Laughter is Good for the Soul- Healing Music by Tatsumi Kaiya

Healing Music is the second effort put out by the Digital Manga Guild and it is a group of short one shots by mangaka Tatsumi Kaiya.

The first story and its little follow up centres on a gifted young pianist who feels he has lost his muse after the uncle who inspired him to play his best and who also tuned his piano died. He meets a piano tuner who awakens the piano so that the sound is the same as Uncle Sou’s, and the pursuit is on. Of course, he realises he likes more than the tuner’s professional skills, and there is a mutual attraction thing going on, but if there wasn’t, this wouldn’t be Boy’s Love!

The second tale is a cute little story that we’ve all seen the plot for before, but which hits all the right spots anyway, so I didn’t really mind. Popular jock falls in love with a cos-playing otaku. It’s not only his first guy, but he’s left uncertain by the constant brush-offs for animé related events and the frequent appearance of a guy he doesn’t know at his boyfriend’s house. Just what’s going on?

The final story and extra is a tale of businessmen in love. One glasses wearing type in a suit, one co-worker who insists they are still friends despite professing to be straight and dumping him to get married, and a French Chef who is absolutely obsessed with cooking for the first guy in glasses. It’s a nice little fluff piece and actually mostly revolves around the one guy wanting to start a business and not liking French food and the French chef loving him and cooking him his favourite curry.

All in all, the stories here are lightweight pieces meant to provide a light, funny read and they do that well. There is some explicit content that is inserted in just the right places, and they really stand out. Artistically speaking, these scenes really showcase the talent of the mangaka. Her character’s expressions during sex are simply breathtaking, with one “o” face particularly beautiful to behold in “Prince of Curry”. It’s not the easiest sort of thing to draw, but she does it exceedingly well and it would be nice to see some meatier full length manga stories in the BL genre to really do it justice.

Presentation wise, the English edition is lovely. The colouring on the full colour insert page is intact, and the translation flows smoothly without any stilting or awkward pauses which shows quality editorial standards as well as translation skill. The lettering on this is simply superb. The chosen font is not only easy to read on the PC screen, but promises to be thick enough to adapt well to the electronic ink technologies of hand held e-reader devices. It looks quite professional, as it should for commercial publication, and it really showcases the skill sets that the Guild has to offer. I hope future releases by the localisation group, Boys Love Bang Bang, are just as good. I definitely will be looking!

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