Happy day, a new Uso Kurata collection! Soredemo Yappari Koi wo Suru has a theme and a subtheme that combine to make a very pleasant point.
“Wired,” tells of the meeting of a energetic young woman and a cynical older girl in the RPG world from Kurata’s “Apocalypse” arc. Young, energetic, puppy-dog cuteness wins over grumpy world-weariness.
In “BBS,” a school bulletin board provides the impetus for a girl to bridge the space between herself and her sempai on the swim team.
Sadly, “Picsee” was so preachy (hey kids, people you meet online might be dangerous) that the subplot of like-love between the two protagonists kind of got lost.
The book really takes off in “Blog,” in which two girls are outed at school by a badly timed picture on their school trip. The night before, one of them had started an anonymous blog to record their relationship – she fears that it was the source of their outing, until she learns about the picture. But, neither girl backs out of the relationship…and eventually they both start working on the blog. Little by little, they start getting comments from women who are in relationships with women, and other girls in love with other girls. Jun and Kazumi realize that they are not alone in the world and take strength from this.
In the omake “Intermission,” Jun and Kazumi decide to invite the commenters on their blog to get together. Of course they are the other characters in the collection. ^_^
There is tremendous power in knowing you are not alone. Whether it’s having trouble accessing a system at the office or knowing that someone else understands your feelings or your worldview, the tribal/herd instinct is strong in us humans. We prefer to know we are not alone. Where Soredemo Yappari Koi wo Suru works is in reminding us that it doesn’t have to be the two of us against the world – there are people like us out there.
There is an obvious underlying theme in this collection of online communications platforms. The negative aspects (online rumors and bullying, fake identities, people with agendas) is laid out plainly, but the moral of the story is just as obviously, “Sure, you have to be sensible about your online life, but waiting out there is *your* community, go, find it.” A lesson well worth teaching.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Stories – 5-8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 1
Overall – 7
Other than “Picsee,” which I felt was heavy-handed, this is a pleasant enough collection of girls in love finding their place in the world.
“There is tremendous power in knowing you are not alone. Whether it’s having trouble accessing a system at the office or knowing that someone else understands your feelings or your worldview, the tribal/herd instinct is strong in us humans. We prefer to know we are not alone. Where Soredemo Yappari Koi wo Suru works is in reminding us that it doesn’t have to be the two of us against the world – there are people like us out there.”
From the review, I get the impression that the story addresses this much better than those yaoi and Yuri stories that ignore the existence of homophobia in the first place. It’s one thing to read about characters who live in a setting where the challenges you face don’t exist, and it’s another to read about characters who face the same challenges you do and who are succeeding (I’m not going to say “succeeded” because isn’t it an ongoing process when so many people out there are still homophobic, for example employers who wouldn’t meet teens like this until they graduate and apply for jobs?).
“There is an obvious underlying theme in this collection of online communications platforms. The negative aspects (online rumors and bullying, fake identities, people with agendas) is laid out plainly, but the moral of the story is just as obviously, “Sure, you have to be sensible about your online life, but waiting out there is *your* community, go, find it.” A lesson well worth teaching.”
Seems like the book has substantial lessons that take into account the complexities of reality!
Thank you very much for the review!
I haven’t read my copy of this book yet (I’m STILL slowly reading through Renai Joshika; hard ‘work’ but it’s completely worth it), but I did peak at a few pages randomly. The art is certainly beautiful as always, and Uso Kurata’s ability to portray the emotions of characters through drawings is great as usual.
I’m kind of surprised to see that so many of those stories are new, at least to the best of my knowledge. The first story is from the first Yurihime Rebirth, but I haven’t ever read anything regarding any of the others. The Uso Kurata story in the 2nd Yurihime Rebirth (also flipped through; was curious) is the start of a new serie and not part of this collection. I can see that new story possibly alleniating part of their audience based on the content of the first few pages (Didn’t peak further than that), that it follows a male character and that there’s actually a warning message, but that’s neither here or now :)
Regarding the theme of this collection, I agree with both the review and the anonymous commenter. It’s an important message, one that’s far too rarely mentionned. It’s very easy to feel as if your situation and problems are unique when that is not the case, and that communicating with those other people can often be the best way to alleviate part of the problems.
It’s a lovely message, and I’m really looking foward to when I’ll have the time to actually read this collection.
With that said… It’s likely wishful thinking, but I would love if Uso Kurata would make some new Apocalypse chapters. There might not be a deep message or anything in that serie, but that didn’t stop it from being extremely entertaining in my opinion :)