I'll bet anyone who follows manga translations online know of Tsuta Suzuki. She's relatively new but she is one of the best debut manga artists, in my opinion. Licensing A Strange and Mystifying Story is one of the best decisions Juné has ever made and I am so happy to have a copy of it in my hands!

The main story in this manga is about Aki Yamane, whose family is cursed with a strange illness. Because of this, everyone in the Yamane family die young. Just when Yamane feels like he might be on his deathbed, he finds the strange fossil tooth that his grandfather pointed to before he died. When he held it in his hands, the tooth grew into a demon.

There are so many great things to say about this story, I suppose I'll just list. A Strange and Mystifying Story has an excellent original premise. I don't remember the last time I read about strange, mystical diseases. Predictably, that premise is just an excuse for sex, because Setsu, the demon, finds it much easier to locate the curse in Yamane's body when they're doing it. But surprisingly, there's not much sex shown in the story, and when it is shown, it only takes up a couple of frames. And even more surprising is the fact that it's not an angst fest. You'd think that with a storyline involving an incurable disease and a curse, it'd be full of angst. Instead, Suzuki produces a romantic comedy. The ending of the first volume is very sweet and there's an optimistic outlook for Yamane and Setsu.

Suzuki's characters are all fun to be around. Yamane is a bit prone to outbursts, but I'm willing to explain it away as his inability to accept the fact that a demon is living with him. And it's so adorable to watch him pretend he doesn't like having sex with Setsu when it's obvious he does. He might blame it on Setsu's alluring smell, but everyone knows he honestly loves being around Setsu. Setsu himself is a funny demon. He has a good heart, even though Yamane tries not to see it. It doesn't help his case that he comes off as a pervert, always groping Yamane and walking around naked and carefree.

There's also a host of helpful and supportive co-workers from Yamane's job. Tet is Yamane's childhood friend and the person Yamane has a crush on. He acts like Yamane's big brother and is generally a nice guy. Director Minamiura is a funny middle-aged man whose first love was Setsu. You'll see why because he loves telling people allll about it. Sasaki is their only female co-worker and gets easily offended if the guys don't include her in whatever they're up to. Yamane's friends are all funny people and they liven up the manga.

There are two more short stories in addition to the main one. "Nylon Vinyl" is about Kuroki, a teacher working in a high school. He notices a student named Tachikawa who's always aloof and hanging out by himself in the supply room, so he decides to become his friend. This story was also very nice. Usually teacher/student relationships are just lust --> sex, but this one is a bit different and has more depth to it. Kudos to Suzuki! The other short story, "Is There No God or Buddha?" is a historical piece. Ginta is a carpenter and works hard making carvings and woodworks. One day he comes home from work and finds a scruffy looking boy lying unconscious in his house. Ginta nurses the boy, Sohta, back to health and promptly kicks him out. But Sohta's persistent and the next day he's back at Ginta's house.

Suzuki has a way with characters that makes them realistic and come alive. Her style is also very appealing. The characters are tall, almost willowy, and I like the chiseled look, with the angular cheekbones and jaws. Very attractive. All in all, she puts together an excellent manga, with a deft style that compliments the storyline very well.

A Strange and Mystifying Story is a great first volume and I happily recommend it everyone. I know the second volume will also live up to this first, and hopefully we find out about how Setsu came to be helping Yamane and his ancestors. ( )

One main story taking up two thirds of the volume, and two more shorter stories in the end. The main story concerns a man who falls ill and is then approached by a wolf man who informs him his family is cursed, but (since he's bored) he's been protecting them/fulfilling their wishes. The main character wants to be rid of the disease, so the wolf man lives with him, pulling out some of the disease each day while the main grumps about the fact the wolf man is always having sex with him while doing it. The other two stories include a romance between a friendly teacher and a quiet boy, and a gruff man who allows a homeless boy to live with him.

Rather than most of my other yaoi that were given to me, I actually picked this one out myself because of the clean, attractive art that looked a little different than the usual varieties of yaoi art (it reminds me of art I've seen in various series in ZERO SUM), and because it had a bit of a fantasy-ish plot and looked fairly upbeat.

Now that I've read the manga, I can't say I was wrong on any of those points, but I didn't actually enjoy this much. The fantasy elements aren't really any deeper than what you see in the plot description. It doesn't haven any hugely creepy rape scenes or what-the-hell-do-they-see-in-each-other pairings, but it is the sort of yaoi that doesn't seem to think it's characters need any more reason to fall in love with one another than spending a little time together. There are plenty of yaoi fans that don't mind that, so for them it's probably a fun romantic comedy, but such relationships to me are so unconvincing I can't manage to find it very fun or sexy.

What's a little strange is that while the actual plot and dialog go through the usual silly romantic comedy lecherous-seme/uke-that-likes-it-but-insists-he-doesn't motions, the inner monologues of the main character oftentimes treads into heavier waters, with the character sometimes mulling over his family's deaths, his desire to be self-sufficient, or his struggle with the fact he wants cured but dislikes the means by which it must be done. When I first heard these musings I was interested, as they seemed they could make a decent inner struggle alongside the romance, but after a while I began to notice that these musings were just that. Random musings, once in a while popping up, probably to make the story seem deeper than it really is, just before we move onto the next curse-removal-sex scene. After a while it became downright irritating that it continued to insist on bringing such things up.

If you're happy with the usual romantic comedies about laid back dirty-minded semes and ukes that constantly insist they don't like what they clearly do, I guess this is a solid offering, and it's got some art and fantasy elements to give it a little bit of distinction. But if you need actual romantic development rather than something where romance is just automatically assumed, I'd skip this one. ( )