Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish Review

 


Aw man, this was kind of disappointing...

Josee the Tiger and the Fish by Seiko Tanabe and Nao Emoto is about Tsuneo, a college student who likes scuba diving and wants to study abroad in Mexico. He works various jobs to save up for his travels. One day he accidentally runs into a wheelchair user and artist (painter) named Kumiko who prefers to go by Josee, and her grandmother. Things get off to a rocky start, but Josee's grandmother decides to hire Tsuneo to be Josee's caretaker. As he keeps coming to take care of Josee every day, he finds out she's been isolated by her grandmother practically her whole life due to her disability. Only now as Tsuneo keeps taking her out, she slowly starts to experience things she never has before. 

This story sounded like something right up my alley, and it did do plenty of things I liked. I liked the disability rep, Josee's art, a new friend she makes who is a librarian, Josee's picture book story that's loosely about her and Tsuneo (that made me tear up, it was so sweet!) and I liked Tsuneo and his friends...for the most part.

However, the story also did some things I did not like, which is why I gave it a lower rating. The main thing was I didn't like Tsuneo and Josee's relationship! Tsuneo was nice enough, but Josee was a very hotheaded and kind of mean girl. I mean, I get that acted the way she did living in isolation with an overbearing grandmother, but for the majority of the story she was pretty rude to Tsuneo for no reason. It was a little hard to root for their relationship. It also felt rushed at the end, It was all kind of a reminder why I don't really like enemies to lovers stories (yes, I know, unpopular opinion!). Some other minor nitpicks I had were Josee's grandmother, Tsuneo's friends get a little annoying as the story goes on, and we never actually get to see Tsuneo go to Mexico. We couldn't even get a bonus chapter on it. 

So I gave this one 3 stars. I think if you want a better manga (well, series) that has a way better love story and that also has disability rep, check out A Sign of Affection.

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