In Volume 3 of Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方), Kawaguchi continues to be an apathetic and uninspired artist and it beats me how she got enough work done to get a tankoubon out or how it could ever sell, since I can’t project that someone so passionless could draw a compelling story. She’s also a miserable girlfriend, if you can even call her that at all. Takeda’s spiteful and unpleasant and Morishita is…I don’t know what Morishita is. Masato’s just pathetic.
In fact, the *only* reason I picked this volume up is because I knew how it ended. That last chapter happened to be in an issue of Comic Ryuu I bought, and, so for the end chapter alone, I bought the volume. The rest of the volume was exactly as expected – a welter of uninspired writing about an uninspired artist, surrounded by dedication she does not deserve.
And when her girlfriend – the one person who has unreservedly supported her through everything, asks if she likes her, all Kawaguchi can muster is, “Mm.” /spitspitspit/
In a final push to getting a collected volume out, Takeda is extra-specially spiteful and mean and it’s pretty clear that Kawaguchi is using her too.
Clearly Kawaguchi thinks there’s something wrong with her behavior because, after thinking over the situation for a while, she asks Morishita to break up with her. Morishita isn’t surprised. She’s resigned to it.
But after the release of her manga volume and few days apart, Kawaguchi waits for Morishita outside work. Before the younger woman can run, Kawaguchi hands her a pen body. It’s been about two years, she points out. And for their one-year anniversary, she bought Morihita pen nibs. “Will you please go out with me,” she asks as she hand over the body of the pen. And Morishita says, “Yes.”
If this series ended here, it would be forgettable, but harmless. Since it continues, I expect *something* to develop between them now. For Kawaguchi to continue to be passive-aggressive would be unbearable. For Morishita to continue to put up with it would be unreasonable. I expect a Yuri story now, kthanxplz.
Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 2
Service – 1
Overall – 5
And I want both of them to go tell Takeda to go hang. What a jerk.
Oh hey, it’s that Yuri manga about Yuri with no Yuri…
Or I as like to call it, “How long it takes for a girl with no overt interest in romance or sex with other women to fall for another woman.”
Apparently two years and counting.
Dunno, but two years is an awful long time to jerk someone around, although Morishita doesn’t seem to mind it. So either she has patience that even the saints would envy, or she’s emotionally masochistic. I like to secretly think she’s using her turmoil as the basis to write her manga, which is why Morishita is such an accomplished mangaka and Kawaguchi in comparison, is not.
Has Kawaguchi even written that Yuri manga she intended to…?
I would like to say this falls in the realm of interesting “Nothing happens.” but the nothing that happens in MnT is dreadfully droll.
@The Denominator – Yes, that manga is the one that was collected for a tankoubon in this volume. I can’t imagine it’s very good though.
It’s not a really interesting “nothing happens,” no.
And yes – it looks like it’s a cell phone manga and continuing – so that would explain that!
I’m fine with subtle progression at a relaxed pace, but I agree that it’s time for something to happen. Slowly, glacially, we seem to be inching toward that – I just hope the latest developments fimally galvanize Kawaguchi into some kind of action.
In earlier chapters I felt that MnT had a lot of potential, if it would just get moving. I still want to believe that that’s true.
“I expect a Yuri story now, kthanxplz.”
I’m sorry, but I strongly suspect you’re going to be disappointed.