Kaze Hikaru Vol. 10-11 (VIZ Media)

This gender-bending shojo manga offers a detailed portrait of life at the end of an historical era.

 

 

200 pgs. ; B&W; $8.99

(W/A: Taeko Watanabe)

Kaze Hikaru is an epic tale of Japan in the waning years of the Tokugawa Shogunate centered around one of those gender-bending characters so popular in manga and anime. After her father and brother are killed, Tominaga Sei disguises herself as a boy and joins the Shinsengumi, a band of warriors dedicated to protecting the Shogun during this time of social unrest. Her name-in-disguise is Kamiya Seizaburo and only her trainer, Okita Soji, knows her true identity.

Volume 10 begins in October 1864: a number of new recruits join the Shinsengumi, among them Ito Kashitaro, a renowned swordsman and scholar. Everyone is glad to have such a prestigious warrior join, but there’s something they weren’t expecting: he’s just so pretty! And although he has a wife back in Edo, he’s an admirer of all things beautiful, including beautiful young men. His eye lands upon Sei (now 16 years old) and soon he has a full-blown crush on him/her, creating a Victor/Victoria situation.

At the very end of volume 10, the child Mabo is discovered hiding in a cupboard. Picking up in volume 11, they discover that he’s covered with bruises and burns, the result of abuse by his adoptive parents.  Sei is given the task of winning him back to human society through kindness. Meanwhile, the Shinsengumi start to wonder where Ito’s loyalties lie, and Vice Captain Yamanami apparently deserts the cause.

I love this series for its detailed portrait of life at the end of an historical era: the Shinsengumi think they are "saving Japan" by which they mean the traditions of the feudal empire, which would be washed away in just a few years by the Meiji Restoration which began the transformation of Japan to the modern country we know today. But there were many good traditions in feudal Japan, for instance the expectation that a samurai would be educated in literature and history as well as fighting: Soji speaks admiringly of Ito’s erudition as well as his skill as a swordsman, and the fact that he agreed to join the Shinsengumi because their leader, Kondo Isami, spent two hours a day practicing calligraphy by copying a book written by Rai Sanyo, a Confucian philosopher and poet.

There’s also a lot of astute psychology in the series, beginning with the character of Ito: there have probably been military men in American history who were both married to women and connoisseurs of young men, but you’d never know it from our popular culture. Certainly, such men are not commonly featured as heroes in novels written for teenagers. But Japanese popular culture allows for much more fluid gender roles, and there’s even a category  for the type of person which Ito finds attractive: bishonen or beautiful (and androgynous) young man.

The art of Kaze Hikaru is well-done but nothing out of the ordinary: the characters are drawn in the  standard shojo style (big eyes, no noses, expressive hair) and there are lots of patterned backgrounds and the like. But because Kaze Hikaru is an historical epic, there’s also lots of action (including a kendo battle in vol. 10) and detailed drawings of landscapes and buildings. Taeko Watanabe has an odd habit of occasionally drawing people without faces: I’m not sure if this is a production oversight or if there is some meaning which I am missing.

Each volume includes several extras, including translation notes and a bonus manga which in volume 10 describes the process of recording Kaze Hikaru drama CD and in volume 11 gives some historical background on yuri (prostitutes) in the Edo era. Kaze Hikaru is rated T+ or "recommended for older teens" presumably due to the violence and implied sexual content. A preview of the first volume in this series is available at http://www.shojobeat.com/manga/kh/om.php. | Sarah Boslaugh