Cut by Kawai Touko

     Kawai Touko creates an interesting contrast between the characters Eiji and Chiaki in Cut by introducing similarities within their family backgrounds as well as differences in how each boy handles the disfunction within their lives. Both Chiaki and Eiji do not live with their parents. Chiaki lives alone in an apartment near to school whereas Eiji lives with his uncle's family. Both men do not have a father figure, but in Chiaki's case his father died in a car accident which differs from Eiji, whose father left his mother when she was pregnant with him. Both boys suffer from the lack of a mother's love, however Chiaki uses this abuse as a source of "pleasure" by becoming masochistic and enjoying the pain others inflict upon him. Eiji uses this hurt to push others away, which also can be considered masochistic since he does not want to accept the love his uncle's family has to offer. The differences and similarities create a central theme within the story that many readers can empathize with. That theme being how a family's approval, and love, is what a child needs in order to make it in the world.
     The characters first meet in a park, where Chiaki is leaving his pedophilic step-father, who molests him in front of Eiji. The two boys meet a few times more, but a bond is not formed until Chiaki confesses to Eiji that he feels guilty for his father's death. Eiji, at the time, does not seem to care and refuses to pity Chiaki, because he feels guilty for his own family problems. Chiaki begs Eiji to sleep with him, in which Eiji refuses. This scene was rather enjoyable, because of Eiji's refusal, who wasn't originally introduced as possibly being gay, like Chiaki, and I like how he suddenly didn't "give in" which is often the case in Yaoi. However, eventually Eiji confesses to Chiaki that his mother tried to kill him, which explains his dislike of being touched, and that is when they first sleep together. The plot is paced rather well and the characters are believable. The growth within the story isn't too fast and leads to a rather sweet ending.
     However, my main critique is the ending. Now, not many of you know a lot about Japanese culture, especially about their prejudices towards others within their race. At the end of the story Eiji drops out of high school to work on a cattle ranch. Someone who works on a cattle ranch, or someone who butchers cattle is known as a burakumin. Burakumin are looked down on within Japanese society, because they go against the Buddhist practices of not handling meat. Do the Japanese still eat beef? Of course they do. However, those that eat meat are innocent compared to those who kill the meat. Ridiculous? I agree. So the fact that Eiji willingly becomes a burakumin seems a little unrealistic to me since it is a society that is considered much like India's "untouchables". This could be seen as a form of masochism since he is being hated by most of society. It could also be considered running away from his problems since his mother comes from Japan's "normal" society. Based on this theme of "society" the author could be saying something about what is considered normal is, in actuality, not normal at all. If that was the author's intentions, I think the ending suits the story. However, I feel that it is too happy compared to the angsty tone that it originally contained.
     I found Cut to be a very good read. It had its imperfections such as the ending, but I would re-read it. The plot held my attention, yet it felt very high school with the "cutting" and the "parents don't understand me" that many teenagers I know seem to possess. I would give it a 6.8/10.