AUTHOR: EMILY RAE-BRINSDEN
Do you know what a VJ is? If not, don’t worry: until a few days ago, I didn’t even know they existed!
‘After Hours’ is a three volume sapphic manga series by Yuhta Nishio, and while not currently in the library, I was able to order it online at Booktopia! The protagonists of the story are Emi Asahina, an unemployed 24-year-old, and Keiko ‘Kei’ Yoinoma, an older office worker and part-time DJ. And the manga series details the story of their meeting, their relationship and their life together.
Kei introduces Emi, and the reader, to the loud and exciting world of underground DJing. There, Emi meets a number of Kei’s friends and begins performing alongside Kei as a VJ. As Emi quickly learns, VJing is—in Emi’s words—the process of ‘edit[ing]… a video [together] in real time… to match [the DJ’s] music.’ While Emi is very nervous at her first performance—particularly as her video is going to be projected behind a DJing Kei to an audience of many—she finds it rather fun! Most of all, she loves the way Kei looks as she DJs, and knowing that the video she is editing is actively lifting Kei’s sound to greater heights.
As well as VJing and DJing, the series touches on the complexities of adulthood, work and romantic and platonic relationships—both same-sex and otherwise. Emi and Kei learn a lot of lessons throughout the series, and it is heart-warming to watch them grow. Plus, their development shows the important fact that one can always learn and improve no matter their age.
I highly recommend ‘After Hours’, and I am very excited to read Nishio’s newest manga ‘Mizuno & Chayama’ when it releases!
If you are interested in reading ‘After Hours’ yourself, I just have a quick warning: the series contains two non-explicit NSFW scenes, though they can be easily skipped over if that is something that makes you uncomfortable! And, due to the age of the main cast and the scene they are involved in, there are quite a few depictions of of-age drinking.