Konno Keiko - Star (Eng. trans.)
Why yes, yes I am trying to catch up on writing up all my weekend reading!
I really like Konno's yaoi series Kawaii Hito, which is very PWP, but also very sweet, with the additional bonus of an ex-girlfriend who doesn't make me want to strangle the mangaka. Star is a one-off about the antisocial Sudou and the friendlier Hirokawa.
The neat thing is that Sudou is the shorter, more feminine-looking one and Hirokawa's older and taller. Even neater is the fact that they're both working. I.e. manga about people older than teenagers! Amazing.
The manga ends up being about Sudou's attempts to get used to interacting with people, as opposed to his usual brusqueness. He's got a reputation for seducing and abandoning women, but he's not much of a ladies' man. Rather, he's more a person who uses other people without emotionally connecting to them, man or woman. I would dislike Sudou except the mangaka clearly portrays his antisocialness and his antagonism as a flaw, not a virtue. Also, I have a thing for grumpy ukes. It's a nice change from the usual oblivious cluelessness and mad protestations.
Hirokawa is much mellower, which is again a nice change from the usual aggressive, alpha-bastard semes.
I didn't like the way Konno portrayed some of the women in the beginning, but she makes up for this by having a secondary female character who has slept with Hirokawa and doesn't villainize her, shunt her to the side, or make her unsympathetic. Instead, she's a character who values her work and her relationships and keeps sex separate from love.
The only problem with this was that I didn't quite buy the Hirokawa-Sudou relationship. I'm not quite sure why -- I think Sudou protests a little too much in his mind for me. There's just too much back-and-forth about the relationship; I tend to like stories that start after the relationship is in place, rather than stories that are about getting to the relationship.
Still, Konno remains on my list of mangaka to look out for.
I really like Konno's yaoi series Kawaii Hito, which is very PWP, but also very sweet, with the additional bonus of an ex-girlfriend who doesn't make me want to strangle the mangaka. Star is a one-off about the antisocial Sudou and the friendlier Hirokawa.
The neat thing is that Sudou is the shorter, more feminine-looking one and Hirokawa's older and taller. Even neater is the fact that they're both working. I.e. manga about people older than teenagers! Amazing.
The manga ends up being about Sudou's attempts to get used to interacting with people, as opposed to his usual brusqueness. He's got a reputation for seducing and abandoning women, but he's not much of a ladies' man. Rather, he's more a person who uses other people without emotionally connecting to them, man or woman. I would dislike Sudou except the mangaka clearly portrays his antisocialness and his antagonism as a flaw, not a virtue. Also, I have a thing for grumpy ukes. It's a nice change from the usual oblivious cluelessness and mad protestations.
Hirokawa is much mellower, which is again a nice change from the usual aggressive, alpha-bastard semes.
I didn't like the way Konno portrayed some of the women in the beginning, but she makes up for this by having a secondary female character who has slept with Hirokawa and doesn't villainize her, shunt her to the side, or make her unsympathetic. Instead, she's a character who values her work and her relationships and keeps sex separate from love.
The only problem with this was that I didn't quite buy the Hirokawa-Sudou relationship. I'm not quite sure why -- I think Sudou protests a little too much in his mind for me. There's just too much back-and-forth about the relationship; I tend to like stories that start after the relationship is in place, rather than stories that are about getting to the relationship.
Still, Konno remains on my list of mangaka to look out for.