Youko Nemu right? I am not familiar with her work. She seems likable by which I mean she seems like a middleaged woman at least thats what she was when she published this and I hardly ever dislike middleaged women. This is a very impressive debut. A lot of fun is to be had here so much so that I am willing to forgive the fact that I had no takeaways by the end of the manga. The story starts off in a tiny cramped office where Momoko works. Momoko is miserable she is now a working adult after years of studying to be an illustrator and instead of landing her dream job she designs pachinko parlors. Who even likes pachinko? At least thats what Momoko thinks anyway. Her situation is glumstandard for the work/adult life genre where conflict often arises from the transition to youth to adulthood in which one learns that a life under mindnumbing capitalism isnt at all ideal or inspiring. This is a hugely popular theme even today. Millenials now more than ever are unhappy with the work force and future generations have even less to look forward to. Works like Aggretsukohttps://anilist.co/anime/101571/AggressiveRetsukoONA/ resonate with audiences in 2019 because they represent the reality of our daytoday. Even if we ourselves are comfortable with our worklife balance we likely know someone who isnt. And as with all things in adulthood stability is temporary and fleeting. It is not easy to maintain a relationship. It is not easy to get the career weve been dreaming of since we were small. It is not easy to say goodbye to our friends whether we lose them to domesticity or the cemetery. So why is it I struggle to find what exactly it is that Youko wanted to accomplish with this manga? I cant help but be hopeful that maybe just maybeI am misunderstanding her message. As it is it feels like the takeaway I got from this manga is that as long as you enjoy your time with coworkers a miserable job you dont actually enjoy is perfectly fine. Lets dive into that a little. STORY Im going to freely talk about the story now so if you havent read the manga yet feel free to go ahead and do that now and then come back. 220https://i.ur.com/z7NgqK0.jpg The story is super cute Absolutely everything I love about the josei genre from the introspective looks at the lives of real women in anoftencandid storytelling format to the way female authors inject their own personal feminist leanings through their experiences into their beloved characters. I like Momoko. She feels like she could be one of my friendsin that way I find myself rooting for her in every situation shes in. The manga is only fifteen chapters long and it mainly follows Momokos romance with a guy that delivers packages to her workplace. Now I have no problem with this romance. The way its set up is actually interesting if not a little predictable near the end. Momokos pretty boyfriend cheats on her at the beginning of the story. She is surprisingly okay with this because shes actually finding her workplace to be very fulfilling more on this later but her heartbreak over the betrayal allows her to consider an older man she befriends near her work place. The romance is interconnected with the other major plot of the storyMomokos relationship with her coworkers. They are all vastly eccentric people with various odd behaviors that make Momoko want to quit. One guy even has a backstory for why he strips down whenever hes stressed yeah yeah.. It feels like the conflict setup here Momoko filing her resignation letter is very drawnout and had the romance not existed I probably would have found it very tiring that it takes so long for this subplot to be resolved. Perhaps Im being a little critical. Youko made it abundantly clearly in her notes that this was all based off personal experience. In that case I should forgive slight discrepancies in theme. However I would argue that a story even one that is semibiographical while fictional in execution should still leave the reader with an understanding of what part of the authors heart we are left with by the end. A truly emotional piece still needs a storytelling format that gives us a takeaway. I did not feel that there was a takeaway with this manga. WHAT WENT WRONG? I think my issue with this manga is that for all of its fun characters and engaging romance I cant tell why the author decided to frame this manga as a piece contemplating the struggles of being a laborer in todays society. I understand that Momoko like all adults goes through a lot of wild and wacky things and hey maybe thats the point after all. Maybe the point is that being an adult is weird and there is no clear understanding of the way things will go and what will happen to you in the future. In that case I dont understand why we are introduced to Momokos desire to be an illustrator. This is brought up several times in the manga too and I am left confused as to why the culmination of the plot is... that Momoko is happier with a boyfriend she loves and her coworker friends besides her? The theme doesnt even seem to be that as long as you have people you love all is good because Momoko defies this constantly through the apathy she showcases through her job. The last chapter of the manga just restates the fact that Momoko has never liked this job and she is miserable working unless a specific set of requirements has been made. Maybe its just me but I feel vaguely miserable knowing that Momoko spends most of the manga holding down her dream which is only sortof discussed in the last chapter. With a story like Aggretsuko we understand why it was made. Aggretsuko is a form of entertainment thats akin to a punchingbagwe feel bad for Retsuko because weve been in her situation before and we sympathize with her methods of stressrelief because we all probably do something similar to escape the hellscape capitalist environment were in. Watching someone else go through our struggles allows us to feel like we can let out our frustrations too. 3AM Dangerous Zone really has a lot going for it. The characters are fun the plot moves along at a nice pace and the author has a beautiful art style and draws each individual with personality and allure. I just wish the manga had been framed in a slightly different context. Because without that tiny drawback everything about this manga is a representation of the sincerity that makes the josei genre so beautiful.