The Moon and the Sandals

Fumi Yoshinaga is at her best when writing slice of life comedy, and The Moon And Sandals provides that, with a touch of melancholy and a hint of realism. In fact, so much of it's charm is in the little details, growth of the characters and their interactions that it's almost pointless to describe what it is about - plot doesn't really matter so much here. But briefly - Kobayashi is in love with his history teacher Mr. Ida, and finally has gathered enough courage to come up and confess when he catches Ida kissing another man. Kobayashi is distraught and while remaining friends with Ida, moves on with his life and falls in love with his best friend Rikuko's older brother. Two volumes capture several years of these two couples' lives, those little mundane events and normal emotions.

The two volumes are distinctly different. The first volume is a story about how Kobayashi falls in love, breaks his heart and falls in love again this time with Touyou, nicknamed Giant. It also follows Ida's and his lover Hashizume's gentle relationship where although there's plenty of love, showing emotions is difficult. The first volume is a clear story with a beginning, middle and end - very different from the second volume which is a collection of short stories from the lives of these four men and people around them. Most of these stories are concentrated on sex, but each also tells a story about how the relationships and people grow. My favorite story might actually be the one without any sex, or even men: just five pages of Rikuko - who lost the competition for Kobayashi's heart to her brother - talking about how she is doing few years later. Just talking heads, but Yoshinaga-sensei's perfect sense of emotions, timing and facial expressions makes it into something very special to me.

Now that Fumi Yoshinaga's works have suddenly become so popular, even her older works get published. Age shows a little bit in these books - not so much in the story or the people which are characteristically sweet and real, but in the art. Yoshinaga-sensei's style is already very distinctive, but poses especially during the sex scenes are often awkward and unnatural - still, what she does best are emotions and humor, and that is always present in her artwork.

There are two things that I especially love about The Moon And Sandals. Firstly I love how sensei is comfortable with spanning the story over several years, which especially with the boys means moving from childhood to adulthood. There is no need to cram this essential phase of their lives unnaturally into few months - instead you get the perfect slices of those light-bulb moments in their lives when they realize something and are ready to move to the next level. And these moments are reflected in both couples' lives in different ways. I also really like the little moments that give us glimpses to lives of gays in Japan - while I'm aware that this is fiction and provides a happy resolution which is not so common in real life, there are still some moving and interesting tidbits here. Like the fact for the only way to gain some kind of legal recognition for their relationship Ida adopts Hashizume (this way they they gain the same surname), or that Kobayashi has to go and buy porn to learn about how homosexual sex actually works. They are just few of those minute details that make this story seem that much more realistic.

Juné's release is a solid one, in fact I've started to like their publications and titles more and more. Over-sized books with colorful dust jackets were initially a deterrent, but more I read them the more I've started to trust their quality. Translations work, all sound effects are translated, and honorifics are used in places - but not others, however the choice has always been made so that it doesn't stick out.

Once again Yoshinaga-sensei manages to delight. The Moon And Sandals is charming, touching and you can't go wrong with it.