Now that Uta has left, Kaoru and her husband are back together and surely that will bring them closer again? Or maybe ripping off the bandaid will reveal that the wound hasn’t healed, only festered, and without Uta, Kaoru might have even less left than she thinks…
Phew, well, you’re not likely to see a more compelling portrait of loneliness and depression in a manga this year. Turns out that behind her clumsy, somewhat flighty nature, Kaoru is… a bit of a total mess. While she has never been the most compelling character, this volume does wonders in explaining why that is.
For all its narrative dramatics, there’s nothing more real than seeing Kaoru ask her husband about having children, less so because she wants one, but because she clearly thinks that this will fix everything in her life. Having seen that play out in real life, it struck home for me and the desperation, unspoken, is palpable.
Smartly, this volume has practically no Uta in it - she merely exists as a memory of better times and even then she feels practically ephemeral, like a ghost that haunts this very broken marriage.
If there is to be yuri, and there hasn’t exactly been a ton of evidence that Kaoru is gay, then singling out Uta as the one bright spot in Kaoru’s life and the person she relates to the strongest is pretty much the way forward with it. Once more I think the character study is so interesting that if yuri happens, great, but if not and the ending still works, good enough.
Uta’s role is emphasized by the flashbacks, where Kaoru’s sort of ‘because he’s there’ attraction to Reiichi, her husband-to-be, ends up being a very painful moment for her when her “best friend” ends up dating him. There is a lot of subtext here that said friend isn’t into Reiichi at all, but the reader can judge for themselves there.
Still, her actions are subtly destructive for poor Kaoru, who is being gaslit so freaking hard in the present day that it’s absolutely painful to watch. When I read Days of Love at Seagull Villa, another yuri story with a miserable friend, this sort of sneaking maliciousness is what I was after because it feels real. This is as believable as that other story was not.
Even the way Kaoru and Reiichi finally get together, after a tragedy has basically sapped the good from Kaoru’s life nigh permanently, feels like nothing more than pity on the part of the latter than any particular higher emotion.
My worry is that one final volume isn’t enough to clear this all up, although it is definitely bringing a lot home to roost. I wish the pacing of this series had been a bit more consistent because the last two instalments have been stuffed full of developments. Great twist of the title to be in reference to a different character this time out too.
5 stars - this is the book that I suspect will linger with me most out of this week’s releases. From a slow start have come two amazingly well-written volumes and I am dying to see whether this ends up going for it or not, in terms of that romance and where our characters end up.