Kuma continues to publish challenging, thought-provoking work, and I’m glad they’re getting this material translated into the English-language market. Both of these series were a lot of fun to read and made me think about relationships, dysfunction, trauma, and various societal issues.
The Song of Yoru and Asa and Yoru and Asa: Encore follows Asaichi, who is the vocalist for a rock band. Yoru joins as a bassist, even though he was a popular vocalist in his last band. Asaichi thinks he’s straight but ends up accidentally sleeping with Yoru, who is intensely devoted to him and is determined to be with him in whatever way Asaichi wants. A lot of these two books is taken up with Asaichi coming to terms with their relationship and to being in love with Yoru. The jarring thing about this series is that while it does have an overall comic romance tone due to how much of an idiot Asaichi can be, it suddenly can swerve into very traumatic sequences. Halfway through the first book, Asaichi gets violently sexually assaulted and tortured by the Yakuza, which is shown in very intense detail and causes him to be be traumatized for a good chunk of the book. I did think that his overcoming that was rushed and there wasn’t any warning about this in the back cover copy. I can handle this but some people would probably appreciate a warning. There’s also one sequence of a girl stalking them, threatening them with a knife, and then trying to cut herself that was also pretty graphic. Despite this, I really did like this for its depth of characterization, humor, and great art style. It’s very well done and a good look at an unconventional duo figuring out what works for them.
Happy of the End is a darker series and isn’t complete yet in translation, so I might wait for the third volume to come out before you have to wait on a cliffhanger like me. The series focuses on Chihiro, a homeless, broke drifter who meets Keito in a bar. They go to a hotel together to have sex but Keito knocks him out and dumps him in an alley because he thinks Chihiro has an important item from an earlier robbery. This meet-cute ends up with Chihiro moving in with Keito as his live-in servant/sex toy, although as the story develops they end up being in a legitimate romantic relationship, albeit one with some warped morals. Keito was a child sex slave and then continued to be assaulted and sex trafficked until he was an adult and managed to somewhat escape and start his life over. A lot of the narrative deals with his unresolved trauma and Chihiro’s attempts to support him while also dealing with his own issues. The space they’re able to carve out for each other in the midst of a grim maelstrom of events is shown in a heartwarming way. However, a terrifying figure from Keito’s past is lurking and it seems like the two of them will have to go through more angst before some sort of happy ending. I enjoyed these two books but it was stressful seeing how fragile their happiness seemed and how quickly it might get taken away from them again. The child sexual abuse is again not warned for anywhere and should be considered before you pick this up. There is also a lot of physical abuse shown, as well as drug use.