Harlequin Manga (Part Deux)

I've been out of the loop for a few days as my step-mom and little bro came to town for a visit. We had fun and I ate way too much food. But I know what you all really want to hear about is the Harlequin Manga! So let's get down to it:

Harlequin Pink: A Girl in a Million
This manga is based on a Betty Neels Harlequin. For those unfamiliar, Betty Neels is one of those old school veteran HQ writers. I actually read one of her novels a few years ago when I was picking up books at a library. So I was intrigued to see what this manga would be like. You can imagine my complete and utter mortification when I opened up the manga and began reading, thinkinging, hmm, this all sounds vaguely familiar. Hmm, he's a specialist doctor from Amsterdam...she's a young English nurse...they're thrown together in a time of trouble.... Well, folks, it was indeed the same fucking novel I'd read! Talk about uncanny. But I digress. The manga changed a few things of course. Instead of the original WWII setting, they turn it into a more soap-opera-ish 90s version. Like many a Harlequin novel, the heroine is young, virginal, and angelically good. She's a nurse who works in the pediatrics ward. (Gag me with a spoon!) And of course, she has a "gift" with children. The hero is the tall, dark, and handsome Dr. Van Houben. It's weird to see them in pretty classic shoujo style on the pages of this manga. The artwork is only so-so in my opinion. I like the fact that the ink is tinged pink though in relation to the pink line theme. I think that this kind of manga would appeal a great deal to a young female teen audience (12-16). There's some kissing but that's about it. Pretty tame stuff, but in keeping with the HQ "happily ever after" marriage resolution.

Harlequin Violet: Response
This manga is a lot more daring than the other one. I'm not familiar with the novel this one is based on, but let me give you a breakdown. Our heroine, Sienna, is a demure young lady (a bit older than the other heroine--I'd say early twenties) who used to work as secretary to her father (a medieval history prof). But after his death she goes to live with her brother Rob and works as a secretary for his company. Rob is a photo-journalist and goes abroad on assignment a lot, leaving Sienna alone. (Uh oh! Recipe for T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!) One day a handsome well-known Greek businessman, Alexis Stefanides, comes to the office looking for a secretary while he's in town on business. He hires Sienna, but before long the two are more than just business associates. They start dating and after a brief whirlwind romance, Sienna decides to give up her virginity to the Greek god. This is when the story gets a little bit sadistic. Yes, I said sadistic. It turns out Alexis is merely using Sienna to get revenge on her brother! (Say it ain't so Harlequin!) So he "deflowers" her to get revenge for his own sister, who he claims Rob raped. Yeesh. Yuck. Blargh. Why oh why does Harlequin think these kinds of plots are appealing? I don't know. I will admit, the manga artwork was nicely done throughout this sequence. A lot of soiled flower imagery (petals falling off roses, etc.) common to shoujo for these kinds of things. Anyway, evil Greek man out for revenge has taken Sienna's innocence. But she refuses to believe his story and vows not to tell her brother what happened. Time passes and Rob returns to town. While out for dinner with his sister one night, Alexis and his sister arrive at the same restaurant. Coincidence? I think not. Alexis is surprised that Sienna hasn't told her brother what happened and gets set to reveal all when his own sister reveals that Rob was not the one who raped her, but actually one of Alexis' best friends! Gasp! Alexis feels like he needs to apologize to Sienna, but she wants nothing to do with him. When he tries to confront her she runs away and (gasp!) gets hit by a car. She wakes to find herself suffering from amnesia. She also finds that she is supposedly married to some hot Greek guy named Alexis. Uh oh. He takes her back to his island home (cheezy!) and they spend time getting to "know" each other. They have lots of sex (pretty non-graphically depicted) and eventually Sienna remembers just who he is. Of course, the shit hits the fan folks. She hates him. Won't let him touch her. Yadda yadda. He becomes sad and mopes around professing his love for her. She leaves him and goes home. Then she finds out months later that he is very ill. Maybe even dying. Gasp! He has apparently been deeply depressed since she left and so of course, like a stupid twit, she goes to him. They make up and live HEA. Not a story I particularly enjoyed, except for the malicious glee with which my mind kept tearing it apart. The artwork is marginally better than the other one, but not by too much. I hope they have some better manga-ka for the next few titles they release.

To sum up, I guess you could say the Harlequin manga are like a HQ novel. But the lite version. If that's even possible. They maintain the heteronormative HEA storyline and condense the narrative into the key moments and focus on pertinent dialogue. I'll definitely be intrigued to see what the next few titles are like. I've also seen these two at Borders in the graphic novel section with other manga. So I'll have to start looking into what their sales are like. All in all, this is still a hugely fascinating development.