There’s an old chestnuty saying that “you should never meet your heroes.” In Mikan Uji’s Now Loading…! this is simultaneously true and untrue at the same time.

Takagi has scored her dream job at a small gaming company. As an independent game developer, she loves creating new stages, but has hit a plateau in downloads and ideas. Her boss, Sakaurazuki is pretty harsh, but when she learns that Sakarazuki developed her favorite game ever, Takagi is motivated to try harder. Takagi is pretty sure the boss hates her, or at least hates her work, until one day Sakarazuki kisses her suddenly.

The team they are on can see that they like each other, so while they are working overtime on the game, the team is also working overtime to set the two of them up. As the volume closes, they get it together and finally admit what literally everyone else in the office can see.

I find that I never reviewed the Japanese edition of this manga, although I know I read it. Having re-read it in English, I absolutely know why. While I acknowledge that stories, that is, fictitious works of workplace relationships can be fun, the reality is not good and boss/employee relationships are very not good….and relationships that begin with a boss suddenly kissing an employee without their consent is extremely not good. So much not-good that I find it hard to enjoy most narratives that begin that way. Worse, with “happily ever after” after that particular beginning premise.

As the anime industry is flailing with the idea of consent being a thing that everyone deserves in every single situation, this is a particularly difficult “cute” story set-up.

So, while I’d like to say that this is a cute workplace romance, which is how it is presented, it just comes off as a little tone deaf. Unless this particular situation is your boom…and then, by all means enjoy. I won’t judge, I like MURCIÉLAGO. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – This is early for this creator so let’s give it a 7
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Service – 0 Not really
Yuri – 7 Two couples out of five characters

Overall – 5 I wanted to love this when it ran in Comic Yuri Hime. It could have been a 9 with a single change, but it was just too problematic for me to enjoy.

Hime looks like an angel. Everyone loves her. She’s kind and helpful and everyone’s darling. On the outside. Inside, she’s a gold digger-in-training and is more concerned with looking like she’s a good person than being one.

In Volume 1 of Yuri is My Job! by Miman an accident brings Hime to a Yuri concept cafe based on a series of novels about girls in passionate platonic relationships at the German mission school “Liebe Girl’s Academy.” Hime is going to have work harder to maintain that perfect image than she ever has before. 

Struggling with the complicated rules of comportment and behavior is one thing, but Hime has no interest in serving people tea and no interest in the daily specials. But she knows status when she sees it, so she violates the norms in order to ingratiate herself with the upperclassmen in the scenario. She’s a crowd favorite and her onee-sama is kind in public…but in private, Ayanokouji doesn’t seem to like her at all.

To complicate matters, Hime’s best friend, Kanoko, discovers her secret! Now she has to work extra hard in front of her besotted and naturally competent friend, who knows her true self. It seems like everything is working against Hime, who is just trying to avoid a repeat of the time she was hurt by someone who knew her secret. Until the past comes to haunt her in the form of…

Yuri is My Job!  is a delightful romp in and out of the tropes of Yuri set in an elite girl’s school. The translation by Diana Taylor captures Hime’s struggles with Ayanokouji, the cafe rules and the random bits of German they use. The oversize format is much easier on my eyes. ^_^ I’ve mentioned this before – I do a lot of my manga reading at night before bed – how nice it is to not be reading 8pt type in Japanese. ^_^

The Kodansha  Comics page for Yuri is My Job includes an interview with Kanako Umezawa, the editor-in-chief of Comic Yuri Hime magazine and an excerpt of my essay Why Is It Always Catholic Schoolgirls in Yuri? 

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7 
Characters – 7 
Yuri – 4 The cafe concept is Yuri, the story is not, until it is.
Service – 2 Goofy Yuri fan moments

Overall – 7 And I’m really hoping that <spoiler> happens in the future! (Spoiler: It does. ^_^)

When I reviewed volume one in Japanese, the only caveat I had was that the cafe clientèle appeared to be overwhelmingly male when we saw faces and clothes. I had hoped for an increase in female customers to more accurately reflect the readership of the magazine. That does, in fact, happen as the series continues. ^_^

Volume 2 of Endo Yasuko Stalks The Night
Is what I think is “all right.”
Vampires they may be
None of them look like a baby
Go ahead and say “Okay, I’ll bite.”

Volume 2 resolves all the wrong bits of the story, opens up gigantic new holes that will never be resolved and is ridiculous in every possible way.

You should totally read it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Even more absurd 8
Characters – 9
Service – 5 with a bump for the principal
Yuri – 2, maybe, but you can make it work if you want.

Overall – Still entertaining, trashy fun 8

I was genuinely delighted that Viz picked up this lovely short series about two women who meet each other by chance at a live show. Now that the series is completed, I want to reiterate that I really enjoyed the heck out of it. I state that plainly, because there is a rant I need indulge in. But we’ll get there. Be patient.^_^

But first, let us recall where we left off in Volume 2. The rave created by Kei, Emi and their crew is on. In After Hours Volume 3….that rave is fantastic. Despite setbacks, including Kei’s record collection being stolen and broken, their rave is wonderful. Their crew, After Hours, comes together and the event is a success.

And then everything falls apart. Emi goes home to spend some time with her folks and comes back to find Kei gone, with nary a word. Kei’s not responding to texts or calls. Emi gets the team together once more to talk this over and they decide to track Kei down. 

Kei, it turns out, has gone home, as well. Home as in a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere, where she is cleaning up some family business. Emi decides she has to follow Kei and find out what the hell just happened…so she does. 

Emi takes an overnight bus to Kei’s location, where she learns Kei’s reasons for not coming home.  Kei’s explanation for her disappearance is pretty banal, honestly.  Emi tells Kei she has a year to clean up her family mess, then she has to come back. They agree on a year and part. The end. 

This is where my rant kicks in. This entire end makes no fucking sense.

Emi took an overnight bus to where Kei is, and the train back. Kei is not that far away. All they had to do was agree to get together every once in a while. It’s not like Kei is across the globe…she’s a bus ride away.  An inconvenient bus ride, but still.

This is compounded in its utter ridiculousness by the ending in which neither just says, “we can text or call any time.” I mean, really. WHAT? It’s just total nonsense that lovers would part in the 2010s, with phones that can communicate just about anywhere in the world (and be used to track one another down, mind you) and act like they’d be on different planets. If a woman wrote this, at least one of them would have been sobbing over their phone, “I’ll call you every day…!” But..no.^_^

In any case, this was a great little story about two women who were not office workers or school girls, who lived lived on the fringes of society. I really liked it…

Ratings: 

Art – 7 
Story – 8 
Characters – 9 
Service – 2 
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

…but kids, we have to acknowledge that “can’t speak to you for a year” does not work anymore. Phones, y’see, taken all the finality out of separation. Let’s come up with a new plot, please.^_^;