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Even Though We're Adults/Otona ni Natte mo (2019-2023) - First love/childhood friends were major themes of the last two Shimura posts. Now we're introducing some new elements: adultery! divorce! blame! Wahoo!

This is a really fun one, with a number of inventively awful dinner parties/gatherings and a real upgrade in how Shimura shapes her narrative arcs over time. Of the series I've written up, this one is probably my favorite as a total package… but this post lol is broken in two parts largely because, lol, while skimming through the reviews, it became clear to me that it's the least understood of Shimura's longer series on a thematic and narrative level. The subject matter is somehow so inflammatory or the audience expectations are so misaligned that she's catching one star reviews for 1. writing a story about cheating (obvious if you read the backcover) 2. biphobia (opinions expressed by characters in dialogue) 3. too many subplots (they're all thematically relevant) 4. I Hate This One Character (okay??) 5. it's boring (genre mismatch) 6. not radical enough (maybe nothing ever will be?). Some of these are Goodreads problems, some of these are reader problems, some of these are the problems created by reviewing translated manga released solely in full volumes over the course of several years, but it annoyed me so much that I wanted to do my best to explore the series, Shimura's style, and her evolution as a writer and artist over the 20-ish year span covered by Sweet Blue Flowers, Love Glutton, and Even Though We're Adults… will I get to it this post? Let's see!

Even Though We're Adults starts with a question: "What kind of adult do you want to be?" The question, posed by teachers to a class of children, gets the standard set answers popping into the panel, but the one that gets its own panel is, "Someone like you, sensei." With this set up, you'd be forgiven for wondering: Will this be a series about the wretched hypocrisy of adults? Waylaid hopes and dreams? Creepy teachers? Weirdly enough, no: the protagonist, Ayano, is an exemplary elementary school teacher. The kids like and trust her, she handles their problems with delicacy and discretion, her colleagues respect her opinions and enjoy having her around. All these things remain true over the next ten volumes.


( can you believe this is only part 1??? )

I've been a fan of Takako Shimura's manga since reading the first chapters of Aoi Hana/Sweet Blue Flowers back in high school and have read a decent number of her professionally published works, mostly through scans. Shimura is a pretty consistent author in terms of her strengths, preferred narrative beats, and sensibilities. Her settings are usually contemporary, her narratives are often romances, and her character writing is unusually excellent, both within the genre and in the wider world of manga.

It was really exciting going through the last twenty years of Shimura's works. Her art and writing are great in the early days, and they get better as she continues iterating on similar themes and concerns over the years. The pacing of her works is pretty neat when you read them all at once… it's also pretty rewarding going back through someone's work and going, Oh, I get what you're doing here now!!! … I'm better at reading things… thank god I'm smarter than high school me…

The Sweet Blue Flowers review wound up being 2,000 words, so the Shimura blogging will continue at a later date. Please look forward to it!
 
Sweet Blue Flowers/Aoi Hana, 2004-2013 - Looking back on this series, I'm really impressed by how fucking dire Fumi's situation is at the start of the manga… oh, so you've moved back to Kamakura, you've been in a secret relationship with Chizu, your older female cousin, and you find out you've been dumped when your mom buys a cake wishing her a happy marriage?? In chapter one?? No wonder she's crying all the time.

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