MJ Review: Party

[Eric]

Title: Party
Mangaka: Tatsumi Kaiya
Originally Serialized in: Marble (Tokyo Mangasha, Co.)
Genre: Yaoi
Licensed by: Digital Manga Publishing
Price: $12.95

Beware any manga that needs a flow chart in the first volume just to keep the characters straight, especially when half of said characters don’t even show up in the volume on hand. According to the blurb on the back of the book, this is the story of Mamoru, who confessed his love to Natsu and now they’re dating happily ever after… except maybe Natsu is really in love with his childhood friend, Kei. Actually, it’s several stories about Mamoru clinging so hard to Natsu, and acting like such a creep, that you long for Natsu to dump him. A scene towards the end, where Natsu and Mamoru get into a fight, implies that Mamoru may have raped his boyfriend, making him even more unappealing.

Character development is minimal. We’re shown that Natsu fell in love with one of Mamoru’s paintings but there is no reason given for why Natsu fell for Mamoru himself. Hime, a girl in school with Natsu and Mamoru, shows up and alternately causes problems, or helps them, depending on her whim. We’re told in the front of the book and in one of the chapter breaks that she’s in unrequited love with another girl, Haruka, but Haruka makes no appearance in this story so that information is jarring and distracting. Other characters flit in and out of the picture with little detail offered and I was never certain if they were supposed to be important or not.

Yaoi fans looking for steamy sex scenes need to look elsewhere. The few scenes in the book are almost completely off screen and the one longer scene between Mamoru and Natsu makes it seem like Natsu isn’t having a very good time. The angst is laid on thick, but without deeper emotions to ground it, it doesn’t come off as believable.

Kaiya’s art is attractive, her boys and girls are all pretty with heavy lidded eyes and full lips. Her pupils are shaded in, giving the characters’ eyes a flatter look, which appealed to me, but might come across to others as unemotional. I especially enjoyed her drawings at the chapter breaks, which look like layouts for a fashion shoot where the models are trendy but filled with ennui. DMP has done a decent job with translation and production, though the volume I reviewed had two pages where the artwork from the previous page had bled through, creating an odd shadow effect.

The author’s note at the end of the book explains that Kaiya has been writing the Party series since 1995. Party is a 2006 revival of her older work, Kiss Shiyou Te wo Tsunagou (Let’s Kiss, Let’s Hold Hands), though she says that ultimately she chose not to edit very much. I’m assuming that details which didn’t work for me in this volume might have been more understandable or enjoyable if I had been reading the series since its inception. But, without that background, it left me cold. My suggestion is to pass on this one, but to give her a shot in the future with titles that are not so closely bound to a long ongoing series.

Reviewer: Snow Wildsmith
Proofer: Eduardo Menendez
Editor: Lissa Pattillo