You, Me and Nothing In-between (Adult Content)

You, Me and Nothing In-between. Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me. Still, I was curious about this work as I'd seen Irodori Comics promoting a physical release in the past and participated in a raffle, which I sadly did not win, for a physical copy of the doujin. While it would've been nice to review the paper quality and dimensions, I still thought it worth examining in the form of a digital release. Now that that's out of the way, let's take a look at what You, Me and Nothing In-between is about.

Mone Inoue is an aspiring mangaka and, after a physical altercation with her sister, is sitting outside the apartment she shares with her when a woman called Subaru Togo walks by. She notes Mone's scratches and bruises and offers her a place to stay while the sister cools off. However, they quickly befriend each other and Mone starts living with Subaru.

It's an interesting start to a yuri title and it has numerous aspects that I greatly admire such as its characters and artwork. Given that, it's interesting that I finished my read with some level of dissatisfaction. You see, You, Me and Nothing In-between is a short work of only 30 pages, that includes the cover and credits page, and I found the pacing to be too quick for my liking. One moment, they are spending their first night in the apartment together and, next moment, it's been an undisclosed period of time which seems considerable since it's revealed that Subaru was Mone's inspiration for the main character of her first doujin (that moment made me do an immersion-breaking second take). We get a few snippets of life in-between which serves as foreshadowing to a later issue they have but it's literally only about a page and a half, a very small amount. Now, I do have to commend Ayane for establishing several plot points so quickly within this brief span but it does leave me wondering what the pacing may have been had You, Me and Nothing In-between been given more pages to breath. Still, when my biggest criticism is that the work should've been longer, you know that the rest of the material is good.

Our two leads are a significant part of this doujin's appeal. Mone Inoue's casual nature quickly warmed me to her as she didn't see her fight with her sister as significant, just a part of her familial life, and makes herself comfortable at Subaru's place by sleeping in the nude, a practice that she notes helps her sleep better. She has some insecurities but is otherwise confident about her ability to achieve her goals. She's also a considerate person as we see that Mone isn't quite who she appears to be. Immediately giving the impression of a self-assured woman, we learn that this isn't quite the case, at least when it comes to one aspect of her life. I'll leave the details for potential readers to find out but this issue gives her quite a bit of depth once it has been revealed. Together, they are funny, contrast well and the right amount of quirky.

The artwork is also lovely. While I'll admit that the paneling is a little more on the basic side for my tastes, dynamic panels being mostly relegated to the sex scenes, I must say that I was surprised by the excellent cinematography with some superb angles and framing, possibly due to the inspiration which I will talk about later. The character design is also great with the tall seemingly emotionally restrained formal businesswoman appearance of Subaru contrasting well with Mone's more casual clothing, short stature and streaked hair. Some background effects such as sparkles and flowers are present alongside a few instances of effective negative spacing but these are usually restricted to the emotional moments with the backgrounds of other moments filled in with some nice detail.

We get a brief afterword with Ayane where they reveal that their inspiration for You, Me and Nothing In-between came from a scene in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. It has been sometime since I've seen that film and the scenes that I remember tend to be quite different to what Ayane focused on but it was a nice detail that I'm glad to see included in this release.

While I was a bit dissatisfied by the rushed pacing of You, Me and Nothing In-between, it remains an enjoyable work with two pleasant leads getting to know each other as well as their vulnerabilities. As I said before, when the biggest criticism is that the work should've been longer, you know that the rest of the material is good.

If you are interested in this work, you can support the artist, Irodori Comics and myself (that being the reviewer, not UK Anime Network) by using my personal affiliate link which will provide me with a commission while showing your appreciation for these cultured works. Additionally, use the code "CULTURED" for a nice discount!