Affair

Shiuko Kanno presents four tales of complicated lovers in her collection Affair, published in English by 801 Media. Don't expect any blushing, beautiful high school boys here - all of Shiuko Kanno's men are broad-shouldered men with adult bodies and adult desires to match. These complex men find themselves in complex situations: baseball buddies from high school end up living together years later; yakuza half-brothers discover painful secrets about their family; a salaryman tries not to take his co-worker's amazing good luck for granted; a driving instructor can't keep his hands off a grown male student. While the first two stories live up to the promise of their plotlines, the last two haven't enough depth or texture to round Affair into a collection of great stories.

The first half of the book is solid, with two interesting tales of misunderstood love that requires sacrifice and compromise in order to survive. The title story, "Affair," is about two young men who once played high school baseball together, and meet up several years later. Haruomi, the older of the two, has grown up to be quite a player, and imposes on Yoshi, the younger, for a place to stay. Bit by bit, the circumstances that brought them together and drove them apart in the past are revealed, and bit by bit, the two rekindle the old high school attraction they had. The second story, "My Mad Dog," follows a similar pattern, except the main characters in this tale are half-brothers, sons of a yakuza boss. Brash, nasty Kyouichi is set to inherit their father's position, and demands loyalty - and blow jobs - from his half-brother Hijiri, whom he calls "a spare" (in the sense of "an heir and a spare," a second son to ensure the bloodline). Much like in "Affair," a series of flashbacks unfolds an increasingly complex set of circumstances that could either tear the brothers apart, or pull them closer together.

After these two richly complicated, well-woven stories, the second pair of stories fall surprisingly flat. In "One Lucky Guy," office worker Hirose takes in his abnormally lucky co-worker Takei, after they beat a high-profile client at mahjong and summarily lose their jobs. The gimmick of Takei's weird luck winning him a lot of sweepstakes prizes is cute, but ultimately can't carry the story through to a sudden relationship that only makes sense because this is a yaoi manga, and you expect the two protagonists of any story to get together. Similarly, adult driving student Yagi falls for his come-on-strong instructor Tamiya only because he's "cute," and the relationship holds no real substance. Lack of substance is the real problem in both of the stories, as neither has any real compelling reason for the main characters to develop an attraction, let alone have sex.

At least the sex is consistently good, along with Shiuko Kanno's stunning artwork. While some of the light-haired characters do start to look similar, Kanno distinguishes her men well, gives them life and personality not only in their actions, but in their mannerisms, dress and accessories. The sunglasses that Haruomi wears in "Affair" enhance his image as a good boy gone wrong; Kyouichi's flamboyant street style in "My Mad Dog" further illustrate his careless, bratty attitude. The artwork and character designs truly carry the stories, even when the plots start to grasp at straws.

With this fourth release, 801 has cemented their commitment to great production quality. The dust jacket cover echoes the original Japanese volume artwork with a simple, unobtrusive title that doesn't cover up the color art. A nice color page from "My Mad Dog" serves as a table of contents, and the "Erotic Affair 2005" bonus story and author's Afterword are both included at the end. Translation and editor's notes on the last page are an extra-nice bonus, explaining a few of the Japanese cultural references that American readers might not understand right away. All in all, 801's releases are always top-quality regardless of the content inside.

For a volume of four self-contained stories, Affair isn't a bad read. If the third and fourth stories lived up to the promise of the first two, it might be an amazing book. Without a truly consistent theme or an over-arching story, any collection of manga shorts struggles to maintain overall quality. Affair has the potential to be a spectacular volume of manga, but as it is, it's only half a spectacular volume of manga.