Jun 6, 2023
A high-quality one-volume manga with art renderings and panels like cinema, with deep characters, and an interesting setting during the late-Edo period.
I'm surprised that, for just a short manga, the art is really good and unique. It has a distinct style that differentiates itself from other, more orthodox, manga. It almost has a sort of 'cartoon' feel to it yet it is very much a manga. The way shadows are rendered on top of objects is also very well-drawn, it gives off so much emotion to each panel. It's almost as if I'm watching an old movie. I'm no expert, but I feel like the
...
author has decent knowledge of cinematography.
The characters are well-written and everyone in this manga seems 'grey'. By that I mean, despite the setting being inside a brothel, you would expect prejudices about the customers, the managers, and the prostitutes. But everyone just feels so human and so grounded and yet the grim nature of the brothel business is well documented.
This brings me to how accurately the author portrayed this very specific time period of Yukaku (Japanese brothel/entertainment district) culture in the late-Edo period. Many readers might not be aware of what the Yukaku culture was like in that era and the manga barely gives any exposition to its setting but so many things in this manga accurately describe the details and intricacies of the everyday women in the Yukaku. It's dark, and hell I'd say the reality would probably be even darker than the manga. But things such as STDs, contracts, debt, girl apprentices (kamuro), romance, and so on are so well portrayed in this manga.
9/10 it's a short story, it's historical, it's tragic, it's really good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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