I’ve been filled with joy reading this series since my first glimpse at it almost two years ago. In my review of Volume 3 of Amayo no Tsuki, (雨夜の月) I said, “we get the last piece that would make this series perfect, IMHO. Whatever happens now, I am in the front row, rooting for everyone.”

Representation is a complex matter. It’s incredibly powerful just to see or read about someone who is like ourselves. In this way, this series has been fantastic, in providing excellent representation of disability and the way accommodation can function when people understand what it is intended to do. But in both narrative and real life the best representation is to actually meet someone like yourself and understand how their lives play out. In The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 3, Saki meets two critically important people.

First, she randomly meets a hair stylist in training who, quite disconcertingly, “sees” Saki, in a way that she is not yet ready to see herself. Akira’s gaydar absolutely pins Saki, and the younger woman is on the receiving end of a cautionary tale about first loves which makes her more self-conscious about the skinship between Kanon and herself. This becomes a bit of a crisis, as Kanon’s sister asks Saki to keep Kanon company one night. Kanon sleeps over and Saki is ecstatic and panicking all night long.

And then, Saki meets Kanon’s former friend, Ayano, who warns her about the price one pays as a caretaker. We can see right away that Ayano’s situation was different, and tragic on several levels –  but the warning Saki receives is, once again, reasonable. In both cases, she is seen and understood, and yet, not understood. Representation is complicated. Saki is going to have to figure this one out for herself…but not on her own, one hopes. Kuzushiro is pulling out all the stops here.

While translation, lettering and editing are all fantastic, technically, this book is a bit problematic. On the Okazu Discord, we recently had a discussion about the indifferent quality of recent print books from Yen and Kodansha. This book arrived with the cover cut too short for the pages. I might have assumed that was a fluke, but a second copy – from a different company – was the same. My last few volume of books from Yen have likewise been not-great quality. She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat had pages cut unevenly, and both publishers have had low-ink faded pages in recent volumes. As I type this, I notice the spine is not lined up correctly in one of the two copies I have. These are production issues that need to be addressed. I hope they’ll both improve their QA a bit this year.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Really not
Yuri – 4, LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

Volume 3 put this series on my top ten lists for last year (and Volume 4 and Volume 5!) It’s a tremendously good series, with a LOT to say about life. If you’re not reading it yet, I really think you should.

Volume 6 of Amayo no Tsuki is out in Japanese and Volume 4 of The Moon on A Rainy Night, will be headed our way in April.