Something different, for a change. Just a warning, there’s lots of angst and little love in this story. This is the first of 10 chapters, so hang in there! There might be light at the end of the tunnel!
Below is the author’s original column for this chapter.
To Die In June Column #01
Minazuki Theatre Troupe, Part One, Act One.
Act One: The Mother Ocean, The Woman Boat, The Girl Me
Whether it’s wanting to kill someone
or being in a time when people die,
death makes really good material for a story,
so I set out to draw “a manga where people enjoy dying.” Not that it’s enjoyable.
This grew out of a piece I did for the group exhibition “Seira Fuku Kyouten” (Sailor Uniform Scriptures) held in Osaka, “Umi Yukaba”. I just couldn’t forget about the anachronous girls in uniform.
Like a painter depicting love, death, war, and faith, I felt like I wandered off all of those themes. And so I’ve put all of those into this work. What makes up the core of this story are themes like girlhood and motherhood, birth and loss, and various beliefs.
Much like my previous “La Sagrada Familia”, I put together a squad of 12 girl soldiers. Their names are inspired by suicide weapons and the calendar months. (For example Satsukibara Nae is taken from Satsuki(Naezuki) which means May)
I drew the boat in the middle using a plastic model.
What’s a girl riding in the woman boat on the mother ocean? A girl, that’s all!
Please enjoy this story, of naive girls who haven’t yet discovered themselves, of love and war and revolution. And I would be delighted if you could watch over their battle until the very end.
[Kuragenanami] To Die In June, One [English] [Yuri-ism]
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Yuri-ism 
real sad hours, hit that mf ;_; button
If someone still do not know – Ohka is code name for a certain Japanese small suicide aircraft in Pacific War. There are some good books about such tactics, one from Yokota Yutaka about kaitens, or “Divine Wind: Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II”. To get some basics about whole idea.
I hope everything is gonna be daijoubu.
p14 is about a grenade, not a deserter.
eep! you got me! Will try to get out a corrected version within the month.
Thank you almond, sorry I sounded so brusque. I appreciate the work you guys do, and I only pointed it out because I was worried readers would be confused when it comes up again later in the story.
Really nice to see something different. You got my interest already