[Februaryuri 2026] Shimeji Simulation (reupload)

03 Mar, 2026

(I first posted this review a week ago, then pulled it out because I wasn't satisfied with the result. Here is what I believe is a better version.)

(base post on Februaryuri 2026 here!)

Shimeji Simulation by Tsukumizu

Publication

Ended (5 volumes, 2019-2023)
Not published in English :( (fan-translation readable here or here¹)
Not published in French :(

Summary

Shimeji Simulation is a surrealist, trippy, atmospheric, existentialist yuri manga about absurdist jokes, the nature of reality, fried eggs and mushrooms and fish, wishing things into existence, stories and myth and inaccessible truths, the ability and desire to change oneself and others, dreams, plushies of sea creatures; and maintaining your sense of self while being in contact with, and close to, others.

It is the story of a girl, Shijima, nicknamed Shimeji, who has spent two years recluse in her closet before entering high school due to unaddressed events, who doesn't speak much, and who has mushrooms on her head; and of Majime, one of her classmates, who desperately wants to be friends with her, and who has an egg on her head.
It is also, among others, the story of a school club where they dig holes in the ground, and the story of how Shimeji's sister is possibly trying to unravel the fabric of reality.

It is a strange, poetic 4-koma manga unlike any other.

It is 👩🏻🍄  👩🏼🍳  🐟💭  🕳️🕳️  🎨🌳 👓🥼  🌧️🎶  🐱🐦  🌆🔩  👻🐟  🦀🐰,

🐙🦈  📒✏️  🐈🍢  🦎🍤  📚📖  🦴🎵  👙🎞️  🍩🌕  🐟⚙️  🕳️🐱,

🏫🔄  🌨️☂️  💭🌕  📘🎶  💧🩱  🌻⬛  ➿🪢  🪨❓  🫖🔭  🚗🐚,

🏠☁️  〰️👗  ⛪🌱  🌽🌙 👘🦑  🏛️🥪  🌵🥞  🕳️🪜  🍆📺  🥁🫛,

🔥🔔  🍩🎨  ☁️🍊  ❄️🐟  😇🍉 🌏🏠  🚂🌌  👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏼.

Comment

Shimeji Simulation fascinates me. I read it last March, a year ago, and it's stayed in my head ever since like an odd, striking work of art. I have a few elements of criticism I need to level against it; but I still value the experience of reading it immensely.

It is not a very accessible read, to be fair. I was very quickly in awe with all of its uncommon uses of panel structures and gutters on a meta level, but I remember reading the first volume mostly confused by its specific brand of deadpan, absurdist humor and its weird (yet consistent) logic. Still, by volume 2 I had started to grasp the manga's rythm - and how each volume ended with its own kind of world-altering ending - and after that it really became an incredible ride throughout.
You just... slowly get used to how the story is bonkers in a quiet way. Each volume is more unhinged than the previous one somehow, and at some point I think the narrative really fills you with a strange sense of glee, amazement and wonder at whatever it's going to throw at you next.

And I think that feeling is incredible. I've been missing it, and desperately wanting to experience it again ever since: to be mindblown with just the right amount of dreamy developments, of events that make sense in some twisted way and that tell you strange but oddly deep things on reality, communication and the self.

This also heavily contributed to why Shimeji Simulation stuck with me this much. I was particularly vulnerable last March, a hermit trying to piece back together her broken self after several trauma-related events, and struggling with communication and being in contact with people. Finding this manga focused - amidst all of its surrealist layers - on a shut-in protagonist ultimately terrified of her self disappearing if she got close to others hit hard in a way that made me cry with empathy several times.

But the art also did a lot. Here too, it felt mostly strange at first; but I have since developped a true fondness for Tsukumizu's specific style. And with everything it tries, with the way it plays with the medium of manga and sometimes low-key fries your brain, I think it really contributes in creating an atmosphere somewhere between the nonsensical, the mind-bending, the quietly melancholic and the wonderful. It also makes for a great source of strange reaction pics.

Someone I knew on the dead social media website cohost once told me this read was precious to them, and I understand, now. Shimeji Simulation is something special, for sure.

Now, I have a few things I'd criticize in it still.

First, there are a few occurrences of ex-students dating their former teachers in there. Some don't make me that uneasy - one of the students is actually revealed to be older than her grade would imply, and her eventual relationship with the hole-digging club teacher is developped more through poetry and surrealism than anything grounded - but some do - one of the students literally proposes to one of her teachers who accepts to date her once she graduates, and their marriage is shown soon after.

Second, the manga contains a brief sex scene between the two protagonists Shimeji and Majime in the last volume that... doesn't sit right with me. To be clear, this is in part purposeful: Shimeji quickly panics and runs away, and it makes sense, because she is heavily built around her fear of getting close to others. And I relate so much to the crux of volume 5: Shimeji rebuilding her sense of self and feeling ready to get close to Majime again.

But somewhere in this, I can't help but read that part under the lens of the classic dynamic of Shimeji as the taciturn brunette and Majime as the pushy blonde disrespecting the former's boundaries - sadly a true and tried trope of yuri mangas. Majime never apologizes, and this failed sex attempt is never brought back again in a serious way; and I can't help but see this as a fault in their relationship dynamic, where the entire effort of mending the relationship is put on the one that was scared and hurt in the process.

Of course, as many aspects of Shimeji Simulation are, this is blurry and debatable: the ending also beautifully conveys how both protagonists ultimately, wordlessly, find a new balance where Shimeji doesn't feel threatened of losing who she is. And when I try to move past my gripes with what happens before, that ending is truly, truly beautiful. But something still makes me see that sex scene quite literally: as a nonconsensual moment that is never addressed afterward with the appropriate gravity.
And I know it's intended more like a narrative trigger - less of a relationship fault or something about sex, and more of a telltale sign of Shimeji's identity issues, of the journey she has to undertake to be ready for this relationship with Majime. It just never feels like Majime meets her halfway in this (literally, by the end of the series); and that fact coupled with an unaddressed breach of consent leaves me unsettled in a way that really feels like it wasn't the story's aim.

Now, one year later, my mixed feelings on that one part of the plot's execution still stand, even if I can understand what was intended there. But with all this, I also remember vividly the sheer impact of the rest of Shimeji Simulation on me. It has skyrocketed as one of my favorite works of art in manga form, period; and it remains firmly there even with the criticism I can make of it.

So many of its scenes live in my head like a fever dream, now; and yet, when I think back on them, it still feels like they try to unravel something real about communication and existing and being distinct from other people.

Extra

I obviously need to mention that the same author, Tsukumizu, wrote the more well-known Girls' Last Tour, a similarly strange and poetic series with a more post-apocalyptic vibe (and which has been, for its part, released in both English and French). I only tried its anime adaptation once years ago and didn't go very far; but I've been meaning to give it another shot and read the manga version since I've read Shimeji Simulation. Soon, I hope.

Aside from that, I've been delighted to learn that someone is translating Shimeji Simulation into toki pona. If you do not know toki pona, it's a fascinating constructed language that you can learn really quickly, see for instance my blog post on the topic. Somehow, I feel like it fits Shimeji Simulation quite well.

The first few chapters of the manga have also been officially adapted into voiced-over comic, along with fan-animations.

What else? The afterword of the author, Tsukumizu, mentioned their poor health throughout the publication of ShimeSim, and it makes me want to thank them all the more². I hope they're ok, and am curious about diving into the things I haven't read of them.
It's also been funny seeing them make Otherside Picnic fanart, and discovering while doing research for this post that they apparently wrote a depressing Touhou fan oneshot - that I have read since posting and that I would recommend to any Touhou fan interested in a quietly sad and existentialist read about Flandre being tired of living for so long.

#februaryuri 2026 #yuri