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Are Ya Ready for Some Catharsis?
4 years ago
General
So as I said to my husband the other day, violent, scary crime dramas make me appreciate the holidays more. Still, there are limits. I realized this today while watching TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992), the prequel to the TV series, and grasping, finally, that David Lynch and revered Japanese melodrama director Kenji Mizoguchi (1898 - 1956) have something in common: they're both obsessed with depicting female characters being abused, in every sense, by men.
Is it any wonder that I read romance comics (among other things) when I desperately need to restore my faith in humankind? (I realize that I'm the only person on FA who reads BL manga. Deal with it.) There's something different about RESTART AFTER COMING BACK HOME, story and art by Cocomi (Seven Seas, 2021): it's about the blossoming romance between two guys in their mid twenties, in the rural community they both grew up in. A sensitive gay love story in the Japanese equivalent of Trump country? That's something outside my experience, and the story's open-ended conclusion leaves me wondering, along with its characters, "just how warm and kind this town really is." The understated virtuosity of Cocomi's pen work doesn't hurt: less, in this case, really is more.
BOY MEETS MARIA, story and art by the late manga-ka Peyo (Kousei Eguchi, 1997 - 2020) (Seven Seas, 2021), has something in common with the Cocomi manga: they eschew the standard-issue homosexual panic of much BL manga in favor of characters who accept their same-sex attraction to other characters without freaking out about it. How novel! The fifteen-year-old drama students in this manga have a lot to learn about each other, but that's the point of the story. Warning: a graphic depiction of a sexual assault on a minor is an important plot point, so this particular comic isn't for everyone. It's still easier to take than the Lynch movie I mentioned earlier, even if the movie had an ending that was...not despairing.
https://www.amazon.com/Restart-After-Coming-Back-Home-ebook/dp/B09K9WVKHD/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638543987&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Meets-Maria-Peyo-ebook/dp/B09HX6VJB4/ref=pd_sim_4/147-3421416-2144051?pd_rd_w=evO8D&pf_rd_p=6caf1c3a-a843-4189-8efc-81b67e85dc96&pf_rd_r=1YWS01CE76SQNGXRRCH0&pd_rd_r=06e1bcb9-6b1b-4346-8e92-082883a0fea0&pd_rd_wg=7uLNh&pd_rd_i=B09HX6VJB4&psc=1
Is it any wonder that I read romance comics (among other things) when I desperately need to restore my faith in humankind? (I realize that I'm the only person on FA who reads BL manga. Deal with it.) There's something different about RESTART AFTER COMING BACK HOME, story and art by Cocomi (Seven Seas, 2021): it's about the blossoming romance between two guys in their mid twenties, in the rural community they both grew up in. A sensitive gay love story in the Japanese equivalent of Trump country? That's something outside my experience, and the story's open-ended conclusion leaves me wondering, along with its characters, "just how warm and kind this town really is." The understated virtuosity of Cocomi's pen work doesn't hurt: less, in this case, really is more.
BOY MEETS MARIA, story and art by the late manga-ka Peyo (Kousei Eguchi, 1997 - 2020) (Seven Seas, 2021), has something in common with the Cocomi manga: they eschew the standard-issue homosexual panic of much BL manga in favor of characters who accept their same-sex attraction to other characters without freaking out about it. How novel! The fifteen-year-old drama students in this manga have a lot to learn about each other, but that's the point of the story. Warning: a graphic depiction of a sexual assault on a minor is an important plot point, so this particular comic isn't for everyone. It's still easier to take than the Lynch movie I mentioned earlier, even if the movie had an ending that was...not despairing.
https://www.amazon.com/Restart-After-Coming-Back-Home-ebook/dp/B09K9WVKHD/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638543987&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Meets-Maria-Peyo-ebook/dp/B09HX6VJB4/ref=pd_sim_4/147-3421416-2144051?pd_rd_w=evO8D&pf_rd_p=6caf1c3a-a843-4189-8efc-81b67e85dc96&pf_rd_r=1YWS01CE76SQNGXRRCH0&pd_rd_r=06e1bcb9-6b1b-4346-8e92-082883a0fea0&pd_rd_wg=7uLNh&pd_rd_i=B09HX6VJB4&psc=1
is nothing to be ashamed of. Mine is watching things like
the Paw Patrol.
Volumn 1, volumn 2, and the conclusion, volumn 3 are available on Amazon. I own all three.
You're only the only BL reader here because I stopped being able to buy them, and the market got too saturated. I prefer yuri/GL anyway, and that's some hen's teeth right there. If anyone reads this and wants the name of a director who is equally weird, and violent towards women but... better... you're gonna want Kunihiko Ikuhara. Shoujou Kakumei Utena and Yurikuma Arashi are weird as fuck, Anthy gets slapped around and girls are literally eaten in Yurikuma, but they all feel so much more... impactful? Approachable? Certainly brighter and more elaborately designed, and there's more commentary about love.
And it's interesting that Lynch hasn't made a feature film since the godawful Inland Empire (2006).
This isn't technically manga because I think it's...Korean? But it's similar in style and content, about somebody who's convinced that they're not good enough for their pursuer..
https://www.comixology.eu/Tell-Me-I.....l-comic/797718
So it's either translated manhwa or an American work pretending to BE manhwa for some reason