Eve and Eve by Nagashiro Rouge is a collection of stories that ran in several publications, including shorts from Comic Yuri Hime. By the time I had read the Japanese edition, the license announcement had already been made, so I decided to skip reviewing the JP volume altogether. So here we are today.
The stories that make up this volume are largely science fiction. These touch on end of humanity, robot x human relationships, artificial and human intelligence, among other themes. Several of these also express a greater interest in pregnancy that I personally have. A number of the stories ran in a publication listed as Yuri Pregnancies, so there’s no doubt what the point of those are. They are also some of the first adult content we’ve seen in English-language Yuri manga since ALC Publishing published the Yuri Monogatari series.
Which brings me to the sex. Apparently, there are some people who believe that Seven Seas has censored or altered the sex scenes. This is patently untrue. Seven Seas has reproduced the Japanese collection exactly as it was printed. As I noted in a Twitter thread this morning, my guess is that some readers assume this to be true because of their misunderstanding of the 18+ label.
What gets an 18+ label in the United States and what gets an 18+ label in Japan are not the same. Regardless, most 18+ content in Japan is not explicit when it comes to genitalia or penetration. And, everything published without an 18+ label in Japan will definitely not be explicit. The Japanese volume of this manga is exactly as you see here. Vulvas are not drawn or even implied, there is simply blank space.
In the west, manga with even a hint of sexual contact is labeled as 18+, especially if the participants are likely to be perceived as young. And, as Lara pointed out in the middle of the Twitter discussion, any LGBTQ content was, until recently, considered 18+ in manga. This is not because manga companies suck but because sucky people exist and no manga company wants their manga to be cause for litigation. All of ALC’s Yuri Monogatari had to be labeled 18+, which meant I could never get bookstore space. Because every volume had at least one story with a physical relationship, no one would carry the book without the 18+, either.
So, there is sex in this book. There is both nonconsensual and consensual sex (and your mileage may vary of which is what) and as explicit as it can be – and as it was for the Japanese edition of the collected volume. Any changes to the content was made for the Japanese volume. It is drawn in a way that requires you to imagine a woman’s body parts. For those who complain about the lack of explicit drawings, all I’m hearing is that they have a significant paucity of imagination. Sucks for them.
The two stories that piqued my interest when they ran in Comic Yuri Hime were a completely non-scifi exploration of the roles of uke and seme – here translated appropriately as top and bottom – set in a school, that I just liked as a cute little standalone comedy, and the final story about two women’s desire to express their love in a cosmic sense. This story becomes rather epic, but ends on a very human note.
Ratings:
Everything is variable, as this is a collection of short arcs or one-shots over time from multiple publications
Overall – 8
I didn’t love the collection because I do not have any interest in (and feel some antipathy towards) pregnancy, but I did appreciate the science fiction and the “Top or Bottom: Showdown.”
Translation by Stephen Christiansen, adaptation by Asha Bardon and lettering by Raymond Rex are all excellent, especial in regards to the final, decidedly sci-fi story.
I’d also very, very much like to thanks Seven Seas for adding the original story publishing credits! I may well be the only person in the world that reads them, but I do and they are super helpful to me, so thank you for doing that! It’s such a help.
The stories that were originally for Yuri Ninshin, which were adult rated anthologies, were redrawn less explicitly for this tank published by Yuri-Hime as a non-adult volume.
Yes, I know. The complaints I’m addressing are that Seven Seas changed the art.
People complaining about not being able to see detailed female genitalia the way it was originally as it was portrayed in a porn magazine are out of luck, that was a decision made in Japan, not by Seven Seas.
I think this background is worth mentioning to make it clearer what happened, explaining why there was a change on the Japanese side. The complaints are presumably a result of some people having seen the originals.
Unrelated to this, I sent you an email to the address listed here. Please let me know if you’ve received it.
I did purchase this book which is still on its way to me. There certainly are differences between mature and 18+ and adult that isn’t getting on bookshelves. And a very long history of the publishing hurdles which I know you are all too aware so I hope your explanation is helpful for readers. But respectfully Erica you may want to revise this review a little. Unless I read your reply to the first reply here, I would have no idea that you were aware that some of the chapters in this collection were originally from an adult anthology. That context actually is important as those who had read them there likely expected that. To paint the controversy as solely coming from expectations of an American audience over labeling is disingenuous, nor reflects what I’ve seen transpire. I would wish that when people notice something they think is off, to politely ask a publisher first before jumping to conclusions about the cause. I’ve seen it happen before as in this case a few people were expressing they were disappointed and wrongly thought Seven Seas was the cause. What’s that saying about assume? Yet honestly, I feel like in the process of answering the call of their production manager to help clear the air over this edition you are adding to the disparagement. By the way you address these disappointments, as pointed out from those who have seen the Japanese adult pages or, have interests in such material too. And if that is not your intention than again, respectfully please consider revising this, what you also said on Amazon or, adding to/deleting tweets you made on this matter.
I was specifically addressing the complain that Seven Seas changed the art from the Japanese edition. Frankly, I think the anger at not being able to see a vagina is utterly ignorable.
If there are people angry that they can’t see a vagina, they need to take that up with Ichijinsha, it had nothing to do with Seven Seas. There is no righteous anger here about perceived censorship, just a handful of sad little men angry that their wank will require them to imagine a thing.
You can’t totally blame people for being angry for for censorship of any kind. Censorship has been creeping into a lot of things recently and people get annoyed whenever they see it. Like it has been said a lot of that anger comes from the fact people have already seen fan translations of the same stories but without such blatant censorship. Ichijinsha even covered up things that would typically fly in Japan, that’s why people jumped to the conclusion Seven Seas had something to do with it. I don’t think it’s right for you to assume that all the people that are annoyed or angry are all just a “handful of sad little angry men” and that they are only angry because they can’t whack off to the manga now. I’m sure there are people who are upset because this is censorship of art. And some of those people I’m sure are women and trans too. There are a lot of people who just don’t want to put there money towards something that is going to be an inferior censored version of what they know of, no matter what the content being censored is.
The paranoia that laces through fandom like a blood disease is and always has been ridiculous and never the right hill to die on …ever. It was and always has been childish tantrums about not getting what they want. You know how I know this? No one complaining about censorship would have said a peep if a feminist political banner had been taken out. That’s how. Imagine the lack of outrage if a banner thay read “Down with Patriarchy” had been edited out. If you believe that you would be outraged, I will look forward to you writing your local government representative about women’s rights. Send me a copy of that letter and I’ll apologize to you, personally, but not for my general position. Because I am right here and we know exactly the kind of people who argue about “censorship” only when it comes to porn for men. Have you taken similar positions when disabled or minority people have be redrawn or their skin lightened? Were you all up in arms about Osaka Naomi’s skin being whitened by Nissin? I bet not. So please stop pretending this is some noble cause. It isn’t.
Complaining about not being able to see a drawn image of a vagina is the most ridiculous thing possible. There is nothing noble here. People are not fighting for free speech, they are literally complaining they cannot see a drawn vagina. This is not even as pretend-defensible as “ethics in gaming journalism” it’s down there with “the glass in my peep show booth was dirty and I couldn’t see clearly.”
And with this, I have said all that will be said here. The conversation will have to be taken elsewhere, because I will give no more time to it on Okazu.
I finally received a copy. I was badly caught off guard reading it because one of the chapters in question has a pages long rape scene. Is there a reason you stated the sex was consensual in your review? I don’t understand how you could make that statement given what first transpires in Heir to the Curse. I’d like to stress the importance of such information because people have triggers. I would very much appreciate knowing if a title has any kind of sexual assault or abuse beforehand. This is very upsetting.
I cannot answer that. I am no longer sure if I meant to type “nonconsenual” or not, and don’t want to pretend I did. There is both nonconsensual and consensual sex in this book. I will make that edit. I’m sorry you feel disappointed with my review.
Thank you very much for the honest reply to the reason Erica. Okazu is the premier English-language yuri blog, at least I’m always looking to Okazu so I wished for the error to be acknowledged and corrected. With that I am going to forget all the discussion over this book. Best regards.
So I just got this from Right Stuf and read it over the course of two days. I’m kind of blown away by the sci-fi stuff, and particularly liked the first story. Squick or not, the pregnancy angle was pretty well justified by the scenario and the character motivations. And, yeah, the top-or-bottom comedy chapter was hilarious (especially as it begins with the characters imposing their own top/bottom BL fantasies on the boys in their class, only to be disappointed that they all have girlfriends).
Would love to see more from this artist, and it was nice to see their comments on each story in an afterword.
Thanks for weighing in. I feel like I have read something else by the creator, but it’s escaping me.