This could have been a neat and genuine expression of his character's style, but as this is not touched upon in canon I think it's safe to assume that's just how the artist drew his eyes.Įscape Journey still can't quite escape from all of yaoi's more pervasive tropes however. The only small exception is that one of the characters, Naoto, looks like he has a perfect small flick winged eyeliner through the entire volume. It is so refreshing to see characters in yaoi who look like normal young men, especially since being a normal looking young man and being gay are not mutually exclusive concepts. The typical overly manly seme and the slim effeminate uke archetypes are nowhere to be seen. What I've been pleased of as of late is how much more skilled yaoi mangaka have become, and Ogeretsu Tanaka is no exception. In older yaoi, extreme differences in the main characters height and physical build were common and laughable. One of the best examples I can find in Escape Journey of how far the yaoi genre has come is in the art style and character designs. This gives them a legitimate emotional connection that drives the story forward in a mostly natural way. What makes Escape Journey different is that it uses a time skip right at the beginning to show you what happens when Naoto and Taichi accidentally reunite in college after a messy breakup in high school. Often in older yaoi I don't think as much care is given in convincing the readers that the characters have any kind of chemistry. The first thing I appreciated about Escape Journey was that the backstory for the two main characters, Naoto and Taichi, feels like a genuine romance. I also find it interesting that because of this it's an example of how dicey it can be as a licensor to bring LGBTQ content to an overseas audience that has very different standards and expectations for what kinds of representation are acceptable.
I feel it necessary to preface this review with a disclaimers: If the yaoi genre is not a genre that you like or are familiar with, Escape Journey might not be the best place to start.Īs a fan of the genre, I found Escape Journey interesting because - as a contemporary yaoi - it shows how much the genre has changed over the years, and where it still needs to make improvements. MANGA REVIEW | "Escape Journey" - Volume One