The Conditions of Paradise Collects Cute Tales of Women in Love
- WRITER
- Akiko Morishima
- Artist
- Akiko Morishima
- Publisher
- Seven Seas Entertainment
- Price
- 13.29
- Release Date
- 2020-03-24
With the success of its translations of Nagata Kabi's My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and Yuhki Kamatani's Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare among others, Seven Seas Entertainment has become dedicated in the last few years to releasing more and more manga of interest to the LGBTQ community. Its latest such release, Akiko Morishima's The Conditions of Paradise, is much lighter than those previous hits; a compilation of cute yuri romance stories rather than a heavy look at queer issues in Japan.
Unlike many other yuri manga authors, though, Akiko Morishima (who anime fans might know as the character designer and manga adapter of Yuri Kuma Arashi) is herself an out-and-proud lesbian. That means that while The Conditions of Paradise isn't aiming hard on heavy realism, there's an authenticity to the perspective behind its light escapism.
The back cover description of the book is admittedly a bit misleading. From that description, you'd assume that all the stories in this collection are following one couple, office worker Sarina and freelance writer Sumi, but they're only the focus of the first three chapters. Another couple, the 30-year-old Keiko and 20-year-old Emi, get two chapters; the remaining three chapters are standalone stories.
Most of these stories are about adult relationships. The schoolgirl crush story "Peach Flavor," the briefest and least memorable stand-alone chapter, is an exception. In a genre that's generally divided between tales of "pure" high school romances and blatant fan service (Keiko's roommates humorously illustrate that dichotomy in "A 20-Year Old Woman and A 30-Year-Old Kid"), Morishima's approach to sexuality is one of maturity. From the first few pages, it's clear these stories are addressing sex head-on, but it's not doing so in a crude or pornographic manner.
The most distinctive story in this collection is the last one, "Princess Sakura in the Flurry of Flowers." Where the other stories are set in contemporary Japan, this is a fairy tale taking place "a long time ago." A tree spirit is granted a wish to become human to earn the love of a princess but faces the challenge of having to do this as in a female body. The art in this story is particularly beautiful, and the ending might just bring bittersweet tears to your eyes.
Morishima gets to briefly discuss her stories in a manga afterword. If it wasn't obvious enough from reading the stories themselves, with the cosplay girl protagonist of "And We Strive for Love" and the jokes about video games and manga crushes scattered throughout, this afterword makes it crystal clear that Morishima is a serious otaku. She's drawing these stories out of love for her subject matter. Queer nerds who share her obsessions will feel right at home in this collection.
The Conditions of Paradise is available for purchase now from Seven Seas Entertainment.