Yuri Manga: Yuri-iro Rasen

March 26th, 2008

You know what’s really cool? When you pick up a manga that you’re sure is pretty junky and it turns out to be pretty good after all.

Sadly, this was not that manga.

Yuri-iro Rasen, (Lily-colored Spiral) is pretty well named. It’s not really a Yuri manga so much as an H-manga with Yuri flavoring.

The first two stories involve the not-particularly creative use of school classrooms, infirmaries and schoolgirls with penises. It’s not that these are bad stories, it’s just that they are not good, either. The art is pretty meh, and the sex worried me a bit. Kind of the worst of Yuri and BL all rolled up together into one very not good thing.

The next several stories involve an anxious girl, her boyfriend’s confusingly vague hints about sex play and her far more imaginative female friend who offers to help her figure it all out. In the first chapter, Takaki’s boyfriend says he likes “abnormal” sex which, after Takaki and Mura explore a few options, turns out to be nothing more than “without socks.” When he suggests a little “cosplay” Mura explains what “costume play” really means as she helps Takaki find her inner maid. All he meant, however, was that he wanted Takaki to wear her school uniform. Finally, when he asks if they can do it outside, Takaki objects – mostly so he doesn’t realize she’s wearing long underwear. Mura decides to teach her the joys of outdoor sex anyway, so they both end up with colds. Takaki’s clearly meant to be seen as an idiot for staying with the guy, since he has such a limited imagination.

The last stories involved animal-eared lolis so, while they are Yuri, I simply refuse to read them as a matter of principal. The idea of them having sex is just about as exciting to me as watching two stuffed animals on top of one another and considerably more repulsive. I abstain, courteously.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – Other than the slightly amusing middle arc, 3, the slightly amusing middle arc, 5
Characters – 3
Yuri – 9 for sex, 1 for everything else that makes Yuri appealing.
Service – at least four different kinds of 10

Overall – 3

I had Yuri-iro Rasen on my list of Yuri to look for when I was in Tokyo and I didn’t actually expect to find it, so it surprised me when I did. I was slightly more surprised when I read it, since I was reminded that one of the core identifiers of “service” is that something like this passes for “good Yuri.” Ignore the other reviewers, they are wrong. ^_^ This manga is firmly on the “crappy crap” side of the board. Once again, having low expectations is likely to save your sanity.

6 Responses

  1. neo_hrtgdv says:

    I don’t mind animal ears (come on, it’s just the ears
    I think the main problem with “good” stuff is the question “good for what?” which is subjective and the more deep and objective “it’s crap: fun, but crap anyway”

    I think it is like calling junk food “good” I know it might be tasty or delicious, but it is not nutritive nor healthy, so it is not “good” food; that’s what I think. So Okazu’s slogan comes in a very appropiate way: “Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu” complete with nutritional facts! (ratings ;P)

    Interesting week all the same ^-^*

  2. I’ve covered the definition of “good” versus “bad” Yuri here before.

    1) Good Yuri is well-constructed, with three-dimensional characters that you care about.

    or, more simply

    2) If you replace the character with a guy and the behavior makes you gag – it’s bad Yuri.

  3. Eric P. says:

    I remember you saying you didn’t like Mera Hakamada’s artwork because it was too kiddish-looking, while I never felt it was such a big deal. But I’d have to agree with you that this title was sickeningly loli-ish. The only reason I got it was because if I got it with the other Yuri book I bought (I forget which one) I’d get a deal out of it. For the first time, I felt I wasted money at Amazon Japan. I barely even skimmed through this.

  4. Hi John –

    we’ve actually met, although I doubt you’d remember. In any case – I understand the whole forbidden thing. Personally, I think it’s sad.

    For me Yuri is not “forbidden” fruit – it’s an expression of the way I love. So, adding crap like kiddies and animal ears and incest just deadens the appeal.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Moe has dug its own grave. If only every Yuri manga were inspired by Mnemosyne-styled graphic design – I am not a manga reader myself, but I find that this pervasive moe-ization of just about everything and anything is mildly unhealthy. In what unfathomable (and I use this term in a Lovecraftian sense) mind is the image of two pre-pubescent furry girls copulating arousing?

    Then again, Yuri is hardly flooded with offerings – beggars can’t be choosers (well, I can, I simply don’t read manga unless it’s a Lilicious scanlation).

    Ahh well, thanks Erica for taking the flak and sticking with the trash to the bitter end. Hopefully one day things will look up in the genre. It’s not so much as deadening the appeal as not trying, IMHO. To consider that there is life outside the high school classroom, that French Maid uniforms aren’t really all that normal in RL, that relationships generally last longer than the first (often clumsy) encounter, that adding cat ears does not make things arousing and cutesy at the same time (that very unfortunate intersection between lolicon and bestiality) seems to be beyond the intellectual capacity of many a publisher.

    Regards,
    Crimsonlotus

  6. Lecy says:

    Is this for men or women?

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