ARINA Toshimi    (Chara Comics) : 

Can't get enough of Arina-sama? Love those willowy, sloe-eyed, angst-ridden bishounen? Want to help out the career the artist who draws the most beautiful boys ever? Well, have no fear, because Arina's djs aren't the end of the story. Her talents made it a dead cinch that she'd go pro, and she's kindly provided us with four whole volumes worth of glorious original, professional material. Here you can wallow in vintage Arina spice and weepiness, following subtle (gorgeous!) characters and sizzling confrontations in the best yaoi tradition. Some of the guys (and girls) may seem vaguely reminiscent of her YYH folks (but not the ones you'd expect!), but mostly these are brand new and fascinating products of Arina-sensei's fertile imagination. Whatever, they're all brilliant and so beautiful that somewhere the angels are weeping...in sexual frustration.

Once again, don't expect us to translate these stories and put them on the Web, because it's never going to happen. If you want to revel in more Arina, you have to buy her books--and they're well worth the price. As you can see from some of the frontispieces below, with Arina one picture is worth about a million words--but you don't have to rely on that. We'll be synopsizing all Arina's works, and M.J. Johnson's synopses are all you need to follow along. There's also the possibility of some text translations in future.

Where you can get Arina Toshimi manga:

Kinokuniya. Got one near you? If you're not sure, call information for your nearest big city or click here to go to a page that lists ALL their locations in the U.S. We've found them very kind and helpful; we've even ordered things by ISBN over the phone.

 Sasuga Bookstore. Click here to go to their homepage. Also very kind and knowledgeable; they take orders online and over the phone. We've ordered books in both Japanese and English from them and a Canadian YYH fan told us she was able to order the Spirits Dance anthologies there.

 Aestheticism Cybershoppe. Click here to go to the Aesthe page, then go to the Cybershoppe and look in the manga section. If they're sold out, email Susan and bug her to get more in stock. ^_^

Eternal thanks to M.J. Johnson for providing the synopsis and review of Arina's manga below. They make the stories quite easy to follow.

 front cover

          back cover

frontispiece

Kimi no Mukou-gawa (The Other Side of You)
Published by: Chara Comic
Published: 1998 8 25     Size: A5      Pages: 180
Genre: Yaoi
ISBN4-19-960075-2

That this dj has a striking frontispiece and great art is a given, of course--it's Arina we're talking about! The cover may not be as splashy and in-your-face as the Midnight Suns, but it's very nice. Click on the thumnails to see the cover and back cover full size. The synopsis and review below is by M.J. Johnson; it was so comprehensive and excellent that we don't need to add a thing.

This book is one long story divided into chapters.

Chapter 1

Takashi and Shou were best friends until first year junior high. Then Shou's parents divorced and he went to Kyuushuu with his mother. On the first day of high school Takashi suddenly reencounters Shou, in company with a girl called Manako, but Shou says he doesn't know him, and later the same day says he wouldn't have come to this high school if he'd known Takashi would be there.

Takashi recalls how Shou had never answered his letters and only once come to the phone when he'd called. And at Shou's apartment we see Manako rummaging through Shou's belongings and finding the letters, still unopened.

At sports practice the next day, Takashi tries to talk to Shou again, only to receive a torrent of abuse. Shou watches Takashi running against a classmate and is stunned by how slow Takashi is. Formerly Takashi had been the ace basketball player of the school. Shou asks Takashi what's wrong with his foot and is given the brushoff in his turn. After the practice a dejected Takashi tells his friend Satou what Shou said about him and that he was wrong about Shou. Now he knows that Shou never even read
his letters.

Shou goes home, gets out the letters from last year and discovers that Takashi hurt himself so badly playing on an injured foot in the final game of the series that he had to give up basketball entirely.

Chapter 2

That night Shou shows up at Satou's to ask what happened at the basketball game. Satou throws Shou's words to Takashi back in his face, but Shou insists on hearing what happened. In sum, Takashi insisted on playing in the game in spite of everyone's attempts to persuade him not to. Shou becomes upset, asking why Satou didn't stop him by force; and Satou puts him abruptly in his place. 'You weren't even there. Who are you to talk?!' 'I wanted to be', Shou thinks to himself, 'I wanted to be with
him always, never separated for a moment.' Shou stays away from school and the teacher needs some papers delivered to him. Takashi takes them and encounters Manako. Shou tells Takashi that he and Manako live together, an arrangement that was settled by their relatives. Embarrassed, Takashi leaves, only to encounter the flirtatious Manako in the street. She fills him in a little on the past, suddenly tells him that she's pregnant with Shou's baby, and then kisses the red-faced Takashi just as Shou comes up with Takashi's forgotten briefcase.

Chapter 3

Manako shows up at Takashi's next morning to go with him to school. She refused to get on two crowded trains, forcing them to run to school to avoid being late and causing her to pass out. Shou carries her off to the infirmary while the school buzzes with gossip that Takashi is trying to steal Shou's girlfriend. Takashi goes off to see her in the infirmary, worried that he may have hurt her in her pregnant state, only to have her say that
it's not true. She asks Takashi to walk her home because Shou can't do it. 'He's visiting relatives who live very close to you.'

After school Manako says she'll show him where Shou's relatives live and walks him to his own house, which she goes into, looking at all the rooms. She tells Takashi that she's not really Shou's girlfriend and is about to kiss him again when Takashi's little sister appears, dragging Shou with her whom she's come across in the street. Manako runs out of the house but the suddenly bashful Shou is persuaded to stay for dinner as in times past. They have a pleasant evening, but when he leaves Shou suddenly becomes as cold as ever. Returning home he asks Manako why she's making a play for Takashi. 'You really don't know?' she asks. Shou tells her to stay away from him. But next day she's outside Takashi's house, this time with the news that Shou didn't have to go to Kyuushuu. His father wanted him to stay in Tokyo, but Shou insisted on going. 'Maybe he had a
special reason he didn't want to tell me. I bet you know what it is, right, Takashi-kun?' Takashi confronts Shou, asking why he lied to him. 'I told you. It's because I hated you.' 'That's another lie!' Shou admits that his approach was wrong. 'We were good friends. Naturally you won't accept that I hated you.' He kisses Takashi and says 'I never once thought of you as my 'friend.' Now go away and don't come back, because next time I
won't stop at this.'

Chapter 4

The innocent Takashi has no idea what Shou's talking about. He calls him various things like baka and liar in his head but leaves it at that. Next day Manako meets him as before, and makes a date to meet him in the library after school. This time we see him through her eyes. We flashback to her Jr. High days when she was going with a boy who looked a lot like Takashi. We see her asking him what's going on with him and Shou, and him suddenly refusing to go home with her, and Shou first coming to their
school. 'You're not really like him,' she says to herself

At school Takashi learns that Shou has announced that he's leaving. He sends Satou off to tell Manako he can't make their date and dashes off to Shou's apartment. Manako hurries after when she finds out that Takashi knows about Shou leaving. Shou finally lets Takashi in because his pounding is disturbing the neighbours, and to Takashi's impassioned demands to know the truth behind Shou's lies, says, 'Here's the truth. I always jerked off thinking about you. And if you don't believe that--'
He grabs Takashi and throws him to the floor. 'I told you next time I wouldn't stop at a kiss. Do you know what I've always wanted to do to you?' Manako comes in and interrupts them. Shou lets Takashi go and stomps out. Manako stops Takashi from leaving. 'If Shou wants to go, let him. It's no fair going after him if you can't give him what he wants. And besides-- I love you.'

Chapter 5

'Do you love Shou?' Manako asks. 'I do,' he says, 'but not the same way he loves me.' 'Then I have a chance,' she says. She tells Takashi her history with Shou. She had a boyfriend called Naoyuki back in Kyuushuu. When Shou came to the school, he and Naoyuki became close friends, and Naoyuki began to neglect her to be with Shou. She asked what was going on between them, but he became angry and denied that anything had happened. 'Probably he was right,' Manako says. 'Since coming here I've realized that Shou isn't that kind of person. Probably Naoyuki himself didn't know what he was feeling. But I felt Shou had taken him away from
me. I wanted him back. So I slept with him, and got pregnant.' Her mother wanted her to have an abortion, but Manako was determined to wait until Naoyuki would come and save her from all this. 'It was stupid of me. A 14 year old boy wouldn't do that. Even Shou told me not to expect it. 'He's not as kind as you think', he said.' 'But Naoyuki was responsible!' Takashi protests. 'Ohh yes,' Manako says, 'if it'd been you you'd have accepted the responsibility- you'd even have married me, wouldn't you?'
Shou has wandered over to his old Jr High where he meets Takashi's sister who takes him inside to show him the picture from the last basketball game. The gym teacher shows up, and he and Shou discuss what happened to Takashi. 'I'd have knocked him out to stop him from playing,' Shou says. 'Mh. It was my fault for not having stopped him,' the teacher says. 'I thought of resigning afterwards but Takashi wouldn't hear of it. But I think you could have talked him out of it it.' 'Takashi said himself he wouldn't have listened to me, and Satou said the same.' 'Nonsense. If it was you, you'd have done it.' Shou thinks, 'But still, that changes
nothing.'

Manako continues her story. Eventually she aborted the child and Naoyuki changed schools. Her parents were angry at her and she cut school a lot. Shou began to come visit her- maybe feeling a little responsible- and they became friends. 'That's when I realized there was someone Shou cared for very much here in Tokyo. When he said he was leaving to come back here, I decided to come too. We're a lot alike, you know. That's why we fight so much. But I understand his feelings, and I know he loves you. But that's why, if you care for him, you mustn't ever see him again.'

As Manako is talking, we see Shou at the door of Takashi's house showing up for dinner.

Little Scene

A side story in the main action. Manako says to Shou, 'You really didn't do anything with him, did you? That was his first kiss that I gave him.' Shou thinks 'No it wasn't' and remembers kissing Takashi one day when he'd fallen asleep after basketball. Then he remembers the train to Kyuushuu, his mother saying 'If you'd wanted to stay in Tokyo you could have,' and Takashi saying 'But we'll see each other again some day, right?' 'I never meant to see him again but I couldn't tell him that. We won't meet
again, ever' as he goes off to the washroom where he can be alone
to cry.

Definitely a good read, this, and not deserving of a barebones plot outline. Manako is an interesting character who half steals the story from the heroes- not surprisingly since she's very much Arina's seductive, teasing, make-Hiei's-head-spin Kurama, without the psychosis and in a female body. Takashi is a little too sunao to be interesting, but Shou functions very well as the drop dead beautiful ice prince with the core of molten lava. And Manako's right, fundamentally they are a lot alike. Manako aside, the yaoi plot may not break any new ground, but it's fun going over the old terrain in Arina's company. Weeping all the way, of course.

--M.J. Johnson

front cover

back cover

Midnight Sun 1
Published by: (Animage) Chara Comic
Published: 1997 3 25     Size: A5      Pages: 196
Genre: Yaoi
ISBN4-19-960043-4

Gorgeous, gorgeous art--ohh, those eyes! Note: This is the only book that has Animage written before Chara comics on the front cover. The spines all say Chara Comics.

Review to come!

frontispiece 

front cover

Midnight Sun 2
Published by: Chara Comic
Published: 1998 5 25     Size: A5      Pages: 196
Genre: Yaoi
ISBN4-19-960070-1

Qui--quite a frontispiece on this one. Something in the way that black leather fits...or could it be the handcuffs? <cough, gasp, fanfanfan> Anyway, you just know Psycho Kurama would love this getup. I hope, somewhere, he can see it.

Review to come!

frontispiece

Midnight Sun 3
Published by: Chara Comic
Published: 1999 5 25     Size: A5      Pages: 196
Genre: Yaoi
ISBN4-19-960097-3

White leather this time, and another Arina trademark--gorgeous guy pulling glove off with his teeth. It's quite nice.

Review to come!

frontispiece