Manga Review: From Eroica with Love 2 by Aoike Yasuko
It is the 1970s, and the Cold War is raging behind the scenes. One of the top front line officers in that war is Major “Iron” Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach of NATO intelligence. He and his team of “Alphabet” agents attempt to thwart plans by the KGB and other enemies of the free world to gain world domination for the Communists. But the deepest thorn in Klaus’ side is Earl Dorian Red Gloria, openly gay British nobleman and not quite as openly the master thief codenamed “Eroica.”
The two met when one of Eroica’s capers just so happened to interfere with a NATO operation, and Klaus wound up chasing Dorian down the autobahn in a tank. Dorian found himself irresistibly attracted to the German major despite his off-putting personality. Klaus, for his part, has zero romantic interest in men, (and little to no evidence of romantic interest in women), and despised the English thief.
Further coincidences kept bringing this odd couple together, to the point where the rest of the intelligence community thinks they’re a team, much to Klaus’ annoyance.
This shoujo (girls’) manga began running in 1976, and despite some hiatuses managed to make it all the way to 2012! This makes it one of the most successful shounen ai (boys’ love) manga. For those of you who might be new to the term, “boys’ love” is a subgenre of manga about love between male characters aimed at an audience of teenage girls. It is distinct from stories about gay love by gay men aimed at an audience of gay men, and especially back in the 1970s was noted for being much more escapist fantasy about non-threatening boys and men than a realistic depiction of male homosexuality.
There’s never been an anime adaptation of the series (the creator reportedly hates animation) but the slash fanfiction community discovered the manga in the early 1980s through their connection with the anime fan community, and it became a favorite with them. Eventually, the series was brought to America by the ill-fated CMX, which managed to bring out fifteen of the thirty-nine volumes before collapsing.
Which brings us to the volume I have on hand, the second one. In the first story, Eroica has decided to steal a jade Buddha statue from a Greek shipping magnate. At the same time, Klaus is attempting to stop the same shipping magnate from marrying a Russian agent. This plan involves introducing Agent G, an expert crossdresser, as a surprise relative of the magnate. Wires get crossed, and the ending is hilarious.
In the second story, Earl Dorian is holding a world convention of underworld figures in his secondary castle…just up the hill from where the President of the United States and the Premier of the Soviet Union are about to hold peace talks! Klaus learns of a terrorist plan to blow up the talks, but the secret location of the bomb is hidden on microfilm…which is currently in Dorian’s underpants! Dorian takes Klaus’ interest entirely the wrong way.
The third story in the volume is something else entirely, “I.V.Y. Navy”. It’s set on an alternate Earth where a small island nation in the North Atlantic has become atrociously wealthy due to its vast oil reserves. A straitlaced young German named Tomcat is sent as a goodwill ambassador from West Germany, and is repeatedly flustered by the I.V.Y. Kingdom’s lack of personal space between men. This is exacerbated by winding up on the Kingdom’s aircraft carrier, which has an all-male and seemingly very horny crew. Some funny political satire but the interpersonal relationships are uncomfortable to read.
This is very Seventies in both good (the outfits! the design sense! the hair!) and bad (homophobic and transphobic remarks abound, especially from Klaus, and he’s also pretty sexist) ways. The characters smoke heavily. There are genuinely funny bits, and the art is very nice. But to be honest, this is mainly worthwhile finding as a time capsule of an influential series.
While there’s no anime, the author was a huge fan of Led Zeppelin and especially Robert Plant, so let’s have some period appropriate music.
