Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 1

I thought this was really funny with some of the illustration gags just working so well. BUT! It bums me out that the characters are SO focused on marriage/finding a man. In the afterword, the author says she was inspired by her friends feeling this way but that she felt it's more important for a woman to be independent. I hope the characters learn this lesson.

:|

Ah, this was a tragic read at times. Three women in their thirties who feel as though they've let life pass them by. They are unmarried Christmas cakes. Our main character, Rinko, feels as though her job is floundering by the end of the volume. And there is a supposedly hot male model who mocks her and her friends for drinking the nights away at a bar owned by one of their parents. He might be the love interest, but he's kind of a jerk. Also, not as precious as Kuranosuke and Shu in Princess Jellyfish. Rinko and her friends are pretty great, but they are burdened by the cultural imperative to be married; and they're having trouble finding anyone to marry; and their floundering in life. Basic slightly older than quarter-life crisis stuff. At one point, Key is a jerk to Rinko at her job, and her male coworkers fail to defend her. This isn't honestly that unrealistic, and that's depressing. So, basically, this is a manga about what it's like to be a typical woman trying to figuring out her life when the world just isn't helping her at all, and she doesn't really quite know how to say, “Screw you!” to society.