Mayumi has walked away from her life and is planning on living in obscurity in a small seaside town. As she stops on a bridge to contemplate her choice, looking out over the water, a truck stops, a young woman jumps out and begs her not to jump! Startled, Mayumi reels backward, and she and the woman plummet into the water. And so, Mayumi’s new life begins in Uminekosou days Volume 1 (海猫荘 days).

Mayumi’s “rescuer,” Rin, turn out to be the manager of a local old-fashioned boarding house, that Mayumi will be living at, when she takes up her new job as a teacher. Rin is casual, a little coarse, but she’s open-hearted and kind. Mayumi finds herself taken into Rin’s care, along with Rin’s niece and the illegitimate child of a local figure. Sometimes Mayumi even starts to relax a little, but the things that are eating at her are heavy and she’s happy to sublimate her own problems with her former lover in the problems of the people around her. Despite all of that, Rin does start to break through Mayumi’s walls a bit in Volume 1.

Kodama Naoko’s work always has an edge to it that I find, frankly, uncomfortable. Partly, because I’m familiar with her previous works, and partially, because she keeps throwing things into this story that make me really uncomfortable. ^_^ And some of the Yuri falls into that category as one of the residents of the boarding house is a middle school student in an apparent relationship with her half sister.

But Rin is so likable that I kind of want her to fix whatever is broken in Mayumi. But…and I know this partly because I’m reading this story in the manga and partly because this is Kodama-sensei’s thing….there is going to be stuff we’ll have to work through and some of it will be based in manipulation, and emotional abuse.

Update: Based on some of the comments here, I need to clarify. I would hope that at this point, you’d all trust me to tell you if there was any positive representation of any kind here. I did not, and I kind of hoped you’d infer that means there is none. This story is about alternative family, but there are, at least into volume 3, no lesbians.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7 Erm, ah..it has moments in between other things.
Characters – Oh, god, why do I do ratings?! 6 But we’ll see.
Service – Yes. Ask me how I know Mayumi has large breasts.
Yuri – 5 Yes, but nothing I care about yet

Overall – 7

I’m just sort of buckled in while we get through Mayumi’s issues.