Manga Review: Junior Escort

[Jason]

Title: Junior Escort
Mangaka: Sakurako Hanafubuki
Originally Serialized in: Hanaoto (Houbunsha Co., Ltd.)
Genre: Yaoi (one story is shota)
Licensed by: Digital Manga Publishing - Juné
Price: $12.95/US

This collection of stories ranges from light to dark and ordinary to twisted, but leans most heavily towards the darker end of the spectrum. There are some interesting and unique elements, but yaoi readers should be warned that not all of the stories are as sexy and romantic as the one that kicks off the anthology.

Junior Escort is about up-and-coming model/actor Ayu and his relationship with superstar Mizuhara. Ayu assumes that he has been “sold” to Mizuhara in exchange for help with his career, but the truth is that no one asked Mizuhara what he really thinks about his young plaything. This story is rather cynical, but moves toward romantic at the end. The follow up story, Paparazzi Channel, is also about Ayu and Mizuhara, but it takes a troubling turn that foreshadows the rest of the tales in the collection. Hanafubuki seemed to be thinking that the second story was as romantic and light as Junior Escort, but the truth was that I wanted to tell Ayu that he should run from Mizuhara as the man is obviously damaged and deranged.

The story that bothered me the most in the collection was the next one, Angelic Seduction. It is shota and I don’t appreciate shota showing up when I’m not aware of it in order to avoid it. Yuta, who is about nine, is in love with Kakeru, age 14. When Kakeru’s family begins to break apart, Yuta is the only one who stands by him. If the story had remained non-physical it could have been a sweet little tale about two boys and their love for one another. Unfortunately Hanafubuki and her editor decided to make this story appealing to fans of shota-con (as she says in her author’s note). If you want to read that, that’s your business, but I wish that I’d been forewarned that it was in the collection.

The last three stories are less disturbing, though none of them are perfect. Behind Closed Doors is a moving story about a boy who sells his abused body and the young man who falls for him. It comes the closest to well done as the relationship between the boys is strong and healing. So Lovable, So Kind, the story of two boys and their physical relationship that moves into more, is not much beyond standard yaoi fare. Its light sweetness fades beside so many other darker stories. The last story, Baku, is weakest because of the unappealing characters. The seme is a jerk, the uke is a doormat, and the friend is a mix of both. None of them grow over the course of the tale and their pulling at one another is grating on the nerves.

Hanafubuki’s art is not the type that usually appeals to me, though it has a touch of rough prettiness. She favors loose, thin lines and lots of screen tones for shading. Her characters are long and lean with angular faces that show the minimum amount of emotion. Not much scenery distracts from the story, but this also makes the setting harder to visualize, as if the characters are floating in a haze of greyscale.

The weakness of the art, combined with the mishmash of stories makes this a very optional purchase only for yaoi fans desperate for darker storylines. If you’re bothered by shota at all, though, I’d pass on this one altogether.

Reviewer: Snow Wildsmith
Proofed and Edited By Lissa Pattillo