Hate to Love You

I should probably say right now at the start that there is nothing wrong per se with Hate to Love You. It is a perfectly readable, decent manga; the art is fine, the story is alright, the writing is good, and so on. I say this purely because what follows is a little bit of a personal rant, as I have several major problems with the manga, but I don't want my general disappointment with Hate to Love You make it appear worse than it actually is.

My problems with Hate to Love You are, largely, to do with lost opportunities. To out-line the plot, we have two young heirs to rival businesses, who live next to each other, and who realise that they're in love. Cue angst, jealousy, forbidden meetings, family rivalry, etc. That's about all you need to know.

Now, the big parallel which the manga-ka herself makes reference to (and that the publisher is eager to point out in the blurb on the back) is to Romeo and Juliet; that great romance of rival houses. Now personally, I would think that a pretty dangerous thing for an author to do, comparing one of the greatest dramas ever written to "My First Yaoi". But alright, she makes the comparison, and, fair is fair, in terms of the set-up of the story it is an apt parallel. The problem is that while she takes this fantastic plot setting full of possibilities, she utterly fails to capitalise upon it.

Much is made over the course of the manga of the rivalry between the two families, of how difficult the fighting makes everything for our two young lovers. But, well, does it? I mean, they're both upper class Japanese boys at a good school expected to marry wealthy heiresses. As things stand, they can't be open about their relationship now can they, they're both guys. Even if their families were the best of friends they would have to hide what they are, there's not a cat in hell's chance they can ever be together publicly. Aside from a couple of small side plots, that's the only issue in the manga that ever really arises from that rivalry. So, you might well ask, what does the fact that they're from rival families actually add to the plot at all? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever.

You'd think "Ooh, we can have a scene where their parents find out, and they're forbidden from seeing each other, or..." etc., etc., etc. But we don't. You could remove the entire rivalry from the plotline, and the story arc wouldn't change. All that we actually get from this tale of two houses set up, is to see a situation which Shakespeare used to create one of the greatest tragedies ever written, turned into one of the most typical and pedestrian yaois I have ever read.

The seme (Yuma) knows he likes the uke (Masaya), the seme also knows that the uke likes him, the uke however doesn't actually realise that he likes the seme at all, even though he's always treasured the gift that the seme gave him ten years ago (slow on the uptake at all?). Early on there are rumours that Yuma is about to announce his engagement to a mutual friend of the two, and Masaya feels all jealous. But wait! Is it because he likes the girl... or the guy? (Gasp!) And so on.

Another reviewer on this site mentioned quite fairly that this manga is in fact quite old and was the author's first foray into yaoi, and that is a fair point to make. But while you might forgive what are now very typical characters and character relationships for the genre, what I find so utterly infuriating is that this is what is done by an author who obviously knows Romeo and Juliet, who must know all of the potential drama and dialogue that can follow from it, and yet all that they could manage to produce... is this. To be honest it's a little bit pathetic.

Returning to the by-now distant topic of actually being nice to Hate to Love You, as a run-of-the-mill manga it is done very well. The dialogue is well written, no horribly wince-able lines occur, that characterisation is a bit flat at times, but it's not inconsistent. The artwork is good, simple, expressive, and very pretty at times. There are some even some quite lovely metaphors in there too: the grounds of the two family's houses, for example, are separated by a stream, which, when Masaya finally gets up the courage to wade through, isn't actually that deep at all.

Leaving personal frustrations aside, Hate to Love You is a perfectly decent manga. It sticks to its guns and does everything yaoi should. There's a seme, there's an uke, there's angst by the bucket load (mainly due to the uke being clueless), and it's all nicely drawn. But, that's pretty much it. I can't find any reason to read this rather than a hundred others, there's just nothing unique about it.

Oddly enough, my favourite part of the manga was a short story included right at the end. Effectively, it's about a young student, who happens to bump into a young professional one day, and begins to obsess over him, idolising him. When he happens to see the man again he follows him home and effectively starts to stalk the guy, who turns out to be a bit of a womaniser. Finally the two meet, and it turns out that the man knew all along that the boy had been following him. Inevitably the pair sleep together, and suddenly all of the boy's illusions are utterly shattered; the experience is painful, unloving, emotionless. He runs away never to return, but still the memory of the young man hangs over him. Personally I thought it was an absolutely fascinating little story, especially because of the ways in which it plays against all the expectations that a normal reader of a yaoi has. I'm sure that everyone who reads Hate to Love You and absolutely adores it will think I'm quite mad, but there you are.