Thoughts on Koi Kaze, Part 1
So, I just finished reading Koi Kaze vol. 1 (Ch. 1 - 7) and.... yeah, it's just as good as I remember, if not better honestly.
Now, just like I wrote in my last post. Koi Kaze tells the story of a budding romance between siblings Koshiro and Nanoka and can be summed up in three words: Honest, awkward, and uncomfortable.
But all in a good way, at least to me.
Be it East or West, incest, much less consanguinamory, isn't a subject that, for various reasons, that's easy to talk about, much less frame your whole narrative around.
Now, to be fair, I do think Japan does a lot better with the subject than here in the US and the West more generally which tents to cast it as unequivocally bad, usually by means of abuse and that's it....
That's what made Koi Kaze stand out though.
Even if/when incest is treated less negatively Japan, it's almost never done so in a genuinely 'honest' light like it is here. Something that's reflected in its art style that is... well, kind of plain. Stylized for sure, but nothing that really comes across as overly flashy or exaggerated. The two lead characters, even accounting for Nanoka's cute design... are really quite plain and a bit generic compared to other examples in the medium.
This isn't really a criticism though, but rather a point of strength for the story that tells its audience in no uncertain terms that the story you're getting, fiction or not, is as real as it's going to get while still being a manga.
The plot of the story and the question it's trying to answer can be summed up best with this one line:
'What does it really mean to really like someone from the bottom of your heart?'
...With the second, unspoken question being:
'What happens if the person I really like happens to be my brother/sister?'
Like I said... the story is honest, awkward, and uncomfortable, especially in volume 1, which is told mostly from Koshior's point of view as he repeatedly tries, and fails, to both try and treat Nanoka as a sister despite never having grown up with her since their family divorced when he was in middle school and at the same time suppress his growing sexual attraction to her because he 'can't see her as a sister. Remember, he's already a full grown adult and has never even grown up with her since she was a toddler.... That's not going to be easy no matter how you slice it, incest or not.
Complicating matters, at least for him, is Koshiro himself. Both his naturally awkward personality that makes it hard for him to be honest and come off as cold or distant, and the circumstances that occurred between the siblings when they met without knowing they were, in fact siblings.
Long story short, Koshiro's girlfriend of 2 years dumped him due to him being 'too cold', leading to a not so great moment of depression and wondering if he could've done something different, him running into his then unknown younger sister, and then being egged on by his coworkers to just go out with her since, for all his awkwardness, he sucks at being stoic... leading to the pair out on a date at an amusement park and Koshiro, in a moment of weakness, getting comforted by Nanoka.
Under any other circumstance, not small age gap notwithstanding, this story would be pretty standard and cute for your average reader... but then comes the unceremonious, almost glossed over even, reveal that they are siblings.
I actually like how much the reveal gets glossed over. It really highlights just how socially ingrained expectations are about 'how we should act around each other' given our respective roles. something that gets tacked a lot more generally in manga but takes a much more personally dramatic tone when the roles in question are family and all the expectations that come with it.
For Nanoka, this isn't really an issue since she 'wants' the 'big brother/little sister' dynamic... mostly out of the idealized view she has of said relationships and because she's a pretty innocent teenager who's never really fallen in love before now. To be clear, she doesn't have any real clue how to deal with this either but definitely has an easier time of it... at least until she falls in love with Koshiro herself later.
No, most of the drama is all on Koshior's part as he struggles to make sense of what he's feeling vs how he's supposed to feel.
The problem is that he just can't see Nanoka as his sister, especially not after how they met and how he opened up to her.... to say nothing of his near instant attraction to her the moment he saw her. So, to be suddenly told, 'hey, that's your sister and you're going to be living together, so don't see her as a woman pleast, love society'... is not something our poor guy can do.
No, struggles and agonizes with this dilemma even as his feelings for her grow with each passing day, with several months passing by throughout the first volume alone. And let me tell you, watching him try to suppress how he feels or tell everyone around him that Nanoka is just his siter and nothing more... kind of painful to watch, but hard not to relate to either, in that awkward idiot guy kinda way.
Well, I probably feel that way because Koshiro is, for better or worse, someone I can relate to on a personal level...
Anyway, the volume ends right around Nanoka's 16th birthday and when the failure to suppress his feelings leads Koshiro to do some pretty stupid things and 'relieve' himself to try and cope.
Needless to say, he feels more than a little shame about masturbating to his sister.... Cue more misunderstanding fueled due to her Koshior forgetting Nanoka's birthday and Nanoka thinking he was mad at her for seeing him in the bathroom because she forgot to knock....
The end of the volume 'does' see Koshiro patch things up with her, at least as far as the birthday bit goes, but as for his own issues about her?
...Not hardly. Not even close.... He, and audience, are just left wondering why he couldn't just talk to her more honestly even though the answer is also sort of obvious.... at least for the more 'conventionally minded' readers out there.
Frankly, reading this made me think a lot about my own past and I really couldn't help but feel for how stupid Koshiro was being... It made me both angry at him, but wanna root for him. I dunno.
Anyway, those were my thoughts on Koi Kaze vol 1.
