Lesson My Love
I bought Lesson My Love because a) it was one of the only two BL novels my local bookstore ever carried, b) it was on sale, and c) the art was by Yamato Nase. Even as I nervously took it up to the counter (all the clerks there knew me by name and I was buying BL), I knew it couldn't be any good because the title is really stupid even for BL and it's about male ballet dancers. Nothing good can come of this, I thought, and yet I still bought it.
Luckily it turned out to be pretty amusing. The story is about Miharu, probably around 14 or so, bratty, spoiled, and naive. He's been forced to attend ballet by his mother (who he calls something not very nice in his head) since he was very young. He hates ballet and hates that he's for the most part been the only boy in the small studio he's attended. He longs to quit. One day a handsome professional named Hattori shows up to help whip Miharu into shape for the lead role in the Nutcracker, a longtime dream of Miharu's teacher. Over Miharu's protests that he could never pull such a thing off, Miharu starts intensive training for the role with Hattori...
The first time I read it I was not impressed. Miharu was not very endearing--the author managed to make him sort of close to what a bratty 14 year old would be like. And yet I had a soft spot for it because Hattori turned out to be very skeevy. Semes run the whole gamut of types, from abusive to hetare, but I'd never quite come across one like Hattori. The scene that stuck in my mind was during one of their private lessons. After putting Miharu through a grueling workout, Hattori has Miharu pull off his shirt so that he can see his arm movements better. Hattori starts touching his arm, but rather lightly...almost like a caress. Hattori calls himself a fool for playing such a childish trick. Anyone would realize what's really going on...what he really wants. And so he grabs Miharu and kisses him. Of course the reader knew very well that he had ulterior motives, but Miharu? No damn clue. Hattori, totally the child predator, tries to use Miharu's respect for him to get what he wants. He tries to use the fact that he's leaving in a week. But Miharu manages to convince him that it'd be too cruel to have him and leave him, because Miharu cares too much about Hattori. We later find out, when Hattori has Miharu joins Hattori's mother's studio for further training in order for Miharu to be good enough to attend a very good ballet school in London to be with Hattori, that Hattori had actually preyed on other young boys. Yeah, he's a confirmed serial predator! Of course the story doesn't make it seem like Hattori's a skeevy perv, but seriously? He's totally abusing his authority over these young aspiring ballet dancers. For some reason I was just tripped out by this whole situation, especially since after deciding Miharu was his "treasure" Hattori doesn't want to go all the way with Miharu. Miharu's just too precious to him! They have some rather sickening scenes of love (like, not necessarily the physical kind, more a mutual declaration of feelings with some physical thrown in) that made me want to shake them and tell them to just have mad butt sex already!
But after rereading it again, I had to reassess. Putting aside the kind of creepy romantic relationship between Hattori and Miharu, the story is about Miharu's growth as a ballet dancer and a person. Yeah, he's an annoying brat, but he's spunky. He at first totally has that attitude of "this sucks, I suck, everything sucks." But under Hattori's tutelage he slowly gains appreciation for ballet. He becomes determined to go to the school in London not only to be with Hattori, but so that he can dance with Hattori at that high level some day. When he transfers to Hattori's mother's studio he meets lots of boys who'd been working very hard at ballet for a long time. Of course he'd been slacking off for years, and finds that he has a lot to catch up on. He doesn't delude himself that he's any good, clings to the hope that Hattori had seen something in him ballet-wise, and works really hard. Really hard. Seeing him awaken to the depths of the craft and the joys of the art was quite nice. Even the harassment he gets for being Hattori's newest boy (apparently everyone knows that when Hattori brings a new boy in, it means Hattori's had him?) makes him stronger.
The novel ends as Miharu is nearing the end of intermediate school, when he'll have to take the test to get into the London school. Supposedly there will be a sequel to this novel. I had initially planning on passing on any such sequel, but now...I kind of want to see more of Miharu's growth. Also, I'm curious as to how sappy the consummation will be. ^^;
I was going to share only a couple of the illustrations, but ended up scanning them all because they are just so pretty. XD
I want to put a "WARNING: SKEEVY PERV" sign on this pic for some reason...
Their first meeting. Notice that sulky look on Miharu's face? He so doesn't want to be there.
After Miharu disses ballet and his ability, Hattori tries to think of some way to get Miharu to like ballet. Why he does he have to grab Miharu's face that way? ^_~
Hattori trying to go for it while Miharu struggles. It's Miharu's fault! He's too adorable!
The long-distance lovers having a conversation and missing each other. Hattori eventually has to go back to London for work, after all.
Sort-of sex. You know, in the usual BL convention of it's not really sex unless there's penetration.
Chief bully and former Hattori victim trying to mess with our spunky heroin main character.
Aaawww, sweet kissing in a public place. Lucky no one saw them, no?
Aaawww, aren't they the cutest couple?