Yamanaka is, for lack of a better term, a jerk. In Volume 1, we meet her teasing her colleague Taneda mercilessly. When Taneda invite Yamanaka to a lesbian bar, Yamanaka thinks “this’ll be fun.” Jok’es on her, because Taneda turns the tables on her and their relationship becomes an amusing tale of two people jerking each others’ chains.
Fujyourina Atashi-tachi, Volume 2 ( 不条理なあたし達) begins with the two of them as a fairly happy couple. Their friends at the lesbian bar still can’t quite get their heads around Taneda being gay, until her ex shows up and Yamanaka’s feathers get all puffed. More interestingly, Taneda’s do as well and they quickly assert their mutual property rights. ^_^
Work is getting heavy so Taneda steps up and asks to be relied upon and, unusually for her, Yamanaka lets herself lean on her lover. So when she gets news that her mother is in the hospital, she can just run off. Yamanaka is forced to confront her complicated feelings about her family’s relationship to her and her own feelings about being out to them.
Yamanaka discovers a number of truths that many of us discover as we age – things that drove rifts between us and our families when we were younger become not less urgent, but less complicated, as we get older. Yamanaka’s mother signals acceptance and Yamanaka is left thinking that she might actually be able to introduce her lover to her family…something she had clearly given up on.
What began as two people who couldn;t be less suited to one another is now clearly a couple with their own vibe that suits them very well.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Lesbian – 10
Overall – 9
I’m always a huge fan of Takemiya-sensei’s work and this story especially hits the spot for me – adult women teasing each other and the people around them, those complicated expressions she draws so well, and real life concerns of being out and even being “lesbian enough” to be accepted in queer circles. Taneda and Yamanak may have an absurd relationship, but it’s one I enjoyed watching develop.
“and real life concerns of being out and even being “lesbian enough” to be accepted in queer circles”
Could this really be a problem? I know that bisexual people, for obvious reasons, may encounter some misunderstandings or heard that one male gay politician criticized for trying to “look and act less gay” to attract a conservative audience, but I never thought that an ordinary lesbian woman may suffer from something like that. Or did I misunderstand you?
You’ll have to assume that since your understanding of life as a queer person is somewhat limited and therefore your imagination of the many different kinds of pressure that can exist are equally limited.
Yes, in queer spaces there can be various forms of dress and behavior, presentation or performativity that are normalized for that particular group. In this case at the lesbian bar in the story, the lesbians do not believe Taneda is also gay until her ex enters the story.
Well, I’m not connected to the queer community, so I’m not sure that my “understanding” can even be called superficial. It just seemed sad to me that queer women might encounter possible misunderstanding even within the queer community.
Humans are infinitely complicated.