THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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After a brief time of me being stunned into silence after completing this sequel, I felt at a loss about what to talk about first. If there was one thing that absolutely astonished me and was the main reason for me being stunned into that silence, it was how the author played with the concept of "character development". Imagasa and Kyouichi are two of the most complex characters I've ever met in a BL manga, and the mangaka fleshes this out well in the entire series. But what I usually associate character development with is change, not establishment of a personality. After reading the prequel, I knew that nothing really changed in the characters after those events. And in this sequel, I asked myself the same question. Did they change? Did their relationship change?
Yes and no.
Imagasa is still the same obsessive, controlling, borderline-psychotic guy when it comes to Kyouichi. Kyouichi is more decisive and sure of himself now, but he still came back to Imagasa- though he knows their relationship won't last forever. At the end of Kyuuso wa Cheese, their relationship wasn't stable. It's the same at the end of Sojou no Koi. Even after all they've been through, they still chose to be with each other despite their relationship practically hanging off a thread. It's a bitter story, isn't it? I've never felt so much emotional turmoil from fiction than this series had made me. To be quite honest, neither main character is likable. But the way Mizushiro created them, and showed them to the audience was so raw, and so real that I found myself empathizing with them every chance I had. I wanted them to end up together (regardless of their unhealthy relationship), and they did- but I didn't feel satisfied. The whole motif of love is commonly portrayed with positive connotations, yet that wasn't the case in Mizushiro's manga. To Imagasa and Kyouichi, love is painful, distressing, and bitter. Along with this, there are so many ironies that the author plays with- like how conversation only seems to lead these men into more conflicts (despite the popular "conversation is key in a relationship" slogan). Details like this really made me fall in love with this mangaka's work. I especially liked the effects of rain at the end of the prequel, and snow at the end of the sequel. Ending off the story with the right mood, always.
I do admit I found the prequel melodramatic, but this one was just right. It didn't feel clichéd- or at least to me it didn't. The drama was there, and it made sense. The characters made the drama feel just right. At the bottom of it all, I have to praise Mizushiro's characters (again). She uses them to tell a story I don't see often in BL. It made me cry, but for good reason. A painstakingly beautiful plot. To me, it really was a "masterpiece".
10/10 |