30-year-old Reina Hirota's chill life of snacking and binge-watching TV shows gets a wake-up call through a forgotten childhood dream buried in a time capsule. Suddenly, her content solitude seems more like a forever-solo voyage, prompting her to crawl off the couch and start husband hunting-not just to find love, but to help her family find their groove again. Now, if only she knew what she wanted-not just in life, but in a guy, too.
Thank you, Kodansha Comics, for the advance reading copy.
I absolutely enjoyed the artstyle and the unique characters!
This manga discusses on the life and decisions of a 30 year old woman who isn’t actively dating or looking for a husband as is expected of her.
Just read this amazing manga how in the end she decides to make a change. I specifically love how she ventures into a world of unknown and meet new people without any expectations.
Somehow the male side characters seem a little too unrealistic. That’s my only complaint.
My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for an eARC of this book to read and review.
It was weird, but I liked it. I'm not sure people really act like that IRL, but it seemed a bit like found family for those who don't fit the "normal" societal mold, so it worked. I am definitely intrigued and will seek out the next volume to see how the story progresses.
3, I wonder what I would have written as a wish for my future self when I was in grade school, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was the first manga I have ever read, and it was such a lovely and interesting introduction to the genre! I found myself tearing up at some scenes and laughing out loud at many others. The illustrations are crisp and beautiful. I loved the expressive nature of the characters’ faces.
As far as the plot, I felt it was the perfect balance of sending a message while also keeping the story lighthearted and fun. The Boys Bar is a hoot. I love the way the drinks look so tasty—like you can actually just taste them right off the page. I wish I could!
My husband was reading over my shoulder when I finished this book, and he even enjoyed it without having read the first 3/4 of the book. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.
*receiving an ARC did not influence my review or rating.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC! 2.5 stars rounded up to 3
I have such strange, mixed feelings on this manga. Like, I absolutely adore tackling adulthood and dreams and stuff during that time. I think what throws me off is I just really don't like the secondary female character XD She just felt a bit too deep in the strange/cringe pool. She may be one that grows on a person over time, but for me, she just did not. I also struggled getting into the book at the start (probably because of said secondary female character), but after Reina started to piece together her desires and moving toward them around the halfway mark, things just clicked together in this manga for me. I don't know if it's one I'd continue despite liking the concept because some things are just a bit too eh for me, but definitely one I could understand someone enjoying because of the way it tackles adulthood issues.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, which was provided in exchange for an honest review!
Follow thirty year old Reina, who is starting to feel somewhat directionless, on her journey to reconnect with what she wants from life.
I loved this book. As someone in their mid twenties reading this, it felt like a sort of second coming of age moment. There are some very lovable supporting characters, laugh-out-loud moments, and real introspective gems dealing with what in the heck we're actually supposed to want with our lives.
Looking forward to reading the rest of this series - very entertaining!
Akiko Higashimura fut celle qui a révolutionné les lectures pour femmes, pour moi, avec son Tokyo Tarareba Girls osant parler de manière grinçante des aspirations des femmes passées 30 ans. C’était drôle, percutant et honnête. Est-ce que cela nécessitait une nouvelle saison avec de nouvelles héroïnes ? C’est ce que nous allons voir.
Avec déjà une série conclue en 9 tomes + un Hors-série quelques années plus tard, la série d’origine comportait déjà un nombre conséquent de tomes, mais n’était pas pour autant la série la plus longue de l’autrice. Elle avait déjà commis Le Tigre des neiges en 10 tomes et Princess Jellyfish en 17, mais avec cette suite, elle commence à rattraper cette dernière. Akiko Higashimura, c’est également un style, un ton, qu’on se plaît à retrouver ici mais qui semble presque devenir une marque derrière laquelle elle se cache et ne se renouvelle pas toujours.
Cette nouvelle saison débutée en 2019 dans le Kiss au Japon, compte 6 tomes et s’est terminée en 2021. Elle reprend ce qui a fait le succès de la série d’origine : un groupe, ou plutôt ici un duo, d’amies célibataires alors qu’elles ont plus de 30 ans et qui n’ont pas exactement la vie de leur rêve, ce dont elles vont se plaindre devant un verre. Là où ça change, c’est que les héroïnes sont d’abord des collègues et qu’elles ne vont pas dans un restaurant traditionnel mais un bar à hôte où celui qui va aiguiller l’héroïne ne va pas être un auteur sarcastique mais un gérant fantasque. Le dynamique est donc ressemblante mais sensiblement différente et si on retrouve les fameux personnages fictifs « Yaka » et « Fokon », ce n’est pas pareil.
De mon côté, même si les sujets peuvent être intéressants vu sous un certain angle, je n’ai pas autant accroché que lors de ma découverte de la première saison. J’ai trouvé le duo moins accrocheur. Il n’y a pas la sympathie du trio originel. La quête de l’héroïne : « se marier et fonder un foyer heureux » bien que touchant quand on découvre d’où ça vient, ne m’attire pas. Je ne suis pas fan non plus des hommes qu’elle croise, aucun ne m’attire et du coup, je ne vois aucun couple intéressant se profiler. Même son « amie » et collègue, bien que drôle à cause de son décalage de femme d’une autre ère, ne m’amuse pas plus que ça. Je trouve l’ensemble assez plat, prévisible et sans relief, par rapport à l’humour grinçant et désopilant de la première série. L’autrice se répète, innove et en même temps ne parvient pas à renouveler cet essai réussi.
Pourtant, il y a des thèmes intéressants avec cette trentenaire qui vit chez ses parents, enchaîne les petits boulots, ne parvient pas à se motiver pour trouver quelqu’un au début et préfère être seule, ou encore sur le business des bar à hôtes ou même cette injonction à être marié à 30 ans, qu’on retrouve lors du déterrage de leur capsule temporelle, etc. Le parcours personnel de l’autrice est d’ailleurs à mettre en parallèle avec celui de ses héroïnes quand on connaît un peu son histoire maritale. On comprend mieux sa liberté de ton et ses multiples revirements.
Bien que divertissant, cette seconde saison des Yaka Fokon de Tokyo Tarareba Girls ne parvient pas à convaincre autant que son aînée, la faute à un schéma répétitif mais différent et un peu plus fade, qui ne renouvelle pas l’exploit d’être décapant. C’est juste gentiment anti-conventionnel mais pas suffisamment pour amuser autant que Rinko et ses amies.
Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I can't believe my favorite manga series is back! Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2, Volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura is an amazing new series by the mangaka of the original Tokyo Tarareba Girls series and of Princess Jellyfish. The story revolves around new character, Reina Hirota, a 30 year old woman who is unmarried, not dating anyone, and not living the life of her dreams. One day, when she gets notice that one of time capsules that she buried when she was a child is being unearthed, she suddenly goes on a spiral. What were the dreams that she had when she was a child? Did she achieve those dreams? Will she ever be able to find true love in the big city and find the life that she has been yearning for?
Overall, Tokyo Tarareba Girls Returns 2 is a funny, rollicking good time that will have you laughing, sighing, and crying, along with our main heroine. One highlight is that this series is by one of my favorite mangaka of all time. I own all of the first series, and I couldn't believe when I heard that her new series would be translated into English. Luckily for new readers, you don't have to read the previous series to understand the new series. I still highly recommend that you read the first series though. I can't emphasize enough how much I adore this mangaka's work, and I am honored to be able to review and support her new series. I had read every series of hers that has been translated into English. Another highlight of this book is how it taps into all of your emotions. The mangaka is an expert at making you feel everything. What are you waiting for? If you're a fan of the description, or if you're a fan of comedy manga in general, you won't regret checking out this book, which is available now!
Tokyo Tarareba Girls is back! This time we have a story set in the same universe as the original flavor Tokyo Tarareba Girls but this time starring two new women protagonists, navigating life as single women in their 30s/40s, both with different lifestyles and standing on that precipice of 'what if."
I've enjoyed the Tokyo Tarareba Girls series, so I slammed that Read Now button when I saw this sequel series pop up and I wasn't disappointed. the "Returns 2" series is a little more updated for the current era (as it was written more recently) and the mangaka pays attention to like little things those of the generation she's trying to portray does (as in the little author note comic at the end). I also appreciate the inclusion of the translation notes in the eARC as I always love seeing why translators make choices they do, or learning a little bit more about culture.
This series may not be for everyone (and you definitely don't have to read the previous books for this one!) but it's a good snapshot of a life of a woman sort of stuck in convenience and apathy and deciding maybe she wants to do something about that. We as readers don't know if her stated goal near the end of volume 1 is how things will turn out in the end, but there'll definitely be some self-introspection and self-learning along the way, and it'll be a fun and interesting ride with this cast of hosts and weirdo coworkers!
Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!
3.5 I loved the original Tokyo Tarareba Girls series, so I lept to snag a copy of this! Just as in the original, this series focuses on a 30-something-year-old woman, struggling to find herself and her place in life. Everything in Reina's life has become mundane and monotonous. She works a dead-end job, is still stuck living with her parents, and is forever single. She has no dreams and her life is a never-ending loop of boredom, and she's tired of a dull cycle. Reina's desire to get herself out of the stagnation her life has become is highly relatable to most 30-year-olds! A lot of us face the same exact situation as she does, so she feels very much like a real person. Her goal of "finding a husband and living a good life" is also relatable but also kind of hilarious how she comes to that point. The story's pacing does feel a little off. It's a bit too much talking and not enough doing this early in the series. But, Akiko Higashimura is known for having wonderful character monologues within her stories, so it's excusable. The art of course, I adore. I adored it in the original Tokyo Tarareda Girls, in Princess Jellyfish, and in many of her other works. I really hope this story finds it's footing a bit more as the series continues!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
Thank you to NetGalley, Kodansha Comics, and Akiko Higashimura for the opportunity to read this manga in exchange for an honest review.
I am an absolute Higashimura fan. Princess Jellyfish will always be one of my favorites, but there is something special about the target reader for Tokyo Tarareba Girls. And Tarareba (what if?) returns...again! With a new leading character.
Reina is a 30-year-old, single woman who finally has a stable job, at a library of all places. When she is asked about her dreams (job goals don't count), she isn't sure what her aspirations in life are. When her 6th year class reunion comes up to unbury a time capsule, she hopes to find what her dream was when she was younger, though she can't believe what she wrote.
In the questionings of "What if" this manga is fun for teen readers, but offers a unique allure for the women-in-their-30's genre, giving of Sex and the City vibes with a Japanese lifestyle and culture twist. Yet another great manga from a superb mangaka.
This book was kind of depressing actually. 30 something woman, gets a part time job at a library, not doing much else with her life, but she's happy...?
Gets taken to an odd bar and suddenly decides that she (and by extension her parents who she lives with) are unfullfilled because they don't celebrate the holidays anymore, like she did as a child.
Decides the only remedy is that she must get married and have kids immediately. Goes back to odd bar and decides to date the entire waitstaff simultaneously (despite having just mentally crossed them all, individually off her list of potential good mates).
End scene.
Cannot relate with this nonsense at all.
And the implication that living through your kids is the only way for a woman to feel fufilled annoyed me quite a bit.
The art was ok, but nothing I would go out of my way for.
Do take this review with a grain of salt, I am now in a mood.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This first volume is slow and...unremarkable. Ever since Princess Jellyfish finished, I've continued to read Higashimura's work and have always found myself disappointed and uninterested. Our MC is a 30-year old woman who finds herself adrift in life without a dream and startlingly finds that during elementary school her dream was to be married with a happy family. It's a very dialogue heavy first volume, and I just didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters the way that I would have liked
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's not bad, just meh and with prices of manga going up, unfortunately, that means that I'm just not going to buy volumes that are mediocre
This is an amusing story about a woman who realises a life of drifting is not going to get her the husband she dreams of. 30-year-old Reina Hirota's chill life of snacking and binge-watching TV shows gets a wake-up call through a forgotten childhood dream buried in a time capsule but is it that easy? Where do you start? This has great artwork and an amusing story which will definitely develop as the series progresses.
I'm hesitant, but interested to see what journey Reina goes on and what she learns from it. It feels realistic -- not afraid to bring you down to earth and point out your flaws. The lens of society being examined here? Relationships and childhood dreams, except starting in your 30s! The only comparison I have is to Princess Jellyfish, but Higashimura's comedic timing and storytelling surely show through in this work too.
This was not my cup of tea. There are two stories here: one where Reina is trying to get her life together and find her place, which I found intresting; and another where she spends time with her coworker who just annoyed me so much that I skipped all the parts with her in it. This series is better suited to a younger audience who enjoy quirky characters and coming of age stories.
I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.
Dans cette nouvelle série, on voit malheureusement que l'auteure est un peu plus déconnectée des personnages qu'elle inscrit sur la page. Ce n'est plus aussi vif et juste que dans la saison 1. À suivre...
A girl who feels content with her life, just coasting through life. She just gets a new job at the library, and makes friends with one of her co-workers. They go to a bar where they ask her what her dream is, and throw the rest of the book, she is trying to figure out what her dream is.
Meh. I'm just not really into the vibe of this. There was a lot of talking and not much of anything going on, and the idea of wanting to get married just to kickstart your life into its next loop is sad.