Last Quarter Vol. 1 by Ai Yazawa

October 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Last Quarter Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa

Last Quarter is an appropriately spooky manga for October, but it begins with a familiar story of angsty love between a Japanese schoolgirl and a foreigner who likes to lurk around Shibuya playing the guitar. Mizuki is struggling with a change in her family’s circumstances and becomes entranced by Adam’s music. Adam latches on to Mizuki as though she’s a life preserver, they quickly grow close. This type of self-destructive romance is done much much better by Yazawa herself in her later series, so seeing a similar story compressed into a chapter with less time to become invested in the characters made me just want to yell at Mizuki “Run Away Girl!!!” rather than hoping for a happily ever after scenario.

Last Quarter Volume 1

Mizuki’s story is cut short and Last Quarter shifts to exploring the ghost investigations of Hotaru and her classmates. Hotaru meets a mysterious ghost girl in an abandoned mansion. The girl has few memories of who she is or why she’s tied to the mansion, except she keeps playing the same song over and over and has strong memories of a long-lost love. Hotaru starts to investigate, and pulls in some of her friends, who are quite startled when they see that the ghost that only Hotaru can communicated with is capable of influencing the physical environment of the abandoned house. Hotaru nicknames her ghost Eve and they strike up a warm if somewhat disconcerting friendship.

Yazawa’s character designs are as always on-point and stylish, and it is nice being able to read earlier works of hers and compare them to Paradise Kiss and Nana. There’s a real sense of emptiness and distance as Eve continues her diminished existence in the mansion with only half-remembered feelings tying her to Earth. The dynamics in Hotaru’s friend group are engaging as they throw themselves into figuring out what happened to Mizuki/Eve, but Adam very much remains a cypher. I’ll be curious to see how the story continues to develop.

Matcha Made in Heaven, Vols 7-9

September 28, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Matcha Made in Heaven Volumes 7-9 by Umebachi Yamanaka

Time to check in on this low-key extremely slow-burn josei series! Chaco and Isshin are continuing with their faux marriage of convenience, which has of course led them to develop feelings for each other. Isshin is an intense, grumpy tea-making perfectionist, while Chaco is much more free spirited. Despite growing up in a family of tea producers, she’s been away for so long that she’s not super familiar with the business, so her support of Isshin also means that she’s connecting with her roots in a new way.

Matcha Made in Heaven 9

After a separation where Isshin is working in the corporate tea business, he returns home. Chaco is excited to take their relationship to the next level, but childhood friend Jin appears with a girl named Roa, who happens to be a tea social media influencer! The traditional craft of tea-making clashes with Roa’s approach, which seems to stir up some distressing sentiments against the small business that Chaco’s family is trying to take to the next level with Isshin’s help. The trash-talking is mild, and the stakes are fairly low in this extremely relaxing manga where one can always count on respect for tea to further bond the characters and see them through any crisis. While Roa ends up not be as terrible as Chaco originally assumed, she leads Isshin into accepting a challenge at a high stakes tea blending competition. With Isshin, Jin, and Chaco’s brother who is such a non-entity it is not really worth remembering his name as the main competitors things are surely not going to go very smoothly.

For fans of the grumpy/sunshine dynamic, this series delivers. I find myself constantly rooting for Chaco and Isshin even though they cycle through excuses to not progress in their relationship. The latest barrier is Isshin’s nobility, as he doesn’t want to ask Chaco’s dead father for her hand in real marriage until he has proven himself as a tea master. As always, the illustrations are clear and dynamic. Chaco’s niece is reliable both for comic relief and expressing the readers’ point of view that Chaco and Isshin should just get together already.

Like a Butterfly, Vols 1-3

June 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Like a Butterfly, Volumes 1-3 by Suu Morishita

Suu Morishita series are an automatic buy for me, after Shortcake Cake, I went against my self-imposed ban on buying digital first series to get A Sign of Affection (one of my favorites of all time), so I was delighted to have a chance to read an earlier series, Like a Butterfly. It deals with communication issues in a different way than Sign of Affection but is extremely compelling.

Like a Butterfly

Suiren is incredibly beautiful, but her beauty is actually a burden. People have an oversized reaction to her outward appearance, and she chose to go to an all girls middle school because of the unwanted attention. Unfortunately she received just as much attention there, but did have the benefit of some fierce female defenders who would fend off boys at the school gates. Over time, she began to develop a self-defense mechanism of speaking very little and having almost no self expression in order to not provoke any type of unwanted attention. She thus has the nickname “the mysterious flower”. Suiren’s old friend Aya is her main companion, and helpful social navigator. Suiren notices Kawasumi, a quiet boy with glasses who is consumed by karate a couple times at school. He comes to her rescue when an upperclassman takes her bag and announces that he’s going to walk her home. His method is to use some karate moves but expertly pull his punches so his opponent knows full well that Kawasumi could absolutely destroy him. With Kawasumi, Suiren has found someone that she wishes would notice her, but he’s not really able to talk to girls either, even though he notices her back.

An additional complication is introduced in the form of Koharu, a forthright girl who has developed a crush on Kwasumi and starts asking him out. She comments to Suiren that she doesn’t want to be a passive flower but a butterfly who will fly towards whatever she wants. Suiren is struck by the contrast in their personalities and also wants to go after what she wants. Like a Butterfly develops at a glacial pace, but due to the nature of Suiren and Kawasumi’s communication difficulties any interaction between them is charged with meaning. Their friends serve as both cheerleaders and sources of running commentary when they aren’t really able to express their feelings. Suiren gradually makes some overtures, but Kawasumi’s radar for dealing with attention for girls is so broken that he isn’t able to understand what’s happening very well. By the third volume, the not-quite-a-couple has been to a festival and Suiren has actually cheered Kawasumi on at a Karate tournament. The art for this series is great, I was continually amused by the many variations of Suiren’s expressionless face that end up actually telegraphing her feelings. I was predisposed to like this series and the first three volumes did not disappoint.

Sakura, Saku Vols 1 and 2

May 16, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Sakkura, Saku Volumes 1 and 2 by Io Sakisaka

I feel like Io Sakisaka is a great go-to author for heartfelt shoujo stories that reaffirm one’s faith in humanity and young love. Sakura, Saku might not be terribly surprising, but it delivers all the feels that one would want from a shoujo romance. Saku Fujigaya was rescued on a train when she was feeling faint by a mysterious stranger, and she is so inspired by this kindly act that she decides to devote herself to helping others. She rescues dropped train passes, shares umbrellas, carries extra pencils in case someone needs to borrow one, and takes on extra chores at school. When people comment on her being a “goody-two-shoes” she is delighted that she is succeeding in her new life mission.

Sakura, Saku

One of Saku’s biggest regrets is that she wasn’t able to thank her rescuer. She had a note with his name on it, but when she tried to contact him she wasn’t able to locate him. She’s surprised when she hears a familiar last name – Sakura. Her classmate Haruki Sakura’s older brother is potentially her original rescuer who changed the direction of her life. She asks Haruki to deliver a letter to his brother for her, and he immediately refuses. As they cross paths more often he begins to see that she’s not the typical girl that tries to go through him to confess to his brother, and Saku begins to form more ties with her classmates.

Saku’s tendency to throw herself into helping people, and Haruki’s somewhat diffident but forthright personality make them unusual allies in navigating the emotional currents of high school even while they try to figure out their own feelings for each other. Saku’s habit of contemplating Haruki’s shoulders at inopportune times is a great example of the awkwardness that comes with a first crush. Sakisaka’s art is attractive and expressive, and the while first couple of volumes so far step through some typical plot points and situations, the characters are engaging and it fills a niche for anyone wanting some relatively angst-free contemporary shoujo.

Neighborhood Story Vol. 1 By Ai Yazawa

January 28, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Neighborhood Story Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa

Neighborhood Story is a manga I’ve been aware of for a long time, because the characters drop in on Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss, but I never thought it would actually be translated into English! I’m glad that Viz has licensed this shoujo classic. Mikako is an aspiring fashion designer who has a ton of personality packed into her tiny body. Tsutomo is the boy next door. They’ve been constant childhood companions, and many of their surrounding family and friends seem to expect that they’ll end up together.

Neighborhood Story Volume 1

Mikako is a little suspicious about Tsutomo’s inadvertent womanizing ways, as his similarity to a pop idol causes him to be fascinating to random girls. Tsutomo wonders if he and Mikako are so close that they aren’t ever really going to experience life without some time apart. They seem obviously perfect for each other and yet sometimes oblivious to their own emotions in ways that are utterly realistic for teenagers experiencing the first stirrings of something that might be love. Mikako is a force to be reckoned with, and as their extended group of friends start gathering together to pursue their creative dreams, I’m looking forward to experiencing again that combination of love story and artistic ambition that Ai Yazawa writes so well.

While the art isn’t as polished as Yazawa’s later series, her spindly characters and their fashion forward style contribute to the creative community that surrounds and supports Mikako and Tsutomo. Reading Neighborhood Story feels nostalgic in the best way, and I’m glad I finally have a chance to experience it.

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