The "seeing/being seen" gropes for love...
From the maze of sex and the gaze to "Okaeri" (welcome back).

Hello!kanahina It's a pleasure to be back!😊

In this issue, Shuzo Oshimi sharply depicts "the gaze, sex, and self-affirmation."Welcome Back Alice" by Shuzo OshimiShuzo Oshimi's sharp depiction of "the gaze, sex, and self-affirmation.

Please note that it contains a synopsis, opinions, and light spoilers 🥺 if you haven't read it yet.

First, "Where can I read it?" Where can I buy it?" Let's check from the following!

✅ In conclusion, you can read below!

Available at major e-bookstores (ebookJapan, BookLive, DMM Books, Kindle, Renta!, Rakuten Kobo, etc.). The paper book is7 volumes(Kodansha Comics, Kodansha Comics).

Service Name	Point	Campaign
ebookJapan	More than 800,000 manga and other books. Many free titles are always available. Strong discounts combined with PayPay redemption!	70% OFF (6 copies available)
Book Live (BookLive)	A comprehensive bookstore with over 1 million books. Daily coupon gacha & special price sale are attractive.	70% OFF (up to 1 book)
DMM Books	First purchase isUp to 90% OFFFor bulk buyers. For bulk buyers.	90% OFF (Upper limit 2,000 yen)
Kindle Store	Earn and spend Amazon points. Kindle Unlimited coverage is also available.	70% OFF (up to 3,000 yen) Only for items with coupon
Renta!	For those who want to read cheaply with an emphasis on rentals. From as low as 110 yen (tax included).	Rank system available.
Rakuten Kobo E-book Store	Rakuten points are powerful. Great point reduction with entry & first purchase.	Up to 70x points back. (up to 2,000 yen)

There are many other places you can read about, but I picked up the ones I recognize.
I am,ebookJapanis the best place to buy all volumes, as there is also a 70% off coupon for the first purchase!😊

📖 Welcome Back Alice Outline

Childhood friendYohei Kamegawa・Yui Mitani・Kei MurotaThe three of them are Yui Mitani, Kei Murota, and Yohei. In the summer of their first year of junior high school, Yohei accidentally witnesses Yui and Kei kissing, and the distance between the three crumbles due to awkwardness and jealousy.
Eventually, Kei transfers to another school, and the remaining Yohei and Yui try to return to their daily lives as if "nothing happened.

The day they enter high school,"I got off the man.Hui says, "I got off the man.The guise of a womanreturns in a
With her hair and makeup styled, her behavior changed, and even the way she looks at them, Satoshi's reappearance reveals the insecurities and desires that Yohei and Yui have been hiding in their hearts.

The relationship of "seeing/being seen" can be both pleasurable and violent,Masculinity/femininityThe urge to be affirmed by others and the difficulty of affirming oneself.

Shuzo Oshimi specializes inExpression and "pauseShuzo Oshimi relentlessly depicts the delicate fluctuations of adolescence with his signature facial expressions and "pauses" in this ensemble coming-of-age drama.

✍Welcome Back Alice Author

Shuzo OshimiOshimi Shuzo is a manga artist. Manga artist known for his style of gouging out the emotional pain points of adolescence.
His best-known work is "Curse of the Curse," a coming-of-age drama of perversion and self-loathing,The Misalignment of Body and Egoand "Boku wa Mari no naka," which deals head-on with the discrepancy between the body and the ego,craving and lonelinessHappiness," which uses the metaphor of bloodsucking to depict the "Happiness," and "Trail of Blood," which depicts the closeness and domination of parents and children.

Without resorting to oversimplification,silent panels, leaning faces, and crossed gazes.and crossed gazes, without resorting to excessive explanations.
By suppressing backgrounds and monologues and leaving "blank spaces for interpretation" to the reader, the artist realistically visualizes "feelings that make you want to look away," such as shame, envy, and self-loathing.

In "Okaeri Alice," issues of gender and sexuality are not painted over with someone else's "correct" answers,but rather affirms the fluctuation itself.The film is a work of art that affirms the fluctuation of the issues itself.

👥 Welcome Back Alice Characters

Yohei Kamekawa
He is the narrator of a group of three childhood friends who have known each other since childhood and want to be "normal.
He is a shy, glasses-wearing boy who develops an interest in sex during puberty, and a conversation with Toshi forces him to confront his own desires.

After witnessing a "certain scene" in junior high school, he becomes increasingly jealous and awkward between Yui and Satoshi, and distances himself from them, which leads to self-loathing.
In high school, he begins a relationship with Yui, but continues to struggle with the discrepancy between his rationality and his reaction to her physical approach.

His story is driven by his wavering gaze and desire, and the question, "What do I want to be?

Kei Murota
A childhood friend. He moved to Hokkaido in the summer of his first year of junior high school and returned to Tokyo when he entered high school.
She declares that she is "not a man anymore" and lives her school life dressed as a woman, symbolized by her blonde princess cut.

She clearly articulates her sense of discomfort with the world's idea of "masculinity" and explores her own way of being while accepting the gazes of others.
She approaches Yohei with a distance that is both provocative and protective, unintentionally and sometimes intentionally upsetting the balance between the three of them.

His (her) way of life also confronts the reader with values concerning gender, body, and desire.

Yui Mitani
A childhood friend. She had a crush on Satoshi in junior high school, and is upset when she meets him again in high school, where he has "changed like a different person.
In high school, she begins dating Yohei, but continues to waver between her former feelings and her current relationship, and struggles with the discrepancy between "the me someone sees" and "the me I want to see.

Facing the jealousy, guilt, and desire for approval that arises between the three of them, she hopes for "normal love," but is repeatedly confronted with the reality of the intertwining of gazes and desires.

Ren Ano
A sophomore in the art club at Yohei and his friends' high school. She asks Satoshi to model for her paintings, and eventually comes to deeply sympathize with Satoshi's and Yohei's words about "going back to the way things were before men and women were embedded.
This is a catalytic position that gives new meaning to the relationship between "the body seen" and "the body drawn," as the three step into this intertwined relationship from a different circuit, that of creativity.

Ano's gaze functions as a mirror for both Satoshi and Yohei to look back at themselves "as they are.

👀 Highlights

Stabbing direction with facial expressions and "pauses".

The quintessence of Shuzo OshimiHe makes the audience understand without explaining.without explanation.
The swim of the eyes, the dryness of the lips, the stiffness of the back of the hands, the pauses in breathing - the density of emotion is conveyed even when the dialogue is silent.

The "breathing" between frames leaves a blank space for the reader's imagination, and the tempo at which the pages are turned amplifies anxiety and elation.
In particular, the subtle transition from shame to self-loathing to elation,Leaning in→drawing back→silencerhythm of leaning, pulling, and then silence.
The character's "true feelings that can't be said" will pierce our hearts with just a close-up of the eyes and fingertips.

The points that stick are as follows:

• Frame of silence...The spread without dialogue depicts the "fall" of emotions more eloquently than words.
• Gaze Displacement...The composition of two people whose gazes do not meet on the same screen visualizes the disconnection and hesitation in the relationship.
• Body detail...larynx, ears, knots of fingers, etc,"The place where desire resides."The dots in the book evoke the reader's imagination.

Pleasure and violence of the gaze

The driving force of this story is,"seeing/being seen."The driving force of this story is the duality of the "seeing/being seen" relationship.
To be seen can be approval or humiliation, to be seen can be understanding or control. The characters are shaken by each gaze,desire, jealousy, superiority, and shame.swirls around them.
The artist switches the camera position (subjective/objective) and makes the viewer experience the arrow of the gaze in the screen design.

For example, in places where the "public gaze" gathers, such as hallways and classrooms, even the slightest change in gesture is amplified, revealing the internal conflict between "wanting to be seen" and "not wanting to be seen" within the characters.
Do not rely on smart psychological explanations,Rumor, Attention, SilenceThe reader is somehow held accountable for the "viewer's" actions.

What you can see when you "get off the boat

The "getting off" is what Hui calls "getting off".Getting off the manis not a mere declaration of womanhood. It is a declaration of putting aside the roles given to him by society (masculinity/femininity),and choose again a way of being that is sincere to oneself.It is an act of choosing a sincere way of being for oneself.
Clothing, hairstyle, and behavior are no longer "armor" but "choices. The process of regaining the initiative to define oneself, while being exposed to the eyes of those around one, is painstakingly depicted.

At the same time, this film also confronts the reality that "getting off" does not always mean immediate relief.
Expectations of Others / Misaligned Self-Image / Desire for Affirmationcollide, and the pain continues.
Yet, step by step, the verbalization of boundaries (agreement, distance, calling, touching) does not destroy the relationship between the three,updateThe process of the book's development leaves a quiet aftertaste after reading the book.

🏢 Publisher

Publisher:Kodansha/ Publication Magazine:Bessatsu Shonen Magazine/ Label:Kodansha Comics
Serialization:May 2020 - September 2023/ Monograph:7 volumes(Complete).

📱 Official SNS

I don't see any official specials,Magapokepage for the latest information.

⭐Reviews, Ratings, and Reputation Summary

• (5.0)The expression is too telling.
  Emotions are conveyed with just a slight change in the eyes and mouth. The less dialogue there is in a scene, the more it sticks in the chest.
• (5.0)The drama of the gazes is breathtaking.
  Tension rises just from the relationship between "seeing" and "being seen. The sense that the reader's gaze is also questioned is fresh.
• (5.0)A story that affirms fluctuation
  The courage to step down from the framework of masculinity/femininity is carefully portrayed without judgment. A quiet aftertaste lingers after reading.
• (5.0)Wonderful pauses and panel layout.
  The rhythm of silence, leaning, and pulling raises the heart rate. The pleasure of turning the pages naturally makes your hands quicken.
• (4.0)It hurts, but you can't take your eyes off the page.
  The cycle of jealousy, shame, and self-loathing is realistic. It makes us look directly at the "parts we don't want to see" of adolescence.
• (4.0)The reality of a love triangle
  The gap between love and desire, and the clash of desires for approval are life-size. You can't help but sympathize with everyone's feelings.
• (4.0)Depth of theme
  Depicts gender, body, and self-affirmation without escaping into lightness. There is room for interpretation and rereading.
• (3.0)Pace is slow.
  Many scenes move along with conversation and eye contact, and may feel slow to action-oriented readers. The more you chew, the more flavorful it becomes.
• (3.0)Stress on the main character's hesitation.
  While the indecision is realistic, it is also frustrating. A point where tastes differ depending on the degree of emotional involvement.
• (2.0)Trigger warning.
  There are descriptions surrounding sexual topics and discomfort with the body. It is safe to choose when to read and your physical condition.

While the "not too much explanation" style of direction and the drama of the eye are highly praised, the slow-moving psychological drama may be different for different tastes. Try the free trial first to see how the work breathes!

🔎Welcome Back Alice Spoilers and Discussion

Toward the end, the friction in the love triangle goes beyond its limits. Yui has a physical relationship with Yohei, and provocatively engages in physical behavior in front of him, while Yohei is driven by aversion to sexual desire and self-denial, and finally breaks down to the point of trying to "amputate" his genitals.

Ren Ano accompanies them through the circuit of creation (drawing), and Yohei decides to "get out of the swamp of sexual desire. This collapse and resolution lead to the "farewell" and "fresh start" in the final volume (volume 7).

In the final volume, we firstMitani's "goodbyeYui is swayed by Kei's words, "Even women can get off the train. When Kei says, "Even women can get off," Yui is once swayed, but after tears, she chooses "good-bye.
The kiss from Satoshi is depicted as a reversal of the first episode (confirmation → invitation), bringing closure to the relationship between the three of them.

Continue to the next episodeToshi's haircutThe "man" is a woman. It is shown as a symbolic act of trying to get off the frame of "becoming a woman" as well, in order to "get off the man" by having Yohei cut off her long hair.

The climax is when Yohei and SatoshiThe climax is a "fusion" image of Yohei and Satoshi taking off both their bodies and names.The climax is a scene in which Yohei and Satoshi reach a "fusion" image in which they shed their bodies and names. They share the image of "returning" to their childhood, before their gender roles were imprinted on them. They share the image of "returning" to their childhood, before their gender roles were imprinted on them.

In the work, the contours are untied,In the work, the contours are unraveled, and the expression "stripping off the body" hints at a way of being for the "two" that is outside the conventional framework of love and sexual desire.

In the epilogue, YoheiLet's rebuild our bodies together.and makes a decision to step into a new daily life together with Satoshi.

The final chapter closes with a choice to place mutual affirmation before roles, leaving the "name" of the relationship ambiguous (it is left to the reader to determine "how they got off on their gender").

) This ending is not the end of the relationship between the three,The beginning of a new quest.I think it suggests that this is not the end of a relationship between three people, but the beginning of a new quest.

The last part is a bit confusing, so I'll summarize it a bit more briefly

In the last part, although the name of the place is not specified in the story, Yohei, who has grown up over time, goes to a "certain place" in an open outdoor space (which may look like a park or a tree-lined street to some readers), monologuing, and is reunited with Kei, whom he has not seen for a while.
There, "Okaeri" and "Tadaima" are exchanged. The story closes with an affirmation of each other's existence, without deciding on a "name" for the relationship.

To add a few more details, in the final chapter, after the symbolic exchange of "I wipe my body/I was here in the beginning," time passes (the reviewer reads this as Yohei becoming an adult of around 22 years of age).

In short--

The two men separate and then meet again after several years of blanks (no details are given as to where they have been, etc.).

The reunion takes place in an "everyday" landscape (looks like a park), and the dialogue is brief: "Welcome home/I'm home.

The "answer" of gender or role is not determined, but the fact that they have found a "place to return to" (i.e., a "partner") is the conclusion of the story.

This "affirmation that leaves ambiguity" is the kind of ending that is typical of Shuzo Oshimi, who also says in the afterword, "I want to say 'I'm home' and 'welcome back' as many times as I can. I want to say "I'm home" as many times as I can, and welcome them back. I think that's all I can do.

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🎯 Welcome Back Alice Summary

A poignant and beautiful coming-of-age drama in which "seeing/being seen" drives the story.
A rare film that portrays the courage to "step down" from gender, body, and roles without judgment.
Easy to read through as all seven volumes are complete. Try it out first, then purchase wisely by using a coupon!

✔ This book is for people like you!

• People who like psychological drama told with "facial expressions and pauses" rather than dialogues.
• Want to experience the reality of a love triangle (jealousy/shame/need for approval)
• Have an experience of feeling uncomfortable with gender and "masculinity/femininity".
• Shuzo Oshimi's "can't look away" style sticks in your mind.
• Want to read the complete book (7 volumes) in one sitting.

🛒 Pre-purchase checklist (how to buy without fail)

• Try for freeCheck the atmosphere of the book with the "Match" function (if the panels are aligned, you are almost certain to find the right one).
• Maximize your first coupon(Example:ebookJapanis70% off x 6 times(Cheap to buy in bulk at)
• Redemption days and point combinations.further reduce the real cost of ownership
• For paper users7 volumes in totalon the bookshelf. For electronic usersread them all at once on their phonesis comfortable
• The theme is delicate.More mindful time than late at night.than late at night.

🚀 Shortest route (for those who want to read it right now)

• Try 1-2 episodes(If the facial expressions and eye direction stick, GO)
• Apply coupon and get volumes 1-6 all at once(Run through to the middle of the book where the climax continues)
• The final 7 volumes will be used to collect "Welcome Back".(Finish reading the book while enjoying the aftermath)

If you are in doubt, it is best to read the book first, and then use the coupon to read the whole book at once.
Click here below to read it now for a discount!

Buy Cheapest with Coupon Read at ebookJapan

❓ Finally, a frequently asked question!