This is...disappointing. It's just not very good. It's not good as a sequel. It's not good as a standalone. It's sort of...there. I read the first few chapters when they came out and didn't think it was anything special, and after having caught up I still find it quite un-special. I don't hate it, but it's disappointing to read something so bland and straightforward from one of our greats.
Disregarding the obvious complaints made regarding amnesiac jealousy, there's just not enough new ground here to cover. Chitose and Yae more or less retread the same "drama" from the first series (and not even the good parts!!). Neither their individual character nor their relationship dynamic are fleshed out any further, or shown to have evolved since the ending of the first series. When the sequel does bring up past material (i.e. futanari and gender talk) it feels far too brief and phoned in to have any impact. As the series progressed, I lost sight of why they're even in this story to begin with.
I'm imagining Morishima wanted to write about Youko (and perhaps Yae's reaction to her being bi). There's a lot of potential here, and we do get occasional glimpses on the fringes. Morishima's comedic flare is still present, and her timing is as good as ever. Some of the character interactions are very real in their spitefulness. Fencing is great and swordplay is far too rare in yuri manga in general. Ayumu has a nice shell, and her struggle with identifying and dating a bisexual woman is not just relatable, but almost never approached with the level of consideration it deserves for a genre about girls loving girls. Given the depth of conflict in Hanjuku Joshi and Morishima's own struggles with sexuality, this seems like an obvious pressure point that gets little more than a passing mention.
Which, sadly, seems to sum up a good portion of this manga. The character introductions are clumsy. The "attachments" between our main couples, to the extent they exist, go almost completely undeveloped. The boyfriend is introduced as a simple plot device and never goes anywhere further. Like, some of this stuff is brought up in such a rapid and disinterested way, it made me wonder if she wasn't working overtime to keep the page count as low as possible. I like brevity, sure, but there's so little commitment to any actual exploration here, much of the work put in feels wasted. Even avoiding the most obvious comparison, neither the plot nor the characters beget any of the very real satisfaction that her stories usually deliver. The couple dynamics aren't new. The conflict setups aren't new. Even the characters themselves have so little quirk or life that they feel old and overplayed.
The story may not be salvageable, but I do still love and appreciate Morishima Akiko for all she's brought us in her many years of storytelling. I trust that this is a random blip, a result of many poor factors coinciding at the wrong time. I know in a better world, this would be everything Hanjuku Joshi was, and more. I do hope the series received a satisfying conclusion in Galette 16, even if I know it won't satisfy me personally. (Sorry, this mostly just reads like a rant.)
Edit: And yes, sorry for not having added the Cheating and Bisexual tags sooner. They definitely ought to have been here since at least chapter 6. Given that they'll be taking up about half the series at its presumed conclusion, they are necessary pretty much however you look at it.
last edited at Dec 22, 2020 10:41AM
