The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Cheerful Amnesia

What's It About? 

Arisa has lost her memories of the past three years, and her girlfriend Mari worries that means their love has vanished as well. But when Arisa lays eyes on her, it's love at first sight all over again! Hoping to rekindle what they had, Mari decides to help Arisa experience things with her once more, from dates to kissing, and beyond...?!

Cheerful Amnesia has a story and art by Tamamushi Oku. The English translation is by Jenny McKeon with lettering and touch-up by Chiho Christie. Published by Yen Press (October 24, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

There's not much to this: Mari and Arisa have been dating for a while, but one day, Arisa develops amnesia dating back to before they started dating. You might think that'd be a death knell for the women's love, but surprise! Arisa's just tickled to live with a woman who's exactly her type. And…that's it. But lest you think this isn't worth your time, Cheerful Amnesia is one of the most unabashedly cute and sweet yuri titles I've read recently. Arisa is a total Force Of Nature, a ball of rainbows and sunshine who is the human embodiment of kitten energy, and watching her delight in the fact that she's living her perfect adult life is never anything short of adorable. She and Mari balance each other out perfectly, even when she doesn't remember why or how they got together.

In this volume, we never do find out what caused Arisa to lose those three years of memories. The closest we come is that she disappeared for a few days, causing Mari to panic. We barely know anything about their relationship before the start of the series because Mari is pretty reticent, and Arisa largely relies on one of her old friends to fill her in. Her friend isn't necessarily going to remind her of the nitty gritty details (even though she claims to know them). We do know that Arisa was always the more proactive half of the couple, both in terms of them getting together and in sexual situations, and she's absolutely beside herself that she doesn't remember how to put the moves on Mari.

Mari (who works as a welder, which I love) is trying hard to figure out how best to help her girlfriend, and she balances out Arisa's manic energy well. She grounds the book, she wants to learn to be more proactive in their physical relationship while worrying about whether or not that's okay since Arisa has lost three years (and is mentally a minor again). It's clear that she adores Arisa and wants what's best for her, and the best moments are when she's quietly fretting over her girlfriend or thinking about how much she cares. The four-panel format works well here, although the humor does rely on a lot of repetition that can get a little old. This is a cute little book about a couple re-finding themselves as a couple, and it makes the perfect sweet treat after reading something heavy.

Christopher Farris

Rating:

Trite fictional function as it is, amnesia can and has been used as a device in many stories apart from the generally messier way it works in real life. And while losing your memories, especially of your loved one, is rife with opportunity for dramatic usage, Tamamushi Oku doesn't have that in mind for the appropriately titled Cheerful Amnesia. Instead, the quickly clocked core concept (also directly explained in the back of this volume) is the simple fantasy from the amnesiac Arisa's point of view of just waking up one day and being informed you had a hot girlfriend. This situation could be a prime opportunity for exploitation of many sorts, but this one is angling to be a purely sweet, silly comedy.

Some of the way this aims for that tenor, along with the instance of Arisa's amnesia and her general disposition, does make her come off as a mite infantilized throughout the manga. Granted, the flashbacks we get of her pre-memory-loss self-help confirm that she's always been this degree of disaster lesbian, and those come alongside her friends. Even recordings of her past self continuously reaffirm that she was (and still is) in a genuine, loving relationship with Mari. So it avoids some of the more obvious conceptual pratfalls while making way for pratfalls of the more conventional comedic kind as Arisa goes about falling in love with her girlfriend all over again.

It can create an odd (if fluffily funny) disconnect in the kinds of content the characters get up to. While no secret is made of the regular sexual relationship the two grown-up women used to have, much of the core comedy of Cheerful Amnesia's premise comes from Arisa's recollections being rewound to that of a horny yet inexperienced teenager right out of high school. Once again, a couple of degrees of possible discomfort are shaved off this thanks to revelations that Arisa was always Like This. It even provokes a little bit of dramatic character growth in Mari, as she realizes by the end that her still-present love for her girlfriend must necessitate her changing instead of getting hung up on things from the past. It never gets too deep, but I don't know whether it wants or needs to. There should be a place for lesbian love stories to have their own shamelessly stupid, kinda-horny comedies, and Cheerful Amnesia fills that role enjoyably enough.