My Girlfriend's Not Here Today Vol. 2

My Girlfriend's Not Here Today #2

by Kiyoko Iwami

"LET’S PLAY AGAIN SOON<3"

Yuni loves how passionate her secret girlfriend can be, but honestly...? It’s starting to feel like volleyball takes up all of Nanase’s time. Especially when her latest game is all the way in Osaka, where Yuni will not only have to spend a lot of money but also be alone most of the time. However, Fuuko offers the perfect solution: She’ll pay IF Yuni goes on a date with her. It’s not cheating if you’re doing it to support your girlfriend, right?

Genres: Manga, Yuri, Romance, Graphic Novels Comics, Graphic Novels, LGBT

172 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2024

About the author

See also: 岩見 樹代子

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so let's get one thing straight: cheating is bad. Full stop. However, it's tough to completely demonize Yuni here, even though she's making some seriously questionable choices. The girl is head over heels for Nanase, but Nanase's world revolves around volleyball, and even more frustratingly, she flat-out refuses to tell anyone who she's dating.

Now, I get that coming out as gay can be a monumental pain in the ass, and scary, especially with these loser homophobes out there, but the fact that Nanase doesn't even throw Yuni a goddamn crumb of her time is just soul crushing to watch. Being straight-up ignored by the person you're in love with? That shit hurts.

Having said that, Yuni going along with Fuuko's bullshit and mooching a paid trip to Osaka to watch Nanase play is a seriously fucked-up move. She knows it's wrong, but deep down, I bet there's a little thrill and tingle in the you know what area, as she plays this dark and twisted game of secrets and betrayal. Because let's be real, cheating does that to a person.

This series is a goddamn train wreck, no doubt about it, but it's a train wreck I'm weirdly invested in. The pacing actually works, and it gives you legitimate, albeit messed-up, reasons for why the cheating is happening. Plus, Fuuko's backstory seems seriously tragic, assuming it's hinting at what I think it is. Either way, you bet your ass I'll be diving into the next volume of this hot mess.

[Mela Sidro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit! This just keeps getting messier!!! 😭😭😭
I'm on NOBODY'S side except Nanase's! 😤 That poor girl deserves so much better than this shit 😮‍💨

[Kapuzenmann ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ]

einfach nur grausam 😭😭😭
✨emotional damage✨
ich hasse alles und jeden hier (fast) (nanase hat das alles nicht verdient 3)

[Frank Chillura (OhYouRead) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well… it still makes me feel sad knowing she’s cheating. I just hope she breaks up with the girlfriend soon so I don’t end up hating her any more than I already do.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

As their lives continue, Yuni spends a lot less time with Nanase and a lot more being womanhandled by Taki. When Nanase is headed for Osaka, Yuni can’t go with her, unless she makes a deal with the devil. Again. For the nth time.

In their afterword, Iwami calls out this series as low-life, so it’s not as if they don’t know what they’re doing. This does move the needle a little bit from ‘car crash’ to ‘car crash, but the mangaka is driving and speeding into oncoming traffic deliberately’. It absolutely knows what it is and what it is doing.

Welcome back to the adventures of the awful people. Much like last time, poor Nanase is the most innocent, but she’s also pretty awful in her own way. There’s just a lot of ‘grading on the curve’ when it comes to these characters.

The fact of the matter is, Yuni is a girlfriend of convenience. When the stars align exactly right for Nanase, she will give Yuni the affection and recognition that she craves, but otherwise? Volleyball and being closeted are her life.

Even when Nanase accidentally comes out to a teammate, and feels better about it, she still won’t say who she’s dating. There is a lot she could be doing to make this all better and she does not, even after being accepted for being a lesbian.

Naturally, this no excuse for Yuni, who should actually break up with Nanase about twenty times over by this point. Love or no, the godawful excuses she keeps deluding herself with over her actions, which are cheating no matter how you look at it, show how wrong things are.

The fact that she gets along way better with Taki by this point should have alarm bells ringing from here to space, but Taki’s doing her job and controlling Yuni like a champion. Yuni hasn’t really stood a chance since she gave in the first time.

And Taki remains a conniving dumpster fire. We get a little backstory on her and there’s some very mild sympathy mixed in with her pure evil. There is also a little hint that this might just be her acting out, but things could run deeper.

Either way, Taki molests the heck out of Yuni, who really ought to protest a little bit more than she does. No means no, but she keeps putting herself in situations where she’ll say yes anyway.

This is one tawdry little story that is, in fact, the very definition of the word. When Taki and Yuni end up on the town in Osaka, because they are living an actual dating life despite what Yuni tells herself, they end up twinning in as ostentatious a way as possible.

It certainly lends a lot of credulity to the notion that Taki is using her blackmail as her own form of escape from her button down regular existence. Then again, she’s also a lunatic, so that explanation is just as valid.

If you liked the first volume and were hoping that it would get hornier and trashier in the second volume? Congratulations, you have been served a full course and a doggy bag for later on. This is a story about cheating, that is literally the stated theme, so don’t expect the power of love to trump the power of potential messy physical encounters.

The art is mostly okay, but there’s a shot towards the end of Yuni enveloped by Taki that makes her look completely trapped that is just dripping with some wicked symbolism. If you want what this story is offering, it serves it up very well.

3 stars - trash is still trash, but man is this ever an engaging pile of awful decisions and vague consent. Not the best thing ever, but an awful good time. In all respects.

[Des Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

These feelings hurt to explore, and no this isn't particularly nuanced (yet) but the "thrill" of cheating crossed with the art style and sensuality certainly strikes a chord. Everyone got a little complexity here. It's easy to understand where Yuni is, given the circumstance, but I'm still waiting for Fuuko's elaborate reasoning that makes her less of a villain. We certainly started down that road and I'm curious to see where it goes.

[em]

H*RNY

[j]

Girl just break up with your gf it’s not hard

[rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I crave more toxic yuri

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

YES! This is the messy behavior that I wanted! Fuuko is nasty, but I'm here for the chaos. To be critical for the sake of being critical, the series rly just goes with the flow with no rhyme or reason, just anything to make it AN ABSOLUTE TRAINWRECK. (And, I'm honestly here for it.)

I also love reading the author's note; I vibe with her shameless nonsense lol.

[Selva · Rating 5 out of 5]

me parece de muy poco recurso que Yuni haya aceptado de la oferta de Taki, solo para poder obtener dinero e ir al partido de Nanase... ya sabemos en que iba y termino efectivamente esa salida
ademas! feliz que la amiga de Nanase las haya visto, Yuni se lo merecia

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vol. 2 is a bit ickier than Vol. 1, but it still reads as a trainwreck I can't put down, despite myself.

I don't like thinking about what my dirty addiction to these trashy books says about me as a person... so I won't.

Yes I'm going to keep reading, and please stop looking at me like that.

[Chase Greysen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what it is, usually infidelity isn't my vibe, but ...

[jejihn · Rating 4 out of 5]

😔✋

[Katerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Alyss T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the fuck was that?

[Megaprout · Rating 4 out of 5]

rah ouaaaais

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - great building of the characters and their personalities but not my fav volume

[エリン · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is so good, I love drama

[ed · Rating 1 out of 5]

the art is sooooo pretty

[vivi · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m stressed as hell and i hope she breaks up with her girlfriend 😭

[Juniper L.H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am writing this having read volumes 1-6. This whole manga is trash, objectively, but in a very intentional way that is exactly what some people will want. It is an absolute drama-fest full of cheating and lying and manipulation, toxic people and relationships, and unrealistic everything. Most of the people in this manga are terrible people except for one who is an idiot, and one who (so far) seems to be a normal nice person who is caught up in the drama. So, if you want a drama full of toxic people then this is probably a good fit; if you want something realistic, romantic, or wholesome, then keep walking. Sometimes you just want to watch the dumpster fire, and there isn’t anything wrong with that! Oh, and the art is well done.

Rating manga volumes is hard; not a lot happens in each one after all as they are only a piece of the story. 4-star rating is based on the assumption that you want to read a toxic mess of a story. Withholding the last star because this is very unrealistic; I can’t follow the characters motivation other than “this is what we want to happen in the story”.

Volume 2 dives into bad behavior with full force. The character's idiocy is on full display. Things start to get truly messy and complicated.

[Ponyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In diesem Manga konnte ich besser nachvollziehen warum die einzelnen Personen reagieren wie sie reagieren (weil man die Charaktere und deren Geschichten nochmal besser kennenlernen konnte).
Ich bin gespannt wie es im dritten Teil weiter geht

[Lydiah☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im not usually someone who enjoys this type of theme in manga...but i can't look away and its stunningly beautiful and just a train wreck guilty pleasure read