You & Me, Etc. (僕らにまつわるエトセトラ) by Kyugo

To be honest, when I was going over the choices for the next batch of manga for me to buy, this manga didn't make it to the top choices. At that time, I had planned to buy only three volumes, but Kyugo's work was not one of them, although I took a second look at it because the art looked nice. (If you're curious, the three volumes I originally wanted to buy were Cute Beast (my review), Wolf Magic, and New Beginnings.) But out of sheer excitement over getting my allowance and having a discount if I added one more, I decided to include it in the list. And oh boy, was I glad I did.

Front cover of the book, starring Keita (left) and Iku (right). I learned that the
original Japanese tankoubon had a white background, after a quick Google search.

Back cover of the book, featuring Suga. Still don't understand why that
huge M is there in place of a YA -- even Mangaupdates classified this work as shounen-ai.

Kyugo's You & Me, Etc. is a collection of three short stories that emphasize childhood friendship, keeping secrets, and indebtedness to an old friend. The first one, the title story, tells us about the struggles of childhood friends Kirishima Iku and Kanai Keita who used to play and excel in baseball together and as children, did everything together. Somewhere along their inseparable relationship was an accident
that changed everything. Both of them got injured, but Keita's wounds were so serious that he could not play baseball anymore. Ever since then, they've drifted away; now, they're both in senior high, Iku beats up the baseball team for pestering him to join the team, and Keita is fooling around with girls. The manga then shows the inevitability of their meeting as childhood friends whose lives are weaved and twisted around each other.

A page (or two) from the first story.

The second story, meanwhile, centers on two young high school students from different worlds, model student Fujishiro and laid-back Suga, who meet through odd circumstances. Suga is halfhearted at his friendships, his love life, his participation on the basketball team (even though he has talent) and everything in his life. One day, after a casual 'meetup' with a girl who admires his athleticism, he stumbles upon Fujishiro, who is having an illicit affair with a teacher. They meet eyes and Fujishiro bribes him for silence the next day.

The second story. You gotta love my quirky angles! ;)

Finally, the third story is about a writer who one day finds a man starving and crawling by his doorstep. Kawahara Tatsushi, the novelist, lets the poor man Akira in and gives him food through his editor Ito's urging, much to his annoyance. He then finds out that Akira was actually looking for him after leaving his province because the boy's father, Kawahara-sensei's old teacher, referred Akira to him should he come to Tokyo.

The third story, in its first chapter. (This one was divided in two chapters, you see.)

This manga definitely hit the spot for me. The art was amazing and perfect, in the sense that there was a balance between cleanness and detail, and in terms of the masculinity or femininity of her characters, Kyugo's style also falls in the middle of the spectrum (i.e. It's neither too bara or too manly (*cough* Man of Tango) nor too girly (*hack* Love Stage!!), but a nice balance in between.) while maintaining a beautiful art style with intricate shades and shadowing at the right moments. It isn't that unusual to see manga with this balance in art, but there are still a few exceptional extremes that have me cringing when I see them. No offense to the people who like those kinds of manga, but I make a note to stay away from them since they're really not for me.

Another thing to note about You & Me, Etc. is the existence of an actual logical and memorable plot that deviates from the stereotypical yaoi stories of pining, rape, force, ambiguous relationships, etc. The manga features drama out of fixing broken relationships, leaving your own house where your beloved late dad rests because of a selfish stepmother, and earnestly loving in a forbidden relationship that ended in tragedy. The stories were enjoyable despite the lack of any explicit scenes which most yaoi manga have nowadays even though they lack an enjoyably logical plot. (I wonder why it's rated M, though... I think YA or 16+ fits it better, to be honest.)

However, to be perfectly honest, although I loved the title story to bits, and liked the third story about Akira-kun to an extent, the second story wasn't exactly that memorable. I don't really blame the mangaka for that, considering it was supposedly a one-shot, one-chapter sort of thing, but it felt like a chapter was not enough to further elaborate the story.

But then again, for a first manga, it was very impressive and worth a read, (definitely better a plot than other disappointments I've read) so kudos to Kyugo-sensei for that. :) I especially loved her characters to bits (Keita and Iku are two of the sweetest boys I've ever seen, Akira too). Suga and Fujishiro's character designs reminded me of No. 6's Shion and Nezumi for some reason.

Overall, I didn't regret buying the manga. In fact, after reading this work, I've added Kyugo-san to the list of mangaka whose works I would prioritize buying because I trust that neither her art style nor her plots would disappoint me (like Natsume Isaku, or Junko). Although her works aren't always exactly perfect, I can rest easy that her art style will always be beautifully drawn. And I'm always a sucker for nice art style. (Pretty obvious from my commentary, don't you think?)