For many of us who technically classify as “adults,” Complex Age is somewhere between “familiar” and “unsettling.” The story follows Nagisa, a woman in her twenties who is an avid cosplayer, making her own costumes, going to events, etc. She keeps her hobby to herself, even hiding it from her family, which suggests that she feels ashamed of it on some level. But it's also very clear that while she loves making and wearing anime costumes, she also gets something from the practice emotionally. When a coworker discovers her at an event and reveals that she's a cosplayer too, it looks like Nagisa's going to be able to come to terms with the clash between what she likes and other people's potential opinions, but that all too quickly comes to an end, leaving Nagisa even more conflicted than in the previous volume.

The idea that Nagisa is grappling with, that you can get too old to keep doing what you love, is a difficult feeling that's worlds apart from actually outgrowing something. This may simply be from the perspective of someone raised in a culture that emphasizes individuality, which Japanese society does not tend to do, but the thought that you simply age out of something and must therefore stop enjoying it seems harsh. Having a strict demarcation between “childhood activities” and “adulthood activities” sounds like a recipe for undue amounts of stress, and that's the angle that Yui Sakuma appears to be taking. When Hayama, Nagisa's coworker, becomes part of the cosplay group for a while, Nagisa begins to feel less alone in her secret, but things quickly go downhill. A much younger worker discovers a picture of Hayama in costume in a news story and quickly spreads the word throughout the office. While the younger woman doesn't seem to understand what she's done (or does she?), Hayama's reputation takes a nosedive, making the working environment unbearable. Everywhere she goes, people are treating her cosplay like it proves that there's something wrong with her, chuckling that she's “too old” to make it hot, with the twin implications that women engage in cosplay strictly to appeal to the male gaze and that women over thirty can't be sexually attractive. While trying to cope with this, Hayama tells Nagisa that for her, cosplaying sexy characters gives her courage and the freedom to be the kind of woman she couldn't be in her ordinary life. It's a way for her to express sexuality and strength in a style she isn't permitted to otherwise. When her coworkers take that away from her by making her into an object of ridicule, they do much more than just quash a hobby.

At its heart, this volume of Complex Age is less about cosplay itself and more about why people do it. It's more than just dressing up, the story suggests – it's a way to empower yourself or simply take on a characteristic that you might admire but don't feel you can express. This is strengthened by the revelation that the short story at the end of volume one was about Nagisa's parents – her mother's rejection of her old pastime led her father to see her as someone missing an actual piece of herself, illustrated as a missing puzzle piece where her heart would be. We can almost see that piece of Hayama falling away as her coworkers bully her, and I have to wonder if she had her costume on when the younger woman cheerily announced that she'd found her Twitter page, if she would have been able to call her out on her bad behavior. As it stands, we can see Hayama crumbling before our eyes.

With Hayama's example before her, Nagisa begins to question herself. She isn't to the point where she's willing to conform and give up cosplay, and right now sakuma. doesn't seem inclined to make that the inevitable result. The flashback chapters about Nagisa's parents feel like a statement on what women are “supposed” to be: diligent housewives who throw themselves into that identity at the exclusion of all else. Interestingly enough, Nagisa's father is concerned when he sees this change in his wife, and he definitely still seems to regret the choices she made. He does, however, respect that they were her choices, which is a marked difference from the other adults in the story. This shift in the storyline to Nagisa's home life stands to grant the story more emotional depth, and the final page sets up a very interesting conversation to come in volume three.

Complex Age can be a difficult read. Its attitude may strike an off-note for some readers, while others may recognize it without warm feelings. Despite that, it's also a look at adult women in fandom who are trying to reconcile what they love with who they are “supposed” to be, and that's not a perspective we get often enough. The story may not speak to all readers, and I am still very leery about how it will end. But for all of that, there's still a strange honesty to the story's inner conflict that makes it worth following, if only to hope that Nagisa eventually realizes, in the words of Billie Burke, that age doesn't matter unless you are a cheese.