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FANLISTING? KAZUYA MINEKURA?
However, unlike other female manga-ka, Minekura-sensei has taken a fresh approach in the development of her characters and their eventful situations. Now, please understand, we are not knocking any female manga-ka, we think romance and love are much needed things in this world of ours. However, on another level, it is so exhilarating to see that a woman can take on some of the so-called “male” situations and shape them into her own. The result of this kind of insight has brought forth some superb and, let’s face it, very believable characters. This is especially true of her male characters. How does a woman gain so much insight into creating such male characters? I once read somewhere that Minekura-sensei was quite the tomboy. Many of her friends were boys and she played with them throughout her childhood until she hit puberty and realized she was no longer “one of the boys”. Minekura-sensei was now alienated from them in that physical respect. That world of boys, which would become a world of men, slammed its iron gate on her. She could only be an onlooker, making heads and tails of the male psyche from her outsider standpoint. Now that sounds a bit dramatic, but being one who experiences a very similar, practically identical situation, that day of reckoning is a rather poignant one. However, Minekura-sensei has, what a friend of mine who described me, as having an “extra spill of testosterone.” Some women just tapped into it better than others. Minekura-sensei has taken this insight, these experiences and concentrated them into writing her manga with these succinct male characters. The events we see them go through are unlike most male characters dreamed up by female manga-ka. Just as the way men really do talk, with sparse, crude, cutting words with seemingly cold reactions. Emotionless? Oh no, they feel and they hurt, and hurt deeply, but it is much more piercing than any crying sot of bleeding emotions could ever create. For all the romance and love stories that surround her by her fellow female contemporaries, Minekura-sensei shows us that the world is not always rainbow colored with little happy fairies bouncing about in twinkly winkly land. She creates characters with flaws, characters with issues with themselves, and others- be the opposite or their own sex. They are both “good” and “bad” guys, they screw up and they can be offensive, deceitful, disturbing or totally unapproachable. Yet, we love them and love them dearly, for they have traits with which we can connect. It’s part of their charm we cannot seem to get enough of. For her portrayal of such characters and surrealistic tales, we fans are most grateful and, without a doubt, thrilled.
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