Even Though We're Adults

Even Though We're Adults (おとなになっても) is a slice of life yuri romance manga by Shimura Takako.  The manga was published between 2019 and 2023 and has been compiled into 10 tankoubon.

    Elementary school teacher, Okubo Ayano, enjoys a rare night out at a small restaurant she visits from time to time.  The night slips away and she finds herself in the apartment of a woman who sat next to her at the bar.  Overwhelmed by emotions and unexplainable feelings, Ayano is drawn to her in ways she never felt possible.  Unwilling to dive too far too quickly, the other woman, Hirayama Akari, probes Ayano's feelings, searching for signs of trouble if she goes further.  Akari has not had a good track record when it comes to finding lasting love.  She tries to protect herself as well as she can by applying a series of litmus tests to a potential partner.  Ayano confesses she has never really felt this way about a woman before, not a deal breaker for Akari, who hopes that this new and exciting woman is just a late bloomer.  The pair exchange contact information and part ways before they decide to go any further, not wanting to ruin anything that may grow between them.

    Akari doesn't have long to wait to see Ayano again, nor does she have long to wait to see if the relationship will work.  The following week Ayano returns to the restaurant for dinner, accompanied with a man.  Ayano discreetly tells the stunned woman that the man is her husband, Wataru, crushing her freshly awakened dreams of happiness and companionship.  Afterwards, Ayano begins to open up to Akari about her situation, struggling with how to proceed, drawn strongly to Akari.  Ayano has never knowingly become emotionally drawn to another woman but hasn't exactly lead a traditional wife role.  She met her husband when she was 30 through an arrangement and the two decided to get married because it didn't seem like a bad idea.  After five years together, Ayano doesn't know if there is any real love for her husband and if she is staying with him out of convenience.  A better alternative to her current situation has not presented its self until Akari appeared before her.  Now she struggles with how to proceed, recognizing that there is little in the way of love between her and Wataru.

     Akari has been involved in situations like this before and has little desire to do so again, but something about the timid school teacher stirs deep emotions in her.  She had left her previous job as a stylist due to a woman she was madly in love with leaving her for a man she ended up marrying and having a child with.  She has been in situations where someone is cheating on their spouse with her as well and has always received the short end of the stick.  She just wants to find someone she can be with long term and not have to play childish emotional games.  Ayano struggles with her feelings and quickly reveals to her husband what happened, causing panic.  She feels trapped suddenly, in part due to her mother-in-law pressuring them to get serious about having children.  The revelation leads to Wataru and Akari meeting in a tense situation and his mother finding out about the infidelity.  His mother brushes it off, as it was little more than an innocent kiss between two women, ignoring any possibility of the intense emotional waves emanating from both parties.  She also forces the couple to move into the family home, using Wataru's father hospitalization as a catalyst.  

    The possibility of the two women finding comfort in each others arms seems to be evaporating as quickly as it began.  Ayano, through being open and honest with her husband, has been backed into a situation that seems like forced domestication.  She has expressed her desire for a divorce but Wataru is refusing to agree to it.  Life within her in-laws house finds her always under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law.  She has resigned herself to her fate, but the feelings for Akari persist and grow.  Akari struggles with distancing herself from the problem that is Ayano's domestic situation.  To limit continued contact with anyone related to her, she leaves her job at the restaurant, returning to the hair salon she previously worked at.  The change leads her to move as well but this puts her closer in contact with Ayano and the Okubo family than she ever would have anticipated.  The two women, drawn to each other stronger with the passage of time, struggle to navigate the complicated and delicate situation that they both find themselves in.  No one wants to move forward while leaving a wake of misery and hatred in their path.

    I have been a massive fan of Shimura Takako's work since I read her beautiful manga Wandering Son.  When I learned of this newer series of hers and that it was about an adult relationship I was more than happy to dive into it and dive I did!  This manga and Skip & Loafer kicked off my significant increase in manga purchasing in 2023, seeing me hitting book stores every week to pick up new volumes...if not the following day.  I digress though.  I have consumed a lot of romance in the past twenty years, but largely in anime form and have a massive void when it comes to manga, as there is so much more that exists.  On top of that, there are few romance stories I have gone over that deal with adults, as most accessible titles and anime are stories revolving around high school aged children.  When it comes to a yuri romance based around adults...well that comes down to one, this one.  Even Though We're Adults is my introduction to the world of adult yuri and I don't know if it is a benchmark of the genre, an outlier or a boring and repetitive one.  Take this severe lack of exposure into consideration in regards to my thoughts and critiques of this manga as a whole.  I am coming at it from the ground floor.

    Its inevitable that you come across reviews or opinions on a story that can influence your feelings on it.  I did that after reading the first volume out of curiosity and its made me wonder about the reality of the critiques when compared to the rest of the genre that I am not yet as deeply familiar with.  The main critique is that this is a story that focuses on a toxic hetero normative complication in what should be a blossoming lesbian partnership.  Akari herself, through out the story, continues to remind herself that shes not the bad guy in the situation.  She didn't seek out a married woman to seduce over to her side.  Yet she has to face off with a growing list of passive agitators while she tries to navigate her own emotions.  She is a victim of circumstance and falsehoods, lies she was not responsible for but was party to against her own desires.  Or that was the way it was in the beginning.  As time goes on, and Ayano continues to appear in her life and reaffirm mutual feelings, Akari resist the urge to expose her continued distraction to her family.   Ayano is incredibly passive, more than willing to play along with the demands placed on her by the husband she no longer wants to be with and his mother.  Her inability to make drastic changes in her life causing nothing but strife for herself and Akari.

    The story focuses largely on the struggles of its characters as they move through the evolving situations they find themselves in.  They are all adults and try to make themselves understood as much as they can.  There is no room for agonized internal dialogue, forever fretting over fictional scenarios of doubt and regret.  There is a lot of doubt and regret though, but its less about inability to communicate and more about hesitation due to expectations based on experiences in the past.  Akari has had a terrible romantic live, always getting the short end of the stick in every relationship, unable to find someone she can keep for her self.  These past pains drive much of her hesitation regarding Ayano, even after Ayano has left her husband.  She struggles to quell her emotions for the other woman and finds herself lost every time they run into each other.  As the story progresses more people in their orbit become enmeshed in the central drama, struggling with their own issues that exist on the periphery, unintentionally instigated by a chance encounter at a bar one evening.  This is a fantastic story that has me wanting more.  I have long respected Shimura sensei's work.  Another fantastic series by her is the equally complicated adult romance Koi Iji.  Both are well worth the time...if only either of them would get an anime adaptation.

The manga was released in English by Seven Sea's, with the final volume being published in February of 2025.  A live action adaptation is slatted to premier in April of 2025 on Hulu.

Honey and Clover

 Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー) is a 36 episode slice of life romance series based on the manga of the same name by Umino Chika.  The first season of the series was broadcast over the Spring and Summer of 2005 and the second season was broadcast over the Summer of 2006.

    Honey and Clover follows the lives of people connected by a rundown apartment building near an art college in Tokyo over a four year period.  While there is no one central character to the story much of the narration is done by Takemoto Yuta, a sophomore at the beginning of the series.  Yuta has come to Tokyo as a way to escape the discomfort he feels at home after his mother remarries.  Yuta and his flatmates have a close relationship with a professor, Hanamoto Shuji, who is an alumni of the school.  When he introduces them to his relative, the childlike Hanamoto 'Hagu' Hagumi, Yuta immediately falls in love with her.  Shuji convinced Hagu to attend the school as a way to break free of her isolated childhood with their grandmother, to help her grow as an artist and experience more of life.  Hagu is immediately preyed upon by Morita Shinobu, one of Yuta's roomates, in his sixth year of school.  Shinobu is fascinated by the living doll before him and begins to use her in various art schemes, much to her terror.  A third year pottery student, the beautiful Yamada Ayumi, comes to Hagu's protection and is the first new person she warms up to.  The core group is rounded out with Mayama Takumi, a forth year student who looks after everyone like a parent, while struggling with unrequited love for an older woman and friend of Shujis'.

    Yuta and Shinobu compete for Hagu's affection but she is more focused on her drive to create products that will last beyond her years.  She is shy, timid and cloistered by Shuji but over time she becomes friends with the group.  Ayumi struggles with her one sided feelings for Takumi, who sturggles with his feelings for Rika, whom he works for at the suggestion of Shuji.  Rika suffered a sever injury earlier in her life, leaving her crippled and weak.  Her determination drives her to continue the company she started, even if it means shortening her life.  Takumi is drawn by his desire to protect her, willing to throw everything else away to be with her, even if its only as an assistant.  Ayumi struggles with knowing that Takumi will never return her love but can not stop from feeling the way she does.  Shinobu doesn't express his feelings for Hagu in traditional ways, but he and Yuta understand they are competing for the small woman's heart.  Can the aloof man really provide her the attention she needs?  Shinobu frequently disappears for long stretches of time, doing unknown things for vast sums of money, only to return unexpectedly, as if he had never been gone.  Yuta's own level of maturity prevents him from being honest with Hagu as he coasts along watching the drama unfold around him.  Does he really have a plan for his life or is he running away from his feelings?  What does Hagu want?  She is a brilliant artist who is taking the opportunity of college to expand her abilities but at what cost and demand from those around her?

    Honey and Clover is a well written and complicated tale about young adults finding their place in the world.  The story passes quickly from year to year, skipping large portions of time while focusing on pivotal events that can cover hours, days or weeks.  The characters stories intersect at various points in time but are rarely all connected.  The story begins with Hagu entering school and ends with her graduating, with requisite back story to establish and reinforce the characters various motivations along the way.  Even though Hagu is the virtual center point of the story she remains an outside figure, with the story focusing very heavily on Takumi.  Even though much of the narration comes from Yuta he is a small player in the series as well, playing the part of the observer.  In the end the story deals with youth finding its place in the world of adulthood.  The struggles for acceptance and the paths that lay ahead of them.  The characters are well rounded and realistic, even if their antics are more for comedic effect at times, at its core this is a drama about humans trying to be humans and it does a good job at expressing that.

    The artwork in the series is fantastic and does well to translate the original authors creations, even as it fast approaches its 20 year mark.  Characters and story concepts may seem familiar if you are coming to this series late.  Umino Chika is the same author/artist who created March Comes in Like a Lion.  It is even set in the same 'world' as Ayumi makes a cameo appearance in that title.  Over all, the work is incredibly satisfying, if shorter than it should have been.  The story develops at a good pace and ends in a satisfying way.  While quite a bit old, it is a reminder that anime can be mature and steer wide of common tropes.  This is a story of humans interacting with each other in a realistic way.

   The anime and manga have been commercially available in the United States and elsewhere for a long time now.  The anime is currently available on Crunchyroll in both sub and dub formats.

Itohen

Itohen (いとへん) is a single tankoubon slice of life series by Unita Yumi.  It was published in 2012.

    Kuwabara Nanako is a bit of an air head and currently seeking employment following graduation from college.  She stumbles upon a small alteration shop with a beautiful dress in the window.  Wanting the dress above anything else she tells the shop owner she wants it.  The owner, being skeptical, warns her that it will be expensive as its handmade and will require slight alterations to fit her properly.  She doesn't care and comes back once the dress is altered.  It fits like nothing has before, further deepening her love for it.  The bad news is...she is unable to afford it.  She strikes a bargain with the shop owner to work off the price.

    The shops owner,  Hirata Orihiko, has doubts about the girls abilities.  Nanako presses him to let her continue working at the shop once she has paid off the dress.  While she has little experience with a sewing machine she is able to convince him that she can do the job.  Reluctantly he agrees to take her on as an apprentice and begins to show her the basics as well as expose her to the slowly shrinking world of artisan clothes making.  Cheerfully she accepts his lessons and works hard to prove her abilities.

    This was a cute and quick read, more slice of life than anything, it is simple and straightforward.  The focus of the series is really about the world of tailoring and what it takes to make clothing for commercial sale.  Each chapter goes through some steps to explain various aspects of tailoring, things that are above my head as I suck as hand sewing and have never desired to touch a machine.  Either way, with the subject matter not exactly matching my personal experiences, Unita conveys an excellent and heart warming tale, with some cautionary aspects to it.

    The artwork is fantastic, some of her best yet.  Bold, simple character designs with an eye for detail when it comes to the characters outfits.  Second nature to her given her previous life as a fashion design student.  This is the first time she has really done a manga about that aspect of her life.  Typically that only comes in through the character designs.  In my mind Unita Yumi is one of the top shojo/josei artists out there and her work is steeping in the genre's style.  Panels that focus more on the characters and their interactions than the environment.  She has a way with natural dialog and interactions...always ready or more from her.

  As with pretty much everything by her this series is not available commercially in North America...sadly so.

Princess Jellyfish - anime

Princess Jellyfish (海月姫) is an 11 episode comedic romance based on the manga of the same name by Higashimura Akiko.  The anime originally aired in Japan in the Fall of 2010.

    Tsukimi is a frumpy nerd girl who moved to Tokyo after graduating high school and has been trying to work as an illustrator.  She lives in a boarding house called Amamizu-kan which is occupied by other otaku girls.  The 'nun's of Amamizu-kan have strict rules about their convent and shun popular things, freezing up when confronted by their natural fashion enemies and forbid men from entering.  Tsukimi is a jellyfish otaku.  One night while visiting a favorite jelly at a pet store she realizes its life is in danger.  The employee of the shop is a trendy man which trips Tsukimi's self defense mode and she has a hard time trying to convey the danger.  As her attempts fail a beautiful and fashionable woman steps in to help.  In the end the jellyfish named Clara and the strong willed beauty end up back at Amamizu-kan.

    Tsukimi's trouble begins when the fashionable woman turns out to be a cross dressing young man who just happens to take an interest in her.  The man, Kuranosuke, is the illegitimate younger son of a prominent politician.  Raised for the first few years of his life by his mother, a foreign performer, Kuronosuke is very effeminate.  He wishes that he was a woman even though he is heterosexual.  Fashionable, loved by all girls around him, he is confident and used to getting his way.  His inexplicable attraction to the otaku girl brings him to Amamizu-kan in regular intervals.  He see's a beautiful creature hidden in a nerd cocoon that is Tsukimi.  The problem is, he has to hide the fact he's a man from the other residents.

    His entertainment is in danger of disappearing due to a plan to renovate the entire neighborhood, including demolishing all of the current buildings.  He whips up the nerd girls into a frenzy to fight for the continuation of the convent.  As he spends more time with Tsukimi he begins to fall in love with her, which confesses her.  Instead she has unmistakably fallen for his older brother Shu, who is involved in a sticky blackmail situation with a predatory woman from the neighborhoods redevelopment company.  Kuronosuke hatches a scheme with Tsukimi to make high fashion dresses made to look like various jelly fish as a way to raise the money to try and save Amamizu-kan.

   This is a ugly duckling shojo story with heavy otaku comedy elements to it.  Its the story of a fashionable member of the upper echelon becoming entranced with someone living in the gutter of society.  Changing the frumpy duckling into yamato nadeshiko, the ideal woman.  Along the way though the person making the change falls in love with their subject, confusing them. 

    I got into the manga recently and fell in love with it pretty quickly, so once I got caught up with it, as it is slowly ongoing I turned to the anime.  The anime does the manga well, but ends rather poorly, given the incomplete state of the manga its self.  The animation does justice to the feeling and styles of the manga and the voice acting is some of the best I have heard in a long time, matching the characters rather well all around.  In short, the anime is a well done piece, but probably leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you don't read the manga.  The last episode goes off course at an attempt to 'wrap' up the story to some extent prior to the real ending actually existing.  It touches on some aspects that appear later in the manga but just flips in the last two minutes for a hasty ending.  An ending which reminded me of the dangers Shirobako warned about when it comes to making an anime for an incomplete manga.

   Either way, fantastically enjoyable shoujo comedy anime and an even better manga.  The pace of the anime was petty good and made some parts of the manga more bareable.  I really dislike the side character Mayaya and her antics seemed a bit toned down in the anime.  Plus, the opening theme is one of the best I have heard in a long time.

    The anime was licensed by FUNimation in North America and the DVD's for it are easy to come by.

   

Yoningurashi

Yoningurashi (よにんぐらし) is a slice of life manga by Unita Yumi.  The manga was published between 2003 and 2008 and was collected into 4 tankoubon.

    Yoningurashi, which can be translated as 'Living as a Family of Four', is a sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes tender slice of life manga that deals with the day to day lives of; Chiharu (the common sense mother), Tarou (the reliable but childlike father), Yuri (the energetic 4 year old daughter) and Kotarou (the wild 2 year old son).  The series is broken up into 9 page vignettes that showcase segments of life the family experiences.  Such things as potty training, knitting clothes for the kids, eating dinner, going to the park, etc.  This vignettes are used to expose the reader to the characters personalities and background as the manga progresses.  Through out the story family side characters make appearances, such as Chiharu and Tarou's siblings.

    This was a fun and enjoyable manga, a far cry in some ways from everything else I have read by Unita-sensei.  It had the honesty and innocence of the first half of Usagi Drop.  There really isn't anything I can be critical about with this manga.  The characters are well developed and loveable.  The story is told in a manner that works well.  The artwork is what you would expect from the artist, but it fits with this manga perhaps better than anything else of hers I have read.  I guess I will have to go with the standby of...there needs to be more?  This would make an excellent anime short series.  Fingers crossed?

    Unfortunately, like most of her work, this is not available in North America commercially and I doubt it ever will be...shame, its a good manga.

Unita Yumi

Unita Yumi is best known for her josei slice of life manga/anime Usagi Drop, both of which have seen releases in North America.  She has been a rather prolific manga-ka since the end of the 90's with her realistic slice if life tails aimed at women readers.  She has a particular style with her character designs.  They are generally tall, slender and long-limb.  The women tend to have a homely/comfortable 70's hippie look to them and the men usually look at bit like idiots.  The artwork is lined and simplistic, with little in the way of shading and detail.  What lacks in depth of the artwork is more than made up for in the depth of the writing.  Unita-sensei focuses on interpersonal relationships for the heart of her stories.  She expresses human emotions and rationality in plain and realistic ways.  Many of her female leads go through a range of difficulties in their journeys,  sometimes rather aloof to their circumstances.  My review of a longer and pleasant slice of life series called Yoningurashi can be found here as well.

Below are a number of her one shot and shorter manga titles.

Nomino:  18 year old Mitsuya has to deal with his childhood friend, Noko, who is a bit more dense than the average person.  He has to take time out of his exam studies to ensure that she doesn't get into trouble.  It seems that the almost childlike Noko is convinced she will be with Mitsuya for he entire life and isn't concerned for her self.

    This is an interesting story for Unita-sensei,  given that the female character is incredibly simple minded and lacking self sufficiency.  By the end of the story you almost wonder if she doesn't have some sort of learning disability.  Its like shes a 6 year old in a 16 year old's body.  Mitsuya seems duty bound to protect her from her own naievity.  You almost feel sorry for the girl,  as it really doesn't seem as Mitsuya has any intentions of marrying his childhood friend.

The Girl on the Other Side of the Glass:  Takahashi is a 29 year old office worker who has begun to notice a young woman always crossing his path in the morning at the train station.  The problem is he can't talk with her, they are going opposite ways each time and a wall of glass separates them.  When their brief relationship seems to be in peril he does what he can to actually connect with the girl.

    This is a sweet story about chance encounters possibly leading to wonderful things.  Takahashi doesn't have anything to look forward to in his dismal worker bee life,  except the kind smile of the girl heading the other way every morning.  It was short, simple and ended in an manner that would make you think life just continues on as it always has.

 

Mani Mani:  The first story deals with an unrelated woman who returns to the countryside after leaving her job to figure out what she wants to do with her life only to become romantically involved in a childhood friend.  The rest of the stories deal with Fuuko and her mother, Kureha.  Fuuko is struggling to remain focused with with her studies and frequently skips school, but she gets help from her older tutor boyfriend and wants to try harder.  She doesn't know the trials her mother faced at her age in being a single mother trying to make it in a society that looks down on you.  Kureha made poor choices when a teenager but worked hard to provide the best possible life for Fuuko.  Atthe same time she trusts her own daughter to make better choices than she did.

    The first story is out of place with the rest,  although I have not been able to read the final chapter so it may all tie together.  The other stories weave a fascinating ans realistic tale of delinquency,  poor choices and the struggle to redeem them...working to make a better life out of the bad choices.  I would put this the best story out of all of the shorts and am eager to be able to finish it up.

Toribako House: Miki is stuck in a long term and controlling relationship with an older man she isn't sure she loves any longer.  Due to this situation and her own hang ups she has a hard time interacting with others.  When he explodes about her being out late with her friend and two college students they accidentally ran into she sees a side of him that scares her and she decides to make her move.  One of the guys she ended up chatting with at the bar does what he can to help her stay out of a dangerous situation.  She ends up boarding with him and a small group of odd men in a ramshackle boarding house know as toribako,  or bird box.  Now she has to start over and be self dep3ndant all well trying to keep from being hurt by her ex boyfriend.

    Unfortunately I have only been able to read about half of this story but what I was able to read was enjoyable.  I wonder about Miki and her pathetic-ness.  When Unita-sensei chooses to make a female lead a stereotypical helpless woman it makes me feel somewhat cheated.  I keep hoping that all of her female characters will be strong willed champions of feminism.  Yet they mostly do not fit that bill and when they are as pathetic and hopeless as Miki its hard to be satisfied.  Even with the leads weakness the story is enjoyable,  especially the odd ball residents of the boarding house.

Yuku Yuku: These are stories about the side characters from Toribako House.  The first story deals with Miki's best friend and he own relationship issues.  The second story deals with an otaku who lives in Toribako House and his efforts to get a girlfriend.  There appears to be a third chapter that I have not read though.

    It was nice to see side stories from Tokibako House, it would be cool to have one for all of the side characters.

Sukimasuki : Heisaku is a slacker college student who has a bizarre habit of peering into shadowed spaces in the world; small spaces between buildings, drains and any other shadow space left forgotten by others.  The space that has the most draw to him is the slit between the curtins of apartment across from his bedroom window and the mysterious women he sees there.  He stresses about what he is doing might be peeping but can't help himself being drawn to the space between the curtains and what the world beyond them holds.  One night at school he runs into a girl who may very well be the woman who lives in that space between the curtains, that he spies on every night.  Little does he know the girl has been secretly spying on him as well.  Obsessing over him and amassing an impressive collection of photographs.  When the first chance encounter leads to her joining his small group of friends he has to figure out if she knows hes been spying on her or not and figuring out the easiest way to get to know her better.

     This was the first non-Usagi Drop manga I read from Unita-sensei and it was a bit of a departure from what i was used to.  Given the breadth of her work that I have read since then, I would say its the other way around.  Heisaku is an idiot and he can't help himself.  Once he does begin interacting with the woman he has been spying on he becomes even more of an idiot.  The woman too shares her own insecurities and problems so it's only a matter of time before they can actually interact with each other normally.  I liked this one and would like to see it turn into a short anime.  I do believe there is a live action version that either came out recently or is in the works.
 

 

    I really have come to enjoy her various pieces and would like to see more of them licensed in North America...but a lot of people may shy away from her given the ending of Usagi Drop and how much its upset readers.  I would like to see more feminism from her, but she does a good job as it is with providing complex and strong female characters, even if they sometimes need a 'mans' helping hand from time to time.

Koizora: Setsunai Koi Monogatari

Koizora: A Sad Love Story is a romance manga based on a digitally released novel written by the enigmatic Mika.  The manga adaptation was done by Ibuki Haneda.  The events of the story are supposed to be either autobiographical or biographical.  In the end it is really unknown how much of the story is based on real events.  The manga was released in Japan between 2007 and 2009.

    Mika Tahara is a first year high school student who is self conscious about her looks and yearns for nothing more than to experience love and grow into an adult.  She ends up getting the unwanted attention of a flashy boy by the name of Nozomu who Mika’s new/best friend Aya has a crush on.  Over the summer break Nozomu drunkenly calls Mika to talk but his friend Hiroki Sakurai takes the phone and apologizes to Mika.  Uncertain as to why, Mika finds that she can trust and confide in the voice on the other end of the phone.  This first encounter turns into a continuing phone based relationship where Mika and Hiro open their hearts to each other.  The return to school means the two will meet each other in person for the first time.  Mika is surprised and concerned that the person she feels so comfortable with is a boy in her grade who has the reputation of a delinquent and gang member.  Hiro sensing her unease persuades her that it’s really him and that she can trust him.  Soon after they begin dating but Hiro’s ex-girl friend exacts revenge on Mika.  Her life starts down a long and painful spiral of misery and sadness as she tries to search for happiness.

    As the subtitle suggests this is a sad love story.  I find it would be impossible for anyone to read through the last few chapters without getting choked up.  I tend to enjoy series with depressing stories over happy go lucky ones because I feel these are more grounded in reality.  Whether or not all of the events in this story are true, it is based in reality.  People do live and die through similar experiences.  If the events are true and are based on the experiences of one person, perhaps not the timing of them or every last detail as laid down in the manga, my heart goes out that person for how much they have suffered.  This is a sobering tale of the dangers people face in life and the act of growing as a person.  While I normally moan about how most anime/manga gloss over hard reality this story grabs it by the balls and doesn’t let go.  It faces head on subjects like rape, drug abuse, suicide, abortion and the fragility of life.  At times it did get a little too religious for me, but that’s just the godless atheist in me.  It felt a little preachy to me at some points but I got over that.  The story is fascinating, painful to read and worth doing so.  It follows about six years of Mika's life, sometimes skipping large sections of time and other times focusing on day to day incidents.  The story really seems to be split between Mik'as time in high school and her time in College, both parts consuming about the same amount of the story.  The weak point of the manga is the art, no disrespect to the manga-ka but her style isn’t to my liking.  It actually reminded me slightly of a cross between Ai Yazawa (NANA) and Yumi Unita (Usagi Drop).  Not a lot of detail in many of the panels, some of which only contain a character and a white background.  But, in many ways the stark and simplistic style presented by the manga-ka flowed with the feel of the story.  You can tell she put her entire heart into retelling this tale.

    This is a very dramatic and sad story, it’s not for everyone.  I think that fans of series like NANA and Usagi Drop (especially the 2^nd half of that story) would read this manga.  The novels were incredibly popular in Japan when they came out in 2005.  Soon after a movie and a 6 episode TV drama were released to mass approval.  Nothing for the story is commercially licensed in North America though.  While this was an incredibly popular story I don’t think it will ever be animated.  That would have happened by now if it was ever seriously considered.  There is also no word on any format of the story being released in North America.

Usagi Drop - manga - complete review

Usagi Drop is a slice of life josei manga by Yumi Unita and was serialized in Japan between 2005 and 2011.  It was adapted into 10 tankobon, a 13 part anime and a live action movie.  I have previously reviewed the anime so some of this may be a repeat.

    The manga is split into two stories.  The first deals with 30 year old bachelor Daikichi Kawachi returning home to attend his grandfather’s funeral.  He, along with the rest of the family, discovers that grandpa sired an illegitimate girl and had been raising her on his own.  The girl, Rin Kaga, a shy and introverted six year-old, who begins clinging to Daikichi due to his resemblance to the late grandfather.  The family begins to discuss what to do about the disgrace to their name Rin has brought by existing.  Daikichi, infuriated with their lack of empathy, rashly decides to care for Rin by himself.  Next thing he knows he’s now adopted a young girl he knows absolutely nothing about let alone how to raise her properly.  With the help of his cousin who has a girl Rin’s age, Reina, and his compassion and patience, Daikichi somehow manages to provide for Rin.  In the process of getting her life to as normal a state as possible Rin becomes friends with a boy in her preschool, Kouki, who lives with his divorced mother.  Daikichi begins to have feelings for Kouki’s mother but cannot bring himself to express them.  At the same time Daikichi is driven to discover who Rin’s mother is and what her reason was for abandoning her.  Can Daikichi really raise Rin and what will Rin want in her heart?

    The second part picks up the story 10 years later and focuses more on Rin's point of view.  Daikichi is 40 and Rin is 17.  Over the past 10 years they have developed a strong father-daughter bond and Rin is growing into an intelligent and beautiful woman before his eyes.  Rin attends the same high school as Kouki and Reina who have all become close friends.  Kouki though, has deeper feelings for Rin but problems in their middle school years have created a rift between them that is hard to gap.  Daikichi is still focused on Kouki’s mother, but after all this time still cannot express his feelings to her.  As the kids are faced with having to think about their futures as adults Rin begins to question what she really wants to do with her life and who she really is.  She begins to wonder about whom her mother is and what led to her circumstances being under Daikichi’s care.

    It’s actually pretty difficult for me to express my feelings for this series.  When I originally began reading it in 2008 I really enjoyed it.  But due to circumstances was unable to continue reading it until very recently.  Originally I had made it through the first 4 tankobon, which deal with Rin at the age of 7, and a little into the 5^th, which is when it shifts to her being 17.  The anime deals only with the first 4 tankobon and I assume the movie does as well.  That being said, I was unsure as to what would happen in the rest of the series.  I liked the idea of jumping the story ahead so far and using flashbacks to fill in some of the important gaps.  The ending was a bit surprising though.  I had developed ideal conclusions as I read the series and I am a little disappointed that they didn’t pan out, but that does not mean the ending is bad, quite the opposite. 

    This is the best manga I have read and one of the best pieces of literature I have read as well.  It has affected me profoundly at a deep level, it’s hard to explain.  I know part of it is through some relation.  When I began reading the manga my daughter was about the same age as Rin.  While the circumstance of Daikichi raising Rin and myself raising my daughter are nothing alike, I could completely relate with much of what Daikichi was going through.  Yumi Unita has done an amazing job of creating a very realistic story, steeped completely in reality, sometimes rather mundane reality.  Again though, the way the story wrapped up was a bit surprising, but good.  It wasn’t the ending I was hoping for, but it’s probably a more interesting ending. 

    I want to reread some of the last 2 tankobon to see if there were nuances I had missing that I may be able to pick up on knowing how it ends.  The final one, the bonus material, was nice and enjoyable as well.  It didn’t put closure on the series though and there is one glaring question that still needs to be answered…one really important question.  While it seems highly impossible, it would be great for more material in the series, perhaps another story line set another 10 years in the future.  It would also be fantastic to see the second story line made into an anime.  I hold out hope for the second anime series because Usagi Drop was met with a moderate amount of success.  I also look forward to other works by Unita, who apparently is a relatively new name in manga…good for her on being so successful!  Her story truly is amazing.

    The manga is available in North America through Yen Press, 9 tankobon are out and the 10^th will come out early 2014.  The anime is available on Crunchyroll as well.  It’s hard to compare it to other series, but if you enjoy stories that deal with realistic circumstances and characters growing as humans do then this is by far one of the best you will read.