Rin! Volume 1

Title: Rin! 1
Author: Satoru Kannagi
Illustrator: Yukine Honami
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Copyright: 2006
Price: $12.95
ISBN: 978-1-56970-920-7
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: Everyone has stress and anxiety and each person finds a way to cope. For Katsura, his coping strategy is to seek out Sou, his brother’s best friend (and his own) since childhood and beg for a “squeeze.” After one particular “squeeze” (hug), Katsura finds himself advancing in the archery ranks and suddenly confronting the issue Sou’s “squeezes” provide. Is there more to the “squeeze” and Sou’s relationship to Katsura? In this book of “boy love,” readers follow child-like Katsura as he works through his archery problems and his feelings for Sou. Simple black, white, and gray illustrations tell a story of love and facing who a person really is.
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Will Teens Like It? Maybe. This is a tough call because of the “boy love” in it.
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Things to be aware of: homosexuality; masturbation (in the last chapter/extra)
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Further Thoughts: If I had read the back cover first which says “Katsura needs a hug,” I’m not sure I would have read this title. I picked it up though because “June” books are generally interesting books, especially with the boy-loves-boy stories.

Satoru Kannagi and Yukine Honami have created a very realistic work. Although, at times, I looked at Katsura and said “he’s the girl and Sou’s the boy.” The illustrations present a real enough feel to them that it is not over done and the reader can imagine this happening anywhere. The dialog is smooth and everyone “acts” their age.

There’s more than meets the eye in this story though. Katsura seems to feel that the Sou’s “squeezes” are starting to cause problems for both of them. Also, how is this “problem” helping either of their chances with the girls? For Katsura, this is a coming-of-age story where he faces the fact that he isn’t a child anymore and really can’t be dependent on Sou every time he is scared. Katsura is also facing the fact that he and his good friend, Kouichi, are going to be captain and assistant captain of the club next year, yet if Katsura can’t get his act together, is he ever going to be a good archer? Katsura has a strong support group rooting for him to find out who he is. His “house husband” Dad (oh, dreamy!) and his brother all want to help Katsura out, even when Katsura admits to having feelings for Sou. At the moment in the tale, his brother tells Katsura not to worry about that now, they’d work on that later, but the general idea was that it was “ok.” A positive family structure and friend circle help this be more than a story of romantic love and archery. It is also a strong story about love of all kinds.

So the problems I have with this particular work: I disliked the story at the end. It was somewhat “thrown” in there. The author at the end says it was added because there needed to be more than them kissing in the end. Frankly, this is a three volume set so why not add the “extra” stuff as part of the story in the next volume? I also didn’t like the pacing of that story compared to the rest of it. On the other hand, it illustrates the issues Katsura is working through.

Libraries looking to add to their Yaoi collection without adding something risqué should look to this title.
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Bonus:  Satoru Kannagi is the writer behind “Only the Ring Finger Knows,” which, if I remember correctly, is recommended for those who want to try out Yaoi manga.

Source: Library copy.