Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
"University employee Ryouichirou is ordered by the Chairman to take in an exchange student. That exchange student, Qaltaqa, is a native from a developing country who can't understand Japanese!! Though he is a warrior of his tribe and a man of great beauty, seeing him afraid of the phone and the TV, and even the toilet, Ryouichirou gets fed up… But while being called "Ryouichirou" in such a clumsy manner, he has a change of heart!?"
Mother's Spirit is a completed BL manga by Enzou.
The best word I would use to describe this manga would be beautiful because everything about this honestly was. From the romance to the character designs and the culture, everything was simply stunning.
We follow Ryouichirou as he is suddenly voluntold to look after a new exchange student who comes from a small remote tribe, and thus has never been emersed in modern (Japanese) culture before. What ensues is a heartwarming romance and exchange of culture and values.
It was honestly so much fun seeing Qaltaqa trying to grapple with all the modern inventions, and I felt all warm inside as they both took an effort to get to know their respective cultures, and each other, better. I even ended up getting a bit emotional in the end because I was getting attached to their story. What I also liked about this story was that that is all the story was, just them getting to know each other. There wasn't really any added drama to interfere with their relationship which I like.
As I briefly mentioned, the cultural values of the Lutah tribe, the tribe to which Qaltaqa belongs to, were just beautiful. They place great importance on the soul, which you see right away when Qaltaqa takes such an effort to learn how to properly pronounce Ryouichirou's name as names are sacred and represent the soul. The importance of the soul can be further shown as when you find the person you want to be with, you symbolically split your soul for them.
Again, for a lack of a better word, the story absolutely nailed it with this beautiful message. Reflecting on his relationship with Qaltaqa, Ryouichirou thought that it wasn't because of his gender or nationality, it was his soul that he was drawn to. This was all-in-all a wonderful and unique BL manga.
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