It’s not just that I love you…but because I know that you love me, too.
Truly Kindly was the first Fumi Yoshinaga work I read and it was a rocky start for someone who likes sweet, romantic, fluffy stories best. The first story in this collection of shorts, “Truly Kindly”, was the longest of all these stories and also one of the most disturbing in general. It incorporated murder, rape, and incest into less than 60 pages, yet all these themes fit well into the story and didn’t make it seem as if it was busting at the seams with more to be told.
The rest of the stories were more to my liking: “A Slightly Malicious Confession” smoothly shifts between present day and several years ago to tell the story of the parting and reunion of two law school buddies. “A Today Completely Different From Yesterday” was a light and predictable comedy about an unfortunate day in a high school senior’s life. There wasn’t much substance, but the facial expressions were hilarious. “Pandora” wasn’t about the BL so much as it was about being tempted by the satisfaction of accomplishing a forbidden job; it was intense, but not in a sexual way.
“Chinoiserie”, “A Butler’s Proper Place”, and “A Day in the Life of an Aristocrat” are all loosely connected through the characters. I’ve always had a thing for non-modern European tales, so I’m instantly biased towards these, which take place before and during the French Revolution. The first, “Chinoiserie”, involves an attempted courtship between two aristocrats, in which the beau is repeatedly blown off and is instead sent a pretty, young man to play with instead of Madame herself. The question of whether he comes out of love or duty arises, which leads to its bittersweet conclusion. The second, “A Butler’s Proper Place” tells the story from the point of view of a spoiled, yet lovable, snob. He’d rather fool around with men than women, especially his straight-laced butler, but said butler is trying as hard as he can to get his master settled down and married. The last, “A Day in the Life of an Aristocrat”, is just a few pages long, but it is this that ties “Chinoiserie” and “A Butler’s Proper Place” together.
I’ve seen it mentioned before, and I have to agree, that Fumi Yoshinaga’s art is an acquired taste. Without actually reading her works and just glancing at the art, I’ve thought that it was too simple and sometimes even ugly. If I think about how I feel now and then compare it to how I felt while flipping through Antique Bakery a couple of years ago, I wonder what the hell was wrong with me then. I can’t tell you if I’ve changed (there are a lot of stories I read now that I wouldn’t even have considered then because of the art) or if the stories affect the art, but either way, I find the art beautiful now. Still simple, but not at all ugly.