Manga Review: Body Language

[Jason]

Title: Body Language
Author: Aki Morimoto
Mangaka: Tsubaki Enomoto
Originally Serialized in: (Oakla Publishing)
Genre: Yaoi, Light Novel
Licensed by: Juné
Price: $8.95/US

Yuichi and Kanae have the worst reputations at their college. Yuichi is a playboy who’s loved and dumped most of the girls at the school, leaving behind only memories of his terrible personality. Kanae is reputed to be a cool beauty who gives his body to anyone—man or woman—who’ll have him. Their friendship is the talk of the cafeteria, but are they more than mere friends? Or has their need for companionship pushed them into a deeper connection?

I’ve tried several of Juné’s yaoi light novels, but hadn’t been able to find one that worked for me…until now. Morimoto’s erotic romance isn’t perfect, but it succeeds through her nice character development, resistance at falling into the trap of dumping too much into her tale, and because of a decent translation.

Yuichi and Kanae are the main focus of the novel, to the point where only one side character is even named. Morimoto’s decision to focus so narrowly on the two of them allows the reader to feel like these two characters are more real and three-dimensional. This is true, even though the story is only told from Kanae’s point of view. Kanae knows his friend is a jerk and a slut, and he knows that his own feelings for Yuichi stem from hero worship. Such self-awareness brings the awkward feelings of love to painful reality and causes the reader to see the truth of the novel’s ending before Kanae does.

Despite such foreknowledge, the plot is still gripping. Morimoto follows a standard romance novel plot, with a boy/boy twist—the proposition which disguises both a lie and the protagonist’s true feelings, the growth of emotion connection, the protagonist’s realization that emotions are too strong, the decision to end things to “keep from getting hurt,” and so on. Morimoto sticks close to this formula and resists adding in extra details such as conflicts on the part of school, family, friends, etc. This keeps things readable and moving along.

Morimoto also decided to make her story as erotic and smut-filled as possible, proving that she knows her audience. The sex scenes are multiple, varied, and, most importantly, smoking hot. Yuichi is a horny guy and Kanae is swept up in his wake. These scenes are what drive the book and Morimoto is careful not to allow them to get boring.

Juné was equally careful in their work on this book. The translation is almost smooth enough to keep things from feeling stilted or awkward. It’s not perfect, and there isn’t the seamlessness that allows the reader to fully lose themselves in the plot, but it’s getting there. The one detail I really didn’t need was Enomoto’s art. There aren’t a lot of images and none of them are really hot enough to make them interesting. Additionally, her way of drawing Kanae makes him seem much younger than Morimoto’s writing makes him seem, which was frustrating to me as I was reading.

If you’re looking for a brief, smutty novel that more than earns the moniker “yaoi light novel,” then Body Language isn’t a bad choice and it’s certainly a step up from many of the others that have been released.

Reviewer: Snow
Proofed and Edited by: Lissa Pattillo