BL manga I've been reading: Given and 10 Dance

[geri_chan]

I've been reading a lot of manga while stuck at home, so I thought I'd share a rec for a couple of BL manga that I recently read and enjoyed.


The first is Given, which I really liked because of the music part of the plot. Ritsuka is a teenage guitarist who's technically proficient but has lost his passion for music. One day he finds his classmate Mafuyu taking up his favorite napping spot at school. Curiously, Mafuyu always carries around a guitar even though he can't play it. Ritsuka is your typical tsundere type, but I don't mind that much-used trope because it's hilarious and endearing here, like when Ritsuka says he won't help Mafuyu with the broken strings on his guitar, then immediately replaces them while bitching all the while. After saving his precious guitar, Mafuyu imprints on Ritsuka like a baby bird--or maybe I should say a fluffy puppy with pleading eyes, which is how Ritsuka sees him--and follows him around begging Ritsuka to teach him to play guitar. He winds up watching while Ritsuka rehearses with his band, which inspires Ritsuka and reignites his passion for music.

I really love the grumpy-but-kind Ritsuka. Mafuyu took a little longer to grow on me since he's such a cipher at first, but I was won over by the way Ritsuka views him as a pomeranian dog: cute and adorable with impossible-to-resist puppy dog eyes!

So far the BL aspect of the manga is mostly implied: as of vol. 1 it's at the stage where Ritsuka is starting to realize he's attracted to Mafuyu and is kind of freaked out about it, so no actual romance yet, but I do enjoy watching their friendship grow, and I really enjoy the scenes with Ritsuka and his band. Speaking of which, there's an intriguing subplot with the bassist and the drummer (both college age, a few years older than Ritsuka), and how the bassist seems to have an unrequited attraction to the drummer, who is oblivious to it.

There's also an anime based on the manga, which is available with subtitles on Crunchyroll, which is cool because you actually get to hear the music.

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The other is 10 Dance, which is about two male dancers, both named Shinya: "Sugiki Shinya, the dashing lord of Standard Ballroom, and Shinya Suzuki, passionate king of Latin Dance" (according to Kodansha's summary). Both are top dancers in their respective fields, but need to master the other's style in order to win the prestigious 10-Dance competition in which competitors have to dance both Ballroom and Latin. Sugiki proposes that they teach each other their styles, which leads to some great scenes of the two of them dancing together, though their partnership gets off to a rocky start: their different personalities and styles cause them to immediately clash and butt heads, resulting in heated arguments (but also hot dancing scenes).

The artwork is beautiful, and does a great job of portraying the athleticism as well the beauty of ballroom dancing, similar to the Welcome to the Ballroom series (another manga about dancing, minus the gay romance)--also published by Kodansha, coincidentally.

As I was reading this, I realized that they remind me a lot of Iwaki and Katou from Haru wo Daiteita/Embracing Love, in both appearance and personality. Sugiki has short dark hair and is very serious and intense and easily gets annoyed with the less disciplined Suzuki. Suzuki, OTOH, has long light-colored hair and is very outgoing and passionate, and dances more by instinct and feeling than technique. The way they argue also reminds me a lot of Iwaki and Katou.

Heh heh heh...I can totally picture Iwaki and Katou doing a 10 Dance movie or TV series!

I've only read the first volume, and like Given, the relationship hasn't progressed beyond reluctant attraction (though strangers often mistaken them for a gay couple). However, since Kodansha calls the series "a steamy gay ballroom romance," I assume at some point, there will be actual romance.