Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet Volume 12 Review

Volume 11 of Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet left us with quite the cliffhanger to contend with! But luckily Volume 12 wasn’t too far away, so now we’ll hopefully get all the answers we’ve been waiting for. Let’s take a closer look.

When we last saw Fumi, she’d just been surprised by answering the door to find her father Hideo home! And now she understandably has a lot of questions for him, but her biggest concern is whether or not he overheard her and Akatsuki discussing how they’d slept next to each other the night before. He doesn’t even know they’re in a relationship yet…

But while Fumi wants to keep their relationship secret a little longer, Akatsuki is quick to spill the beans. This is the first time he’s met Hideo in person, and he doesn’t want to lie or cast suspicion upon their situation, particularly given the age gap between them. But of course, Hideo does not take the news well, given he’d entrusted his daughter’s safety to Akatsuki. And before anyone can get another word in, Hideo drags Fumi back to his place where he intends to have her move back in with him.

The whole reason Hideo was out of the picture was due to the massive debt he was trying to earn money to pay back, but now things have changed, and he’s been able to return to his old job and even has a room in the company dorm to call his own. So there’s no reason for Fumi to continue living with and working for Akatsuki, but Fumi is furious that her father won’t listen to her and that he’s dragged her away from her boyfriend without a single thought. Akatsuki is upset too, but being an adult, he understands the situation and encourages Fumi to stay with her father while he figures out a way of dealing with all of this himself…

I appreciate that Mika Yamamori has addressed this now. The mangaka has always been good at touching upon the difficult realities of the fact Fumi and Akatsuki are in an age-gap romance, even if he isn’t that much older than her. And of course, with Hideo having been out of the picture for so long, there was no way he was going to come back and be okay with all this. Fumi is his precious daughter who had to grow up all too fast after the death of her mother, which Hideo feels a lot of regret over. And he only arranged for Fumi to live with Akatsuki under the mistaken assumption that because he was a published writer, he’d be some sort of much older gentleman.

While Fumi and Akatsuki have their parts to play in this volume, it’s ultimately Hideo that we spend the most time with, getting to know how his relationship with Fumi’s mother faced similar pushback from their parents and how he’s felt about Fumi over the years. He’s a good, doting father figure who is easy to empathise with, despite how little we’ve seen of him in the series otherwise. And that really speaks to the strengths of Yamamori’s writing because I think very few mangaka manage to introduce characters this late and get the audience so endeared to them. Especially if they’re standing in the way of romance!

Tsubaki-chou is more often than not quite a grounded series, and I like that the approach to this storyline remains respectful and realistic. And with the end of the story not very far off now, I’d much rather have this than some big drama for the sake of it. This feels like tying up loose ends in a way that makes sense for the series. Hideo isn’t here just to stand in the way of the relationship progressing; he’s here for readers to get a better understanding of Fumi’s character and because he’s so important to her.

Volume 12 of Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Taylor Engel with lettering by Lys Blakeslee. The release reads well, as always, and comes with quite in-depth translation notes at the end.

We’re in for a bit of a wait now as Volume 13 isn’t out in English until November, but there’s no cliffhanger this time, which helps. There’s still nothing in the schedule for the final volume, but if I were to hazard a guess, I suspect it’ll be around this time next year given how the pacing has been going as of late.

Overall, Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet Volume 12 is another great instalment of the series. It’s handling its subject matter sensibly, and I appreciate how the mangaka has chosen to bring Fumi’s father back into the picture. This one is always a delight, and I will be sad to see it end in the next couple of volumes!

A free preview can be read on the publisher’s website
Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen Press
©Mika Yamamori / SHUEISHA, Inc