Look, I got beef with TokyoPop. It started when I was a teenager, and it has persisted over fifteen years.
I’ve tweeted and shared the rage and mourning that this manga publisher has put me through–in different places and on different platforms online. It mostly boils down to not finishing in publishing the rest of the volumes of several of some of my fave Shojo, Josei, and Shojosei manga series back in the day and not cherishing Shojosei fans as a whole for years when they were the ones that helped build the manga empire that TokyoPop grew to be.
I can’t rehash all the details. (I’m now an aging Millennial whose back hurts and make sure I do my skincare and be in bed before 10 pm.) One of my faves, Colleen, does a great job in retelling the story via YouTube (HI COLEEN!)
Perhaps this even started the decline of publishing Shojo manga outside Japan in North America as a whole? And Josei, too as an result?
That’s food for thought. I love Josei down. She’s my second favorite genre of manga, next to Shojo, and I have grown up with Josei guiding me along thorough my college years, my job high-jinks, and my romantic mishaps.
Once upon a time, I wrote the now-cornerstone piece of the site, A Love Letter to Josei Manga a few years before the very strange year of 2016 touched down–and made a lot of us NOT want to remember how dark those times were.
In 2019, I came back with A Love Letter to Josei Manga Part Two–with more love for the genre as I was finishing college and excited for the world as a new graduate, ready to travel and possibly find romance to entertain–right before a certain virus shut down the world the following year in more ways than one. Finally, a few years later in a world changed and ravaged, I put together a 5 Messy but Brilliant Josei Manga Titles You Need In Your Life list (many of those titles colored by grief) and once again Josei became a genre in manga for me to fall back on.
But back to my beef with TokyoPop…how did I pre-order a book from a publisher that I would say ” ON SIGHT” every time, I thought of them?
You Can’t Live All on Your Own! Volume 1
Words and Art: Mizoko Tsuno
Publisher: *anime gasp* TokyoPop
Translation: Katie Kimura
Copy Editor: Sarah Levin
Proofreader: Tina Tseng
Retouching & Lettering: Vibrant Publishing Studio
Cover Designer: Aracelli Ejarque Villegas
Graphic Designer: Sol Deleo
Editor: Katie Van Amburg
Age Rating: Teen (Age 13+)
I was online swimming along all the new manga license announcements and looking for the Shojo and Josei genre being represented and was not finding much–as usual. I saw some panels from what I learned was You Can’t Live All On Your Own and was intrigued especially when I saw it was being published from TokyoPop?!?!? Not TokyoPop giving the people–the Shojosei girlies (gender neutral), what they want. Then I pre-ordered volume one and here I am reviewing the first book in the series all while ready to pre-order the second volume.
You Can’t Live All on Your Own covers not one protagonist but four equally in this manga setup: four young women who are roommates and very good friends. Shuuko, Eika, Misaki, and Shio all share an apartment in the ever-busy city of Tokyo, Japan! While all working in different industries and professions, they are all starting to ponder and ruminate on what paths their lives should take. Should she be married, have a career, live independently…? Is it worth being more recognized at work and stomping on gender roles, should one lean towards moving a relationship to the next step? All these questions and more get explored in this first introductory volume of this cute and quirky slice-of-life manga.
I simply adore our cast here in Shuuko, Eika, Misaki, and Shio. Each woman is her own character that I can see echoes of other women in the Shojosei manga that I’ve read over the years. Shuuko, an office worker who is used to having work offloaded onto her because she’s single and has no family of her own, is feeling the pressure of those all around her getting married. She has come to love the house that she comes home to and the female friends that make it a home. Eika is hard at work becoming the ace in her department, taking on more work and wanting to prove herself and make the men she works with eat their words. She’s a capable, inspired career woman who eats, drinks, and breathes her job. Sometimes she doubts herself when she’s alone and wonders if she can truly pull off everything.
Musician Misaki is the true romantic of the group. As the only one in a relationship in the apartment, she finds her world turned upside down when it turns out her “boyfriend” of two years didn’t know she thought they were dating! This revelation rocks her world (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t help it) and not for the better and throws a wrench into her life’s plan. Lastly, Shio who acts as the house mother of the apartment and friend group struggles to set a work–life balance while paying bills and limiting her ‘treat yo self’ moments. She works from home and has a interesting backstory of how she came to doing so. As you can see, in You Can’t Live All on Your Own, these women face their own sets of unique problems while sharing an apartment and a friendship.
Mizoko Tsuno’s artwork here is very cute, very easy on the eyes, and very accessible to read and follow along here with the story. Every roommate is so expressive–from irritating moments in the workplace to times when the entire group is in a state of shock. This works as there are so many hilarious, scenes throughout the manga and also enough panels where a quiet moments shatters someone’s confidence or recollection of a relationship or a positive moment. In the afterword, the mangaka does state that the friends are all fun to draw as they are all different types–physically and character-wise.
While there are four protagonists, I do feel like every woman gets her own time to shine and be the main character in her chapters with her friends as very supportive (and fun) side characters. I should note that it is in these small moments that we learn more about the initial women through the appearance of her friend–some small detail to pick up on, an inside joke to learn. The bonus stories (four panel short comics in the back of the volume) are a nice touch for those looking for a little more humor and backstory of the friends.
So, I will level with you–the premise of our friends who are roommates with their own problems to deal with that feature love, career, and finding yourself is not new or ground-breaking. And yet, joining these young women as they navigate the biggest question of their late twenties: what does happiness really mean–is simply just that for me. I am the target audience! Very much ‘this hole was made for me‘, the Shojosei, edition! And plenty of other readers who want to see more Shojosei published outside of Japan as well. You Can’t Live All on Your Own. I yearn for more manga featuring the complexities of life for girls AND women, and I always love seeing older women on the page outside of teenagers.
Shuuko, Eika, Misaki, and Shio are all characters being developed by mangaka Mizoko Tsuno on the page with careers, doubts, fears, comfort foods, desires, and failures. Perhaps Shio is more relatable to you than Shuuko is, or you can’t even start to put yourself int he shoes of Misaki or Eika–all of them make up a cast that is worth reading and following. Individually, they are interesting and together they shine in this first volume of You Can’t Live All on Your Own as this symphony of noise, music, and friendship that moves from chapter to chapter in this slice of life fashion. As women in their late twenties, they are bargaining and negotiating with themselves, their loves, and each other on whether they are doing the best the can. If the pace that they are working at, if the career that they are in, if the type of relationship that they are in–is what is best for them and if not, how to change it?
Simply put, You Can’t Live All on Your Own is a fun, filing entry of newly translated and published Shojosei for fans to enjoy. Flourishing in its slice of life setup, the lives of Shuuko, Eika, Misaki, and Shio are easily to jump into, get invested in, and want more of. This group of almost 30-year-old women really show us something special in manga form: that the friendships of women can save the day–and also keep women sane and feeling protected and validated.
I mentioned earlier in this review of how the premise while simple is not new or groundbreaking, YET You Can’t Live All on Your Own is a fun love letter to female friendships that I will reading more of. All I could hear in head on repeat while reading was TLC’s “What About Your Friends” and it was fitting as their friendships with each other here help push this manga from a recommendation to a ‘Oooooooooh, we’ve got something fun and special, here!”
I definitely would have been reading this manga along Suppli, Tramps Like Us, and my other Shojosei faves from TokyoPop when I was younger that helped shape my early understanding of the genre. So where does this leave me with my beef with the publisher? TokyoPop–in my heart– partially responsible for the decline of publishing Shojo manga outside Japan in North America as a whole? And Josei, too as a result? Other publishers have stepped up: Yen Press published Yumi Yoshinaga’s Tamaki & Amane, Kodansha has given us Makihirochi’s Sketchy series and Denpa Books finally came through with this newer English language version of They Were 11 from Shojo mangaka veteran Moto Hagio!
Perhaps I will always be TokyoPop’s biggest hater and Shojosei’s biggest fan.
I really enjoyed reading You Can’t Live All on Your Own and know that I will probably be pre-ordering the next volumes in the series. I found the first volume of Since I Could Die Tomorrow by Sumako Kari also published through TokyoPop that I read and bought a used copy of for my own. I’m just going to be trucking along and loving Shojosei and letting you all know how I feel about it, industry and all. Cheers!
You Can’t Live All on Your Own Volume 1 is published through Tokyo Pop and can be found where comics and manga are sold.
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