Let's talk about Links, the BL

So today I’m talking about Links by Natsuki Kizu. This is the same person who created the Given manga. Now, I haven’t read Given yet, but it’s one of those that I have on my list to read. Big fan that it’s a manga that, as far as I’m aware, has finished serialisation, but there are nine volumes, so I wanted to read this one first before to see whether I liked Kizu’s style before committing to Given.

The blurb says that this is a collection of intertwining stories that follow four not-quite lovers as they find what links them together. Akiha plays the piano and ponders his relationship with Yahiko, a friend with benefits he can’t quite bring himself to call his lover regardless of how freely Yahiko cares for him. Despite their constant bickering, Sado and Nakajo appear close enough to be lovers. But Nakajo has convinced himself he can never have Sado, which leads him to seek out reasons to hate him even as he stays by his side. Shibata is an overly friendly older man who rather insistently hits on Sekiya, a socially awkward radio DJ. Even with his DJ persona, Sekiya has a hard time expressing the roiling emotions within him. And finally, a stray cat brings Kameda and Ogikawa together. The two spend lazy days eating, drinking, and playing with their cat, all without calling it love.

I know that, historically, the BL in the mangas I’ve read before, the characters tend not to go all that deep, compared to a novel – something I think just comes in the territory of the style – and since this manga is essentially a little compilation of four smaller stories, I went in not exactly expecting much, if any, character depth or backstory. It was one of those things where I had to understand what I was getting into, especially with eight characters mentioned in the blurb.

We open with Sekiya and Shibata, and I’ll be real, after the first chapter, Sekiya tells Shibata that he’s in love with him. It seemed like those roiling emotions were that he was happy being on his own, but Shibata heard him speaking on the radio and basically wanted to be friends. It then pops over to Akiha and Yahiko. And when Yahiko is talking to one of his friends, his friend mentions this line that Sekiya ended up saying in the first chapter. So, I’m at least glad all eight of them existed in the same world. It’s an obvious thing, that obviously they would, but you know, so often you’ll see authors (probably myself included) miss opportunities to link parts of their work together for that added depth. The guys with the cats were there. And then Sado, I didn’t clock it immediately, he was the friend Yahiko talked to. Fully didn’t not realise he turned up in two different chapters before his first even started.

I’m glad I went in with the expectations that I did, because this went exactly how I thought it would. Not a lot of detail when it came to any of the characters and then vaguely melancholic stories for the majority of the characters, with the exception of Sekiya and Shibata. Their story was the most nothing really, as mean that that sounds. But because I didn’t really expect much from it, when I didn’t get much, it didn’t leave me too disappointed at the end. For me, it was literally the case where I finished it and was like, “Okay, werk.” I never really had the chance to get too attached to the characters like I did in the other BL mangas I’ve read, so when I was going through, I could see how the things they were going through were sad, but I never has any overwhelming emotions towards them. But I think that just happened to come with the realm of how the manga was.

In a way, it reminded me of this Thai show I’ve watched, Only Friends. That followed a similar kind of format to what this manga did, where it was a group of people all linked together in one way or another. Although, that show had 12 full episodes, whereas this was one, less than 300-page, volume. Conceptually, they were similar in that it was a group of people whose lives were all intertwined in some way or another. I was about to make the comparison that one of the characters in Only Friends was a whore, but a bunch of them were, so I can’t. But it’s that intertwining of the characters, how one character in one couple was friends with another character of another couple, so they all ended up coming together in one way or another.

I also won’t lie, I’m struggling to say a lot of substance about this, simply due to the content I was given to work with. I think all my other manga posts have come from something that has had minimum three volumes. And given I’ve got the one, I’m pulling at straws. Like, there was a vague concept of this manga where every couple was working through what they were going through. Working out how to make their relationship work, and whether they could in the first place, and then it all culminating in the idea of throwing a Christmas party that they would all end up attending. And I think some of the stories worked better than others. Because since Kameda and Ogikawa’s story was all based about them hanging out together under the guise of taking care of the cat, I felt like I barely saw any of either of their story. Like, it was set up in the beginning, but after that I never really got much of them.

But that also leads into this next point I’m about to make. I went on to Goodreads while I was reading this, because I was interested in what the star rating would be, given the concept of the manga, and I ended up reading a review that was a single line. “A beautiful volume of interconnected melancholy stories marred by the fact that I could barely tell the characters apart.” Kameda and Ogikawa may well have had more story, but I couldn’t tell all the characters apart. I think the only ones that I could tell who they were every time they were on the page were Sado – because he had a stupid little beard – and Sekiya – because he wore glasses. And this is also simply down to the lack of space this manga granted its characters. I feel like that’s the route of every problem I found with this. There just wasn’t enough space or content for the characters or their stories to truly flourish.

There definitely was emotion in this, and I do think that I’ll probably give Given a try after reading this. I just think this manga was a victim of too little space and too many characters for what it wanted to achieve.

Okay, bye!