26 January, 2004
FAKE, Vol. 3, Sanami Matoh (192 pp, PB, 199?)
Dirk Deppey's comments here (scroll down) made me realize that I ought to clarify where I'm coming from in reviewing this series. He may be right, and FAKE may be an unremarkable example of the shonen ai genre. I wouldn't know, since I am almost completely unfamiliar with it. The only other examples I've read are a couple volumes of Gravitation, which is not very similar to FAKE at all, but that's really not enough to provide the basis for a valid evaluation. However, I am not reading FAKE from the perspective of a "manly love" connoisseur, but as a lifetime fan of buddy-cop films. Whatever else it is, FAKE an unusual take on that venerable genre. Matoh's taken the usual subtext and de-subbed it, making it a central part of the story. So, think less Queer as Folk, more Starsky and Hutch.
Back in my notes on the first volume, I described this series as "one part buddy-cop action/comedy, one part gay romance." In the first story in this volume, the plot's focus is on the cop stuff. Dee and Ryo are temporarily assigned to work on separate cases: Dee assists a visiting FBI agent in tracking down a murderer, while Ryo works with the smarmy Commissioner Rose (originally introduced in the England murder mystery from Vol. 2) on cracking a kidnapping/child prostitution ring. So, we've got staking out of suspects, a grisly murder or two, canvassing of neighborhoods, intimidation of snitches, fights in dark alleyways, dirty dealings between crooks, and all that stuff. Of course, that doesn't mean that the relationship stuff is on hold; it's neatly woven into the crime story. It just doesn't overwhelm the crime story. And, yo, for somebody who claims to only like Dee as a friend, Ryo can throw quite the jealous snit.
Secondary characters get a lot of play in this story, such as the afore-mentioned Rose. Little Bikky has a good scene with the FBI agent. And the FBI agent herself, Diana Spacey, is an awesome character. She's a welcome female addition to this guy-centric manga, and she definitely knows how to put all the boys in their place.
The second chapter has almost nothing to do with police work. It's Christmas Eve, and while Dee has planned out a whole romantic evening for himself and his partner (in his head), he's neglected to mention it to Ryo, who has volunteered to work. (To be fair, given Ryo's tendency to avoid the issue, it is not too stupid of Dee to have planned it as a surprise.) But, all of this is mostly just a framing device; the bulk of the chapter is a flashback to when Ryo was 18, when his parents died shortly before Christmas. We knew previously that they'd died, but not the circumstances. It turns out that they were brutally murdered under conditions which made it look like they might have been involved in criminal activity. As a result, Ryo is estranged from most of his extended family, with the exception of his father's sister and her husband. (They were the only ones who refused to lend credence to the notion that Mom and Dad McLean were criminals.) This history throws some light on Ryo's personality, but fortunately, Matoh avoids the cliche of making all a character's personality flaws be the result of some single traumatic event-- even when he was a teenager, Ryo had problems with expressing his feelings. As a bonus, we also get an explanation of how Ryo can afford such a nice, big apartment in NYC on a cop's salary; apparently, Mom and Dad were well-heeled. The murder was never solved, so I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear of the matter.
As usual, the volume ends with a Carol-Bikky adventure. This one is fun, because it introduces a foil for the rambunctious Bikky in the form of a Chinese-American kid named Lai. At first, they're rivals, but they are too much alike and eventually become pals. There's one little bit of oddness (Lai seems to have some magic Kung-Fu powers, which does not seem to be in keeping with the down-to-earth FAKE universe) which makes me think that this might be a crossover with another series. Like the Carol-Bikky story in Vol. 2, this one is set several years in the future of the main storyline.