Asuka Miyazaki

This series sputters to a halt as the author brings it to an end for lack of ideas of things to write about.

Asuka Miyazaki meanders through 21 short little chapters touching on topics in a scattershot fashion, skittering between ideas even within the chapters. There's a lot about the COVID-19, but like the other topics it's all anecdotal stuff with no insight or even a strong authorial voice. They do the cliched, "I don't have an idea for this chapter" entry as well as a random book report for Kokoro Natsume Sōseki. Mixed in with nattering about cosmetics are some more interesting chapters about gender identity, suicide, and antinatalism, but digging for those nuggets is tiresome.

The book ends bleakly as Miyazaki discusses euthanasia and their suicidal ideation.

If this hadn't been the final volume, this is definitely where I would have stopped reading the series.… (mehr)

A non-binary person copes with being on the singles scene in their thirties after a personal betrayal. While it is interesting when they are defining their gender identity, it starts to feel too much like thinking out loud, and the chapters are a bit scattered, jumping a bit randomly around between topics like group meet-ups, porn preferences, menstruation, and the desire to have a penis.

It reminded me a lot of the frustrating storytelling of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, and like that series, while I'm not happy I read it, I'll probably pick up the next volume if I see it at the library.… (mehr)