Utsubora

Utsubora is Asumiko Nakamura's work. She's mostly known for her BL stuff, especially this one BL called Classmates, that got adapted into an anime movie in 2016 and that I've had in my PTW since then lmfao. I know her for Copernicus no Kokyuu, a manga that I seem to have not reviewed, probably because I somehow didn't have much to say about it. I remember the flow of text was kind of confusing and weird and I didn't enjoy it much and it was a tad too melodramatic for me. There's this thing about "edgy" BL works where they just love to be melodramatic in a style that doesn't fit my taste. On the other hand, I'll always like Ikeda Riyoko's brand of melodrama and I wish more of her manga was translated into english ;_;...

Anyway, onto Utsubora. Utsubora isn't a BL but it still retains that sweet sweet BL signature artstyle with humongous bony feet and hands. Love to see it! Nakamura's art stands out though, it looks extra elegant and creepy in a good way, especially her female characters.

The plot is straight forward mystery at a glance, a semi-famous writer's lover kills herself and a clone of hers appears on the day of her death claiming to be her twin sister. The storytelling soon becomes almost fever dream like, with us, the reader, not really being able to discern what's true or what's truly going on as the story slowly drops us hints. All of the characters seem to have ulterior motives and the goal of uncovering who wrote Utsubora.

I honestly think the way the plot is laid out in a non-linear way was a win in this one. It wasn't extremely disorienting because each new chapter did follow some kind of a thread of relevance connected to the last chapter, some kind of an answer to a question posed in the chapters before it.

The conversation flow and the way things were phrased and worded was weird and unnatural at certain points, which is strange because I was reading the official translation. I had the same issue with Copernicus, but on a much larger scale. I guess I'm just not a fan of the way this mangaka tackles conversations, flows of thoughts etc. Too poetic and disjointed at times.

All in all though, this was a really lovely manga. A lot of artsy sex scenes, but they're (mostly) nicely related to the plot and characters, the theme of impotence etc. I kind of regret not buying it at my local bookstore when I first saw it...