Requiem of the Rose King, Hurt No Comfort
Dec. 5th, 2020 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alaterdateI have finally caught up* with Aya Kanno's manga series Requiem of the Rose King (薔薇王の葬列). As volume 14 has not yet been released in English (and I also lack the Japanese version, though I supremely doubt my current ability to read this manga series in Japanese after the first volume (which I did read years ago)) nor any future volumes if 14 is not the final installment. Therefore, this is not a full review of the series and I might make another post in the future. It was intended to be a partial review, but turns out I have a lot of feelings so this is something else. What, I’m not sure. Spoilers for sure though.
CW: intersexphobia, transphobia, rape mention, body dysphoria
Requiem of the Rose King is based on Shakespeare's history plays Henry VI and Richard III. It covers part of the War of Roses (Henry VI, Part 2 & Part 3) and then Richard III's ascension to the throne of England (Richard III). Kanno's story begins with Richard, the youngest brother of York, as the main character and sticks with him throughout. If you know the history or the plays you know the plot, yet Kanno has taken liberties of course with the intricacies of the story. The contrast of the inclusion of direct dialogue from the plays combined with her twists on scenes is a treat. She has certainly amped things up to be more suited to a manga story and not simply a manga adaptation of the plays as you sometimes see with other classic stories.
Kanno has also changed the "deformity" of Richard's body from “a hunchback” (scoliosis) to him being intersex. I adore Kanno's work, I have loved her as an author and artist for years, but I have always been wary and made uncomfortable by her writing with regard to this topic. I have complicated feelings on it and difficulty in finding words to confidently speak to it. I cannot speak for the intersex community or how any other individual might feel upon reading this work.
As for my own feelings though….
Kanno has previously come across to me as someone with “exciting,” as I thought in high school, views on gender. Her previous series, Otomen, a shoujo manga with a male lead (Asuka Masamune) who is forced to hide his love for feminine hobbies because of prejudice opened a new world to me. The life Asuka lead seemed similar to my own. I connected with him deeply and yearned to be someone like him and his friend group who understood and supported him. His friend group is made up of other characters in a similar situation as him, struggling against gender norms to create a future for themselves that allows them to be who they are and who they want to be. I love Otomen and have long touted it as my favorite shoujo manga and Aya Kanno as a favorite manga artist. Not only do I love her art, I love her stories. One of my most blissful memories is when she once replied to my tweet. I treasure it, truly. Yet, even when I first read Otomen I didn’t quite love the way she chose to write about transgender issues when she did mention them in her story. There was just something a little off about it, a little too comical, a little too uncomfortable in the way that it is both the underlying focus and not the focus at all. (And I very much need to revisit this work it’s been a while since I’ve read it or any manga at all.) Sometimes it seems Kanno is fluctuating between being flippant or serious about a topic. This is never more present than with Requiem of the Rose King.
Richard as intersex seems revolutionary. Seems fantastic to once again see Kanno’s commentary on gender. Despite any misgivings in her previous work it had felt solid and positive. But here, it is mixed, muddled, uncomfortable, but also compelling.
Richard is both the hero of the story and a villain. A tragic figure take on Richard III is welcome to my eyes, I do also enjoy the play, and tragedy. And by no means do I believe characters who don’t fall into the sphere of hetero-cis-normative notions or otherwise should be completely pure and virtuous characters. It is not Richard as a villain that makes me uncomfortable. It is the constant narrative that Richard is a demon because he is intersex that is weaved throughout the series.
I know that historically “deformity of the body” has marked one as further from god.
17 “Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long, 19 a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, 20 or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch. 21 No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. 22 He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; 23 only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he profane My sanctuaries; for I the Lord sanctify them.’ ” — Leviticus 21:17-23 NKJV
God and the divinity of kingship are major themes. How can one be holy if they are deformed? How can one be king if he is not holy? In Richard III the scoliosis is part of what “intrinsically” drives Richard to take the throne of England, to kill his holy brothers and nephews and anyone else who stands in his way. In RotRK being intersex is the reason Richard is “not loved by god” and he believes if anyone ever found out, loved neither by them. He struggles with himself all his life. If he cannot be loved, he will be a villain. If he is not holy, he will remove god from his path. I understand the narrative correlation and that it is not true that these “deformities” make either Richard evil, yet, it is still painful. And it never stops being painful.
In RotRK Richard’s mother despises him for being intersex, fears him as the evil that will undo her house, and so much a curse upon the world that all will lament the day he was born. She constantly shows up to rip happiness away from him and call him a demon. The haunting phrases that follow Richard throughout the narrative are the words of a story his mother tells of the birth of a demon. His birth. She is unequivocally a villain in Richard’s tale. Her intersexphobia and the intersexphobia of others and when she eventually outs him are major plot points that Richard must overcome. As of volume 12, Richard eventually triumphs over her by becoming her only son, and by becoming king. But by this point Richard has embraced his status as “demon” so thoroughly has he really won? Despite the scheming, despite the murder, despite taking on the role of “demon”, Richard is the hero.
And it makes me wonder, well, is this the point? To root for Richard, to feel pain when he can see himself as only a demon, to wish someone would love him just as he wishes for it. To connect deeply with this character and how he is treated unjustly, how he is tormented by the society around him. But Richard has not a shred of happiness, and we feel that too. His tragic flaw is believing he is unworthy of love and that the crown, something outside of himself, will bring him peace and paradise. I can feel he deserves love and it is painful to foresee that he will not receive it in a meaningful way. Because I know from history that Richard’s kingship is short lived. I know the Duke of Buckingham, who in RotRK is the only person Richard believes might love him, will turn on Richard. It is painful to see that his hatred for himself, given to him by others, manipulates him and leaves him open to manipulation. It is too much at times. And it makes me wonder, well, is this the point?
It is Hurt No Comfort. It is painful. It is relentless. It is powerful. I was overwhelmed and had to put it down multiple times when trying to consecutively read through all 13 volumes I have. Both because I really liked it and because I needed time to process. Yet I was compelled to keep reading*. But with the same feelings that make me laud it, I also dislike it. It is not perfect (nothing is) and there are things in it that I am so tired of.
Richard is a man. Richard has breasts. We are reminded often that Richard has breasts when his clothes are forcibly ripped from him. Richard is not trans, but this is such an annoying thing often used to reveal that a character is trans, it is transphobic, it is cheap, and I hate it.
Richard is assaulted multiple times in order to point out once again that he is intersex. One scene of assault that is part of a character trying to confirm a rumor of Richard having atypical genitals ends in full on rape. This is what I am tired most by. The forcible removal of clothes to reveal a character’s gender identity.
Yet, what has always bothered me the most is the promotional art that has Richard in a dress. Richard wears a dress in the manga a few times. Mostly as disguises†. It’s not the dress wearing in the manga that bothers me when it is surrounded by narrative context. But it is that I am so hard pressed to believe that in a modern au or as a halloween costume Richard would or should be wearing a dress beyond it being fetishizing. Richard has always maintained that he is a man and this art has always made me uncomfortable. But Richard is not my character so I cannot truly say what he would or would not do, that is up to Kanno and that is also part of the reason that I believe she misses the mark here. It really really drives me up the wall to see him in a sexy nurse outfit for halloween or in a high school girl’s uniform. And in the art where all the other boys are crossdressing in dresses she draws him in a suit. It’s just feels so bad. I think the reason those art pieces undermine the meaning I find in the manga is that Richard’s experience with gender in the manga is both difficult and sincere. It feels true to life and what I love a lot about Richard is how extremely adamant he is in being a man.
Again, I can’t speak to an intersex experience, but in my opinion Richard’s feelings about hating his feminine body ring true to at least an experience of transmasculine dysphoria. Richard often feels that he has an unlovable body, that it is too slight to belong to a man. It is the womanly features that he does not want. The first time he looks upon his naked chest he thinks of himself as “misshapen.” Most of all he hates that he feels, is, different from everyone else.
Early on Richard is tormented about his gender by the ghostly apparition of a “witch” called Joan, “You are neither man nor woman. You are both man and woman.” she tells him. But he maintains throughout the series that he is a man even in the face of being misgendered by other characters.
Though when he ends up in love with both a man (Henry) and a woman (Anne) he thinks he needs to be the opposite sex in order to love that person. I feel that his thought process behind this heteronormativity comes from religious reasons. He is living in an age when same-sex couples are “sinning against god”. Early on, he wishes to be close to god. It’s not until around after volume 7 that he starts to give up on this and “give into being a demon”. †It is only when he goes to visit the man he loves that he wears a dress not for the purpose of disguise. It isn’t overtly stated, but I believe he did so because he was deciding that he would give everything up for the man he loved and that to be with him he needed to be a woman. Of course, it doesn’t work out for him though.
There is more to be said about Richard’s relationships with Henry and Anne, and Buckingham and Catesby. Specifically with Buckingham and Catesby for me. But I’ve been working on parsing my feelings all day and I don’t even know if I want to get into it to be honest (it feels deeply personal at this point).
Also to note there is enough incestuous kissing in this manga that I was, firstly, surprised way back when that it actually got an official English translation and, secondly, now that I have read farther than 3 volumes, that it is getting an anime adaptation.
I love historical fiction. I love tragedy. I love works that make me feel something even if it’s sadness. I could not stop reading this series because it is all of those. But I did stop reading it. I said I was caught up, but that’s not completely the truth because *I stopped reading a few pages into volume 13. As soon as Richard was crowned I could not bring myself to turn the page. I love historical fiction because it sometimes brings with it dramatic irony, but in this case, I want to pretend that I don’t know about Buckingham’s Rebellion :^)
I want the hero to be a devil if he must. To prefer a course of "unnatural iniquity". I desperately want Richard to win.
This I think this is a major strength of Kanno’s work. By the time I get volume 14, perhaps I will be ready to continue. I do like it, but it is difficult, and I definitely don’t think it is for everyone.
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Date: 2020-12-17 06:24 pm (UTC)Anyway, that's the line in that article that struck me the most as well. There are so many moments in the manga that feel like a really powerful statement, but they're juxtaposed by these other moments that kind of ... don't. It's an unusual mix in a series, that's for sure. I'm not sure I have much of a takeaway on Kanno's own perspective, especially since I haven't read her other work or seen any interviews with her, but I try to err on the side of assuming the best of people. Still, even if this particular perspective was an accident, I think the series is benefiting by this occasionally revealed depth.
Cliffhangers are definitely rough, especially in this kind of series. I feel like animes usually soften the harsher elements of a manga (with some exception), so I'm expecting some of these things to be toned down. I could be completely wrong, though!
I might have to check out her other work. I wouldn't mind having some more manga to read. ^^ And of course! I enjoyed reading it. I should get a post going about the manga sometime as well; it's always encouraging to know there's someone else interested in the series. ^^