Manga Review: Koimonogatari

I don't generally read slice of life manga and I certainly don't read romance, not even manga about high school kids who can't punch through brick walls or become masters of various martial arts. They just aren't things that interest me, but being stuck in the world wide COVID-19 pandemic has led us all to some new places. A friend recommended Koimonogatari by Tohru Tagura. A normal high school love story, that defies tropes and is the opposite of what many would call normal.

Yuiji and Yamato have a mutual acquaintance in Natsumi who invites them both to a study group. Yuiji brings his friend Kyousuke along because he's good at math. Natsumi misses the study group leaving the three boys to study until they fall asleep. When Yuiji wakes up he notices Yamato caressing the hand of Kyousuke and recognizes it as love. He overhears Natsumi and Yamato talking and apologizes because he's overheard them discussing it.From there, Yuiji promises not to be a burden and make sure Yamato has nothing to worry about.

But Yuiji has problems of his own. He loves his girlfriend Mayu, but he doesn't know if he is in love with her anymore. They still go on dates, and he works hard to buy her whatever she wants. The two are the envy of all their friends, including Kyousuke. Mayu begins to pick fights with Yuiji and neither can really understand why. Yamato and Yuiji become the secret holders and confidants of each other leading to some upset friends of each, until the friend groups merge.

There's a lot that happens over the course of the friendship. Yamato meets some gay friends, a few people figure it out themselves. Yuiji feuds with Yamato's best friend because he feels Yuiji has monopolized Yamato's time. We witness Yuiji go through a major break up, for a teenager. For the first time since middle school Yamato has more than one friend who is also male, and doesn't really know how to bond. Yamato also gets acquainted with another gay male and learns that things could be worse than just hiding. Things become unbearable when someone attempts to out Yamato.

Prior to reading this, I hadn't really considered what life would be like for LGBT people in Japan because there's so many references in the media that reaches us, both overt and covert. In Afghanistan and Iran, a person can be executed for homosexual acts. Parts of Nigeria have recently adopted the death penalty for homosexual acts. In Kenya, you can receive a prison sentence if you are caught in a same sex relationship. In 2020 Northern Ireland legalized gay marriage, the last part of the recognized UK to do so, many of the UK's other territories still do not recognize it. In the United States, all but 13 states now recognize gay marriage. Despite the seemingly wide spread acceptance in the United States and United Kingdom, you can still be murdered for it by some random nutcase.

In Japan, Shibuya was the first ward to legalize gay marriage, in 2015. It's funny because historically, Japan didn't really have any issue with homosexuality until they began to import elements of Russian and United States culture after the Russo-Japanese War and World War II. Since 2015 several other wards began providing partnership certificates to gay couples. Still, Japan is the only member of the G7 that doesn't recognize gay couples, at all.

Koimonogatai hints at this showing that when most people find out, there isn't any bullying. People will whisper and spread rumors at first, but no physical violence will come to you. Instead, you end up shunned, an outcast excluded from everything. There isn't even taunting, just avoidance and solitude from most people. It's not something I expected. 

It's okay to be gay in Japan if you're Mr. 2 from One Piece, Touya and Yukito from Cardcaptor, Motoko from Ghost in The Shell, Ryuko and Mako from Kill La Kill, Shinji and Kaworu from Neon Genesis Evangelion of cours Sailor Uranus and Neptune from Sailor Moon. Didn't see your name on the list? That's because it isn't okay for you to be gay in Japan. It's interesting how we've gone from America and other countries censoring LGBT scenes in anime, going so far as cutting entire episodes and arcs, to Japan censoring and becoming less overt. Even when the ending to series like Kill La Kill are very direct, people still refuse to accept it because homosexuality has become something to be hidden away. 

There are some heart breaking moments in this series. Yamato contemplates suicide at a few different points. When Yuiji is dumped by his girlfriend he wonders what's wrong with himself because despite giving it his all, he just wasn't good enough. There's a moment where Yuiji is suspended from school because he beats up another student who outed Yamato, and wouldn't leave him alone despite everyone else shunning Yamato already. During sum classes Yamato happens to meet Akiyama, a friend of Yuiji and Akiyama's classmate Akito. Akito immediately recognizes Yamato is gay and invites him to lunch. Later, Akito is outed by a cousin and things get violent.

I think it's great how this isn't a story where both leads realize they're gay, then they fall in love. Yamato knows he's gay from the start and Yuiji is a straight guy with no wandering thoughts. I think it's a great friendship because Yuiji and Suzuki, just treat him like they treat any other guy. Yamato freaks out because he's trying to hide the fact that he's gay, but guys just play fight and tease each other all the time. While Yamato falls for a few different straight men, he never dates any of them, because you can't force someone to change their orientation. That's just how life is and I'm glad Tohru Tagura didn't attempt to make it into that kind of story. Yuiji, Yamato, Kyousuke, and Kazutaka are all just guys who support each other, even if the issues they deal with aren't the same, as it should be.

The idea of unrequited love that LGBT people have is a reoccurring theme. You can't force a straight man to love you because you love him. Nor can a straight woman force a gay man to love her. At one point Yamato is told, "waiting for something you're not gonna get is the essence of gay relationships." The idea that unrequited love is the defining factor is something that remains constant throughout the series.I think it's done because anyone can relate to unrequited love rather than just being gay.

The manga does make me wonder if we'll ever live in a world without homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, racism, sexism and so on. Yamato's only crime was being popular because he was nice to people. While people like Yuiji are willing to get into fist fights to defend him, he can't fight the entire school. People who are envious that others have found happiness or success, will look for any reason to hurt them. It doesn't matter if it's race, orientation or whatever, they'll find a reason to single them out.

The story is blunt to a point that many readers drop it completely. It doesn't make any promises of "it gets better," or everyone living happily ever after, because that isn't real life. It might upset some people, but that's just how the world is. Many people saw the cover featuring Yuiji and Yamato and assumed they'd get a whirlwind love story where one turns the other gay and it didn't happen. Just because two character sit next to each other in art, doesn't mean they're a couple. Perhaps shipping needs to be dialed back a little. Earlier I included Shinji and Kaworu, because even if we never got an official answer on that one, it's a lot more direct than many of the other characters people ship and we keep getting a coy "maybe." Ship all you want, but that doesn't distract from an author making great work.

There's a moment where Yamato says he had been researching gay life in other countries and they're only interested in gay men if they're bottoming. The phrase "no fats, no femmes, no Blacks, no Asians," is a lot more common in the LGBT community, especially among men, than you might think. There's a reason the brown and black stripes have been added to some pride flags. Tohru does a great job translating emotion onto the page while keeping it from becoming the stereotypical story that Hollywood and major book publishers tends to pump out.

I think Koimonoatari is a beautiful story, a story we need more of. I'd like to see more LGBT stories that aren't built around young white men who eventually fall in love with someone who was secretly gay the whole time, then they come out and everyone throws confetti. Real life isn't that simple, nor is it tinted through those Caucasian lenses. Yuiji and Yamato feel like real people as you read it, but so do characters like Akito, Hibino, Natsumi, Kyouske, and Mayu. They aren't just cliches but thought out. at points it becomes a character study more than anything else. Checking around the internet, a lot of people hate it because there's no sexual aspect other than discussion of stereotypes within the LGBT. As someone who doesn't really read romance, hentai, yaoi, or slice of life, I can't recommend it enough.

A quick note: There's nothing sexual in the manga so don't let that keep you from reading it, It deals a lot more with the psychological aspects of what being in the closet is like. I will however tell you the manga is on hiatus because the mangaka has more profitable works. It's also serialized in a magazine that only publishes every three months.  Don't dive headfirst into all of the other works by Tohru unless you're ready to be surprised like I was. Some of it is really really niche...I had to back out of one that turned into incest. Have to give Tohru Tagura props for writing a wide variety of works, but it makes sense that this is a side project, because the other works, way different. Later chapters drop to a 15-20 pages, and become more infrequent due to hiatuses.

You can check out some of my short stories at 12 AM Fiction or if you like vampires follow my web serial Exsanguinate and of course hear me on the Powerbomb Jutsu podcast if you enjoy pro wrestling.
Follow @OriginalKingD