Tateno Makoto - Yellow, vol. 01-04 (Eng. trans.)

[oyceter]

Taki and Goh are snatchers; they get secret missions and recover drugs for some private organization. Many of their missions involve seducing beautiful men and women and decoding strange clues at the most romantically inconvenient times.

Taki is straight; Goh is gay; Goh has a mad crush on Taki and expresses it by molesting him in public. This would seem homophobic, except it's pretty clear that the mangaka approves of such behavior. I don't, largely because Taki dislikes it and I am a huge unfan of the "if you love someone obnoxiously and loudly enough, that person must return your affection" trope. Also, the setup with gay Goh and straight Taki means that women end up being the romantic rivals.

I wasn't going to read much more, except there was fic on Yuletide. So I read vol. 2, which thankfully moves away from the mystery of the week set up and also works on Taki's reciprocation of Goh's feelings, which made me much happier. I like mutually reciprocated relationships! I only wish more BL/yaoi mangaka liked them too... Either that, or their line for mutual reciprocation is much, much, much fuzzier than mine.

In the end, this series ended up being better than I thought it would be, but I'm still not the biggest fan.

Also, series! Why the evil mtf trans character? Why?? Also, I feel being in love with someone is really not the best reason to go change your sex.

Comments

[anenko.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read the series, and I stalled after the third volume so my comments may not be all that accurate. While I was reading, I had the impression that Taki got weaker the closer he got to admitting he loved Goh, too. And I swear, his eyes got bigger ("girlier") with every volume.

[oyceter]

Hee! You know, you may be right. I need to find more yaoi/BL without the very defined seme/uke relationship, because it really doesn't do much for me.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Hrm, if you don't mind the painfully old-school 70's-shoujo art, there's always From Eroica With Love? If you ignore some forgettable minor characters who thankfully disappear after the second volume, it's quite refreshingly free of weepy girly ukes. The gay lead character is VERY flamboyant in a glam-rock sort of way, but not at all femme; and the object of his endless unrequited pursuit (nominally straight but giving off major doth-protest-too-much vibes), is quite aggressively butch...

[oyceter]

Hrm, I may check that out, though the art may give me hives! I'm not a big fan of the nominally straight trope, but who knows?

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

The art gets a little bit less painfully dated as the series goes along -- it's a little mind-boggling to realize that Aoike-san has been stretching out the pursuit for thirty years now, and poor Dorian's still never managed more than a stolen kiss or two! And the Major doesn't really push most of the usual BL "no really I'm straight" buttons, what with the uber-macho personality and the lack of weepiness and all; there's some fannish debate as to whether he might just be asexual or uneasy about sexuality in general, no matter the orientation, as he's just about as hostile and disgusted when women make advances on him as he is towards Dorian's non-stop flirting.

...come to think of it, between the touch-phobia and the drinking and the chain-smoking and the OTP with his gun and the violent temper and the constant lashing out at his subordinates, he's more than a little reminiscent of a brunet, German military version of Sanzo. ;)