Love Circumstances

Of all the varied and vast pantheon of uke types in the world of yaoi manga -- cranky, weepy, blushy, spunky, innocent, randy, feisty, sultry and a hundred other adjectives -- quite possibly my least favorite is The Tease. This is the uke who admits that he loves his seme and is more than willing to start a relationship, but who freaks out, gets angry and even gets violent over any kind of physical contact. Even so much as a kiss is an excuse to hit, kick and push the seme away. The Tease can sometimes be cute, but by the time his seme has gotten him into bed, his protesting and fighting can become downright uncomfortable, if not extremely annoying!

Love Circumstances, a book of several short stories by Aco Oumi, features an uke character just like this in the primary series of stories. Yamaguchi is the main character for the first half of the book, a guy who seems to have fallen in love with his best friend, Takagari, over the summer. Somehow, the dialogue and internal thoughts that Yamaguchi narrates seems to indicate that this was some kind of surprise or unexpected happening, as if he just woke up one day and was going out with another guy. Despite this, Yamaguchi is constantly whining and wondering why Takagari is in love with him and why they are even together when they are both so different. On top of that, every time Takagari tries to so much as kiss him, Yamaguchi kicks him, hits him and pushes him away, protesting and fighting against any and all of Takagari's sexual advances. Takagari is a sexy beast, especially his sultry eyes under his shaggy dark hair, making Yamaguchi's struggles all the more frustratingly uncomfortable. Who wouldn't want to be wanted by such a sexy seme?

The rest of the book is taken up by somewhat more comfortable stories of men in their first sexual or romantic relationship with another man. Sex figures prominently in three of the four short stories, and once again, the uke insists the seme stop all the way through, even though he is clearly turned on. The protesting uke is common in Japanese yaoi manga, but for me, if one partner isn't enjoying the sex, I don't enjoy reading it very much. What is even more frustrating in the case of Love Circumstances is that Aco Oumi's artwork is sizzling hot, her characters are just the right mix of sexy and sweet, and her imagination for sexual positions is quite creative. The very explicit sex scenes are pretty and well-executed with strong art, and no censoring whatsoever, so the uncomfortable dialogue surrounding the clear, detailed panels of pretty naked men detracts unfortunately from Oumi-sensei's artistic skill.

Honestly, the best part of the book is the short, non-explicit final story about an underwear salesman and his crush on a youthful shop owner. This story is really very sweet and probably has the best plotting and pacing of the entire book, developing an actual relationship even if it never leads to sex.

In the end, Love Circumstances has gorgeous art, which counts for a lot, but the use of The Tease model of uke and the constant protesting, fighting and struggling between seme and uke seems tiring and forced. Perhaps this Japanese yaoi tradition is only uncomfortable for Western readers, but as a Western reader I found it detracted too much from the sexy artwork to overlook.