Jenny-fa

Koshiro, a professional wedding consultant, has recently been dumped by his girlfriend when he crosses paths with a cute high school girl. Though inappropriate due to their age difference (he’s 27, she’s 15), he winds up on what passes for a date with her, where he ultimately displays more of his feelings than he had intended. The awkwardness of the situation is heightened tenfold when the two discover that she, Nanoka, is the little sister that Koshiro hasn’t seen in more than a decade — and she’s moving in with him and his divorced father in order to attend high school! Never a man comfortable with his emotions, Koshiro must struggle to sort out feelings that just won’t go away even in light of their status as siblings. And how does Nanoka feel about Koshiro? Could it be that she, too, has feelings for him as well, feelings that transcend their familial status, even despite Koshiro’s moody nature?

But that really isn’t it. No basic plot synopsis could do this story justice. And so far, it’s much more heart-wrenching than I could have ever expected.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT. Plot elements are discussed in some detail here, but the ending is not revealed. Proceed with caution.

For some inexplicable reason, I’ve lately been interested in the taboo topic of incest — yes, incest — leading me to check out the novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov and most recently to peruse a Japanese manga entitled Koi Kaze. I’ve seriously been out of the manga/anime arena for a while (my last manga/anime was probably three or more years ago), so I didn’t quite know what to expect. The fact that Koi Kaze was a romance story, with my recently acquired aversion to romance and all, might have deterred me if I hadn’t known about the incest. And I must say…

The story distressed me. It truly did. But not because of the incest, I assure you. To be honest, I regard incestuous relationships, especially brother-sister ones, with much more respect and reverence than the “normal,” exogamous, heterosexual ones (and in my mind silly and inherently false). I suppose it’s mainly due to my skepticism of the existence of true love between strangers, and perhaps… because I recognize that at least with brothers and sisters, there’s a certain intimacy and simultaneously a certain agony that cannot be found anywhere else. Intimacy because of their familial relationship and close proximity to each other within the same household… and the small things that are usually taken for granted between siblings but in these cases demonstrate one’s love for one another. And agony, of course, because of the ever-present societal taboo and the consequent guilt surrounding one’s feelings.

No, that wasn’t what bothered me. It was just…

As far as manga characters go, Koshiro Saeki, in my opinion, has to be one of the genre’s most genuine creations. I like him very much. The author was infinitely wise in dispensing with the oft-abused, archetypal pretty-boy male and creating in his stead a real, believable and tormented human. Koshiro is not handsome. He’s described as a 27-year-old “bear of a man” who works a decidedly uninteresting job at a marriage counseling agency. He’s often brusque but hides within himself all of his troubled thoughts and emotions. And then the scenes that depict him as lying awake, tossing and turning on his bed in the dead of night, struggling to overcome his confusion and preventing his thoughts from straying to his sister…

Nanoka Kihonata. In this case, a stereotypical pretty and carefree high school girl. Even though her expressions and antics are often too cute to be taken seriously (there were moments when even I wanted to hug her and say “Awwwwww…”), her unique situation and her gradual maturation add deeper layers to her character. I especially empathized with her loneliness when Koshiro moved out… the moments spent looking into space, reliving cherished but confusing memories, and weeping anguished tears…

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And then he gently touches her face with his hand, as Nanoka bends over him on his bed.

“Do you want to sleep together?”

He seems to shake his head when he realizes what he’s said, then turns away. “I need to sleep. You should go to your own room.”

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Later, when they look at each other from beneath the bridge, Nanoka’s eyes burning with tears, she confesses in her agony, “The one I really like is Brother!”

To which Koshiro declares, with a desperate resolution in his eyes, “If you don’t need anything else, I won’t need anything else, either.”

And he bends down and kisses her on the mouth, as the freight train thunders across the bridge overhead, obscuring the two in shadow.

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But how can this story ever end in happiness? That’s what distresses me.

Although I have yet to read the series to its completion, thankfully (perhaps), when I recall the doomed qualities of their love, I frankly cannot expect Koi Kaze to end well. It’s rare for me to be so emotionally invested in fictional characters. But the whole inevitability of it all disturbed me the entire evening last night, and throughout the waking hours of this day. And although I have never experienced anything quite resembling that kind of emotional torment, Koi Kaze so far has proved to be a thoroughly devastating tale and an unforgiving eye-opener to the cruelty of fate and social conventions.

But to the author’s credit (Motoi Yoshida), I also have to complement the unique design and psychology of the main characters, especially those of Koshiro, Nanoka, and even Koshiro’s coworker Kaname Chidori. The art was also well done, and the story refreshingly unfettered by clichés (although the translator’s rendering in the scanlation I read left much to be desired… “Hello! You have a team of, like, five people! And none of you caught any of those comma splices???”)

Please. Don’t. End in tragedy…