Beginning as an online hit through Pixiv--a Japanese online community for artists--it was then picked up by Seven Seas Entertainment to be brought to Western markets. The story follows Nagata growing up in the modern world, her struggles with mental health and eating disorders, and discovering her sexuality, all leading up to the point where she, at 28-year-old having never had any sexual experiences, finds herself hiring a same-sex escort.
Drawn simply in black and white with hints of pink, it's a very brutally honest look at Nagata's life. Despite her saying she's normally quite introverted, she was unafraid to expose the details of her personal journey for the sake of creating good manga content.
It had been rated in the Top 3 Manga for Women in 2017 by Japanese publishing company Takarajimasha's manga guidebook: Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (This Manga is Amazing!) and has received high reviews on Goodreads.
Lissa Pattillo, production manager at Seven Seas Entertainment said about the manga:
"My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is a book we are immensely proud and excited to be publishing. As the top yuri publisher in North America, we’re keenly aware of the impact and importance that stories about same-sex relationships can have on our audience. While our yuri titles offer wonderful tales of dramatized romance, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is an autobiographical comic, written by a queer author who is brave and talented enough to share her story in a both moving and highly entertaining way, depicting not only her explorations of sexuality, but many other personal aspects of her life that will resonate with readers."
I read the first 25 pages of the manga and really enjoyed it! Nagata definitely doesn't shy away from sharing the darker details of her eating disorder and I found I was able to really connect with her feeling of displacement, of desiring a place to belong. Only being the first few pages, she didn't yet touch upon her sexuality, but one review stated that the manga "[explores] realistic and emotional and mental dynamics in lesbian relationships... that the events leading up to Nagata's meeting with the sex worker shed a new light on how we can think about yuri" (Ana Valens of The Mary Sue).
If you're interested in reading the first 25 pages before picking it up, you can do so here. Or check out the ratings and reviews on Goodreads here.
In North America, it's available online through Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and/or Amazon.
If you've read it already, hit up the comments down below and let me know what you think! Just from the first few pages Nagata's caught my attention, so I'm very interested to dive into the rest of it!
Stay shining my darlings,
~ Tilly ~
