Kouji Nanjou, from birth, was brought into a family where all of the men seem to suffer infidelity & mental problems. Even as a child he was a shell of a human being with no ambitions or desires, but was a prodigy who excelled at everything. He hit puberty very early & never felt anything for any of the women he bedded. One day he saw child only a little older than himself playing soccer & felt desire for the first time in his life. He obsessed over the memory of the child who's eyes were so full of the life & passion he lacked, & so he became a singer in hopes his words would reach that person's ears.
Once Kouji found the person he longed for, he discovered that it was a boy. He had never been attracted to other men before, nor had he ever felt emotions towards a woman. To this man, he felt everything & learned that a person's sex was not what determined love & desire. He clung obstinately to this man like a barnacle, unintentionally bringing humiliation & suffering to him & in a chain reaction, to those around him, just as he unintentionally had to his own brothers.
Izumi became Kouji's only goal in life, his wish, the only thing he wanted or cared about, the reason he grew his hair, the reason he sang, the reason he would physically harm himself, his own family, & others. Unfortunately for him, Izumi had a traumatic childhood & felt deep betrayal from his parents, & would become the sort of person who feared that if he had love in his life, that it would be taken away from him again, so when success was in his grasp, he would step back & run away. As a result, he neither dated nor pushed his ambitions to play professional soccer.
The two would come to live together as roommates, & Izumi would very slowly come to reciprocate Kouji's feelings, even though both his fear of obtaining & losing love & sabotage from both friends & enemies would continuously push the reset button on Izumi's acceptance of Kouji every time their relationship was starting to come together.
As things continue to progress, Izumi acknowledges that Kouji is the reason he could finally realize his own love & ambition for soccer & would become as famous as the man who chased him. There is a power shift in their relationship where Kouji only desires to please & not piss off Izumi, & Izumi uses a balance of promises & threats to emotionally manipulate Kouji.
But like all the men in his family, especially Akihito, Kouji has a mental sickness that worsens over time & he struggles & argues with himself, he sabotages himself, sets himself up for failure. When things are going good, he will do something stupid to set it all back.
In violeume 15, Koiji & Takuto have a happy ending (at least I think they do...Takuto said he loved Kouji, but will he ever play soccer again?).The first chapter of volume 15 is literally a remake of the "Ai ni Obore, Ai ni Shisu Hentai" ending with more story elements added & pretty much all of the sex cut out (I guess Margaret wasn't the best choice of publisher for a yaoi series).The 2ed chapter seems like it was going to continue the main story but was aborted afterwards, so a translator could easily skip this chapter because it doesn't contribute to a decent ending, since a character who should be dead & is not seen is claiming to have done things offscreen that are not shown. (like how the Under the Dome TV series has a decent ending if you skip the last season). & the other 75% of the manga is kinda like a continuation of Kaen Enjou/Danshou where it focuses on the past of the Nanjou father & uncle in their youths.
Art: Despite very slight & gradual art evolution over time, it's managed to maintain a late 80s/early 90s style with some strong Bauhaus layouts (& potentially Patrick Nagel inspired aesthetics) in the frames & background. Her unique style has been a favorite of mine for over 15 years. It wasn't until I discovered Old Xian tha tI realized tha tno other manga artist has truly clicked with me quite the way Minami Ozaki has. Even when the art looks like an unfinished rough sketch, it's still amazing. My only complaint is how poor the grayscale is on the chapter art, which were converted from full-color images.
Influence: This is an old classic. People could say it was cliche without realizing it was a trendsetter. When I read psychological BL mangas, manhuas, & manhwas like Warehouse, Hago Ha Gyeong-Su, You're My Love Prize in Viewfinder, Koisuru Boukun, & Zankoku na Kami ga Shihaisuru, I have to wonder if their creators didn't grow up on Zetsuai & Kaze to Ki no Uta.
Nostalgia: One of, if not THE first BL series I ever watched (the OVA), one of my first Japanese music albums, one of my first scanlation readings (indeed, one of the oldest scanlated series on the net).
Story & characters: Unlike the vast majority of BL comics, this has a serious story, deep character development, & bothers giving background characters their own story arcs. These characters also occur multiple permanent bodily injuries; something I would expect from Seinen manga.
Criticisms: The art is very stylized; the massive oversized hands & shoulders won;t be everyone's cup of tea. She never did get any good at drawing feet. In volume 15, Takuto's tan is gone...I guess it's reasonable since he hasn't played soccer in some time, but Koujis muscles have completely wasted away somehow & he actually looks his age & is not all that much larger than Takuto. Chapter 2's ending of volume 5, while I cannot read it, seems to be a point of contention for Japanese readers who called it a "non-ending" in their reviews.
(-5)
