![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiroseThe 3rd and final volume of "I Want to be a Wall" dropped today, and I may have woken up early to go read it.
(I'm not the only one eager for new stuff for the fandom; I just got my 3rd comment for the tiny double drabble that I wrote earlier this year, and all of them have included a variation of "thank you for writing for this tiny manga".)
If you're not familiar, this is a slice of life manga about an aroace woman (who's into Boys Love) and a closeted gay man (who's in love with his childhood best friend) who get married and are trying to figure out a life together.
This series is generally pretty gentle and happy, but there's one instance of violence (someone gets stabbed, though it's more bloody than it appears), some stalking, and a fair amount of bias against nontraditional/childfree couples. Some might find Yuriko's Boys Love obsession offputting, but I found it quite mild and more used for comedic bits. There's some infidelity in one side character's backstory, and even a little bit of how more "exotic"-looking people (half-Japanese or people with partially Caucasian ancestry) can be idealized in the wrong way.
So, the first two volumes of the series (apart from the heck of a cliffhanger at the end of volume 2) have been about Yuriko and Gakurouta (Gaku) and their marriage, along with flashbacks to their younger years and how they ended up together despite the fact that they suffer from Incompatible Orientations. Basically, trying to get used to each other and really getting to know one another as a married couple despite not being a standard married heterosexual couple.
Despite not being interested in each other sexually, they found that they enjoyed each other's company and wished to spend the rest of their lives with each other.
Well, volume 3 goes a lot more into what love and marriage truly means, and ties it into the the end of volume 2.
First of all, the resolution to the volume 2 cliffhanger, where Yuriko is faced with a woman that's convinced Gaku's friend Sousuke is cheating on her with Yuriko. It turns out the woman that Sousuke is "cheating" with is his older half-sister; in fact, this volume goes into his backstory where it turns out he's the child of a man who cheated on his wife with a more "exotic" woman and he was born. His sister looks traditional Japanese and he looks more Western/white with blond hair.
This also plays into his own private insecurity and unhappiness. He's scared of being alone, but also scared, I think it's implied, of commitment. It doesn't help that he's "exotic" in the same way as Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club, so young women buy into that stereotype of "exotic prince".
Along with Sousuke's storyline is the couple's New Year visits with their respective families. Gaku's grandmother visits, and then they go to visit Yuriko's family. The two of them decide to "come clean" to their families - not about both of them being LGBT+ (or if it is, it's not mentioned onscreen), but the fact that they are effectively childfree in a society that really expects married couples to have children.
Let's just say that neither set of family members takes it really well, but they seem to have settled into the very annoying "oh, they're young, they'll change their minds" mindset. Which gives the couple some breathing room, but it's still not great.
In fact, Gaku's grandma blackmails Sousuke (by reminding him of all the destruction that he and Gaku caused when they were kids) into putting up a talisman into the couple's "bedroom" to encourage children. This is where he discovers documents that the two of them put together to make sure they had their cover story straight and also causes him to freak out that they're not in a "real" marriage, but some kind of sham. (They normally have separate bedrooms because they both like their space and they're not interested in sharing a bed with each other, but they hid that for Gaku's grandma's visit.)
Which leads them into a discussion of what marriage really means, and how there are multiple interpretations of it. There's the traditional view, where it's two people coming together out of love and a desire to have kids. There's Yuriko and Gaku's marriage, where they love each other - platonically - and wish to just be together. In the end, the message is that it's up to you to find your happiness, whether it's with someone or without, with kids or without. It's something that most people (at least in Japan) don't seem to understand - even Sousuke can't get his head around it.
There is a happy ending, though. Sousuke realizes that Gaku loves him, too, though I don't think he realizes that Gaku is gay. There's no poly relationship (Gaku and Yuriko continue to be together), but there's an implication that Sousuke finds his happiness not in a marriage, but in a friendship with the couple.
After that, there's an interlude where two of the side characters, who are both male and in love with each other, move to England because England is more accepting of LGBT+ couples, and a "years later" bit where Gaku and Yuriko discuss with their friends in England about the fact that they're running Gaku's childhood home as a shared living/working space for others and they're moving out to be in a smaller home that's easier to maintain. It's revealed that Gaku's grandmother has died, and no word about Yuriko's family, but they continue to be happy. The two side characters reveal they've acquired a child of their own who they are raising - yet another happy family, and there is happiness all around.
I find it interesting that Gaku and Yuriko choose to remain childfree - they can certainly adopt, even if they're never going to have children - but that fits into the theme of finding happiness their way even if it's not everybody else's.
Manga with aroace characters are rare, so I'm glad this one turned out so well, and I really enjoyed it. Too bad this is the end, but at least it's a warm, good end.
(I'm not the only one eager for new stuff for the fandom; I just got my 3rd comment for the tiny double drabble that I wrote earlier this year, and all of them have included a variation of "thank you for writing for this tiny manga".)
If you're not familiar, this is a slice of life manga about an aroace woman (who's into Boys Love) and a closeted gay man (who's in love with his childhood best friend) who get married and are trying to figure out a life together.
This series is generally pretty gentle and happy, but there's one instance of violence (someone gets stabbed, though it's more bloody than it appears), some stalking, and a fair amount of bias against nontraditional/childfree couples. Some might find Yuriko's Boys Love obsession offputting, but I found it quite mild and more used for comedic bits. There's some infidelity in one side character's backstory, and even a little bit of how more "exotic"-looking people (half-Japanese or people with partially Caucasian ancestry) can be idealized in the wrong way.
So, the first two volumes of the series (apart from the heck of a cliffhanger at the end of volume 2) have been about Yuriko and Gakurouta (Gaku) and their marriage, along with flashbacks to their younger years and how they ended up together despite the fact that they suffer from Incompatible Orientations. Basically, trying to get used to each other and really getting to know one another as a married couple despite not being a standard married heterosexual couple.
Despite not being interested in each other sexually, they found that they enjoyed each other's company and wished to spend the rest of their lives with each other.
Well, volume 3 goes a lot more into what love and marriage truly means, and ties it into the the end of volume 2.
First of all, the resolution to the volume 2 cliffhanger, where Yuriko is faced with a woman that's convinced Gaku's friend Sousuke is cheating on her with Yuriko. It turns out the woman that Sousuke is "cheating" with is his older half-sister; in fact, this volume goes into his backstory where it turns out he's the child of a man who cheated on his wife with a more "exotic" woman and he was born. His sister looks traditional Japanese and he looks more Western/white with blond hair.
This also plays into his own private insecurity and unhappiness. He's scared of being alone, but also scared, I think it's implied, of commitment. It doesn't help that he's "exotic" in the same way as Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club, so young women buy into that stereotype of "exotic prince".
Along with Sousuke's storyline is the couple's New Year visits with their respective families. Gaku's grandmother visits, and then they go to visit Yuriko's family. The two of them decide to "come clean" to their families - not about both of them being LGBT+ (or if it is, it's not mentioned onscreen), but the fact that they are effectively childfree in a society that really expects married couples to have children.
Let's just say that neither set of family members takes it really well, but they seem to have settled into the very annoying "oh, they're young, they'll change their minds" mindset. Which gives the couple some breathing room, but it's still not great.
In fact, Gaku's grandma blackmails Sousuke (by reminding him of all the destruction that he and Gaku caused when they were kids) into putting up a talisman into the couple's "bedroom" to encourage children. This is where he discovers documents that the two of them put together to make sure they had their cover story straight and also causes him to freak out that they're not in a "real" marriage, but some kind of sham. (They normally have separate bedrooms because they both like their space and they're not interested in sharing a bed with each other, but they hid that for Gaku's grandma's visit.)
Which leads them into a discussion of what marriage really means, and how there are multiple interpretations of it. There's the traditional view, where it's two people coming together out of love and a desire to have kids. There's Yuriko and Gaku's marriage, where they love each other - platonically - and wish to just be together. In the end, the message is that it's up to you to find your happiness, whether it's with someone or without, with kids or without. It's something that most people (at least in Japan) don't seem to understand - even Sousuke can't get his head around it.
There is a happy ending, though. Sousuke realizes that Gaku loves him, too, though I don't think he realizes that Gaku is gay. There's no poly relationship (Gaku and Yuriko continue to be together), but there's an implication that Sousuke finds his happiness not in a marriage, but in a friendship with the couple.
After that, there's an interlude where two of the side characters, who are both male and in love with each other, move to England because England is more accepting of LGBT+ couples, and a "years later" bit where Gaku and Yuriko discuss with their friends in England about the fact that they're running Gaku's childhood home as a shared living/working space for others and they're moving out to be in a smaller home that's easier to maintain. It's revealed that Gaku's grandmother has died, and no word about Yuriko's family, but they continue to be happy. The two side characters reveal they've acquired a child of their own who they are raising - yet another happy family, and there is happiness all around.
I find it interesting that Gaku and Yuriko choose to remain childfree - they can certainly adopt, even if they're never going to have children - but that fits into the theme of finding happiness their way even if it's not everybody else's.
Manga with aroace characters are rare, so I'm glad this one turned out so well, and I really enjoyed it. Too bad this is the end, but at least it's a warm, good end.
