Farewell, Daisy: Junmayuzuki Short Story Collection
Author and Artist: Jun Mayuzuki
Publisher: Yen Press (Print & Digital)
Translation: Amanda Haley
Lettering: Abigail Blackman
Publication date: August 26, 2025
Rating: Mature
Genre: Manga (JPN), Comedy, Romance, Drama, LGBTQ+
Jun Mayuzuki is the creator behind the acclaimed series, including Rain After Rain, a nuanced relationship between a high school girl and her 40-year-old boss. Now that Kowloon Generic Romance has launched a flame of interest, Yenpress continues to light it.
©Yen Press, 2025
The stories in this collection were published over a decade between 2007 and 2017. Still, it is interesting how they are closely linked to one another and revolve around a singular theme, despite their creations apart for years. I don’t ruin what’s going on in the story itself. However, we will categorize each story’s theme in detail.
In each story, except for the first, our main characters are CIS women of various backgrounds and ages. One is a witch rising to the earth as a high school student, while the others work as adults. Every day, the main character is a Sichett man who meets a trans woman. The common threads running these stories are the transactional aspects of the relationship. This transaction could be related to the act of sex, like liver or garlic chives or sexual desires. It’s on a night of connection, so your crash is throwing your obsession into your path to burn unwittingly. In these stories, Mayuzuki touches on happiness, fulfillment, desirability, age, femininity, and romantic love.
Sunbrina and Connected Night
My relationship with my lover has been alive, not only in transactional lenses, but also in my relationship with myself. In Sunbrina, our unknown protagonist is a traditional beautiful woman who works as a sales person and is in relationship with men. She also has a Twitter account, posts photos of her cooking every day and receives a significant amount of interaction. One day she goes home to her boyfriend and starts preparing dinner. But her boyfriend has other plans in mind.
The following are rarely referred to as sex scenes. It’s an unpleasant Quickie to read. He soon enters our hero. The panels alternate between her face and the tandoori chicken she put in the microwave. After he finished “take what he wants,” he quickly left for a plan with his friends. She sits on the floor with apparent distrust, but the rest of the empty kitchen microwaves ring and announces that food will be on the way. Throughout, she talks about consuming and being consumed, but she is always paralleled with food, meat, especially meat.
Thumbelina©Yen Press, 2025
Yuki from Connected Night is in an equally old relationship that acts as a server for a pachinko parlor and runs its course pretty much. Yuuki turns to the world behind her flip phone screen: “Naughty Image Board” where people post suggestive photos anonymously. Yuuki is blessed with a body deemed attractive by mainstream culture, and she uses this board for “safe” attention. She is not interested in finding cheating or connecting with others. She simply enjoys these strangers pouring words of validation and praise.
But with the exception of her boyfriend’s dowel bag, sticking out like a painful thumb in her boring, mediocre life is a woman in her 40s on the corner of the parlor where Yu works. Every night, she stands in the corner for a certain period of time. One night, Yuuki sees a man cornering a woman, offering her money, and refusing to make a man’s progress, but still persistently unforgiving. Yuki intervenes as if she were her mother, and escalates the situation. However, she never imagined she was taking part in the wake.
Connected Night © Yen Press, 2025
Both Sunbrina and Connected Light focus on women seeking validation and fulfillment that they cannot obtain from their partner or find in their daily lives. If you lack authentic interaction, love, or care, the next best (and fastest) thing (and fastest) is the instant satisfaction that social media offers.
True introspection, which can require necessary and substantial changes, is uncomfortable and difficult to navigate. It is sometimes painful and requires courage to get out of the “comfortable” zone that has been stopped being comfortable or nurturing for a long time. I was grateful that this step into change was not a result of a “personal healing journey” but was promoted by facing others in return instead and truly embracing their perspective.
Of course, their quest for desire and satisfaction cannot exist outside the context of women’s experiences in gendered societies. I want to be taken seriously, with feelings that can hurt, with bounded bodies and thought-provoking minds, worthy and equally seen as human beings. Though simple and factual, the hierarchy born from heteronormatism complicates it all, along with the metrics of “success,” “productivity,” and “efficiency” applied to interpersonal relationships. Romantic dating that is supposed to be a life-sharing turn into trade on a scale that tilts heavily to one side.
We are social beings, so of course we can be seen as one of the outlets that seek and engage with others and provide the safe distance needed for a variety of reasons. Meanwhile, healthy communication and competition are good! When replaced by a quantified quick dopamine hit with a number of, the virtual exchange replaces one transaction relationship with another.
Liver and garlic chives
Another item on the transaction list is the fear of aging, and it is no longer perceived as beautiful and desirable. The act of not satisfying your desires sexually or otherwise, not satisfying your desires is as complicated as trying to satisfy them, and no matter what, it is embarrassing to the action. In Liver and Garlic Chives, Sakagami Kiyoshi is a popular author who defends sexual liberation for women. However, in a closed room, she never had a climax during sex. This is a huge concern for her. She wants action, but when it actually comes she’s out the door faster than the light.
Liver and Garlic Chives © Yen Press, 2025
For her, sex is an act of conquest. A battle to win. Proof that she is an independent, clever woman and is in control. She never settles down to a broken, ugly, failed man. It’s a smaller version of her. So, she is naturally annoyed by herself one day when she suddenly begins to fantasize about a boring, depressed, shady middle-aged man living in the same apartment she is watching. Why does this man “invade” her imagination when he spends alone with a vibrator? What does her desire say about her? The story explores the meaning of being a woman you want.
Daily life
The opening story of the daily collection is about a rough Yosueque around the edges. He has a strong sense of justice. It is a character trait that made it impossible for him to continue his work. While venting at his friend’s bar, a gorgeous drop dead woman named Emily approaches him. They quickly attack love hotels. There, Joselk discovers that Emily is a trans woman. One thing leads to something else, and Emily inserts herself into Joselke’s home and life.
Initially, the story was a bumpy ride. I skipped beats here and there as his mind watched Emily, Yoshuk Dead Names and her misunderstandings. Meanwhile, Emily’s self-worth and happiness are linked to whether she can pass on as a cis woman, and the verification can only come from heterosexual men like the “manly” cis, Yoseke.
Everyday © Yen Press, 2025
With the rise of far-right, conservatism, and anti-LGBTQ+ emotions, it was not easy to step into the collection with such stories. I’m more or less familiar with the discussion of paths. How it is verified and how it is important, it is not what they strive for for others. As a non-trans person, I leave the story to how heteronormatism can be suppressed and harmed in terms of femininity, and how Emily places herself in a relationship where the women of Sichet are traditionally married back to Yosark’s effectiveness.
Trans identity is an important part of the discussion of femininity, and despite Joselke’s initial response to horror language, I have come to appreciate the place it is in the larger picture.
Farewell to the refreshing psychedelic, Daisy
The remaining two stories, parting with a refreshing psychedelic, Daisy focuses on two women who are full of love at the points of blindness and obsession. A refreshing psychedelic psycho gets engrossed in her unsuspecting colleague, Natsuzaka. Meanwhile, Daisy, a parting daisy, is a witch visiting Earth as a high school student and quickly falls in love with the boy’s slash-grade Kenji’s sorry excuse. He is notorious when it comes to how he treats young women. He begins dating Daisy shortly after abandoning his current girlfriend. That’s also evident in the way he handles Daisy.
Farewell, Daisy © Yen Press, 2025
There is no relation to speaking in any of these situations. Natsuzaka is already dating, and Kenji doesn’t seem to care about Daisy beyond sleeping with her. In these cases, unlike Sunberina and one night with connections, Natsuzaka and Kenji seem to be the exit for psycho and Daisy to pour their love and attention. They enjoy the exhilaration of falling in love. That high always comes with a low value, such as Kenji finds someone else, and the second Daisy has to go back underground for a while, and the psycho devastation knowing about Natsuzaka’s girlfriend, but the man revives his affection.
The transactional nature of these stories is in the eyes of third parties. Daisy’s classmates think it’s the “nut” to get Kenji to use her like that. Saiko’s best friend allows her obsession, but her “Endeavor” is fruitless and reads at the top.
Refreshing psychedelic © Yen Press, 2025
As you can see, each story here deserves its own dive! Mayuzuki’s collection of short stories, Farewell, Daisy raises questions that stimulate persuasive thoughts through a story that is fun and engaging to read! If you are already familiar with Mayuzuki’s works, this is a collection you are sure you won’t miss for the world. If you’re new to the artist, but are interested in reading stories that revolve around such topics, this collection is a great way to get a glimpse into Mayuzuki’s subtle and emotional pen.
Early copies of the farewell, Daisy: Jun Mayuzuki Short Story Collection was provided by Yen Press in exchange for an honest review.
Farewell, Daisy: Junmayuzuki Short Story Collection will be printed digitally and on Yen Press websites and other retailers starting August 26, 2025.
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