Nonoka Tatsu’s Nari x Yuki Living, Volume 1  (なり×ゆきリビング 1) is an ant-farm of  manga. The entertainment is watching these two go about their lives in which nothing particular happens. It’s not that it’s not entertaining, just that you have to scale down your expectations in order to find it enjoyable.

Shinomine Kanari is a bit helter skelter, while Sato Yuki is very reliable. Sato is the section chief, at Shinomine’s workplace. When Shinomine, after  a workplace drinking party suddenly asks Sato if she can live with her, as Sato lives so much closer to the office, Sato says yes. And so Yuki and Nari begin their life as roommates. Their life is predictable and fun in it’s own way. They work, they come home, have dinner, go shopping or go out drinking, rinse repeat. Normal lives lived normally.

The manga is a typical 4-panel strip comic, with occasional bursts of actual humor, almost all of which has to do with the other employees at their mutual workplace. In particular, there is a meaningless gag having to do with the similarity between Shinomine’s family name and another employee named Shinomiya. A mistakenly routed phone call sets off an avalanche gag in which the two become become the “Mine and Miya combo” and ultimately end up as “Shino Red” and “Shino Blue.” The gag has nothing to do with the main story, but still ends up being the funniest bit. Without this gag, we’re left with Sato being blind without her glasses, or their next door neighbor eavesdropping. … Hah.

While there is certainly plenty of set up for Yuri between Yuki and Nari, none manifests, not even with all their drunken evenings. Lots of sloppy hanging on one another and blushing, but they barely know one another at the beginning and by the end have just started becoming friends.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Sloppy, sketchy and lazy, but kind of cute
Story – 6 Same
Characters – 6 Likable, even if they just keep going back and forth along the same tunnels.
Service – 4 Sadly, there is some.
Yuri – 1 Sadly, there really isn’t any.

Overall – 6

It’s not a terrible manga, although it is a bit one-note. But, like an ant farm, I kind of can’t stop watching to see what happens…which is ridiculous, as the answer will be “mostly, nothing.” But still, we watch.

It’s been 5 years since the car company Subaru teamed up with anime studio Gainax to create a short and moderately entertaining anime series.  In 2015, they teamed up again to create a manga for the same extended commercial in conjunction with TV broadcasting of the anime and appearances at comic and auto shows.  Houkago no Pleiades/Wish Upon the Pleiades Prism Palette, Volume 1 (放課後のプーレアデス), was basically the same as the anime, only slightly less marginally entertaining the second time around.

The story is fundamentally the same – schoolgirl Subaru, who loves the stars, is somehow reunited with a former best friend who had gone to another school. She discovers that there is a team of magical girls at the school and becomes one in order to help an alien collect the scattered parts of his ship’s engine. They are obstructed in this by someone who coincidentally looks like the only other character in the story, a boy named Minato who appears to spend most of his time in a magic secret garden. Got it?

The story was a little scattered in the anime, but ultimately wrapped up with some interesting twists. I can’t say it was genius, but it was worth a watch. Knowing the twists ahead of time, I can’t say the manga has anything particular to recommend it. On the minus side, there is service, much of which is pointless and irritating. On the plus side, Minato’s role in this first volume is much less time than in the anime and the relationship between Aoi and Subaru is given more room to develop in one’s head. ^_^

The best bits of the anime – all the space rides on car brooms – is lost here, but we can’t really do anything about that. Manga isn’t anime. But don’t worry, they fill up that time with pointless and irritating service. Deep breath.

If you loved and adored the anime and really want to read the manga, this is certainly cute enough. If you love Subaru and /or Gainax, ditto. (I just got a Subaru for the first time, myself, but somehow I am not motivated by this manga to love the company. ^_^;)

Ratings:

Art – 7 The background screentones are nice
Characters – 6
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 6

The fact that this is a really long car commercial is much less obvious in the manga than in the anime as the car-brooms don’t make vroomy noises.

“Space rides on car brooms” – I’m so glad to be alive to have been able to type that.

In November I had a chance to look at the first volume of Asamiya Kia’s return to his classic sci-fi Tokyo of the future, threatened by hard-to-discern creatures from another dimension and the women of the Attacked Mystification Police who fight them.

In Silent Mobius QD, Volume 2, (サイレントメビウスQD) we spend a little time getting familiar with Yamigumo Nagi, the cousin of AMP’s former member Yamigumo Nami, and Irene Wong who, like AMP Chief Lebia Maverick, is a visionnaire.

The volume is non-stop action, with third attracion attacks all over the place and a rescue mission of a vessel called the Bell Liner. In the middle of the action, Aoi continues to be difficult, we grow to like and respect Tasha and Chris insists that she’s there for Aoi…and we’ll never learn why. Unfortunately for us, the series comes to an end here at two volumes. Who Chris is, how and why Aoi can use Grospoliner, will remain mysteries forever.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 3 It bit off more than it could chew
Characters – 8 Wish we got to know them
Yuri – 2 Woulda coulda shoulda on Chris and Aoi. Chris’s emotion was way intense.
Service – 4 Tasteful (hahah) nudity, Irene’s got a nice back tattoo.

Overall – 7

I so wish we had gotten the rest of this. I really wanted to know what the deal with Chris was.

I’ve got a backlog of stuff to do, and instead of doing any of it, I went out today for a long walk in town.  If it’s nice weather by you, I suggest taking a long walk. It does wonders for the mind and body. ^_^

In the meantime, cheer me on getting at least one thing done this weekend!

See you tomorrow with a new review and coming soon — *another* great new T-shirt design on the Yuricon Store…this one special for readers of Okazu!