I’ve discoursed several times on Ken Akamatsu’s LOVE HINA, summarizing its series concept here and condensing its joined themes of female sadism and male masochism in CROSSING THE LAWLINES5, thusly:
Ken Akamatsu's LOVE HINA, though, seems to be one of the few works that eventually admits to the sexual nature of the trope, if one can trust the Tokyopop translation. In the last volume, after innumerable incidents in which Keitaro intrudes upon Naru and gets beaten on for it, the two protagonists confess their true feelings to an interlocutor. Keitaro doesn't precisely say that he gets off on masochistic treatment, but he claims that he loves peeping on Naru so much that he doesn't care that he gets beaten for it, while Naru explicitly admits that she loves both his attentions and getting to beat on him for crossing the lines.
While keeping in mind that this sort of wacky, semi-eroticized
violence is not identical with syndromic sadism, the question arises: since
Ken Akamatsu himself is (I will presume) a biological male, does his idea of
masculinity start and end with the vision of the male as a hopeless goof?
My answer is, “almost.” Keitaro Urashima begins the LOVE
HINA series as a klutzy twenty-something who’s failed his college entrance
exams three times. When he gets the job of managing an all-female dormitory
owned by his aunt Haruka, he becomes the proverbial “rooster in the hen house”—though
only if the rooster was crossed with a punching-bag, since Keitaro is forever blundering
into compromising situations with the girls and then getting clobbered by them.
Further, Keitaro is almost the only male character in the
whole 14-volume series. The only other masculine character is thirty-something
Seta, who roams the world doing archaeological digs and who occasionally teaches
a course at Tokyo U, the college to which Keitaro has repeatedly applied. In
addition to these admirable aspects, Seta is trained in kung fu and occasionally
has friendly bouts with “kendo girl” Motoko. He also tutored Keitaro’s
principal love interest Naru, who had a strong crush on Seta in previous years. Yet Seta
is unaware of Naru’s crush and often proves just as maladroit as Keitaro, so
that he never really presents Keitaro with any real competition for the love of
Naru or any other of Keitaro's other potential hookups. In the story considered here,
the self-questioning “That Serious Guy is a Criminal?,” Seta does not appear,
but his daughter Sara does. Sara joins the other dorm-residents in constantly
belaboring Keitaro, though she’s only a “bitch-in-training” being that she’s
about ten years old and not actually involved in the erotic aspects of the situation
(which was probably a distinct relief to most readers).
As the story commences, Naru and the other girls are enjoying a hot springs bath. Naru cautions their visitor Mutsumi that while residing at the inn she may get peeped at by the “beast” Keitaro. Naru sees Keitato approach the bath and prepares, with a look of predatory anticipation, to slug him when he trespasses once again.
But Keitaro passes by the women's bath, goes back to his room and immerses himself in
studies for his next entrance exam. Sarah and the equally mischievous Kaolla
break into his room to gratuitously whale on him with blunt objects. To their
surprise, Keitaro dodges their attacks without even seeming to notice their presence,
because he’s so completely focused on his studies. When he does notice the
girls’ presence, he remarks, with complete innocence, “Don’t you normally run
in and try to jump-kick me?”
Soon all the girls observe that Keitaro is so focused that he
isn’t making klutzy blunders anymore, nor giving them any reason to clout him. Akamatsu
never makes any direct reference here to philosophical or religious precepts,
but surely the artist means for his audience to understand that Keitaro has unintentionally
tapped into a unique mental state, possibly one in line with the Taoist idea of
“doing without doing.”
Kitsune takes up the challenge to femininity, declaring, “I’m
going to use my feminine wiles to magically change Keitaro back into the pervert
he deserves to be.” Clad in revealing clothes, Kitsune waltzes into Keitaro’s
room during his studies. Yet he’s so focused he doesn’t notice her at first,
much less getting flustered by her lady parts. If anything, Kitsune becomes attracted
by Keitaro’s new aura of male reserve, and Motoko chimes in with similar
sentiments. “It’s good to see him so focused and not tempted by the lure of the
female.” Kaolla and Sarah want Keitaro to go back to his dipstick persona, so
that they can continue to rag on him. Gentle Shinobu, the next-oldest, is the
only one who doesn’t want to abuse Keitaro, but she too wants him to go back to
“normal,” apparently because he seems too inaccessible in his quasi-Zen state
of mind.
Naru is the last to behold the new Keitaro, and though she somewhat
appreciates his focused attitude, she’s offended that he no longer reacts when
she flashes him some tit or leg. The nubile eighteen-year-old even starts worrying
that she’s losing her sex appeal.
At the conclusion Keitaro himself re-asserts the status quo.
He bursts in on the girls while they’re bathing and explains to near-naked Naru
that he’s finally solved an involved problem he’s been working on for days.
However, once he solves the problem, his Taoist reserve disappears, his normal
personality returns, and he becomes flustered by seeing all the girls in their birthday
suits (except, happily, Sarah, who’s wearing a onesy). It’s certainly another
of Akamatsu’s humorous jibes that at first the girls all ignore Keitaro’s trespass
because they think he’s in his “serious guy” mode, but that, once he reacts to
their charms, he again becomes a “criminal,” and thus fair game for a beating.
Keitaro never again gets into “Zen master” mode, but there
are other stories in which he shows signs of maturation, and these signs of masculnity
inevitably prove attractive to the age-appropriate girls of the dormitory. Thus
Akamatsu does imply that women still like the image, if not the reality, of “men
who take charge”—though in this comic universe, strength principally signifies
durability, as in being able to endure any abuse doled out by the “gentler sex.”
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