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.
STORY:
In some ways, Second Hand Love feels like the flip side of Talk to My Back. Where that story focused on the struggles of a housewife, this one focuses on the struggles of a mistress. In both cases, their troubles stem from the same source: the feckless men in their lives who expect the women around them to cater to all their needs and swallow their own feelings.
This is technically an anthology, albeit of just two stories. The first, "A Blue Light," inserts the reader in media res into Emi's relationship with a married man. For much of this story she is adrift, unwilling to be alone but frequently needling her lover about his family when they're together. She will find herself yearning at times for some of the stability of a proper relationship, but other times she treasures the freedom such an arrangement allows for. Ultimately she has to be the one to break this stagnant loop. She's the one who has to find a new place and a new relationship that operates more on her terms. It's not a perfect arrangement, but it's better than what she had before.
The second, titular story deals a little more directly with the consequences of infidelity. It follows Yuko, a cafe owner whose own affair is beginning to fall apart. She gains some perspective after a visit to her elderly father, who himself was having an affair when Yuko's mother died and has been dealing with the unresolved guilt ever since. She too frees herself by dumping her lover and her cafe, choosing instead to take a long trip with her dad and try to amend their long estranged relationship.
As critical as Talk to My Back was about the concept of marriage and relationships, Second Hand Love is even moreso. Some of this clearly stems from Yamada's own experiences, as she was already a divorcee by the time she made these stories. She definitely doesn't think very highly of men, as all the men we see here are selfish creatures who expect their mistresses to do all their emotional labor because their wives are too busy with domestic labor and childrearing. They are feckless creatures who can offer nice gifts and physical pleasure, but never any true comfort or companionship. That said, she doesn't judge Emi and Yuko for participating. They simply yearned for the warmth of another body in bed and the pleasures of casual sex without the obligations that come with more traditional romantic relationships. That freedom goes both ways, though. Their lovers may try to use them based on their own whims, but these women are also free to dump them once they get exhausted with the hassle of being a side piece and the endless stream of excuses.
She's never quite explicit about it here, but I think Yamada's harshest judgement is against the culture that all of this sprung from. 1980s Japan was a place where women were simply expected to submit themselves entirely to their homes and families upon marriage. Men were almost expected to routinely cheat on their wives until they retired, where they would return to their ever patient wives. It's an inherently unequal arrangement that puts all the burden and stigma upon the women involved, and Yamada's frustration is no less righteous now than when these stories were new.
ART:
Yamada's style is still very minimalist, but in this book it's looser than ever before. Faces, bodies, backgrounds, all of them are rendered with the minimum amount of lines and detail in a way that feels like a rough sketch. Even the coloring and screentones reflect this, as if it were all hastily scribbled into these spaces with a marker. This contrasts with the careful, intelligent paneling and into the fashion (particularly on the splash pages between chapters). It's quite a timeless look for a manga that's nearly as old as I am.
PRESENTATION:
There are some bonus illustrations, as well as an extended interview with the mangaka from 1985, which like the manga itself is handled by translator Ryan Holmberg. I also have to note the cover, with its striking combination of pink, purple, and black. It's feminine, but in a mature way.
RATING:
This book is published by Drawn & Quarterly. It is currently in print.
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