Manga Review: Don't Blame Me

[Jason]

Title: Don’t Blame Me
Volumes: 1-2
Mangaka: Yugi Yamada
Originally Serialized in: (Houbunsha)
Genre: Yaoi
Licensed by: Juné
Rating: Mature (18+)
Price: $12.95/US

Middle-school student, Makoto, chooses just the right moment to visit his cousin, Toshi—when Toshi’s friends from college are visiting. The crazy bunch of former film club members are more than ready to tell Makoto stories about their college years, such as how they met, their various romances, and, most surprising to Makoto, about how Toshi met the love of his life, the shy and grumpy, Iku.

I’m usually a sucker for Yamada-sensei’s work. I love her silliness, her occasionally realistic look at homosexuality and her use of grown men for her romances. However, this two volume series just didn’t gel for me. All of the little things that made me love her other works seem cloying and over the top here. Part of this might be because she is trying to both tell a story in the present, and tell a story in the past, while at the same time juggling the lives of seven characters. Now, seven characters isn’t a lot, true, but it still seemed like she was trying to pack too much into a small package.

Yamada-sensei starts off with the idea of “holding fast to your dreams,” but that quickly gives way to college-age angsting about love and sexuality. The original theme is never picked back up in its entirety, making it ultimately irrelevant. The other failing in this series is that the characters are not as compelling or interesting as they are in many of Yamada’s other works. None of them are developed enough to really draw the reader in, though chapter five of the first volume comes the closest. One of the relationships verges disturbingly close to abusive, before veering off into an incestuous pairing. The main relationship, between Toshi and Iku, is never really developed at all. In fact Toshi’s sort-of crush on his friend, Kujirai, is focused on more than his feelings for Iku, making me wonder why he and Iku began dating at all. There is one amusing side character, a raving yaoi fan-girl, whose comments never failed to make me laugh.

Yamada’s art is the same as ever, even with this series being eight years old. Her men have full lips, thickly drawn eyes, and muscular bodies, but still fit firmly into the bishie category of pretties. Her chibis are amusing and she likes to combine humor with sex, sex with angst, angst with romance, and romance with humor, in an ongoing cycle.

I know not everyone likes Yamada’s style, but I find it amusing and intriguing. I just wish that the writing on this series had been stronger. Unfortunately, it’s not, so I’d pass on Don't Blame Me in favor of her other stronger works, such as Picnic and Close the Last Door.

Reviewer: Snow Wildsmith
Proofer/Editor: Lissa Pattillo