Tomodachi No Hanashi or The Secret of
Friendship revolves around two girls: The beautiful yet caustic Moe
and the plain push over Eiko. Moe easily attracts the boys but most
are turned off by her condition for being with her, Eiko must be put
first by them. While the book never attempts to portray it as
anything but unreasonable it does take the time to flesh out why Moe
thinks this is a reasonable request. The story is split into 3
sections each from a different characters perceptive and how they
deal with Moe or in the last sections case how Moe sees everything.
It still forms a cohesive story that contemplates what friendship
means to different people and how it affects them.
The first section follows Eiko as she
deals with Moe's relationship with Tsuchida, a guy smitten enough to
go along with Moe's requirement. Eiko is really embarrassed by the
fact that she's being dragged along but she is way to nice to
actually say no. Instead she starts lying to Moe,which is a stride
forward in her development to being a stronger person. She's growing
because of her friendship's with the other two as the other two learn
that they can be themselves around her. Eiko's development after this
is rather down played as the story shifts focus to the other
characters but it's done rather well regardless. This part ends on
Moe dumping Tsuchida for her perceived callousness towards Eiko. The
events here do make both girls come of as a bit selfish is some
regards but it serves to highlight how deep this relationship really
is. This is more deeply explored in chapter three once we get Moe's
side of things.
The second part follows Tsuchida's
friend Narugami as he deals with the fallout from the previous
chapter. His role for most of the part is that of vengeful jerk,the
part usually filled by random bitchy girls. However the major
difference is that the book explains his feelings, Moe hurt his best
friend so he's going to go after her best friend. He has his own
hang-ups with women and his arc concerns learning that women are
people too and that the way he treated Eiko was wrong.
The advantage of his perspective is
that we see an outsider's take on Eiko and Moe's friendship. To him
it seems terribly lop sided but as he starts to talk to Eiko he sees
how similar it is to his friendship with Tsuchida. It fits in with the
books theme of friends are forever and to hell with what others think
of them. Through out the book the characters are shown as awkward
around others but it doesn't matter to them since they have each
other. While it does get a little heavy handed it never veers into
preachy instead just showing how these friendships affect the
characters.
The final part is told from Moe's POV
as Narugami attempts to make up with the girls and dealing with his
love for Eiko. It is some what side lined as a huge part of it is
Moe's perspective on why she is friends with Eiko and why they are so
close. With all this back-story laid out it paints the previous parts
in a new light. Moe's reasons for her crazy actions are much more
clear now: Eiko gets her like nobody else does and she only wants
Eiko to be happy because then she'll be happy
It's here where the more yuri inclined
fans can read Moe's actions towards Eiko as slightly lesbian in
nature. I don't particularly feel that way as its more about Moe
reacting to her best friend changing than actual romantic jealously
towards Narugami. The romance is playing out and again we are on the
outside looking in as Moe struggles with abandonment issues and her
friend changing. It gives Moe much more depth as a character and
adds an interesting side we don't see that often.
The only real weak point to me is that
Tsuchida falls off the face of the earth for most of the final part.
Which given how deep his and Narugami's relationship is supposed
feels weird. Especially when Narugami is trying to date his ex's best
friend. Given that friendship is the major theme and Moe and Eiko's
has such much nuance and depth; it's odd that Narugami and Tsuchida's
relationship is hardly explored past chapter two. Again more of a
nitpick since Narugami's character development is solid on it's own.
There is a side story in the book about
a girl trying to catch her friend's boyfriend cheating on her. Along
the way she meets the guys friend and it blossoms into to romance.
Very sweet navel gazing chapter that ponders how far are people
willing to go for friends. A nice compliment to the main story but
nothing special over all
Tomodachi No Hanashi is an interesting
little book that digs in to the exploration of friendship without
being cheesy. The three different perspectives really help make the
relationships work and give the story some more interesting facets .
Featuring way more character development than I would expect for a
manga of this length and a very tight if minuscule cast. It's a
sentimental journey that you shouldn't miss out on.
