Gouhou Drug

[starlady]

I reread this manga recently, and it's interesting on several levels how much some of my thoughts about it have changed. Also how much better my comprehension of Japanese is.

I think it was my sister who first brought the existence of Gouhou Drug to my attention (also known as Legal Drug in English language fandoms) with something along the lines of "it's CLAMP's yaoi manga!" Which is both true and not true. As most people probably know, Gouhou Drug follows seventeen year-olds Himura Rikuou and Kudou Kazahaya, who live above and work at the Green Drugstore in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. Both of them aren't in school, Kazahaya because he never went at all and Rikuou because he dropped out; both of them are also consumed with vanished women, someone named Kei in Kazahaya's case and someone named Tsukiko in Rikuou's. Kazahaya has weak touch-based parasensory abilities, while Rikuou has a touch of telekinesis. The proprietor of the drugstore, Kakei, can see the future. Legal Drug is sadly unfinished (personally I believe this probably impacted the development of xxxHOLiC in particular, as volume 2 of Drug crosses over with the former, and Watanuki visits the drugstore in the HOLiC anime); it stands at three volumes.

When I first read the manga, maybe two years ago, I really did agree that it was yaoi, but in light of things like Clamp's interview in Da Vinci 4.09, I've reconsidered my views. Kazahaya and Rikuou don't really break any new ground compared with other intense homosocial bonds in CLAMP, such as Fai & Kurogane or Watanuki & Doumeki. What makes them seem much slashier is that CLAMP situate them against a background of canonically homosexual relationships--Kakei and Saiga, throughout the series, and all of Suiryou Academy in general, and Nayuki and Mukoufujiwara in particular, in volume 3. Too, Kazahaya and Rikuou conform at least superficially to a lot of the stereotypical "uke" and "seme" traits, respectively, which only heightens the yaoi-esque atmosphere. But it's not actually BL; Kakei and Saiga are the wrong age, and Kazahaya and Rikuou will almost certainly never be anything more than (extraordinarily close) friends.

I think my favorite panel in the whole manga is when the old dude yells at the student in the Ushagi-san suit, "Stay in your weird school!" in volume 3. Also, I think Rikuou is much hotter than Nekoi typically draws him.

I have not read much (well, any) BL; what do other people who have think? Also, people are discussing related issues at kaigou.

Comments

[amaresu]

I've never read any other CLAMP besides this. I'm not sure if that had any impact on how I read it, but I did see it as very pre-slash/yaoi/whatever. It seemed like they were building up to a relationship with the two guys. Of course I haven't read it in years, so yeah.

I wish they'd go back and finish it though. It had an interesting premise and I'd've liked to see where it would've gone.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

One thing I'm hoping is that when they've finished HOLiC they might be able to get back to this (since the series have the same main artist, Nekoi).

Ha, you should read other CLAMP if you have a chance. Very similar relationship dynamics are common in their works. I'd recommend HOLiC, but I'm partial.

I saw it as pre-slash too, and I definitely do think that their relationship would have followed the typical CLAMP arc into absolute trust. But not canonical sex.

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

I think Taishakuten and Ashura-ou were the only couple in CLAMP's non-doujinshi works to have a bed scene (did you get that far? it wasn't explicit, after the deed was done).

But none of CLAMP's non-doujinshi works could be called yaoi. I would say Tokyo Babylon comes the closest to soft boy-love because of all the innuendos (from Hokuto) and the story essentially revolved around that couple and what then happens in X; sort of a obsession-type love story.

CLAMP does write and draw a lot of fanservice, but I think they've always thought of BL or yaoi manga as a lower grade of publication with a connotation that they don't want on their manga. This doesn't stop them from writing in gay couples like Touya and Yukito into their stories, or having same sex characters standing suggestively next to each other. Even though they have talked about relationships that are more important than love, I think they realize that subtlety gets a far better reaction than marriage announcements. I don't think Touya and Yukito got even half the fandom as Fay and Kuro.

You haven't read any BL? http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1268 Gokuraku Cafe is a very tame, very light (very short) cute manga if you want to try the genre out. Admittedly 80% of the genre is scary. haha.

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

Also, always thought xxxHolic was a re-vamped version of Gouhou Drug. Kazahaya/Watanuki + Rikou/Doumeki and 'drug'/'holic'. Like they suddenly thought of a better way to put the story together and won't look back (so I'm a little pessimistic that they'd finish that manga up). Gouhou Drug's 'yaoi' qualities always felt like fanservice. xxxHolic's feel the same.

If CLAMP ever took a tip from Yuu Watase and made a 'real' yaoi manga, that would be fantastic.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if Watanuki were blond and clueless, he'd be Kazahaya. I think Rikuou has slightly more of a sense of humor than Doumeki, too.

I do agree that it's fanservice--the less polite term would be fan-baiting. But, you know, we enjoy it, and we keep coming back for more, so maybe everyone's happy.

OMG how did I forget about Tokyo Babylon/X? And, really, the denouement to the Seishirou/Subaru relationship just doesn't make sense if they're not in love with each other. Or at least, if Subaru isn't in love with Seishirou. I maintain that Seishirou says that he loves Subaru with his dying breath. It would fit in the speech bubble!

...Ahem. I don't think Touya and Yukito got even half the fandom as Fay and Kuro.

Oo, good point. I've talked with other people about the idea of a "gap" that needs to exist to be exploited fannishly, and I think there's some of that going on--like you say, innuendo leaves a lot more scope for the imagination. And fanworks.

I gave up after volume four of RG Veda. I could maybe be convinced to blow through it in English, but it's killer in Japanese, unless you're trained in medieval Buddhist lore. But then, it was popular in the original, so I think my reaction is atypical compared to Japanese fans.

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

If you see RG Veda in a library, it picks up after vol 7-ish..somewhere around the sister drama. It's definitely a precursor to the fatalistic storytelling that they enjoyed writing in X and TRC. While X and TRC are on the serious side, I think RG Veda is over-the-top enough to be humorous. (that could just be me.) :)

[hisui-ryoshi.livejournal.com]

Fanservice. As sad as I am that they will probably never finish this I don't think it was going anywhere real. And the art was pretty, and hinted at what plot developments they were never going to take. So I just think of some of the art as fanservice. I don't know if I ever got around to reading it English or if I only read it Japanese with limited understanding (before Olaf) but it didn't seem like it was going to work out.

I always think of CLAMP and CCS, and Tsubasa. For some reason I never remember X and xxxHolic. Which I should. When they stopped Gouhou Drug I was not surprised. It still doesn't strike me as very CLAMP (other then the art) so I would not be surprised if nokiirat's theory above was correct.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I definitely think of CCS and TRC first, HOLiC second. In some ways I think CCS and TRC are actually atypical in foregrounding the het relationship? And not killing off the female half of the pair.

The art is pretty. Nekoi can draw. I think I agree that there wasn't much plot--though I think we were on the cusp of big revelations--but yeah, compared with HOLiC its scope is minor. In some ways I think some things about it are very Clamp, namely what got taken up in Holic, like nokiirat says, and others aren't.

i need to get my gohou drug icon back, have a sad!x one :D

[levels.livejournal.com]

/drifted over here from the translation post.

Oh, so-very fanservice (or, That Special CLAMP Fanservice). I adore what Nekoi does with her characters (I bet Rikuou is her favourite, he must be), and the whole setting (ahem, Holic), but sadly, just a bundle of fanservice. Maybe we never got a defined plot in those 3 volumes, but they were surely shaping it up for us.

And I don't know why, but I can never see the day when CLAMP makes anything officially BL* -- it just won't work with them. Most of their M/M relationships are either a) doomed, b) soon to be doomed or, most likely, c) so much angst, and then maybe to be doomed. BL plots has that, but they tend to mix RL!angst with RL!romance and that... just won't go well with CLAMP's views and tendencies to make their boys dip in their Pot of Angst. Yaoi is out of the question -- it clashes with all of CLAMP's values/ideas when it comes to soul mates/One True Person ideals.

(* I think I think so because CLAMP kept on publishing it in Asuka. Kadokawa has two BL/Yaoi magazines out there and I'm sure, if CLAMP wished it, they could have moved to one of the two (both magazines aren't doing so well but oh, well). So yeah, they simply don't want to be directly linked to anything-BL. Maybe they see themselves above it, or they simply can't associate with it.)

Re: i need to get my gohou drug icon back, have a sad!x one :D

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

That's a good point about their publishing options. I agree that BL just doesn't work with their viewpoint, too.

It's a good point about the angst, too. Saiga and Kakei are the only actual M/M couple I can think of in Clamp without heaping helpings of angst, unless you're willing to count Touya and Yukito (who never have a physical relationship in canon, not that this devalues their emotional bond)--and who knows, maybe Saiga and Kakei had lots of angst in the past, or were going to have lots in the future.

I think I said at some point while I was translating TRC that the Clamp rule of relationships is that if you were happy in the past, you're not now, and if you're happy now, you're going to be very unhappy in future. And this tends to hold true until the ends of their stories.