seri

But what's it about? You have this Austrian child prodigy, Wolfgang Richter, and this Spanish rebellious violinist boy, Eduardo Soltie. Their love for music brings them together, and we accompany them on their journey for about 20 years in 3 (in the bunkoban version, 2) volumes. While the two has the BL attraction towards each other, but to me, it felt like theirs bordered on bromance as Eduardo is very much in love with Anette, Wolfie's sister, and constantly busy being gay with Bob, and Wolfie marries his childhood friend before anything goes anywhere between those two and dies (of course, he has his own obligatory Bob phase). I expected to see a tragic love story between Wolf and Ed just looking at the random images from the manga, but was denied. But forget them, and just remember this: Every boy in this story wants Bob.

If you are a male under the age of 20 and you can resist the charms of this man, congratulations. You probably have some sort of disease, because this man is a walking bishounen magnet.

"Please, don't say anything to my mother." - Yes Nino, if I was your mother, I wouldn't want to know that the guy who boned my dead brother and my cheating, failure-of-a-father husband also boned my precious son. Poor Anette.

The story is not a conventionally constructed one. We know right from the beginning Wolf died young, and with each chapter, we are presented with a different part of his life. Especially the first chapters can be overwhelming because of this narrative choice, because most relations are established from the get-go, we get no classic character introductions. Personally, I had a hard time processing how the Spanish Revolutionary movement fit in this story and why we suddenly got a cholera epidemic. But as you read on, all the pieces get together and you see the whole picture. Some of the same events are told through different characters' POV throughout the story, a technique I like a lot. If I had to choose, I'd say "Andalusian Love Song" is the most important part of the story. It had the most amount of Wolf, and feels like a "main story" the most while the others (especially the ones in vol. 2) have this "side story" feeling. They are so much fun to read though. I liked Rimbaud to Verlaine no you ni in particular which was about Bob being salty about the newlywed Ed hitting on every girl in Paris.

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Speaking of parts, based on the digital edition, they are:

Volume 1

1974: Virentz Monogatari (ヴィレンツ物語-Virentz Story) - This chapter is scanlated by Golden Roze Scans, and is the only part available in English to readers.

1976: Hensoukyoku (変奏曲-Variation)

1976: Andalusia Koiuta (アンダルシア恋歌-Andalusian Love Song)

Volume 2

1978: Koutei Enbukyoku (皇帝円舞曲-Emperor Waltz)

1978: Variation (ヴァリアシオン)

1979: Itoko Doushi (いとこ同志-Cousins)

1981-2: Kanon (カノン-Canon)

1979: Nino Alexis-Sono Tabiji (ニーノ・アレクシス　その旅路-Nino Alexis's Journey)

1975: Tsubakiyakata no San Akunin (椿館の三悪人-Three Enfants Terribles of the Camellia Mansion)

1977: Rimbaud to Verlaine no you ni (ランボーとヴェルレーヌのように-Like Rimbaud and Verlaine)

At times, it felt like Takemiya crammed a 10-volume long story into 3, and the timeskip kind of feels out of place, now that I think about it. But hey, don't think I'm complaining, we've got lots of bishounen and 70s melodrama thanks to this manga being what it is. Although I would have liked more tears and angst in my drama, I still very much enjoyed reading Hensoukyoku. Here are the examples of the content I want to see in my manga:

-"I will never forgive you if you die." - I wish all kabedons were sad like this one. Also yanderEduardo is precious. Wolf is preciousness itself <3

-"If you are going to die anyway, die in my arms!" - Okay ngl, this really pulled at my heartstrings. I'm a sucker for this kind of drama. Also I must mention that Takemiya didn't give Wolf the "mysterious shoujo heart disease", commonly known as "SHINZOUBYOU", but an actual heart disease that fit his situation. He had tetralogy of Fallot. I asked a doctor friend what this condition was, and she said the exact same things the doctor in the manga said. It made everything extra sad.

Takemiya did a nice job in writing her characters into the existing world, and I can't believe I'm not reading a fictitious story. This is Wikipedia-level knowledge, but seeing how Takemiya drew this manga based on Masuyama Norie's (who later wrote Kazeki's spin-off novel, Kami no Kohitsuji) experiences as a music student, this makes sense. My only gripe is that, although the story is taking place in the 1960s and 1970s, things almost felt a little bit 19th century to me at times. But that's 70s shoujo for you, Europe was the fairytale land at the time and no one wants to see the modern world in there.

"Can I stay over tonight?" - It was almost unsettling how much Ed reminded me of Gilbert (and sometimes Marion). But then again, mon pauvre Gilbert didn't get to live until his age ;_;