For this new Yaoi Minute, we offer you a foray into a disturbing and fascinating work: Cuckoo Dream, manga in two volumes by the talented Tamekou, available at Boy's Love IDP !
The story
For many years, Natsuka has nurtured an unconditional love for his former comrade Hakushima. But his feelings remain one-sided. Especially since he refuses to admit them, fearing above all to lose the friendship of the young man. To vent his frustration, he dates Seno, a boy living on the margins. But one day, Seno and Hakushima are both involved in an accident and fall into a coma. Natsuka watches over her childhood sweetheart for many days, desperate to see him wake up one day. But it's Seno who opens his eyes first… and swear his name is Hiro Hakushima! What happened? Could it be that the shock led to an exchange between the two boys?! How will Natsuka handle this situation?
Fool's game
Rêve de coucou imposes itself from the first pages as a game of appearances, a waltz of pretenses. Under the delicate guise of Tamekou, his characters use in turn coldness, warmth and sensuality to hide their secrets. Thus, Natsuka represses her feelings towards her comrade Hakushima, in order to preserve their friendship. But he actually plunges into absurd suffering, betraying his own identity as well as the foundations of their relationship. Seno, on the other hand, allows himself to be manipulated and used. Why does he destroy himself and allow himself to be destroyed in this way? Only Hakushima, yet at the center of this story, keeps a blurred and smooth character. We have little access to his thoughts, at least until he "wakes up" in Seno's body. Like Natsuka, the reader can only rely on the clean appearance and obvious kindness of the young man to form an opinion about him. This impression is reinforced by the importance of the dialogues, which take precedence over the thought bubbles of the characters. Every word counts, as do the games of gazing and the moments of floating. Here, the frames and the staging of the boxes chosen by the mangaka reveal all their strengths and bring a very fluid rendering to the narration.
Grip and renunciation
When Hakushima wakes up in Seno's body, he is initially met with Natsuka's disbelief, who suspects him of mocking him. But as the evidence mounts, the two young men will grow closer. Their relationship takes precedence over everything, even if it means locking them up with a simple measure of protection – how to explain the situation to Hakushima's mother, for example? – therefore creates a certain grip. Indeed, Natsuka, at first hesitant and suspicious, decides to give free rein to his love for his high school classmate. He will use Seno's body, which still bears the trace of the desires and pleasures of its former "owner", to touch with his finger what he has always dreamed of. Desire and repulsion, reality and fantasy, mingle. We can then ask ourselves: what does Natsuka really want? Is he even attracted to his idea of Hakushima? Would he be able to accept it in its entirety? How does he view Seno, whose body he uses for his own purposes? Tamekou unfolds over two volumes a complex story with troubling stakes. His characters grow more and more over the pages and nothing is spared them. This supernatural "exchange" is an opportunity for the mangaka to question the very notion of identity, developing the past of each protagonist with accuracy and realism. She thus describes a Japanese youth in perdition, coming up against diktats and societal pressure, slipping into the mold or on the contrary rejecting it entirely. Their questions are particularly moving and make sense with the metaphor of the cuckoo as a common thread. Is this bird a parasite? Does it somehow serve the species it colonizes? The characters of Rêve de coucou thus question themselves in mirror, looking for a fixed identity and place through the meanders of life. In conclusion, Cuckoo's Dream takes us into a story of exciting complexity. Through Tamekou's hypnotic drawings, let yourself be carried away alongside young boys in search of themselves!
