FUJI Shinichi   (Gust Comic) : 

Text translation of 'I Can Grant You Three Wishes'!

Fuji-sama is utterly fantastic and we're genuinely looking forward to cataloging her djs--it's going to be a pleasure. Meanwhile we're very pleased to present information that will interest all Fuji fans: pics, ISBNs, and detailed synopses for her professional manga. We have three tankouban volumes of her work and each one is thick, juicy and delicious, filled with pure, unadulterated Fuji yaoi. Also, although we hope to eventually bring an excerpt from one of them as a teaser, we are not going to put these stories up on the Web. Or we may only put a text translation up. So if you want to enjoy these marvelous goodies, ya gotta buy them. Okay?

Where you can get Fuji Shinichi 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. ^_^

Thanks a bazillion to M.J. Johnson for providing the detailed synopses of Fuji-sensei's stories below. They make the stories quite easy to follow.

Warning: the reviews below are quite spicy. It can't be helped; these are extremely spicy stories, with lots of yaoi goings-on, and there's simply no way to synopsize them without describing them a bit. If you're not 18 or older, please stay out.

front cover  

back cover  

frontispiece 

Shall We Stay With Me?
Published by: Gust Comic
Published: 1994 11 15     Size: A5      Pages: 164
Genre: Yaoi, the first story is arguably sho-con
ISBN4-87183-974-5

Click on the thumbnail of the cover to the left to see it fullsize. This volume contains eight stories plus a gorgeous color frontispiece--and a color drawing of Fuji-sama on the dustcover. We've always wanted to know what she looks like--yow! ^_^

The stories are all typical Fuji: wicked, humorous and very, very spicy, with her trademark drawing style which makes many of the characters seem rather hauntingly familiar to YYH fans.

Incidentally, the title 'Shall We Stay With Me?' is in English on the cover. The Japanese title is 'Isshou ni iyou ne' which means more or less, 'Let's stay together, 'kay?' We should probably use 'Let's Stay Together,' but 'Shall We Stay With Me' is the official version, and besides it's kind of cute, ne?

Prayer To the Fox Spirit
M.J.: "We begin at a jinja (Shinto shrine) with two fox-spirit brothers talking, in period language and 'old-fashioned' typeface, about the once-a-century 'descent'--of whom to where is not said. But the older brother speaks of searching for the 'clear' (Panthea: "Read virginal.") types that they both like. Cut to a different pair of brothers, left orphaned by a traffic accident with a whole pile of debts. The younger junior-high brother (Panthea: "This is the arguably shocon bit. Junior high is pretty young." Po: "Yeah, like Yuusuke and Kuwabara." <long pause> Panthea: "You know, something in his expression--and disposition--sorta reminds me of Hiei...") says he knows how to get money. He drags his brother off to the jinja and says 'We can steal from the collection box. It's quite safe. No-one ever comes here.' His salaryman brother explodes--'What do you mean! If no-one ever comes here, there won't be anything in the collection box!'

"Just at that moment they're approached by a good-looking (Panthea: "One of them looks exactly like Kurama at his most romantic--he's also on the cover.") pair of beggars asking for a handout. The brothers take the beggars home and feed them. After which the beggars ask 'And have you ever had sex?' 'Of course not!!' 'Perfect!' Suddenly the brothers find they can't move thanks to a little pill dropped in their tea. (Panthea: "The Kurama-looking beggar then sidles up to the Hiei-acting brother--") The beggar brothers are well on the way to making their hosts 'happy' in their own fashion (the beggar nii-san is a uke, but says not to worry--'Even if he can't lift his hips, as long as what stands up stands up, I'll manage') when the doorbell rings. Enter the yakuza enforcers looking for their money. The beggar brothers consult together and promptly roll out a trolley full of cash. The yakuza depart with thanks and the yaoi action proceeds uninterrupted. 'When we woke up next day, the two had vanished. All that remained was this odd animal smell.' The orphan brothers have a dilemma on their hands. The two apparent beggars, clearly the heads of some new religious sect or other, paid all their debts in return for--well.... 'Doesn't that make us prostitutes?' And back at the jinja the two guardian fox spirits reminisce about how good sex is with a pair of virgins. 'Let's not wait a hundred years--let's get back to those two again soon.' Fine for everyone but the yakuza, whose kitsune gold has turned back to leaves and dirt."

Po: "So it's about a couple of fox spirits going out in search of virgins to seduce. How odd, though, that they would need to drug their victims. You'd think anybody would hold still...." <wanders off smirking>

Professor Yamada's Useful Instruction

Panthea: "Professor Yamada is a rather gorgeous young bishounen himself, if anyone is wondering." ^_^

M.J.: "Professor Yamada lectures on homosexuals, lesbians and kinks. 'Here is the picture of a bishounen. Six months ago he became attached to this wonderful man, never dreaming of the terrible disease that would now afflict him. Poor lad. What disease is it?'  Hint--the clue lies in the middle right hand of the picture. Athlete's foot! (Not funny. Japanese athlete's foot is an industrial-strength fungus that won't die.) 'Look at the happy couples in the park. In reality one couple is carrying on a kinky relationship. Which one?' Answer: all of them. The old man and the young husband, the middle-aged woman and the young wife, the old woman and the little boy, and the middle-aged man and the dog. 'In foreign gay films, it's often stated that when a young person is placed in a prison cell with hardened convicts he will be raped by them. Is this true or false? Let's find out. We'll put this baby in this prison cell and see what happens.' 'Why's that baby here?' 'I dunno. He looks like a mass murderer or something--a psychopath who killed his whole family maybe?' 'Like Rosemary's baby...' Nervous glances at the baby. Baby wails. Everyone panics. 'As you see, this sexual stereotype would appear to be false.'

"Finally--end of the world scenario. Only two people survive the nuclear holocaust--a gay man and a lesbian. Can they find happiness together? Yes--if the lesbian is a dominatrix and the gay man a cross-dressing masochist. End of the world scenario #2. Only two people survive the nuclear holocaust--a pair of gay men. Can they find happiness together? Not if both are semes, they can't. End of Yamada-sensei's lecture."

Panthea: "This is very, very funny."

When I Come Home on a Sepia Day

M.J.: "Two orphans from the same orphanage re-encounter each other. One has been adopted by a well-to-do family and is studying medicine, the other is a musician of sorts halfway to being a street lout. The lout used to defend rich boy at the orphanage. The rich boy has been looking for street lout ever since and is determined
to keep him. Follows him to the bar where boy hangs out, rescues
him from the mandatory violent client, and offers him a place to stay. 'You're gay, aren't you?' the lout asks, not for the first time. 'Nope.' 'Well---ok then.'"

Panthea: "Well, if he's not gay how come he looked for the street guy for so long? And how come he saved him? And how come he's taking him home? And how come they look so cute together?"

Po: "Don't worry. He will be soon."

Opposite Star Scramble 1

M.J. "Great-grandmother is dying. Now is the time for Mother to reveal the truth to her son: 'Tenma, your mother is an alien.' Well actually, she comes from a parallel universe where everything is the opposite of ours. (One gets there by kneeling on the toilet lid
and flushing the water for 'pee'. Japan being a place where water is occasionally in short supply, Japanese toilets give you a choice of how much water to use. Alas, Japanese water pressure gives you none. You'd better flush for 'poo' if you want the toilet paper to
vanish.) Anyway, you can guess where this is leading. Boy and Mom go to the other universe to see bearded dying Great-grandma (= great-grandfather) who with his last breath entreats his feminine great-grandson Tenma to marry his manly (but actually female) cousin Shinobu."

Opposite Star Scramble 2

M.J.: "Back in our world, comes the question of where Shinobu is to go to school. Remember that Shinobu, who says 'ore' and looks like a guy, is a girl. (And gets Tenma to feel his--empty--crotch to prove it.) Tenma turns thumbs-down on the proposal that Shinobu wear a sailor fuku. 'You'll look like a guy with a kink for cross-
dressing.' Shinobu agrees to pass as a guy. But of course she keeps making mistakes like walking into the women's washroom and saying she has no interest in girls. ('I'm not a lesbian!') From which all the girls conclude she's gay, and that she and Tenma are an item, and pester them with yaoi questions. Shinobu backpedals quickly--'I'm in love with him but he's not in love with me' while Tenma regrets bitterly having begun the whole 'pretend he's a guy' routine. 'I should have let her wear sailor-fuku.' And of course inside a day everyone has heard that Shinobu is gay and, back-pedalling notwithstanding, in love with Tenma, and decides to hold a wedding party for them. 'I'm from the school newspaper. How did you two first fall in love?'"

Panthea: "I think I saw this on Urusei Yatsura.... No. No, I didn't."

Po: "It's sorta Futaba-kun Change-ish."

The Otaku at Kaori-chan's

M.J.: "The otaku in question is in fact Kaori-chan, a woman in her 20's with an addiction to late 80's & early 90's anime heroes--Seiya, Samurai Trooper's Touma and Korin, Shurato's Hyuuga. This appalls her sophisticated cousin Natsuko. 'Look at this--anime posters! Mountains of djs! And nothing but gay books on your shelves!' 'I can't help it!' Kaori cries. 'Those beautiful faces that are not of this world! Beautiful bodies with no hair under their armpits or on their legs, and certainly no piiii--! And they all have superhuman powers! They make real men look terrible.' (Jeanne muses: a bit too close to home, this.) Natsuko asks bluntly how Kaori intends to get married if she never goes out with guys. 'I'll have an o-miai (an arranged marriage). And until then I'll stay a virgin.' Natsuko goes to work on her, getting her in a panic with a blunt and highly censored description of what her wedding night will be like if she continues on in this fashion. 'And even if you have an o-miai, the success rate for people like you is sales tax!' (Japanese sales tax at that point was only 3%.)

"Faced with this bleak future, Kaori puts herself in her cousin's hands, and in short order finds herself wearing contacts, with new clothes, sitting in a hostess bar in Roppongi. 'Surely this is a trial the gods of anime have sent me. Seiya-- Touma-- Korin-- Hyuuga-san-- protect me!' The men she has to talk to are appalling, but there's one--young, handsome, well-spoken, shy--who's different. They get on well, even though Kaori keeps making little slips. 'What are you doing on Sunday?' 'Oh--Sunday there's an event at Ome... (the old Harumi centre) uhh, I mean an art exhibit...' He takes her home, the first time she's ever been alone with a guy. He tries for a kiss. She panics--'Touma, save me! Seiya! Hyuuga-san! Kooooriiiin! --oh my god....' 'I didn't know you had that many boyfriends...' he stammers, and takes off. 'How'd it go?' Natsuko asks. 'It's ok. It's clear I'm not meant for guys. Touma--Seiya--I'll love you all my life...'"

Po: "Very amusing. But--ahem!--not at all like real life. Not one bit."

I Can Grant You Three Wishes

 Here's a text translation of the story!

M.J. "'Wagahai wa neko de aru', as Natsume Souseki and Fuji Shin'ichi's cats both say. (A very grandiloquent) 'I am a cat.' This cat is called Gaten Shouchi-nosuke: Understanding and Agreement-nosuke. Suke for short, fortunately. He lives with his university student owner Sei and does what he says. 'Wait for me like a good boy,' Sei says, and Suke waits. Suddenly a fairy
appears, announcing that Suke has won the celestial Good Pet of the Year award and gets three wishes. Suke can't think of anything to wish for, but says finally 'Put a stop to all the environmental pollution in the world.' The fairy is nonplussed, and Suke humphs off, certain that she's an impostor.

"Sei comes back with guests and Suke wants to tell him all about his day--'I caught three bugs. And then, and then, I ate all my food. And then, and then-' but Sei sends him off to another room. Suke watches Sei and his friends enjoying themselves, and when the fairy comes back wishes to be transformed into a human. The fairy changes his shape--except the ears and the tail--but can't give him human speech and understanding. So Sei has a human-shaped (Panthea: "And gorgeous.") pussycat who still sleeps on his lap and uses the litter box. Worried about his pet, Sei takes to staying home more and Suke is happy. But then spring comes, the animals go into heat, and Suke of course is no exception. Thinking 'I'm sorry Sei, I'm sorry' he has to follow his instinctual urgings and ravishes his master."

Panthea: "Who enjoys it tremendously, by the looks of it. The things that cat can do with its tail...!"

M.J.: "The fairy reappears to ask what he wants to do with his remaining two wishes. 'Change me back,' Suke says. 'Make me small again so I can't ever do such an awful thing to him again. And make him forget it ever happened.' 'You're a good boy,' the fairy says as she grants his wishes, 'a really good boy.'

"Too good, unfortunately: because next year she's back again: 'But I haven't been able to find a better pet than you....'"

Panthea: "This is a very good story. Spicy. Funny. Not for cat-lovers only. Although, of course, every cat-lover needs to read it."

M.J.: "The resemblance between Suke in cat form and Lively Little Hiei-chan is something we won't talk about."

Panthea: "As a human he looks a good deal like a dark-haired Youko Kurama. And it isn't his fault if he's not the brightest. Brains aren't everything."

Po: "Fortunately. But, you know, I didn't realize male cats went into heat...."

<They all look thoughtful and a little disappointed.>

Isshou ni Iyou ne (Let's Stay Together, 'kay?)

M.J.: "A weepy little story about Suke's past history. 'I hate rainy days.' Abandoned by the people who owned his mother, he watched his brother and sisters die in the rain before being picked up by Sei who puts him inside his jacket. 'But now I like rainy days--because I met Sei-chan on a rainy day. And on rainy days he stays at home with me. On rainy nights there's the warm fluffy futon and the smell of Sei-chan. Ne, Sei-chan, let's always, always, stay together like this.'"

Panthea: "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...."

Po: "How come Suke's human again? I guess it's a retrospective."

Overall: Highly recommended. These stories range from hysterically funny to highly spicy to sweetly touching... sometimes all three at once. Mostly, though, they're smart, lighthearted, sexy, and just beautifully drawn, with Fuji's typical attention to detail. If you like Fuji's YYH djs, you'll find several characters who will give you a warm and fuzzy sense of homecoming. If you don't (but why would you be here if you didn't?) you'll find in this a number of clever, original stories with gorgeous bishounen and witty turns of plot (not to mention kawaii cats.)

 
front cover

back cover

frontispiece

Make Your Three Wishes Realized
Published by: Gust Comic
Published: 1996 3 8     Size: A5      Pages: 164
Genre: Yaoi, one story has a little shocon vampire (a seme!)
ISBN4-7567-0973-7

Another gorgeous book, with a gorgeous cover and a gorgeous frontispiece...and with Suke! Yes! The very very good cat is back, along with Sei, his befuddled master. There are three juicy stories about them, showing, I suppose, that everyone else liked them as much as we did.

Once again, the title 'Make Your Three Wishes Realized' is the official English version on the front cover. The Japanese is 'Mitsu no onegai kanaemasu' meaning '(Someone) can grant grant three wishes' and probably most sensibly translated as 'I Can Grant You Three Wishes.'

Mitsu no onegai kanaemasu (I Can Grant You Three Wishes)

M.J.: "The good fairy is back. (Fairy in all senses of the word because a character later takes him/her for an okama (transvestite). Fairy explains that fairies are sexless.) (Panthea: "That's her on the back cover if you want to know what she looks like.") This time s/he can make Suke into a real talking, thinking human being--but he still has the ears and the tail. 'But your ears are cuuute' she says, 'and you need your tail. To change shape you just bite on it.' Suke really is a good cat. He wants to repay Sei's care, so while his master is off at classes and work, Suke does all the cleaning, laundry and mending. Naturally this perplexes Sei. 'Mom, did you come round to my place today? No...?'

"But the fairy appears again. 'I forgot to tell you. Don't ever change shape when there's no moon, because then you'll become a monster.' But then, on a night when there's no moon, Sei comes home feeling terrible and collapses in the apartment. Suke can't do anything in cat form, and thinks that if he becomes the monster he can break down the door and alert the neighbours. Bidding an eternal farewell to Sei, he changes form. The neighbours see his terrible shape running away and come running, to find the unconscious Sei (suffering from pneumonia, which is still a killer in Japan.) Out in the fields, Suke weeps to have become a demon monster. The fairy appears and asks him what he's doing out. 'But-but-there's no moon and I'm a monster--' 'The moon was just hidden in the clouds.' Suke weeps again in relief, before telling the fairy that s/he's an idiot."

Panthea: "This is the Fuji who made everyone cry because Lively Little Hiei-chan had to drag a sack of pudding back to the store. Right, Po?"

Po: <can't speak for sobbing>

Part Two

M.J.: "Sei is worried about the mysterious housekeeper who cleans his place. His best friend suggests some woman is sneaking in when he's asleep to do his laundry--an oshikake nyoubou, 'gate-crasher wife.' (Apparently these exist in Japan. She moves in, does the housework, cooks his meals, keeps the place clean, and eventually he marries her because he can't live without her. They say.) (Po: "Wish it would happen to me.") Either that or it's elves folding his shirts. But when Sei gets home the landlord wants a word with him. Seems the neighbour lady (ahh, the neighbours, the scourge of Japanese society) kept hearing the vacuum and washing machine going when Sei was out and looked over to see what was going on, and there was this totally illegal co-tenant hanging out the laundry. Sei quickly makes up a story about a visiting cousin from the country and zooms up to see what's happening. Good god--a gay gatecrashing wife?

"Suke eventually manages to convince him that he's himself, (Panthea: "Remember, Sei's memory of his previous transformation was erased by the fairy.") and explains that he wanted to be human so Sei would stay home more. 'Why do you have to work so hard? Is it the money?' 'I don't really need the money, but I wanted to get us a bigger place. It must be hard for you cooped up in a small apartment all the time..' Suke falls into Sei's arms--'I love you!' All is happiness. But the fairy appears to remind Suke that tonight is the new moon and not to change shape. Alas, Sei dreams he's eating a submarine sandwich and bites on Suke's tail, and Suke turns into Youko Ku---a very seductive looking silver-haired being with ears."

Po: "He does look like Youko Ku--"

Panthea: "Even more than normal. Hmm."

Po: "I really like Suke."

<They contemplate their own cats in sad silence.>

Part Three

M.J.: "After a recap, Sei wakes up to confront the demon beast. Demon beast reveals he's not out to set up the realm of Satan on earth or anything like that. No, this story ran in Generous. The other word for 'demon beast' is 'incubus' aka 'the authority on sex', and he's going to rape Sei. (Panthea: "My, god, it is Youko Kurama.") At which the remnants of Suke's consciousness rise up to stop him and the fairy appears, intending to save Sei except she grabbed what appears to be a paper of pins instead of her sword. 'You wouldn't happen to have anything else I could kill him with?' Sei is more concerned with getting Suke back to his usual form.

"'There's only one way,' the demon tells him. 'You have to make me come. And not just make me come-but do it with this'--as he squeezes Sei's bum. 'And I'll tell you one thing--no-one's ever managed it yet.' Sei prepares to sacrifice himself--'It's my fault Suke's like this.' But as the demon watches Sei undress, he feels his body acting strangely. Suke's consciousness comes to the fore during sex--'Sei I love you, I love you, Sei'--and so the demon comes. And goes, naturally. The fairy congratulates Sei on his luck--'Suke's consciousness prevented the demon from doing what he wanted. But it seems you've gotten pretty good too.' 'It's his fault. I don't know if it's an aftereffect of having been the demon, but now every night he has to do it with me.' 'But Suke would never do anything you didn't want to.' 'Uhhh.... that's my aftereffect from being screwed by the demon!'"

Panthea: <clasped hands> "So they live happily ever after!"

Po: "This is a very good story. I wish there was more."

A Throbbing Heart is the Start of Love

M.J.: "We have Yuuki, a grade school teacher, who's moved into a large two bedroom apartment and gotten himself a roommate, his old university friend Mamoru. Mamoru is a make-up artist, and his daily world is light years away from Yuuki's. He's also reserved and unforthcoming and Yuuki never knows what he's thinking. Then one evening an older man confronts Mamoru at the apartment door--a suitor tired of being put off by Mamoru's excuses. Mamoru tells him to go home, and agrees to one kiss to make him leave. Yuuki sees them kissing. He confronts Mamoru about his secret past. 'Are you gay?' 'Nope. I'm bi. I don't care much if it's guys or girls.'

"That night Yuuki dreams that Mamoru comes, dressed as a woman, and asks him for a kiss. 'Stop calling yourself bi,' the dream Yuuki says, 'and be totally gay!' The dream perturbs him, but even more perturbing is the call from his high-handed real-estate-owning father. 'I've decided to divide up my estate early. I bought you a 'one-room apartment', and that's your inheritance. I want you to move in the middle of the month. I've already spoken to your present landlord.' Not just spoken to the landlord, but hired the movers to come in. Mamoru says he's fine; he can get another roommate no problem. Yuuki kind of wishes he'd shown a bit more feeling. But then he sees Mamoru crying as he reads his magazine. 'I love you. I only just realized it. And now I'll never see you again.' They kiss, and the next day Yuuki calls his father up. 'Sorry, Dad, I can't move after all. I don't want to leave my roommate.' 'Take him with you.' 'Into a one-room apartment? No can do.' 'You're right. A 28 mat room is too small for two guys.' '28 mats!!' (Note: the standard room size is 6. 12 is a very big room, and 28 would be the floor space of a standard 1 bedroom apartment here.) 'I should have known--Dad comes from the country...' (Houses in the country have huge rooms, unlike the city.) And all is happy ever after."

Panthea: "Simple and sweet, and a bit more serious than usual."

A Trick of the Genes

M.J.: "Two one-winged angels. One looks at the sky, wanting to fly; the other has forgotten that flying exists and sits with head bent. At last they meet... on the street one day, when the writer has gone out to get cigarettes and sees a guy bleeding in a doorway. Their eyes meet. They know this is the one they've been searching for. The wounded boy goes home with the writer. Much later they talk. Both found out they were adopted under unhappy circumstances. The writer, Shinogu, hates people, especially children and babies, but loves creating. The other, Makoto, hates himself and has attempted suicide several times. (There's no furigana with the names, and it's possible that they're both read the same, Ryou.) 'But you're different,' the writer says. 'You bring me peace. I want you to stay.' 'And you're different too. If you say you want me to stay, I can begin to believe that life is worth living.' The two become lovers. The two angels realize that together they have two wings and can fly. The writer's work becomes more human, while Makoto gets work in a flower store, and brings Shinogu home the first plant he's grown himself. But a voice says 'It's no use repenting. You were guilty from before the time you were born. Your existence itself is a crime.' A woman who is obsessed with the writer comes to the apartment and tries to attack Makoto for taking Shinogu away. Shinogu hits her with Makoto's flowerpot. A bunch of little envelopes fall out of the broken pot. 'When I was hurt--the owner of the flower store gave me a shot--he said it was just a tranquilizer--but since then...' The newspaper boy collecting for the paper comes in upon them and gives the alarm."

Panthea: "So the packets are like...what? Heroin? Does heroin come in packets?"

M.J.: "I have to assume it is. Or coke or something. Eliptical 'R Us. Maybe it's iconographical: paper packets = advanced stage of drug dependency.

"We then cut to a scientific report being dictated into a tape recorder. The two are fraternal twins, cloned as we then discover from the scientist who is talking and the dead sister he was obsessed with. Their early growth was normal and they were sent out for adoption, but something went wrong with them. Both are now addicts with barely a week left to live. The scientist had hoped to leave descendants of himself and his sister behind, but the chance meeting between the two of them seems to have destroyed his work 'Or maybe it was something deeper--a wrongness in their souls. Soon I'll dispose of these experimental subjects and start again from the beginning.' Inside their glass cases the two brothers turn and kiss through the glass. 'Only seeing you--only hearing your voice--that is happiness.' And on a bright clear morning the two angels fly into the blue sky."

Po: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Panthea: "Of course, Fuji does sad stories as well as she does humor, and this is a very touching one. And I suppose you have to have it, otherwise the nice stories would make everyone too happy. We can't have that."

For Instance, a Fairy Tale Like This

M.J.: "Our hero Kazumi's uncle and aunt are off on a trip and he gets to look after their house. His aunt tells him that the tatami in the inner room is rotting and not to go in there. So of course he does, and finds it's only a small corner that's going. But at that point a small boy pats him on the behind, remarking on what a nice ass he has. Small boy (name of Ludovich, probably) then says he's the guardian spirit of the house. His father was a vampire, his mother the previous guardian spirit, and that's why he has blond hair even though he's Japanese. 'Yup, I see,' Kazumi says. 'Now go home.' Ludovich proves he's a spirit by darting in and out of the tatami where he lives. (FYI guardian spirits live in the shallow 'folds' of the tatami.) He also reveals that the tatami is wearing away because he himself is close to the end of his lifespan.

"But if a human being will sleep with him and make a new tatami for him to live in, he'll receive a renewal of his power. 'Please--sleep with me.' 'Just a minute! I'm a guy!' 'I forgot to mention--I'm gay.' ('Of course,' the author remarks in a parenthesis. 'Given where this story is being printed.') 'It ought to be mutual love from the bottom of our hearts, but for the time being, just sex will do.' Kazumi refuses indignantly, and Ludovich tells him to relax. He was just joking about the sex part. But he is a spirit and Kazumi can see him, so the two start living happily together. Then Kazumi comes home one day to find Ludovich collapsed on the floor. Everything he said is true, and now he's dying. 'Why did you lie?' Kazumi asks in anguish. 'If I hadn't, would you have stayed? I finally found someone I could talk to and I wanted to spend the time left to me with you.' Kazumi agrees to sleep with Ludovich--'but I've never done it before...' 'That's ok,' Ludovich says. 'All you have to do is lie down. I forgot to mention--I'm seme.' Ludovich makes love to Kazumi--very very well, evidently; and afterwards Kazumi dashes off to the local tatami maker and begs to be taught how to make tatami. He succeeds in making a small square to replace the worn one in the old tatami and tells Ludovich to come inside it where he'll revive. And all happens as foretold--Ludovich gains a new lease on life and a new lover. But there's a hitch--the size of the spirit is proportional to the size of the tatami, and the little square Kazumi has made reduces Ludovich to a Tom Thumb."

Po: "Is this one happy or sad?"

Panthea: "I suggest Kazumi makes another, bigger tatami. Fast."

A Strange Story That Really Happened

M.J.: "One night Fuji went into her bedroom for a nap, telling her assistant to wake her in 2 hours. A little later she woke up sensing someone near her, and thought it was her assistant. But when she put out her hand she felt something strange. It had a vaguely human shape but when she pulled on it it elongated like soft rubber. Then she felt hands coming through the open window and grabbing her futon and clothes and dragging her to the window. She tried to scream but could only gasp, and her assistant who'd been thinking of going in to wake her thought she was breathing deeply in a sound sleep and didn't want to disturb her.

"Fuji's explanation is that the layout of the apartment had the entrance and the bathroom at the north, an unlucky direction in Chinese cosmology. You want a barrier there to keep the oni away, like the hills to the north of Kyoto. Flowers placed near the doorway always withered in a day, and the cat used to spend a lot of time staring at the door. But Fuji had lived there a year before anything happened. Until just before she used to keep her djs out in the hallway next to the wall, but the neighbours complained (naturally, even though she was at the end of the corridor) so she'd rented storage space and moved them there. And *then* the appearances began. Perhaps her djs had acted as a barrier to keep the spirits away. But after that strange things kept happening so eventually she moved to where she is now."

Po: "I knew it! I keep djs all around my bedroom to protect me from strange occurrences."

Panthea: <looks at her hard>

Po: "I do. I do. They're all over my floor in piles."

Panthea: "I know they are."

Po: <looking down at her fingers> "Anyway, it's something for everyone to think about."

Panthea: "I'm sure it will make a lot of messy yaoi fans very happy."

Overall: Buy this book! Come on, you don't want to miss Suke and Sei-chan together, especially not with Youko Kurama making a guest appearance. Seriously, this is a terrific collection, with stories that run the gamut from hysterical to angsty to extremely spicy, but which are always cleverly plotted and beautifully drawn. Nobody else is quite like Fuji, and it's clear why her talents propelled her into the professional sphere. We can't recommend her work highly enough.

front cover 

back cover

frontispiece

First Love
Published by: Gust Comic
Published: 1997 6 24     Size: A5      Pages: 180
Genre: Yaoi
ISBN4-7567-0447-6

Review coming soon!