On Votaries, I discuss the importance of jobs in fiction, specifically mystery shows, specifically Blue Bloods.
Job are important in romance too.
I especially enjoy the cops in Sanami Matoh's Fake.
Fake is the first yaoi series that I read--if one discounts Descendants of Darkness (which many critics do, placing it in the "too complicated to label" genre).
I believe that I read the first volume through the local library system. Memory being what it is, it is possible that I initially Interlibrary-loaned the first 6 volumes (I know I had to order the 7th from Amazon--I then worked backwards to collect them all).
I was immediately enchanted. I love police procedurals, for one thing (Blue Bloods, The Closer, Law & Order). The series is also exceptionally well-translated; I'm convinced that the translator, Nan Rymer is also a Law & Order fan. The slang, interoffice grumblings, in-office arguments, use of expletives and contemporary allusions are entirely appropriate to the genre and to Law & Order specifically. The series came out in 1994 and was translated in 2003. I have elsewhere compared Dee to Mike Logan from original Law & Order. Ryo, on the other hand, is the archetypal dreamy hero though he is a sharpshooter par excellence!
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| Dee in Mike Logan-mode |
In some ways, Fake was an entirely appropriate introduction to yaoi: the high jinks, ADHD ongoing action, the entire lack of reality despite the realistic setting: everyone in the police department is completely blithe about Dee and J.J.'s sexuality. Eh, so they're bi and gay; hey, who cares?! FYI: The series is set in the late 1990s, not the distant future.
In some ways, reading Fake first was a little misleading. I had no idea until much later that having Dee and Ryo be tall, obviously masculine, and equally aggressive (cop-wise) was in any way unusual for yaoi, especially yaoi in the late 1990s. Dee is the pursuer while Ryo is the pursued--but again, I didn't realize until much later that their seme/uke roles are quite unlike those in much other yaoi. Dee is always trying to kiss Ryo but there is no non-con,
and he accepts Ryo's apparent disinterest with grace and surprising
maturity (this is Dee we're talking about). As for Ryo, he isn't a
straight man falling in love against his will with another guy. He's a
gay man coming to terms with being gay.
I had no idea that any of this was outside-the-box. All I cared about, then and now, was the stories and character development. Each volume has several "cases" from a serial bomber to several serial killers to a couple of drug lords. Each case is well-plotted. There's an overarching plot with a sweet resolution.
The character development is aided, of course, by the fact that the romance takes place in the workplace. The characters have jobs!
They are cops, so they have cases to discuss (see above), witnesses to interview and protect, clues to track down, fights to end. They also have a blustery Gormley-type boss, a competitive detective who tries to break up their partnership, and--after the station house is blown up--a new office to move into.
They do all of that while presenting personal character flaws and virtues in a comprehensible context.
The series does end a tad abruptly--though there have been additions. Matoh's art changed slightly later on--I discuss this when I reviewed Until the Full Moon. For now, I will state that Matoh continues to represent for me the powerful enchantment of art-in-motion (see post about Good Manga Art).
