Nagata Kabi’s latest is another autobiographical manga, this time about love and dating and gender and suchlike. You’d think the author of a book called “My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness” would have figured out her sexuality by now but apparently not.
There isn’t much to My Wandering Warrior Existence. She goes to a friend’s wedding and decides she wants to wear a wedding dress and pose for photos so she does. Then she tries a dating app. That’s about it for stuff that happens.
She seems to have had a really sheltered life. It’s actually news to her that two people could genuinely fall in love with each other and that this is the basis of a number of weddings and lifelong partnerships. “Love is real” - who knew that could blow any adult’s mind?
She talks about her trust issues being at the root of why she’s so inexperienced with relationships, originating with a sexual assault when she was 6, which is understandable. But, I’m sorry, it’s so not interesting to read about someone figuring out how relationships work. She literally explains that people spending time with each other can learn about each other and, over time, develop feelings of affection for one another that can be called “love”.
I get that she’s shockingly ignorant when it comes to social interaction, and it’s brave of her to admit that, but - and I’m going out on a limb to say this will apply to most readers of this book - her audience definitely isn’t, and reading about the differences between romantic love and friendship love is only going to put them to sleep because this is absurdly obvious stuff most people figure out when they’re children!
She also discovers (thankfully before she has any) that having kids doesn’t necessarily solve all family problems automatically, which, again, duh, but to her, of course, was a lightbulb moment. I think she’s in her 30s.
Nagata Kabi is a decent mangaka but My Wandering Warrior Existence was a terribly tedious read. It was just watching the profoundly insecure author chase her neuroses round and round for an entire book. Oof, not good. Her previous book, My Alcoholic Escape from Reality, is definitely better, though I wouldn’t call it a must-read, but I can’t recommend her latest to anyone.
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