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Solfege
Kugayama is a gifted music teacher, but a man with little ambition or desire. Born to a wealthy and prominent family, Kugayama passes his days simply going through the motions and existing. When ex-student, Azuma Tanaka, requests his help in studying for a prestigious music school's entrance exam, his budding youth and enthusiasm invoke a passion in Kugayama that he has never experienced before.
178 pages, Paperback
First published February 27, 1998
50 people want to read
About the author
Fumi Yoshinaga
147 books248 followersJapanese: よしなが ふみ
Fumi Yoshinaga (よしなが ふみ Yoshinaga Fumi, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for her shōjo and shōnen-ai works.
Fumi Yoshinaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1971. She attended the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.
In an interview, she said that "I want to show the people who didn't win, whose dreams didn't come true. It is not possible for everybody to get first prize. I want my readers to understand the happiness that people can get from trying hard, going through the process, and getting frustrated."
Little is known about her personal life. She mentions that her favourite operas are those by Mozart in the author's note of Solfege.
She debuted in 1994 with The Moon and the Sandals, serialized in Hanaoto magazine, but was previously a participant in comic markets.
Of Yoshinaga's many works, several have been licensed internationally. She was also selected and exhibited as one of the "Twenty Major Manga artist Who Contributed to the World of Shōjo Manga (World War II to Present)" for Professor Masami Toku's exhibition, "Shōjo Manga: Girl Power!" at CSU-Chico.
Outside of her work with Japanese publishers, she also self-publishes original doujinshi on a regular basis, most notably for Antique Bakery. Yoshinaga has also drawn fan parodies of Slam Dunk, Rose of Versailles, and Legend of Galactic Heroes.
Fumi Yoshinaga (よしなが ふみ Yoshinaga Fumi, born 1971) is a Japanese manga artist known for her shōjo and shōnen-ai works.
Fumi Yoshinaga was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1971. She attended the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo.
In an interview, she said that "I want to show the people who didn't win, whose dreams didn't come true. It is not possible for everybody to get first prize. I want my readers to understand the happiness that people can get from trying hard, going through the process, and getting frustrated."
Little is known about her personal life. She mentions that her favourite operas are those by Mozart in the author's note of Solfege.
She debuted in 1994 with The Moon and the Sandals, serialized in Hanaoto magazine, but was previously a participant in comic markets.
Of Yoshinaga's many works, several have been licensed internationally. She was also selected and exhibited as one of the "Twenty Major Manga artist Who Contributed to the World of Shōjo Manga (World War II to Present)" for Professor Masami Toku's exhibition, "Shōjo Manga: Girl Power!" at CSU-Chico.
Outside of her work with Japanese publishers, she also self-publishes original doujinshi on a regular basis, most notably for Antique Bakery. Yoshinaga has also drawn fan parodies of Slam Dunk, Rose of Versailles, and Legend of Galactic Heroes.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 26, 2015
I'm not sure what was worse about this -- the exploitation of the student by his teacher portrayed as love, or the comically bad art where the men have HUGE LONG arms in ways that violate all the rules of anatomy. They are both facepalm worthy. This is some of the worst examples of 'yaoi hands' I've ever seen.
November 19, 2007
When the seemingly delinquent Tanaka decides he wants to go to music school, his former music teacher Kugayama is surprised, but decides to help him anyway. However, when problems at home lead to Tanaka coming to live with Kugayama, things go farther than either of them intended. How will they deal with the fall-out of their forbidden relationship?
Although I've liked other works by this mangaka, I didn't really enjoy this one. In part this is because I was bothered by the handling of the underaged relationship. More importantly, however, I felt like the ending left a lot to be desired. Events were disjointed and I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. I guess it would be best to say that I liked the idea, but the execution was not as good as I might have hoped.
Although I've liked other works by this mangaka, I didn't really enjoy this one. In part this is because I was bothered by the handling of the underaged relationship. More importantly, however, I felt like the ending left a lot to be desired. Events were disjointed and I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction. I guess it would be best to say that I liked the idea, but the execution was not as good as I might have hoped.
August 30, 2019
Unfortunately this standalone volume is problematic because of the teacher-student relationship, but there is a sense of redemption by the end.
October 12, 2022
Este tipo de historias con final incierto no son de mis favoritas
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April 28, 2025i am just a girl reading yaoi in her house
May 1, 2011
Okay, now that I have read it pretty directly after The Moon and the Sandals, I do think Solfege is an even more dramatic work - and she managed to keep it down to one volume that is good in itself. It still manages to span quite a long time in the lifes of its characters - I especially like the way we can follow the growing up of that one wisecracking elementary school kid who ends up as another music teacher, inspired by the lead of the story - elementary music teacher and son of a wealthy family, discreetly gay Kugayama.
What sets this story - where the teacher falls in love with a student - apart from other boys' love mangaka is that in the short volume we get a (mostly) emotional look at the relationship (which makes the forced seduction scene and the short happy sex scenes that follow much more moving). Yoshinaga takes the time to introduce the student at the end of his high school life and she takes pains to point out that while Kugayama takes care of Azuma and cares for him, he starts doing it because he feels flattered to be idolized as a teacher for the first time, because he decides he wants to do his best for his student who gains more potential under his guidance and because there is no one else really caring for him, least of all his mother.
So they stay together for the initial year because the mother is in hospital and nothing happens, only Kugayama realizes that he seems more and more fixated on Azuma so he lets him go. But when Azuma returns in disgust at what his mother is doing again, something snaps in Kugayama and he goes all the way - partially it seems to make Azuma hate him. This does NOT work - I thought it was pretty funny how mature and suave Azuma seems to settle into loving his Sensei and how happy he is.
Very believable is that he avoids dealing with his own problems at home until the whole situation comes out in a confrontation with Kugayam's friend aka Azuma's voice teacher. Kugayama sending Azuma off is the only honorable way of dealing with the age gap I thought - it was moving to see that afterwards he realizes that he does only look for bad relationships now and that he follows Azuma's rise as an opera tenor in Italy.
Yes, we're getting into melodrama territory now and this is where the young Yoshinaga lost the grip on the story somewhat and let it wander into cliché - Kugayama picks up a young, disturbed gay as his current sex friend who looks a whole lot like Azuma (he even lets himself be called Sensei during sex), and when that guy finds out he is only a stand-in for Azuma he goes after Kugayama very publicly outside the elementary school with a knife!
We get a dramatic cut then to see Azuma returning to Japan after 10 years, accompanied by a suave Italian manager&lover. He is warmly welcomed and meets that former wisecracking fellow student of Kugayama's now who wants him to visit her elementary school choir so he can give them a bit of encouragement. When he sings the Japanese school-leaving song for the choir, he finally recognizes her and she tells him what has happened to Kugayama:
After the public attack he was fired and is recuperating at a chalet in the woods so that his prominent family doesn't have to deal with the fall-out. There's a touching reunion and an appeal by Azuma to have his Sensei return to teaching elementary school singing - and the book ends on a choir competition where Kugayama's choir is actually called for an encore.
It is never clearly stated but Kugayama and Azuma seem to be living together by that time.
I wonder what she could have done with the second half of the book ten years later... I see some Chikage in Azuma, but also some Kanda. Kugayama could be a blend of Ono and Tachibana, too.
So maybe Antique Bakery is what Solfege would have been years later ^^.
What sets this story - where the teacher falls in love with a student - apart from other boys' love mangaka is that in the short volume we get a (mostly) emotional look at the relationship (which makes the forced seduction scene and the short happy sex scenes that follow much more moving). Yoshinaga takes the time to introduce the student at the end of his high school life and she takes pains to point out that while Kugayama takes care of Azuma and cares for him, he starts doing it because he feels flattered to be idolized as a teacher for the first time, because he decides he wants to do his best for his student who gains more potential under his guidance and because there is no one else really caring for him, least of all his mother.
So they stay together for the initial year because the mother is in hospital and nothing happens, only Kugayama realizes that he seems more and more fixated on Azuma so he lets him go. But when Azuma returns in disgust at what his mother is doing again, something snaps in Kugayama and he goes all the way - partially it seems to make Azuma hate him. This does NOT work - I thought it was pretty funny how mature and suave Azuma seems to settle into loving his Sensei and how happy he is.
Very believable is that he avoids dealing with his own problems at home until the whole situation comes out in a confrontation with Kugayam's friend aka Azuma's voice teacher. Kugayama sending Azuma off is the only honorable way of dealing with the age gap I thought - it was moving to see that afterwards he realizes that he does only look for bad relationships now and that he follows Azuma's rise as an opera tenor in Italy.
Yes, we're getting into melodrama territory now and this is where the young Yoshinaga lost the grip on the story somewhat and let it wander into cliché - Kugayama picks up a young, disturbed gay as his current sex friend who looks a whole lot like Azuma (he even lets himself be called Sensei during sex), and when that guy finds out he is only a stand-in for Azuma he goes after Kugayama very publicly outside the elementary school with a knife!
We get a dramatic cut then to see Azuma returning to Japan after 10 years, accompanied by a suave Italian manager&lover. He is warmly welcomed and meets that former wisecracking fellow student of Kugayama's now who wants him to visit her elementary school choir so he can give them a bit of encouragement. When he sings the Japanese school-leaving song for the choir, he finally recognizes her and she tells him what has happened to Kugayama:
After the public attack he was fired and is recuperating at a chalet in the woods so that his prominent family doesn't have to deal with the fall-out. There's a touching reunion and an appeal by Azuma to have his Sensei return to teaching elementary school singing - and the book ends on a choir competition where Kugayama's choir is actually called for an encore.
It is never clearly stated but Kugayama and Azuma seem to be living together by that time.
I wonder what she could have done with the second half of the book ten years later... I see some Chikage in Azuma, but also some Kanda. Kugayama could be a blend of Ono and Tachibana, too.
So maybe Antique Bakery is what Solfege would have been years later ^^.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2015
I didn't find this melodramatic at all. In fact, the more I read of Yoshinaga's work, the more inspired by the way she tells seemingly simple stories that belay a deep complexity. Almost all of them revolve around complex metaphors that are explored in story. I also find it hard to classify much of her work as yaoi, since, in stories where same-sex romance predominates, her characters are explicitly gay or present as having mutual attraction hinting at bisexuality at the very least, when much of yaoi plays on having significant exceptions to the romantic patterns of its characters.
I also enjoy that she does not give us definitive endings, which, while occasionally frustrating, speaks to a more realistic approach. Her characters are complex, she plays on tropes common to the genre, and, while there may be some weaknesses here and there, Solfege is an iconic and excellent part of her oeuvre.
I also enjoy that she does not give us definitive endings, which, while occasionally frustrating, speaks to a more realistic approach. Her characters are complex, she plays on tropes common to the genre, and, while there may be some weaknesses here and there, Solfege is an iconic and excellent part of her oeuvre.
Want to read
June 11, 2007r sez only semi-okay
January 31, 2016
This made me tear up a bit. Good story, good characters that I really felt for & not just the main two.
Glad I finally read it.
Glad I finally read it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews