By Neru Asakura and Minori Chigusa. Released in Japan as “Watashi no Yuri mo, Eigyou da to Omotta?” by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Janny McKeon.
I wasn’t really sure what this was going to be when I first saw it. The author hasn’t had other titles licensed for the West (though they apparently wrote another, “spicier” yuri title previously). It’s also a one-shot. That said, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, although not necessarily for the yuri aspect of it. It’s an excellent look at the voice acting industry and how it can be very boom or bust at any time, told to us through the viewpoint of one of its bigger stars (though she would deny that). It also gets into the terror of idol fandom, both “trying to start a scandal for clicks” fandom and also what you do when you’re confronted with your celebrity crush in real life and you want to keep that sort of thing separate. Mostly, though, I enjoyed this because of its main character, Suzune, who is fantastic.
Suzune is, for once in this sort of series, NOT an up-and-coming wannabe voice actress. Instead, our narrator is well-established in the industry, not a top star but getting several roles a season, with usually one or two major titles. She’s also ‘yuri for real’ (gay and lesbian are not used, as the novel leans very deliberately into the ‘yuri’ label), something she’s hiding from most people except her friend at work who is the same. That said, Suzune hasn’t really experienced actual love per se. Sure, she’s a massive fan of Karin Shotsuki, the former leader of idol group DIAGONAL who mysteriously retired a few months ago. But being an ‘oshi’ for an idol is not the same thing as love, right? Then, of course, she’s introduced to the new kid on the block at the agency the next day… the same Karin.
Suzune is a type I always like, which is modest and realistic, a bit self-deprecating, but not overly so, and VERY good at what she does. Her professionalism throughout (well, mostly, I’ll get to it) was fantastic, and I even appreciated the scenes she had with the evil villain washed-up voice actress, which she was handling well enough but which Karin, out of necessity, had to take over. Speaking of Karin, she’s fine, and I liked her, but a bit less. I do think that Suzune was missing some very obvious signs that Karin was massively in love with her from the start, but given that Suzune was asking what love really is anyway, that can be expected. The one weak part of the book is the final scene, which not only feels very unrealistic (both in terms of what Suzune does, and the lack of consequences), but also feels abrupt as heck, as if the author was told to stop as they had a page limit.
Still, that’s 90% of a really great book. And it’s a one-shot, so you’re not investing much. For fans of voice actors and fans of yuri.