Casino Lily

As much as I love Youka Nitta's yaoi epic, Embracing Love, I didn't really expect to fall for her single-volume yaoi gambler manga, Casino Lily. The glittering, glamorous richness of a tale of the beautiful international gambling celebrity known only as "Casino Lily" certainly sounded like a tale to suit Nitta-sensei's taste for fame and fortune in her manga stories, but could a one-volume story really be enough to capture the sort of character development that made Embracing Love so unforgettable?

The answer, delightfully, is yes - Casino Lily is a surprisingly tightly-woven tale of a beautiful but cold gambler who risks losing everything in order to find love and find himself. Casino Lily is really Magira Yuri, a Japanese gambler in Las Vegas with bleached-blond hair, cold eyes, cold smile, and impossible luck at the gambling tables. If he's gambling with another person's money, Magira can't possibly lose, but when he's betting his own cash, he loses every time. With his good looks and luck like that, Magira attracts the attention of a lot of men who want both his skills and his body, but Casino Lily is on a journey to break his jinx. If he can overcome his luck and win at gambling with his own money, Magira believes he could win the heart of a mysterious man in Japan whom he loves.

However, on his quest, the heartless gambler meets his match: the suave, rich and greedy Anthony Monte Carlo, who wants Casino Lily all to himself. Surprisingly, this is where the true heart of the story starts to shine. Magira and Carlo are only out for themselves at the beginning of their relationship, but during their time together, both men go through personal transformations that bind them tightly together. The most touching scene in the entire manga comes after a short separation when Carlo and Magira reunite, and Magira rushes into Carlo's arms with an ecstatic, childlike smile of joy that is a complete turnaround from the cool reserve of Casino Lily. These two characters support and love each other so completely that it comes as a surprise, but their relationship is the true tale of the manga. The glitz and glamour of the international casino world is just a backdrop: Casino Lily is really a story about love, and coming to realize that you fall for the person who is there for you when you need him the most.

Youka Nitta's artistic style is beautifully unique in the world of yaoi manga, with her strong-jawed male faces and loving attention paid to fashion and hair styles. Her stylish, rich details really enhance the atmosphere of high-stakes gambling in which the characters live. Each character's design is well-suited to his personality: suave Carlo wears tailored suits and boasts rich wavy locks reminiscent of Embracing Love's Katou, while searching, conflicted Magira wears his hair messy and tousled, with a constantly-changing sense of fashion. Naturally, when clothes come off they are no less beautiful. Nitta focuses on the most intimate details of the masculine body, detailing molded lips, broad backs and strong thighs with almost fetishized attention. Clearly, this is an artist who loves the male form and uses all of her considerable talent to draw attention to its beauty.

BeBeautiful's release of Casino Lily also contains an unusual short bonus story, "Not Guilty," about a lawyer and his client, the son of a Yakuza boss. The tale starts out quite predictably, but takes a sudden sharp turn that ends the entire book on a startling note, leaving a lasting impression. A cute after-talk section follows, with a few panels of Nitta-sensei's cute little round self-avatar explaining how Casino Lily came about. Extras like this are fairly standard in English-licensed yaoi manga now, but it's still very nice to have them included.

I didn't expect to fall in love with Casino Lily. It wasn't the sparkling world of casinos and luxury hotels that drew me in, nor the admittedly steaming hot, up-close-and-detailed sex scenes that make this manga so irresistible. Casino Lily rides on the strength of its characters and the surprisingly tender and supportive relationship between Magira and Carlo. When it's Youka Nitta telling the tale, just like Casino Lily, you can't lose.