If there was one defining feature of previous volumes of Hisona’s Goodbye Dystopia that I truly loved, it was not learning a damn thing about either of the protagonists.

Yes, we got the vaguest idea that Asami travels to find things and Mizuki was running away from home in Volume 1 and in Volume 2, we learned that the world they inhabited had people in it, and that they both had past loss they weren’t thinking about.

In Goodbye Dystopia, Volume 3 (グッバイ・ディストピア), I was desperately afraid that the story would give too much away. I am pleased to say that we know only a very little bit more.

Asami’s loss is a sister. A sister, old friend Uzuki points out, that MIzuki is taking the place of.

Mizuki lets us – and no one else – learn that she’s not running from home, but from a failed romance with a schoolmate, in which she was the only one who was serious. We had guessed as much for Mizuki and while it was news about Asami, when all of that has been pulled out and aired, we really know very little about either woman other than what we’ve seen.

Nonetheless, having had what of their dirty laundry we’ve seen laid out, both women seem lighter and more able to face what is ahead of them. As the manga draws to an end, they discover an abandoned amusement park at which they abandon the last of their worries, and head on into the unknown, together.

Ratings:

Art – 9 This is my kind of art
Story – 10 There is none. I love it.
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 4 We learn what we already had guessed

Overall – 9

I loved this series and would have been glad to follow it for decades through dilapidated buildings and abandoned places. I loved the art, the sketchbook quality of the physical locations, Mizuki’s wind-blown hair and the unpaved tracks of the landscape. I loved that we’ll never know their full names or whole histories. I love all the things we don’t know and just enjoyed the heck out of the journey.

In Volume 1, we met Yuki, a young woman who works at a coffee shop in a bustling Taisho period town, who is very interested in the works of a particular female novelist, Azuma Beniko. When Sensei comes in to her cafe, Yuki finds herself instantly captivated by the cosmopolitan author.

In Volume 2 of Nagori Yuu-sensei’s Pixiv manga Jyoryusakka to Yuki (女流作家とユキ), Yuki learns more about the novelist, and about herself. Yuki is starting to fantasize about Azuma-sensei and recognizes, as she has read many romance novels, that she’s falling in love. She also learns that those same novels were the cause of a lover’s suicide, when two girls killed themselves supposedly motivated by one of Sensei’s books.

We learn that Yuki’s obsession with Azuma-sensei’s work stems from being a lonely child on account of not being physically strong. Her mother had died when she was young and her father is away for work most of the time. And, when he returns, he tells Yuki that he’s setting up a marriage meeting for her. She protests, and he blames the novels she likes. In anger, she runs to Azuma-sensei who brings her back, but both she and Yuki stand firm in the face of her father’s anger. Ultimately, he relents. It moot, because Sensei has admitted to herself that she loves Yuki and invites Yuki to live with her.

In the end, Yuki wakes up, amazed and embarrassed to find herself in the bed of a woman she’s idolized for so many years. But this time, she’s assured, it is not a dream or a fantasy. And we can close this book assuming a happily-ever-after for this successful female author and the coffee-shop girl she loves.

Okay, yes, it’s a ridiculous story. I loved every page of it. I loved the clothing, the backgrounds and with the exception of a chapter in the middle where the style significantly altered (I’d assume because of a hardware/software or materials change) the art.This story was a joy to read and the ending left me with a huge grin.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story –  8 Still girl meets author and is swept off her feet. Still okay by me.
Character – 8
Service – 2 Nothing particularly salacious. Yuki’s fantasies and Yuki’s reality are as close as we get.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

This was a Yuri romance that I looked forward to every chapter of. I slowed myself down reading a few times, just to enjoy it longer. Then I re-read it. ^_^

In Volume 1 of Teiji ni Ageretara (定時にあがれたら), one day at work, Yukawa learns she’s dropped her keys when fellow employee, fashionable and attractive Mizuki, returns them. The two of them become friends, sharing meals and hanging out together. One day, almost without realizing it, Yukawa tells Mizuki she likes her, then immediately asks Mizuki to forget it. But Mizuki finds that she just cannot. No matter how much she’d like to go back to being just friends, they aren’t going to be able to. So Mizuki asks Yukawa out.

Not sure of each other’s interest, there’s miscommunications, and misunderstandings, but slowly and surely Yukawa and Mizuki work their way towards a mutually romantic relationship. When Mizuki confesses that she loves Yukawa, it’s not so much a climax as a great relief to both women that they haven’t been wrong.

The final chapters are more of the same as Mizuki thinks out loud about becoming lovers and Yukawa has to figure out what she thinks about that.

The story here, in this Pixiv comic, is watching two adult woman figuring out what their relationship means to both of them. The creator is in no rush to reach any great dramatic climaxes. As a result, this manga is a slow, relaxed paced relationship, building upon shared time at the office and off-work. Neither Yukawa nor Mizuki are gregarious, but nether is super introverted. There’s little conflict except the moments when they don’t know what to do with their feelings. Inui Ayu’s art lends itself to the emotional struggles, with a focus on faces and inner states over action, as one might expect from a jousei manga. Lots of blushing and tears.

Teiji ni Ageretara is not the most compelling office romance I’ve read, in part because the characters act as if they are 14, not 24. And this is not even unrealistic for characters in their mid-20s who never expected this kind of relationship, I’m just a little less tolerant of existential crisis over calling someone by their first name in October 2019 than I was in previous years.  (That said, I will soon make a hypocrite of myself in an upcoming review, so wait for it… ^_^)

Ratings:

Art – 7 Characters have a tendency to look a little soppy
Story – 7 It’s nice, not amazing
Characters – 7 Same
Service – 0 in this volume
Yuri – 7 We end this volume at the beginning….

Overall – 7

The series is ongoing on Pixiv, so if this kind of slow-burn office romance appeals to you, you can follow Yukawa and Mizuki on Manga Jam on Pixiv and see how they are getting along. ^_^ You can read chapter 1-2, and then ongoing chapters starting with 6. For chapters 3-5, you’ll need to pick up this volume of the manga!