insaneneko

In Dokusen kinshi!?, written by Kazumi Mai and illustrated by Miyagi Tohko, Mikura Shogo is not only Hino Rikiya's childhood friend, he is Rikiya's connection to the outside world. Rikiya is one of those tall, good-looking, smart, athletically gifted types (that populate manga in general). Normally he'd be really popular, but because of his utterly unsociable nature and expressionlessness, he instead scares people. Shogo doesn't think it's good for Rikiya to be so closed off to everyone; he wants everyone stop being afraid of Rikiya and see what a great person Rikiya is. At the same time, he likes being special to Rikiya. But despite Shogo's misgivings, they have a comfortable, solid friendship. Things start changing when a girl actually expresses interest in Rikiya...

My initial impression was that the story was a bit weak. Not horribly so, but certainly nothing special. What made me like it were primarily a) the art and b) the way Shogo can have a "conversation" with Rikiya without Rikiya saying a word. After rereading it, I did find a couple more points in its favor. It doesn't spend too much time bending over backwards to keep the characters in denial/clueless/angsting. The story is narrated in first person by Shogo, who is fairly engaging with a sweet personality, if not that original. And above all, I enjoyed reading how their relationship changes from solid, comfortable friendship to something else, and the confusion and uncertainty that comes from that. Did I mention the very pretty art? ^_~

On a typical school day, Shogo is asked by a member of the basketball team if Rikiya is free and willing to be a stand-in in an upcoming game. Though Rikiya is highly sought after as a stand-in, everyone is too afraid to ask Rikiya directly and always goes through the friendly Shogo. When Shogo gets Rikiya's okay, he is profusely thanked. Shogo isn't too happy that no one ever bothers to thank Rikiya, but he is half-resigned to the situation.

Shogo and Rikiya had been neighbors their entire lives, and had gone to the same school since kindergarten. Rikiya had always been one to inspire (completely groundless) fear and suspicion, having been big and awkward and deadly serious since he was small. Shogo, terribly proud of having such a talented and all-around great guy as a best friend, hates how misunderstood Rikiya is even though Rikiya says he doesn't really care as long as Shogo understands him. Rikiya helps out the various sports teams only because Shogo likes to see him shine in the games. In kindergarten Rikiya had been falsely accused of hurting a classmate, and only Shogo had believed that Rikiya was not capable of harming anyone and had stood up for him. Shogo figures that Rikiya had received a terrible shock by the accusation. After that he was open only with his family and Shogo, the people who had believed in him.

At the basketball game, Rikiya dominates the game and their school wins. Shogo, excited and happy at Rikiya's great playing, is frustrated and upset that yet again Rikiya simply leaves the court without joining in the celebration with no one trying to stop him. But before he can hand Rikiya a towel and thank him as he usually does, a girl shows up and gives Rikiya a towel. The girl is Saitoh Rina, a 2nd year like the two of them. She is very forthright and is completely unfazed by Rikiya. Both Rikiya and Shogo are taken aback by her assertiveness. Bowled over, they end up agreeing to go somewhere for a post-game party of their own with her, as Rikiya had not planned on attending the team party. When Rikiya goes off to change, Rina asks Shogo if he thought she was a weird girl. She explains that it upset her that no one could see all of Rikiya's good points. She figures he'd be incredibly popular if he was a bit more sociable, but declares that Rikiya is fine just the way he is anyways. Shogo is amazed to find that not only is Rina not afraid of Rikiya, she has the same thoughts about Rikiya as him.

After the impromptu mini post-game celebration, Shogo and Rikiya go home after having been talked to by Rina the entire time. Shogo sees that Rikiya hadn't found Rina distasteful, and wonders if this was a chance for Rikiya to get over his childhood trauma and get along with other people. He wonders if Rikiya and Rina couldn't make a decent couple (while noting that he'd never be able to get along with someone that talkative, he figures it might balance out between the talkative Rina and the taciturn Rikiya). He suddenly gets a bit anxious about what that might do to his relationship with Rikiya. Rikiya had always only focused on him, but if someone else entered Rikiya's world? He asks for and gets assurance from Rikiya that their relationship won't change even if both of them got girlfriends.

The next day Rikiya and Shogo's classmates are shocked to see Rina in their classroom before school chatting with (though it's more like at) Rikiya. During lunch, Shogo runs off to get some bread as he had already eaten his bento. On the way back to his classroom, he wonders what he should do. He figures Rina will be there and wonders where he could go to eat so as not to be in the way. He is intercepted by Rina, who points out that Rikiya will never come out of his shell if Shogo is always there to be the middle-man. It's not as if Shogo can be there for Rikiya 24/7 for the rest of their lives. When Shogo asks what she wants him to do, she asks him to put some distance between him and Rikiya. She accuses Shogo of hogging Rikiya all to himself. Though he basically had similar thoughts (besides, perhaps, the "hogging Rikiya" part? XD) and had actually felt like supporting Rina as she went after Rikiya, after the lecture Shogo feels rather resentful.

Even so, after school he begins putting some distance between him and Rikiya by tagging along with classmates to karaoke instead of going home with Rikiya. Shogo leaves the karaoke early, not having had much fun. On the way home, he notices a little girl running around wildly while her mom talked with a friend. Worried that something might happen to the girl, he watches for a while...and sure enough, she runs into a passersby. She bounces right off of the man and bursts into tears. The mom storms up to the man and starts berating him for pushing her daughter. The poor man reminds Shogo a bit of Rikiya, and can't let the situation play out on its own. He goes up to defend the man, explaining what he had seen. The mortified mother leaves in a huff, not even bothering to apologize. The man thanks Shogo, and they stop to talk in a nearby park.

It turns out that the man, Saitoh Toshihito, is an alumnus of Shogo's school. He is a college student about to leave to study abroad. Toshihito is taken aback that Shogo is not scared of him like most people. Shogo explains that he's used to people like Toshihito, because his childhood friend is the same type of person--kind but misunderstood.

When Shogo returns home, he gets a call from Rikiya. Rina had confessed to Rikiya. Rikiya tells Shogo that he doesn't know how he feels about Rina and that he had told Rina that. He will think about it. Though Shogo knows it is a step in the right direction, he can't help but feel a bit glum (while fully understanding that he was just feeling childish desire to monopolize Rikiya...).

Rina continues to aggressively push herself at Rikiya. Shogo wonders if Rikiya will be overwhelmed by her forcefulness and end up dating her, and supposes it's a real possibility. On the way home, Shogo happens to run into Toshihito again and is offered a ride home in the car Toshihito is driving. They end up going for a drive to Rainbow Bridge and ride on a ferris wheel. Toshihito frowns at how much like a date it is, but Shogo tells him it's research for when he eventually does find a girl to date. Toshihito asks him if has someone in mind. When Shogo admits that he doesn't and isn't all that positive about his prospects, Toshihito asks about the childhood friend Shogo had mentioned before. Shogo tells Toshihito that Rikiya is a guy, but Toshihito doesn't think it's a problem. He notes that it's much better than incest...And Shogo finds out that Toshihito is in fact being pursued by his younger sister. He had moved out of his house to get away from her, but that meant she only came to his apartment. So he was going to go abroad to really get away from her. They have dinner and make plans to meet again when Toshihito has to drive to Yokohama to return the borrowed car the next day. He figures having a passenger to talk to will keep him awake during the drive.

The next day, Shogo can't wait for classes to end. Rikiya seems ill-humored and wanting to talk to Shogo, but with Rina always around during breaks and Shogo ignoring him, they don't get to talk. As Shogo rushes to leave after school, he's stopped by someone on the volleyball team. The guy had actually arranged for Rikiya to play for them in an upcoming game through Rina, but thought he should let Shogo know. Shogo is a bit shocked that Rikiya had agreed even though Shogo wasn't the one that asked him, and wonders if he really did want to hog Rikiya to himself like Rina had claimed. He tells the guy that things didn't have to be cleared by him, it wasn't like he was Rikiya's manager. They guy tells Shogo that it must be nice to be freed from watching over Rikiya, now that Rikiya had a girlfriend. Shogo is upset that the guy concluded that he had been inconvinienced and should be glad to be "freed."

When Shogo is picked up by Toshihito he is surprised to see Saitoh Rina standing nearby, looking like she's about to cry. He puts two and two together and realizes she is Toshihito's sister. Though Shogo and Toshihito act like nothing's the matter, things feel false and distracted. Shogo gets the feeling that they'll probably never spend time like this again.

Rina calls Shogo out the next week, upset that Shogo was buddy-buddy with her brother. They get into an argument and Rina bursts into tears. Shogo turns around to see Rikiya. Rina tells Rikiya that Shogo told her that she wasn't suitable for Rikiya and to stay away from him (which Shogo did say, knowing that she was in love with her brother, the one that's very much like Rikiya). Though Shogo suspects that she had set him up, he runs away so that he won't have to face Rikiya. He realizes that he was in fact jealous of anyone getting close to Rikiya.

Shogo plays hooky and goes home. He falls asleep, and when he wakes up he finds Rikiya in his room. Shogo tries to apologize about making Rina cry, but Rikiya starts grilling him about his relationship with Toshihito. Shogo doesn't want to explain that he got to know a random guy who reminded him a lot of Rikiya because Rikiya had been taken, so he tells Rikiya that it's none of his business. Rikiya then jumps Shogo and holds him down, demanding to know if Shogo likes Toshihito. Shogo, unable to budge at all, suddenly feels afraid of Rikiya. Rikiya, apparently sensing Shogo's fear, immediately lets Shogo go. Rikiya declares that he won't let anyone monopolize Shogo because they always have and always will be together, then leaves. Shogo ponders the mess that they are in. When had things changed? Or was it simply that they had finally realized their feelings?

The next day Rina doesn't show up at their class and Shogo and Rikiya don't talk to each other at all. Shogo is full of remorse for being afraid of Rikiya for even a second. He had always been the sole person who wasn't afraid of Rikiya, yet now...

After school, Shogo sets out to find Toshihito's apartment, to talk to the guy who seemed to grasp the situation before he did. After wandering around lost for a while (he only knows the general vicinity, not the specific location of Toshihito's place), he luckily runs into Toshihito. Toshihito already knew about things because Rina had been over, and tells Shogo that Rikiya had turned Rina down. Toshihito apologizes for Rina's willfulness, explaining that she had been very indulged growing up. Shogo is about to tell Toshihito his feelings for Rikiya, but Toshihito interrupts him and reminds him that he should be saying those things to Rikiya. They say goodbye, probably for the last time.

Shogo heads back to school, where Rikiya is playing in the volleyball game he hadn't set up, that Rikiya hadn't asked him to attend. As he watches Rikiya kick ass as usual, Rina approaches him and they have a very awkward conversation. Rina bitches that now Shogo can monopolize Rikiya as much as he wants. She then goes on to explain how she much she hated being her brother's little sister. She had even checked their family registry in the hopes that they weren't actually related by blood, though she was disappointed to find out they were. She tells Shogo that the next boy she likes won't be like Rikiya or her brother, because that type tends to like people like Shogo rather than people like her. She'll also avoid someone with a childhood friend, because there's nothing worse than having someone else know the person you like more than you do. She also tells Shogo that Rikiya actually refused to play at first, because the only reason he played was that Shogo liked to see him play. But when she explained that she had already promised the volleyball team, Rikiya had agreed (because he's that kind of a guy--gotta keep your promises!). Rina seems pretty unfazed by the implication that Shogo and Rikiya have feelings for each other, claiming that liking a guy is a thousand times better than liking your brother. Shogo notes that Rina and Toshihito think the same in that regard. The conversation is interrupted when the game ends and Rikiya shows up (apparently having spied Shogo in the gym), causing Rina to flee.

Shogo asks about Rikiya and Rina. When Rikiya confirms that he had turned Rina down, Shogo starts off by saying he's glad because he didn't like the two of them together. He doesn't want anyone to be closer to Rikiya than him. Rikiya tells him that he only tried to get along with Rina because Shogo told Rikiya to. He won't if Shogo doesn't want him to.

Shogo is happy, but he knows that it isn't really good for Rikiya to confine himself to just Shogo. Rikiya tells Shogo that only he is special to Rikiya. He asks if Shogo is scared of him. Shogo explains that he hadn't been scared of Rikiya per se, but had been scared of their relationship changing and falling apart.

Rikiya recalls when they had wanted to know how the striped toothpaste came out that way when they were little kids. They had saved their money, bought a tube, froze it and cut it open. Shogo's mom had found out and scolded them for their waste. Rikiya didn't regret doing it, and points out that there are things that can't be understood unless they are broken.

Shogo asks if Rikiya wants to break their relationship apart. Rikiya, instead of replying, gently kisses him. He asks if it's been broken. Shogo says something snapped inside, but it felt like something was welling up or molting. They kiss again, more deeply this time. Rikiya assures Shogo that they won't break apart.

And that's the end of the first story. As I spent waaay more time than I had intended to, I'm going to be far briefer for the second.

Even after realizing each other's feelings, things didn't change very much. They passed the days comfortable in each other's presence, with only the occasional sudden silences and kisses to indicate something different. Shogo vaguely figures that they will someday move beyond that, but when Rikiya comes out and states that he wants to sleep with Shogo they make an attempt. They do get pretty far before Shogo freaks out and runs off. He's forced to go back to Rikiya's house immediately by his mom to invite Rikiya to dinner, and they apologize to each other.

After that, Shogo feels like he can't read Rikiya like a book the way he used to be able to. He wonders if it's because their relationship has changed, and is currently unbalanced and in a sort of limbo. He's terribly insecure, but Rikiya assures him that he can wait for Shogo to be truly ready. Rikiya didn't fall in love with Shogo for his body, after all.

Shogo ends up doing absolutely awful on the end of term exams because his mind was so occupied by Rikiya and the issues between them (I think he drops in rank by about a hundred?). He had wanted to actually do really well in this exam, because their high school divides the third year classes by specialization (humanities vs. science) and class ranking. Rikiya always did very well, so Shogo knew he had to score pretty high to have a chance at being in the same class as Rikiya. He loses his exam scores, desperately searches for it, and finally finds out a guy named Aihara Kenji had picked it up. Even though they were in different classes and had no contact, Shogo recognized the name because Aihara was always ranked right under Rikiya in exam results. Aihara comments on Shogo's scores, noting that Shogo is actually stronger in the humanities than the sciences, which he had selected to have a chance at being in the same class as Rikiya. Aihara tells him he'll give the scores back if Shogo tells him why he is choosing the sciences over the humanities. When Shogo tells him why, Aihara offers to tutor him for the next exam in exchange for an unspecified favor. Shogo is interrupted in refusing by the bell, and Aihara leaves setting up a meeting after school. Shogo doesn't quite trust Aihara, yet somehow feels his guard lower at Aihara's manner. He contemplates not showing up after school, but realizes Aihara still has his exam scores.

After school, Shogo finds out that Aihara wants him to pretend to be his boyfriend in front of his cousin. Aihara's cousin is totally in love with him and determined to marry him. Aihara is gay and has told his cousin that, but she doesn't believe him. He figured that Shogo would work well as a pretend boyfriend that would make his cousin give up (it is implied that Shogo is very attractive--a fact that Shogo seems pretty oblivious to). When faced with a serious entreaty by Aihara, Shogo finds he can't refuse. He figures he's getting a pretty good deal...a term's worth of private tutoring in exchange for one day of pretend.

Shogo meets with Aihara after school everyday. He doesn't tell Rikiya anything, figuring that Rikiya will understand that Shogo doesn't want to tell him and will wait for him like he always does. He'll tell Rikiya everything afterwards. At one point Rikiya does question him, but nothing comes of it.

Shogo runs into Rina, who asks after the two since they weren't going home together recently. Rina and Rikiya had gone to some kind of coffee shop the day before. Shogo finds out that Rina had given Rikiya had a message from Toshihito for him, but he stubbornly figures Rikiya had simply forgotten. Shogo asks if Rina understand everything about her brother, as they are siblings and she liked him. Rina tells him that no one can understand everything about someone else, and Shogo thinking that he does about Rikiya is just a wrong impression and a conceit. She goes on to say that she doesn't want to hand Rikiya over to Shogo as he is now. Shogo retorts that Rikiya isn't "hers" to hand over, to which Rina shoots back that neither is he Shogo's and flounces off. Shogo feebly asserts that Rikiya is his.

Shogo and Aihara make plans for the cousin deception on Christmas Eve. Shogo is torn with the desire to at least hang out with Rikiya that night, but figures every year the day never had much meaning for them. And he had promised Aihara.

Shogo is invited to Rikiya's house when he gets home. Rikiya sort of confronts him about whatever the hell he's hiding (I've known you forever and I can totally tell you are!) while Shogo keeps denying it. Shogo goes on the offensive, mentioning Rikiya going somewhere after school with Rina. He demands to know what the message from Toshihito was. Rikiya counters with suspicions that Shogo is still in contact with Toshihito. He asks who Shogo is meeting with every day, and asks if Shogo's feelings had changed and he no longer liked him that way. When Shogo protests that he does, Rikiya tries to initiate sex, which Shogo rebuffs. Rikiya tells Shogo that Shogo feels terribly distant lately and is hard to understand. When Rikiya reaches out to him he runs away but still insists he loves him. Shogo argues that they don't need to know everything about each other, thus there is no duty to report everything in their lives to each other. Each should have their own lives. Rikiya asks Shogo to leave, giving him Toshihito's message at last.

Rikiya and Shogo spend the days up to Christmas Eve not talking to each other much. Shogo doesn't know how to make up with Rikiya. He had always known what to do or say when they had a fight before, but this time he's completely at a loss. On the Eve, Shogo goes to Aihara's house and finds out that Aihara had tricked him (basically because Aihara's cousin was actually very enthusiastic about Shogo rather than antagonistic). Aihara confesses that he liked Shogo. He had used finding Shogo's exam scores as a way to get close to Shogo. Shogo tells Aihara that he doesn't like him that way. Aihara tries to make a move on Shogo, but Shogo leaves despite Aihara's attempts to get him to stay even a little longer.

As Aihara walks Shogo to the train station, they run into Rikiya. Rikiya tells Aihara not to involve Shogo, whatever he feels about Rikiya. Turns out that both Rikiya and Aihara are very aware of each other, as their names are always listed next to each other on exam rankings. Aihara had turned to Shogo partly because he did actually like him (having noticed him always with Rikiya) but also because he had felt like he could never win against Rikiya. Rikiya drags Shogo back to their houses.

In Rikiya's room Shogo 'fesses up to everything. Rikiya and Shogo both express how confused they were, because they no longer easily understood the other. Of course they have sex, a very tender and connective (*snickers*) moment. Shogo realizes that even if Rikiya confuses him, he can learn to understand. He senses how much Rikiya treasures him and wants to cherish him too. It's amazing how much sex can make everything oh-so clear! (Despite my sarcasm, the sex scene wasn't painfully awful or anything. It worked, for the kind of story it was. Unfortunately, the story is rather cliched...^^;)

Afterwards, they go to see the Christmas lights in the town. Rikiya tells Shogo not to worry so much about being in the same class, because they don't need something like that to keep them connected. They've always been together, and they always will be together. Medetashi medetashi.

I have to admit, I lost patience with Shogo at times while typing up this summary. I guess having to pour over the book to do a summary made me notice the annoying parts more, those passages previously I had been able to skim over. :P But I still think that the author did a pretty good job of expressing Shogo's utter confusion and turmoil (and to a lesser extent Rikiya's) without going overboard (you know, the raping or the screaming and dramatics that seem to arise from 75% of misunderstandings in BL). The awkward silences and inner fretting seemed much more realistic. I appreciated how the author attempted to show their struggle to adapt to their new relationship, trying to grasp the new parameters of their relationship that were throwing them for a loop.