rmthunter's Full Review: Hyouta Fujiyama - Sunflower 1
Sunflower is one of the spin-offs from Hyouta Fujiyama's Ordinary Crush, and now that the second volume is out, I'm prepared to say that it's the most substantial and sophisticated of the group.. This being one of those cases in which the story continues over both volumes, I'm not going to restrict my comments to volume 1, since I hate that.
Sunflower centers on Ryuhei Ohno, whom we met as an impossibly cute middle-school student in a side story included in Ordinary Crush2 ("Love Changes"), in which he displays more than a little propensity for mischief. Sunflower begins with the same story, told this time from Ryuhei's point of view: Kaname Aikawa is an occasional substitute tutor for his friend Junya Ohta, whose main charge is Ryuhei; Ryuhei, of course, is in love with Aikawa, who is in love with his classmate Furuya. When push comes to shove, we begin to see the kind of man Ryuhei will become: accepting that he has no chance with Aikawa, Ryuei is the one who brings Furuya and Aikawa together.
The story then moves on to the beginning of Ruyhei's high-school career, where he meets Kunihisa Imaizumi, a transfer student from an "outside" school. (Don't forget that this is all part of the Kinsei complex of stories, the all-male school where it's rumored that 90% of the student body is gay or bi.) Imaizumi is clueless about the school's reputation. Ryuhei is quite open about the situation, including the fact that his own first love was a guy, and in spite of some initial difficulties, he and Imaizumi become fast friends, working together as assistants to the vice president of the student council, Kyougo Noze. Ryuhei doesn't really like Noze as it happens, and is only persuaded to join the council by Imaizumi's insistence: Imaizumi decides, as a result of his own research after Ryuhei initially refuses the job, that only Ryuhei is suitable. Things go along fine until, one afternoon after a council meeting, Ryuhei quite unaccountably blows his stack at Imaizumi's comfortable relationship with Noze. He realizes, after he storms out of the school, that he's jealous -- he's fallen for Imaizumi. Being Ryuhei, it's not long until he confesses to Imaizumi, shortly before summer vacation. Imaizumi, of course, rejects his affections, but not really very definitely or forcefully. Nevertheless, the question of whether Ryuhei will continue as part of the student council, necessitating as it does close contact with the boy who just rejected him, is open.
However, they are reunited: Kawahara, a recurring minor character, arranges a visit to Imaizumi's home in the country with his friend Kakizaki to see Imaizumi's village's summer festival. They arrive with Ryuhei in tow and events take their course.
One of the interesting things about Sunflower is that Fujiyama avoids the standard formula: yes, Ryuhei and Imaizumi are lovers at the end, but getting there does not involve the path of almost-instant acceptance that is so common in yaoi: Ryuhei has to work to overcome Imaizumi's reluctance, and even at the end, they're just barely getting started. The story is about the "courtship" -- that is, the irresistible force finally moving the immovable object.
One of Fujiyama's great gifts, I think, is characterization, and in Sunflower it comes into full play -- the story is all about the characters of Ryuhei and Imaizumi. I was struck not only with character as established in the text, but also her ability to capture character -- and, in fact, fleeting emotional states -- in the graphic work. Dialogue and drawing work together to reveal a greater depth to her characters than we have any right to expect. I found myself going through this one again last night and stopping, caught by particular frames in which she has captured, with a stunning economy, a very real sense of where a given character is right now. There is a wonderful frame near the end of the main story, when Ryuhei and Imaizumi have just shared their first kiss in a field of sunflowers that snaps you right back to Ryuhei as a middle school student, with a big grin on his face that is half triumph, half mischief.
I also have noticed here more than elsewhere -- or maybe it's just that the work in this series has snapped it all into focus -- the development of Fujiyama's graphic style. Those frames are worthy of attention not only because of the content, but just because they are so beautiful: the idea that someone can make such an arresting image with half a face rendered with a few lines and shadows is simply awe-inspiring.
This ability with character comes through in the side story at the end of volume 1, "Love Takes Two," about Aikawa and Furuya. Like all the Aikawa/Furuya stories, it's a charmer, and reflects the character of two of the nicest guys you ever want to meet: Aikawa, tall, shy, insecure, and about as cute as it gets, and Furuya, almost as tall, self-confident, direct, and a Rock of Gibralter when faced with Aikawa's worries.
Character is even more remarkable in the side story at the end of volume 2, "More Than Just Heart, More Than Just Body." This one involves Fumiaki Kozue, president of the student council in Sunflower, and his assistant, Leiji Sumiyoshi, who among other things are sex buddies. There's more involved, of course: The Sumiyoshi family has served the Kozues for generations, and one reason that Leiji and Fumiaki are inseparable is that Leiji is Fumiaki's self-appointed bodyguard, ever since an incident in their first year at Kinsei. Leiji sparks a crisis by applying to a different school: he says he needs some distance. Watching the character of Fumiaki unfold -- and he's not the most sympathetic character in these books, having been shown previously as fairly shallow and spoiled -- is a revelation. You may not like him any more than you did, but you understand him a lot better. (And it's illuminating going back and rereading Sunflower after reading this story -- you start to see hints about Kozue's personality that you probably missed first time through.)
I have no hesitation in recommending this two-volume series. For those concerned, the sex scenes are almost non-existent, and quite demure when they do happen, but Fujiyama's ability to chart the growth of relationships has gone up a notch or two. Her graphics are up to their usual high standard, and maybe even a little beyond: clean, strong, spare, and sometimes breathtaking.
(In fact, I am so taken with Fujiyama's work that you can look forward to a series of reviews of her BL manga. She's that interesting.)
Ryuhei Ohno is determined to make a fresh start in high school. On the first day of class, he meets Kunihisa Imaizumi. Kunihisa has joined the school ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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