Mizushiro Setona - 1999nen 7 no Tsuki Shanghai, vol. 01-04 (no spoilers)

[oyceter]

Or: in which I continue to play catch-up with book write-ups.

The title is apparently a very old-fashioned way to say "July, 1999, Shanghai."

Unsurprisingly, the story starts in Shanghai during July, 1999. Actually, this may very well be a surprise, given the complete randomness of most manga titles.

coffeeandink has described this several times as "Romeo and Juliet set among Hong Kong gangsters right before the hand-over to China." I actually totally missed the part about Hong Kong and thought the whole thing was set in Shanghai, but that may be because I was attributing too much logic to the title ;).

But yes. It is angsty, star-crossed gang yaoi. Xiaoxue is the sniper for one gang while Dawu is the second-in-command to the boss of another. They meet, they have angsty sex, they fall in love, numerous complications come up, due to the aforementioned gang war, much angst is had, and there are some scenes that push my buttons so hard that I am not even rational about it (the one at the end of vol. 1? With the gun? And how it's repeated? $#%(*&@%!!!GUH).

It took a few pages to get used to the mangaka's style, which is disconcertingly like eighties shoujo. But it gradually gets bolder and less wispy, and the hairstyles thankfully start becoming more distinct. Also, thankfully, the cast of characters remains small, so I could finally figure out that even though Xiaoxue and Xianglong have black hair and names that start with "x," Xianglong has bangs in his eyes.

Facial identification takes me a very long time, particulary when the hairstyles aren't distinct.

My quibble with this series is how the sole female character is handled.

I also found myself falling for Lu of all people, but then, the unrequited yet non-emo love thing is such a button. Plus, Mizushiro takes time on the other characters, and she manages to plot convincingly, instead of letting the entire series become a long string of misunderstandings and feints. It's also good that the series is only 4 volumes long; I wasn't sure how long she could sustain the forbidden love thing, since sneaking around gets old fast, but she manages to put enough twists in there and make me care about enough of the other characters to make it work.

Also, the ending is perfect.

ETA: also, I forgot to nitpick the mangaka. The Chinese celebrate Qi Xi according to the lunar calendar, as opposed to Tanabata in Japan (solar calendar), even though it's basically the same holiday. Also, I was very happy that they met on Qi Xi, despite the date being wrong, because it is a holiday centered around lovers who are literally starcrossed! Hee!

Links:
- coffeeandink's review and write up in her 2006 favorite unlicensed manga post

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have been thinking about, um, doing a retraction post on how I thought this was set in Hong Kong despite having Shanghai in the title, but it just amounts to: "Um, I was dumb."

[oyceter]

Hee! I was confused too.

Ooo, I also forgot to add a note that the mangaka got the date for Tanabata/Qi Xi in China wrong; we celebrate according to the lunar calendar, not the solar one like the Japanese do.

But anyway... thanks for the rec! This was awesome and hit so many buttons.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Just a note- not all parts of Japan celebrate Tanabata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata) according to the solar calendar. (See under Date in the linked article.) Some areas still stick to the lunar one, as with o-Bon. But the Tokyo area is pretty much with the western calendar.