rmthunter's Full Review: Yamimaru Enjin - The Way to Heaven: Yaoi Manga
Yamimaru Enjin's The Way to Heaven is one of the stranger yaoi I've run across, and also one of the most powerful. Enjin provides a basis for the story that allows her to play with time and character in ways that, so far in my experience, are unique.
Keigo Moriya is crossing a pedestrian bridge when he discovers a small dog tied to one of the supports under the walkway. He leans over the rail to try to save the dog and begins to fall. Kifumi Watase, who is crossing the same bridge, attempts to save Moriya, but both men fall into the highway, where they are hit by a speeding truck. They awaken in a room with a woman who claims to be from another galaxy, come to save Earth from ecological disaster through an energy-recycling technique that her people have discovered. Each of the men is typed: Watase's type is "vampire" and his part in the experiment is to harvest blood, while Moriya's type is "werewolf" -- he is to harvest semen. They will be allowed to go back in time based on how much of each fluid they harvest. However, it seems that Watase remembers Moriya from their previous lives: Moriya was a boxer and Watase saw him at his first professional bout, which also ended his career. Moriya lost the fight, but wasn't knocked out; he stayed conscious long enough, however, to suffer permanent damage to his eyes. Watase says that witnessing Moriya's fighting spirit and determination changed his life: part of a yakuza gang, he went straight.
This story is centered on the growing bond between the two men, starting with Watase's admiration for Moriya and Moriya's attraction to Watase -- an attraction that Moriya will not admit. In fact, although Moriya had a male lover in life, it is Watase who initiates their intimacy. The episodes that show them back in time center on Moriya's relationship with that "lover" -- Watase's boss, Akutsu, whom Watase idolized. However, the Watase then was nothing like the Watase that Moriya knows, which adds a nice tension to the story as Moriya tries to reconcile the lying con artist described by Akutsu, whose attitude toward Akutsu's "plaything" is cold and disdainful (that Watase is totally straight) with the caring, affectionate man he knows in their temporary afterlife.
Graphically, the drawing displays that lean clarity that so attracts me to this genre, coupled with the expressiveness I've come to expect. The style is spare but marked by a strong, definite line, and narrative flow is always clear, even though Enjin makes full use of the conventions of shoujo manga in her layouts. There are a couple of sex scenes, which make use of the "invisible" option. From a visual standpoint, this is a very appealing volume.
What strikes me most about The Way to Heaven, and moves my rating slightly above a 4 is Enjin's subtle but unequivocal focus on the emotional tie between Moriya and Watase: long before there is a sexual component, it's apparent that these two men have come to care deeply for one another, and I think that's what gives the story its power. It's a subtle portrayal, created bit by bit and mostly as subtext, and becomes truly affecting. In fact, move it up to a 4.5.
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