In Volume 1 of Shimura Takako’s Awajima Hyakkei (淡島百景) we take a look at the students of a school that sounds a lot like the school for a well-known all-female musical revue troupe.

Volume 2 explores the emotions and experiences of former students, graduates and top stars of the troupes and their legacies in regards to current students. 

The book is not particularly linear, and, like the previous volume, implies emotional and romantic relationships between students, rather than showing them directly. It also jumps around in some of the stories, showing us relationships between students, in and out  through years of knowing  – or not – one another. 

Like the first volume, it’s easiest read if each vignette is approached on it’s own as a standalone tale. Few of them have clear beginnings and endings and we often get sidetracked in the middle, which is pretty much exactly like life. 

In this volume, the strongest story was the shortest, a mere chapter in the beginning, about Kayo and Sana, a pair who might have been something important to one another in a different reality.

There’s a palpable sense of loss, or what might have been in this series. It’s as much about the things people don’t chose to say or do as it is about anything else. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Variable, averaging 7
Characters – 7, adults are often jerks
Yuri – 2
Service – 1 on principle

As a survey of “one hundred views” of a specialty school, it’s quite good for a weekend dose of melancholy.