Desperate March for Love Review
Rei has had feelings for Ami, a girl in her class, for a long time now. When she works up the courage to finally confess, it turns out Ami knew all along that Rei liked her, and agrees to go out with her! But what should be a super romantic and happy time for Rei quickly turns sour, as Ami doesn’t act like they’re a couple. They still hang out as a group with all their friends, Ami doesn’t spend alone time with Rei, and there’s parts of Ami that Rei doesn’t know about. What is going on? Does Ami actually want to date Rei? Or are the two not so compatible after all?
Desperate March for Love is the third manga work by Michika Tomizawa, but this is (so far) the only work translated into English. The other two works by Michika Tomizawa were anthology works, and not yuri, so this is their first LGBT work, complete in one volume and tells a whole story.
The manga starts off quite cutesy, but slowly reveals its cards as something closer to the likes of Bloom Into You; where it’s clear that both parties not only have different ideas of what ‘love’ is but are also clearly not ready for a committed relationship…YET. Most of the manga is from Rei’s point of view; we follow her confession and emotional rollercoaster when Ami gives her mixed signals on what they’re suppose to be now, and you really just want to hug Rei when she puts her all into their first date (including a lovely, fitted dress) only for it to turn out to be a GROUP friend event. But there’s also subtle hints early on that she doesn’t know Ami as well as she think she does as the series goes on, not just special moments Ami has with her other friends, but also her home life and how she struggles with her own emotions. Rei is in a different place to Ami, and it takes her a while to come to that conclusion, and not have it completely centre on her own crush.
I admit I really didn’t like Ami for the first half of the manga, but I think that’s the point. Ami feels quite ‘real’, in a sense that she’s a bit dense and unintentionally cruel towards Rei, it’s clear she’s not as emotionally intelligent or at least doesn’t know how to deal with them in a healthy way. To be fair, most teenagers don’t, but it didn’t stop me from really disliking her at the start as we see how hurt Rei is. But then the manga reveals midway through that Ami has a bad home life, and it’s her distance from her emotions that help her cope with day-to-day life. When the pair do connect, and have a real first date in the final act, it feels bittersweet as it’s a nice moment between the pair, but the problems are far from solved.
The final chapter is actually a flash-forward to where the pair are together, after (I assume) several years apart of healing. This I disliked for several reasons, mostly that it doesn’t feel earned as the problems are solved off-screen and we just see the end result. Don’t get me wrong, I like happy endings, but I think the series could have been stronger if the mangaka had kept it more vague but a promising potential for happiness. For example: a montage of Ami moving out and away from her mum, going to college and meeting up with Rei, hoping for a reconnection. This would give a picture of something having been learned from the events of the manga, rather than just skipping it all and going for the final happy ending.
The other aspect of the manga I didn’t enjoy was a mini ‘love triangle’ drama that happens midway through, at a turning point where we learn of Ami’s difficult life. It’s revealed that Ami is in a toxic relationship with another woman, one she keeps hidden from everyone else, but the girl in question isn’t another classmate, it’s a teacher. Having an older, toxic love interest isn’t the problem I have; it’s that said teacher is a core part of Rei’s emotional arc across the manga, twice. The first time is when she’s playing like a jealous ‘other woman’ that make Rei dive head first into her relationship with Ami; I can see this as part of the wider picture of Ami and Rei not being ready for a relationship yet, and it’s an interesting parallel that the teacher is planning to marry a man and hide her sexuality, almost like an echo of a ‘darker route’ that Ami could potentially take. But the next time the teacher and Rei meet, it’s right towards the end where the teacher drops a big emotional bomb about Ami, making Rei run to look for her, like she’s in a romantic movie and running in the airport trying to catch her lover before she’s gone forever. In both instances, the teacher isn’t painted as the bad person taking advantage of the student, and the power imbalance is never addressed properly, but instead the teacher is painted as the wise person whom Rei must listen to and not give up on Ami. It left a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn’t quite get over sadly.
Michika Tomizawa does the art for the manga as well, as it’s a cute style; semi akin to chibi looks with the rounder faces and wide eyes, but shaded as a shojo manga. It’s a unique style and I also liked the little details such as when we switch to Ami’s POV and see a brief shot of a stranger’s shoes in her home; it says a lot without dialogue and it’s well done.
Avery Hutley does a nice translation for the book, as well as the additional bonus page ‘Her Wardrobe’, but there are no translation notes.
This short yuri title explores the messy relationship between two teenage girls, and also executes it in a messy way, with a rather flat ending that didn’t build on what came before. But since this is their first full manga, it’s not a bad first attempt and I hope that the next story they create learns from this experience. If you like your lesbian relationships to be more on the messy rather than sweet side, then this book may have something for you.
Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.
