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Title: Boys Be...
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents are really going to have to decide for themselves whether or not this is a series their kids should be reading. The reason for this is, since there is no solid storyline or cast of characters in this series, the content and its suitability for children is constantly changing. Granted, I don't think too many kids are going to be too interested in reading a collection of short stories about teenage boys with love problems anyway, but you just can never tell these days. Fans of romance are definitely recommended to check this series out, as this series is about nothing but romance. Both men and women should consider checking this title out, as there is something in here for both genders. |
I hate controversy, I really do. I especially hate controversy when it comes to manga. Why? Because personally, I get sick of having to address the controversy when I write the review. As you can probably guess by now, there has been some controversy with "Boys Be..." The controversy with THIS title is that there were originally three "Boys Be..." series in Japan! "Boys Be...," "Boys Be... Second Season," and "Boys Be... Third Season." Tokyopop has decided to release "Boys Be... Second Season" here first, as they feel that people may be able to relate to the situations of the second season better then the first. They are also releasing the series as just simply "Boys Be...," and right now there is no word on how Tokyopop is planning to handle the rest of the series when they finish with the second season. There, that's what the controversy is about. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move on to the actual review.
"Boys Be..." is nothing more than a collection of romance stories, with one little twist: all the stories revolve around boys. Yes ladies, you may be shocked to discover this, but when men fall in love, we can turn from super-annoying creatures to ultra-sensitive mice in no time flat. On the other hand, while there are some men who are looking for a lasting relationship and partner, there are some men who are looking for relationships for all the wrong reasons too."Boys Be..." attempts to show relationships from the male point of view, and in this regard, the series succeeds at what it sets out to do. There are no main characters in this series. While certain characters may have longer story arcs than others do, there is no main cast of characters that we will be following for the whole series. A few characters will pop up, we'll follow them for as long as we need to, and once their story is resolved, we'll move on to someone else and never look back at any of the previous characters we met. This may make the series sound a little unappealing to some people, because let's face it: what's the point of investing in a 20+ volume series when the characters are constantly changing on you? However, I believe that this was probably a wise thing to do. The way I see it, if we only had one principal cast of characters to deal with, then we'd get stuck with a handful of characters that would face every problem in the world, and would become annoying pretty fast. Don't believe me? Then why have the last several volumes of "Kare Kano" been focusing its attention on the side characters instead of Yukino and Arima?
Simple: because shoving all the relationship problems on Yukino and Arima got old after a while, so the author kept expanding her cast with new characters to help share the burden of the problems. It's still an excellent series; however, many people will agree that the series seems to have lost focus of its original goal because of the new characters. By creating a series that contains no set cast, the author can think up of every problem in the world, and instead of losing focus on the story can just give the problem to a new cast and have them deal with it. No seven people carrying the world’s problems on their shoulder, no story to keep track of, and no way to lose focus of what’s going on. It really is a win-win situation when you stop and think about it. Another great thing about "Boys Be..." is that the stories are never stereotyped too much. Oh sure, there is a story here and there that seems too perverted and juvenile to be anything but a ploy to get preteens to buy the book (and the ultra-sexy covers are definitely designed to be good-looking for perverted teens), but overall the stories are very balanced, as are the characters. One story involves a boy dating his best friend, who happens to be taller than he is. The girl’s height gets in the way of their relationship, though, and the boy has to decide whether or not he's going to let the girl’s height get in the way of him falling in love with a wonderful woman.
One of my girl friends thought that the guy was being stuck up since the girl’s height shouldn't have been an issue if he truly loved the girl, but the sad fact is, things like this DO get in the way of relationships in real life, and sometimes it takes both people a little bit longer to realize that such a small thing can't hinder a relationship to the point where they feel like they can't be together! You'd be surprised at how many men feel uncomfortable dating a woman who is just a couple years older than them, so it's not like this sort of thing is unheard of. However, then you have stories about a guy and a girl who get drunk on Christmas Eve, and spend the night playing Santa Claus and reindeer (with the girl being Santa and the boy being the reindeer). These are the type of stories that don't work nearly as well because they don't seem realistic enough, and even come off as immature sometimes. Some boys in this series are perverts, some are gentlemen, and then there are some who are somewhere in the middle, and the men from the latter category are the ones I like to read about the most since they are usually the most realistic of the bunch. Of course, since there is no solid cast, it should be noted that the character designs are far from unique. Within this first book, many of the men and women will start to look the same, and I can't say I didn't expect this, because it IS hard to create a new cast of characters and have them all look unique, so if the characters start to look familiar I'll forgive the artist, as I know how difficult his job must be for this series. Seeing as how the first "Boys Be..." was released in the early ‘90's and this "Boys Be..." was released in the late ‘90's, I can kind of understand why Tokyopop would feel that the second season was a better investment then the first series, but hopefully Tokyopop will find a way to include the first season into this release as well in the future.
Despite the fact that this series is geared towards boys, I have a funny feeling that women will end up being the ones who make up the core of the reading audience. Unfortunately, today's generation of teenage boys don't like their books filled with romance of any sort (unless there is some serious skin involved), so the idea of men flocking to a series that is about nothing BUT romance is very unlikely! However, Tokyopop feels differently, even offering a little extra section in the back of the book using the stories in the book as examples for what they should/should not do in real life. This section is, of course, written by a woman, but the guide does make perfect sense, and even I might take some notes from the book when I find a girl who can actually tolerate my existence. Some people have expressed concerns about buying a romance series that takes place from the male point of view, and rightfully so. After all, when you look at a lot of the "romance" series written for men ("Flowers & Bees," "Ai Yori Aoshi"), the whole series usually comes off as immature, offensive, and unrealistic. However, "Boys Be..." may be the series to prove once and for all that not all romance series made for men are bad. "Boys Be..." certainly looks at real life situations a little differently, and sometimes the point of view it portrays isn't pretty, but this series is a heartwarming collection of stories that are sure to charm you, and I highly recommend you give the series a chance, and not base your decision to not give this a chance based on that lousy cover.
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