Noel is in love with her best friend, Elena. Or is she? She’s jealous when Elena spends time withe her boyfriend and now she’s going to have a new rival for Elena’s attention, June. Frustrated and feeling alone, Noel blurts out her feelings to a complete stranger. When Elena finally introduces her to June…you guessed it, she was the complete stranger.
Noel tries to keep her feelings about Elena front and center, and put distance between herself and this older woman, but “circumstances” keep bringing them together. The more about June she learns, the harder it is to keep distance between them. Noel struggles with conflicting feelings, until she’s forced to admit the truth.
There are a lot of things to like about Alter Ego, Ana C. Sánchez‘s manga-inspired comic from Tokyopop’s LOVE x LOVE imprint. I especially liked Elena, as we quickly realize she is neither clueless…nor without agency. June is an interesting character, as well. We’re told she’s older and indeed, her perspective does seem more mature than Noel’s in some ways, but not in others.
The weakest element of the book is Noel herself. Her behavior is not just immature, it’s often selfish, manipulative and, IMHO, quite toxic. I frequently sent mental waves to both Elena and June to tell her to shape the fuck up or get out of their lives. I will give Sánchez credit – she makes passive-aggressive behavior exactly as unpleasant as it actually is and doesn’t pretend it’s “cute.” I was also a little surprised that there is no mention of queer identity in this comic, but it wasn’t a point against, as clearly this is meant to be read as a “Yuri manga.”
The art is solid – it suffered, I think, when the artist was attempting to draw “a manga” rather than just draw her story, but this improves as the story continues. Overall, this is a fine one-volume story, that has a lot of the strengths and weaknesses of one-volume stories. If you’re looking for a one-shot Yuri romance that won’t ask too much of you but also won’t break any new ground, Alter Ego by Ana C. Sánchez is available from Tokyopop in Print and Digital in English and Planeta Cómic in Spanish right now.
Ratings:
Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – Noel was a 5, everyone else a 7
Service – 2ish?
Yuri – 7
Overall – a solid 7
Thank you very kindly to Tokyopop for the review copy!
It definitely exceeded my expectations. For just one volume, it has really good pacing, believable character development, and a rewarding conclusion. I found the art very much to my liking too. I think this is my favorite single-volume yuri manga (although I’m reading “I love you so much, I hate you” next, so we’ll see), and I’m looking forward to “Sirius”, the next project by Ana C. Sánchez.