It’s rare that I come across a yuri title that I don’t like. But with Transparent Light Blue, I unfortunately found one.
This one-volume manga, written and drawn by Kiyoko Iwami, is made up of two short shoujo ai stories. The first part, which is the main segment of the manga, is about a group of childhood friends: Ritsu, Ichika, and Shun. The story concentrates around Ritsu who has a crush on Ichika. Although they are very close, Ritsu doesn’t recognize how she feels right away because they’re both girls.
Everything is fine and dandy until Ichika and Shun (who’s a guy) start dating. Their relationship makes Ritsu extremely jealous, and she begins to realize her romantic feelings for Ichika. Because she is hurting on the inside, Ritsu starts to act out, putting a strain on the trio’s friendship. Along the way, Ichika begins to notice Ritsu’s feelings and also starts to question herself.
On the surface, this isn’t a bad premise. As a queer girl myself, I find it both realistic and relatable. Coming to terms with your sexuality and falling for a straight girl can be very painful. I’m sure other queer girls out there can relate too.
However, there’s one aspect of this manga that essentially ruined the whole thing for me. The element was… I can’t believe I am writing this… pseudo ear sex. Yeah. Basically, Ritsu cleans Ichika’s ears with a cotton swab… which would be fine except the cleaning consists of Ichika moaning and saying things like “It hurts!” The art in these scenes is also suggestive. Yeah…
I’m not a yuri purist. I don’t mind sexual elements in yuri, but the ear thing personally weirded me out. The cleaning is supposed to be a metaphor, showing how Ichika trusts Ricchan more than anyone else. But the author could have used so many other (not creepy) analogies, such as an intense back massage or something. To be honest, I went into the story pretty blind, so I wasn’t expecting this surprise. The manga’s description does mention something about ear cleaning, but I never imagined it would be like that. (Maybe I’m just oblivious considering the cover art has Ricchan biting Ichika’s ear.)
There were some other things I didn’t like about TLB – mostly Ritsu’s character because she does some very questionable things. Yes, she’s a teenager who’s confused and in pain, but some of her actions are just… no. I always want girl x girl relationships in yuri to work out, but it’s hard to root for Ristu when she isn’t the nicest person. In the end, I just couldn’t take the rest of the story seriously after the ear thing and Ritsu’s behavior. I even tried reading it a second time, but I still felt the same way.
Believe it or not, I disliked the second story even more. It’s called Apron and focuses on a girl named Akane who is infatuated with a female senpai who works at the same café. Despite her feelings, Akane never seeks a relationship with Erina-senpai because they are “impure.” Instead, she keeps Erina on a pedestal.
However, one of Akane’s male coworkers, who has a girly appearance, kind of looks like Erina. In her desperation, Akane forces the boy to wear Erina’s apron and smells him, pretending he’s really her beloved senpai. I did not like this. Akane is more or less bullying and sexually harassing the boy. Even though there is a twist later on in the story, I found Akane’s behavior inexcusable.
Again, how are you supposed to root for a main character that’s a jerk? Every character is meant to have flaws – they’re human, after all – but this mangaka’s characters all seem to have major personality issues that make them difficult to like.
Perhaps both stories would have worked better if they were longer. There wasn’t much time for development. Ritsu’s and Akane’s actions may have been more understandable and forgivable if there was more of a backstory and time for them to show remorse. But there wasn’t any of that.
Sadly, Transparent Light Blue did not bring anything new or exciting to the yuri table. The ear thing, the characters’ behavior, and some other problematic elements made the manga fall emotionally flat. What could have been a heartwarming manga about finding yourself and falling in love… left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and the words “WTF did I just read?” resonating in my head.