You know what I just love? I love when people who aren’t lesbian or gay tell us what we feel and think. So, how convenient that “what lesbians feel” is described for me in Ghost Talker’s Daydream, Volume 3.
Saiki Misaki is an exorcist, She can see and talk to ghosts; spirits of the dead that are still attached for some reason to this plane. By seeing and speaking with them, Misaki facilitates their passing on.
In Volume 3, Misaki is asked by a lesbian friend, Shizue, to exorcise the spirit of a runaway who she didn’t sleep with, but didn’t help, either. The runaway, Arisa, and the woman who brought her to the lesbian bar, Naori (who, we are helpfully told is “gender dysphoric,”) die together, but Arisa continues to haunt Shizue. In discussing Naori, Shizue kindly explains to Misaki that all lesbians have fallen for a straight woman at least once and cursed the fact that they were a woman. We have, have we? All of us? Oh well, yet again, I am a bad lesbian. Thanks for confirming that.
Naori saves Shizue from Arisa’s anger, Misaki sends them all on to their next life and Shizue gets to live with guilt to go along with her shame.
It’s sort of touching, sort of annoying, sort of creepy because, even in death, Arisa, Naori and Shizue don’t manage to cut any ties. Now *that’s* typical lesbian behavior. ^_^
The next story follows Misaki’s civil servant friend/sidekick in a weird little sleep-deprivation-driven dream, followed by a story about ghosts needing Misaki to guide their granddaughter, and a violent little epic of rape, murder, ghosts and taxicabs.
I’m not really sure what to make of this manga. It’s clearly for Dark Horse’s target adult male audience. Misaki dresses like a whore, but obsesses constantly about her virginity. There’s almost sex, and implications of sex and mentions of sex, without there being any real sex, something I will never understand. Dark Horse does a nice reproduction job, though, so it’s easy to read and reasonably entertaining.
On a day when I was in a good mood, I’d be inclined to be charitable and say I liked it. Today I’m in a foul mood, but can’t bring myself to excoriate it. I’ll stick with “it’s sort of touching, sort of annoying, sort of creepy.” It’s also not really “Yuri.” The characters are actually Lesbians. That’s kind of a nice change. Too bad they need to “explain” stuff wrong.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – Variable, let’s say 7
Characters – 6 (No one I’d have over for lunch)
Yuri – 0, Lesbian – 6
Service – 8
Overall – 7
My sincere thanks to sponsor for today’s review, Okazu Superhero Daniel P, for introducing me to this series. I’ll stick it on my “to read some more one day when I get the chance” list! ^_^
Have you read anymore of this? Looking at the vol 10 raw’s, Misaki seems to finally have actual sex and its with a woman. Obviously the stories are dark and so on but its interesting that actual ‘adult lesbians’ are in this manga without being evil, homicidal, insane or ending up with a man in some way. I do like that despite the other things in the series I don’t care for. Any thoughts?
@Anonymous – I haven’t read it so nope.
“…The characters are actually Lesbians. That’s kind of a nice change. Too bad they need to ‘explain’ stuff wrong…”
Yeah, that sounds disappointing. Thanks for the warning, so that I won’t waste my time on it despite my “cool, manga about *adults*!” usual. :)
“…(who, we are helpfully told is ‘gender dysphoric,’ a term that makes wanting gender reassignment surgery sound like a disease, something I object to on principle,)…”
Now *this* reminds me of http://auntysarah.livejournal.com/215336.html
“…In a world where our gender identities were depathologised, we still need to deal with the medical community because *they have stuff we need* (oestrogen, testosterone, urological surgeons, etc.). This is where it gets a bit complicated because excepting special cases, like pregnancy, public healthcare systems tend to shy away from treating people when they don’t feel there’s anything wrong with them (they start using phrases like ‘lifestyle choice’, and tell people to pay for things themselves).
“Simply abolishing GID as a diagnosis without replacing it with something else therefore has the potential to leave transsexual people up a certain creek without a paddle. In a better world we might instead focus on gender dysphoria as the cause of a range of problems which need medical attention. As with many medical issues, if you treat the root cause, the secondary problems it causes tend to go away. There is therefore often pathology present, but as a result of *being denied realisation of our gender identities*…
“…Here’s the thing – when I was stuck in a position of trying to live as something I’m not, a man, the stress of it meant that *I was ill.* It was quite literally ruining my life, to the point where I couldn’t see any future. *I needed medical help.* Sure, remove GID from the DSM and ICD, but then what? We still need treatment when we can no-longer cope with living in a body that’s wrong. Tits aren’t going to grow or be removed by magic – there needs to be a way by which transsexual people can interface with medical transition, otherwise we’re screwed. Take away GID and fail to replace it with anything else, and you’re handing cash strapped NHS trusts the perfect reason to drop funding for gender services like a hot potato…”
http://auntysarah.livejournal.com/215336.html?thread=5430056#t5430056
“…Well, being someone who lives in a place where they put you on a one year waiting list to see a psychologist who will refer you to an endocrinologist, I’ll tell you that GID as a diagnosis isn’t working, because it’s all about demonstrating what a good little typical waiting person you are. I want to go and get laser last week, but it won’t do me much good if I have testosterone running through my veins encouraging new hairs to grow, but I’m completely stymied in getting medication that would lower my blood pressure because, well, they’re just not comfortable. If calling GID gender dysphoria or relapsing remitting gender scurvy gets women their meds easier, lets it be a thing you go to your local doctor to see about and puts the patient in charge, I’m sold…”