After yesterday's rather annoyed review of an LGBT book, I thought I'd showcase one that was actually good. However as I'm short on time (but long on ambition) today's feature is going to be crossposted from
New readers..start here!. I've been debating between showing off Antique Bakery or The Moon and Sandals, and have ended up with Antique Bakery, because this review is at least new and written this month, which I felt was more in the spirit of
the book challenge. Please don't forget about
The Moon and Sandals though! In some ways it's a better book. And hey, if it's superheroes you want for your LGBT fix, then we
have those too. While you're at it, don't
forget about the webcomics!
Anyway, enough plugging, on with the review!
Writer and artists: Fumi Yoshinaga
What's it about?
An old antique shop reopens as a bakery. A surprising selection of characters staff the shop, some unlikely coincidences take place and some delicious cakes and pastries get baked.
The book opens with some historical episodes.
14 years ago... In high school Ono confesses his love for Tachibana, who responds by telling him to 'Hurry up and die, homo'. Nice.
13 years ago...Urishihara is being bullied in school for looking different and Miss Ito admires her.
5 years ago...Eiji Kanda is a champion boxer. Unfortunately for him he develops a detached retina and is forced to give up boxing.
3 years ago...Mr Tadahiro is a grumpy businessman with a wife and son and an obsessive desire for desserts.
This unlikely group of people drift to the Antique Bakery. We learn some secrets, see some relationships blossom, and, well, learn a lot about different types of cake.
This is a Yaoi title. Yaoi means boys love and is the name given to manga about male couples. Yaoi can be explicitly about sex, or can be more about the relationship side of things. Some of it can be a coming out narrative, some of it can just be two men getting it on. A lot of it is written by women, for women. The female equivalent is called Yuri. This book is not explicit and is far more about baking than sex.
What's good about it? Oooh it's simply delightful!
Let's start with the bakery part - throughout the book there are mouth watering descriptions of cake. If you like cake you'll want to eat them all. My book comes with a scratch and sniff cover - you get an aroma of strawberries. I read this on a Monday and it took me until Friday to find a cake that could satisfy my craving (Japanese cheesecake with green tea ice cream, since you ask).
The book is more of a cooking manga than a story about sexuality. Ono's gayness is present throughout the book, as it is part of him. His sexuality is part of him, but not necessarily always the most important part, and the story reflects that. It's normalising of different sexualities in a way that is often missed by mainstream Western media outlets.
Having said that, there is a subplot about Tachibana and Ono. Tachibana may start as an asshole but by the end of the book he has been thoroughly outshone by Ono. It is clear that Ono is the better person, and in fact, in one of the best lines of the book, it is stated that Ono has grown up to become "..no ordinary gay. He's a demonically charmed gay, unspeakably gay, a legendary gay" who inadvertently seduces every man he takes a fancy to. It's enough to send right wing bigots everywhere into a frenzy ;)
Note: Due to computer issues the scans in this post are taken from fan translations on the internet, so some lettering and vocabulary may be different from the official printed version.
If this book were a song it would be a light little summer ditty.
What's bad about it?
Not a lot, if I'm honest, The characters are all easily distinguishable (something I often have problems with in black and white books), the plots are fun and the build up to various reveals is done with skill and precision. There are a few panels where it's not terribly easy to work out what the reading order is but overall it's fine.
Please note that this book is presented in the original Japanese format, so you read it back to front, right to left. An explanation of how to read manga can be found at the bottom of
this post.
What's the art like?
Most panels have little to no background detail, this has two effects - 1, you focus in on the character's faces and body language and the story is told through the way the characters are placed in each panel. 2, the blank space gives a feeling of solitude and contentment that you would expect to find in a peaceful artisan bakery.
Yoshinaga doesn't use a lot of pencil lines for her characters. This produces restrained and simplified images where little things denote expressions and moods, for example, the angle of an eyebrow or a mouth. Occasionally a wrinkle or a tear is shown, and it is their very scarcity which increases the impact of the scene.
To complement this simplicity, shading techniques are used quite often to emphasise moods and space. And then, because there's an exception to every rule, some panels will be bursting with ink:
Other information
You are unlikely to find yaoi titles in mainstream bookshops, as the sexual content is incompatible with a genre still widely (and incorrectly) considered suitable only for children. Because of this, you will be best off buying yaoi titles from amazon, ebay or British online distributors such as
United Publications and
Anime Online.
To read more from the same author, try
Antique Bakery volumes 2 to 4, or
The Moon and Sandals. Click
here to see what other LGBT books we have covered. Click
here to read other romance and Valentines themed posts.
And I feel a little more energised. But still pissed off.
![justaguywitharrows:
kiriamaya:
[TRIGGER WARNING for murder and trans-hatred]
[Image is a black-and-white picture of Tyra Hunter, a short-haired black woman, wearing what appears to be a turtleneck with a necklace]
abbyjean:
It was the morning of Aug. 7, 1995, and Tyra Hunter, a popular African-American hairdresser, was on her way to work in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, the car she was in was broadsided. In this situation, one would expect that Hunter would have promptly been taken to a hospital, where she would have received whatever medical care she needed. But tragically, and outrageously, that is not what happened. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they helped the barely-conscious Hunter out of the car and began treating her, but only until one of them realized she was transgender after cutting open her clothing. At that point, they backed away from her, began laughing at her and taunting her with anti-transgender slurs. They stopped treating her in a life-threatening situation. In what world does someone sworn to help others in emergency situations stop treating them to attack them? When she was finally transported to a hospital, her ordeal didn’t end. Doctors refused to treat her, and by the time she was finally granted medical care, it was too late. Hunter was pronounced dead the same day. (via COLORLINES)
Mandy Carter, “Still No Freedom Rainbow for Transgender People of Color”
may actually start weeping
What the fuck is wrong with people?](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tcGrD6IGeyEEL1AxCESqVmTwvNxF8Lt7cHuDNB45zCzUfcBs9DOu5DtTBg11ZlbWI-w0YOzjA3uImTUolqF7VIFAjAoudAXt0LfrDqoPzA-Js-t-pTcudRqEhUAroZpwc=s0-d)
