Jun 16, 2024
This review is written from the point of view of someone who came to the novels from the manga adaptation. The spoilers will mostly be about volume 1 of the novel.
The light novel really has volume 1 on one side, and the other volumes on the other side. Volume 1, just like the manga, has a strong, well-thought story that mixes romance, social commentary and sex. Starting with volume 2, it mostly turns slice of life where you're happy to see the protagonists living a happy life but very little meaningful happens. It's still a good read, since the relationship between the two main characters
...
is healthy and balanced (especially after their tumultuous beginning in volume 1).
Volume 1
In a nutshell, it's the story of two high school girls whose lives are on the verge of going badly. Marika is seriously considering going down the "JK business" slope with a teenage escort job, while Aya is a young lesbian that, while looking for acceptance, found a lesbian bar with a highly questionable owner, and learned too much about sex for such a young age.
Under the pretense of a wager to convince Marika that love between girls is acceptable, Aya effectively prevents Marika from getting that teenage escort job by paying her an equivalent daily amount. In return, Marika has to give Aya some of her time every day.
The unfolding of the story is the same as the manga: little by little, Marika learns to let go of her preconceptions, gets a peek at Aya's real personality and past and falls in love. Of course, it helps that Aya is a beast in bed. ;) More seriously, the question of Marika's consent is tackled through the fact that she sees the situation just like any other escort job. It's not healthy for her, and the key to this is that Aya is too focused on sex to completely understand the consequences of what she's doing. Fortunately, as love between them unfolds, they learn to pull themselves out of this spiral and build a healthy relationship.
The main difference between manga and novel is the tone. The novel is written as if Marika was constantlly talking to you. She's too chatty sometimes, and obviously needs to describe everything. This doesn't play well with the mystery elements (why Aya behaves like this, and how Marika really feels about it), at least not as well as the manga who is able to leave a bit more things unsaid for the reader to figure out.
Also, the sex scenes in the novel are short and rarely very explicit. But they work well because they focus a lot on how Marika is feeling. In comparison, the manga shows a lot more and makes the reader *feel* the passion that Marika is very receptive to.
Following volumes
All volumes are short (barely above 100 pages each). Each develops a single, standalone story weaving two elements: interactions with other girls from the same school or the lesbian bar, and the development of Aya and Marika's relationship.
The part about others girls is rarely that great. It's usually your run-of-the-mill, slice-of-life, high school story, with girls falling in love with other girls and wondering what to do about it. Or, if it takes place at the bar, it's still the same sort of story, showing once again that people in that bar are nice but rather questionable. Overall, it's far less inspired than volume 1, but still entertaining to read. New characters are introduced from time to time, but in moderation, so by volume 5 the cast of secondary characters is still manageable.
The best part is still, however, Aya and Marika. I'll say this right now: those two are head over heels for each other, and no amount of external disturbance ever puts any real strain on their couple. It's all about them entering the next stage of their relationship, where sex isn't everything and they need to learn to trust and care for each other. But they're still having great sex together.^^
Now that she can drop the aloof act, Aya is struggling to make friends under Marika's comforting guidance, and seeing her (awkwardly) doing her best, even when she doesn't really get it but wants to do it anyway out of love, is very touching. She's idolazing Marika and is always trying to take her advice into account.
Marika is learning to let go of the remnants of her old obsession with "being normal". At first she doesn't want anyone to know she's dating a girl, but her love and respect for Aya pushes her to open up bit by bit, one friend at a time (and also to her mother). In addition, she learns to turn her habit of "controlling the mood" around her into simple, straightforward kindness. She effectively becomes a "lesbian advisor" to other girls, an irony that is not lost on her!
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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