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Reviewed by Shannon Fay Our Everlasting is a slightly schizophrenic manga in terms of quality. The first volume I can only recommend to die hard yaoi fans who like their bishonen hot and their stories sappy. The second volume, however, is good enough on its own to recommend it to anyone who likes a good romance. Shouin is a quiet French student in love with Horyu, a laid-back surfer. When Shouin clumsily confesses his love, the ladies man Horyu falls for him. The first volume details how the two first met, how they got together and other milestones. Basically it’s the same ground covered in many other yaoi titles. It’s a little grating to see the same tropes over and over again in boy’s love series (honestly, if I had a quarter for every time a yaoi character stuttered some variation of “But...but we’re both guys!”, I’d be rich). Horyu and Shouin are interesting characters, but they’re not strong enough on their own to lift up the standard plot. The art is nice but not pretty enough to make up for the lackluster storyline. Toko Kawai does a good job of portraying settings and atmosphere. The anatomy’s good and both Shouin and Horyu actually look like university students. I also like that Shouin, while still being the femenine one in the relationship, is around the same size as Horyu. It’s nice to see a yaoi couple who look like regular people, instead of an extremely masculine top and a bottom who looks more like a girl than most women do. If the series was only one volume I wouldn’t recommend Our Everlasting. Luckily, there is a volume two. Like I said before, Shouin and Horyu are interesting characters, and in volume two they get a chance to shine. The couple has to deal with relationship issues that speak to just about anyone, gay or straight. The problems they face range from the desire to have children one day (Horyu wants them, Shouin doesn’t and knows he can never ever give Horyu what he wants) to choosing between your dream or the one you love (Horyu wants to go to Hawaii to become a professional surfer, while Shouin wants to go to France to study). Even clichés are put to good use, like when the ‘other man,’ Shouin’s French tutor, tries to come between Horyu and Shouin. Even this character offers some insight into the couple’s relationship. Usually I read yaoi manga as an escape from daily life. This was the first time that I actually identified with the characters in a yaoi manga and what they were going through. Volume two may be a vast improvement over volume one, but it’s not perfect. There’s an instance of non-consensual sex which gets brushed aside a little too neatly for my taste. Still, overall it’s a good read. Because of the episodic nature of the series, a reader could pick up volume two and enjoy it without having read volume one. That’s what I would recommend anyway. There are also a few short stories in each volume. They’re good, better than the main story in volume one but not as good as the main story in volume two. The side story in volume one concerns a student-teacher relationship. The twist is that the teacher has a heart condition where if he has sex, he’ll die. In volume two, the side story is about two university students, a film student and an art student. When the film student asks the art student to be in his movie, the art student agrees but wants sex in return. The stories are loosely connected but also just satisfying on their own. DMP does a great job of translating the series, though I personally wished they had kept the Japanese honorifics in. The books are slightly bigger than most manga volumes and have dust jackets. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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