Tokyo Tarareba Girls – Manga Review

This isn’t going to be one of those posts. You know, to the point and informative! Pffth, anyone can enjoy reading one of those posts! No, no, this post is more of a challenge for the intrepid reader. It’s winy and confusing, even potentially pointless. It’s a Journey!

And the journey begins here. No, wait actually, it really being here… Well, this is off to a great start.

I watched Princess Jellyfish even though on paper, it’s not really the sort of story that appeals to me. Or so I thought. I absolutely loved the anime. I devoured it and it left me hungry for more. This isn’t that common for me, but I decided right then and there that I wanted to read the manga. The only other time this has happened was when I was watching xxxHolics and it’s now one of my all-time favourite manga.

There was something in the way Princess Jellyfish was told that just made me think it would do well in manga format though I couldn’t really explain t beyond that. In any case, I figured the continuation of the story was worth investing in the printed version and so I decided to buy the complete box set.

This is when my epic year-long attempt at buying manga began. And although I complain (boy do I ever complain), the obstacles I encountered just trying t get my hands on Princess Jellyfish really heightened my anticipation for it. When I think about it, it would have been easy for me to dislike it after all that. I mean, what manga is worth all that trouble? (It wasn’t that much trouble, I’m being a dramatic baby).

I never wrote a review of the Princess Jellyfish manga here so let me give you the short version. For me, Princess Jellyfish was more than worth all that trouble and then some. I absolutely loved this story. I was so happy to get the second half of Tsukimi’s tale and the ending is perfect. If for some reason you are a fan of the anime but haven’t read the manga: read it. Find it and read it. Trust me!

So after having read Princess Jellyfish and Blank Canvas before that, I realized something pretty obvious. It seems I am a fan of Akiko Hagashimura’s work. And so I put that theory to the test.

Manga are a lot easier to find now than they were a few years ago, but it can still be a bit of a challenge for me. I ended up deciding to pick up the first volume of Tokyo Tarareba Girls mostly because it was the easiest for me to get my hands on in sensei Hagashimura’s repertoire, even though there were other works with more intriguing synopses (did you know that was the plural of synopsis – I had to look it up).

So what is the summary of Tokyo Tarareba Girls anyways? Here’s the official version:

A sharp new comedy about female friendship from the creator of Princess Jellyfish!

COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA

Rinko has done everything right. She hustled her way through her 20s to make it as a screenwriter, renting her own office in a trendy Tokyo neighborhood. Everything should have gone according to plan… So at 33, she can’t help but lament the fact that her career’s plateaued, she’s still painfully single, and she spends most of her nights drinking with her two best friends in their favorite pub. One night, drunk and delusional, Rinko swears to get married by the time the Tokyo Olympics roll around in 2020. But finding a man–and love–may be a cutthroat, dirty job for a romantic at heart.

A sharp new comedy about female friendship from the creator of Princess Jellyfish!

See? I mean, it’s ok but nothing really jumps out at me. It’s the kind of story that can get tedious pretty quickly.

I am currently reading volume no 5. I would be further in my reading but it took me a bit of time to find volume number 5. I have 6 and 7 already. I will be buying 8 and 9, there is no doubt about it. I really like Tokyo Tarareba Girls.

The thing is, I know Tokyo Tarareba Girls is not going to be for all of you reading this. And I’m going to have a tough time explaining myself. Ok, first of all, I have described the series as a Sex in the City in manga form… This is a bit of a problematic description because 1- I am not a fan of Sex in the City, it’s not my thing so I, unfortunately, found it very boring which means that 2 – I’ve only seen a handful of episodes here and there.

Maybe Tokyo Tarareba Girls is like a manga Sex in the City but really, I couldn’t tell. I described it that way because of the things both series invoke in the minds of the general public.

Tokyo Tarareba Girls is about 3 girls except they’re not really girls anymore. They’re in their 30s but they still feel like girls. These aren’t your cookie-cutter pure and innocent romance heroines either. They can be crass and the narrative is at times fairly mean and cutting. These are professional women in their 30s with various successes in their respective careers that for a number of reasons are still single and are starting to feel the pressure to change that.

It’s a very feminine story that plays into the particular social expectations we have for women and how we each tend to internalize those but it’s also a character study of deeply flawed characters. These Tarareba Girls aren’t always the most sympathetic or moral and this might be difficult for some readers.

For example, one of them has an affair with a married man and knowingly pursues it. Another is a ball of insecurities and not in a delicate attractive way. The main character is often petty, superficial, and prone to tantrums. All of them seem like they would be exhausting to be around at times. If you are looking for idealized protagonists, you won’t find them here.

And yet, I think I could be friends with these girls. I actually think I am friends with some of them. There’s a realism and a hope that shine through even in the less pleasant aspects. I guess deep down, Hagashimura sensei is a true romantic at heart.

Another thing that may deter some readers is that Tokyo Tarareba Girls makes heavy use of puns and word games. And those simply don’t translate. They are explained in detail in the manga. Both in the margins of pages and at the end f every volume where there are several pages dedicated to the translator’s notes. This has a certain charm in its own right but I won’t pretend that the punch doesn’t get lost along the way. I’m sure there are a few things that would have made me laugh if I was comfortable enough to just read the manga in Japanese that didn’t work at all in the English version. It doesn’t ruin what is there but you can tell that you are missing out on that aspect.

I’ve tried my best to explain what this manga is because that’s what’s really going to determine if you like it or not. In my opinion, if you like these types of stories and/or characters you will definitely like Tokyo Tarareba Girls. It’s witty and deftly written with both charm and bite. The art is nice and the pacing is great. But I know that it’s not the type of material that appeals to everyone.

To me, Tokyo Tarareba Girls may not be like a manga Sex in the City but it’s what I wanted Sex in the City to be. And it’s filling a very specific niche.

I’m only halfway through. I have been itching to make all my friends read the first volume though and to alleviate that, I figure I could write a post and see if any of you would be interested instead.