Hero-Heel: Which Is Which?
Written: Dec 18 '08 (Updated Feb 18 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Strong story, good psychological realism, great action sequences
Cons: Character designs a little too confusing
The Bottom Line: The beginning of a pretty good yaoi series from Tateno -- a good set-up for what comes later.
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| rmthunter's Full Review: Makoto Tateno - Hero Heel 1 |
At last, a yaoi series I can treat one volume at a time. Hero-Heel is a series by one of my favorite mangaka, Makoto Tateno. Although I have some reservations about her character designs, she manages to build some good stories.
Masaki Minami is a young actor who has landed the lead role of "Oreas" in a new children's super-hero TV show, "Transdimensional Warriors Airguard." He has to be coaxed into auditioning by his agent, who is desperate to get him some work -- he considers himself a "real" actor, and doesn't think a children's TV show is up to his talent. He carries that attitude into the first press conference, where his co-star, Kazuomi Sawada, laughs at him for his pretensions. It doesn't help matters when Minami learns that Sawada is unashamedly gay, although he is forced to recognize his talent and skill as an actor. Things progress in this sort of edgy fashion until Minami realizes that he is in love with Sawada, who makes it no secret that he despises Minami. Minami foolishly forces a confrontation, with results far worse than he had imagined.
My reservations with Tateno's character designs fall squarely in the area of using templates: she does use what amounts to a standard rendering: characters are willowy, androgynous, with elfin features. What's particularly noticeable are the small mouths and noses. The uke will invariably be big-eyed and usually fair-haired, while the seme is invariably narrow-eyed and usually dark-haired. This is a case in which it can be hard to tell characters apart, especially for readers new to her style. I don't want to overstate this -- there are mangaka with whom I have much more difficulty in this regard. And, I've discovered that it does become easier to tell them apart as one grows more familiar with Tateno's work -- differences in features can be very subtle, but they are apparent.
On the upside, Tateno invariably manages to come up with a good story. This one is no different. Although it's not her usual action/adventure, it is about actors who are making an action/adventure series, so there's a little bit of behind-the-scenes interest in addition to the action sequences -- and her action sequences are invariably good, clear and with a strong sense of motion. The psychological drama going on only adds to the intrigue. That drama is largely the result of Minami's character: although likeable enough, he is a little arrogant and pretentious, not to mention judgmental. He's not real strong on self-sufficiency, either. He becomes a lot easier to sympathize with as he starts to learn a little bit about what the real world is like. And even though Sawada is a real s.o.b., we get the feeling that he's not really all that uncaring and that he's playing a deeper game than he's letting on, which seems to be typical of Tateno's semes.
The story is fairly straightforward in this volume, although the ending is a subtle cliff-hanger: it's a climax, of sorts, but you know that there are a lot of wrinkles to be ironed out. I have no reservations about recommending it.
Other works by Makoto Tateno:
Hero-Heel 2
Hero-Heel 3
Ka Shin Fu
Steal Moon
Yellow
Recommended:
Yes
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rmthunter
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Member: Robert Tilendis
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