ほぐして、癒衣さん。

HOGUSHITE, YUI-SAN.

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
November 8, 2024
CHAPTERS
38

DESCRIPTION

Karin, a new employee at an unethical job-listing magazine publisher, was wrecked both physically and mentally after just half a year. One day, Yui-san, her senior and a health nerd, gave her a massage to relax her body. In return, Yui asked Karin to hug her to warm her body up.

CAST

Yui Miyashiro
Karin Kawaguchi
Fumiko Asaka

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Slumpy23
75/100
A very sweet office Yuri with a particularly great dynamic between the two mains driven by their office environment.
A simple yet really sweet and thoroughly enjoyable yuri manga. Unfortunately kind of robbed of playing itself out fully, with a pretty sudden ending, leaving the realisation of the main duo's relationship a little rushed, and the side characters feeling like they didn't fulfill their full purpose. But, I have a hard time holding it against the manga too much (especially since from what I can tell/have heard, it wasn't necessarily the authors choice to end it so suddenly? I'm not sure).

It'd be an insult to call this manga "half-baked" or "ruined by the ending!" as a result of this, since for what it can deliver at it's full strength is very sweet, as well as overall successful at being funny. The main couple have a great dynamic, and individually stand as distinct and emotionally engaging characters. The selling point of this manga is, for me, the setting and the way the characters parse through it. The environment of a overworking ad agency gives them a great stage to be each other's emotional (and physical) relief/support here and it's played out well in the beginning of the manga especially, with the contrast bringing out a great sense of necessity to their connection; Hawaguchi especially blatantly only survives at the workplace through the help of Yui. The posturing of a genuine love to ease that compressing force of society is something I really like in yuri stories, and the manga really brings that flavour out tenderly. It's usually the case with yuri (and romance in general I assume) that sort of mundane interactions become beautiful when done with someone you cherish. The manga delivers that feeling in a great way, with a great sincerity. I get reminiscent of the feeling of just wanting to break down and collapse into something you love. It doesn't play out to that level of intensity, but this sort of relief underlines their relationship and charges the whole manga with a great sweetness and warmth. I'm struggling to put a right name or description to the sort of visceral feeling I get from the idea of the two managing happiness together, "despite it all". You get a great feeling of the comfort they bring to one another as they start to get closer. Even before either of the characters come to any conclusion that they love one another, they're both firmly aware of how much they need the other to survive their spot in society. It's very sweet in that way. Their arrangement of massages and hugs is a synecdoche of the underlying emotional stability they give to one another, and the salience of this initial titular premise very naturally, almost invisibly, falls away as their relationship grows into a place in which they can always provide this solace to each other, simply through the fortune of the presence of the one they love. The notion of their connection triumphing over a crushing society is the best thing about this story, even if this idea manifests in a very casual (remembering that it's still a cheery and simple manga), and almost pensive way.

The art is nice and always cute; characters are expressive and visually distinct. The designs of Hawaguchi and Yui specifically feel successfully not just emblematic of their personalities, but also helping to express each ones unique way of expressing themselves; The look of Hawaguchi as Yui's lock screen really sold the designs for me. She's unassuming and messy, but genuinely sincere, passionate and radiates a positivity and hope that I felt Yui really appreciated the presence of, and her design of being a sort of scrappy, short, junior complements her sincerity really well. I definitely prefer the "regular" manga paneling to this 4-koma style, but it didn't get to me too much.

So, the big thing holding it back is just it's inability to see itself through fully. Definitely a shame, but what's there of it is a very strong foundation and enjoyable for however long it lasts. The biggest thing missing is certainly the time to pace a genuine confession between the two. More time between just the two of them would be worth so much here, and I think even with the limited time the manga had to wrap itself up the choice to have their confession not be a quiet personal moment and instead wrapped up with the rest of the workplace environment is a sad misstep robbing their characters a time to truly to bask in the isolated, purely personal quiet of one another, distinct from any outside influence, in its most pivotal moment. Side characters, as mentioned, also don't get to live out what I can only imagine would have been their contribution to the character ecosystem here, and some moments, as mentioned before, feel like they were robbed of their special-ness by not letting the main couple just be solely together and open to one another's feelings... but I truly can't bring myself to put the manga down too hard. I don't think being negative here would be of any point. Where it fails doesn't really drag on where it succeeds in anyway but retroactively, and not in the sort of malicious retroactive depression some other manga/shows disappointing ending might give; I just felt a craving for more. There could certainly be something said about what this manga doesn't do, but if you go in expecting a sweet feel good experience, you'll be pleasantly treated. It gives a suitable feeling of warmth and security and the main two are incredibly loveable, and super easy to get behind. Their stories have some great emotional resonance, pumped up by the setting. I felt super compelled to flip through to the next chapter to see be them perfect for each other for another chapter.

Would recommend!
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