Mii-chan and Yamada-san - Ch. 4.2

[MangaDex]

 

[nicolas22g]

A lost child, almost literally

 

[jrocker]

Everytime we learn about Mii I feel worse. She has no self esteem and a real issue that wasn't resolved. Nobody looks for her or even bothers to help her without it being looked down on. Like if she is starving and freezing outside the store owner should let her stay in the store. Also, if she is paying these men to sleep with her to be her customer that is another issue someone should help her through!

 

[yun1que]

Everytime we learn about Mii I feel worse. She has no self esteem and a real issue that wasn't resolved. Nobody looks for her or even bothers to help her without it being looked down on. Like if she is starving and freezing outside the store owner should let her stay in the store. Also, if she is paying these men to sleep with her to be her customer that is another issue someone should help her through!

Well.. it's a fuckked up world in that manga. Nobody and I repeat, absolutely nobody other than FMC actually cares for her. She care not because of any obligation, but because she is probably the only human being there with an actual working empathy. I mean yeah.. what a fucked up world in that manga..

 

[bradboy102]

Well.. it's a fuckked up world in that manga. Nobody and I repeat, absolutely nobody other than FMC actually cares for her. She care not because of any obligation, but because she is probably the only human being there with an actual working empathy. I mean yeah.. what a fucked up world in that manga..

This is based on a true story though, right? So the messed up world... is ours.

 

[eightrooks]

Let's quote it again, if it helps:

"When I was a student, I worked in cabaret clubs and escort cafes, and when I first started working, I did paid drinking. I decided to draw on those experiences to create a manga about working in the night industry."

"The model for Mii-chan is a girl I used to work with at a cabaret club in Kabukicho. She was really bad at kanji, to the point where she couldn't even read the menu at an izakaya. She said she had a mild intellectual disability, and she even had a disability certificate.

"While he treats even the most 'bad customer' with a smile, he also has many weaknesses. He even reveals his real name and address right away, and there have been times when regular customers have become stalkers."

and

In addition to talking about her own experiences and those around her, Atsuki also makes sure to go out and talk to women in need.

"Recently, I've been talking to the girls at Toh Yoko to get ideas. The girls at Toh Yoko can seem a little hard to approach at first glance, but some of them are surprisingly friendly and tell me their stories when you talk to them."

"Toyoko" refers to the square next to Toho Cinemas in Kabukicho, Tokyo. Children and young people who have no place to go at home or school gather here.

In December 2023, the Metropolitan Police Department conducted a sweep in the area, taking 28 people into custody, both male and female, between the ages of 12 and 19. Among them was a sixth-grade girl.

(If you've played any of the earlier Yakuza games, this place is in there - AFAIK the big cinema in Kamurocho is basically almost directly drawn from how Toho Cinemas used to look.)

This is direct MTL from the interview she did with Japanese MSN, before this version of the manga started running. So yeah, while the manga is definitely "based on true events" (i.e. and not "every single thing in here happened exactly as it is shown to have happened"), I'd say it certainly seems to be drawn pretty heavily from life, and she seems to have been putting in some effort to make sure it stays that way.

And like I put in the notes, more than once I'd go looking for old articles about various issues this chapter or that chapter brings up, thinking "What was it like back in 2012?" and find out "Oh. It's still like that now." I didn't want to stick a load of URLs and quotes in there because I'm not writing an essay and I'm guessing there's not many people reading this (...yet?) who care, but for example with this chapter, if you search for "news articles japan "okubo park" ", you'll easily get plenty from the past two years rather than a decade ago.

The next chapter gets a bit less grim, although the not-grim stuff mostly happens to Somebody Else (the manga introduces more characters than just Yamada and Mii-chan). Part of that is directly looking at how somebody in her position got processed by the system back then.

 

[ErikTheRed]

Dont tell me she's into hosts or idols or something like that and blows all her money on it as well

 

[AcidVlad]

We are reaching peak writing, but at what cost

 

[Goodbyefrankenstein]

I mean we knew since chapter 1 but wow this is a straight downhill rollercoaster huh

 

[wallsg]

Dont tell me she's into hosts or idols or something like that and blows all her money on it as well

Probably. Remember that she basically said that she can make people happy and praise her by blowing them, fucking them, or giving them money. A few sweet words from a host and she'd be back at that Park for more money.

The host problem seems to be one of the big reasons that young people streetwalk.

Saving Kabukicho Streetwalkers

Spoiler: A little about one woman as an example

It’s a familiar story, told by prostitutes the world over: A lousy childhood, a yearning to be loved and sizable debts to be paid off the only way they know how: by streetwalking.

“I handled up to five or six men a day for 15,000 yen ($99) to 30,000 yen a time,” said a 20-year-old woman who refers to herself only as Uru. She would solicit customers on the streets around Okubo Park in the seedy red-light district of Kabukicho, known as Japan’s largest entertainment quarter in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

That was her life until a year ago.

Uru never knew her parents. Within days of her birth, she was bundled off to a care home in Kanagawa Prefecture, close to the capital. She lived in orphanages there and elsewhere until she turned 18.

Uru arrived in Kabukicho in the summer of 2022. She started frequenting a gigolo club, where women pay lavishly for the company of suave male hosts and often shower the objects of their desire with expensive gifts. Her spending ballooned so drastically that she eventually owed 500,000 yen to the club operator. Desperate, Uru began roaming the streets to turn tricks. She tried to convince herself that she “could do everything for my favorite” companion at the club.

“I was always lonely,” she says. “I wanted someone to love me.”

...

Police believe that the increased number of prostitutes in Kabukicho area is due to so-called “host club addicts.” Noting the uptick, a series of private-sector initiatives are in the works to help streetwalkers quit prostitution while taking their individual circumstances into account.

 

[eightrooks]

Probably. Remember that she basically said that she can make people happy and praise her by blowing them, fucking them, or giving them money. A few sweet words from a host and she'd be back at that Park for more money.

The host problem seems to be one of the big reasons that young people streetwalk.

Saving Kabukicho Streetwalkers

Yeah, that's one of the "...oh, so it's still very much happening now" links I saw, FWIW. Others pinned it on e.g. Japan's own rising cost of living problem, and the growth in sex tourism (some news sites were claiming Japan's seeing an upswing) turning it into a vicious cycle.