The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charmianMizushiro Setona is, IMHO, one of the best shoujo/BL mangaka out there. It's not because of her art (which was honestly, pretty awful when she started, but has improved by leaps and bounds), but because of her writing and characterization. It actually is incredibly puzzling to me that she isn't more popular, especially as she does both shoujo and BL, and thus could get both audiences.
You'll note that I don't read a lot of romance manga. A lot of BL and shoujo romance relies on moe (pronounced mo ay). Moe is kind of like kink or fetish, except not necessarily in a sexual sense. The problem is when you don't share the moe of the mangaka. It's sort of an "it's not for you" problem, which is easily solved by... not reading things that aren't for you. I suppose another turn off I have with romantic shoujo/BL is, if they're not going to write characters which jibe with my moe, then they should capture my interest by being emotionally compelling, and for me, a lot of the times compelling coincides with a certain kind of realism, and crossing into the "ningen kankei" (human relationships) zone. A lot of the I think a lot of the times, ningen kankei intersects with "serious, at least semi-realistic, emotional carnage." I don't know if I would say it's fantasy vs. non-fantasy, because in a sense all fiction is fantasy? But there is something less fantasy about it.
"The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese" starts of with a fairly clichéd BL scenario: the main character, Kyouichi, is a salaryman, who is in a pretty lifeless marriage, but he honestly doesn't care that his wife only loves shopping. It turns out that she's hired a detective to follow him around and investigate him, and the detective is his college kouhai, Imagase. Imagase is gay, and has always been obsessed with Kyouichi. He has found evidence of Kyouichi's past affairs, but will keep quiet about them if Kyouichi agrees to make out with him. Kyouichi agrees. Anyway, to cut the cliche part short, Imagase keeps his promise, but Kyouichi's wife divorces him anyway. Later, Kyouichi, while continuing to insist he's straight, sort of starts fooling around with Imagase, who repeatedly declares his love for him...
My mini summary was really bad, because it doesn't explain the interesting stuff. One thing I found refreshing is that yeah, Imagase is gay, and has relationships with other men. One of the obstacles in the relationship is that Kyouichi doesn't want to have sex with Imagase because of the meaning of that act in that context. The story really isn't about, even though it starts out with blackmail, Imagase victimizing or harassing Kyouichi. Imagase himself admits he's a stalker, but he shows himself willing to back off if Kyouichi really wants him to, and even leaves. Kyouichi, though, is willing to make steps that draw Imagase back, and doesn't outright reject him, because.... he cares about Imagase enough to feel bad about hurting his feelings, but not enough to stop, or to "take responsibility in the relationship." Bleh, that was a bad summary also: I guess what I mean is that the dialogue here and the plot is compelling, and there are two volumes (the sequel has a different name and isn't completely translated) so you had might as well read it and make up your own mind.
Must say, to start out with, this may be probably the sort of BL manga people who are not fans of BL manga like.
It's pretty understandable why Kyouichi's wife left him; he honestly didn't really care that his wife only cared about shopping, that they had no sex life, that they had nothing to talk about when alone with each other. He didn't need anything much from her, and she realized that she didn't want anything from him except for his money, and she found someone else.
One of the confusing things is all of the women who like Kyouichi so much: maybe it's because IMHO Imagase is much more prettily drawn, but I don't get what's so attractive about him. In fiction it strikes me that most female characters don't like passive guys or those who just go with the flow; I mean, think about it, Kyouichi doesn't really seem like most shoujo heroes, does he? I can't think of one where the girl followed the guy around and he just was like 'eh, okay because it's the path of least resistance.' But this shows maybe that I don't read 'nuff shoujo?
Possibly this manga is a meditation on passion/desire? Kyouichi does show that he is somewhat jealous of Imagase, and does act to continue to the relationship, but Imagase probably calls it at the beginning: what Imagase has to offer to Kyouichi is there's no way he'll find someone else who loves him more than he does. (Er, in other words, for Kyouichi, love is based on someone else's love for him. Kyouichi basically doesn't fall in love with those who don't love him back.) So, perhaps my reading is too cynical, but... could it be that Kyouichi is well, in love with Imagase's love with him, and not Imagase himself? In other words, a sort of second-order desire. And also guilty and feeling obligated. That's why Imagase is so upset when he goes through the search history, because although he might say he's okay with not being Kyouichi's true love, he in fact does suffer from knowing Kyouichi doesn't love him as he does Kyouichi.
At one point Imagase says, after giving a speech how people should be unreasonable and impulsive: "You're indecisive and you haven't got a backbone... So you can't be trusted. But you're kind. You have good intentions. You look so prim and proper, but actually you're concealing desire and passion in the depths of your body. When I catch a glimmer of it, my heart is hopelessly torn." So there is our explanation of why Imagase likes him so much. On the other hand.... uh, isn't a relationship where there can't be trust pretty much doomed? (thoughts?)
I hope I haven't given the impression that Imagase is a hapless victim: he's also a jerk. The way he breaks off with his boyfriend is incredibly callous.
Hmm, one question the manga does bring up is, if Imagase were a woman, in a way a lot of the obstacles would be gone, but even if they were in a socially acceptable relationship, would Imagase, as he imagines, still really be okay with Kyouichi always cheating because he is so in love with Kyouichi that he accepts it? But what if, as Imagase imagines when he tells Kyouichi that he doesn't imagine their relationship being eternal, that someday Kyouichi does find that someone? (In a way, then, would such a marriage be 'settling'? Imagase seems to believe that Kyouichi is in the anti-settling group from his little speech about how there is no One.)
I have yet to read the second manga, so please no spoilers yet. XD
You'll note that I don't read a lot of romance manga. A lot of BL and shoujo romance relies on moe (pronounced mo ay). Moe is kind of like kink or fetish, except not necessarily in a sexual sense. The problem is when you don't share the moe of the mangaka. It's sort of an "it's not for you" problem, which is easily solved by... not reading things that aren't for you. I suppose another turn off I have with romantic shoujo/BL is, if they're not going to write characters which jibe with my moe, then they should capture my interest by being emotionally compelling, and for me, a lot of the times compelling coincides with a certain kind of realism, and crossing into the "ningen kankei" (human relationships) zone. A lot of the I think a lot of the times, ningen kankei intersects with "serious, at least semi-realistic, emotional carnage." I don't know if I would say it's fantasy vs. non-fantasy, because in a sense all fiction is fantasy? But there is something less fantasy about it.
"The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese" starts of with a fairly clichéd BL scenario: the main character, Kyouichi, is a salaryman, who is in a pretty lifeless marriage, but he honestly doesn't care that his wife only loves shopping. It turns out that she's hired a detective to follow him around and investigate him, and the detective is his college kouhai, Imagase. Imagase is gay, and has always been obsessed with Kyouichi. He has found evidence of Kyouichi's past affairs, but will keep quiet about them if Kyouichi agrees to make out with him. Kyouichi agrees. Anyway, to cut the cliche part short, Imagase keeps his promise, but Kyouichi's wife divorces him anyway. Later, Kyouichi, while continuing to insist he's straight, sort of starts fooling around with Imagase, who repeatedly declares his love for him...
My mini summary was really bad, because it doesn't explain the interesting stuff. One thing I found refreshing is that yeah, Imagase is gay, and has relationships with other men. One of the obstacles in the relationship is that Kyouichi doesn't want to have sex with Imagase because of the meaning of that act in that context. The story really isn't about, even though it starts out with blackmail, Imagase victimizing or harassing Kyouichi. Imagase himself admits he's a stalker, but he shows himself willing to back off if Kyouichi really wants him to, and even leaves. Kyouichi, though, is willing to make steps that draw Imagase back, and doesn't outright reject him, because.... he cares about Imagase enough to feel bad about hurting his feelings, but not enough to stop, or to "take responsibility in the relationship." Bleh, that was a bad summary also: I guess what I mean is that the dialogue here and the plot is compelling, and there are two volumes (the sequel has a different name and isn't completely translated) so you had might as well read it and make up your own mind.
Must say, to start out with, this may be probably the sort of BL manga people who are not fans of BL manga like.
It's pretty understandable why Kyouichi's wife left him; he honestly didn't really care that his wife only cared about shopping, that they had no sex life, that they had nothing to talk about when alone with each other. He didn't need anything much from her, and she realized that she didn't want anything from him except for his money, and she found someone else.
One of the confusing things is all of the women who like Kyouichi so much: maybe it's because IMHO Imagase is much more prettily drawn, but I don't get what's so attractive about him. In fiction it strikes me that most female characters don't like passive guys or those who just go with the flow; I mean, think about it, Kyouichi doesn't really seem like most shoujo heroes, does he? I can't think of one where the girl followed the guy around and he just was like 'eh, okay because it's the path of least resistance.' But this shows maybe that I don't read 'nuff shoujo?
Possibly this manga is a meditation on passion/desire? Kyouichi does show that he is somewhat jealous of Imagase, and does act to continue to the relationship, but Imagase probably calls it at the beginning: what Imagase has to offer to Kyouichi is there's no way he'll find someone else who loves him more than he does. (Er, in other words, for Kyouichi, love is based on someone else's love for him. Kyouichi basically doesn't fall in love with those who don't love him back.) So, perhaps my reading is too cynical, but... could it be that Kyouichi is well, in love with Imagase's love with him, and not Imagase himself? In other words, a sort of second-order desire. And also guilty and feeling obligated. That's why Imagase is so upset when he goes through the search history, because although he might say he's okay with not being Kyouichi's true love, he in fact does suffer from knowing Kyouichi doesn't love him as he does Kyouichi.
At one point Imagase says, after giving a speech how people should be unreasonable and impulsive: "You're indecisive and you haven't got a backbone... So you can't be trusted. But you're kind. You have good intentions. You look so prim and proper, but actually you're concealing desire and passion in the depths of your body. When I catch a glimmer of it, my heart is hopelessly torn." So there is our explanation of why Imagase likes him so much. On the other hand.... uh, isn't a relationship where there can't be trust pretty much doomed? (thoughts?)
I hope I haven't given the impression that Imagase is a hapless victim: he's also a jerk. The way he breaks off with his boyfriend is incredibly callous.
Hmm, one question the manga does bring up is, if Imagase were a woman, in a way a lot of the obstacles would be gone, but even if they were in a socially acceptable relationship, would Imagase, as he imagines, still really be okay with Kyouichi always cheating because he is so in love with Kyouichi that he accepts it? But what if, as Imagase imagines when he tells Kyouichi that he doesn't imagine their relationship being eternal, that someday Kyouichi does find that someone? (In a way, then, would such a marriage be 'settling'? Imagase seems to believe that Kyouichi is in the anti-settling group from his little speech about how there is no One.)
I have yet to read the second manga, so please no spoilers yet. XD
no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 10:54 am (UTC)I should rephrase this: obviously I've seen manga fans -- especially guys, but also shoujo readers -- make dismissive comments about both BL and BL fans, but I haven't heard much about what people in the industry think. People having a higher opinion of shoujo than BL is not surprising; I'm mostly wondering whether it's more prestigious to write, say, shounen instead of shoujo.
I went back and looked at the posts about Mizushiro (this was discussed on the AMLA Yahoo group a few years ago, so my memory is pretty fuzzy). Evidently Mizushiro posted a letter on her blog saying that she'd retired from BL because she was tired of the formulaic stories. She also said that The Cornerned Mouse isn't really BL because she worked on it with a lady's comic editor.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 05:04 pm (UTC)I guess in a certain way she's correct, as normally whether something is shoujo/shounen/lady's/seinen is determined in manga by what mag it runs in.