パーフェクトワールド/ Perfect World by Aruga Rie

Never let it be said that I don’t occasionally enjoy straight romances. It’s true, however, that I don’t normally seek them out. However, I happened to pick up the first three volumes of Perfect World at my local library because it was new and on the shelf. Also, I have to admit that I’m always curious to see how Japanese mangaka deal with disability. I have to say, after having read the entire thing now, the answer is: fairly honestly (at least from what I understand about it all as an able-bodied person.)

SPOILERS

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The cute-meet goes like this, Tsugumi Kawana is reunited with her high school crush, Ayuawa Itsuki, at an office drinking party. He’s just as handsome as she remembers, but there’s one major change in his life. Since she last saw him, he’s been in a car accident and suffered a spinal cord injury. He’s now permanently in a wheelchair.

Will this affect her ability to love him?

Turns out the answer is, kinda? But, in a very realistic way.

Itsuki is a stubborn guy. He always has been, even before the accident, when he was a single-minded, high school basketball star with the aspiration of becoming an architect. He initially thought his dream was crushed, along with his spine, after his accident, but he not only finished schooling for it, but he found a firm willing to hire him. It just happens to be the same place that Kawana has found work as an interior decorator.

After they initially reconnect, Itsuki warns Kawana off dating him. He’s a burden, he tells her, and, you know, sometimes he just randomly poops his pants. (Seriously, this is his first lunch/hang out banter!)

The manga certainly doesn’t shy away from these kinds of details throughout the whole series.

Itsuki suffers a whole bunch of very intimate and potentially off-putting complications due to his disability, including having to be hospitalized due to a bed sore.

Despite all this, Kawana is determined… well, first to be a good friend, and then to be a good GIRLFRIEND, as, by the end of volume one, they agree to try dating.

Somewhere in the middle of volume two, I began to see how it was that yaoi/BL had its roots in shoujo. Technically, Perfect World is for slightly more mature women/better Kanji readers being josei, but the complications they face could totally have been straight (pardon the pun) out of any of a number of slice-of-life yaoi that I’ve read over the years, INCLUDING the fact that the parents don’t approve, because how can someone Like That make you happy.

Also, by the end of volume three, the couple had been convinced that breaking up was the right choice… which, I actually think it was. It’s fairly important to the relationship that both Kawana and Itsuki figure out some things about each other, Itsuki’s spinal cord injury, and how it all might affect them going forward. Kawana and Itsuki both date other people that they really like (and who treat them well and with respect) and this is a good thing? Like, when they come back together, they know that it’s not at ALL out of desperation.

What can I say? I don’t exactly approve of their lifestyle, but I’m rooting for these two heteros.

All kidding aside, I read the whole twelve volumes in one gulp. After I finished the three volumes I’d picked up at the library, I read everything I could find on the pirate sites. (Be warned, if you use the link I provided above, you will have to go searching for one chapter as the scanlators accidentally put in a chapter from a completely different manga.)

Anyway, if you are a fan of romances, this might be one for you!