Archive for the Shimura Takako Category


Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 8 (おとなになっても)

September 11th, 2023

On a pale green background, a lone woman with reddish hair cut to her chin, is leaning forward as if on laying her head a desk, looking directly at us.Akari and Ayano have moved in together. This fact fills this book with all sorts of tensions, both positive and negative. Sure, they have been through ” a lot,” but so little of it is about them, together, as a couple. Will thins relationship, which has been mere embers since it was lit, get a chance to burst into life?

We…don’t know. Yet.

Ayano is planning on moving school, as rumors of infidelity plague her. The kids in her class are apologetic about it, not really understanding what the parents have against it, as, frankly, neither do I. Busybosdies gonna busybody, I guess. As difficult a situation as it is, it appears that Ayano’s students nd peers seem to be on her side. Nonetheless, she is leaving at graduation to start at a new school. In a fitful climax for the classroom drama, Nitta returns to school just in time to graduate. She finally has it out with her former friend, but whether they will be able to patch things up, we may not actually learn.

Akari encounters the salon manager’s wife who really seems less concerned that he’s having an affair (with Eri, Akari reminds herself) than with him being a dolt. And Wataru is navigating having the woman he is interested in, openly ask him out, now that she too is divorced.

This continues to be such a low-key adult life Yuri that one can hardly think of it as barrelling down on the conclusion of the series…and yet, that is where we are. Volume 9 was released in June and Volume 10 will conclude the series. It’s been an interesting read and I definitely wonder where everyone will end up.

The final chapters were about having bathroom accidents in second-grade and you know what? I didn’t need that. Thanks Shimura-sensei for having a weird insistance on add that to your Yuri stories. Sigh.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
LGBTQ+ – Let’s give this a 7, as Akarai and Ayano start negotiating boundaries and intimacy.

Overall – 8

 





Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても)

December 8th, 2022

In Shimura Takako’s Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても) a lot happens.

We left Akari and Ayano having been carefully not seeing one another for some time, as Ayano’s divorce proceeds. When they meet again, they mutually decide to begin over, but the rumor that Ayano is having an affair begins to spread.  In school, Ichika’s life has become more complicated as she’s refusing to return to class. I’m honestly way more invested in the well-being of the children than I want to be. ^_^;
Eri and Wataru are reeling as their relationships fail. Neither the adults nor the children are particularly alright.

But Akari and Ayano are doing a pilgrimage to Akari’s hometown, visiting her childhood haunts. They are taking time to talk through their lives – something they have never had a chance to do. It’s good for them. There is a particularly charming moment, when they fantasize about having gone to school together…who would they have been and how would they have related to one another? The art is especially cute as they (as adults) imagine each other as children.

When they return, they find that the rumors are picking up steam. But they have made a decision. They tell Akari’s family that she is moving out…and moving in with Ayano.

Shimura-sensei’s art is not refined in these chapters, but there’s a sense of motion, and emotion, that is subtle and intense.  When she’s good, she’s really good. This story is one of the adultest mange I have ever read. I cannot imagine being a teenager and giving a hoot about anyone in this manga for any reason. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 I don’t think I dislike anyone…. there’s no bad guys here
Service – 0
LGBTQ+ – 6, maybe? Lives are changing while we watch

Overall – 8

Little girls and and friendship and school, adults and marriage and divorce and choices with consequences. This series would make a pretty solid live-action drama.
 





Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 4

June 24th, 2022

Probably the most remarkable plot of Shimura Takako’s Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 4 is the poignant story about the three elementary school girls. It’s so stark and awful when set at the end of a bunch of adults flailing. It reminded me why it was by 9 years old that I was deeply cynical about adults having a grip on anything.  I have yet to be proved wrong.

And here, in Volume 4, we see that the adults really don’t have much of a grip. Who, then, is Ayano to give advice to children, when she herself has no idea what she wants?… we may be tempted to say. But I’m not sure that she doesn’t know what she wants. Reading back and forth on this series is opening my eyes a bit. I think Ayano knows perfectly well what she wants. I think she also knows that she can’t just have it without work, because society punishes all women who are not compliant. That includes, Akari and Eri as well.

And you know what? I’m sick of it. As I expect you all are.

So here’s Ayano flailing because she can finally see something she actually wants and knows she’s not “supposed” to have – or even want.  Akari is flailing because she also knows what she wants and can’t have, maybe, kind of. Eri is flailing because she does not fit into the narrow boxes available to her. Wataru is flailing because, having lived life on the easy setting, his reward has some ideas of her own – a little unfair to him, but not really. He just assumed a lot and no one told him different.

And so here we have several very decent, likable people, all flailing. I, at least, want better for them on both individual and societal levels. Jocelyne Allen’s translation is outstanding, in providing the nuance and “adultness” this series needs, lettering and retouch by Rina Mapa lets’ me feel in the story in exactly the same way as I do when I’m reading the Japanese. Thanks to the entire localization team at Seven Seas and congratulations on having their union recognized!

I have to keep reading, for sure. This is Shimura-sensei’s best work so far and I need to know what will happen. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri / Queer – As I said in my review of V4 in Japanese, it’s impossible to tell at this point. Ayano may be bi, Akari is lesbian, Eri might be ace, but we can’t be sure about any one of them but Akari.

Overall – 9

Even as this series makes me more uncomfortable, my hope that everyone ends happily, is renewed. We’ll have to wait to November  for Volume 5. ^_^

 





Otona ni Nattemo, (おとなになっても) Volume 6

June 21st, 2022

In Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 6, Shimura Takako has done something I’ve not seen before in a manga and I think I like it. ^_^

The main plot revolves around three people, all of whom seem to be very average. They aren’t perfect, but they are basically decent, flawed human beings. At this point in the story, they are also mostly, but not completely, disentangled from one another. A family discussion about the whole situation at a family restaurant includes Eri, merely because she knows what’s going on. Ayano is living with her parents. Akari is living with her family, having decided to not contact Ayano any more and Wataru has begun to think about life as a bachelor. As with all their decisions in this series, these choices are only partially successful.

The ongoing drama of Ayano’s students continues to make Ayano question her own choices. Akari wakes up in the bed of a woman she met the night before, Yukako. Yukako mischievously encourages Akari to wait for Ayano outside school, forcing them to still think about what they feel about each other. And Wataru considers dating someone new…which throws him back into accepting how his life has changed.

Each scene in this volume comes with a specific visual style. Conversation with another person forces one of our main characters to think about who and what they are and what they want. This internal monologue becomes page after page of sparse white text on black panels as they become lost in their own thoughts. As visual indicator of internal monologue I found it appealing. It does not feel as if Shimura-sensei is wasting that space at all.

Narratively, Ayano and Akari continue to fail to not meet up and finally give up and have a real conversation. Ayano re-introduces herself with her unmarried name. Will they have a new beginning? My bet is on “maybe.”

This series fascinates me, because I actually do want everyone in it to be happy. No one is a terrible person, not even when they make choices that may seem morally, or socially, questionable. It also feels like a real story, with real people who might actually exist in the world in a way that no other manga I’ve read has been. Lastly, I found the visual language of internal monologue so minimalist that it just…worked.

I’m still of the belief that this is Shimura-sensei’s best work to date and I just hope she has a clear ending in mind – whether it’s the ending I want, or not. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri / Queer – 8

Overall – 8

Frankly, Yukako seems like a great girlfriend for Akari, but I’m fairly sure we’re not heading there.

Drop back in on Friday when I take a look at the English-language edition of Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 4!





Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3

October 12th, 2021

Akari and Ayano met in Volume 1, but their relationship was instantly complicated by the fact that Ayano…is married. In Volume 2, Akari moves to give herself a fresh start only to find herself literally face to face with Ayano, as her new home is across the street.

In Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3, Akari can’t get a break…she’s walking to the train in the morning with Ayano, and home with Ayano’s husband Wataru. As they chat, Akari is sucked deeper and deeper into the quicksand of their family life and her own past. Akari returns to her previous job, which means she’s meeting her ex, as well. It’s a complicated set of circumstances in which no one is wrong, and everyone is trying, but the mortification just keeps piling up. Poor Akari.

I’m absolutely convinced that this is the best work Shimura-sensei has ever created, as the people are all relatable; from the two girls in Ayano’s class who may be targeted because they like each other, to Eri, Wataru’s shut-in sister.

Every single character here is doing their best; every single character is trying to figure out how to be, how to navigate the complicated waters of society and relationships. And nearly everyone is struggling. I love this story. There’s no good guys or bad guys, there’s no one who is more than slightly, very normally awful. Everyone is smiling, but also hurting, and trying to figure out how to make it through the rapids of life safely.

In and among all of this, I am particularly on tenterhooks about the two girls in Ayano’s class. They don’t know, yet (or ever) that they have an ally, but I hope that they end up okay.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7 I’m liking most of them, even if they annoy me sometimes ^_^
Service – 0
Yuri – Yes. Also Queer.

Overall – 8

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy! Volume 3 is hitting shelves today, so grab yourself a copy of this queer and complicated story about adult life. Excellent lettering by Rina Mapa, as well as outstanding translation by Jocelyne Allen.

I especially loved this panel of a phone argument. ^_^