ISHIDA Ikue, a new-to-me mangaka!

[epistasthai]

Well this is embarrassing:  it seems to be my common refrain: “It’s been a while since I’ve posted”. I am simply gonna have to get myself organized. (oh wait, it's supposed to be, "I'm simply gonna have to make myself get organized").

Today I wanted to talk about a mangaka I’ve recently discovered: ISHIDA Ikue. I haven’t read very much by her, but what I have read, I’ve enjoyed. I’ve read these so far:

Pride v1 and v2

The World is Full of Cheating Boyfriends

All the Time

(Disclosure: I’ve received a loaner digital reviewer copy from DMG for these titles. A fact for which I’m really grateful, because I was introduced to a new-to-me mangaka. This means that these titles are available in English at places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eManga and other sites. Yay!).

Today I’ll talk about Pride, and will talk about the others in the next few weeks. Pride is my favourite of these so far. This is a story about three lawyers, two of whom are trying to seduce the third. It’s hard to resist a really good love triangle, isn’t it? It’s also a sad fact that you don’t come across a well-written triangle very often. And by “well-written” I mean a triangle in which all three characters are compelling enough to be genuine contenders. Often triangles end up with one character being deficient in some way, which in effect removes him from serious competition in the determination of which two should pair off.  Fortunately for us readers, ISHIDA-sensei does a triangle story quite well. In fact halfway through this series, I suddenly realized I was hoping for a threesome. (Do they?)

They don't. Sorry. But Amamiya actually considers it in v2...

But whom to choose? The younger, good-looking man with something to prove? Or the slightly older, handsome cool and detached man with a mysterious past? They say you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but a story like this makes you want to find a way to do so. What a choice to have to make!

In Pride, ISHIDA-sensei has created interesting, well-rounded characters for her triangle: Amamiya, Morooka, and Katori.  Amamiya is lonely and hasn’t had a relationship in a while. His previous boyfriend had transferred abroad. Whilst he looks very intimidating when he’s interrogating someone, actually he is quite lonely and longs for someone to hold him. When two prosecutors are transferred in, he realizes he is attracted to each one, but for different reasons. And his number one personal rule is NO WORKPLACE ROMANCE. He’s never broken this rule. But somehow he manages to break this rule one evening when he gets drunk.

Morooka is a few years younger than Amamiya, but he is mature for his age. He’s worked hard to get where he is in the Prosecutor’s Office. He had to give up his dream of entering the legal profession when his father collapsed right after he graduated from university. So he managed the family business for three years and then entered the prosecutor’s office. He loves his work, and he loves Amamiya. This is because he saw Amamiya as a young prosecutor when Morooka was struggling to keep his family’s business together.

Katori is a few years older than Amamiya, and is an elite in the legal profession. In fact, he’s often referred to as the “Prince of the Prosecutor’s Office”. But some unknown scandal forced him out and now he’s working with Amamiya.

Both Morooka and Katori try to seduce Amamiya, and I must say, their attempts are amusing. Pride is not a comedy, but there were times when I laughed out loud. One of the things I like about ISHIDA-sensei is that she sprinkles lots of understated things throughout the story, small things that give the reader a more complete picture of what's going on. They're very subtle, and if you read too quickly, you might miss them.

Another thing I really enjoyed about Pride was the dialogue. Plus, it was nice to have the legal system explained, at least the legal system that exists in this story. For instance, judges are constrained by the constitution and the law and are answerable to those only. Prosecutors have to work under a chief prosecutor and the arrangement is a bit more bureaucratic. (I’m not sure how correct these explanations actually are, but they fit quite well into the storyline). The cases these prosecutors work on in the course of this book had me wondering about the outcomes – did that kid get convicted of mugging his boss? What happened with that “first time” shoplifter, the one Amamiya suspected wasn’t as innocent as everyone thought? But these are just sides to the actual goings on. This is not a police procedural or crime drama, so these cases aren’t presented from start to finish. A great deal of character development happens within the confines of these cases, however, and that’s one reason Pride is so interesting. (okay, I admit I enjoy police procedurals, mysteries, crime drama, etc. Do I know lots about policework and the law? Nope, I just like reading about the characters who are involved in these things.)

What happens when you put three ambitious men together? Perhaps it depends on what they’re ambitious for. It is tempting to make one party in the triangle a jerk, so it is easy for the reader to choose who to root for. But ISHIDA-sensei doesn’t take this easy way out – she makes each one of the characters interesting and engaging. I didn’t know who to root for, because I liked all of them. And this was what held my attention through two volumes – I couldn’t figure out who I liked more, and surprisingly, I found myself not being able to decide which two I wanted to end up as a couple. As I read, I kept waffling back and forth between the characters. Usually I can decide fairly quickly which character I like more, or who I wanna pair off. I couldn’t make a decision on these issues, even by the end of the first volume of Pride.

Volume 1 of Pride showed us that all three of these men have different motivations. On the surface they have the same ambition: to be good public prosecutors. But under the surface, they each have different reasons for trying to advance their career. Amamiya needs a stable career in order to protect himself, because he is hiding the fact that he is gay. Even so, he is inspired by the notion of finding and punishing lawbreakers (he is a fearsome interrogator). He finds satisfaction in contributing to the well-being of society, in part because he won't be getting married and starting a family. Being a prosecutor is the way he chooses to contribute. Katori is an elite who believes strongly in justice, but he also understands that the legal system is heavily influenced by less worthy notions. He understands that the law is a sharp blade, and the ones holding the handle of that blade must be cunning indeed if they want to escape being caught up in the shady webs behind the scenes. Morooka is driven by the hardships he had to endure to get into the prosecutor’s office, and the image of a fierce younger Amamiya in court is always in his mind. He understands from his own experience why someone could commit a crime out of desperation, but he can’t forgive a crime not done out of desperation.

It is these differences that become really apparent in this second volume. Another mangaka might take the easy way out and make it a simple battle for the ‘best’ prosecutor or ‘best’ lover for Amamiya, but Ishida-sensei doesn’t do this. Instead, she gives each man subtly different motivations. So on the surface, they are all ambitious men, but in actuality they are ambitious for different reasons and for different things. And what makes it interesting (at least to me) is that each one is not simply ambitious for his own sake.

These ambitions play out in the romantic triangle as well. Who will Amamiya pick? In the first volume we saw that his choice was between Morooka and Katori. In this second volume, we begin to see that this is not just the usual tale of two men vying for the attentions of the same guy. It’s not even the usual tale of a guy who is pulling the strings of his two suitors. In the second volume
of Pride, all three have strings to pull, and pull they do. But what makes this so interesting is that all three are sympathetic characters, and no one is simply the ‘bad’ guy. (In fact, no one is the bad guy). It is genuinely difficult for Amamiya (and for the reader) to choose between Katori and Morooka, because they both are compelling and sympathetic characters. Again, I found myself wanting a threesome, just so no one would get their heart broken. And it is really funny when Amamiya actually starts to consider a threesome. (Do they? Not telling).

As we learn more about the two men Amamiya is caught between, we find that each one has something dark looming around them. Morooka has many connections and isn’t afraid to use them to find more information. Once he grabs hold of something, he won’t let go until he is satisfied. And this makes him quite formidable. Katori is embroiled in family politics and there are people behind him who are determined to rub out any entanglements he may fall into. But are any of these enough to deter Amamiya? Seen in a certain light, these things may be admirable.

Often in these type of stories, I can usually figure out who’s going to get left behind, but I couldn’t this time. I couldn't even decide for myself what to hope for. As the story progressed, I still couldn’t decide who would be the best pick for Amamiya. I will say that the ending was very satisfying. And it is still satisfying each time I re-read these two volumes. I wish ISHIDA-sensei would write some more about these characters.