Yaoi Menace- Fake
Rating: 
Never fear, my friends- there is a Yuri Menace review on the way! Until then, hop aboard the man train!
In many ways, Fake is a mismatched cop story: the manga is about two NYPD detectives, complete opposites, who are paired up and have to adjust to each other’s different styles. While they often find each other exasperating, they eventually learn to work together, becoming effective partners and close friends. Except in Fake, these guys become more than friends. A lot more.
The story opens as Ryo arrives at the 27th precinct for his new assignment with Criminal Investigations. Ryo’s a good cop, hard-working, conscientious, a read Boy Scout. To his dismay, his new partner is Dee, an impulsive, loud, lazy, belligerent guy. But he has a kind heart, so Ryo finds it impossible to hate him. Their first case is a drug-related murder. The victim’s son, Bikky, is in danger from other drug dealers who think he has some of his dad’s stash. Ryo brings Bikky home to live with him so he can protect him, but when the dealers make their move he ends up having to save not only Bikky but also Dee. Another kid falls into the story almost immediately when Bikky’s friend Carol gets mixed up in a mob murder. It’s Dee and Ryo to the rescue again!
The cases just keep coming, mostly salacious fare involving the Mafia, drugs, sex slavery, murder, and more drugs. There are a few common yaoi plots swirled in: Dee and Ryo go on vacation together, fight off an assortment of suitors who want to break them up, and face their painful pasts (the orphanage where Dee grew up is bombed, and Ryo runs into his parents’ killer- events which of course leave them in dire need of comfort). But Matoh seems to enjoy writing crime stores almost as much as she likes writing boys’ love, and Fake often feels like a bizarro-world version of an American cop show. Each volume ends with a bonus short story about Bikky and Carol and their developing relationship. These stories are cute, and help to offset the improbably high number of gay male characters in the manga, which makes things feel just a tad more realistic.
At seven volumes, Fake doesn’t have to resort to the breakneck pace of most yaoi manga, which are typically much shorter. The relationship between Dee and Ryo proceeds at a relatively natural pace, which each volume deepening their emotional and physical intimacy. And while Ryo may protect that he’s not really gay, as early as the first chapter he admits to himself that he has never been completely sure of that. It’s refreshing to see a series where no one ‘turns gay’. Fake does dip into one particularly annoying cliché- Ryo, being blonde and even-tempered, is undoubtedly the submissive one, while Dee, dark-haired and aggressive, is on top. Ah, well, I can’t have it all.
The crime stories themselves are often- okay, always- ridiculous and generally end with bad cop TV clichés like explosions, shootouts, explosions, mass arrests, and explosions. Even funnier is Matoh’s view of America: a crime-ridden urban landscape where every cop in the NYPD is gay (and wants Dee, or Ryo, or both), where kids can be fostered by single males who don’t have to go through Child Protective Services, and where biracial Bikky has dark skin and blonde hair. Despite the silliness of it all, the stories are kind of fun, even if the solution is obvious from the start (or so utterly out of left field that Hercule Poirot himself wouldn’t have seen it coming), and it’s truly entertaining to see what our Japanese friends think the United States is really like.
Matoh’s art is serviceable and attractive, while not being particularly unique. The covers used on the graphic novels aren’t particularly attractive; in fact, while I know nothing about drawing human anatomy, I’m pretty sure the position of Ryo’s hand on the cover of volume five is physically uncomfortable, and it’s rather improbable that he’d be holding his arm like that for any reason…Matoh’s at her best when drawing her pretty boys, but everyone else- particularly the few women who manage to wrangle a role in Fake- aren’t terribly visually interesting. However, her ability with action scenes is reminiscent of shonen manga; the various gun battles/knife fights/chases etc. actually feel fast-paced and urgent, something you won’t find too often in *cough* yaoi manga drawn by women *cough* . Her style changes when Fake goes into comic relief mode, which happens perhaps a little too often for my taste (usually when Bikky and Dee are fighting, or Ryo and Dee are fighting, or Dee is fighting with someone else…you get the picture) and the characters go SD. It’s actually pretty cute when that happens, especially when Bikky grows a tail and fox ears.
When it comes to yaoi manga (well, any manga, really) there’s a lot of crap out there. But Fake is certainly at the upper end of yaoi manga quality. If the world of yaoi manga were a jungle, for instance, Fake would be one of those monkeys living high up in the trees (while Yaoi: Boy’s Love Anthology- see my review- is a centipede on the forest floor). I wouldn’t recommend it to non-yaoi fans, but for those of us who like the genre, Fake is an entertaining series with a surprising amount of he
Details
Publisher: Tokyopop
Author: Sanami Matoh
Pages: 216
Format: Manga
MSRP: $9.99
Date of Publication: 5/6/2003
Buy:
http://www.amazon.com/Fake-Vol-1/dp/1591823269/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219628921&sr=8-3
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Ewwww…’man train’.