The Conservatism of Erotica: Reibun Ike's Series

The 2-volume manga series here is about men from a group of related islands--all with different economic specialties--who battle to be king of the island alliance.

They engage in a frankly biologically-based battle that comes down to who can get the other man to..."spill." 

I'm being coy because being more direct would turn this into a sex blog, which it isn't (precisely). 

The manga is much more direct, both visually and verbally. 

And the series is one of the most thoroughly conservative series I've ever read. 

It is also remarkably well-written. Not only are the characters given clear and memorable personalities and not only does each couple have its own arc--the arcs are connected to human behavior, culture, and the central conflict. 

The primary couple is Harto and Matthew. Harto attends Oxford, where he has to learn to dress somewhat differently. There he meets Matthew, his boyfriend-to-be. He isn't sure how Matthew will react to his cultural practices. Matthew, an anthropologist, isn't sure either. But he is able to make the leap from I'm may not like this personally to I'm not the issue here--he is a rather objective guy. 

Another couple, Vampir and Naga, have to deal with Vampir turning into a somewhat different person--due to his island's mystical practices--during battle. Where exactly does love begin and end when the issue is "you are the person I want to be with"? 

And another couple have to deal with family members insisting that their marriage can't go forward unless the battle delivers a certain outcome. That particular storyline produces an examination of various cultural practices associated with permanent relationships, like who builds the couple's house and where.

And so on...

The series is truly remarkable and falls into erotica rather than porn because the set-ups are not merely excuses for characters to have sex or even loving dialog. I've read manga which were supposedly "cleaner" where I could never figure out whether the characters even had personalities, let along motivations for anything. But Reibun Ike's series is story--or, rather, a series of stories about characters and sex. 

In the end, how to be in relationships is what matters. And who people are--how they look, think, battle, and resolve problems--also matters. The physical is important. So is the emotional (feelings, memories). And fidelity is always on the table.