Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The story followed an introverted girl, Mari, who becomes friendly with an extroverted girl, Akiko. Akiko is Mari’s first real girl friend. And, then, they start to fall in love with one another.  I bring this up because a number of Yuri series begin in a similar emotional space – someone has not previously had a close friend and then their feelings begin to change. Saki and Kanon have both had a close friend before. They both know how friendship feels. They both know how it feels to feel betrayed, or lost when that friendship cracks.

In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月) a whole lot of things happen that remind us that this story is absolutely not handwaving *anything.* This is a remarkably profound story that is not at all taking shortcuts, even when we might expect it to.

First, in the wake of telling Kanon how she feels,  Saki has decided that it’s time to speak to Akira, the hair stylist whose “friend’s” story of first love with another girl seemed awfully personal. It’s an important conversation for Saki, because she starts to accept her feelings for Kanon. She has no clue where she is going with them yet, but she she’s starting to understand that this is who she is. Secondly, Kanon is also wondering what to do with her emotions. She’s got no name for this maelstrom she’s feeling ask Saki asks her a favor under the bright lights of a fireworks display.

Whether or not they become a couple is entirely irrelevant to me. Watching them work through complicated feelings about other people and with other people to talk to, is very much the crux of the matter. But, this volume isn’t leaning back on just this one piece of the story, either. Saki meets up with Ayano and once again offers comfort and a way to move forward for the other girl and Tomita comes back to school, openly admitting her disability, and apologizing to her ignored friends in a touching scene.

Yeas ago, I was reading a comic that cleared the low bar of the Bechdel-Wallace Test but inspired me to create the Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel-Wallace Test, which includes these three criteria:

Does female character have agency?
Does she have society?
Does she have personality?

In Amayo no Tsuki, Saki has society. Her friendship has helped Kanon to build the same for herself… and that is what makes this volume so amazing. If these two fall in love, it won’t be because they are sheltered in a world of two, blocked from the rest of society. It will be because they want to face that world together.  In the meantime, Kanon is not only finding her own ways to make friends and be part of her class’ activities, she’s also finding her own individual voice as a writer.

The final story follow Kanon’s sister Rinne and how she learns to be braver about openly displaying empathy for others with help from her sister’s experience.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service –  Saki and Kanon in yukata is also a form of service ^_^
Yuri – 5

Overall – 10

This was a fabulous volume of a series that is already carved out a permanent place in my heart.  I recently did an interview with a media platform in which I was asked where I saw the future of Yuri. The answer is – this. This intersectionality with disability, gender, race, mental health – these crossroads where we explore with it is to be a human with a body and mind that is not always under our control or are othered by people who are not us. This is where I see Yuri going right now and I really like it.

This series is available in English, as The Moon On A Rainy Night from Kodansha,  Volumes 1-3 are out and I have, of course, reviewed them here on Okazu. ^_^