#miman

Hime Shiraki is a high school girl whose dream is to marry into money and to that end, cultivates a "facade" of the perfect people-pleaser. She is coerced into becoming a staff member at Cafe Liebe after 'injuring' the manager on the way home from school. Cafe Liebe is a roleplay cafe where the waitstaff perform in character as student council members of the Liebe Girls' Academy, a setting intended to mirror a Class S romance novel. The manga explores the character relationships between Hime (performing under the name Hime Shirasagi) and the other members of the staff as she settles into the new job.

At a surface level, WataYuri functions as a criticism of the Class S romance genre, which focuses on close, hierarchal relationships between women within girls-only schools. These relationships often take on the shape of performative romance as a form of emotional fulfillment in the absence of "real" partners (men) within the setting, justifying itself as preparation for courtship after graduation. These close relationships often doubled to disguise intimate same-sex relationships at a time when these relationships were illegal.

The Class S genre leans into the ambiguity between the real and the performative; simultaneously providing a form of quiet affirmation and a cautionary reminder to its audience. This dynamic is understandable given that it is a subversion of pre-war publishing standards and laws regarding same-sex relationships, but many of the themes and plot beats inspired, influenced and survived into modern yuri.

Miman crafts their story in a way that digs into the nature of these legacy ideas with a certain perverse glee. The ever-watchful eyes of the authorities are replaced by those of the parasocial audience Cafe Liebe cultivates. The ambiguity - and often painful miscommunications that result from it - come less from "relationship/situationship" and more from the distinction between performance and the raw emotion it draws from.

In an early comedic moment, the latter dynamic is illustrated when Hime's cafe senpai Sumika Tachibana (an aloof, bookwise character on duty and a somewhat meddling gyaru off duty) and Mitsuki Ayanokouji (a caring, big sister character on duty and a curt, socially distant person off duty) argue in character over how to best handle a floor situation where Hime is struggling. Hime and her friend Kanoko Amamiya (a painfully shy girl with a secret crush on Hime) misinterpret this argument as a genuine romantic argument, and Kanoko uses the opportunity to flirt in character under the guide of expressing support for Hime's ability to do the job. Hime then reads Kanoko's intervention as a purely professional step. Nothing the characters are attempting to communicate gets through, because no one is certain on which side of kayfabe the communication is being made from.

Later chapters begin to tackle darker subject matter, exploring how the job both creates and exacerbates insecurity, conflict, and unhealthy relationship dynamics among the staff. As this tonal shift occurs, Miman writes a fantastic (sometimes horrifying) series of character sketches. Each of the story arcs these sketches support dig deeper into the relationship dynamics and shapes that are commonly adopted in modern yuri, illustrating just how toxic and ingrown the relationships produced by these story patterns can get.

Miman is not afraid to take the story into fraught territory - WataYuri covers a range of subject matter from childhood bullying, coming to terms with acearo feelings, internalized homophobia, and sexual assault - but they handle these matters delicately and sympathetically. These events ultimately highlight the strengths of the working relationships at Cafe Liebe - for as much hurt as the job is capable of generating, the staff's knowledge and personal relationships with one another equip them with the tools and resilience they need to begin resolving these issues as they come up.