Adachi and Shimamura, Volume 1 is a brilliant example of excellent translation and adaptation. Molly Lee and Nibedita Sen deserve an award for giving the characters of this novel depth and voice. Everyone who worked on this book did a very excellent job.

And there is where my praise for this light novel ends. In 2013, I picked up the first book of this series and reviewed it here on Okazu. In actual fact, I had also gotten myself the second book of the series, which sat here for literal years while I debated reading it. I never did. This was just about the time the series was picking up popularity in Yuri circles in Japan. But, when I finished read it, I summed the whole thing up thusly, “The entire book had the feel of something written about an emotion by someone who was wholly, vastly unfamiliar with it. ”

My opinion of the author’s work did not change very much when I read several other books by them that were neither good nor bad, but just had that same sense of “a thing I read.” Then I encountered Shoujo Mousouchuu, which had some good features. Then came another book that was forgettable. So when Hitoma Iruma was named the writer for the Regarding Saeki Sayaka series, I was not overwhelmed at the choice. Their work, in my opinion, was inconsistent. In the end the Sayaka novels were very good, so I’m glad about that. The author has clearly leveled up significantly in the last decade.

But here we are, back at the beginning with Adachi and Shimamura and I am again puzzled by this novel. The art and words do not match at all. Shimamura, we are told repeatedly, has highlights in her hair which are wholly absent, but are just rendered as light brown hair. By the end of the book I can barely figure out which of the two blob-faced girls is which, since the hair and behaviors do not match. Neither wears the makeup that is mentioned. Both of them have personalities that make them hard to care about, although I imagine a lot of readers skip “care about” and go straight for “identify with.” As for them being “bad girls,” they are about as bad as an afternoon nap. Asamiya Saki or Kuraku Asuka wouldn’t give them the time of day.

And still, the alien, the cheongsam, the bowling all remain unexplained. I have in the past seven years been told that the series gets better as one reads and the alien is from another series, neither of which changes my opinion because that is not how books work. A writer tells a story that a reader reads. If the reader is required to know a thing, the writer must tell them because that is how stories work. I should not need Internet research to understand an entire plot point because she was a relic from some other series. Nor are books like a job, I shouldn’t need seniority to understand what I m reading. If a reader doesn’t find Book 1 entertaining, they are not going to keep reading because the series will eventually “get better.” I do wonder, though, if the story gets better.

This will not stop some of you from being very angry at my review from 7 years ago…or today’s review. Feel free. We don’t have to agree. That said, I stand by my original review. Neither Adachi nor Shimamura are particularly compelling characters by themselves and they clearly both have communication issues. The story, one hopes, will be them getting more comfortable over time with each other, with themselves and, presumably, with the alien. 

What I can be assured of, is that the team at Seven Seas will do an absolutely superlative job of bringing these two characters to life in English.

Ratings:

Story – 4
Characters – 4
Art – 4
Service – 3 More than I felt it needed
Yuri – 5
Adaptation – 10

Overall – 5

My original simile for this story was “Adachi to Shimamura is like a trifle made from chocolate, limes and mayonnaise, with a red bean filling. What might have otherwise been a pleasant, if sugary, Yuri narrative is made unpalatable by combining infinite inconsequentials with utterly meaningless distractions.”

You’re most welcome to disagree. ^_^

Thank you to Seven Seas for the review copy!