James Nicoll Reviews

Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship? (Tsukiatte Agete mo Ii ka na) is a yuri manga.

Saeko, who has been pressured into attending a university mixer, drunkenly admits to Miwa that the boys at the mixer are out of luck. Saeko has eyes only for other women. Miwa admits she is in the exact same situation.

Why not date? After all, they know absolutely nothing about each other except both are women, gay, cute, and kinda drunk. What could possibly go wrong with being compromise girlfriends?

Saeko is boisterous, outgoing, and lives in the moment. Shy Miwa prefers more intellectual pursuits. Saeko is spontaneous. Miwa may one day win a medal for overthinking everything. Saeko has some experience dating other women. Miwa has never even been kissed.

Both have this in common: neither one wants to spend the rest of their lives trying to fit into social niches they won’t enjoy. Both have tried and it’s no fun at all. 

Saeko wastes no time recruiting Miwa for her band. Never mind that Miwa can’t sing. She can always play bass. Which she also can’t do but maybe with time she will learn to be less bad. 

~oOo~

My congratulations to the author for having one of the least google-able pen names ever, particularly under the current circumstances. 

The art in this manga is polished; I don’t think I’ve ever read a manga in which quite so much effort was put into characterization by means of careful drawing of hands. 

People used to the deliberate pace of a Morinaga Milk manga may find the pace in this work a tad faster. Rather than waiting — was it twenty-six issues? — to ever so slowly admit mutual attraction, Relationship gets all that out of the way immediately; Saeka and Miwa meet, discover their shared orientation, and start dating. No will-they-or-won’t‑they drama at all! Because the real story is about what happens when two strangers date for reasons that seemed good at the time.

This could very easily go in horrible directions … but it doesn’t. Both Saeka and Miwa have their little quirks; they might even ultimately be completely unsuited for each other; but neither one is inconsiderate or mean. Likewise, even though they are a little worried that the other bandmates might not react well to learning that Saeka and Miwa are dating, the other bandmates are sensible people who take it in stride¹.

SaeWa may end up in a train wreck, but if so, it will be a very fluffy, slow motion train wreck. If you’re looking for a low-impact romance about people having learning experiences, this may be the manga for you. 

How Do We Relationship, Volume One is available here (Amazon US),here (Amazon Canada), here (Book Depository), and here (Chapters-Indigo). I did not find it on Amazon UK.

1: The point that concerns the bandmates about the two women dating is that SaeWa thought one or more of the bandmates might react badly to two women dating. From the bandmate’s perspective, this comes out of nowhere. 

SaeWa’s worry is due to to old wounds. People at university seem to be open minded, but middle-school-mates were not. Those traumas, that history, are just a few of the icebergs, waiting mostly below water for the Good Ship Romance.