Challengers

Challengers is the awkward story about the growing love relationship between an easily stressed and excited salaryman, Mitsugu Kurokawa and an incoming university student, Tomoe Tatsumi.

Kurokawa and Tatsumi meet completely by chance when Kurokawa's coworker and friend Isogai... well, throws up in Tatsumi's jacket after his drinking binge getting over a failed love affair.

Tatsumi is from Nagoya and will be an university student in autumn. Tatsumi is attempting entrance to the prestigious W.U. college there in Tokyo. Kurokawa offers Tatsumi his place to stay overnight in form of apology, since Tatsumi was thrown up on while he was lost trying to find a place to stay.

Kurokawa is even surprised with himself for offering a complete stranger a place to stay for a few days, and even taking Tatsumi on a tour of W.U. Kurokawa soon realizes that over the course of those few days, he has fallen deeply in love with Tatsumi. Kurokawa has no idea how to deal with these feelings, having never been attracted to a man before, and knows that Tatsumi isn't attracted to men either. But he has to let Tatsumi know how he feels about him... then things become even more complicated... and hilarious. Kurokawa and Tatsumi, like the title of the series suggests, have to end up becoming "challengers" and must meet up with and face all the problems that will occur in a relationship like theirs.

Challengers is an earlier manga work from Hinako Takanaga, a manga-ka I have enjoyed for a few years now, known for her other titles like Little Butterfly, Study Hard!, Bukiyou na Silent, Liberty Liberty and Croquis. I was actually surprised to find out that Challengers was her work; her style of artwork has changed immensely and has become more shoujo-ish since this series. However, you can tell it's her work on further examination and by the newer cover art this series sports.

Challengers is a nice mix of angst, humor and matters of the heart. The start of the story is a boys love manga cliché, but is also not at the same time, in an odd sort of way. There have been several manga I've read that has started out with the whole, someone-is-drunk-and-causes-a-scene-scenario, but usually it is one of the main characters, not a loud-mouthed friend.

The story is down-to-earth about the troubles a first-time homosexual couple will have while trying to figure out how it all will exactly work (from emotional to physical). There is also the matter of how to tell their families and still stay together, among other things. There is no sci-fi, fantasy or supernatural element; this story is about slightly-crazy, but otherwise normal people. It actually takes quite awhile for Tatsumi to figure out what exactly he feels for Kurokawa, and meanwhile Kurokawa has to be patient. There are very memorable and heartfelt moments. Sometimes their problems are problems any couple would have, just very amplified. On the other hand, the humor of the series is off-the-wall crazy, with facial expressions, body gestures, and hilarious jokes and situations that made me laugh hysterically. Almost everything that could go wrong or anything that could possibly challenge their relationship happens. Just staying for the ride to see what will happen next makes this series very entertaining. I haven't laughed this hard at a boys love title in a long time, considering how many of them are depressing or filled entirely by angst. What initially attracted me to purchasing this series was my anticipation of what would happen next, but also definitely the humor that is in the same vein as Seikimatsu Darling and Gravitation.

Kurokawa is a likeable character, even though he sometimes lacks a spine, but he eventually is able to stand up more for himself and always manages to tell Tatsumi how he feels about him. Tatsumi who is very dense and air-headed also learns to stand up to his overbearing older brother, Souichi. Both characters are very easily liked and even easy to identify with; they face many life decisions many of us may face.

Possibly the only thing that might have bothered me about this series (at least at first) was the presence of the character Rick, who was every bit the stereotypical, rude, blond, tan and flaming gay American. However, I suppose people like this exist; the later appearance of the very calm and possibly the most level-headed person in the series, another American named Phil, helped balance this out. Amusingly though, Phil was a very weird character in his own hilarious way.

Isogai, Kurokawa's co-worker and friend who was responsible for Kurokawa and Tatsumi meeting, is a very entertaining character in his own right. He usually helps Kurokawa out as the bad situations escalate, but often is just a bystander watching everything unfold. Isogai is the "straightman" in every sense, staying calm as Kurokawa freaks out and dispensing stinging remarks as everything gets out of hand.

Hilarious characters like Kurokawa's mother Reiko, or Tatsumi's brother Souichi, often steal the spotlight, overshadowing Kurokawa and Tatsumi. Souichi is the most extreme homophobe I have ever seen in a manga, but hilarious handled, showing how his fears for what may happen to his little brother in Tokyo are usually way too extreme (although some of the things he fears does happen).

Souichi's actions are explained in his own side story in the books that soon merges with the main story. Souichi's story explains the reasons for his homophobia, but also touches on the relationship he has with one of his only friends and his confidant about his troubles, his kouhai (underclassman) Morinaga. Morinaga is also gay and has been in love with Souichi for years, but as his friend and confidant, he doesn't dare tell Souichi. I have to admit I became far more involved in the story about Souichi and Morinaga as the story advanced than I was with Kurokawa and Tatsumi. For that reason, I am very eager to purchase and read the follow-up series about Souichi and Morinaga, called The Tyrant Falls in Love, which is licensed, but yet to be released by DramaQueen.

The artwork was well defined and pretty, and I especially enjoyed Takanaga's rendering of the character's hands (I've always admired her skill with drawing hands). I actually like this rougher, and slightly less shoujo-ish look of this series compared to her later work. The artwork is especially rough concerning the characters' renderings at the beginning of the series, but really cleans up and starts to looks especially nice by the end without warping into something extremely big-eye shoujo. I liked the cover artwork very much, as well as the original cover artwork printed in color inside and occasionally on the back (part of the series was published by one company in Japan and then handed over to another, so the later publisher re-released the books with new cover artwork). The other color illustrations and drawings were very nice and wonderfully blended and rendered. My roommate who also read the series (and who is also an artist like me) especially liked the colored drawings and especially other bishounen drawings of Souichi.

With a rating of 16+, this series is really not explicit, though sometimes the text is definitely not for young eyes. Sex scenes are short, executed in good taste, and usually show nothing that can really be considered extremely explicit, which explains why the series has a rating of 16+ instead of 18+. I like nice, dirty yaoi series, but I especially enjoy ones with a more solid and heartfelt plot, that doesn't necessarily need all the graphic stuff. Challengers is the ideal boys love series for myself and a good one for beginning boys love fans. My roommate who is a self-declared prude (and very much is), managed to read this entire series. Even though she didn't like the very intimate moments, she did enjoy the series for its art and humor, and especially took a shine to Souichi (as did I).

DramaQueen's translation was good and the adaptation was also very well written. Typically I don't like when the original sound effects artwork is changed into English sound effects artwork, but this has been an exception; I didn't especially dislike the way they handled it and thought the English sound effects artwork was pretty good. Sometimes when sound effects art aren't changed, there's no caption explaining what the sound effect was, so I was glad this one was actually changed for once. The books also had removable book-covers and cover art on the actually inside covers, which is what most manga books in Japan usually have, but rarely do in the United States (DramaQueen, DMP and some Dark Horse releases are among the only manga releases in the United States I've seen that have removable book-covers). The covers' artwork and packaging were very nicely done, echoing the way the original Japanese covers looked very well.

My only complaint with this series' release was how I could not find or order it through any of my local retailers. I had to resort to eBay, and then found out I could actually order the books straight from their website with PayPal, a practice not usually done straight from a publisher. I would have never thought of purchasing this series if I hadn't read a chapter of it before it was licensed. So, I'm telling you here and now that I very highly recommend this series, since you probably won't spot it in too many local stores. You may have to look around for copies for awhile if your types of payment are limited also.

I enjoyed this series very much, and I hope you will also. I highly recommend you read it, have a good laugh, and enjoy the heartfelt moments.

I also look forward to the release of the sequel series about Souichi and Morigana, titled: The Tyrant Falls in Love (with a 18+ rating, wow, but no release date yet). I hope you will be as eager as I am for its release.