Mameda is a tanuki who has fallen hard for the magic of rakugo, the traditional Japanese form of comedic storytelling.

Mameda heads to the big city in the form of a human girl. Finding herself on the run from humans after de-transforming from her human form to her tanuki form, Mameda is rescued by a woman who turns out to be a rakugoka, Daikokutei Bunko.

If you’ve ever wanted a story about a tanuki who wants to be a human, so she becomes the disciple of a competent and talented woman in order to learn rakugo, then welcome to Uchi no Shishou ha Shippo ga nai, Volume 1 (うちの師匠はしっぽがない)!

Like so many Kodansha manga, this series is in part “teaching” manga, with a charming story attached, so readers don’t feel they are doing homework. We learn about the importance of rhythm in rakugo, the way different schools handle the presentations, and the details of how rakugo is performed and enjoyed.

Mameda is a big goof, as one might expect of a tanuki, but she has a good heart. Bunko is a mystery, but no surprise her intelligence and competence is a draw for me. It is clear that, despite Bunko’s initial rejection of Mameda, she’s rather fond of the tanuki by the end of the volume.

The art is likewise goofy, with Mameda the goofiest of all, for obvious reasons, but it does have moments that transport you to another world, as befitting the topic.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Belly buttons and city life 
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 4 light nudity, breasty hugs and tanuki butt
Yuri – hrmmmm…… 2ish

Overall – 7

This blog has covered any number of forms of affection between women over the years. It took a tanuki’s magic to make it happen, but with this series, we can add a master of the arts and her disciple to this list. ^_^

The connection between Konatsu and Koyuki is extremely tenuous. They both are aware of this, but whenKonatsu begins to avoid club…and Koyuki it comes to a head. Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 7 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる) is fraught.

(I appear to have not reviewed Volume 6 in Japanese.  It will not radically affect this review. I’ll review A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 6 in English when it comes out next month!)

Faced with a future without Koyuki, Konatsu is unable to move forward. It’s not until her father comes for a visit and comes very close to throwing his own future away for his idea of his daughter that she realizes what she’s giving up to avoid having to look ahead. For once it’s Koyuki who can be strong for Konatsu.

In a series which has had a number of very good “talking it out” scenes, this volume has several which stand out. As much as this series looks like a shoujo series about girls in school, it runs in a seinen magazine, Dengeki Mao. What stands out  about that for this series isn’t a matter of fanserivce at all, but unusually instead, we get adult characters who act like adults and function as parents for their children, something that is surprisingly thin in manga as a whole, which tends to rely on hyperbolic daily situations. ^_^

So here, Koyuki has a heart to heart talk with her mother that helps her decide what she needs to do, Konatsu overhears her aunt and father talking about her and then has a conversation with her father about it. Finishing up the volume was something that I don’t think I’ve ever read in a manga before – Konatsu’s father and Koyuki’s father have a conversation about their daughters that was…really nice, and supportive, of both the girls and of each other. It was so absurdly pleasant to see fathers in manga being decent, concerned, and supportive of their children and another parent. I’ll take more of this please! (Also a feature of I’m in Love With the Villainess, by the way. Rae’s parents when we meet them, are super supportive, and Claire’s father dotes. ^_^)

And in the meantime, Konatsu and Koyuki open up to one another a little bit more.

And this, in a nutshell, is why I am still reading this story. Nothing is “happening” but everyone is growing.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 1

Overall – 7

We know that this series will end with Volume 9, so I’m even more interested to find out what will become of them.

As you may remember, this autumn I engaged upon a massive renovation of my office. That meant clearing *everything* out, every box of books, every bookshelf, every file and folder. Even the filing cabinet was weeded and man did I find some stuff in there. ^_^ This first crop of Lucky boxes for the year are full of manga (Japanese mostly, but also some English,)  western comics and doujinshi, toys, stickers, candy  – I can assure you that the mochi cube candies were really pretty good! – and other random things to marvel at. The Premium boxes include other flat fun things.

This time we have 3 Large Premium boxes, 2 Medium Yuri boxes for you.

As always I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff. Lucky Boxes are created by me shoving a bunch of things in boxes until I can barely tape them shut. I don’t  remember what went in, so no..I can’t tell you what is in each box. I do try to put random things like postcards and papers and toys in there to make the unpacking process an adventure. ^_^

When you email me, please refer to the box you want by the title and #1. First come, first served and these always go fast! These are listed out so I can cross them off as they go.

Large Premium Box 1 – $50 Claimed

Large Premium Box 2 – $50 Claimed

Large Premium Box 3 – $50 Claimed

Medium Box 1 – $25 Claimed

Medium Box  2  – $25 Claimed

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To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they are all claimed pretty quickly and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1 – You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs. This is disappointing for me too, so I apologize.

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing books or recipients.

3 – Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly. Because I will reply asap. The first person who responds to my email gets the box.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance.

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness, as usual. ^_^ 

Ready? Get your Lucky Boxes!

Cleaning up some last items from the great office clean up renewal  and you know what that means…. Lucky Boxes to start 2021! Keep your eyes peeled for the post here on Okazu. ^_^

In the mean time, I’m taking today off to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 2, which dropped this morning and *nothing* is as important as me reading it right now. It’s amazing. Go read it and we can talk about it when we’re all done. ^_^