You have the heroine A and hero B and either a girl who wants to snatch B from A or a guy who is going after A. That's a shitty situation - anyone who has gone through something like that knows it's true. It is unavoidable that then my chest seems to hurt and my heart feels like a shriveled umeboshi, my blood turns cold inside my veins, my stomach feels queesy and my legs feel weak. This is the green-eyed snake called jealousy raising its head.
So many manga series have love triangles. Some of these raise the snake big time. Like "Hot Gimmick" by Aihara Miki, "Bokura ga ita" (see my blog "wallow in misery" from last month ...) by Obata Yuuki, "Hot Blooded Woman" by Hwang Mi Ri (see my blog "Sick-O from last month), "Akuma de Sourou" (The Devil does exist - see above picture) by Takanashi Mitsuba or "Hana Yori Dango" (aka "Boys over Flowers") by Kamio Yoko. There are some typical moments like when the bride that the heroes parents want him to marry pops up for a bit of mischief and some dramatic moments. She is usually gorgeous and our poor every-day-girl heroine will get some serious minority complex in comparison. Anyone who ever had a formidable competitor in a love triangle will feel queasy. Than there is of course the male rival who tries to seperate the couple. He does not bug me half as much as the female, I may feel a twinge of pity for hero B but that is about it - more over deep down I usually suspect that he deserves to suffer. I guess this derives from the fact that the manga is shown more from the heroines perspective and more directed towards the feelings of a female reader.
Many of these series work with cheap and dirty tricks to raise emotions - despite knowing that and despite recognising it I keep falling into the same emotional trap again and again. Some have some highly unrealistic turns and twists in their plots, and Hwang Mi Ri and especially Kamio Yoko aren't even showing an artwork that makes up for it. On top of that, having been on the losing end of a love triangle before I am weak to this plot, it just really gets to me. I hate the three-wheeler-situation. I know exactly how desperate one feels in the place of being the third wheel on a bicycle. The difference that the heroine in the story may - or rather will probably - overcome the difficulties in front of her and likely win the hero at the end, does not really help - especially if you consider that quite a few shoujo mangas have endings that can not be considered 100% happy endings. And in the love triangle one will lose this game. One will be left behind broken. One will be the villain. I found that many of these love triangle stories are grouped in the categorie "slice of life". Just goes to show that life can really suck.
Some situations get to us more than others. I know someone with a fear of not being loved by his father who starts to cry in movies when father and son are having problems. Movies. Mangas. Books. They may not be the real thing. Yet they can raise our fears. Not for everyone I guess. Some people seem immune. I am not. I am such a weak person to emotions. I cry even when I see comedies or read funny books. One emotional scene, a sad setting, a bit of violin music in the background, dirty plot tricks - bring out the tissues!
When I was reading "Hana yori dango" I strongly experienced the trepidation of expecting disaster for the manga couple. The story is about Makino Tsukushi, a girl from a poor family visiting the prestige expensive elite high school that has the famous stupidly rich and handsome F4 boys. While she is falling for the former autistic, shy and introvert Rui, who is in love with someone else, their leader loud, rude, violent and arrogant Doumyouji Tsukasa lays his black heart at her feat. It takes Tsukushi ages to understand her own heart and she has to learn painful lessons. The real couple - hero and heroine - start to officially go out with each other in volume 19. By that time they have already overcome so many painful love triangles from each side that the reader starts to feel kind of surrealistic. His fiancé, the girl that confessed to him in elementary school and wants to get him for revenge, the son of the politician who falls for Tsukushi, the model who falls for Tsukushi, the childhood friend that falls for Tsukushi. And that is only the problems this couple had with interfering other lovers. Ambitious mothers, money problems and scheming bullies at school add some additional fun. So finally at volume 19 they officially go out with each other. But if you know that there is an alltogether number of 36 volumes plus one epiloguish stand-alone you can guess it won't really all go that smoothly even now. A sadistic mangaka who likes to torture her couple for 19 volumes will not let them live in heavenly bliss for the remaining 17+1 volumes. Besides - no one would probably want to look at a doting happy couple for that long - right? But that "Hana yori dango" is one of the really big, well known and recommended shoujo series must have a reason. And that reason is certainly not the mangaka's art, who is even less than average. At the beginning of the series she can draw exactly 1.5 faces which she only varies with different hairstyles. And these faces are nothing special. Worse - the clothes and the complete sense of taste are a disaster of armageddon-like magnitude. Still I must admit that the artist really improves as the series continues and she even manages some very touching visuals later on. Here one of the better full-page images of Doumyouji Tsukasa. Hey, he looks way to sweet there! :-)
Well, I guess with so many volumes it would be more than weird if she had not improved her style. So after 15 volumes or so she can maybe draw 3 or 4 different faces and it looks like sometime in the next millenium she'll really get the hang of this. Sadly her fashion sense seems beyond the rescue point (let's point out "Akuma de Sourou" here - topmost picture of this blog. The intro pages to the chapters have excellent style and Takanashi's way to dress her various characters at least there has absolute groove. I'd like to go shopping with her and have her pick an outfit for me and take me to her hairdresser). On top of that Kamio Yoko has a weird sense of humour that is going overboard occasionally. So I can't really say that "Hana yori dango" is a masterpiece. I'm actually convinced that is anything but. Reaching volume 19 I found myself wishing the artist would conclude the series after one or to more volumes and let the couple live on happily ever after. I knew it was not going to happen. With another 17+1 volumes - no way does she only want to show us the fun of being boyfriend and girlfriend. I felt sure she had wicked things planned. And I was absolutely sure that there would be more love triangles (I was right, too!) - she is just too fond of them to leave hero and heroine in peace. Despite all that .... of course I could not just stop there. I had to read on. Even though after a long series like this I don't expect to be satisfied with the end. Even Hana Kimi, a series that actually IS a masterpiece had an ending that seemed overly hurried and even the special ending short story to Hana kimi does not offer full closure. I guess I was especially missing a love scene. I know it is stupid, because Hana kimi is a sweet romance with tension but the style makes it absolutely clear that you can not expect more than a passionate embrace and lukewarm kiss at the very most. With "Hana yori dango" I was not so sure. I asked myself if Tsukushi would get to do it with her hero. Sure, the mangaka would probably cut the scene so we would just know it is happening without getting to know much about it. Doesn't matter. Even if it had a love scene with pornographic close-ups I would not be satisfied. After reading about a couple for 37 volumes you just can't be. I had an odd feeling that Kamio wouldn't give me a satisfying end. She has been using cheap tricks all along, so I expected she would use more of them. And as I said before - quite a few mangas have only half happy endings. Remember Hana Kimi (my No.1 favourite shoujo manga and entirely without too painful love triangles): Mizuki has to leave the school and go back to the US. She gets the man, but has to wait for him. Or in Akuma de Sourou: the guy goes to Italy for years and even if they suddenly marry then in the last chapter that continues the story years after the main plot. Hana Yori Dango's ending is just as much a pain the butt. You can deduce that the ending is not offering full closure by the fact that a second "season" is planned for the manga. Poor Tsukushi will probably be sent on another journey of pain and suffering for another 36 volumes. In the end I can't even say that I would not recommend "Hana yori dango" - if a series can draw you in so much, if it can raise these feelings that much there is something to it. It even has quite a few comical moments and in the breaks in between love triangles I really enjoyed it.
For all of you who like to suffer, my manga love triangle reading list:
For real masochists:
* Hana yori dango (Boys over Flowers) by Kamio Yoko
* Hot blooded woman (see my July Blog "Sick-O") by Hwang Mi Ri
* Akuma de Sourou (The Devil does exist) by Takanashi Mitsuba
* Kare first love by Miyasaka Kaho
* Hot Gimmick by Aihara Miki
* Bokura ga ita (see July Blog "Wallow in Misery") by Obata Yuuki
For beginners masochists and love triangle newbies:
* Cutie Boy by Hwang Mi Ri
* MARS by Souryo Fuyumi
* Zettai Kareshi (Absolute Boyfriend) by Watase Yuu
* Alice 19th by Watase Yuu
* Kimi wa petto (We are Tramps) by Ogawa Yayoi
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