Ka*Shin*Fu*

I always feel that yaoi has tremendous untapped potential. As a genre it is largely the boy-on-boy manga equivalent of chick-lit, and that is no bad thing (nothing wrong with chick lit). However, putting my Literature Hat on for a minute, Jane Austen was "only" writing chick-lit, and she was able to transcend her genre in order to create something truly great. Now this doesn't mean that I'm going to sit here and mark authors down for not being Jane Austen, but for every hundred yaoi novels which are good and fun, I'm eternally hopeful for something that can be classed as a damn good manga too. There's potential for someone to do something really tremendous with a largely frivolous genre.

Maybe I'm hoping for an Alan Moore or a Frank Miller to come along and do for yaoi what those two did for American comics, and maybe it's a bit of a dream right now. But it's a nice dream. Of course, I know very little about the Japanese manga scene, so maybe what I'm looking for is out there, it's just not what is being chosen to be translated right now. I shall live in hope.

All of this rather bizarre pre-amble should, hopefully, serve as a bit of an explanation as to why I liked Ka*Shin*Fu* quite as much as I did. As a manga it is by no means one of the greatest I have ever read, and if a friend said "Recommend some yaoi to me" it might not be in the list of five or six titles which I rattle off. However, I do think Ka*Shin*Fu* is worthy of attention, because it is one of the few yaoi novels that I've read, which feels like it's reaching a competent level of literature. Here's an author with a plot, there is a romantic angle in there, but she is telling a story, not an angstory.

Unlike so much yaoi out there, Makoto Tateno writes with obvious care, intelligence, and artistic intent, as well as (and this is the important bit) the ability to execute it. Too often I find myself reading a bit of dialogue and thinking, "Okay, so the author is trying to develop character a bit." You can all too often blatantly see the author constructing her plot, with no finesse or execution, no refinement or fluidity; characters simply stretch and bend to fit into a disjointed plot, rather than being carefully drawn to fit the gap in the plot they fill. You're not supposed to notice authors "being authors" and that's always what I feel separates a fun read from a really good read, or a fun film from a really good film.

The central story of Ka*Shin*Fu* focuses on the Kourenji family, which has been without an heir for many years. Their last avenue of hope disappeared some while ago (in the excellent prologue) and at long last two potential young men (children of estranged relatives) have been found and brought in so that the elderly matriarch might make a selection. The rest of the first story examines the social manoeuvrings and intrigues surrounding the competition to become heir, and the secrets surrounding the family which all come to light. In the shorter second story the strange relationship of rivalry and attraction which builds in the first story between our two young hopefuls (Kaoru and Ryugu) is explored in more detail.

Both central characters have very believable human motivations, and nothing in the way the relationship unfurls ever feels unlikely or forced, which is a rare blessing. I think that's about as much as I can describe before I start giving things away, so I'll stop there. Occasionally the writing does fall down, but it's only when Makoto Tateno attempts to do too much with her plot in too small an amount of space, and over-reaches herself, but that's forgivable considering the medium.

As a health warning I will also say that until over two thirds of the way through the manga, romance is very much a tertiary consideration. The author has a plot, and in the course of it there is a slowly evolving relationship, but the relationship is not the primary story she is telling.

The artwork of Ka*Shin*Fu* is generally very good, and although there's an occasional tendency towards character differentiation by hairstyle (which always grates with me, personally), Makoto Tateno does a good job at making her various characters look individual nonetheless. She also has a particular talent for drawing very expressive eyes, which can add a lot of depth to her characters and what they say and think. For those of you wondering, the smut is also fairly good: mainly suggestive shirtless poses rather than showing much, but all the men look the part, varying between beautifully pretty and smouldering.

This is one I'd definitely recommend if you want a good story with pretty shagging men in it, as opposed to a good story about pretty shagging men.