Double Mints

Double Mints
By Nakamura Asumiko

Overall: What the Balls?
Smex Factor: Red Lantern (but not much)
Art: Different
Status: 4 Chapters; Incomplete

Review: Oh god...What do I think about this? Somebody tell me, because I don't know.

So it's about two guys both named Mitsuo Ichikawa. I'll call them Black and White after their respective hair colors, for the sake of clarity. (It's enough with the vague masculine pronouns every other sentence.) Black bullied White in high school...Cruelly, so cruelly-- by making him into his "dog." So, you can safely say that there are themes of dominance in this manga. Then suddenly they're adults, Black kills a woman, and he calls White with a "hey buddy, wanna go out and bury a dead body?". (Okay, it's a lot more panicky and scared, but that's essentially what he means.)

So, White has this unhealthy, sick obsession with Black, who's basically made him into an compulsive masochist.

So he starts molesting Black because he's got him, y'know? In a reversal of positions, White holds the power card now. Black's freaking out because he's killed somebody, White's handling it calmly, collectedly and with sick pleasure that he's in control for a change. White's treating Black just as badly as Black ever abused him.

Then we find out that White's just been fucking with Black's head, and as soon as Black finds out, the control reverts back to Black. It's all really sick.

Sex can be the ultimate symbol of subjugation and dominance. When White initiates, Black recoils, freaks out; he won't even let White touch him, sexually or not. Black acts as though the idea of another man touching him is repulsive, despite the fact that he sexually abused White constantly in high school. But then, when Black's back in control, Black will initiate, establishing his dominance over White once again. Black and White are playing the same roles in their relationship, but to initiate a sexual encounter is to who hold control over the other.

Also, there are themes of sameness and difference. Like, clearly, just from sight, Black and White are opposites. In about...every single way. But their identical names identify them as the "same." I mean, they're direct complements! Two halves of a whole! Equally fucked up, but in ways that they need each other: one must receive pain, one must give it. (The role of giver and receiver is interchangeable, as you probably inferred.)

Even when the two of them are not together, Black and White exemplify that they have similar thought processes, further proving their "sameness". But at the same time, their reactions to the thoughts they unknowingly share are completely different.

How do I put this...By interacting with the other, they created the need for the other, they created the bond. The abuse that Black has put White through has woven them together into an unidentifiable mass of sadomasochistic love/hate.

Sorry, am I getting too in-depth with this? I share a love/hate relationship with this kinda sick, perverse stuff.

The whole time, I wanted to scream, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?"