A touching yuri romance about two women building a life together in rural Japan, by the bestselling creator of I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up!
When Mayumi’s fiancé leaves her for another women, she decides to start a new life out in the countryside. But country living isn’t as peaceful as she thought it would be—her landlord, Rin, is loud, bossy, and always up in Mayumi’s business. But Mayumi soon sees that there’s a lot going on under Rin’s brash exterior: Rin is raising a young child on her own after experiencing a major tragedy. As the two women come to rely on each other, their relationship starts to grow into something complicated.
ugh. maybe I've been reading too much really, really good yuri lately or something, but this manga fell super flat for me. there's an excessive amount of unnecessary nudity and a big fascination with boobs that got old real fast. at one point the child character latches onto a woman she barely knows and starts sucking on her breast??? there was no purpose to this scene, it was just another chance to focus on boobs. the story is rushed, there's a kiss that feels very forced and it's unclear why either of these women feel the way they do about each other. there's no deeper commentary or exploration of being an unmarried working woman in a patriarchal society, or a woman who loves women, or really any kind of deep discussions at all. that may seem an unfair critique for a first volume of a manga, but when yuri like Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon and How Do We Relationship? are being made, there's really no excuse. I also feel like there was waaaaay too many plots shoved in here. we've got the main character and her moving to a new town, the love interest and her grief, a teenage girl being bullied because she's a "bastard child", an ex-best friend forcing herself back into the picture and half-sisters that may or may not be romantically interested in each other and apparently like to kiss when no one is looking. incest aside, it's just too much going on which leads to flattening of characters to fit everything in. I don't think I'll be continuing in this series. there's just too much superior yuri out there now to cling to a series that's only saving grace is that it's gay.
The art is very pretty, but this just wasn’t for me. I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the characters, the kid really weirded me out and a girl kissed who I think was her half sister?? It just wasn’t for me personally.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Rin thinks she’s saving the gloomy Mayumi from killing herself, but that’s not really what she needs saving from. Mayumi has actually fled the city for the countryside, taking up a small town teaching position. Rin herself is brash, outspoken, and nursing pain of her own. And so a story of two broken people making a whole begins...
Pedigree counts, sometimes. This is from the author behind NTR and I Married My Best Friend To Shut My Parents Up. The former I have stalwartly avoided reading and the latter I did not much care for.
This, however, is better. It’s not great, but it’s quite good and parts of it are flat-out delightful (the art in particular does some really nice larger spreads a couple of times that were just right).
It really doesn’t put its best foot forward though - Rin is rather obnoxious at the start (and kind of throughout, though her heart is in the right place) and Mayumi’s assumptions about small towns and, indeed, Rin’s lifestyle are rightfully skewered for how awful they are.
What I do appreciate is that it’s also showing the two making one another better, which is a route that, oddly, many romances simply don’t choose to pursue. Where one of them has the courage the other lacks, the other has tact and common sense.
So, on the one hand you have two people finding a new path forward (although we’re promised a visit by somebody who is essentially pure evil for the next volume) and struggling with loss and making a new family unit together from an unexpected place.
On the other you have goofy bathing scenes, groping (mercifully called out), boob jokes, MORE boob jokes, drunk kissing, and high melodrama with some truly strange reactions (I get what Rin is saying about people going missing but that doesn’t make it make any more sense). Oh, and some half-incest that comes out of nowhere because... I don’t know why, actually... at least it’s main plot adjacent for now.
I’d truly like to see more of this small community setting; there’s arguably a whole series based around that sort of lifestyle, and I wish the chemistry between Rin and Mayumi made a little more sense. It’s nice to see at least one bi character in a manga for a change, but I don’t feel completely sold on the relationship yet.
3 stars. This book intrigued me and I want to read more of it, heck I want to reread it just to see how I feel a second time, but it’s such a variety of things all at once and some are done well and some aren’t. I’m expecting one character to fully infuriate me next time out, so stay tuned for that one!
One of those found families romances. Here a woman from the big city flees heartbreak by taking a temp job in a small town far from all her problems. She of course finds herself in a boarding house full of people who have their own problems and tragedies. And the owner awakens strange feelings in her.
It's all fairly generic but has more than enough charm to make me happy I have the concluding two volumes cued up and ready to go.
This is already off to a better start than the previous works by Kodama Naoko I've read, although it still wouldn't make my top ten list. I have some concerns, like Evil Former Friend who is likely to come waltzing in to crush Mayumi soon, and the situation with the girl who's being bullied (and is hitting on her half sister?) definitely concerns me, but I am curious to see where things are going. Interestingly enough, I can definitely see both NTR and I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up in this, which may bode either good or ill. I guess I'm going to find out.
I was excited by the description of this manga series, however actually reading it made me feel conflicted. As much as I liked the storyline it was going in, the potential subplot of incest between the 2 half-sisters made me disinterested. Also, have you ever looked at a character and knew that they were going to be petty angry for no particular reason? Those were the vibes that I got from Mayumi’s man-stealing friend. I found out this was a really short series so I’m deciding to stop here and simply imagine a happy ending.
This is giving off intense melancholy vibes that meet cottage core lesbian :D Boundaries are a new concept to these characters, but the ensemble is interesting and there was enough angst strewn in to make me invested. Some people behave super questionably, but I hope this will be written carefully enough that that won't be a longstanding issue.
CNs for infidelity, bullying, non-consensual kisses, deaths by car accident are talked about and leave a child orphaned with her aunt, grief, a whiff of incest
CW: Death of a family member, Half sisters kissing, Bullying
This volume was really good. We follow a woman named Mayumi, who's husband just left her for another woman. She moves to the countryside to get away from her troubles and runs into Rin, who turns out to be her landlord at the inn she's staying at. I really enjoyed this first volume. It has a good set up for a cute love story, and I like learning about the back story of our characters. They both seem pretty fleshed out, which is refreshing. Rin also has a young niece, who she cares after. I found her character very cute, and not annoying, which was nice. I'm looking forward to seeing how this relationship developes.
If this is longer and explored the complicated stuff I would have given it a 4 star but it seemed rushed in the end (although it's a happy one, even for that one particular person who didn't deserve it). There are lots of things (issues) that needed to be discussed or straightened out. And I wonder why Mayumi didn't tell her whole shebang to Rin since there's a lot to unpack there.
The first Manga I've ever read (I borrowed it from my best friend after she said it was pretty good) So I gave it a Chance and I have to admit at some point I was like WTF and yk confused but alltogether it was really quick, short and the Art was beautiful in its own ways. I've also got manga 2 here and actually am really interested in how the Story will continue!!! 3,5 stars out of 5 :)
I thought it was ok. The art style is pretty even though I’m not the biggest fan of the “big head, bigger eyes” style. My one gripe with this is probably how fast it moved. Like why are we doing tits this early??? What happens to hello, my name is??? I don’t think I’ll pick up the next one but I’m glad I read it now.
uhhh yeah not rlly vibing with this, but i do want to see it end?? not at all a fan of the half-sibling relationship tho, too many things are trying to happen at once but the pacing is off, so things aren’t presented with much as depth as it should
Poderia ser bom, mas tem muitas coisas que me deixaram incomodada hahaha Vou continuar lendo pra apoiar o lançamento de mais yuris no Brasil, mas só por isso...
The 1st time I truly felt the comfort in a comfort read.
Mayumi's life is turned upside down when the two people closest to her betrayed her, she felt the only option was to run away from her busy life in Tokyo to a slower, quieter life in the countryside. A chance meeting with her (then unknown) landlord Rin, that's when her "slow," county life really took off.
This is definitely a slowburn romance that is sadly only 3 volumes. The two main characters lives aren't the only lives explored, which I find refreshing for girl's love (yuri) manga. I really like how side characters develop alongside the main duo, even the background characters, they are all interesting folks that I'd like to learn more about. And there's even a child character, Hinata, Rin's niece that she now takes care of, throw in the mix, making things all the more interesting.
I'm not partial to kids, and while children in stories can be valuable for the story telling aspect, I find myself really fond of Hinata, she's sweet and spunky, she's just adorable! And a really valued part of the story, not just a cute story-telling tool.
The art is soft and bubbly, giving the book a relaxed tone. I've never felt comfort from a book, like how people say they do, I've felt joy with the characters, anger, sadness, but I've never felt like a book give me a hug, until I read Days of Love at Seagull Villa. This is truly a comfort read.
I am highly looking forward to the next two volumes, and I already know I'm going to be sad at the end of volume three, wishing that there was more.
Si on ôtait un peu tous ces clichés bêtes de comparer les seins, de l'obsession des personnages sur les seins (surtout de l'enfant), ça aurait pu être pas pire comme manga yuri, mais honnêtement, ça vient vraiment ruiner l'ensemble.
La mangaka essaie de présenter des personnages complexes, avec leurs propres traumas et difficultés d'intéragir avec le restant du monde, qui voit leur problème se répéter chez d'autres, mais sont (pour le moment) incapables d'agir, le tout dans une histoire de désir sans grande originalité, mais qui sert bien l'évolution que les personnages auront à prendre: avoir confiance, se confier à l'autre, partager leurs émotions, etc. On a même un petit passage sur le harcèlement sexuel d'une homme sur la protagoniste Mayumi, mais on ne réfléchit pas trop aux gestes qui sont posés par les autres personnes sur Mayumi.
Bref, ça avait un potentiel d'être un bon manga ado lesbien, mais ces insistances et ce regard qu'on dirait sorti des boys club sur la protagoniste dessert complètement la narration.
Was du erwartest: Heilsame Geschichte über einen Neustart und langsames zärtliches Annähern der Protagonistinnen
Was du bekommst: Vermieterin kommt ungefragt zu Protagonistin ins Bad, starrt ihre Brüste an, lässt ihr Kind an ihren Brüsten nuckeln, betrinkt sich, küsst sie ungefragt und wirft sie in ihr Bett? ehm
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
So many things about this were gross that I don’t know where to start… but it also was dumb enough that it’s not even worth the energy to explain why. How does this have 3.94 rating?
I'm not really feeling this. I'll read the whole series because I bought it but having it get immediately physical and the incest side story is giving me the ick