Education in Life and Law- Yoshinaga Fumi’s Ichigenme- the First Class is Civil Law, vol 1

Tamiya is a hard working university student on a typical student’s income of practically nothing. Attending civil law class, he is dismayed to discover that his zemi, or seminar group, is well known to be a fluff course filled with the wealthy sons and daughters of influential persons. They goof off in class, come in ill prepared, and always try to borrow his homework. If that is not enough, during the welcoming party for new students, the professor and returning students make the newbies strip off all their clothes as part of a class initiation. Tamiya is not an extrovert by any means, and is horrified. Surprisingly, when his turn comes, popular classmate Tohdou comes to his rescue, shouting that a kiss will do instead and steals a sudden deep kiss from Tamiya’s lips. As shocking as that turn of events was, Tamiya is grateful to not have been forced to strip, and thus he and Tohdou forge a close friendship. It is not without its up and downs however, as Tohdou tries to drag Tamiya along into the groups frivolous and expensive trip excursions, parties, and what not, Tohdou facing ostracism by his other supposed friends after a political scandal involving his father, and then there is the other thing. The thing where Tohdou confides in Tamiya that he is gay and would like to take Tamiya as his lover. Confusion deepens within Tamiya as he struggles to deal with the social gap between him and his classmates, with their gossiping antics and shifting attitudes, his friendship with Tohdou, dealing with school work and exams, and a sudden late night kiss from a drunken male professor. The first class may be civil law, but Tamiya is getting a great deal more of an education in life.

Yoshinaga Fumi once more shares a slice of life story that transcends the genre. Taking a frank look at the trivial pettiness that comes with dealing with popularity and the masses, the emotions of the very real people involved, and the everyday occurrences in a college student’s life, she weaves a story of friendship, love, and life in general. As ever, her attention to the seemingly trivial breathe life and realism into the situations, her expressive drawings punctuating the emotions and moods with perfection. I was quite struck with how, once again, Yoshinaga used dialogue to convey much of what is occurring. Quite often in BL, dialogue is short, with little thought boxes helping explain things. There is a minimal amount of this, as Yoshinaga uses side character and background dialogue, facial expression, gestures, and situational settings to get things across.

She also breaks the mould when it comes to plot and character style. Where Antique Bakery and Flower of Life had gentle elements of comedy, this is serious drama. Tohdou may be a flamboyant rich boy who loves partying, the class may be made up mainly of irresponsible young people, the professor an amiable drinking buddy, and Tamiya an uptight and practically neurotic nerd sort, but rather than being played for laughs, they are all cross sections of people one may meet in the course of attending a third or fourth rate university funded by rich alumni who send their useless offspring there to gain a degree. Tohdou’s very flamboyance masks the insecurities he hides within himself. Like Ono from Antique Bakery, he has hidden depths that rise to flash at the surface, revealing the true inner Tohdou as opposed to the public face he puts on as the playboy son of a member of the diet. It is these inner flashes that seem to give Tamiya the most trouble, as he finds himself drawn to them.

Tamiya is uptight, rigid, and tries to stick to rules and society’s expectations. These chafe him, as he encounters and befriends Tohdou, at first rejecting the often socially stigmatising reality of homosexuality, but after developing a one sided crush on a professor who drunkenly kisses him one night, he has to come to grips with something within himself that does not fit the ideal he had set before himself. Falling into Tohdou’s arms for one night whilst seeking comfort, the volume follows a deeply complex set of emotions as both Tohdou and Tamiya come to grips with their very real, deep emotions, and Tamiya comes to accept his own sexual orientation. It is not a typical tale of seduction whereby once the seme has the uke in his clutches, it is all hot sex, lovey dovey, happy ever after, but a tale of emotional growth, self awareness, and romance of the purest sort. Truly standing apart from other school romance stories of any sort, Yoshinaga once more proves she is a master not only of the slice of life genre, but BL itself.

Rated 18+ due to sexual explicitness and mature situations, this is published under Digital Manga’s 801 media imprint as a paperback (at this time, no online reading service via Emanga.com or ebook version exists). I’d like to thank DMP for providing me with this review copy.

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