(Background: The inimitable Erica Friedman recently posted a review of the new-ish KC Morning manga series 彼女とカメラと彼女の季節 (“Kanocame”). I finally got my hands on the tankōbon and commented on in the review, but since the comment got kind of long I thought I’d post it here too. This version is somewhat cleaned up.)
The drama and yuri-ness of the first volume of this series were good, but I’d also give the author extra credit for taking up societal issues that have been pretty well kept out of popular culture (the previous season’s Noitamina anime Sakamichi no Apollon being a pretty hard-hitting exception with its references to 60s student movements and such).
The following points came to mind while reading the manga:
There was no pretense of Japan being an all-middle-class, meritocratic society. Most anime/manga characters still seem to live in a nice suburban house in a quiet neighborhood (those who don’t become the subject of jokes about penny-pinching).
The manga acknowledges that the fairly equal world of high school instantly disappears after said high school ends. Those with the cash and connections go to Tōdai, some will enter various specializations within science/engineering education and yet others will stay behind tending the konbini. In this respect the manga kind of reminded me of Saeko Himuro’s Umi ga Kikoeru (probably better known in the west as the Ghibli movie), where nostalgia for the golden era of high school “when everything was possible” is the major plot point. Kanokame’s main character Akari who comes from a poor, single-parent household recognizes the unequality of the situation well. Japan often gets criticized for its “one miss and you’re out” education and hiring systems, but some people don’t even get the one chance.
Akari directly referring to what her mother does as お水 (water [trade]) was nicely put. And her mother is really single, not yet another “my father died in a car accident when I was young” handwave. Feels somewhat unusual in a Kōdansha title which isn’t squarely josei either. Maybe Usagi Drop made “bad” mothers more acceptable to editors.
There is a scene near the end where Akari’s classmates put a picture of Akari together with the other main character Yuki on her desk with hearts drawn on it, with the intent of bullying her. When Akari finds the picture on her desk near the end, she thinks 「平成のこの時代にこんなことする人いるの？」(“There are still people doing this in the Heisei era?”). Yuki counters in a particularly daring manner by showing the would-be bullies a picture of herself together with Akari in a bathtub. However, the “good girl” Akari being able to look past bullying without having an instant breakdown is unusual by manga standards in itself.