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Kizuna
Anime DVD Review
Ok, if you can't deal with Brokeback Mountain as being JUST a love story then read no further. You are not open minded enough for this anime.
If you like boy-boy love stories or if you are curious like me, check out manga-based Kizuna. The story simply draws you in and you fall in love with the characters. It all starts when Ranmaru and Enjoji were in high school. Both of them joined the kendo club and became best friends.
After an "accident", Ranmaru was paralyzed for a while and both discovered their love for one another. Enjoji gives up kendo in support of Ranmaru and they both move in together during their college days.
Here is where the story gets really interesting. Ranmaru decides to get a job on-campus during his hours away from classes to help Enjoji out with expenses. He doesn't know that the old lecherous professor that hired him likes to take his boys out after work.
If this professor was the couple's only headache, it would've been simple. Kei Sagano, Enjoji's half brother, pops up to save Ranmaru and professes his love for him. Itís just puppy love but Kei is so endearing. He is torn between wanting to be with Ranmaru and protecting Enjoji. He knows that in comparison he is still a kid, still dependent on a father-figure bodyguard or his brother to be there for him. He doesn't mind losing to Enjoji; he knows that Enjoji is a much better man than him but to anyone else, male or female, he can't.
If you want to know if Ranmaru escapes from the professor or if he ends up leaving Enjoji and Kei for a girl, you should watch Kizuna. If you are curious if Kei's puppy love will persist or if he, maybe just maybe, falls for that father-figure bodyguard that he is so dependent on, watch Kizuna. And last but not least, you need to find out if Enjoji's love for Ranmaru is strong enough for the both of them to weather through all these twists and turns.
Reviewed by Carloyn Whu, January 2007
Kizuna: Bounds of Love
Manga Review
Ranmaru just might be the prettiest kendo master of all time. His affairs with the bookish, rugged Kei are confusing, but oh so loving. Their relationship would have been ideal if it wasn't for organized crime. Kai, the son of a Yakuza boss, is also in love with Kei. Did he have something to do with the car crash? Kei survived the accident, but can never compete in kendo tournaments again.
The stage is set for one of the most popular Yaoi manga on the market. Kazuma Kodaka's Kizuna: Bounds of Love is a stylized, graphic exploration into the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Not for the squeamish or anyone under eighteen years of age.
Reviewed by Lawrence Sufrin, December 2004
Below: Japanese manga covers from the Kizuna series.
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