After well over a year’s wait, the second volume of Maka-Maka is now available in print. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that this looks like the end of the line. The online version of Maka-Maka hasn’t moved past December 2004, so Volume 2 seems to be it. Unless the printed version is still running, and frankly, I’m too lazy to check. Feel free to do so and get back to me. ;-)

Volume 2 has color posters of Jun and Nene in poses that men seem to find attractive, but leave me wondering why and the usual hidden cover with naked girls underneath.

When we last left them, Jun and Nene were just on the cusp of a nearly monogamous relationship, looking forward to a bright future of lots of lesbian sex. Volume 2 follows our intrepid young protagonists as they gleefully enjoy sex in inappropraite public places and appropriately private ones. It would be all very nice if they didn’t drool so much. I am not a fan of bizarrely leaking bodily fluids, but I guess each to his or her own.

What is striking about this particular volume (other than the playing dress-up quality of it, which focuses as much on their clothes as any other one thing) as just how pathetic all the men in this series are. And yet, we are lead to believe that these two women still occasionally long for “the penor” as my language-impaired l33t young friends call it these days. It was okay, in the first volume, when it seemed Jun and Nene had, quite coincidentally, had miserable lovers at roughly the same time, which made them long for someone, anyone, better. In this volume, it seems as pretty much all their male lovers sucked – all their male lovers *ever* and pretty much every guy in the book comes off as a raging asshole.

But I’m kind of missing something somewhere when, after a string of abysmal encounters with men, they’re still sleeping with guys even though they are having not-at-all-abysmal sex with each other. I’m clearly missing something. Probably the requisite “penor.” If I had one o’them, it would make more sense…I guess.

Anyway, other than the drool and the guys, this was a pretty nice book. LOL I think it’s funny how Nene is such a crybaby, and I quite like Jun’s casual nihilistic style. Plus, she looked really cute in the kimono that Nene made for her. :-) This volume also includes each girl telling an angst-ridden backstory which explains their character. It’s not terribly convincing, but it makes a nice change of pace, and teaches us once again that (shock!) guys are assholes – a lesson about which I retain a healthy skepticism. If they were that awful, I can’t imagine that that many women would sleep with them – or maybe I’m overestimating straight women? I’ll leave that question for the philosophers.

Is it worth getting? If you like almost completely realistically portrayed explicit lesbian sex -yes. If you like sweet romance with flower-laden backgrounds -nope.

For what it’ s worth, I quite liked Maka-Maka Volume 2, even though they never sent me one of the scale figurines from Vol. 1. Boo hoo.