Back in the day, Takebe and Soramori were rivals in the world of high school gangs, but when they meet again as adults in Volume 1, Soramori admits that she’s always liked Takebe. To Takebe’s shock Soramori asks her out…and she can’t quite come up with any reason to say no.

In Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, Volume 2 (私の拳をうけとめて) Takebe is trying to figure out any of what is going on here, while Soramori is mostly concerned that Takebe’s not having any fun. This isn’t true, but it’s so hard for Takebe to really express herself and she’s not really sure what she wants, so…Soramori keeps trying to find something to make Takebe happy, but when we visit Takebe’s family, we see that she’s had that same expression since she was a child. And Soramori learns she has a rival in the form of Otome, a neighbor, who has known and obsessed over Takebe for years.

When Soramori stops going to the origami class she and Takebe had signed up for, Takebe confronts the fact that she prefers to do anything with Soramori. And with extraordinary effort on her part, she visits Soramori and actually tells her!

Takee and Soramori join two other former gang girls, Maria and Miharu on…wait for it…an overnight camping trip. ^_^ Takaebe is foiled in her chance to just be alone with Soramori, but all of them just relax and enjoy the moment, which for such a wound-up series, is really quite lovely.

The art is solid without being stellar, the whole story is basically set around Takebe’s angry expression, but to my surprise there is character development in this volume 2, instead of just the same jokes, with every chapter ending in a bwa-wa-waa~~ sound.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 5 Yes, they are an item, but their relationship is still a work in progress

The series is still ongoing, you can read it online (in Japanese) on the Young Ace Web Ace site and watch as Takebe continues to grapple with what she’s got to be thinking of as her own arrested development.

BariKyari to Shinsou (バリキャリと新卒) has an interesting history. YNN reader CW gives us this brief overview:

“The opening originates in a brief comic posted to twitter which went viral. A few months later the mangaka asked twitter followers which of 4 ideas for couples they were interested in, with the clear favorite being Morino and Niiro. The web manga serialization began on Comic Walker not long afterwards. It looks like one of the cases where an editor invited a creator who was getting noticed on social media to do a series. The story progresses organically from the premise, but I think it’s ultimately a bit of a vestigial limb.”

And here we are, reading the collected volume of this web comic. BariKyari to Shinsou (バリキャリと新卒) by esuesu, starts with Niiro, a stressed out manager, being told by Morino, the lesbian sex worker Niiro’s been seeing, that Morino’s getting out of the sex work business and getting an office job. Because we are reading this comic, we’re not all that surprised to see Niiro’s newest kouhai at work being introduced…yeah, it’s Morino.

The two women navigate the boundaries of their workplace relationship, uncomfortably at first. And Niiro seems listless, uninterested or unwilling to get involved much. It’s fairly apparent to us, however, that she’s a ball of conflicting emotions. The tension finally snaps when Morino encounters some overt sexism from a manager and, finally, Niiro is able to verbalize her feelings for Morino. Niiro assists Morino to prove that she was in the right, and openly expresses herself to their manager.

And, Niiro tells Morino that she likes her.

They get together as a couple, as peers, and live what we are going to imagine is happily ever after.

There are a number of things to like about this story. Sex work itself is neither trivialized nor smeared and, with one or two exceptions, the situations in the office feel like things people deal with. The male manager taking the male employee’s side is a wholly real-world actual kind of rage, not outrage at an annoying plot point. I appreciated this level of realism later on in the story, especially because an early “gag” moment is merely eye-rollingly unfunny.

The final impression was that the story kind of took off from the original concept and told itself. ^_^ I was pleasantly surprised throughout. 

Ratings:

Art – 8 Very simple, but good expressions and body language
Story – 8 It had a few bumps
Character – 9
Service – 2 Very little visual service, honestly. Some verbal service.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

There was a time when I would have suggested that there was no way we’d see this in print, but things are a little different now. On the one hand Yen Press is Kadokawa’s partner in the west, (as opposed to Seven Seas – I am more confident that they’d be comfortable publishing this) however, if this sounds like something you’d like to see in print, definitely let Yen know.

I want to mention a little crisis I had as I began writing today’s review. I asked myself if this was Yuri or not, since these adult women are obviously lesbian (and one of Niiro’s exes appears and identifies herself as an ex), but as usual do not use the word itself. Ultimately, I decided that since the obi describes this as 社会人百合 story, (what I’m translating as “adult life,” since we don’t have an analogous term to shakaijin…”productive member of society,” maybe?) so “Yuri” manga it is. This manga is a great example of Is Yuri Queer? These women love and have sex with other women overtly enough that the word “lesbian”  is perhaps irrelevant.

It would make a fantastic conversation, in fact. What do you think? In your opinion is this comic LGBTQ or Yuri or both?

In 2018, we had a chance to look at Dousei Seikatsu ~ Watashi o Sukittekoto Desho (同棲生活 ~ わたしを好きってことでしょ, a full color slice-of life Pixiv manga by Satsumaage.

Today we have a sequel, Dousei Seikatsu 2 Watashi dake ga Tokubetsunara ii no ni (同棲生活2 わたしだけが特別ならいいのに). Like the original volume, this manga does not have a plot. It is instead filled with the minutiae that make up a life.

Yuuko and Miyuki share good days and bad days, food and drink, sleeping on the sofa and make fun of each other, as couples do.

As an accurate and affectionate look at two women living together as a couple, this is utterly delightful. Yuuchan is much more touchy-feely, and Miyuki is a but more needy emotionally, but any conflicts between them are small. Like “You drank my beer,” small. We don’t have to worry about them, They are a fine and we’re just watching them live.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Perspective is sometimes wonky, but otherwise solid
Story – 8 Life
Characters – 9 I’d have them over for lunch
Service  – 2 Surprisingly little
LGBTQ – 9 No discussion of them as lesbian, but it’s really aside the point here. They are a couple.

Overall – 9

It makes a good “just a couple of pages” at night before bed kind of story.