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PREFACE

There are two sides to everything- good/ bad, friend/ foe, black/ white. 

What happens when you lose the ability to know the difference?

 Yaya is a mouse. Her “friends” treat her like dirt and she never protests. She spends her weekends cosplaying from her favorite band “Juliet” and secretly thinks that her wigged and costumed self must be her true face. 

How wrong she is! 

After a particularly traumatic incident Yaya has a psychological break and becomes the brash, loud-mouthed, confident Nana. Nana can do everything Yaya wants to but is afraid of, there’s only one problem- Yaya doesn’t know about Nana and the trouble her other half causes. She just thinks she’s going insane.

MANGA VISION TEST

ARTWORK: The art is always beautiful. Boys and girls alike are all attractive and the background detail is astounding. Yaya’s room, even the posters on her wall, leap off the page. This is completely a world that anyone could inhabit. Nothing escapes the artist’s attention and even the “chorus” of classmates and cosplayers all rate equal attention. There is also a nicely soft and feminine quality to the images that help the reader see and understand the situation from Yaya’s point of view.

SOUND EFFECTS: The sound effects are large, bold, and remain in Japanese. They are designed to make an impact and despite the fact I had no idea what they say did just that. Nana is especially violent and they provide a nice accompaniment to her actions.

EDITS:  Since this manga is rated 16+ there is always a chance that things have been altered to bring it to that level (say down from 17/ 18+) but everything flows beautifully so there is nothing apparent to make me think that. Even the near rape that first initiates Yaya’s transformation appears to remain intact.

EXTRAS: Nothing amazing but the standard explanation of honorifics is handy if you have questions and I always enjoy notes on the author as well as the cultural explanation of “inside” information. I like a manga that can teach me something as it entertains but hey, I’m a nerd, so that might just be me. And who can resist the next volume preview- always just enough to make sure you need more.

BOOK REPORT  

STORY: I loved the complexity of this story. After all, what teenager hasn’t felt like two different people? There is the face you show the world and the one you keep inside. I love the way Satomi Ikezawa explores this. When Yaya is alone she is complex and multi-dimensional but loses all of this when faced with people. “Yaya the cry-ya” does seem an appropriate nickname at times and you have to resist the urge to smack her. But the extremes of her mousy personality, her cosplay persona, and Nana form a very clear picture of the struggles and trials of adolescence.

TRANSLATION: The teenagers in this manga actually have a chance to speak like teenagers, which I quite liked. They are relaxed and “normal” around their friends, they tease and name call and act like kids. Yaya is overly polite most of the time but that is completely within her mousy façade. And the fact that it gets on other people’s nerves, namely Moriyama, helps the believability. Most of the adults are ridiculous but this is a story about kids so that hardly matters. This is one of the more enjoyable translations I have seen lately.

CHARACTERS: Yaya Higuchi is a sixteen-year-old mouse. She meekly submits to her scared and domineering father’s wishes and allows herself to be pushed around by her “friends”. Yaya feels completely alone in the world and takes refuge in her only pleasure- cosplaying like the characters in her favorite band “Juliet”. The wigs and makeup she dons form a mask Yaya believes to be her true self. She has no idea what is lurking in the recesses of her own mind.

Nana is Yaya’s other self. Brought to the front by a traumatic incident Nana is the tough, confident girl Yaya wishes she were. Nana kicks butt and gets even against anyone who wrongs her other half. She hates what Yaya is but knows that while she is aware of her other half Yaya has no clue that Nana exists. Nana eagerly awaits the next trauma that will allow her to come out and play and is always determined to have a good time before Yaya consciousness locks her away again.

Moriyama is Yaya’s long time classmate. He often teases her as unmercifully as her other “friends” but there is something in his manner that makes you believe he feels more for the quite girl than he is willing to admit. When he realizes that his actions aren’t being seen as funny he switches his approach. Never quite completely honest with Yaya he makes an effort to show her that friendship isn’t the same as abuse.

Seri & Moe are supposed to be Yaya’s friends but they see her more as a slave or amusement that a human being. Yaya’s blind faith in them just incites them to be more and more cruel. Even after Nana saves them from being raped at the hands of strangers they refuse to stop the abuse. Their goal seems to be finding out how much Yaya can take before she snaps.

FANSERVICE: Fanservice for Othello comes mainly in the form of cultural lessons and a good look into the attitudes and actions of a Japanese teenager. From hip (and not so hip) places to go to the wild and wacky world of cosplay to popular foods you can learn a lot from what is (and isn’t) said in the text.

FOOTNOTES:

Okay, I have to come clean. The entire reason I picked up Othello was because it made me think of Shakespeare. That’s it, nothing deeper than that. I failed to take into account that Othello is also a strategy game, played with black and white pieces. All of that of course funnels into yin-yang and the duality of human nature, which echoes the alter ego in the storyline. But hey as long as you pick it up that’s the important part right. I could probably make the play fit too but that seems like too much work for right now so I’ll leave the Moor alone and just enjoy this story for what it is.

The soft, yet detailed artwork made it even more enjoyable and the easy style of the dialogue made it very appropriate. The extremes of the characters can be annoying at times but overall they make Othello an interesting read.

Psychology is a favorite of mine so finding such an interesting exploration definitely made my day. But the personality split of a supposedly “normal” sixteen-year-old girl is a bit disturbing. You always hear stories about how intense it can get for a Japanese high school student but without context it’s really hard for an American to fathom. You think of typical teens hanging out at the mall, going to the movies, and blowing off homework and still end up embroiled in angst and moaning about how terrible it is they can’t have the car on Saturday night. But when you take the time to step beyond this preconceived notion there is an entire world of responsibility (to themselves and to family) that is part of life elsewhere. What could be so terrible in Yaya’s life that she decides she needs to run away from herself? The tension of that alone keeps me hanging on for the next volume.

Remember when you run from yourself, that’s mighty far to run.

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