By Thea Srinivasan
Sexuality is an elusive area of life as it comes out of nowhere and is something we cannot control. While it can be a beautiful aspect of life to explore, it can also cause confusion as it enters our life and dictates how we feel. Sometimes sexuality clashes with our personal morals and we end up fighting an internal battle. Luckily, there are cases in which people can learn to accept their sexuality and eventually embrace themselves. The following review is about a yaoi. If you are under the age of 18, please do not read this story is it contains graphic acts of sex. Again, this manga contains nudity and sex. This is my only warning.
Jackass is about a pair of high school best friends who are polar opposites. Keisuke is a person with a “rough and tough” physical appearance who has the soul of an old man. His best friend, Masayuki, is the total opposite of Keisuke. Masayuki is a rich student who can charm any female into bed. Although the two are opposites, they’re notorious for their strong friendship. One day, Keisuke comes to school wearing pantyhose under his normal clothes as his sister was drunk the night before and fooled around with his clothes. When Keisuke has to change his clothes for gym class, he ends up noticing the pantyhose in his clothes and has to ask Masayuki to take him to the infirmary. On the way there, Masayuki notices Keisuke’s leg in the pantyhose and gets aroused. From there, it’s about how the two deal with Masayuki’s fetish with pantyhose and the perfect pair of legs.
For many yaois, I base my ratings off of two categories: storyline and sex. The plot itself ordinary enough as it takes place in high school. Even though the leading couple has opposite personalities, they argue like an old married couple from time to time. But their romance isn’t the interesting staple to the story. Rather, it’s the romantic triangle revolving around Keisuke’s childhood friend, the high school doctor and a classmate of Masayuki. The love triangle is dysfunctional as it revolves around hidden couples and figuring out how to come to terms with one’s sexuality. Without spoiling a lot of details, readers will find themselves hating at least one person within this love triangle yet coming to terms with each person’s flaws. Every person within the love triangle is messed up to the point that they shouldn’t even be in a relationship. Even though each person has a fatal flaw and mindset, it’s their greatest strengths that highlight them as decent characters in the story.
The sex is the usual stereotypical yaoi style. For anyone who has not read a yaoi, it should be noted that the sex portrayed in these stories is not necessarily how all gay sex is portrayed in real life. There are enough glow sticks to make the yaoi community content and the actual foreplay allows for some “spine-tingling” action for the readers. Essentially, the sex in yaois are another form of pornography and should not be used as the only source of understanding sexual behavior. My only concern is that the characters are underaged and they should not be shown in explicit acts. While I’m okay with some kissing and making out, full on sex between underaged characters can cause a bit of controversy. But overall, their sex scenes as adults leave no detail lacking.
The romance between Keisuke and Masayuki was enough to keep me happy. I liked the internal struggle Keisuke had to face. Although he had the “soul” of an old man, he kept trying to fight his growing attraction to Masayuki. I also liked how Masayuki explicitly spoke about his foot fetish to Keisuke. Masayuki thoroughly explained his foot fetish and yet Keisuke let himself get used in order to “calm” his growing attraction. Some readers will not like this move, but I think it was a nice move on the creator’s part.
Overall, the manga has a decent amount of romance, sex, and plot to keep my yaoi meter at a decent level. I do wish the sex didn’t revolve around high school students and I wish the love triangle was a little more fleshed out. But the manga is one that follows the usual yaoi standards. This manga is for the yaoi fan who wants large amounts of sweetness and raunchiness to keep their inner fangirl satiated for at least one day.
Score: 3/5
Jackass! vol. 1
Viz Media/SuBLime