The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Kei x Yaku: Bound by Law

What's It About? 

Ichiro, an agent with the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Security Bureau, receives orders to make contact with and closely surveil Shiro, a yakuza hotshot whose bed partners include a considerable amount of influential male politicians. The mission takes an unexpected turn when they realize they've both been pursuing the same cold case: the disappearance of Rion Nakaba, Ichiro's senior and Shiro's sister. Determined to uncover the truth, the two secretly team up under the guise of lovers to try and pick up her trail...

Kei x Yaku: Bound by Law has a story and art by Yoshie Kaoruhara. English translation by Leo McDonagh. This volume is lettered and retouched by Dietrich Premier. Published by‎ Kodansha Comics. (May 14, 2024)

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Ichiro's a cop, Shiro's a yakuza, and together they're keiyaku (contract)! Okay, the joke works better in Japanese, but the premise remains solid: police officer Ichiro begins a fake relationship with gangster Shiro so that they can both continue to do their jobs (which in Ichiro's case is surveilling Shiro) while also pursuing a mutual interest, the disappearance of a woman named Rion three years ago. Both men have reasons to be invested in discovering the truth of what happened to her, and they decide early on that working together is the best approach to take – especially since Ichiro keeps getting bounced around when he starts asking too many pointed questions for someone's comfort.

Essentially, this is a two-tiered story: it's got a romance plot and a mystery plot. Although the two men have decent chemistry here, I have to admit that I'm slightly more invested in the mystery of Rion because there are a lot of things that aren't quite adding up. The entire question of a mysterious video that streamed online at the time of her disappearance is at the heart of it – it appeared to be a film of her killing, but no one could confirm it. As far as the police appear to be concerned, she is dead, but the fact that they keep trying to dodge Ichiro's questions is highly suspicious, and almost certainly related to the political bigwigs Shiro keeps seducing in search of information. A late-breaking clue in the volume points to the likelihood that Rion uncovered something seriously shady going on in Japan's political underbelly, which I think we have to consider, which may involve kidnapping or blackmail. If Rion isn't dead, someone is desperate for it to look that way so they can continue covering up what she unearthed.

With all this brewing, the romance plotline isn't quite as engaging. It hits a lot of familiar BL beats, such as Ichiro being straight (as far as he's ever considered; he seems to have a crush on a female friend), and it tempers the norms with goofiness, such as Ichiro's total lack of understanding about how couples act in public, which involves matching ugly sweaters. I'm less amused by the “ha ha ha, he's a virgin” jokes, but they're also pretty par for the romance manga course, and they can't all be Cherry Magic. Still, the characters are exciting, and Shiro feels like a less disastrous version of Uichi from Scarlet Beriko's Jealousy. I like the art a lot, especially how Kaoruhara draws Shiro's tattoos. The highest praise I can give it is that I'm very keen to know what happens next.

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Lauren Orsini
Rating:

What I thought I was getting: an intense, action-packed story in which a hard-boiled cop and an aloof yakuza boss butt heads while denying their obvious sexual chemistry. What I got instead: that, but ALSO a fluffy, funny story that I can only describe as fanfiction-core. This is a high-stakes tale of political corruption and detective work on both sides of the law, but it's also a silly parade of super-deformed interludes, Shiba Inu pups, and fancy café sweets.

As the translation notes at the end of the volume explain, Kei x Yaku is a much more clever name than I realized. It refers to the first part of each protagonist's job—keisatsu (police) and yakuza—and it also sounds like keiyaku, which means contract. It instantly expresses the unlikely alliance that Detective Kunishita and Yakuza Lieutenant Shiro form. From their first meeting, they're already brandishing weapons. But after they discover a shared motivation, they form a truce based on a popular romance trope: fake dating!

Both of the dual leads have been independently striving toward the same goal to uncover the truth about one woman's untimely murder—Kunishita through the police force and Shiro through illicit liaisons with corrupt politicians. (I'll let you guess which technique has been more successful). But with the inevitability of fanfiction logic, they realize that the best way to solve this crime would be to fool everyone into thinking they're romantically involved and living together. And don't forget to grab the other's butt in public in case onlookers doubt something! Logically, the audience realizes this can't possibly be the only strategy. But we go along with it, the same way we nod and accept tropes like There's Only One Bed, because wouldn't it be a great way for this odd couple to get together if we do?

And it would be great because Kunishita and Shiro have great chemistry. They're both efficiently competent at their opposing jobs, with contrasting personalities to match. They each also have a secret cute side (one loves sweets, and the other loves animals) that adds to the charm of their characterization. They have an opposites-attract character drama that walks the line between rivalry and friendship. Meanwhile, as they start to pull the threads of the cold case and find more clues, the mystery aspect of the plot is increasingly engrossing. Some readers will be put off by this manga's tendency to quick-switch from serious to silly and back again. It feels like reading a fully illustrated fanfic, complete with all the best tropes, to me.