Summary:
This manga consists of a collection of love stories between women, with majority of them being working women. Where ever fate makes their paths cross, either at a reunion, at the workplace or just by coincidence. “Whenever our eyes meet” explores different unions of love that take place between women and the different ways in which their love blossoms.
Review:
The most wonderful thing about short story collections is that they offer an assortment of different flavors that appeal to different types of readers. “Whenever our eyes meet” is a collection of love stories between women that show a unique insight into the relationships between women, which grip that attention of the reader. All the characters in this manga are adult women and not some shy girls in school. This fact hints at how exciting the stories would be as they involve grown up women. A different creator has drawn each of the stories and the lengths of the stories are minimum 3 pages to up till around 20 pages. The saddest story is “Rainy Day Dream” by Tamamushi Oku and it consists of 3 pages. The story is about a onetime affair of a housewife with another woman, after which she has to once again start living her usual life. The
reality was that the affair brought her peace and a sense of companionship, that otherwise was missing in her sad and lonely regular life.
Other stories mostly have happier endings, where ex-lovers are reunited. One of the best of such stories is “In My Studio-Apartment Palace” by Satsumaage. Stories range from the attraction between office colleagues to the start of a beautiful romance, or maybe a very warm and loving friendship that grows into something much more with time. The story I enjoyed the most was “Everyone’s Missing Out” by Irua. It was a classic romance story although it was quite uncertain at times. The story revol
ves around the relationship between a working woman and her boss, who is much older than her. Other women working in the office do not have a good opinion about the boss. This relationship between the office worker and
her boss has a unique side to it as it is a secret that only they know. Only the office worker can see what a beautiful person her boss really is, while other women at the office do not see the boss as a complete person. It should be emphasized that as an author, this is one of the best works of Irua. The English and Japanese versions of many of Irua’s doujinshi works can be found on digital media. Majority of her works involve relationships where there is a huge age difference between the partners. Such as in My Childhood Friend Loves My Mother and A Female Middle School Student x Married Woman. To some extent they are quite explicit as compared to other stories in this collection. It is not just Irua, whose books are released in English. “Now Loading” by Mikan Uji has also been released in English by Seven Seas. The story of “Now Loading” involves working women as well. The beautiful illustrations are made by Yukiko, who created Futaribeya. Futaribeya was released by Tokyopop in English. This was the first work to be translated for many other authors and artists. Overall, the variety offered by the book greatly enhances its appeal for the readers. This is because it gives us the opportunity to read the stories of authors we love and enjoy the work of creators with different experience levels.
The book contains art that is quite interesting and grips the attention of the viewer. The last anthology of Yuri, named Éclair was released by Yen Press and it was not as interesting as far as are the illustrations are concerned. Many artists draw in a delicate manner that looks beautiful, but no two artists are the same, that it would make you think that both pieces of art work are done by the same artist. In “The Stopped Meter”, artist Seta Seta used digital tones which were not too helpful in emphasizing the story in an artistic way. “Saccharine Beauty” by Suzuki senpai is not as fussy as many of his other works. Although the rating of the book is Older Teen, but it is not too explicit or racy. At most, there are three stories which have a connotation to sexual activity. However, there are no real sex scenes, except for light kissing. Almost all the romances are with both partners total consent, except for the one in “I Want to Make My Work Sempai Moan” by Kurukuru-hime. Here the author went a bit far, but he did make a point, that it’s up to the women how they wish to have their relationship.
This anthology is delightful for readers who have interest in mature content, especially romantic relationships between women. Women of different professions are portrayed in the stories and different types of scenarios are presented. The most appealing thing for the readers is the colorful illustrations that keep the readers engaged in the story. Those who have an interest in yuri and like to read about mature characters, should definitely check out “Whenever Our Eyes Meet” manga.
