[Februaryuri 2024 rerun] Kase-san and...
(base post on Februaryuri here!)
(note that all that follows, unless mentioned explicitly or in the rerun section, was written in February 2024)
Kase-san and... (Asagao to Kase-san), by Hiromi Takashima
+
sequel series Kase-san and Yamada (Yamada to Kase-san)
Yeah, I use a cover from the sequel series for this post, because the first volume of the original series uses an old draft of Kase-san that just... isn't Kase-san, and it disturbs me each and every time.
Publication
Ended (5 volumes) + Ongoing (4 volumes so far)
Published in English (Seven Seas Entertainment), 5 + 3 volumes so far
Published in French (Taifu Comics) under the title Kase-san et... + Kase-san et Yamada, 5 + 3 volumes so far
Summary
Yamada, the shy, kind and enthusiastic plant apointee of her high school, really admires the boyish, athletic and confident Kase-san from the track and field team - but so far, she's always seen her from afar, as someone way cooler than the boys. Someday, as Kase-san comes helping water the plants, Yamada realizes she may actually be in love. She has a hard time accepting that two girls can be together, though.
And yet, soon the two commute home together daily, and start experiencing all the highs and lows of budding mutual attraction.
CW
- Tidbits of gender essentialism in the early chapters.
- Bits of "But we're both girls" internalized lesbophobia basically *everywhere* at first.
- Partial nudity in an early chapter (locker room).
- Moments of jealousy and anxiety for the relationship as the main source of narrative conflict.
Sexual elements?
Budding sexual tension and attraction are (very well) depicted at times. Sex in and of itself is only briefly depicted without explicit imagery in the final chapters of the original series; and there are similar elements in the ongoing sequel if I recall correctly.Comment
This one is cute and wholesome, with a lot of “aaaaaaw” moments - some would even say it's occasionally cheesy, but isn't that sweet from time to time?
There are, however, elements of mild jealousy as the characters worry easily (I feel like this cohost post by by StillEnjoyingManga really words it well), and there's a lot (like, a lot) of "But we're both girls" in the early chapters, so be ready for that - it was still kind of the usual fare for a yuri manga that started in 2010. And yet, Kase-san has been a staple of high school yuri for years for a reason: it's particularly notable for shattering some of the genre's usual tropes1, particularly the notion of "pure", chaste yuri; and the way the action is usually confined to high school, with no relation to living as a lesbian in a larger society.
Here, first and foremost, several scenes early on capture extremely well bits of physical attraction and awkward horniness of wanting physical intimacy but being reduced to a blushing mess in a few moments. This realism goes on with the volumes, and notably the sequel, which naturally follows the couple as they graduate and go to college, something that is never shown in the high school yuri genre. There, the protagonists are shown trying to navigate Japan’s heteronormativity and slowly assert themselves as girlfriends, and also just trying to stay a couple while going to different universities.
Oh! And also, Yamada, the protagonist, sprouts plants on her head when she experiences strong emotions. It's an artistic quirk only here for comic relief and not part of the plot whatsoever. It’s wonderful.
Extra
There are two animated versions of the original series, and they're neat!
There's an animated short, 5-minute long, that briefly covers a bit more than the first volume. It's wordless, contemplative. It evokes chapters instead of precisely covering them, but it does that absolutely flawlessly (edit: I was pointed out that you can find it on YouTube, here with English subtitles and there for the official upload).
There's also a one-hour OVA that basically covers the third volume. It's a bit rushed, and ends in a slightly rough and weird place as the story continues in the manga – but it captures some very good moments of excitement and intimacy. It's also where this gif is from.
Rerun section
Frank Hecker and muteKi on cohost added here a couple of interesting thoughts, notably on the way the manga cycles through episodes of jealousy and anxiety from the two leads. As said above, these moments are, by construction, the only source of narrative conflict in an otherwise wholesome story with no external threat. This may make them a bit predictable in the long run, though they do not detract from the sweet read the series remains overall. That being said, this format also allows the leads regular moments of relief about said anxieties (even if this doesn't exactly become part of an integrated skillset, because of the story's formula). This is notably praised in this article by Ashley Glenn on AnimeFeminist: Kase-san is overall a healthy and wholesome read that solves its anxious bouts through eventual communication and support - and that matters as representation, too.
Another post on cohost by StillEnjoyingManga, contrasting it with other mangas released at the time, explains how Kase-san may not have been breaking new grounds in what it depicted when it released - but it had the benefit of being chill and cute and an easy recommendation among the releases at the time.
Honestly, it still does.
Last minute addition: these two older blog posts I just found capture very well Kase-san's strong points, both in getting out of the more problematic tropes of the high school yuri genre, and in depicting sexual attraction.
It's not the first or only one to do so, though. I'll be talking a little about Sweet Blue Flowers by Takako Shimura, a reference on expanding the high school yuri framework, when we get to Even Though We're Adults by the same author.↩