Sakura of DOOM

The main story arc of the series finished in volume 7; these two volumes are collected short stories. Some feature characters from the main arc, and some are only related in the most tangential of ways. As Mori notes in the omake, she just wanted to draw them! Handwave the connection!

The stories here are about some of the maids Emma worked with, the Meredith family, Eleanor, Kelly Stowner, Hakim and William, and a slice-of-life story following the trail of a newspaper and another bittersweet romance about opera singers.

My favorites are the story about Mr. and Mrs. Meredith, the one about Kelly Stowner and the Crystal Palace, and the one about Eleanor. I am probably biased about the one on Eleanor, since I liked her a lot and was simply glad to see more of her.

I find some of the ones on the maids problematic; Mori does beautiful detail about people's daily lives, but the class issues (complete lack thereof) frustrate me. And oh, Hakim. I love the character, and yet, there is the same complete lack of talk about empire that is also even more wrong because it has Indian royalty befriending British bourgeoisie! Mori does say she wanted to talk more about empire in her notes, but I am kind of doubtful as to how critical she would be about it.

On a non-political note, I was also not initially charmed by the one about Erich Meredith and his pet squirrel—I am biased! Rats, infinitely better!—Mori completely won me over with her careful depictions of squirrel mannerisms. The squirrel scratches himself with his hind leg! He washes his face! It is SO CUTE.

Not that I am at all biased about cute rodents...

In terms of craft, I loved the story about Mr. and Mrs. Meredith the most. I'm impressed that almost all of it takes place between the two of them in bed (with the occasional flashback to other scenes), and yet, it was not boring. I loved the detailed observations about hands and hair, the intimate looks at the tiny gestures within their marriage, and the way Mori so perfectly captures those tiny gestures and small moments. My favorite part is probably the sequence that begins with Mrs. Meredith examining Mr. Meredith's fingers. It continues with hand clasps and both of their memories of hands on the violin, hands brushing back hair, hands offered out for help. And almost all of it is completely wordless and reminds me of what very good sequential art is capable of. It's just... very impressive.

Overall, this is a good display of Mori's strengths—attention to detail and small moments—although I don't know how much it will resonate with those who haven't read the rest of the series. I think some of the stories are good standalones (the one about the Merediths, the Stowners visiting the Crystal Palace), while others need more context (the one about Eleanor).

Like Emma, this is set in Victorian England. There are four short stories about Shirley Madison, a 13-year-old maid, and her employer.

Since I read this in Chinese, I have absolutely no idea what her employer's name is. The scanlations said "Cranry Bennett," but I'm pretty sure "Cranry" is her last name, not her first. Anyway, I guess I'll refer to her as Ms. Cranly.

Ms. Cranly owns a small coffeeshop; she's single and self-employed and decides to take on Shirley despite Shirley's young age. They have a pseudo-familial relationship: Ms. Cranly gives Shirley a doll, Shirley watches over Ms. Cranly.

Part of me had small squidges related to the fuzziness of the master-servant relationship and the power differential, but really, the stories are so small and sweet that I didn't want to be too grumpy.

I adore Mori's art and her panel layout so much. I found out that Emma, and presumably Shirley, was published in a seinen magazine (? because of the maid fetish thing?), which explains the boxier panels and the more structured layout. But there's this great little sequence where Shirley gets her new maid outfit. She stands in front of the mirror, than slowly discovers the swirly skirt, and a small smile starts to blossom on her face.

It's about two or three pages, all wordless, but you know exactly how she feels.

There are two other maid-related short stories in this volume, "Mary Banks" and "Nellie and I," but my favorites are still the Shirley ones.