Shimizu Makoto is a hard working corporate team leader – she’s good with the guys she manages. To blow off steam, she’s a Yuri doujinshi creator. When coworker Maekawa discovers her secret Shimizu is sure she’ll be blackmailed or bullied, but Maekawa seems to want to help! When Shimizu discovers that Maekawa was a previously a successful manga artist, the tables are turned. Shimizu isn’t the bullying kind, though…all she wants is for Maekawa to draw again. 

Volume 2 of Still Sick, by Akashi, available from Tokyopop, is extremely interesting as a story and slightly annoying as a reality.^_^ In the first volume, it appeared that Shimizu was going to be the emotionally stunted character, and Maekawa would kind of step in and save the day. But here in volume two, Shimizu is becoming more and more grounded, while Maekawa is acting right out of the advanced passive-aggressive playbook.

So, while Shimizu is forced to realize that yes, she does prefer women…and always has…Maekawa is massively unwilling to confront whatever baggage she’s carrying from her former relationship and how it *obviously* affected her professional work.

On the company trip, Shimizu talks out her quandary with a coworker and his advice is very reasonable. Only, Maekawa was there to hear it all. She asks Shimizu to talk…in Volume 3. And there we wait for the next volume, you for an unknown time period, me since last summer when the Japanese volume 2 came out. If you’re really motivated, there’s always the Pixiv comic, which usually has the last two current chapters available in Japanese. ^_^ You have to know I’m reading them. ^_^

The technicals are very solid, translation by Katie Kimura captures the petulant tone of Maekawa’s struggle. Well done, by everyone at Tokyopop! Here’s hoping we’ll get more Shakaijin (working life) Yuri in days to come from them.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 3, LGBTQ – 5
Service – 0 so far – even in an onsen

Overall – 8

Yes, Maekawa’s passive-aggressive routine is icky, especially when she’s cruel to Shimizu, who doesn’t have enough self-confidence to fight back. For whatever reason, I find myself rooting for them anyway. ^_^ And it has to be “for whatever reason” as – even as they are moving forward as a relationship, Maekawa’s coping skills are not that healthy. But Shimizu, she’s awesome. ^_^;

Are you a “save the best things for last kind” of person? I am. Now that I’ve cleared all the vampires out of the way (and before I take on new vampires from the new pile,) my last couple of books on the old-to read pile are some of the best!^_^

*No commentary on it being a plague year is intended. It just worked out that way.