Reviews for Classmates: Sotsu gyo sei

Sotsugyousei is a yaoi manga by Nakamura Asumiko, and is a direct sequel to Doukyuusei. As such, it's naturally pertinent for you to read Doukyuusei before progressing to Sotsugyousei. Needless to say, we are reunited with Sajou and Kusakabe, as well as Hara, for some more shenanigans regarding their relationship. Yes, our two main leads are still very much in love and still very much pushing forward. What Sotsugyousei does differently from its predecessor is that it sheds a small amount of light on the difficulties of being a gay couple in Japan, although probably not as seriously as it could have. It is still alighthearted, pleasant story at heart, with a bit more plot that manages to raise my opinion of this instalment as a whole.

There isn’t much to say about the art. It is the same as it ever was – stylistic, original, pretty, but still lacking in details. The anatomy is a bit weird in some places. I will say that the backgrounds this time around seem to be a bit more fleshed out. Speaking of fleshed out, both our mains as well as Hara-sensei get some development. Kusakabe and Sajou are in the midst of growing up and deciding upon their career paths, and the manga attempts to shed light on their issues and troubles as they do so. In essence, it is more of a coming of age piece of fiction than Doukyuusei was. The prequel was more of an introduction to our primary characters. Now that we know them well enough, the real meat of the story can begin. We have a new character by the name of Tani, although he’s more like a side character than anything and has a completely nonexistent character design. He’s obviously just there for comedic purposes. Hara gets some character development (or rather, we as readers are able to understand him better), and he comes off as much more likable than he did in Doukyuusei.

Neither Sajou nor Kusakabe are just hormonal teenagers looking for love. They have dreams and aspirations and they support one another in aiming for them. They make sacrifices, like in any relationship, but they understand what the other person wants, for the most part, and they don’t attempt to hold each other back. The manga ends on a high note, a truly wonderful one I might add, that left me feeling happy for the characters but sad that the series had come to an end. Well, there’s still the sequel and the spin off, so I guess it hasn’t ended just yet. I’ll have to hunt those down soon.

Nakamura-sensei panders to some of the fangirls with some shorts that contain good old-fashioned fan service. They pose some cute or comedic value but otherwise do very, very little to further the plot of the manga. In addition, MAL classifies Sotsugyousei as a “yaoi”. According to the current organization of the site, that means that there’s sex in it. Yeah, there is some toward the end, but it’s not explicit in any way, thankfully (or unfortunately, depending on what you’re looking for). They also don’t go at it like rabbits, unlike in a lot of yaoi manga. Not that there’s anything wrong with having a high sex drive, you know, but these characters just feel very realistic with how delicately they breach the subject in and of itself. It probably helps that they are both fumbling virgins.

All in all, it feels like the author of Sotsugyousei is very respectful with her treatment of the main characters of her manga. It’s still a slice of life and a drama, like its predecessor, but it’s a more involved one and a more mature one, only fitting since the characters are older. It is definitely a treat and very much recommended for anyone interested in a yaoi manga that is actually good.

This is the sequel of Dokyuusei. This manga has two parts: The first part, just like it's predecessor, Sotsugyousei is all about school, but this time they are third years. They have to decide about their future and about themselves. Except they already decided about themselves on the first part of this series, so nothing new about that. You could say they develop their feelings further instead. The conflicts are all about that same old "another girl", "not really gay", "third wheel with honest interest". But this time it's better and less childish than Dokyuusei is. This story does NOT have smut. Although Saijou is indeed REALLY sexy (like allthe perfect ukes Nakamura-sensei draws), but it's badly explored. Maybe that's some way to make us all gagging and waiting for more.

Honorable Mentions: the amazingly well written part about Hara sensei. It's the right amount of bittersweet and his young face is just gorgeous! The sensei he fell in love is super plain, but kind of cute when blushing. Does Hara sensei have a glasses fetish? I wonder.

Honorable Mentions 2: Chapter 5 and Kusakabe's friend: Tani. All the lies were so obvious but Saijou's reactions were so cute! If I was Tani I would bully him a little as well, sometimes he's too stoic.

Second part starts at chapter 8 and has a different tone to it. Unlike the first part, which is really lighthearted, this one talks about subjects that are more serious, like medical issues with parents. In which Kusakabe proves himself to be such a good waifu.

Then there's the college exam, also known as "the only real struggle of this series" and it was very good. Really heart warming. It came with the first real hint of smut of this manga. And, since I really had zero hopes for some smut, I was very happy, even though I saw virtually nothing. It was sweet.

P.S.: Hara sensei really can't help himself of lusting, right? He hold on hopes till the very end.

Excellent story, if you like sweet and non conflicting thing. They are really soulmates, the ideal relationship everybody hopes for themselves.

Hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

Sotsugyousei is the sequel to Doukyuusei by Asumiko Nakamura. It starts of with a couple of short stories that set the mood for the manga. The two characters Sajou Rihito and Kusakabe Hikaru are facing a crossroads in their relationship, they're in their last year of highschool and are unsure of what's going to happen afterwards when the pair has to pursue their vastly different dreams, far away from eachother. Where the manga really takes off is the chapter: "when you're close to crying". Sajou's mom gets diagnosed with cancer and Sajou (now having to live on his own due to his father working overseas) quickly becomesexhausted from his busy schedule and the worry for his mother. Kusakabe can't make Sajou's worry magically go away but jutst being there for him is enough. Their relationship grows into a more mature one with a deep emotional understanding of eachother, whereas in doukyuusei the excitement of first love led them to neglect that. The characters grow outside of the relationship as individuals too. They're not eachother's whole world (like Sajou said in a chapter: "Half of me belongs to him" ) nor should they be, but they learn to be there for eachother and to let the other in when needed.

You could say Doukyuusei is Kusakabes POV and Sotsugyousei is Sajou. Sotsugyousei starts of with Sajou and the manga primarily focuses on him and his development. Sajou struggles a lot with letting Kusakbe in at first. We see this tendency of his throughout doukyuusei, where Sajou repeatedly pushes Kusakabe away and denies his affection. He believes he somehow "turned" Kusakabe to liking men and he feels that he should have had a "normal" life, instead of being with a gloomy guy like himself. Kusakabe naturally disagrees, and is already making big plans to get married and live happily ever after together, which Sajou firmly states he doesn't believe is possible. Sajou denies himself happiness over and over but throughout Sotsugyousei he learns to rely on Kusakabe, show him affection and be there for him in return. He doesn't just "get over" his internalized homophobia in the span of a second, it may take years to push that mindset away, but acknowledging it and trying to work past it is a start.

Another part of what makes Nakamura's work so captivating is the way that she understands the comic medium. She excels at panel pacing, dialogue, angels, motion and many more things that aren't talked enough about when it comes to her work.

Sotsugyousei is a manga that gives me endless joy, because of the artstyle, the characters and the pure love flowing through every page. Reading about these boys growing up during the same time I did has been a pleasure.

Once again, I instantly fell in love with Sajou and Kusakabe. They also give me this heartwarming feeling of tenderness. When I was reading this manga, I couldn't help but smile. The story was told at a slow yet comfortable pace. I like how the tension between Hikaru and Rihito builds, and we can see the difficulties they face. Also, the enthralling art style, as well as everything else, is stunning, and it makes me love the story. However, I still get uncomfortable with Hara sensei when he tries to touch Rihito, whom he knows is in a relationship. Even so, I enjoyed reading itbecause we get to witness how their relationship grows and it's just so heartwarming.

Kusakabe's wholehearted dedication to bold gestures of affection contrasts so beautifully with Sajou's more shy and reserved manner. It was great getting to see how they came to terms with their relationship changing as they prepared to walk their own paths in life and figure out a place for each other in their plans for the future. These two volumes certainly have adorably fluffy moments where they casually learn more about each other, but if you're reading this series to see them explore their relationship and steadily let each other deeper into their lives, you may also be disappointed to see that there is aheavier focus on the child predator in this volume.

In fact, the most shocking reveal is that most of the teachers in this series are apparently pedophiles, which is treated as okay and normal by the story and makes some disturbing (and false) implications about homosexuality in the process. The incorrect stereotype pushed by bigots that pedophilia and homosexuality go hand in hand is gross, but it's particularly unsettling here when it gets used as a plot device to make the kids feel insecure in their relationship... and then they're told that that insecurity is stupid to feel because the pedophile "wasn't a threat" all along. That's so backwards and manipulative, and it's just played off as a funny little part of young love to feel jealous or worry that someone with clear power over you and your partner will use that power against you.

The only silver lining here is that the story still mostly focuses on Kusakabe and Sajou outside of all that, so if you can ignore the aforementioned issues to focus on the wholesome moments of their relationship instead I would still recommend giving this volume a read. But if any of those details is a deal-breaker for you, definitely give this one a pass.

On a final note, I do have one more tiny nitpick that should be addressed. I'm not exactly a fan of boys negatively saying they're "acting like girls" or "turning into girls" just because they're dating boys and having emotions and caring about each other, as though boys can't also feel or act that way. It's really weird and unsettling the way I've seen it handled in this genre, but the story between these two kids is still very wholesome despite those few moments, so I was able to let it slide because it's not so bad that it comes across as sexist or fetish-y like in some other BL series I can think of.

Same shit as the previous manga, but now with french kissing and sex. Which I imagine is desirable content for the target demographic. Do the characters have any actual personalities now? Nope, they only role is still just being a gay couple, nothing less, nothing more. Is it even at least hinted as to why they have fallen love with the other person? Still nope. Is there any actual plotline this time beyond string of random scenes from that are supposed to be romantic? Nope. In fact, although I started reading this right after finishing the prequel, I was immediately confused as where in the story amI. The storytelling feels chaotic and the opposite to thought through, like the author is just drawing whatever came to her mind. Well, not much of a storytelling to do when there isn’t really a story in a first place, to be fair. And bruh, why are you adding new characters when you haven’t even developed the current ones? Was that chapter really supposed to be there or was a random chapter from a different manga included by accident and nobody noticed because weird transitions between plotpoints is the normal for this title?

I also feel like the art is getting worse. Like, you could still call lot of it just stylized, but at some point it looks just straight out bad, not excusable by an art style. If you thought yaoi hands were bad, here you can get yaoi torsos. Surely this is just because it’s an older work and the author’s style just didn’t fully develop yet, right? I thought so too, but she literally has manga six years older that look much better. Maybe she’s just getting lazy with this franchise in particular?

Once again, it’s not bad by BL standards, but once you stop judging it by comparing it only to other works of the secluded genre, it starts to fall apart.