With worries over the bar and having money, Shoko’s determined to do what she can to help…and that means leave Towser.
FOR…a bit. With the owner’s recommendation and knowing they do have to pay the rent, Shoko chooses to leave Mikke with the bar while she handles a different one elsewhere. While she learns a few new things involving people and drinks there, Mikke is struggling. As a cabaret girl, she has no professional bartending skills, and it’s only due to those she’s helped that she ultimately improves.
That said, she’s gotten so good to the point that Towser’s busy! Super busy! And Shoko’s stunned when she returns. You then should’ve seen her face when the owner encourages Mikke to take part in a cocktail competition. But not surprisingly, this will only serve to get Shoko to analyze (and overanalyze) her partner’s skills.
I already talked a lot about the localization last time, so I’ll keep this brief. The Watch Cats of Ginza volume 2’s localization might not be bad. That doesn’t mean it’s good. For the most part, I’m essentially not trustful of some of the content, so yeah, not much of an upgrade. We should all be fortunate the series is only three volumes in that regard.
As for the actual manga itself…this is a step-down.
Honestly, there are probably two things that ultimately ruined it — Shoko leaving Towser and the idea of a contest. This could’ve just stuck with Shoko and Mikke running the bar, dealing with incompetents or healing some sad souls as they try to grow the business. Them separating isn’t completely a bad thing, but them not interacting until much later is disappointing. They need to try and continue to build rapport, and this doesn’t quite help. If this happened later in the series it might’ve worked out too, so in general, this was probably far too early to do.
Then the cocktail competition idea I’m not a fan of. It seems a bit too out of the blue, and quite honestly, feels unnecessary. You can understand the two need money, but this way doesn’t seem so great. And then to have Mikke be the one to do it? This competition better be amazing, because I don’t see this working out.
With its two big plot points having issues, just about everything else suffers. The long-winded descriptions of certain wines, cocktails, etc, slows everything down, and some characters lack a lot of life. This, by the way, could be a localization issue too, but I’m thinking it’s also a story issue. The manga doesn’t feel the same as Volume 1, where the two were thrown into having to work together. Now, it’s a hard one to read.
The Watch Cats of Ginza wasn’t the prettiest looking thing either, so now you combine that and its various issues, it’s fortunate to not be absurdly bad. And I don’t think it is because I really do enjoy Mikke and Shoko’s interactions and their knowledge of drinks. Maybe some cutting of pages here and there, or a different approach would continue to help these two shine. The only thing I’m hoping now is the ending is actually satisfying, but I’m not sure I even want to find out how it ends.