In Volume 8 of Manga no Tsukirikata (まんがの作り方) something happens, but it’s too late to salvage this series.
First Masato suddenly develops a cute sempai, although he never seemed to belong to a club or anything. There’s a lot of talking about making manga and deadlines, but not that much doing of it. We stop all the talking and not doing that much to play some ping pong…then suddenly we learn that Morishita, surrounded as she is by a guy hopelessly in like with her, his talentless and graceless sister with whom she is hopelessly in like and Takeda who hates her, and both Kawaguchis, but admires her professional alter ego, admits to being in a professional slump. Imagine that.
Having admitted that, the manga artists all decide to reapply themselves to their work, no one pays any attention to Masato and Kawaguchi asks Morishita to go out with her, probably for real this time. Maybe. We hope.
Just in case we enjoyed any of this even a little, the extra story is about a girl who becomes famous showing off her underwear, but is surplanted in popularity by a girl who shows her bra to make us hate ourselves all over again.
8 Volumes of this “Yuri” manga without so much as the scrapings of actual emotional connection. It’s not even worth excoriating.
Ratings:
Art – Mostly competent
Story – Nonexistent
Characters – Hesitant
Service – Extant
Yuri – Irrelevant
Overall – Thank the gods that’s over.
But still, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for making it possible for me to finish this thing. How does a series so boring get 8 volumes?
So it ends with a whimper, then. What a shame. In the early chapters of this series, I really thought we were going to see a slow but detailed and lovingly executed romance bloom between Kawaguchi and Morishita. Of course, I eventually gave up as I think most people did. How indeed did this get eight volumes…the mysteries of Japan’s manga industry remain impenetrable at this remove…
I also awaited progression in their relationship. I believe it was about Volume 4 or 5 that I gave up waiting.
Yes…I vaguely understand the logic of how things like Yuru Yuri can be more popular than, for example, Takemiya Jin’s work, even if I don’t agree with it, but I don’t follow at all how there can be eight volumes of utter emptiness. Even mindless slice-of-life is about the characters, well, living, and as far as I can tell, these characters might as well not be.
I’m in 100% agreement with you on this. It was so damn *dull*. And no one was likable at all.
I really liked the art style, but I never understood what the hell was going on in the story.
Nothing was ever going on. That was part of the problem.
I worked really hard to finish reading this series. I can not read Japanese, so I used Google Translate camera function for the last two volumes. It was difficult to navigate the various relationships presented, but I felt the author barely made it clear that the two main characters had a healthy, ongoing love for each other.