DANCE TILL TOMORROW

Act 1

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

Story and Art by Naoki Yamamoto
English Adaptation by Matt Thorn
Lettering and Touch-Up art by Dan Nakrosis
© 1997 Naoki Yamamoto /Shogakukan inc.

Suekichi wakes up hung over in bed with a strange woman not remembering what happened. The last thing he remembers is his great grandfather’s funeral and drinking afterwards. She calls him an animal, and the apartment is a mess. Suekichi leaves and goes to acting troupe practice where he is being teased because a girl answered his phone that morning. He tells everyone what he remembers and while on the way home he says he is going to drop out of college to work in theater.

When Suekichi gets home he finds the girl still in his apartment as well as a man in a suit. He has come to discuss his inheritance from his great grandfather. He plays a tape for him with the great grandfather explaining how he was the only person to visit him, so he is leaving him with a gift. The gift is a stamp collection worth 450 million yen. There is a catch though, he can only get it after he finishes college, gets married and has a career.

During this whole conversation the girl is very animated and shocked. She keeps butting in until the man asks Suekichi to have his sister settle down. Suekichi tells him that he thought she came with him and that he doesn’t know her. Both men look at her and say “who is this girl” while she is laughing awkwardly.

The teaser below for next act uses the name Aya but until now it has not been used at all.

Act 2

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN TOKYO

Story and Art by Naoki Yamamoto
English Adaptation by Matt Thorn
Lettering and Touch-Up art by Dan Nakrosis
© 1997 Naoki Yamamoto /Shogakukan inc.

The girl finally introduces herself. Aya Hibuno is her name. Besides that all info is suspect. After bribing her with food and drink they finally figure out that she was at the funeral and overheard the lawyer talking to Suekichi. Since he was so drunk she helped him home. What happened that night, nobody knows. Aya is so vague when she does answer. The men keep insinuating that she is after Suekichi’s money. She takes offence to being accused of being just after his money.

Aya leaves and the lawyer warns Suekichi to be quiet about the inheritance because people like Aya will be all over trying to get some of it. Saying Aya probably left because he can’t get the money right away. Suekichi returns to classes where people are surprised to see him. He is late for theater practice and teased about why he suddenly goes back to school. He gets talked into taking Ikezu, who thinks he is changing his ways because of the woman who answered the phone, out for drinks.

Suekichi is denying that a new woman exists and agrees to have Ikezu come over for food because he is broke. While going up to the apartment Ikezu says he wants to meet the kind of girl who would go after Suekichi. Suekichi says he doesn’t keep women waiting at… He opens the door and there is Aya sleeping. She says she climbed a tree to get in. After some arguing Ikezu leaves.

Aya and Suekichi argue about what she is doing there. Suekichi opens the window and finds Ikezu sitting in the tree out his window and tells him he will catch a cold sitting out there.

Act 3

THE MIND SAYS NO, BUT THE LOINS SAY GO

Story and Art by Naoki Yamamoto
English Adaptation by Matt Thorn
Lettering and Touch-Up art by Dan Nakrosis
© 1997 Naoki Yamamoto /Shogakukan inc.

Suekichi keeps insisting that Aya get out of his apartment. Aya keeps trying to stay. She threatens to talk about his inheritance and how long she waited to cook for him. She cooks while they argue. Suekichi says he will eat the food and asks Aa to stay and eat with him because there’s no point in wasting it and he still has questions.

They talk over dinner and while Suekichi tries to get Aya to leave, she seduces him. After some foreplay Aya gives him a condom and Suekichi realizes there is a hole in it. They have a big fight over her trying to get pregnant by him to get the inheritance. She tells him that the money is making him crazy.

They become ‘friends’ again and Aya offers to have sex with a condom with no hole.

Act 4

VISITORS AND VISITATIONS

Story and Art by Naoki Yamamoto
English Adaptation by Matt Thorn
Lettering and Touch-Up art by Dan Nakrosis

Suekichi wakes up ‘savoring the afterglow’. Throws away the used condom and looks for Aya. He realizes she is in the bathtub. He decides to join her and when entering the bathroom finds that she is finished. He tries to get her to have sex one more time but she shoots him down telling him ‘later’. While bathing he imagines ‘later’ meaning after his bath is finished, when he has a realization and runs out of bathroom yelling ’not again’. Aya was gone and Suekichi consoled himself with the thought that at least he got to do it once.

Suekichi is out trying to sell tickets for the theater and runs into a classmate that he convinces to take a ticket in exchange for class notes and answering for him at attendance so he can skip again. Then he returns to the theater office. At the office the troupe leader is being threatened with eviction due to conditions in the space. He keeps busy writing addresses on postcards while daydreaming about the director naked.

Ikezu comes up to Suekichi and asks if the tickets are selling. Claiming that if you don’t keep on top of college students, they will trade tickets for class notes. Then he quickly starts asking about the girl. He claims he stayed in the tree waiting all night to see what happened and catches Suekichi in a lie about doing nothing. The troupe leader walks up and realizes that the postcards say the show starts Feb 2nd when it starts on Mar 2nd. Suekichi goes and replaces the postcards paying half his monthly budget to do it. He walks home wondering how he will make it through the month.

When Suekichi gets home he notices the light to his room is on. At his door he smells Chinese food. He opens the door fast saying ‘You’re here’. Inside is his grandfather’s lawyer. While waiting there he decided to cook dinner. Suekichi tries to get an advance on the inheritance but the lawyer refuses. The lawyer informs Suekichi that he has been investigating Aya and has found that she does not exist. He surmises that she must be a pro who is after the inheritance and tells Suekichi that if she shows up again to have nothing to do with her.

The lawyer leaves to plan a strategy to deal with Aya. The closet door opens and Aya climbs out complaining about how stuffy it is in there.

Act 5

DO NOT DISTURB

Story and Art by Naoki Yamamoto
English Adaptation by Matt Thorn
Lettering and Touch-Up art by Dan Nakrosis