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Kokoro Button: Kasuga-san and Kōga-kun! ココロ・ボタン

Call me by my first name: Intimate transgressions in Kokoro Button

2021-09-07 by ケイ Leave a Comment

Kasuga Nīna is the protagonist of Usami Maki-sensei’s shōjo manga Kokoro Button. She’s dating Kōga Eito. In chapter 25, in tankōbon volume 6 from 2011, Kasuga-san has helped Kōga-kun’s friend Hayami Manabu to find his lost cat. The chapter ends with Hayami-kun thanking Kasuga-san with the words:

Thanks, Nīna
ありがとな ニーナ

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 78

The impact of this phrase shakes the protagonist and her date to the extent that it will dominate the whole next chapter.

Crash course in Japanese name suffixes

To understand why, we must dive into the subtle art of how names are used in Japan to signal distance or intimacy:

  • The suffix -san is the neutral form that anyone can use, as in Kasuga-san.
  • The suffix -kun is used for boys and younger men, but also for male subordinates. It implies a somewhat affectionate relation.
  • The suffix -chan is used for girls and younger women in an affectionate way.
  • If the suffix is added to the first name, it’s more intimate than when it’s added to the family name.
  • The most intimate thing of all is first name and no suffix at all!

This is just a rough overview, the complexities of how suffixes are used, and by whom, is a subject in itself that you will have to read up on elsewhere. Suffice it to say that when Hayami-kun both drops the suffix and calls Kasuga-san by her first name it signals an intimacy that threatens the relationship between Kasuga-san and Kōga-kun, as if Hayami-kun had “had” Kasuga-san!

Hayami-kun calling Kasuga-san by her first name Nīna, leaving her and her boyfriend Kōga-kun in embarrassed shock!

It’s telling that Kasuga-san’s and Kōga-kun’s stunned reaction is the very last frame of the chapter, Kōga-kun looking at his girlfriend, maybe both questioning her and accusing her. This is a cliffhanger supreme for a series that was originally published in the monthly magazine Betsucomi.

My own experiences

I once experienced how a person allowed me to drop the -kun after we had slept together. Continuing calling someone -kun after you’ve had sex would be as ridiculous as referring to them as “Mr”. (So I was politely scolded for doing so.)

I also once experienced with a group of Japanese friends at a bar how one man referred to a woman, sitting next to him, with her first name, no suffix. My closest Japanese friend leaned over to me and explained: “When he calls her by her first name like that, the rest of us know that they are an item.”

The same friend also told me that as a grown-up he didn’t expect to meet another man ever, for the rest of his life, with whom he would drop the suffix; that honour is reserved for the friends you grew up and went to school with.

First name drama

Back to Kokoro Button: In the next chapter, Kasuga-san receives the news that her female classmate has started to be on a first name basis with her boyfriend. Kasuga-san is clearly envious, and when she meets Kōga-kun, she tries to call him by his first name, Eito, but fails. Only “e-” and “ei…” come out. The smart boyfriend gets what she’s trying to do though, and teases her: “And then?”

Kasuga-san struggling at trying to speak her boyfriend’s name, and failing at it. (P. 89)

As for Hayami-kun, it turns out – again, at the climactic end of the chapter – that he had mixed up Kasuga Nīna-san’s names – he thought Nīna was her family name! Despite being a bad boy who tells people off the whole time, the fact that he had called his best friend’s girlfriend by her first name torments him endlessly – so grave was the offence!

Although this particular interaction is not followed up upon, I see the fact that Hayami-kun falls in love with Kasuga-san later on in the manga partly as a result of this early trespassing into her intimate sphere. Once there, he was stuck, sort of thing!

The next level of intimacy

Inspired by Kasuga-san’s failed attempts to call him by his first name, Kōga-kun suggests that he, as her boyfriend, starts calling her by her first name. Kasuga-san is in shock. She blushes. But she wants this. We have been primed with the news of her classmate taking this step with her boyfriend, a step almost as serious as a proposal, it seems. And then he says it:

Nīna
新奈

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 112
Kōga-kun says it: Nīna!

The power of calling your lover by their first name! As a reader I’m as excited as Kasuga-san, who is thinking to herself:

(Gasp!) Why this sudden feeling … This person only spoke my name … And yet my heart is starting to beat … It’s beating faster and faster …

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 113–114

Kōga-kun laughs as he speaks her name, comments that it’s embarrassing for both of them. And then he implies that it’s her turn. Can she call her boyfriend by his first name, Eito?

As it turns out, no. Again, Kasuga-san is like:

E… Ei… Ei…

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 115

And again, Kōga-kun encourages her: “And then?” But to no avail – she can’t say his first name! “I guess it will take some time”, Kōga-kun comments, and the chapter ends.

Forcing her to speak his name

The next chapter begins with Kasuga-san boasting to her female friends (who all call her Nīna), that Kōga-kun has called her by her first name. They congratulate her and Kasuga-san plays coy. “Oh, it’s nothing really.” But we know that it isn’t nothing!

When Kōga-kun appears, she greets him with an excited “Kōga-kun”. When he replies, he addresses her with “Kasuga-san” again. She is surprised. Wasn’t she “Nīna” with Kōga-kun now?

“Ka… ‘Kasuga-san’?”
“That’s right. You’re not calling me by my name, right? So I thought I’ll just return to how it was before.”

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 120

Oh nooo! Kasuga-san is devastated. Kōga-kun seems amused and in the end teases her by calling her “Nīna”-chan. (He’s an “S”, meaning a “sadist” who likes playing with Kasuga-san’s feelings.)

The tension continues throughout the chapter until Kasuga-san is about to visit Kōga-kun, who is home sick. As she calls him from the intercom at the entrance of the house, he replies:

What’s the secret password? I’ll give you a hint: It’s my name. I won’t open until you say it.

Kokoro Button, vol. 6, p. 133

Damn, is this guy cruel or what!

Come on, fast or the fever is gonna make me pass out!

Kasuga-san finally says it!

And so Kasuga-san finally says it, in the security of the intercom (not having to face him eye to eye): “Eito” – but she quickly adds a -kun. Well, that’s good enough for now.

The power of transgressions

As the story proceeds, they both go back to calling each other Kōga-kun and Kasuga-san, but the transgression of calling their date by their first name has been made, and it’s an important act of intimacy that will bind them together for the rest of the series.

As an outsider, I’m fascinated by the importance of what you call your partner, and how this dynamic can power story arcs over several chapters, including cliffhangers and resolutions.

Kokoro Button (ココロ・ボタン) by Usami Maki (宇佐美 真紀) was published in Betsucomi between 2009 and 2013, and concurrently in 12 beautiful tankōbon volumes. The series is translated to German and French.

Filed Under: Commercial, Essay, Shōjo Tagged With: Kokoro Button, Usami Maki, ココロ・ボタン, 宇佐美 真紀

Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2

Honour culture and fictional fiction in “Help, I can’t resist the super sexy boys I’m forced to live with!”

2021-05-16 by ケイ Leave a Comment

Springtime is for going to a park with a shōjo manga, but I’m almost having enough of Ruki, the protagonist of Kurumatani Haruko-sensei’s Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2 (Shōgakukan 2007) – this time very freely translated by myself as Help, I can’t resist the super sexy boys I’m forced to live with! She’s such a crybaby, Ruki, always insecure about whether Senri-kun loves her or not. I mean, we can all relate, but the shōjo genre indulges in this theme like a sugary cake. It’s lovely. At times. And after a while you’ve had enough.

Even so, reading the second part of this two-tankōbon series is so enjoyable and interesting. A couple of observations:

Honour galore

Whenever people criticise “cultures of honour” for protecting the purity of their women, the assumption is that their own enlightened culture has done away with such misogynistic traits. But honour is a facet of all cultures. It always bubbles underneath, but is only noted when it comes out in a particularly brutal way. A functionalist would probably say that the function of honour is to make relationships work in a way that is productive for society.

Shōjo manga revels in honour, and shows how girls and boys alike use it to manifest their love. Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2 provides a beautiful example of this. The whole setup is a “reverse harem” in which 16-year-old Ruki is constantly courted by super sexy boys, to the despair of her boyfriend Senri-kun, whose sole task it seems to be to protect Ruki from the horny boys lest she succumbs to their moe-ness. Since they are all living together, this means Senri-kun must keep an eye on Ruki at all times. But as soon as he’s out of the room – he has to go to the bathroom after all – the boys are at it, and Senri-kun comes back only to see his Ruki violated. And this is what he expresses in rage at such an occasion:

I’ll make sure that you won’t get the slightest opportunity to touch Ruki. … I won’t hand over Ruki to you or anyone else. I won’t let anyone touch her. She’s only my thing and I will protect it!

Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2, p. 38-39.
Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2, p. 38-39.

Okay, I took some liberties when translating the last line. It should of course be “She’s only mine and I will protect her”. The Japanese mon is used as an intensifier, but it is derived from mono, meaning thing, and the objectification of Ruki adds to the honour concept: She is owned by him, and a man’s honour is slighted if another man encroaches on his property. While this kind of objectification of women is sometimes criticised, it is also the driving force of shōjo manga, and Senri-kun’s passionate speech about protecting his property results in Ruki expressing “Oh Senri-kun, I love you!” on the next page. Owning someone feels good, but so does being owned! Shōjo manga sums up the dynamics of heterosexual love so blatantly that it can’t be ignored.

But the owning goes two ways. A couple of chapters later it’s time for the culture festival at the school. Ruki and Senri-kun are in the same class, and the class decides that their contribution to the festival will be a cosplay host club, where the class’s sexy boys dress up as waitors and serve female customers. This seems to be a real facet of Japanese school life, as maid cafés often feature at school festivals in animes – talk about being schooled into roles in society! And talk about having an established framework for the appreciation of young boy beauty. In any case, Ruki is devastated that other women will touch Senri-kun. She protests against the host club idea until she realises that the cosplay aspect means she will be able to see Senri-kun in some kind of sexy outfit. But of course, as soon as she sees him serving (and courting) female customers, she turns again and becomes the crybaby that I’m starting to get sick of.

A manga in a manga

The next chapter begins with Ruki coming crying to Senri-kun in their house. He asks what’s bothering her, and she explains:

In this month’s issue of Sho-comi, Shun-sama and Ai-chan separated!

Gokujō danshi to kurashitemasu 2, p. 127.

Shun-sama is the fictional boy that Ruki was in love with and mixed up with Senri-kun when they first met. A footnote explains that Ai-chan is Shun-sama’s partner (aite-yaku), so I guess it’s a Boys Love manga. This is but another example of how fictional and actual realities interact – within the same work of fiction! It’s like a Russian matryoshka doll: The reader of this manga is reading about a reader of another manga. It seems to me that there is much thinking about fictional and actual realities in Japanese popular culture, and that young people are fostered into this discussion through its steady emergence on the pages of shōjo and probably other manga.

What do you think? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments or in our shota forum!

Filed Under: Commercial, Shōjo Tagged With: Kurumatani Haruko, 車谷晴子

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Reference library

ショタコンのゆりかご (book cover)

ショタコンのゆりかご

Author: ぶどううり くすこ

An essay on the origins of shota, published as a dōjinshi.

国際おたく大学―1998年 最前線からの研究報告

国際おたく大学―1998年:最前線からの研究報告

Authors: 岡田 斗司夫, 渡辺 由美子

An anthology on “otakuology” that contains Watanabe Yumiko’s important shota study.

吉本たいまつ:腐男子にきく。

腐男子にきく。

Author: 吉本 たいまつ

An interview study on male fans of BL and yaoi, published as a dōjinshi.

The Syotaroh by まんだ 林檎

The Syotaroh

Author: まんだ 林檎

An impressive work on the early shota subculture.

エロマンガ・スタディーズ

エロマンガ・スタディーズ

Author: 永山 薫

One of the main resources on adult manga.

ショタリポート①

ショタリポート①

The first part of an interview study of shota fans.

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