Kiss of Fire – An Introduction to the work of Youka Nitta

When I was but a newbie to the wonderful world of yaoi I happened to stumble upon an art book while on a trip into the city to explore a shop I had been told sold manga and anime items, sadly the store no longer exists but I still have the beautiful art book I bought that day, which was Kiss of Fire by Nitta Youka.

Born March 8, 1971, in the Fukui Prefecture, Japan she has been a popular manga artist within the yaoi genre and communities around the world with her cross-gender appeal of her artwork gaining fans in not only the female-driven yaoi community but also welcoming male fans who usually go for the more homo-erotic or bara style of manga. (not to say that bara is just for men or yaoi is just for women, I myself have a few favorite manga within the bara genre as well as have male friends within the yaoi community)

In 2008 she ran into a bit of controversy however and not the usual you see with erotic manga work in Japan. She was accused of plagiarism after it was revealed she would trace over pictures from fashion magazines for pictures in her manga. The full English article can be found at anime news network. This brought up a discussion within the manga community of inspiration vs copyright and she did, unfortunately, stop work for a while after this. In 2009 she revealed however that she has no plans on stopping any of her ongoing series and she has continued her fan following since then. She has also stated in interviews she prefers older ukes, which explains the character of Iwaki-san in her Haru wo Daiteita series.

As well as being a beautiful art book filled with gorgeous artwork of Iwaki and Katou from the Haru wo Daiteita (that’s Embracing Love to the English readers) the manga is also a series of love letters between the two characters found within the page’s including a beautiful ending that I will not spoil. Also, those within the yaoi community will recognize many of the images within the page’s of Kiss of Fire as they were used in the opening for the two episode OVA feature of the series and if that is not amazing enough, the seiyuu who plays Iwaki in the series also sings the opening theme!