2022 has been an absolute celebration of amazing Yuri manga licenses and releases. Almost everything I wanted to have been licensed has been. Of the two remaining that haven’t, I am very hopeful that we’ll be getting good news in that regard before the end of the year, because this series is one of my favorite so far this year.

I’ve talked at length about some of the reasons why this series by Kuzushiro is so good, in my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2. In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 3 ( 雨夜の月) we get the last piece that would make this series perfect, IMHO. Whatever happens now, I am in the front row, rooting for everyone.

The story begins with Saki and Kanon out doing, y’know, stuff. They run into a woman handing out fliers for a salon, who asks Saki to be a practice model. As it happens, she needs her hair cut, so Saki ends up there and has one of the most extraordinary conversations of her young life. Because…the woman cutting her hair – and doing a great job of it – has accurate gaydar and sees Saki for who she is. She talks to Saki like she’s been there  – for the first time in her life, Saki has a person with whom she can, should she want, confide in about the one secret she keeps closes to her chest.

Saki meets Kanon’s father who is in town to conduct his orchestra in a performance, and another extraordinary thing occurs. Rinne, Kanon’s younger sister, calls Saki and asks her to spend the evening with Kanon, so she’s not alone on the night of the concert, as Kanon does not wish to attend. Why is this extraordinary? Because it’s a perfectly nice thing a sister might do for a sister she loves…something we really don’t get much of in manga.

Saki invites Kanon over for a sleepover, but gets no sleep at all. She’s more and more aware of Kanon and her feelings for her. On the other side, spending time with Saki is definitely changing Kanon. She’s more open to new experiences. She’s having fun. And she’s looking forward to the next chapter in her life. She wants to be independent when she goes to college, but it also frightens her a bit. Saki suggests they live together and, embarrassed, admits that she cares about Kanon more than anyone else.

Mortified, Saki is ready to be treated differently the next day at school, but Kanon is the same as always, Saki runs away, just a little, still embarrassed…and runs into the girl who hurt Kanon in her previous school. Ayano tells Saki the story from her perspective…it’s honestly sobering. Saki will have a lot to think about in the next volume.

So this series is solid on HHD representation and perspective, shows families that like each other, but still have problems to deal with, pressures faced by people who are caretakers (even if they are self-imposed and/or misguided) and now, has added the last piece. Will Saki open up about being gay? How will Kanon respond? This series is #1 on my most-anticipated license of 2022 and I’m just impatiently waiting now. ^_^ Among other things, it’ll be the second time Kuzushiro has had a series licensed in English. Previously JManga licensed Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, which I edited and of which I have reviewed the first 6 volumes, it continued for many more volumes after that. It was so good, but super obscure. ^_^ I expect this one will have a much broader impact.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 9

I love this series and I hope you all will be able to read it soon, too.

In Volume 1, we met Saki, a high school student who plays piano, and her classmate (and piano teacher’s daughter), Kanon, who is hard of hearing. Kanon is initially uninterested in becoming close to Saki, but as Saki conforms her behavior more to Kanon’s needs, she starts to warm up.

In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 2 ( 雨夜の月), Kanon’s world grows wider. And I really want to make the point here – that *how* Kanon’s world changes is not because she grows used to the hearing world, but that the people around make sensible accommodation for her, which allows Kanon to interact on her own terms. It’s an important distinction and really makes this story not just another disability/inspiration tale, but a lesson for those of us who are hearing on how we can adapt to help HHD folks without burdening them with our needs. I recently saw an exchange on Twitter that went like this: Q: “What is ASL for helpful asshole?” A: “Hearing.” — this becomes a key point of Volume 2.

Kanon’s teacher, Miura-sensei, sees Kanon sleeping in class and invites her to a club room for her to eat lunch. He seems to really understand that her being in a room with a lot of people talking is stressful. While they chat, he pitches joining the literature club where, he assures her, they just really, honestly, read books. Kanon takes the plunge and finds one of Saki’s friends there, who welcomes her and does her best to make Kanon feel comfortable. When Kanon reports that she’s actually considering joining the club she’s clearly surprised at herself.

There is a little trouble brewing in this volume. Saki meets Kanon’s little sister Rinne. Rinne is carrying a lot of baggage – some of which she admits to, about being the abled sibling in the family, and over-protectiveness of her sister, but there’s also a lot of anger she’s not really honest about. Rinne tries to scare Saki off. Some of what she says was true, but there’s a lot of jealousy there, too.

Kanon tells Saki the story of her former school and the bullying and whisper campaign that went on. She refuses to let Saki return the key to the music room and even invites Saki to a movie…..where they meet their teacher and his daughter. They discuss subtitles and how it would be so much nicer if movies were subtitled. I agree with this so much. It’s one of the main selling points for streaming services for me.

As Kanon is becoming more comfortable with their skinship, Saki is becoming more aware of Rinne’s accusations, and her own feelings. I hoping that Volume 3 sees an honest talk about this.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – On principle only
Yuri – 3 Creeping up slowly

Overall – 9

Honestly, this is a fantastic manga. I’m going to write Kodansha and beg them to license it. Kuzushiro-sensei’s work has never been better, great characters, and a story that teaches the right lessons.

Saki loves piano. Or does she? She loves taking lessons with her teacher, she’s sure of that. But her teacher is leaving…

In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月), on the street, heading towards lessons, Saki bumps into someone. A lovely girl about her age, drops piano music. Saki helps her pick it up. The girl gestures at her, but Saki doesn’t understand. The next day in school  the girl turns out to be a transfer student, named Kanon. Kanon is hard of hearing, but can read lips and speak. Their teacher asks Saki to help Kanon out, but Kanon tells Saki to leave here alone.

Saki heads to the new music teacher her teacher recommended and the final coincidence drops into place. Her new teacher is Kanon’s mother, a veritable ogre of a teacher. 

Saki finds that she cannot leave Kanon alone and just keeps trying to be a friend to the new girl. There is a clique that is clearly out to bully Kanon, but Saki is not having any of it and protects Kanon. Kanon appreciates that Saki always turns towards her when she speaks, which helps her to lip-read. Slowly, Kanon opens up to Saki. When her impossible piano lessons are over, Saki retreats to Kanon’s room, the sound-proof music room behind the house. There, she learns, Kanon finally feels relaxed, without the mosaic of fractured background noises of daily life around her. There, if Kanon gets close, she can hear Saki. And there, Saki starts to rethink her love of piano….

As Saki finds herself thinking more and more about Kanon, and how intimate they are, she also starts to realize that it was never piano she loved, maybe, but it might well have been her piano teacher.

In school, while the bullies scheme, Saki’s friends join her and Kanon. Kanon is finding it harder to isolate herself, even as the effort of talking with new folks exhausts her. When Kanon makes an effort to go shopping with her, Saki decides to learn sign language to hopefully make that less stressful for Kanon…one day.

Saki is awakening to a new self, Kanon is awakening to a new self and this fact is the key strength of this series. Kanon is very clear that she does not need or want a hearing person to be her savior or her guardian, but she is becomingly less resistant to Saki as a friend. Saki is starting to get a hint that her feelings for Kanon are not just friendship, but she can see that friendship is more important. I actually want to know what will become of them and I kind of hope it’s not either/or.

This is the first new series by Kuzushiro-sensei in a while and I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s turning out. Her art is solid, she’s come a long way, with a recognizable style. The pacing is good, although I could lose the creepy bullies constantly threaten to make life hard for Kanon. But over all, I’m glad it neither fetishizes nor romanticizes deafness. Instead, it is a bit of an explainer manga, which gives Kanon a chance to speak for herself and to correct Saki’s mistakes and misunderstandings.

The volume ends with a few chapters of another Kuzushiro series that had too much screaming for me to enjoy it. Adults in an office just don’t scream that much… but Egao no Taenai Shokuba Desu., Volume 1 (笑顔のたえない職場です。) might be more your cup of tea.

I didn’t know what to expect with this series, but what I have gotten is a pretty solid series from a creator I really like.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7 Rough spots here and there, but it finds its own pace before the end of the volume
Characters – Same
Service – Implied only
Yuri – Implied only, but…

Overall – 8 by the end

Amayo no Tsuki is not a manga about DHH people, it has a character who is hard of hearing in a Yuri manga. If you are a DHH reader, and you have had a chance to read this manga, I would welcome your  opinion, which will obviously be from a different point of view than mine.

Kuzushiro’s Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu. (兄の嫁と暮らしています。) lurches along, awkward, uncomfortable, neither a romance nor something else, and yet, I cannot look away. I last reviewed Volume 5, in which Nozomi has been struggling with her unexpressed feelings for her sistet-in-law, Shino. I did not review Volume 6, during which Nozomi’s mother’s drama took up most of the space between them. Shino eventually goes back to their home, while Nozomi sticks around her childhood home, moping because Shino is having fun without her. In actual fact, Shino is going to school and working and moping because Nozomi isn’t there and her friends are helpfully distracting her.

Now they are reunited in Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu., Volume 7 (兄の嫁と暮らしています。) and Nozomi has decided that, as sisters they should just relax with one another more. Shino is not objecting, but finds it very hard to relax when Nozomi and she touch. Especially when she is musing about a thing she’s heard that the underside of one’s arm is as soft as a breast and Nozomi let’s her test this theory out on her.

All the pieces in this 1000-piece puzzle are in play and it’s just a matter of filling in that complicated bit and this other. What the picture will be, though, is as yet unknown. Neither we nor Shino and Nozomi truly know what relationship they will have at the end of this series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I have some weird soft spot for this story and I’m not even sure what I want for Shino and Nozomi at the end of it. ^_^;

In the previous volumes of Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu (兄の嫁と暮らしています。), we have met Shino, a 17-year old and her sister-in-law, Nozomi. After the death of her bother, Shino and Nozomi continue to live together as a family. However, as they  grow closer, they also have begun to have decidedly unsisterly feelings for one another.

In Volume 5, Shino’s a ball of misery because she feels she cannot say or act upon her feelings. Nozomi is torturing herself, trying to  act like their relationship is familial. She even goes so far as to try to just go out with a guy who has asked her out – as a friend. But in the end he confesses and Nozomi runs home, where she’s dragged into her mother’s drama.

This relationship, such as it is, is moving at a glacial pace, but in this case it suits the scenario. Anything faster would feel horribly artificial. And while we watch Shino and Nozomi dance around their feelings, they are in actual fact, opening up to one another.

Were this can or will go, I cannot guess. Well, I can, but I won’t. This story has carte blanche to pull me along for the ride.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 8

I find myself treating this story rather more patiently than I might expect.  I don’t know why, when it kind of feel like the end of the story is inevitable. Nonetheless, I’m just able to relax and let this story take me where it needs me to go.