Two years ago I reviewed Talk to My Back, a quietly powerful work from one of the few women to ever gain prominence in the gekiga movement. Naturally, when another release of hers came out this year I knew I had to talk about it.
SECOND HAND LOVE (Yurari Usuiro), by Yamada Murasaki. First published in 1983 and first published in North America in 2024.
PLOT:
Emi is having an affair.
She knows her lover is a married man. She knows that he's using her, and that every time he comes over he will always slink back to his family in the middle of the night. She knows that the few friends who do know about it judge her for it. Yet she can't help herself. She keeps letting him back in her place whenever he calls.
Maybe it's her way of getting past a failed engagement.
Maybe it's a form of rebellion.
Maybe it's just better than being alone.
