In Volume 3 of Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方), Kawaguchi continues to be an apathetic and uninspired artist and it beats me how she got enough work done to get a tankoubon out or how it could ever sell, since I can’t project that someone so passionless could draw a compelling story. She’s also a miserable girlfriend, if you can even call her that at all. Takeda’s spiteful and unpleasant and Morishita is…I don’t know what Morishita is. Masato’s just pathetic.

In fact, the *only* reason I picked this volume up is because I knew how it ended. That last chapter happened to be in an issue of Comic Ryuu I bought, and, so for the end chapter alone, I bought the volume. The rest of the volume was exactly as expected – a welter of uninspired writing about an uninspired artist, surrounded by dedication she does not deserve.

And when her girlfriend – the one person who has unreservedly supported her through everything, asks if she likes her, all Kawaguchi can muster is, “Mm.” /spitspitspit/

In a final push to getting a collected volume out, Takeda is extra-specially spiteful and mean and it’s pretty clear that Kawaguchi is using her too.

Clearly Kawaguchi thinks there’s something wrong with her behavior because, after thinking over the situation for a while, she asks Morishita to break up with her. Morishita isn’t surprised. She’s resigned to it.

But after the release of her manga volume and few days apart, Kawaguchi waits for Morishita outside work. Before the younger woman can run, Kawaguchi hands her a pen body. It’s been about two years, she points out. And for their one-year anniversary, she bought Morihita pen nibs. “Will you please go out with me,” she asks as she hand over the body of the pen. And Morishita says, “Yes.”

If this series ended here, it would be forgettable, but harmless. Since it continues, I expect *something* to develop between them now. For Kawaguchi to continue to be passive-aggressive would be unbearable. For Morishita to continue to put up with it would be unreasonable. I expect a Yuri story now, kthanxplz.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 5

And I want both of them to go tell Takeda to go hang. What a jerk.

In Volume 2 of Manga no Tsukurikata, it’s been a year and Morishita and Kawaguchi are still going out. They haven’t moved past the occasional hand-holding, but hey, that’s okay Kawaguchi’s manga is progressing, so…yay?

Kawaguchi’s plan appears to be working; by going out with Morishita, she has stimulated her creativity and her new manga series has debuted. She is thankful, she is kind, she gives Morishita a one-year anniversary present. Morishita is appreciative, but this prolonged strain on her one-sided feelings is starting to show. She has a crisis of faith about her own manga, and about her relationship with Kawaguchi.

I can’t blame Morishita – in a year, they still aren’t calling each other by their given names, a sign that they haven’t truly moved into any kind of intimate relationship at all. Kawaguchi is supportive and encouraging – everything a sempai ought to be, but still, is failing at the lover part.

For my part as a reader, I’m having a hard time understanding this manga. (“Understanding” as in, “why the heck am I reading this?”) It’s so barely Yuri that it’s almost unfair to give it that label, but it *is* Yuri. Morishita’s feelings are real. I’m having a lot of trouble coping with Kawaguchi’s attitude – a year is a loooooong time to string someone along when you don’t really love them. Her affection for the younger woman is undeniable, but that’s it – it’s affection. Like a sister, a friend, a sempai for her beloved kouhai. It’s annoying to watch Morishita hanging on the hook with no worm in sight.

And then there’s the real plot. The real plot has nothing whatsoever to do with any real or imagined relationship – it’s a meta-story about drawing a Yuri manga. Here I am, the mangaka says to us in each chapter, flailing around trying to write a Yuri manga when I don’t really “get” the whole thing. Which is exactly what the series feels like – a Yuri manga written by someone who doesn’t “get” the whole thing.

The issue of honesty that I brought up in Volume 1 is not addressed at all in Volume 2, and I feel like the mangaka has abdicated authority on the story, The potential is slipping away as chapter after chapter of not hardly anything glides by. As a story of a woman drawing manga, it’s not bad, but there’s this whole issue of her completely fake relationship in the way of my enjoying it. It’s not just Morishita who is being cheated out of a good experience, it’s the reader, as well.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Best chapter of this volume was when Kawaguchi’s fan/assistant arrives and spends the entire chapter cluelessly dissing Morishita’s art, not realizing she’s a popular mangaka in her own right.

When Kawaguchi was 13, she debuted as a manga artist. But, due to many different things, she stopped drawing. Now she’s 19 and has decided to get back into it only…she has no idea what to draw.

After thinking about it, she decides to try her hand at Yuri, since BL and GL seem all the rage. Thus begins Manga no Tsukurikata (まんがの作り方).

Only…now Kawaguchi *really* has no idea what to draw.

Just then, she’s visited by a workmate and classmate of her young brother’s, Morishita. Morishita has a crush on Kawaguchi, so when the older girl asks her out, she gladly agrees. Kawaguchi thinks that going out with another girl will give her some inspiration, but finds pretty quickly that things are more complicated that they seem.

For one thing, Morishita is not just her workmate and a classmate of her younger brother Masato – she is also Kawaguchi’s favorite manga artist, Sacchi.

For another, despite her desire to gain inspiration from Morishita, Kawaguchi’s failure to take Morishita’s emotions seriously cause a complete blockage of ideas. Even after a magazine editor agrees to take a look at her work, Kawaguchi hasn’t the barest bone of a plot. And all the while, there’s Morishita looking at her with eyes full of honesty and desire.

And lastly, because nothing can be easy, Kawaguchi’s kid brother, Masato, also likes Morishita, so it’s a bit of a torture for him to see the two of them together.

While this manga is undoubtedly “Yuri” in the sense that Yuri is mentioned a lot, there is surprisingly little Yuri in it. Morishtia’s feelings are real, but aside from hand-holding and an arm around a shoulder, Kawaguchi is not exactly returning the emotion. In fact, the one or two times Morishita attempts to close the distance between them, Kawaguchi brushes her off. By the end, she’s pretty certain that she’s using the other woman, and won’t even tell her what she’s doing, which builds a wall between them.

In discussing this with Erin S. on #lililicious@irc.rizon.net we agreed that the biggest question for us in regards to liking this story is – will Kawaguchi just keep using Morishita or will she come to like her back, honestly. Or at least be honest with her.

If the relationship between Kawaguchi and Morishita stays the same, this series could become quite wearing. If one way or another Kawaguchi is honest with the other girl, then there’s some actual potential for the story.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 7

Outside this rather major issue of honesty, the series is otherwise a non-stressful, silly, mostly realistic and not an unpleasant read. Another almost really Yuri story from Ryuu Comics. ^_^