かけおちガール

KAKEOCHI GIRL

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
3
RELEASE
February 25, 2020
CHAPTERS
19

DESCRIPTION

Maki's first love was her high school classmate, a girl named Midori. But Midori broke up with Maki at graduation, saying they were now "too old to be fooling around dating girls." Ten years later, Maki still can’t get Midori off her mind, and when the two women reconnect after a chance encounter, Maki realizes that, while her feelings haven’t changed, Midori has long moved on—in fact, she's engaged. Yet the more Maki hears Midori talk about her soon-to-be-husband, the more red flags she notices. And Midori has another secret, one she hasn’t yet shared with Maki. Will it be the last blow to Maki's hopes that their romance might be rekindled? Or will it be the push that sets them on a new path—one they'll travel together?

(Source: Kodansha USA)

Notes:

The series was published in 3 print volumes and 4 digital volumes in Japan. The official English translation follows the 3-volume print release.
Chapter count includes 3 extras from the print release.

CAST

Midori Oonishi
Momo Makimura
Komari Nikaidou
Tazune Tonoike
Kon
Doumyou Azuki
Tama

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Lure11
81/100
Kakeochi Girl is so much more than just a Yuri manga
Kakeochi Girl Review

To start off, lets put it straight - Kakeochi Girl is a "Yuri" manga. But while it is one, I have a strong feeling anyone will be able to connect to it's story, even if you aren't the biggest fan of the genre, and it doesn’t have that much difference in that aspect from non-Yuri Josei Manga. That is because Kakeochi girl is more of a Psychological manga than it is a romance manga. Yes, it does have a lot of intimate moments, but to me it felt like the romance "is just there", we didn’t explore "falling in love" like in your other usual Romcoms, instead the manga focused other themes of courage, social expectations and loneliness, all from a very mature point of view.

Kakeochi Girl wasn’t perfect. In fact, it had a few major flaws. Especially with Midori. For the most part, I felt like Midori's character was made to fit in the story – I'll explain. First off, we get to meet the high school girl Midori: Young, Happy and in love. When she finishes high school, she randomly decided that being in a lesbian relationship was just her being immature – or maybe it was not so random, but we didn’t receive any explanations for why she did that? Obviously, Midori did love Momo, and you would expect her to fight for her love, right? Maybe already back then she was very mentally unstable, but then again, the situation should be explained more clearly. But after we meet the older Midori, I grew to like and understand her a lot more. Midori was most likely affected by the Battered woman syndrome, a psychological concept I haven’t seen in an anime or manga before. Midori suffered a lot from being in a relationship with her soon-to-be husband, but couldn’t stand against it, and convinced herself that she loves Tazune, because even with his flaws, she is still "Happy". After reuniting with Momo, Midori slowly realized that being in such relationship is wrong, and she should stand up for herself and for what she wants. Although Kakeochi Girl is somewhat wholesome, it did manage to keep its stressful aura that kept me hooked on reading it, especially when its so short. Usually being short doesn't assist a story, as its forced to obviously be less detailed and to end early, but with Kakeochi Girl I feel like it was very refreshing and good, making it a kind of one-sit read. Only thing i wish we had more of is the interactions between Midori and Momo, but hopefully we will get a Sequel manga for that.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would definitely recommend you give Kakeochi Girl a try. Its not long enough to be a Time waster, and its definitely enough to teach you a few things. I have encountered a lot of Yuri manga over time, and honestly? Most of them are complete trash. But this manga, despite of not being too focused in the actual "Romance", manages to present LGBTQ themes in a very mature light, and is probably one of the best Yuri stories I have read so far.
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maxalvr
94/100
childhood love, fear, and loneliness. this is more than just a gl.
0. intro

i want to find the perfect way to describe all the things this made me feel.

i'd be lying if i said that i don't cry easily for the sake of making this seem more impactful. so i guess the best way to put it is that i haven't felt that same type of pain since arcane. and if you've seen arcane, then you should know what i mean by that.

and if you don't, well.

i want you to know a few things:
1. if you go into this for the gl aspect, i've got no right to stop you, but i want you to see this for what it is. and what it is goes beyond a gl; beyond a yuri; beyond a love story.
2. you will cry.
spoilers from here on out. wouldn't recommend proceeding if you haven't read it yet.

i. the asshat fiancé

upon reading the first few chapters, i was hesitant.

it felt wrong, seeing midori kiss maki like that, only to have her invite maki to her wedding soon after. i thought, "this woman must be insane, cheating on her husband like that; kissing someone else and then inviting that someone to her wedding. you're breaking two hearts, here!"

i don't like cheating plots. i despise ntr. i hate anything that frames dishonesty as "romantic" with a burning passion.

but i had a gut feeling. i had a feeling that it would be more than that - better than that.

i was right.

when we (including maki) first meet tazune, we get a glimpse of who he truly is.

tazune is...to put it simply, a dick.

tazune doesn't see women as women.

tazune sees them as pawns.

Girls are cute, right?
They're weak, and cry a lot,
and they're easy.

tazune is the type of guy you wouldn't even want to catch a glimpse of. unloyal, abusive, manipulative.

his behavior - the dishonesty, manipulation, abuse, lack of loyalty - all of it is, somewhat, him trying to get back at the girls who'd lied to him when he was younger. he's your average misogynist.

maki sees through him the moment he speaks about midori. the lack of respect, the belittlement; he spoke as if it wasn't his own fiancee - as if he didn't love her at all.

maki's anger only grows from then on.

ii. the childhood lover

your introduction to momo makimura is quite simple.

a childhood lover who still hasn't moved on.

midori had broken up with her out of the blue, saying that they needed to stop fooling around.

at first, it's going to infuriate you. "fooling around?!?" you'll think. "was what they had nothing to her?!?"

but at some point, i understood.

midori was young. and the young are not one bit more immune to painful mindsets than the elder are. what midori said came from a place of uncertainty and internalized homophobia. the idea of women loving other women being "fooling around" wasn't a mindset she'd decided to have all on her own. those ideas were planted into her mind by outside elements - like her family, perhaps, or the people she was friends with.

while the manga doesn't actually show much of that part of midori's backstory, i think that one thing you should do as the reader is understand.

but of course, when midori comes waltzing back into maki's life, speaking as if everything that had happened between them back then was nothing but young and dumb fun, you're bound to raise a brow.

It's that bad habit of mine.

midori copes by laughing things off. she laughs because she's afraid of showing how she really feels. because if she does, she might lose everyone she has left, and midori...

she'd rather lie her tongue off than ever be alone again.

iii. loneliness, fear, cowardice

for maki, fear is an old friend. it enters her room without knocking, drapes its arm over her shoulder, and greets her with a smile on its face, as if to say, "did you miss me?"

maki is many things. but above all else, she's afraid. afraid of midori walking away from her again; afraid of her heart breaking again; afraid of not being good enough for people to stay.

her cowardice comes from that fear. she never says what she wants to say because she's afraid of what'll come next.

and then there's midori.

her fear of loneliness influenced her so much to the point where she tossed herself into an abusive relationship and convinced herself that it was fine; that it was normal; that it was okay.

because everything was fine as long as she had someone, right?

wrong.

at some point, midori begins to break. the cracks that tazune had made worsened enough for everything that was left inside to spill, and it's then that she realizes it: this isn't what she wants. she can't just settle for anyone.

especially not when maki's just waiting for her like the light at the end of a tunnel.

both of them, though both deathly afraid of speaking for themselves out of fear of being left behind, finally fight for themselves.

for each other.

iv. closing thoughts

though this was one of the most painful reads i've had this month, i can also say that this was wonderfully comforting. it was a nice sight to see all these characters that felt so human. so real. so flawed. and those flaws are written so well that you don't hate them for it at all but instead understand and love them all the more.

i really don't regret reading this, and i hope that you won't, either.

bonus: on komari nikaidou

i've said far too much now, but i think i'd be breaking my own heart if i didn't say at least a few words about komari.

the moment she hesitates after being asked if she wants a boyfriend, and then lies and says that of course she does - i think that's when she became a favorite character.

i understood her. the way she acted all confident on that phone call with maki only to fearfully lie about herself in front of her friends was something i understood. i know what it feels like to be that afraid, and to cover it up with this false confidence i've spent years perfecting.

to put it simply, that was just a very long way to say: i love you komari <3
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Heourezuru

90/100

A very sensitive, delicate manga, and a must-read.



When it comes to romance mangas, they gives me dis feeling of being somewhat insensitive, as if the characters in the relationship aren't humans. But this one, honestly, didn't gave me this vibe - could imagine the characters being real people, and most situations happening.

I've said about romances in general being insenstive and not threating the characters as humans beings, but what I've meant by that? A relationship isn't something that simple; two different people, with own lifes, tastes, morals, someday decide to verbalize they love for each other, and thus lead to a compromise. But, as I said, they have lifes of their own. The characters in an average romance manga seems as if they hadn't a life before meeting they partner, and since it usually takes places in school, it seems like they only exist there, thus the only times they aren't inschool are when they're on a date. 

Tho, I didn't had this kind of feeling while reading it. Even if I did hate some characters, I can understand them. For those who already read, I'm not talking about Tazune, but about Doumyou. Gon' talk about both later on this review. Continuing, this applies especially to the main characters, whose has a great chemistry and are a great couple, but work as characters even without each other, since they do have individual dramas, and both are great developed. From now on, spoilers.

<img width='' src='https://i.imgur.com/l8vzs2C.png'>

~!Let's first talk about Tazune. I don't like him, even as a character, but I think that the author didn't wanted to just write a character that's just an abuser and end of line. He hitting his pregnant broom may conscious some people about abusive relationships, since this is NOT threated as something acceptable, what happens' that Midori was, at that time, dependent on him, and relevated dis; but as she has grown emotionally, she then verbally recognizes she WAS in a toxic relationship with him. I like his backstory, because it show us that people doesn't born as abusers, or turn into ones night-to-day; the patriachy, misoginy of japanese society turned him into an abuser, as he seems women as inferior to him. So as much as hate him, I have to admit his writing was of good use, since it, again, may conscious people and get 'em think about their own thoughts.

I don't have much to talk about Doumyou, so I'm gonna ignore her and talk about Komari. One of the very few things I did NOT liked was that her screentime were so short. She's an amazing character and the way it reflects Momo's youthood and Midori situation is so greatly done, but I wished she had more appearences, since her drama is interesting. This also reflects on Tama's character, which I wished we could see more, since I myself think he could be a great character. Tho, I understand the reason why they both did not had much appeaerences.

Momo's an excellent character. This feeling of not fitting anywhere, of hiding who you are because society's gonna judge any different milimmeter you have, is very well writed there, and although it has a happy ending, it isn't always like that in real life, and this is when Midori's characters shines for me; her fear of being who she was made her marry someone that, even if at first was a good person (he wasn't a good person but anyway), wasn't who she wanted to spend her days with. She married Momo at the end, but this could have gone a totally different way. Now talking about their characters individually: Momo is 28 years old and lives with her mom, that isn't a bad person but is old, so she constantly asks when she'll get married and that she shouldn't spend her days studying, which reflects on what I've said before - Japanese society is especially misoginy, and women who goes into college are often see are "ugly", thus her drama isn't just about being a lesbian but also a woman. Now about Midori, her pregnancy wasn't something she wanted, since she was raped by Tazune; they had a sexual relationship, and he one-side decided that he wouldn't use a condom, leading her into the risk of non-condom sex without her consent, which resulted on her pregnancy. Her dramas are very sensitive, and developed on a way that puts you to think on your own past actions and thoughts, since her character is about a woman, a lesbian, a soon-to-be mother and a broom into a toxic relationship, on which the toxicity isn't just about hitting her, but also about words, words of abuse.

In conclusion, it's an excellent manga and a must-read for anyone who enjoys works who tends more to adults topics and themes.~~~!~

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