Archive for the Matt Marcus Category


Kiss It Goodbye: The Complete Edition

February 7th, 2024

A girl in a green coat over a school uniform and a girl in a sports jacket . holding a bat, sit under the same tree, not looking at one another.by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

“So, how did y’all meet?”

Ah, this old chestnut. You think back to the countless times you’ve told this story, each iteration becoming more and more exaggerated and elaborate. It’s not that you are trying to fool anyone, you’re just tired of going over the same beats time and time again so you’re trying to have a little fun with it. As you recount the story, you sneak glances at your partner, watching them roll their eyes as you enthusiastically assert how impressed they were over tales of your prowess at Magic the Gathering. OK, you were terrible at flirting, and still are. But no one else has to know that.

Kiss It Goodbye: The Complete Edition is the story of Aruka and Yukimi, two women in their mid-twenties. One night, a friend of theirs asks them to tell the story of how the two, who are of very different temperaments, got together. Aruka is a rough-and-tumble tomboy with a penchant for throwing fisticuffs while Yukimi is a studious girl with a love of fashion. They meet as children, grow close together up through middle school, have a falling out in high school, but reconnect before graduation. A couple years later they realize their feelings for each other and begin dating. The end!

If that were all there was to this story, you wouldn’t be reading this review. There are a handful of things that seem like small pieces but add to a story that reads better than its synopsis. The framing device adds so much character to the telling. Aruka tends to puff herself up only to be brought back down to earth by Yukimi. They talk honestly about their feelings and how they evolved over time. It’s a nice way to spice up what could be a pretty standard story and doing so in a way that allows the characters to express themselves.

There are other unique factors. I like how instead of opting to settle for maximum drama, the big turning points in Aruka and Yukimi’s relationship are worked through in awkward, vulnerable conversations. OK, there is definitely SOME drama, but plenty of the development happens beyond that. I like that the two are not the same orientation: Aruka is an allosexual lesbian however Yukimki is biromantic and asexual. It’s rare to see a pairing to see partners with different needs manage to work things out. The two even have different socioeconomic class and career backgrounds.

Although this story takes place in Japan, it is drawn by Ticcy, who hails from Italy. I find it is interesting to look at a work that borrows heavily from manga but is shown through a different cultural lens, which puts this book in the same bucket as the works that have been reviewed on the site such as Alter Ego, Just Friends, and Mahou Josei Chimaka. All of these works vary in how much they borrow from manga, with Kiss It Goodbye sitting somewhere between the latter two in that the setting is clearly influenced by Japanese media but the art, paneling, and dialogue have a more Western flavor.

What drew me in right away was the art. The character designs are clean and expressive, there are plenty of detailed backgrounds, and the whole comic is rendered in beautiful color. The whole package The series originally published on the online comics platforms Webtoon and Tapas, but was adapted into print through the publisher Hiveworks (who coincidentally also published Chimaka) after a successful Kickstarter in 2022, which I backed. It’s one of the nicer printings on my growing yuri shelf, in a large format with stout glossy pages. Thankfully, physical copies are now publicly available on Hivework’s website along with an eBook option. KIG was released typically one page at a time, but thankfully it was storyboarded in such a way that you would not be able to tell its webcomic origins in print form. (Also, regular GL webcomic readers may spot a familiar face or two in some crowd shots.)

I would say the biggest criticism I have is false advertising. See, this is called the Complete Edition, however there is more comic out there! Ticcy has written two additional bonus chapters to date that are not collected here and supposedly there is more to come down the road. The book also lacks any additional commentary that came through Q&A segments Ticcy posted during the comic’s run that help flesh out some details on the characters that didn’t make it into the main body of the story. I would suggest anyone who picks up the book also go find the comic online in order to get that extra content. Ticcy has hinted at the possibility of a second book down the road, but at the moment there are no plans for release and new bonus chapters have been on a hiatus as she focuses on her newer series Dragon’s Mercenary that she posts on her Patreon page.

Really, the biggest sin is that there is criminally little time spent with Aruka’s softball club-cum-girl gang, especially their leader Saori. Would love to see more of them in a future bonus chapter. Did I mention there is a softball club that beats on street toughs? Yeah, gimme more of that.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Really gorgeous front-to-back, especially in print
Story – 8 The flourishes in the delivery make an otherwise standard story stand out
Characters – 8 Aruka and Yukimi bounce off each other well in both the comedic and dramatic moments
Service – 1 Would be higher with more girl gang escapades
Yuri – 10 / LGBTQ – 9 Would like to see more atypical identity pairings like these two

Overall – 9 It is high! It is far! It is…GONE!

I met my wife on New Year’s Eve having just driven 6 hours that day to move to a new city without a job, an apartment, or much of a plan to get either. If you ask nicely, I may tell you the rest of the story someday.

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network. Any tales of his exploits as a teenage delinquent have been greatly fabricated.





Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity To An Android, Volume 1 Guest Review by Matt Marcus

December 20th, 2023

A gynoid with purple hair undressed her nonplussed mistress on the cover of Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity To An Android, Volume 1 Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network. He is still on the hook for a Xenosaga KOS-MOS x Shion fanfic for their next Patreon goal.

Sometimes, you come across a piece of media that really strikes at the heart of humanity. What does it even mean to be human? To have emotions? What if there were beings that look like us, feel like us, act like us, but are wholly man-made? Is synthetic love still…love?

If you are looking to explore these heady ideas, then may I suggest Pluto by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, now with a fantastic anime adaptation on Netflix (who did not sponsor this post).

However, if you are looking for something less Philip K. Dick and more, say, Philine K. Shlick, you could pick up volume 1 of Does It Count If You Lose Your Virginity To An Android? by Yakinikuteishoku. Now, I hear you saying, “But Matt, shouldn’t the title say ‘gynoid’?” Well observed, dear reader! In fact, the referenced lovebot uses the term herself, but alas, it seems that it failed in focus testing, much like my alternate title Is It OK To Objectify A Sapient Sex Toy?

Here’s the rundown: in a near future where AI isn’t about art theft and Google Glass manages to succeed, Tsuda Akane is an office worker in her late twenties who is very reliable and professional on the clock, but outside of work she’s a complete slob who drinks heavily every night and has no real romantic experience to boot. During a drunken stupor, she places an order for a cleaning robot but what arrives the next day is a super advanced—and very illegal—sex gynoid named Nadeshiko. Akane spends the volume constantly at her wits’ end trying to keep herself out of jail and her incorrigibly horny new companion in check, however much to her chagrin she is very much putty in Nadeshiko’s skillful hands.

I expected this manga to be hornier than a buck hunter’s trophy wall and, sure enough, page one opens mid-coitus. Hell, the central point of conflict is Akane’s refusal to register herself as Nadeshiko’s owner via a fingerprint scan, and I’m sure you can infer what that entails. The premise is so nakedly (ha) transparent in its aims that even when a gag is eye-rollingly contrived (of course that’s where the power switch is! Of course!) I find myself unable to find it distasteful. Don’t get me wrong, it’s pandering as all get-out, but it doesn’t rise to a significant level of grossness unless you give any thought to how rank that apartment must smell.

What really made this volume stand out as more than just I, Robot After Dark is the snappy writing. Huge credit to the localizer Casper Kazor, who really punched up the dialogue to great effect. There are a lot of really fun little turns of phrase that got me chortling, none of which I will deign to spoil. This is one to pick up for tits and giggles.

So, back to the titular question: does it indeed count?

رارا I Evess

(all apologies to KC Green)

Thank you to Seven Seas, who also did not sponsor this post, but did provide a review copy.

Art – 8 All the character designs are cute but the fluids are a touch excessive
Story – 7 It’s a gag comic were sex is The Joke, but the flourishes in the writing elevate it
Characters – 6 This ain’t Bladerunner 2049, but I’m sure no one needs it to be either
Service – 9 Docking it one point for the few services that Nadeshiko will not provide
Yuri – 7 / LGBTQ – 7 Akane seems to be a clueless ladykiller with a cadre of admirers at the office 

Overall – 8 

You cannot fathom how disappointed I was that Seven Seas beat me to the Electric Sheep reference–and on the back cover, no less. So many jokes lost to time, like tears in the rain.





Assorted Entanglements Volume 2, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

September 20th, 2023

A school girl wearing a sweat jacket with uniquely braided hair, straddles another girl in a blazer uniform, with pony tails, looking mischievously up at her.Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the writer for the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing the manga series How Do We Relationship.

In Assorted Entanglements volume 1, OL dirtbag Iori drunkenly hooks up with a delinquent with a heart of gold, Minami, and the two begin dating thereafter. Also in the mix is Iori’s yandere siscon younger sister Shiori and Minami’s old juvvie friend Shizuku, both of whom are problematic in their own ways which means they make prime secondary ’ship material, I guess.

Before I dive into Assorted Entanglements, volume 2, I do want to go on a Brief Rant about the series generally. I feel that the series has a very conflicting, and dare I say irresponsible, approach to the topic of violence. This is a series where two of the main characters have suffered through traumatic childhood abuse, who both end up in pairings with partners who physically abuse them–but this time, it’s for comedy! I can understand what Mikanuji is going for, which is the role reversal of these two Bad Girls™ who end up dominated by two “normie” ones, but the tonal whiplash leaves an awful taste in my mouth. When Minami’s coworkers see her bruised face and say “you should leave your partner”, I go yeah, actually. What’s worse is that the most common cause of Iori’s violence are times when Minami is expressing how little she values herself, which is a result of the abuse she suffered from her parents. The whole conceit becomes very difficult to stomach the second you put any thought into it.

What’s probably best about this volume is that a good chunk of it is not dedicated to Minami and Iori. A new couple is introduced: the mangaka Heke-sensei and her editor, Shinohara. Professionally, they’re in constant friction, but they get along swimmingly when they play online games together while hiding behind their gaming handles. It’s a tad contrived, sure, but it’s a nice panacea to the grimey undertones that haunt our previously established couplings (also props for making this scenario not a coincidence). The way Mikanuji ties their story into the broader picture is one of the most hilariously paper-thin excuses, which is that Iori and Shinohara are old college friends. Of course, neither admit to each other that their love lives involve other women. So it goes.

What we do see of Minami and Iori is still the mixed bag of good sexual chemistry, some warm tenderness, and the occasional smack across the jaw. We get a glimpse into what led to Minami landing in the detention center and hoo boy, is it a doozy (thankfully it is only described, not shown). Meanwhile, Shiori and Shizuku’s relationship continues to develop. They are both so terrible, they deserve each other.

Mikanuji’s art is attractive to look at but it does suffer from the worst case of Same Face Syndrome that I have ever seen. The delinquent characters have an aesthetic that I dig–lots of piercings and tattoos, funky hairstyles–but I find it really difficult to tell apart any of Minami’s or Shinohara’s coworkers. Another odd habit of the art is how Mikanuji often completely skips bouts of action between panels which often leads to a disjointed flow when reading. The most egregious example is when Shiori breaks into Shizuku’s apartment by smashing a window: in one panel, we see Shizuku’s face with a small crash sound effect hiding in the corner, and in the next panel Shiori is standing in the room holding a rock with glass on the floor. Mikanuji is not incapable of drawing action–see Shizuku’s punch in volume 1–but they have a habit of not drawing it when the action is meant to drive a joke, such as the countless times Iori has punched Minami in the face between panels (no I will not let this go, it happens a lot).

The thing that keeps bringing me back to this series is that when a joke lands, it lands well. The way Minami texts with Shizuku? The weird phone charm that Shiori is interested in? The argument between Iori and Minami on who should top? All good gags. I would credit translator Eleanor Ruth Summers with keeping the dialogue snappy. When the characters are bouncing off of each other with things other than their fists, it’s a pretty good time.

Art – 7 I like it, but the craft of it could use some improvement
Story – 7 Better than volume 1 but the violence issue still persists
Characters – 7 Every character has their moments of likability. Yes, even Shizuku
Service – 4 Iori and Minami still go at it from time to time
Yuri – 8 / LGBTQ – 6 This is the first time I’ve seen “pillow princess” used in a manga, so that’s neat

Overall – 7 I’m still willing to play a round or two

Don’t involve your children in your crimes, but if you must, at least make it a fun crime





How Do We Relationship Volume 9, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

August 23rd, 2023

A woman with short, dark hair looks on with distress as a woman with medium light brown hair put mayonnaise into the dish she's cooking.Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the writer for the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.

Last volume, Miwa finally got a new girlfriend, the surly but earnest Tamaki. Meanwhile, Saeko and Yuria are getting along well, their struggles with sex notwithstanding. Now our two leads begin the delicate dance of finding the right distance between them to be respectful to their girlfriends. Oh, and they agree to not let their partners know that they are each other’s ex. Or even that their best friend is also gay.

Really, How Do We Relationship Volume 9 is a Saeko-centric volume, and she really goes through it. She runs into a middle school classmate who cajoles her to go to her Coming of Age Ceremony, which is already a major point of friction between her and her mother. What’s worse is she witnesses Tamaki’s supposedly supportive friends engage in some Light Homophobia. Yuria does what she can to soothe her but she can’t be around all the time, so Saeko is left on her own, wallowing in her rising anger.

I have to continue to hand it to Tamifull that there is some really deft storytelling happening here. All three incidents that Saeko runs into here involve people who are generally good, well-meaning people, but there is just a strain of shittiness to them that is too stark to ignore. Her old classmate sympathizes with her choice to not attend the ceremony because of how hard her experience must have been…but still he takes one look over to Yuria and can’t help but comment “I guess you still swing that way, huh?” Tamaki’s friends are all vocally supportive to her face, but when The Gays aren’t around they say condescending things like, “they could have relationships with men if they want” and “oh, actually it’s noble of them to choose love over society’s acceptance”. Saeko’s mother, as we learned, doesn’t care who she dates so long as she acts a bit more feminine for her sometimes. It sucks. These aren’t people who are so wholly terrible that it would be an easy choice for Saeko to cut them out of her life, but their low-level hostility towards her identity understandably puts her on a hair trigger.

If this were earlier in the series, things would continue to devolve. Instead, a small miracle happens: Saeko runs into Miwa who invites her over for lunch. Miwa admits that its too hard for her to try to keep away from someone she truly cares for, and this gives Saeko the push to finally, finally tell Miwa about middle school. Afterwards, they have a cute snowball fight that is also a “I’m going to caringly tell you why you suck” back-and-forth. Saeko realizes that her fixation on staying away was the wrong idea, that Miwa is a special person to her, just not in the same way that Yuria is.

You know, I tend to shortchange Yuria in these reviews but she really is the MVP of the series so far. Every time Saeko has been struggling with something, she’s always had the right answer. She’s almost too self-actualized. Saeko awkwardly tries to rise to her level of Good Partnering, and there’s something really endearing about that, but none of it would feel right if Yuria wasn’t there. I also realized after the last review that she does share traits with Miwa (mostly romantic inexperience and naivete) in a similar way that I called out between Tamaki and Saeko. So, both girls ended up dating people who echo their ex’s personality, but not to the point of being overt duplications. It’s fantastic, subtle character work.

…That said, I have to give one demerit. Saeko and Yuria have a bit of a breakthrough in their sex life, and while the moment is meant to be a moment of vulnerability finally achieved, the way it articulates does feel a little hinky on consent. Having seen similar moments in other series, I want to chalk this up to cultural differences in the way women are “expected” to express themselves during sex in Japan, but I am frankly not the person to make that judgment. You could make a character argument for the way it is on the page but I feel like the same point would have been made stronger if the dialogue was tweaked to be more clear on consent. I may be making a mountain out of a molehill on this, but my honest reaction was to be a bit disappointed that in a series that generally avoids tropes, this one made it in and slightly soured an otherwise sweet scene.

Meanwhile, Miwa and Tamaki are getting along fine, though–stop me if you heard this before–they are not gelling sexually (“and so…they were both bassists”). It isn’t an intractable problem, but Miwa’s needs are going to be challenged, both because she needs to actually ask for them and also because Tamaki passed the entrance exam for her first choice college and is going to transfer. Aside from the two-faced nature of how Tamaki’s friends talk to her and about her relationship, this volume doesn’t focus on these two all that much.

We do get a chapter from the perspective of Saeko’s mom, and as a recent parent myself (of a little girl, no less), I found it really moving. Being a parent is hard. Things won’t play out like you always imagined they would, and it takes some fortitude to roll with those punches. As I said above, Mrs. Sawatari has got her heart in the right place and is doing her best, despite the friction she causes about Saeko’s lack of femininity. You feel for her, which is a hell of a thing to pull off with a character whose full name we still don’t know.

From a macro-plot perspective, we can still see tendrils of attachment that still entangle our leads: Saeko still has some lingering romantic feelings while Miwa just cannot forget how good the sex was. Now, if we are to believe the end-of-volume “commentary tracks” [SIGH], these would be the avenues that will lead the girls to get back together in the future. I don’t like the idea, frankly. I prefer them as close intimate friends, but the seeds are clearly there for them to get back together down the road.

Regardless, the thrust of this volume is how the girls managed to bridge the awkward distance between them and it’s super satisfying. The scene that’s depicted on the cover of the girls improvising their way through cooking fried rice together and ending up with a fantastic dish that they couldn’t replicate if they tried is a perfect metaphor for their current relationship: it’s some great fucking food.

Art – 9 The art is in its groove, though I’m starting to notice a habit of flipping which sides two characters are on back and forth in some scenes.
Story – 9 The one demerit aside, the story continues to be compelling and satisfying
Characters – 10 The nuance of the characters, even in the secondary cast, continues to impress
Service – 5 The sex is more sensual and plot driving than “servicey” per se, but I’m keeping the score up
Yuri – 10 / LGBTQ – 10 Bumping this up for the non-romantic yuri and the crushingly realistic depiction of bad allyship

Overall – 9 A delicious dish, best served with your closest friend

If you didn’t know already, the series is now being localized and released alongside the biweekly Japanese serialization on the new(ish) VIZ app. Unfortunately, there is an 11 chapter gap in English between the end of this volume and when the simulpub chapters began, and if RightStuf is to be believed, volume 10 won’t come out until late January. Just imagine me sweating profusely every time I see a new chapter up.





Monologue Woven For You Volume 3, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

August 16th, 2023

The role of Reviewer will be played tonight by Matt Marcus. He is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, as well as the author of the blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing the manga series How Do We Relationship.

The stage is set: Haruka has resolved to hide her acting past indefinitely while Nao has resolved to break the impasse once she passes her next big audition. Are all the secrets going to spill out? Are we going to finally learn what happened with Haruka in high school? Is Yuki going to ask out her still-in-high-school coworker?

The answers are yes, yes, and thankfully no (for now). Hope you all enjoyed the show! See you next time.

…OK that’s a bit too underwhelming even as a joke, but to be honest the story itself doesn’t fare much better.

Woe be me to think that this story centering around The Theatre wouldn’t be extra dramatic. A Monologue Woven For You, Volume 3 starts out the gate with Haruka having a minor health scare that motivates Nao to rush to her side, even though her audition is the next day. So what’s Haruka’s conclusion? Is it that her lover cares very much for her wellbeing? No, it’s that she is going to drag down Nao, snuffing out her shot at thespian greatness. She wrestles with what to do until she discovers the program for her last performance in Nao’s bag, showing that her past was known the whole time. She decides that after seeing Nao off to her audition she will ghost her. You can’t become a great artist without a little trauma, right?

You can probably figure out the rest from there. Nao is panicked. She tracks down Jun, who isn’t very helpful until she decides to try, at which point she isn’t very effective. Haruka meets Rei, the high school theater geek, who unsuccessfully tries to guilt Haruka into un-quitting acting. Somehow, Nao takes a wild leap in logic to deduce that Haruka is sulking in the auditorium in which she last performed. Nao confronts her, prompting Haruka to finally tell her why she quit.

After beginning acting at a young age, Haruka joined a local theater troupe while she was in high school. There she became close friends with a girl a year older who was an accomplished child actor. Haruka looked up to her as her role model. All of that comes crashing down when Haruka beats her out for a leading role. Her friend has a meltdown, blaming Haruka for stealing her golden opportunity, and quits acting altogether. Haruka comes away from this with a deep sense of guilt for “killing” the acting career of someone she thought was truly talented. And that’s it, that’s the trauma on which this entire plot hinges.

Haruka is still wallowing in this guilt until Nao pushes back, saying that Haruka saved her from quitting acting, and that it is her dream for the two of them to act together on stage. They reconcile, and a year later the two succeed in co-leading a play for their college drama club. Nao goes on to be a professional actor, while Haruka continues to act as a hobby. They move in together, and everyone’s happy. Cue the orchestra.

I will be honest: I thought the melodrama was both over the top and contrived and the payoff a bit rushed. I don’t think after two volumes of teasing that I would ever be satisfied with Haruka’s inciting incident in high school, and what we get is more or less as pedestrian as you could get. I had mentioned in my review of Volume 2 that I wasn’t sure if the story wanted me to trust in Haruka’s decision never to act again. Seems a bit foolish now to think that she could have chosen to stay in the audience, but given the way the story framed her stance I think my confusion was warranted. A slightly less storybook ending could have demonstrated Haruka’s outlook maturing as she looks back on the opportunities she threw away. For most people, there are times in your life where you have to give up on participating in something you love but you discover a new way to appreciate it, like an injured athlete becoming a coach. You can wring a lot of impact from such stories of loss, however it would fall flat here because Haruka’s decision to leave the troupe was not foisted upon her; it was entirely self-inflicted. Seriously, someone should have just told her that the fault lies with the girl who quit over a bruised ego. Like, maybe her parents. Or Jun. Or Nao! (I have the “it’s not your fault” scene from Good Will Hunting running on loop in my head now.) Given where Yasaka-sensei wanted to take the story, it would have been better to seed more hints that Haruka was drawn to act again, but felt ashamed about it.

To pivot away from the story, there is one interesting part of the art that didn’t strike me as obvious until this review, which is the use of blur to show depth of field. There are of course cinematic perspective tricks used in other manga, but the way it is implemented here feels somewhat unique. It had been there the whole time–hell, it’s on the Volume 1 cover with the cherry blossoms–but for whatever reason I only noticed it in this volume. Aside from that, there is only one bit of art that I felt was really well composed and drawn, which is the cover page to chapter 15, with Nao standing under a streetlamp at night.

All in all, this series ended up very “mid” as the kids say. The story could have relied less on contrived and stretched out tension, the art is fine but not amazing, and I don’t think it draws out all of the potential out of the college setting. That said, it’s not a bad time. If you want some fluff with a heaping of melodrama, you could do worse.

Art – 7 The art stayed consistent throughout
Story – 6 The melodrama was overwrought
Characters – 5 They’re acting to the rafters but they can’t elevate the script
Service – 0 Nada
Yuri – 8 / LGBTQ – 1 They teased a second ‘ship but didn’t commit

Overall – 7 Would give it a perfunctory standing ovation