Baccano! 1934 Alice in Jails - Streets Episode - Chapter 1, Part 2 of 3 (10/29)
Gonensei Chapter 1 (10/37)

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Yonensei

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This is what Kio Shimoku did before Genshiken.

Most of you may only be familiar with Kio's work through Genshiken, and so are probably more used to his stories being whimsical and comical with brief snippets of seriousness. Truth be told, before he did Genshiken, Kio was known more for his interest in more raw material that had to do with the painful mistakes people make in youth and in relationships. You'll see it more in Gonensei but it's very much present here as well; it appears in Kagerou Nikki and Jigopri as well. Hell, it's even present to a degree in Genshiken as well.

So that's enough for background.

Yonensei is a story about a couple in their fourth year of college, Shima Akio and Soma Yoshino. It goes over the troubles they face in their relationship as they approach graduation. I hope you enjoy it it, and of course sorry for the delay (this should have been out almost a year ago to be honest).

As for the sequel, I will be doing it, but my raws are missing pages so I may not work on it as fast as I'd like. We'll see. Worst comes to worst I'll buy and scan the missing pages myself. I'm currently on the fence as to how I'm going to release it; I'm leaning toward a chapter schedule to make it easier on myself instead of the volume release I went for with this one, as the sequel is five volumes long. I guess I'll sort that out later.

Again, hope you enjoy the story.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you for your hard work!!!

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  2. Thank you! Kind of like this Kio´s manga. I am looking for the continuation. Then the sequel would be about Akio and Yoshino´s grandaughter?

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    1. Hahaha. No, the sequel is still about Akio and Yoshino. Surely you still didn't think their troubles were over!

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    2. Aha, I see. Hurry up, translate it, sir!

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  3. Ugh! I'll be graduating soon and this is hitting a little close to home.

    This series isn't without optimism, but I haven't shaken the feeling that I'm watching a tragedy. Of course I don't know if Akio and Yoshino will stay together or not, but there is the feeling that although they love and are comfortable with each other in many ways and they could make the relationship work (especially in easier circumstances), they aren't going to because they have different goals in life and don't know how to support one another and are resigned to their own flaws to the extent of inability to compromise with each other. I'm thinking specifically of the absoluteness of Yoshino's statement at the end of chapter two, that they'll never be able to bolster the other up.

    Thinking about Akio and Yoshino compared to Ohno and Tanaka in the recent Genshiken Nidaime chapters also highlights this nicely. With both of course there is uncertainty about the future and what they expect their lives to be, but in comparison Ohno and Tanaka may not have the specifics worked out, but they're so confident that they both want to be together and continue their shared ambition towards cosplay there is some sense of stability.

    I can see how this series works as a prelude to Genshiken. It does explore a lot of the same themes, settings, and conflicts as Genshiken, but at the same time, it makes sense that Kio would move towards an overall more light and comedic tone, which is more, uh, reader-friendly... serializable... (?)

    tl;dr Thanks so much for releasing this! I've been looking forward to it since you started the first half a while back. And it's not a year late, it's right on time in the spore schedule 8D

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    1. That spore schedule, right up there with Valve time, eh.

      There's definitely a lot of love in Akio and Yoshino's relationship, but in the real world love often isn't enough and I think that's what Kio was going for. And yes, the great secret about Kio's works is that when you get down to it, they're all about people and their relationships first and foremost, just in different settings and situations.

      tl;dr Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy the sequel as well. Whenever I get around to that.

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    2. Oh, a response! YOU MADE THE COMPARISON TO VALVE NOT ME SO HeMHeM Re: yonensei Agreed, I think your thoughts are much more articulate than mine regarding this series.

      But, no I actually came to this page because I need a place to mindlessly babble about the new Genshiken chapter. Sue was so amazing in this chapter with her Judo neck kiss! And Yajima follows with a close second on the adorable scale. But overall, I thought it was a kind of melancholy chapter. While I don't think Sue's wholehearted opinion that Hato should come onto Madarame is a great one, I think Hato's solution falls flat too. When he tells Sue that outside of fantasy, forcing a change in someone's sexuality isn't okay, he could just as easily be talking about himself as talking about Madarame. His later comments that he is worried that he might really go all the way and fall in love if he keeps on also seem to indicate that he's just afraid and running away. And then in the end it's at the expense of crossdressing and BL, which he clearly enjoys outside of the whole Mada thing. So yeah I hope there is more resolution about this in the future.

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  4. http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=42664

    T^T

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    1. Even were I inclined to continue Bambino (hint: no), the people who apparently cannot read what I've said about the issue or simply don't care and feel that if they pester me enough I'll change my mind (read above hint) have effectively killed any enthusiasm I might have had in regards to the series.

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  5. Thank you for this!

    It's an unusual manga. It actually seems realistic! I came to manga from a background in novel reading, where there is a lot of looking into the struggles of everyday life and the minds of characters. That kind of thing most mangaka can't or won't do. (And to be fair, it's very hard to make it interesting in a visual medium that doesn't allow any looks inside characters' heads.) I love this kind of "deep slice of life" though, and if it weren't for your work I wouldn't have been able to enjoy this great and rare example of it.

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