delphi | What I'm Reading/Watching: Karaoke Iko and Famiresu Iko

Karaoke Iko! | Let's Go Karaoke is a coming-of-age comedy manga by Yama Wayama, which was adapted into a five-episode anime series this year and a live-action movie in 2023. The manga also has an ongoing sequel series called Famiresu Iko | Let's Go to the Family Restaurant.

The story starts out with young teenager Oka Satomi living in Osaka and dealing with the stress of being the leader of his school choir right when his changing voice is forcing him out of the soprano role. His worries about the future are thrown an even bigger curve ball when he's approached (*cough* kidnapped) one day by a local gangster named Narita Kyouji who has watched him perform and has a request: teach him to be a better singer so he can win a karaoke contest.

Kyouji's in a jam. His boss has a love of both music and tattooing, and to keep his men in line, he holds a quarterly karaoke contest where the loser is volunteered for his amateur tattooing practice—usually getting an image the boss knows they'll hate. Kyouji is determined not to lose and, in a fit of bad decision-making he potentially can't even explain to himself, decides this choir boy will make a good tutor.

Satomi starts spending time with Kyouji at the local karaoke parlour, and the two bring out sides of each other that neither seems to be able to express in their separate lives. Things then come to a head as the school year finishes up and Satomi's final concert is scheduled for the same time as Kyouji's karaoke competition, with an unexpected event disrupting both performances.

The sequel manga, Famiresu Iko, picks up three years later, when Satomi is a university student in Tokyo working part-time at a restaurant. He's visited regularly by Kyouji, and the two have to figure out what a relationship looks like between them now that they're both adults while dealing with complications related to Kyouji's criminal affiliations and Satomi's desire for a normal life (or belief that he should desire a normal life).

The premise of the series overall is enjoyably absurd, but the story's rooted in reality in the right places, with strong characterizations and a good dose of feeling in there amid all of the ridiculous and dry humour. And admittedly, I'm just obsessed with Kyouji and Satomi's dynamic. Anyone who knows me knows what a sucker I am for two people who have nothing in common on the surface, who are both a little off or out of touch with themselves, but who somehow fit together in an unexpected way.

The series isn't marketed as BL, but queerness runs through the series and adaptations in both textual and subtextual ways that I'll put under the cut.

• In the Famiresu Iko manga, university-aged Satomi works through his confusion (with a little help from his friends and from Yahoo Answers) and finally comes to the conclusion that he has romantic feelings for Kyouji. Kyouji, for his part, has essentially said it's up to Satomi to decide what their relationship looks like and that he'll be there until the day Satomi no longer has use for him.

• In the Karaoke Iko manga, the setup is primarily subtextual. Satomi comes across as dealing with an unwanted crush, not in a conscious way but in a blushing and annoyed "This person is bringing all my strong feelings up to the surface and making me make stupid choices, and I don't know why" sort of way.

• The Karaoke Iko anime cranks up the subtext and leans harder on the ways that Kyouji and Satomi's arrangement resembles dating or a potential sugar daddy/sugar baby situation. In addition to Satomi's big emotions about Kyouji, there's a strong suggestion that conscious feelings materialize for Kyouji around the time Satomi is heading off for university.

• The Karaoke Iko live-action movie aims more for the "unlikely friendship" vibe. Satomi still comes across like he's nursing a crush he's not ready to be dealing with yet.

Karaoke Iko! (Manga)