On and Off: Work-Life Imbalance Volume 1 Review

Given that we recently published an article about gender non-conforming characters for Pride Month, it seems fitting that one title that has just come out has two leads that fit this mould.

On and Off follows the lives of two 27-year-old office workers, Sotaro Amata and Akira Hanku. At work, Sotaro is a popular guy and the subject of office talk about how cute he is, while Akira is stern with others around her, including Sotaro, and something of a loner. However, outside of office both go through a fashionista transformation. Sotaro is massively into Lolita fashion, while Akira is into punk fashion. Eventually the two encounter each other in the street, not realising who each other is, and become enamoured of each other.

They later bump into each other in the street again, this time literally when one of the spikes on Akira’s jacket accidentally rips Sotaro’s sleeve. Akira is incredibly apologetic and wants to make amends by buying some new clothes for him. They agree to exchange phone numbers and meet up again over the weekend. When they do, they become even closer, which becomes increasingly problematic because not only can they not tell that they already know each other from work, but they can’t even tell whether each other is a man or woman just by looking, and they haven’t even got as far as to just ask.

There are many aspects making On and Off an appealing read. First of these is the character design and in particular the outfits worn by the main characters. Out of the two, personally I find the elegant Sotaro, in his long flowing dresses and blonde wig the more appealing, but Sotaro’s butch punk look, complete with temporary tattoos is also great.

The other draw, as indicated earlier, is the aspect of non-conformity. This is partly in the form of the fashion choices both Sotaro and Akira make, as is evidenced in one scene where Sotaro feels uncomfortable when he sees some strangers taking photos of him without permission. Mainly however, it is simply from the fact that Sotaro is dressing in what society generally classifies as girls’ clothes, and Akira in what society considers boys’ clothes. This does raise the issue of how you describe the pair of them. Neither of them appears to be other than heterosexual in terms of whom they are attracted to, at least as far as this short opening volume is concerned. While part of me is tempted to use the term “cross-dresser” to describe Sotaro, it feels wrong to just use this term for him and not Akira as well, despite the fact that on the surface she is wearing nothing that would make you automatically use that term. However, in our stupid society we are fine with the idea of women wearing trousers, but freak out at the idea of a man in a dress. Ultimately, all these descriptors feel pointless. People should just feel free to dress how they like without fear, but at the same time people’s own prejudices ruin things.

While this may be a short book at just 146 pages, the staff behind it at Square Enix Manga have put this volume together wonderfully. The cover, designed by Katie Lee G looks and feels great, while not disturbing the original too much. The translation from Jenny McKeon, lettering from Rebecca Sze, and editing from Edward Hong also work together well. While the book may have no translation notes, there are asterisk notes to explain some fashion terms and the text isn’t reduced to a tiny form like in some books, it’s just tucked into a corner of the frame at normal size. Also, we do get a bit of an extra with a preview of Volume 2 (due out in September). It should also be said that the book is a high-quality production, using higher-end paper in its making.

Although this has been a brief reading, it is still a very engrossing one and I for one would be deeply intrigued and invested in continuing this tale.

Read a free preview on the publisher’s website here.

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).