Line #58 Manga/Zetsuai1989


1	[[quoteright:270:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zb.jpg]]
2
3	''Zetsuai (1989)'' and its sequel series ''Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989'' are one of the classics of the BoysLoveGenre.
4
5	The story concerns Kouji Nanjo, a young IdolSinger with a dark and violent past and a BigScrewedUpFamily, who is out drinking one night and falls down on the street. He's found and picked up by a highschool student and promising soccer star named Takuto Izumi, who takes him to his home to recover. When Kouji wakes up [[ThereIsOnlyOneBed in bed with Izumi]], he immediately recognises him as a person he saw playing soccer six years before and fell in love with -- though at the time, he took Izumi for a tomboyish girl. Now that he knows Izumi is a boy, he finds to his dismay that his feelings have not changed and are still as strong as ever, but Izumi has a fiery temper and a trauma-laden past that makes it hard for him to trust anyone, and Kouji's all too aware that as a public figure he's not free to fall in love with whoever he wants.
6
7	''Zetsuai'' ran in the {{shoujo}} magazine ''Margaret'' and was collected in five volumes, with the plot reaching no conclusion to speak of; the sequel series ''Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989'' ran in ''Margaret'' and later in the {{josei}} magazine ''Chorus'', and then was collected in 14 volumes but broke off due to the mangaka's illness; she eventually gave the series a proper ending in a doujinshi.
8
9	There were four associated light novels, and two single-episode [=OVAs=], as well as a collection of associated music videos with the title ''Cathexis''.
10
11	----
12	!!''Zetsuai 1989'' provide examples of:
13
14	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Kouji, multiple times. One of them he made ''into a song!'' Suffice to say, Izumi is not happy when he finds out.
15	* ArtEvolution: Starting volume 11 of Bronze, the art, especially the eyes, is more detailed & is at the same level the cover & artbook pictures have been for years.
16	* BigScrewedUpFamily: You don't get them more fucked up than the Nanjous.
17	* DestructiveRomance: Kouji does many truly horrible, unforgivable things to Izumi throughout the manga that make you question if he deserves a happy ending.
18	* DivingSave: At some point, Izumi kicks his soccer ball across the street. Serika goes to retrieve it and is almost hit by a car... then, when Izumi is going to help her out, Kouji pulls this and saves her himself.
19	* DoggedNiceGuy: Almost subverted with Kouji. He ''wants''' to be able to suppress his feelings for Izumi and be JustFriends, but he ends up acting like this trope.
20	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Izumi's mother, eventually.]]
21	* [[DudeShesLikeInAComa Dude, He's Like In A Coma!]]: At the beginning of the manga, Kouji can't bring himself to kiss Izumi or tell him how much he loves him while he's conscious because he's terrified that he'll reject him and never talk to him again, so he keeps on finding times when Izumi is sick, unconscious, drunk or in a deep sleep to make out with him. He also gives more than one AnguishedDeclarationOfLove when he knows absolutely that Izumi won't hear it or remember it. Then [[FacePalm he gets mad at himself for it afterwards]].
22	* DumbStruck: Kouji goes mute after he's in a nearly fatal motorcycle accident. He's in a coma for a while and does come out of it, but when he wakes up he can't talk...
23	* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Everyone can see that Kouji is in love with Izumi, including Izumi's little sister, ''except'' for Izumi.
24	* {{Expy}}: Izumi is what Kojiro Hyuuga from ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'' would've been if CT was a BoysLove series. Minami Ozaki started her career as a Hyuuga/Wakashimazu djka.
25	* FanGirl
26	** Serika is a Kouji fangirl. [[spoiler: She's later mistaken for his girlfriend, which brings up Izumi's backstory into the public eye. Izumi is ''enraged'' by that.]]
27	** Also, Minako Sasaki and Eri. [[spoiler: The latter goes completely {{Yandere}}, though.]]
28	* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Kouji met Izumi six years ago when he saw him playing soccer and fell in LoveAtFirstSight... but Kouji always thought Izumi ''was a girl'' until they met face to face in the present.
29	* FreudianExcuse
30	** It's easier to understand why Izumi is so hot-tempered and mistrustful of love when you realise that [[spoiler:at the age of five, he saw his mother murder his father.]]
31	** Also, the reason why Kouji's older brother Akihito hates him so much is because [[spoiler: [[MissingMom his mother]] was forced to leave the Izumi clan after Kouji was taken in by their old man and he never saw her again.]]
32	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Kouji loves animals, [[HeroesLoveDogs especially dogs.]]
33	* {{Gayngst}}: And ''how''. Kouji eventually justifies his feelings (see IfItsYouItsOkay), but he spends a lot of time angsting about the fact that Izumi is a guy.
34	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Izumi has a scar on his left hip from the time when he tried to [[spoiler: failed to prevent his mother from killing his father.]] Later, [[spoiler: he cuts himself across that scar, thus giving himself a cross mark.]]
35	* GreenEyedMonster: Just ''try'' getting close to Izumi. Kouji will [[BerserkButton not take it well]]. [[LoveMakesYouCrazy At all]].
36	* HotBlooded: Izumi
37	* IdolSinger: Kouji, and a few of the women he dates.
38	* IfICantHaveYou / IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Kouji swings between these two extremes with regard to Izumi. He's aware that IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy is a better attitude, but he can't quite bring himself to feel that way and often talks about how he'd like to lock Izumi away. In fact, his behaviour tends to stop short of full-on IfICantHaveYou, but he angsts quite a bit about how he resents anything that makes Izumi happy if it takes Izumi's attention away from him.
39	* IfItsYouItsOkay: Before he met Izumi, Kouji was a womanizer, and even after they get together he maintains that he's still heterosexual, just madly in love with Izumi. (In fact, he claims that thinking of ''other'' men makes him feel sick.)
40	* {{Jerkass}}: Akihito
41	* LoveAtFirstSight: Kouji for Izumi. Izumi takes much longer to return his feelings.
42	* LoveHurts: Kouji goes through a rather extended period of pain and suffering while trying to suppress his feelings for Izumi. It doesn't work out well for him.
43	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Kouji and Izumi aren't entirely stable when it comes to each other, but the worst example is probably Izumi's parents, [[spoiler: since his mother killed his father for cheating on her, and his father smiled while she did it.]]
44	* LoveMartyr: At one point Kouji [[spoiler: ''cuts off his own left arm'' so that his family will leave Izumi alone.]]
45	* TheMasochismTango: Kouji and Izumi's Masochism Tango is more like a full-length ballet, and it seems to run in Izumi's family, since [[spoiler: his mother killed his father for cheating on him, then killed herself twelve years later]].
46	* MeetCute: Lampshaded with Izumi's teammate Kasaya and his girlfriend Eri: he remarks that their meeting (he was crouched on the ground, and her skirt flew up, [[PantyShot exposing her panties]]) was like something out of a shoujo manga.
47	%%* {{Melodrama}}
48	%%* FreudianExcuse: Oh, Akihito...
49	* ObliviousToLove: Izumi takes this to new heights of sheer stupidity.
50	* OnlySaneMan: How Katsumi Shibuya hasn't gone bonkers with all the stuff around him, the world will never ever know
51	* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "Zetsuai" is a portmanteau word invented by Ozaki, a compound of "zetsubou" (despair) and "ai" (love). Hence the series is sometimes referred to in English as "Desperate Love" (though Ozaki's preferred English translation is "Everlasting Love").
52	* PingPongNaivete: For someone who is street-savvy, lives on his own and has gone through enough trauma in his life to strip away his own childhood and force him into adulthood ten years too early, he is ''[[TooDumbToLive ridiculously]]'' naive when it comes to relationships, love and Kouji. Especially Kouji.
53	* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Kouji rapes Izumi's girlfriend Minako out of jealousy and tries to rape Izumi to push him away. Hirose also raped Izumi, and hired a prostitute to do so as well.]]
54	* SingleTargetSexuality: Although he does go out with a girl named Minako at one point to get Kouji off his back, Izumi is never genuinely interested in anyone but Kouji.
55	* SlapSlapKiss: Many, many times.
56	* StalkerWithACrush: Kouji. Izumi [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter doesn't realise it for ages]].
57	* StalkingIsLove: Izumi not only eventually stops minding Kouji's persistent stalking but says it's why he's falling for him.
58	* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: Twice; in the very beginning, when Izumi takes Kouji home to recover from his illness, and later when Izumi is staying in a tiny room near his workplace.
59	* WellDoneSonGuy: Hirose is the one who tries to uphold the Nanjou traditions the most, invoking this trope as the reason.
60	** Also, Akihito pretty much worships the ground that Hirose walks on.
61	* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Kouji definitely occupies the lighter end of the trope. While he doesn't destroy planets with meteors or burn down orphanages, he's certainly one {{Yandere}} of a {{Seme}} with some serious shades of [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Love Makes You Crazy]]/[[LoveMakesYouEvil Evil]]. [[http://zarla.livejournal.com/349825.html Just ask Zarla]].
62	%%* WillTheyOrWontThey: [[spoiler: It takes five volumes if you even count the end of ''Zetsuai 1989'' volume 5 as a true example of "they do", which it arguably isn't since Izumi is just lying back and thinking of England. If you don't count that, it takes another three volumes.]]
63	* {{Yandere}}
64	** [[spoiler:Eri]], (also a LoonyFan) who reacts... badly to Kouji announcing his retirement [[spoiler: and tries to stab him to death]].
65	** Kouji himself as well. And ''how''.
66	** And [[spoiler: Izumi's mother.]]
67	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Despite all of the characters looking to be in their mid-to-late 20s, they are actually in their mid-teens.

Context Manga / Zetsuai1989