Comics / Manga / Yaoi Manga

Finder: One Wing in the Viewfinder (Yaoi)

By Leroy Douresseaux
September 9, 2011 - 14:06

Finder: One Wing in the Viewfinder cover image

Drama/Romance; Rated “18+ Mature”

The Finder Series is yaoi manga from creator Ayano Yamane and is back in print via Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint.  The Finder Series revolves around a 23-year-old freelance photographer, Akihito Takaba, caught between two mobsters.  He fends off the advances of a young crime lord named Ryuichi Asami, but Asami’s lust for Akihito makes the young photog a pawn in the revenge games of Fei Long Liu.  Fei Long, a Chinese criminal and hit man, is out for revenge against Asami.

Finder Vol. 3: One Wing in the Viewfinder opens with the story, “Naked Truth (Japan Side).”  Fei Long kidnaps Akihito’s pals, Koh and Takato, and threatens to kill them unless Akihito obtains important information from Asami that Fei Long wants.  How will Akihito get that information from Asami?  Use his body, of course!

In Love Surprise, Akihito is celebrating New Year’s Day with his friends.  When they discover Asami’s number in Akihito’s phone, his friends try to drag the crime boss into their fun.  They don’t know that all they’re doing is getting Akihito’s naked ass dragged into Asami’s bed.

In “Baked Sweet Glasses,” department store sales manager, Masaki Mikami, is being annoyed by Ryotaro Fujiya, a salesman for an underwear company.  When Masaki discovers that Ryotaro and he share a mutual love of sweets, Masaki’s attitude turns sweeter towards the ambitious salesman.  Ayumu Mizuno and Takahiro Hiyama are high school students in love.  Both young men suspect that their fathers, who were college friends, may also be gay lovers.  See their papas as young men in “Baby Leaves in Love.”

The Finder Series is an unusual mix of crime fiction, mob drama, explicit gay sex, and (believe it or not) humor.  For a few pages, Akihito might be having a night out with his friends; the next few pages might have him squaring off against gun-toting hoods.  Sequences of Asami sexing Akihito balance scenes of mob violence, including shootouts and murder.  The sex scenes are quite explicit, because Yamane doesn’t often draw scenes of penetration in a shadowy or a vague manner.

Much of that is really surface – the visual and graphical eye candy.  The Finder Series is really good storytelling, with highly likeable characters and an interesting plot with juicy subplots.  One Wing in the Viewfinder is the best volume since the first because it features stores packed with conflict, drama, and dangerous situations.  Even the side stories aspire to be more than yaoi titillation.

Perhaps, this series’ influence on the yaoi manga genre has to do with how it places boys’ love storytelling within the context of a more complex melodrama.  The heat doesn’t have to happen just in the bedroom, and Finder Vol. 3: One Wing in the Viewfinder certainly finds passion in every corner of a story.

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Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12