Duet of Beautiful Goddesses (Megami-tachi no Nijuusou, 女神たちの二重奏), 2010-2012, Hanakouji, Yumi, Manga Sunday

STORY: 6

Meet Akane Kida. Broke and alone with her shut-in brother, she is at the end of the rope. But, on a fateful day, she meets Reika Tojo, a rich married lady who looks just like her twin! Is it one of these stories where people exchange their lives? Yes! Is it going to be full of outrageous romantic misunderstandings because people don’t communicate enough? Yes! Is it going to drag on because the author is improvising with the scenario? A bit. But hey, it’s not too long and there’s enough unrealistic twists to make you want to keep reading.

ART: 6

Pretty and dedicated to the bodies and faces of the beautiful characters.

POLITICAL POTENTIAL: 4

Not much for a story mostly taking place inside two houses. On a second degree, I like the kitsch of driving sport cars, having tons of dresses and servants as one measure of success. As a consensual counterpoint, there is another side of the story that says that happiness is in your heart, not in your money.

We do have lookism all over the place. The main characters are all boringly beautiful, and the ones that are not are the servants or the old owner of a small bar, adding classism to the charges. Also, as is often included in the lookism package, we get a joke where the thought of a fat character having an intimate relationship is something funny.

FEMINISM: 5

Duet of Beautiful Goddesses focuses on two women who have some agency or even desires. They are the actresses of their own stories. Good.

Maybe the best and most surprising part of this title is to find many scenes, that typically lead to assault in most manga, ending with the consent of the women respected. A man and a woman alone in a room, man and woman ending in a hotel room, woman being drunk, nude photo shooting.. For once, we don’t need to suffer watching the usual ‘male-yielding-to-temptation’ attacking the woman as if it were the law of nature. Let’s note that the author of this title is a woman. Yes, she is the one who drew Eve: The Beautiful Love-Scientizing Goddess.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of patriarchy here and there. One male character forbids a lot of things from his wife, going as far as sequestering her, and the manga never really condemns it. Another male character is peeping on, taking pictures and even hidden videos of a woman, and it’s shown as something done in the name of ‘love’. Add a constant male gaze and you feel there’s quite some weight on the shoulders of our two heroines.

CONCLUSION: 6

An ok read where women are treated much better than average (that does not mean they are treated fairly though, far from it). Go for it if you want a life-swapping story full of desires.