Wild Adapter, vol. 5 (Kazuya Minekura)

[chomiji]

This entire volume is a flashback. We get to find out what happened right after Kubota picked up his "stray cat" at the end of volume 1 and learn how they became the odd but close couple we saw in volume 2 and thereafter. The story is told mostly in first person, from the viewpoint of young Iizuka Shouta, Kubota's next door neighbor. I don't recall seeing this viewpoint used much at all in the manga I've read thus far - it's rather interesting.

Shouta is a solitary child who doesn't get along with his classmates, doesn't play sports, and doesn't belong to any clubs. Both parents work, and his afternoons are usually spent alone in the family apartment, playing videogames and writing and drawing manga- and anime-influenced adventure stories . When his neighbor Kubota shows up one afternoon with another young man slung over his shoulder, unconscious, Shouta's life gets a lot more interesting. For one thing, the comatose guy has a hand that looks like an animal's paw, furred and clawed. For another, Kubota needs Shouta's help when the new arrival wakes up: he doesn't trust Kubota, but he's much less on the defensive with a child.

Minekura is good at portraying kids, and when Shouta's going off into his fantasies about what's really going on with his next-door neighbor, the story has a rather Neil Gaiman-esque feel to it. And although Shouta certainly learns a lot from this strange interlude in his life, Kubota and Tokito get a few lessons as well.

Wild Adapter, vol. 5 (review)

Oh boy! We see Kou-san wearing something besides his Chinese robe! He shows up at Kubota's wearing a maxi-length trenchcoat! I'm in Heaven!

OK, now that I've got that out of my system ... . But I really wish Minekura would do some more with Kou ... .

There are some funny scenes, but mostly, this was really, really beautiful and sad. Yet it ends with a feeling of fulfillment and optimism. The scene where Shouta explains to Kubota what he's been doing wrong with Tokito - via the ruse of asking for help with figuring out the motivations and personality of one of his story characters - is one of the sweetest, most poignant things I've read recently. And the scene where Tokito makes Kubota confess his feelings is all kinds of win.

Question for the manga experts: I've been tagging my manga reviews with categories such as shoujo or seinen. But where on that spectrum does Wild Adapter fit in?

• Oyceter's write-up on this (with spoilers)

Comments

[avierra.livejournal.com]

nd since WA is initially serialized in Chara Comics, and Chara is definitely working a particular niche... *whistles* (And just look at all that cover art...nope, can't quite put my finger on what this is reminding me of...

I can't imagine what you are getting at here, Smilla... ;X

I loved Vol 4 too. They practically confessed, I couldn't believe it (although I think that's as close as we'll ever see to any action per se ;P )

[chomiji]

I think that perhaps what I liked about this one was that it wrapped up, and wrapped up optimistically. Vol. 4, it's clear that there's more trouble ahead. Also, I was just re-reading 5, and the scene where Shouta comes to have his little talk about the guy who adopted the cat is just a welter of cathartic resolution for me - Kubota's look when he tells Shouta that he's going to be a great writer, and Shouta's conclusion about love and cruelty being the same thing sometimes, just about have me losing it even on a re-read.

And then there's the great moment where Tokito comes and finds him in the alley.

[freeradical9.livejournal.com]

Really nice review! I just found a copy of this volume in the bookstore this morning. Shouta is adorable (oyceter's comment about Tokito being socialized by a kid is too true!) and the manga/reality fusion going on in his head and in his journal is really neat.

In closing, I have to say that I too would love to see Minekura-sensei do more with Kou. He's such a fascinating character. A real black box--one never knows exactly what might be going on inside his head. I'd love to know how his shop started, and where he learned about medicine. Maybe we'll find out more about him as the series progresses. ^_^

[chomiji]

Yes, I loved that comment of Oyce's! And the manga stuff was so cool ... and Kubo's comment at the end, that he wouldn't want to read Shouta's manga - presumably because it would remind him of too much - was very touching.

I also really loved the look on Kubo's face when the still-sleeping Tokito grabs him and snuggles up.

Kou is a bit sweet on Kubota - or at least he finds him charming. He also seems to be very lonely.

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review, I just got mine the other day and haven't yet had a chance to read it (I've read the scanlations though, but it just isn't the same.) Looks like good times ahead. :)

I like the character of Kou very much, I am with you on that!

Perhaps Minekura is just in a category of her own. ;) Really, I have no clear idea how to adequately classify Saiyuki either, despite where she happens to end up having it serialized. Saiyuki and WA seem to combine a lot of different "types," but maybe that is why they are so cool. (I suppose technically they're BL... sort of... but not really.)

[chomiji]

So have you had a chance to read it yet?

[avierra.livejournal.com]

I have, indeed! Very angsty and, as you said, sad and beautiful. But I think it was quite hopeful at the end, and as if they had come to terms with whatever it was between them. I really liked the last few panels where Tokito reached out to Kubota and told him to take his hand if he wanted him, it gave me a happy sniffle.

Minekura seems to have a running "thing" about the value of touch and sensation. In Saiyuki, it's Gojyo who craves contact, but interestingly, in WA it's Kubo (who I consider to be more or less a Hakkai analog) who needs it and is afraid to ask for it from the person he wants/needs it.

And I liked that Minekura made it clear that the lack of physicality was emotionally painful for both Kubo and Tokito, and causing problems and misunderstandings in their relationship (which has barely started at this point).

The whole Kubota backstory about how he was unwanted and unneeded and how he shouldn't have existed in the first place was just heartbreaking (and again, very similar to Gojyo's story).

And Shouta was wonderful (and funny), wiser and smarter than both of the others even though he's much younger.

I like to think they both went home at the end and screwed each other to the mattress. >_>

[chomiji]

Tokito is very odd in sweet ways - he apparently uses the most macho language to refer to himself in Japanese, and that sort of goes with what he does to Kubota in that scene, making him declare that yes, he needs Tokito. And I love the part where Tokito is talking enthusiastically about reading Shouta's manga some day, and Kubo isn't quite so sure he'll want to read it.

I think Shouta has learned a lot - much too much for a child his age, in fact - from listening to his parents fight, poor kid. I know how he feels.

Yeah, Kubo seems to have Gojyo's story and Hakkai's personality!

I think maybe Kubo didn't know that he had the touch thing himself until recently ... maybe when the unconscious Tokito grabbed him and snuggled up ... .

[chomiji]

But Onime-no-Kyo does that too, and he's a psycho!

(Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm told that Yukimura talks a lot more like Hakkai.)

[chomiji]

Well, that's true, but there's more to him than that ... his dynamic as a leader is surprisingly complicated, as are relationships to (just for a couple of examples that you've already met) Akira and Kyoshiro.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I love Kou! After reading the first couple volumes (I got them in Japanese and then found translations), I decided to wait to read the whole of Wild Adapter when it was finished. I want a Kou of my very own. I actually used to draw pages of WA again and again, to learn manga drawing techniques, and Kou and Kubota were my favorites to draw.

I would characterize WA as boy's love, because it appears in Chara, a BL serial and also because the focus of the story is romance (G-rated romance, even if the assorted plot action is rated ZOMG bloody and violent!!). I read recently that Minekura was interviewed about whether there would ever be explicit BL action in WA and sort of wibbled and said she wasn't sure, because her characters are unpredictable. But I could be misremembering!

[chomiji]

I don't think I could take not reading them as they come out! Even in the case of Samurai Deeper Kyo, where I've read the scanlations through the end, I like to get the books as they show up in English publication. I think I rather identify with Kou - he seems so lonely and wistful, and he rather fancies Kubota.

Everyone seems to agree that it should be shounen ai, so I tagged it that way. Thanks!

[chomiji]

Yeah, I started working my way through that - I think I'm up to chapter 7. I'm pretty cross with the magician - demon abuser! (Yes, he's very decorative - he's still a selfish bastard.) I like the little magical animal - he reminds me of something from Petshop of Horrors. I keep wondering when he's going to demand a piece of the action: he;s pretty cute in human form.

[chomiji]

Re the balancing mechanism and our discussion of my fluff writing: this morning, early, I was reading a comment from someone who's going through my fic back-catalog, and the Mr. asked "So, you're writing feelthy stories?" and I said "Well, I usually write fluffy stories, and I'm wondering if I'm stuck in a rut." And he said "You have a stressful life, so you write fluff. It's entirely understandable!"

XD

Yes, Havi is starting to care, but it's still more in a possessive "He's my toy - you can't have him!" way.

[chomiji]

Hmmm, I've run out of scanlated CS and now I need to do the raws. The Mac picture viewer is annoying as hell - it doesn't let you flip through the pix in alpha-numeric order - so I've been building quick little HTML pages for them. It doesn't taken but about 3 minutes for each (I reused the previous one as a template), but it's still a bit of a chore.

Her guys don't go in for too much variety in activities ... maybe Val's fangy mouth precludes that?   ;-)

And she really likes drawing pretty, smutty pix, doesn't she? The postcards at the end! Ruruka remains adorable, though.

[chomiji]

Yeah, I saw that comment of hers about the butts!

I applied to join the comm. I'll have to have their stuff not show up in my f-list, like I do with yaoi_daily ... springkink, on the other hand, is a mixed bag that way. A surprising number of them are G!

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

Nice review! I avoided this post last night because I just got my copy. I stayed up until midnight to read it twice. The end with Tokito was so... wow. Kubota is so fragile and that part about no one wanting him was heartbreaking.

Kou was (and is always) ♥

I think WA is BL, too.

Thanks! I love being able to fangirl with others.

[chomiji]

Please, come here and fangirl all you like! I am trying to read lots of different types of manga, but I definitely like things with BL elements or that are slashable. (Otherwise, I orefer shounen/seinen to shoujo).

I read and review some SF and fantasy too. And I also like Tanith Lee!

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

I read a lot of manga, too. BL and horror are my favs.

I love Tanith Lee! Her Flat Earth series is some of my favorite stuff. Her rewrites of fairy-tales totally rock! Yay! It's very hard to find people who love her.

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

Likewise! And watching raw, millionth generation VHS tapes of Anime before about half my flist was born.

[despina-moon.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I always get "whoa!" When I tell the 'kids' about seeing Akira in the theater when it first came out. That's not even that old!

Annoying whipper-snappers! *shakes fist*

[chomiji]

(Don't let smilla snow you - I'm older than she is! I remember miniskirts and white go-go boots and Supermarionation shows like "Fireball XL5"!)

[chomiji]

Lol! I really need some type of old crone/older than you icon! I can't think of what I'd put on it ... Sophie from the Miyazaki Howl, perhaps?

[chomiji]

I found a pic of the Witch of the Waste with her big hat and red lipstick ... tentative caption: "It's not age - it's richness of experience!"

(I figured that was a more positive spin than anything I could put on Sophie looking horrified at her reflection, even though the witch is a baddie ... .)

[chomiji]

I think Death's Master is my favorite of the Flat Earth books. I'm also really fond of Anackire (although, of course, you have to read the first one in the series to get the full effect) and Tamastara (which I blogged here). The Birthgrave really rocked my world when I read it in college.