Hanako is a young woman who has traveled from Japan to meet her favorite author. Volume 1 follows Hanako as she meets the beautiful, yet tragic Lady Alice and enters into her service. We watch their relationship deepen and their secrets come to light in Volume 2. Here we are, then, in the final volume and its hard to imagine that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And yet.

One of the burdens of writing historical fiction is, quite obviously, history. As Dr. Pepperco writes a story explicitly set in a time and place where the society would, could and did place women in mental institutions for the crime of independent thinking or non-conforming behavior, it takes commitment to write a better end. Volume 3 of Goodbye, My Rose Garden has that commitment. Therefore, as we watch over them benevolently, we see Alice and Hanako meet women of like mind, find solace in each other and create both the tunnel and the light for one another.

I’ve been talking a lot recently about media that imagines a better way forward. I also feel there is room for stories that supplies us a better way to look backward. Not every story needs an unhappy ending….but more to the point, not every real story had an unhappy ending. Some 130 years previous to the setting of this book, and some 300 miles to the northwest in Wales, about 6 hours by car now, Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler lived together and built a joyful life for themselves. (I find all arguments that they didn’t have a sexual relationship because they didn’t leave proof to be absolutely idiotic. Who does that? They called each other wife, let’s not be dumbasses.) Let us look to the Ladies of Llangollen then, for Alice and Hanako’s new life, in which they choose to live somewhere quietly together, supporting themselves as writers and raising a lovely rose garden.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 8

I appreciated some of the visual touches in this book, but once again, far more important were the literary references. Victor Franks may not have been real, but the other writers whose works are mentioned, are. While it’s not in Hastings, I recommend to you The Feminist Bookshop in Brighton, another UK beach town with a long, queer history, where you can find classics like Kate Chopin’s writing and newer works, maybe a biography of Ann Lister, as well as a really terrific comics section, with a fair bit of lesbian representation…and even a Yuri manga or two! So, when this pandemic is over, maybe you and your girl can just play at being Hanako and and Alice for a day in a nice little queer-friendly bookstore in a English beachside town. ^_^

My sincere thanks to Seven Seas for the review copy! It’s always a pleasure to see how the Seven Seas team handles work like this, which has the interesting challenge of both time period and English ideas being translated from Japanese back into English. Nice work by translator Amber Tamosaitis, adapter Cae Hawksmoor and letterer Kaitlyn Wiley and the whole Seven Seas crew!

In Volume 1, we met Hayama Asuka and Terano Saki, two teachers at an all-girls high school who find themselves falling in love with each other, pretty much in the public eye. Luckily for them, their students, peers and administration all think they are absolutely adorable.

In Our Teachers are Dating!, Volume 2, Saki and Asuka continue to be ridiculously adorably in love. Bandou-sensei, the Yuri otaku, thinks HayaTera is the best ‘ship ever, even as she’s annoyed to death by them. ^_^ And they are, honestly so absurdly adorable that it’s very hard to take their drama seriously. Between a minor misunderstanding and visible hickies after an enthusiastic birthday evening, they just keep getting cuter and cuter. This is not a bug, it’s a feature.

It’s really critical to me to have manga like this where we see an ideal situation – where a world without homophobia and sexism is modeled for us, so we can imagine that one can exist. Queer literature is full of failure to make utopias works, and failure of current society to give space to the joys of life. Come at me, but I think it is equally as important to have stories that center joy, even if it means ignoring reality. Saki and Asuka are in love – their first love. And we are able to enjoy their feelings, think of our own, and enjoy a world full of sparkling sunshine and blue sky days and moonlight nights, full of those feelings. It is perfectly okay to want that.

For those of you who might counter, “But what about society, Erica? Aren’t you always banging on about queer characters having someone to talk to?” My reply to you is yes. Bandou, while not gay herself, is a good friend and gives good advice, but also…wait. This series may be a bit idealized, and because of that, you can be sure there will be someone to talk to. ^_^

In any case, this series is darling and handled in the most charming manner by translator Jennifer Ward, adaptor Rebecca Scoble, editor Jenn Grunigen. Erika Terriquez does a nice balanced lettering and retouch job and kudos to Nicky Lim for another creative cover design that doesn’t just mimic the Japanese, but still feels right. T

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 10
Story – 9
Service – 5 There is nudity and sex, but it is sweet rather than salacious
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

Finally, you all know what I mean when I say “Okay-saurus!”

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy. It’s always appreciated. Great job as always.

Full of Yuri joy, Our Teachers Are Dating is a celebration of love. You’ll be able to enjoy Volume 3 next month when it hits shelves at the end of March 2021.