Kudoh and his partner Yoichi are drop-dead gorgeous ‘Handymen,’ as they prefer to call themselves. With a dangerous ‘back door’ operation, these two live a double life as seductive hitmen!”
I’m glad I checked the back of the book before thinking I was super clever for thinking of the back door action pun first…
My friend and I joke that this book is like the common cold of yaoi in that it is always at every manga clearance sale. One might assume that this means its bad, and we were curious to find out for sure. So what was the verdict? For me, it was similar to my feeling about Lost Boys – ‘huh, this is better than I thought it would be!’ This is one great benefit of having low expectations. Also, turns out the reason this manga seems to be everywhere is that it sold really well, having been released right as US yaoi obsession was peaking. This is one of those books that would have been better then, when there was less English-licensed yaoi around for comparison – it’s not terrible, but it does pale next to our modern tomes and tales of butt-fucking.
(PS if youre into megane the cover is just baiting you, no one wears glasses in this story)
Skyscrapers was a team effort, based off a novel by writer Yoshino Somei with art by Row Takakura. A good thing about manga with a separate writer like this is that the story tends to be pretty solid, since each creator is focusing solely on what they are good at, and the chances of ‘the [writing or art] was pretty good but the [other option] was pretty bad’ issue are lessened.
The plot centers around a sort of private investigator agency run by Mari and his partner Yoichi, with Mari’s uke-y brother Miyuki often joining in (for the primary purpose of being a sex toy, it seems). The trio gets mixed up with some of their ‘work’ in the form of Yu Kaito, a schoolboy so beautiful he often gets groped by men on the train (#yaoiproblems), and who becomes the center of a fake seduction plot that doesn’t end up being so fake. Not that you’ll hear any complaints about that.
Adapting a novel to manga has a unique set of challenges, and usually requires trimming a lot of fat from the source material to fit it into this shorter visual medium. The source novel – never having been translated – would be completely unknown to English readers, so we’re happily ignorant on how well it was adapted. I thought the story was good overall, but it got a little confusing in parts when you could tell Takakura was trying to fit a lot of stuff from the book in a few panels at once. It also managed to strike a somewhat convincing balance of fanservice and hanging-out-with-pants-unbuttoned panels with actual storytelling, even though most of the former was concentrated at the beginning of the book. Takakura has a few other English licensed titles but this is the first of hers I have read (fun fact, she also made a bunch of Gundam Wing yaoi doujins in the late 90s). Her art mimics Shiuko Kano to the extent that I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she was her assistant. At least, that’s my opinion anyway. The resemblance of the proportioning and expressions in particular is pretty striking, particularly in the semes.
Takakura draws the male body confidently with template-like posing (in that it is not necessarily creative but certainly pleasant to look at) using lines that are free-flowing but not always accurately placed – this is particularly noticeable when the characters are at a distance. The facial features of the four main characters seem to constantly be subtly shifting. Certain angles and give her trouble…
— but overall the art is good where it matters, for the most part.
The ukes are seriously cute too without being overly saccharine, and did not suffer from the allergic reaction to lip injections that is evidently inflicting the semes in some panels.
All the characters were likable too – despite feeling shallow and being walking seme/uke cliches – so there is something to be said for that.
Some of this book’s text was poorly typeset, making the paneling claustrophobic and confusing in parts – trying to cram a novel-sized story into a four-chapter manga is already challenging, but they could still probably also trim 1/3rd of the hairy bush of text in this book down to a bikini wax without losing anything of value. Whatever font they use for the non-dialogue is particularly ugly, but as a graphic designer this kind of thing probably bothers me more than most people.
Oh, this was really cool – at the end they have this little glossary about the sound effects on each page. I always love getting a peek behind the scenes at how manga is made and seeing notes from artists and/or translators, and I wish more manga would have this.
So, the ending. Takakura must share the ‘could always use more sex’ sentiment at least in part based on the ‘extra side story’ she graces us with. Finally free from the bonds of following a script, she gives us exactly the ending it needed, and for that I bumped up my rating a full point. Really, I did. Not that the content of this extra chapter will surprise or anything but I may or may not have heard the faintest sound of Handel’s Messiah emanating from the pages. I can appreciate an artist pushing to depart from the source material to give the fujos their bread and circuses.
TL;DR: It hasn’t exactly aged like fine wine, but Wild Irish Rose still gets you drunk. The story isn’t ‘bad’ but has the challenge of being adapted from a novel and has uneven flow. The art is pretty good with my only complaint but the facial features of the characters are a bit inconsistent, and the paneling and dialogue feels claustrophobic due to bad typesetting. The characters are likable despite being stereotypical, and the ukes are particularly cute. Gets a full point ratings boost for the after-ending scene that you were waiting for. You know, the one with the dicks.