In Volume 1 we met Hanayo, an older woman, newly widowed and Yoshiko, a woman of similar age who opens Hanayo’s eyes to many things, including the pleasure of wearing makeup and reading Yoshiya Nobuko’s literary canon. In Volume 2, Hanayo takes steps to create a new life for herself, going out with friends, meeting people she would never have met before in her tightly controlled world, redefining her relationship with her son, and taking literature courses at the local university.

In Hana Monogatari, Volume 3, Hanayo stands upon the threshold of a door – a door open to a completely new life. She wants very much to step through that door, but a lifetime of being told that wanting literally anything is too much has left it’s mark. Hanayo struggles with how she sees herself, and how she relates to Yoshiko, as every time she wants desperately to say something important, she censors herself, causing confusion between her and this woman she has come to like. She and Yoshiko part after an argument mainly created around this distance between Hanayo and her own feelings. Yoshiko feels rejected, and does not understand that Hanayo is not rejecting her gayness, but the lack of her own will.

We talk a lot in manga about young love and first loves, but in schwinn’s Hana Monogatari, the story stops, stands us in front of a mirror and asks us to see how love between women has been – and for some people, still remains – something diminished, dismissed, even ridiculed. Of course Hanayo does not know how to think about this new thing she is feeling, because she has never truly been allowed to feel anything that wasn’t “appropriate.” A major turning point comes when Hanayao befriends to young men at the university in her course. They accept her as a fellow lover of literature, she finds she can tell one of them about Yoshiko’s store and he responds with enthusiasm. No one has included Hanayo so immediately at face value before.

When Yoshiko learns that Hanayao has collapsed and gone to the hospital, she is suddenly very afraid to lose what she has found.Yoshiko and Hanayo have a tearful reunion and decide clearly to tray to build something together for as long as they may be able to enjoy it.

As the manga ends, it asks us, “why are there so few happy endings?” in Yoshiya’s work…in stories of women… that are not merely centered upon a man marrying them. The story is clear about the answer, as well – because girls and women were and are not given the space or the right to write those stories. For Hanayo, her story begins when she puts the ghost of her past to bed.

When Yoshiko and Hanayo tell the two young men what they mean to one another, they are once again, accepted and included immediately.

Would I have loved 3 more volumes of this series? Hell, yes. I would have been happy to watch Yoshiko heal some of her own emotional wounds and just enjoyed them visiting restaurants and talking about make-up. But knowing that the two of them are writing a happy ending for themselves is also and important place to have ended this series.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 0 salaciousness, 10 empowerment
LGBTQ+- 9
Yuri – 8

Overall – 10

I still hope that it will be licensed by an English company, if only because we have so little senior Yuri – and this is an exceptional example of it’s kind. With ties to past, present and future, and a path to change the way Hanayo (and other women’s) stories were minimized. This is a smart,  touching manga that deserves to be shared for all the women out there who want to write their own stories.

If there was a “Perfect Manga About Pop Idols Who Are Adults”* award, Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya, Volume 4 would win, hands down. We’ve already seen Yodokawa handle adults having important conversations in Volume 3. Volume 4 was just about the most perfect volume of manga I have ever read. 

I don’t want to beat around the bush here – Suga’s issues around her birthday and Miyako trying to figure out how to celebrate, was resolved in a way so kind-hearted and human that I was deeply moved. For the thousands of horrible “pretend everyone forgot their birthday, so they can do a surprise party” manga, I at least have one manga in which a person who has trauma around their birthday was treated with gentle kindness. I will cling to this volume forever. But wait! There’s more!

As we learned in earlier volumes, Suga’s landlord, Miyako, is the former lead of a pop idol group, Elm. The new leader, Samukawa Ruri, know as Osamu, is a very serious and dedicated lead. And she’s working too hard. When she wants to detox, she’s showing up at the mangaka Suga edits for, Hato’s home. Hato struggles with what kind of relationship she and Osamu have – especially as she is a fan. This, too, is handled with gentleness and humanity, taking what might have been an overwrought situation and turning it into a good lesson on how to be a decent human.

And, finally, Suga takes Miyako home to meet her parents. Everything about this scenario could have been awful, full of terrible tropes, and yet, if was one of the most delightful things I have read so far this year. In the end I was left feeling very good about having read this volume and happy for both the characters and myself. I am all in for hygge in my manga and this manga is hygge, from Miyako’s and Suga’s comfy slippers right up to dinner made with love.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 10
Service – 0
Yuri – 9

Overall – 10

Where we’ll go with Miyako and Suga is clearly not nearly as important as how we’ll be going – with love, kindness and some delicious food. Volume 2 of Monthly In The Garden With My Landlord hit shelves in English this week, from Yen Press.

*As opposed to my “perfect novellas about pop idols who are adults,” obvs. ^_^