Manga Review: Solfege

[Jason]

Title: Solfege
Mangaka: Fumi Yoshinaga
Originally Serialized in: Hakusensha Ladies Comics (Hakusensha)
Genre: Yaoi
Licensed by: DMP

Solfege, the teaching of the essentials of music, particularly in classical style, is the first draw that connects the protagonists of this story. Kugayama was Tanaka's elementary-school music teacher, and, as he advances through junior high school, Tanaka recognizes that music is what he has always enjoyed most and what he would like to do in the future. Kugayama agrees to help him get into a high school specializing in music, and toward that end teaches him solfege in his spare time and sends him to a voice instructor. Tanaka's home life is very unstable, and even after he gets into high school, he turns to his beloved teacher for more and more support, even living with him for a time. However, Kugayama is not himself the most stable person in the world, and a bad break-up with his boyfriend leads him to take advantage of Tanaka's desperate dependence and seduce him. Thus begins their ill-fated (seriously, how much can fate favor an illicit affair?) romance.

The first time I read Solfege, I was a little disappointed: The whole thing struck me as a little shallow -- still five times better than your typical trashy romance, but not up to Yoshinaga's usual standard. The second time I believed I had deceived myself. Of course, I think my later impression more accurate, but who can say? At the very least, if it gives anyone else the same first impression, it deserves a second glance. Solfege does betray some signs of being an earlier work than, say, Antique Bakery, with an occasional awkwardness of drawing and narration that Yoshinaga's later works do not have, and a little less of lighthearted humor. However, the expression, characterization, and thoughtful exploration of life -- those characteristics that set off Yoshinaga's work from the surrounding noise -- they are all still there. What distracted me was that it is, in style and exposition, a rough sketch. The plot takes place over the course of many years, and it is not probed deeply but broadly, showing little bits here and there in a series of chapters that are defining moments. Within those moments, every word is a glimpse of a whole psyche. The reader will never see it whole, or even grasp its essence -- the work is too short for that -- but its weight is evident in the texture.

Teacher-student romances are fashionable -- sexy -- and their appeal is probably akin to the appeal of BL itself: forbidden passion, concealed rendezvous, bold resistance to the demands of society, biology, and obligation in pursuit of True Love, not to mention Hot Sex -- all trite. Yoshinaga, as always, takes advantage of the inherent fascination of forbidden love for impact, but she doesn't make it carry the story on its own (a task to which it is not equal) so much as borrow a kick of momentum from it. The character sketch is primarily of Kugayama, and it is principally Kugayama who is so desperate as to engage in a relationship with his student, yet has enough integrity to wonder, "We're supposedly living in depraved debauchery and sin, and yet, somehow, life has never been better." It is an illicit affair, and far from shrinking from elaborating on that, she emphasizes how young and immature Tanaka is and how much guilt and insecurity Kugayama feels about it. Though Kugayama finds happiness in the relationship, it is an uneasy feeling, and it is much more difficult to find redemption.

I have observed that Yoshinaga's works tend to end with a man alone. Not alone because everything and everyone has abandoned him, but because the subject is a psyche, which always stands alone. I always wonder whether this can possibly appeal to a readership expecting a romance or love affair between two people. Yoshinaga's apparent popularity may belie my caveat, but still, I think it only fair to point out that Solfege does not have quite the shape, in the sense of conventions of a romantic genre, that the plot outline may lead one to expect.

Reviewed by: anitra
Proofed by: Highlord
Edited by: Firedog