Kizuna Kazuma Kodaka

Review by Cimmerdeux Kizuna Vol. 1: rating ** running time approx. 25 min.

This is an anime video in a style called shonenai which deals with gay male characters. Our story begins in the Japanese equivalent of high school where Ranmaru is a fencing champion. This is kendo fencing so think samurai films not 3 Musketeers. Ranmaru is Enjoji's lover. Enjoji is the son of a Yakuza (organized crime) lord. He's trying to stay away from his family. A rival crime lord tries to run Enjoji down with car. Ranmaru pushes him out of the way and is badly hurt. He will never be able to fence again (not steady enough on his feet). Enjoji is heartbroken and swears to take care of him forever. Fade to now (it's probably been about 1-2 yrs?). Our boys are living together while they go to college. A sleazy professor of Ran's has nefarious designs on his person and takes him to a Host Club or gay bar. Our hero Ran is horrified. Interesting to note that he can't believe he's in a gay bar. Apparently this has sleazy connotations. I don't know if this is cultural or not. The professor tries date rape and is beaten up by - drum roll please - Enjoji's long lost half brother Sagona! Sagona has been worshipping Ran from afar ever since high school (we saw him at the beginning of the video but had no idea who he was). Sagona hates Enjoji because of some family squabble involving the mothers. Ran tries to make peace between the two brothers by talking to Sagona but, Sagona get overly physical with him and gets his face slapped. Rightly so I might add. Ran tells Enjoji Sagona is back. The brothers meet for a showdown. The slimy professor has meanwhile sent thugs to beat up Sagona and the two brothers fight them off together. Sagona decides to go back to kendo to become worthy of Ran so that he can take him away from Enjoji and makes it to the nationals. End of vol. 1. Ok, story is straight from a soap opera. The heros' love for each other (including the sex scenes - tastefully done of course) is almost transcendent; think knights and tournaments and quests. This is based on a manga (graphic novel) written by a woman and that romanticism comes shining through. When the professor tries to rape Ran, Enjoji is enraged because his lover's chastity was sullied. This is not a down and dirty story, it's gentle. Enjoji is the knight and Ran is his lady. One note: there is a "sex" scene after the attempted date rape that has Enjoji insisting on being with Ran even though Ran is still drunk and is saying no. It's a little jarring and sets up that Enjoji is always the instigator in this relationship. Ran can apparently take care of himself fine (fencing champ) unless he's dealing with Enjoji. Interesting relationship view from the creator. Artwork is good, translation and subtitling is fair (or so I've heard). Story - pleasant. If you're new to this kind of thing, a very quiet introduction.

Kizuna Vol. II by Kazuma Kodaka Rating: *   First off I can only give this one star *. The reasoning is that if you haven't seen Vol. I and actually even if you have, the story is confusing. We only get one kissing scene as well and not a lot of romance. The artwork, however, is good. That said: our story starts off with a Yakuza boss coming to Tokyo. A young female named Yuki bumps into the crime boss and he keeps her from falling. The purpose of the scene is to let us know he is a crime boss. Change scene: Kai, who went by his last name of Sagano in the last video is busy being a brat in Osaka and basically giving his bodyguards a hard time. Kai is also Yakuza. Strangely enough, this version of Kai seems much younger then the last version of him we saw. Ther is no mention of him being a fencing champion either. We flashback to Kai (age 8?) with someone called Masa, who is a younger version of the Yakuza boss we were just introduced to promising Kai that he'll be at a school function. Fast forward back to the present: Kai is blithely informing Enjoji and Ran that he's staying with them for awhile. They are less than thrilled. Also, apparently everyone is still in school but Enjoji is also working as a male escort, for females. He comes home drunk and we get our one and only kissing scene before Enjoji passes out. Sigh. Next morning Kai overhears Ran talking to a girl! He immediately jumps to the conclusion that it is an old girlfriend and informs Enjoji and the follow and spy on Ran until he meets with Yuki (see above). Enjoji tells Kai that Yuki is Ran's sister. Yuki and Ran are discussing Ran's accident from the first movie. Next we cut to a scene where we find out that the Yakuza boss is also called Araki as well as Masa. Actually he is Araki Masa but you don't get the full name until the credits. (Are you confused yet?) Araki stops by Enjoji and Ran's house to check on Kai and Enjoji begs Araki to take Kai home with him. Now there is a strange scene where we go back to Kai being 8 (remember the school function) and Araki does show up although he's late and one of Kai's classmates says, "it's your brother". Disregard this scene. They can't be brothers because remember Kai is Enjoji's half-brother so that would make Araki his half-brother as well and that is not the case. Also, it would make Araki's unrequited passion for Kai very icky. Well to make a long story short, Araki and Kai decide to go back to Osaka together. The End. This feels like a filler video to me. I haven't read the graphic novel it was based on but it ends so abruptly that the viewer is left feeling there must be more. Ran has virtually no lines and all the action seems to take place between Enjoji and Kai being jealous of each other over Ran. I can only recommend this if you've seen the first video and you just want to round out your viewing experience. This cannot be watched as a stand alone video.