A review by robertrivasplata
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Depression, anxiety, isolation, and awkward sexual experiences. Has the feel of a diary kept by a very depressed person. I kept thinking about the Avalanches' “Frontier Psychiatry” sample repeating “that boy needs therapy”. Nagata definitely needed and (judging by the later memoir mangas) needs a good therapist. Has some rumination on the ways that porn influences sexuality. Depicts hiring a sex worker as being pretty much like booking any other sort of appointment (scary). I like how the agency Nagata found the sex worker through was pleased with the early webcomic version of this book. I wonder if Nagata has read any Sayaka Murata. There's a bit of overlap there, in that they both deal with the experience of being a 20-something woman who doesn't fit typical or traditional roles, but Murata has a more alien, anthropological perspective. Gender Queer is another imperfect comparison, with Kobabe's memoir more explicitly dealing with queer ideas and gender identity, and also feeling less like a diary. Might check out Nagata's latest memoir, which is being teased as more optimistic (I wonder though), but the Solo Exchange Diary feelings might be too much to handle.