*Might contain very, very slight spoilers (not IMO really, though)*
I seldom give out tens, especially in a genre like Yaoi, where the stories are seldom deeper than knee high and are sweet as candy, but this story goes above head height and leaves you treading water.
I rate a manga after the genre it belongs to - a 10 in a comedy means that it's a qualitative comedy even though a drama might be of a higher all in all quality as a work.
"Sojou no koi wa nido haneru" is a brightly shining star in both the category yaoi as well as in drama. Because it doesn't really matter if you're into boy-on-boy-love or not - the topic of love is universal and anyone with a romantic view on life and experience of a broken heart, would be able to relate to the struggle between Kyoichi and Imagase to make their relationship work. Because it's a struggle between them, not by them - and it hurts - boy does it hurt. I AM a crybaby when it comes to romance, but it has to be believable, otherwise it won't touch me.
This touches me.
Mizushiro Setona has created a painful slice of life which really goes deep under your skin and affects you. I was impressed already by the prequel "Kyuuso wa cheese no yume wo miru", where the couple met and developed their relationship, but this is even better.
The story starts out clichéed but quickly turns into a deep view into a complex relationship. Not at all like all the stories where everyone brushes off homosexuality as "nothing" and completely acceptable.
This portrays the struggle in questioning oneself regarding sexuality and societal acceptance of homosexuality - something that is truly taboo in many cultures and very much still so in Japan. Coming out and even realizing one's feelings towards someone of the same sex, must be tough even when living in a country where it is common and pretty much accepted and even tougher in a country where it's looked upon as abnormal and shameful.
I live in Sweden and here it's not a big thing at all, it's almost fashionable being gay and HBTL-culture is common in media and society as a whole. Gay people are able to get married, even in church nowadays. They are allowed to adopt children and they live their lives openly and without persecution or prejudice (of course some individuals are always opposed). I have a lot of acquaintances and friends who are gay, lesbian, bisexual (I am Bi as well and don't regard it as a big deal at all and have been completely open about it since I was 14 or so - my parents haven't cared about it all, neither have anyone else I know, it's no more weird than having... dyed hair or a piercing or glasses or whatever) and transsexual as well and I have never thought much about it.
I am a strong advocate for global HBTL rights and I don't think at sexual orientation as more than a personal trait just any other, BL is just my personal kink.
With all this, I am trying to put words on what I feel in reading something that takes homosexuality on and emphasizes the stigma and fear of being ridiculed, avoided, despised and not accepted.
The manga even mentions the unability to list a gay partner as a beneficiary in Insurances - a very real problem. Japan does not recognize a same sex relationship as any more than a friendship and gives no rights to a partner who in every aspect of the word is a spouse, other than by paper.
How is it to try to come out as living with and loving a man, in a society like that? It has to be hard. Very hard.
Still, Kyouichi's feelings for Imagase are strong enough for him to try to take wobbly steps towards that goal.
Their characters are well drawn out and complex -they feel like real persons with all their good and bad sides - the story woven carefully to tell an angsty and bittersweet tale of love and life.
A rather slow paced journey with twists and turns that still goes it's route - I am amazed at how the author manages to tell so much in so little space as two single tankobons - I feel like I've witnessed a long piece of someone's lives, not just a tiny glimpse.
The art is not all that good in the first volume, but it increases remarkably in quality in the second one - I guess she got used to drawing them.
Then it ends up rather nice. Some scenes are drawn very nicely throughout the story, in both books. So maybe the first book was more rushed in development. I'm usually extremely picky about art styles and simply can not read comics that are drawn in a style not to my taste, but in this particular story I actually don't care either way.
The sex scenes are not abundant but quite a few of them are present - these are always steamy and hot and well drawn.
I absolutely love this story (with this, I mean both volumes but especially this one, but the story really gets even better when reading both so I recommend that) and consider it to be one of the absolute best mangas available in the BL genre. (I do, however, recommend this story to anyone who likes romance, BL fan or not). It truly is, a masterpiece.
