Archive for the Hayashiya Shizuru Category


HabuCore F

April 4th, 2024

On the right, a stern-faced woman with short dark hair and glasses, wearing a suit. On the left a red-haired woman in a scarf and red jacket over yellow tee shirt, smiling. Today’s post is less of a review than a story of how a chance encounter changed my life. ^_^

In the early 2000s, a reader of Okazu, touko_no_doriru_san was kind enough to gift me the very first issue of a series that would take up a lot of space in my brain for the next almost 20 years. Hayate x Blade (はやて×ブレード) was a gonzo battle/school manga series by someone whose art I  already loved as the doujinshi circle JESUS DRUG, Hayashiya Shizuru.

The original story was as follows: Kurogane Hayate, an energetic doofus enters Tenchi Academy (under, it turns out, false pretenses) in order to compete for money to wipe out the debt at the orphanage that took care of her and her twin sister, Nagi. To win, Hayate must find a partner to combat other teams with. Hayate ends up partnering with Mudo Ayana, a girl whose breakup with her last partner has traumatized her and made her swear off fighting. 

This all sounds very heavy – and, honestly, it is! There is a ton of deep, dark stuff here, but also so much more crazy, goofy nonsense and high-powered swordfighting action and quite a lot of violence. Gouting blood is a thing, but so are banana peel gags and the chairwoman of the school fighting to a song made famous by a real-world roller-blading boy band. The action was good, but what made this series shine was the characters. There are too many amazing characters to name – by 2015, there were 40 main characters in this series. Honestly, I was going to list out just a few, but in the end, I really can’t. ^_^

The series went through a lot of changes. A publisher shift in Japan meant that we only got the first 6 volumes in English. The series initially ended in 2013, with Hayate clearing the orphanage’s debt. In 2014, it began anew as Hayate x Blade 2 (Nyan), in which the school chairwoman Amachi Hitsugi creates an even nuttier battle royale, pitching all the students at the school, including an outsider group determined to take the school down completely, against one another. Students were split into “Heaven” and “Earth” teams and given dangerous and weirdly bizarre scenarios in order to fight one another. There was never any doubt who would win.

There were also 9(!) Drama CDs which live in my head rent-free, as masterworks of writing and voice-acting.

In 2018, we said good-bye to Hayate x Blade. As I said at the time, statistically speaking, one volume should have been less good than the others, but none of them were anything other than fantastic. The story ended, I was very happy with where and how it ended, which was on a gag that made me snort my drink out my nose. A perfect ending for this series.

But, selfishly, I want more. ^_^ I love epilogues in manga. I especially adore 10-years-later epilogues, to see what became of these people. I wanted that for this series.

Well last year, I got it. As part of the Habu Core, (Hayate x Buraydo Collection), Hayashiya-sensei put together a doujinshi of commission art of the HxB characters (squee) and a series of 10 years later sketches of all 40 (plus 1) of the main characters, plus some high-school-era comics for those pairs. And once again, it ends on a gag so utterly out of the pale, but completely in character for Amachi Hitsugi, that I choked on my drink. 

Habu Core F is the perfect epilogue to the perfect manga series.

I’ll never forget this series. At least in part because when Hayashiya-sensei was dissolving her backlog of manuscript pages, I purchased some of the panels for myself and plan on having them framed and added to my art gallery in my office this year.  ^_^

Once again, we say good bye to Hayate x Blade. I’m glad that Sid and Nancy seem pretty happy with their choices. ^_^

 





ULTIMATE-MAMA, Volume 1

March 10th, 2023

A woman with scars across her face in a tactical bodysuit carries a high school girl in a torn school uniform, ULTIMATE MAMA in Japanese and English in pink letters across the front cover. Black letters read Story and Art by Hayashiya ShizuruOne of the minor high spots last year that wasn’t everything to do with launching a book on the history of the Yuri genre (!), was news that one of my favorite manga artists, Hayashiya Shizuru, was serializing a new manga online. ULTIMATE MAMA, Volume 1 is the print collection of that series. Please allow me to simply quote myself for the synopsis:

A bunch of content warnings on the manga for today’s review, for blood, and violence, and “comedic” BDSM and nudity and some other stuff.

Fujimori Manatasu is a very cute high school student. At 18, she already has a modeling career and is well-liked by her friends. Walking home from school one day she sees what looks like a giant black crescent moon in the sky. She is rescued from some slavering creature by a woman with abs of steel, Ultimate Fang, and her apparently small child, Meteora. The next day at school, Manatsu finds the child to be 18, and a transfer student into her class…and both Juou Ruriru, the child and Juouo Hagane, the buff mother, are now her next-door neighbors. Hagane is there because Manatsu has blood that will also give her super powers as well, if only Hagane can awaken them. Preferably by having sex, but whatever. When another equally buff woman arrives, Savage, (real name Jade Anderson) Manatsu’s mom falls, hard. Now it’s up to Hagane to awaken Manatsu’s powers and gain a partner.

In addition to the gags about Hafgane and Manatsu having sex to activate Manatsu’s powers, two high school girls are having intimate relations in the school library, and seem to be opening up the crescent gates for the creatures to come through. Who are they and…why?

This story plays out with not-explicit, but very obvious, sex, along with nudity, gags, blood, and excruciating puns. Hagane and Manatsu save the day from the big bad who was a bit of a surprise in the sense of the “half-brother who had gone to South America” kind of surprise – you know, we just weren’t told the important thing up front.  Everyone ends happily every after, and the bad jokes keep going, one presumes, long after the story ends.

The art here is very on point for me, as well as for Manatsu and her mom. Both Hagane and Savage have exceptional exterior obliques and wear a suit with class. Both the action and sex are full of gags…in fact, when she published the “climactic” (hah) chapter, Hayashiya-sensei commented something like, “I just can’t do good sex scenes.” She can, she just can’t do *serious* sex scenes. But she can’t do serious anything, so that’s fine. ^_^ Her art, though has probably never been better. I was flipping through some earlier work and wow, this art is so confident and mature.

As an added bonus, this volume contains “Friday Is The Day,” the one-shot from the second of Shueisha’s Yuritora Jump Yuri anthologies. This story pretty much convinced me that Sensei and I are separated at birth TM, as it is a short about two mixed martial artists beating their confessions into one another at a boxing gym, while an audience of an elderly man and woman cheer them on.

This volume is a delightful mix of humor, violence and Yuri, by Hayashiya-sensei, just the way I like it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8 Ridiculous, but fun
Character – 10 Ridiculous and fun
Service – 5 Ridiculously fun
Yuri – 10 Fun and ridiculous

Overall – 9Z

In addition to this, I also got Yankoi Shokudo C-teishoku (ヤン恋食堂　C定食), the third issue of Hayashiya-sensei’s yanki girls fighting, eating and falling for one another doujinshi, so I am replete with Yuri, food and fighting manga for a moment. ^_^ 





ULTIMATE-MAMA

May 26th, 2022

A bunch of content warnings on today’s review, for blood, and violence, and “comedic” BDSM and nudity and some other stuff.

Fujimori Manatasu is a very cute high school student. At 18, she already has a modeling career and is well-liked by her friends. Walking home from school one day she sees what looks like a giant black crescent in the sky. She is rescued from some slavering creature by a woman with abs of steel, Ultimate Fang, and her apparently small child, Meteora. The next day at school, Manatsu finds the child to be 18, and a transfer student into her class…and both Juou Ruriru, the child and Juouo Hagane, the buff mother, are now her next-door neighbors. Hagane is there, because Manatsu has blood that will also give her super powers as well, if only Hagane can awaken them. Preferably by having sex, but whatever. When another equally buff woman arrives, Savage, (real name Jade Anderson) Manatsu’s mom falls, hard. Now it’s up to Hagane to awaken Manatsu’s powers and gain a partner. Eventually, she does, of course.

In the meantime, the monsters, the blood and the gags keep coming in ULTIMATE-MAMA by Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei.

If you have ever read Hayashiya-sensei’s Ultra Sword (or my review of it) the plot may sound vaguely familiar. A girl with blood that attracts monsters is guarded by people with powers. In this case, the blood would also give the girl powers. Unlike Ultra Sword, this series is not rapey at all, really. The superwomen are super cut and have washboard abs and sexy scars and are totally into having sex with women. Manatsu is, by Chapter 7, reasonably okay with it too. Mom and Savage were love at first sight, which was kind of cute.

There is also a clearly evil couple who have sex to call up the crescents which act as a door for the monsters. Who are they and what are the meaning of these attacks? Their acts creates both the crescent doors in the sky and items that fall from those which turn regular humans into the monsters…a bit like Sailor Moon.

Now here comes the real CW part. ULTIMATE-MAMA is currently available on Fanza Books, which is a pretty skanky adult manga and eronovel site.The first things you will see on the site are a whole lot of primary and secondary genitalia, realistic and decidedly not. It’s that kind of site. The manga is being released a chapter at a time for about 220￥/chapter. I sure hope it’ll be collected.

In the meantime, I’m very much enjoying this manga for exactly what it is. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 24 volumes of Hayate x Blade really leveled up her skills in action scenes, for sure.
Story – 7 Lots of elements held together by humor at the moment.
Characters – 9 Charming and goofy and chaotic, exactly what she does best
Yuri – 9
Service – 8 Nudity, sex, underwear, silly BDSM, yes, there is service

Overall – 8

If, like me, you’ll basically read anything and everything Hayashiya-sensei does, the funny violence and funny blood and funny BDSM all are par for the course. Fang and Savage are very nice to look at, if you like that type, which I do. (Not to put a fine point on it, Hayashiya-sensei’s tastes are *clearly* my tastes, as well. ^_^)





Revisiting Old Friends and Celebrating Yuri Anniversaries in Doujinshi!

September 9th, 2020

Some of you may have followed the saga of my recent package from Japan, that sat in a warehouse in Kawasaki for 7 weeks because it was supposed to take 8 weeks, so they made it take 8 weeks and then took 4 days to actually ship. ^_^; Today I want to share the partial contents of that package, because it will give us a chance to catch up with old stories and celebrate some anniversaries. All of the doujinshi I’ll be speaking of were purchased online at Melonbooks, and shipped from there to Tenso, which shipped it to me.

I used to joke/complain that the decent artifacts from Yuri Shimai / Yuri Hime had the most complicated histories. (Although nothing beats Hatsukoi Shimai.) Well each of today’s doujinshi practically comes with it’s own guidebook. ^_^

 

In 2003, before Hayate x Blade, manga artist Hayashiya Shizuru started serializing a story, Strawberry Shake, in the new quarterly Yuri manga magazine, Yuri Shimai, a manga that really honed her “baka” style of physical comedy. The series was ported to the new Yuri Hime magazine in 2005, was renamed Strawberry Shake Sweet and eventually was printed as a two-volume collection, both of which were reviewed here on Okazu. Volume 1 in 2006, and Volume 2 in 2009.  A single omnibus volume re-renamed Strawberry Shake  was printed in 2015 by Shueisha, with a new extra chapter.

The story followed two goofy, clueless “talents” (that is, they model, or do TV shows, or commercials, or whatever) Tachibana Julia and Asakawa Ran, as they meet, fall in love and almost never manage to get it together. When we meet her initially, Julia has just made a splash on a TV drama, and Ran is a new talent who is scooped up for fashion modeling. They are surrounded by a group of wacky characters who are nearly all also lesbian. It’s a tale told with Hayashiya’s bloody, violent comedy and I know it isn’t for everyone, but she’s  been one of my favorite artists since. ^_^ In fact, she may be the first artist I followed specifically, now that I think about it.

She’s continued the series in doujinshi over the years in a – so-far – 4-issue series titled Berry Strawberry Shake. Volume 1 | Volume 2| Volume 3 | Volume 4. The running gag in these are the same running gags in the original. Ran is still a doofus and Julia is still a baka. They are in love, but not in sync. Their manager Saeki is still uptight. The super-lesbian hairdresser Kaoru is still teasing her old schoolmate Saeki and getting into fights with her girlfriend and the very very queer band, which is less visual kei than visual gay, Zlay, is still super gay. All these many years and surrounded by all that gay, and our protagonists still haven’t managed a night together!

Well, this year in, Berry Shake 4, only 17 years after meeting for the first time, Julia and Ran manage a night together. Mostly.  There are…technical difficulties. ^_^;   I’m so glad to be able to check in on Julia and Ran and see that, as goofy as they are, they are happy and successful and…I note that they both are wearing matching rings.

 

 

On a quiet, greenery lined street in a little town, at the end of the road is a tea shop, where you can get delicious tea and patisserie and bask in the company of cute Yuri couples, all enjoying conversation and the pleasant atmosphere. Welcome to the Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan; Seriho and her partner Sarasa are your gracious…and always adorable…hosts.

Fujieda Miyabi‘s series, Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan began its life in Yuri Hime magazine in 2006. No, wait, it actually started in 2005 in a one-shot done for the [es] ~ Eternal Sisters, Volume 2 anthology. The series began serialization in Yuri Hime beginning in 2006. It ran for some years and was eventually collected into 2 volumes: Volume 1 in 2009, and Volume 2 in 2012.

Fujieda-sensei took his series to Drama CDs. The series had 4 DCDs and a 5th which was a crossover with his other contemporaneous series,  Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo, Madrigal Halloween, which is still the absolute finest Drama CD I own and arguably, ever made. The cast from this series and locale also makes constant cameos in his other series, including Alice Quartet and even Iono-sama Fanatics. He loves his crossovers as much as he loves Drama CDs.

Sarasa is a high school girl who frequents the local tea shop because she is in love with Seriho, the woman who runs the place. Seriho is sweet and a bit of a bubble-head, but she and Sarasa make a good team. Over time, Sarasa takes on the event planning and marketing and the cafe’s regular clientele eventually boasts a famous Yuri novel series author, a witch, a miko, fashion designers and a god. ^_^ (I bet it tortured Fujieda that his series Twinkle Saber Nova was set in the future….) The series ends with Sarasa and Seriho buying matching rings before Sarasa heads off to school to be become a pâtisier.

When the series wrapped up in Yuri Hime magazine, Fujieda-sensei created his own Yuri anthology doujinshi, Lilyca, in which Sarasa and Seriho, continue to live happily and adorably. I have two of the Lilyca volumes in print and the final two in digital form. It was my great luck to happen upon a collected volume of these stories The Ame-iro Kouchakan Tanhenshuu (飴色紅茶館歓談短編集) on Melonbooks and nab a copy before it sold out. This volume was created for Girls Love Fest in 2018, according to his Pixiv account.

I fell for Fujieda’s gentle stories full of happy Yuri couples, and his clothing design. To be honest, this cover is probably the least good clothing I’ve ever seen him create. Where other artists drew stuff like this – highlighting breasts and crotches for no good fashion reason, Fujieda rarely did that.  He was probably the second Yuri artist I followed specifically.

Time has passed, but all of our favorite couples are doing well. Sarasa is clearly a talented pâtisier now, the shop is known for delicious pastries as well as tea. Also doing well are DCD characters Shuri and Sayu and novel author Manaka and her manager. Sadly we don’t get to see what became of Letty the witch and her miko partner, Tsumugi. But it’s still good to see Sarasa and Seiho happily “married.”

 

 

Speaking of “marriage.” In 2010 – 10 years ago, Yuri Hime magazine was split into two separate publications, Yuri Hime, ostensibly for women, and Yuri Hime S, targeted towards men. Each came out quarterly for a total of 8 issues a year. Almost inexplicably, the February issue of Yuri Hime S premiered a series called  Fu~Fu (ふ~ふ) by Minamoto Hisanari who was, I believe, one of Fujieda-sensei’s assistants, and a member of his Atelier Miyabi/Moonphase circle (which spawned a couple of Yuri artists, in fact.) I say “almost inexplicably,” because Fu~Fu was about Kina and Suu-chan, an adult couple who were moving in together and celebrating wedded bliss without the wedding.  It was great having a series where moe-style art didn’t equate to either infantilized or grossly oversexualized..or worse, both at the same time.

Fu~Fu was a romantic comedy, very much in the Moonphase house style, sweet with explanations of lesbian lives and why marriage equality ought to be a thing. Kina is sweet, bubbly and Suu-chan is serious and a hard worker. They meet other Yuri couples and, when Suu-chan gets them matching rings, their friends and neighbors demand a wedding ceremony. This was collected into a two-volume set. Volume 1 at the end of 2011 and Volume 2 in spring 2013.

Well, this year is Suu-chan and Kina’s 10th anniversary, you see…and Minamoto-sensei had planned a special doujinshi for it…and the pandemic hit and Comitia was cancelled. But he participated with the online Comitia and released ふ~ふ 10th anniversary, act. 1 as a print doujinshi and in digital format which you *can* buy if you are outside Japan.  Act 2 is supposed to be released with the next online Comitia this autumn.

This 10th anniversary doujinshi starts with our two happily nested lesbians watching a movie together. Then a chapter about how all the characters use their cell phones and finally how Kina and Suu-chan met in school. It’s all very “awww”-inspiring.

So here we are, more than a decade since these three Yuri pioneers laid down bricks so many have followed. I still greedily consume everything Hayashiya-sensei creates (including her newest doujinshi series that features Yanki girls, food and Yuri, Yankoi Shokudou, and is therefore the most perfect thing ever created.) I hope publishers will pick them all up again, if they hope for that, or hope they tell the publishers to fuck right off, if the digital economy makes that easier for them.

Happy 17th anniversary to Julia and Ran, Happy 14th to Sarasa and Seriho and a very happy 10th anniversary to Suu-chan and Kina! Our fictitious “friends” are all well, as married as they can be in contemporary Japan, and I’m happier than I expected to be to see them again. ^_^





Yuri Doujinshi: Siren to Rosebud (サイレンとローズバッド) and Yuricon Travel (ユリコン Travel)

October 23rd, 2019

Back in the early 2000s, when Yuri was more of a feature of various manga than a genre of its own, Yuri doujinshi and anthologies were the main ways fans could access Yuri created by the people we now think of as “Yuri artists.” As more of those artists have gone professional, more magazines have given Yuri artists a chance to publish work (and have run contests to attract new artists,) and as more manga has been released in English, it is not that hard to ignore doujinshi as an important area of Yuri creativity. But, we shouldn’t.

Doujinshi are still a terrific medium through which both aspiring and established writers and artists, can play with their own and other people’s styles and ideas to create amazing works. Comic shows foster collaboration and creativity. For instance, I picked up some Riddle Story of a Devil collaborations that paired series artist Sunao Minakata with Yuri Bear Storm artist Akiko Morishima. ^_^

While in Tokyo for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour, I took some time to visit Akihabara and dig through the shelves at Comic Zin and Melonbooks, specifically to get the books I am reviewing today. Both are Yuri doujinshi by artists we know and love here at Okazu.

Siren to Rosebud (サイレンとローズバッド) is the first new original work in a while by Jesus Drug, aka Hayashiya Shizuru. (Her more recent doujinshi have been wrapping up the Strawberry Shake series.)

On a desert island, a teacher and her student wash up after a shipwreck. They survive and, ultimately fall in love. Although Shiho promises Suzu-chan that they’ll be together forever, when they are rescued, she disappears. 8 years later, Suzu-chan, now 22, finds Shiho hiding from the world in a small seaside home in Okinawa, having become an author and shut-in.

Suzuka tries to rekindle their relationship, but Shiho rejects her, claiming to be lolicon. Suzu leaves the next morning, but as she walks the beach, Shiho runs up, saying that she lied, she was just scared of how she felt then and how she feels now. Its happy ending for the two, as Suzu teases Shiho.

This doujinshi does a couple of fun things, including the use of QR codes for random objects, specifically mangoes, jackfruit and paracord bracelets which were popular a few years ago. And there’s a MP3 link that I have not been able to get to work. All in good fun.  The art is better than ever, and her comedic beats are just as solid as always. Despite the gags, this may well be one of the sweetest, most romantic doujinshi I have by Hayashiya-sensei.

Melonbooks is always an education in how badly anatomy lessons are needed for artists, but it has a fairly interesting Yuri section and  it was worth it to get Siren to Rosebud. ^_^;

 

While at Girls Love Fes,while browsing the Comic Zin bins, I was able to pick up the next book in the Yuricon series, Yuricon Tabi-joshiben (ユリコン旅女子編 ), which is available in Japan from Booth. I reviewed the Jimoto Hougenhen volume in 2018, which you can read digitally on Bookwalker.

There are two additional volumes out this year, Yuricon Otakuben (ユリコン オタク女子編), also available on Bookwalker, and Otona Yuricon 2019 (大人のユリコン2019 which I have thus far only found on JP Kindle, and therefore not obtainable by me. ^_^; But here are some sample pages.

The Yuricon Tabi-joshiben collection includes stories by Ajiichi, Kitao Taki, Takemiya JIn and Riru all of which center on travel.

Ajiichi’s follow two women who are deeply in love. And also sisters.

Takemiya Jin’s “Sentimental Journey” was an entertaining story about a rather mopey woman looking for the worst in people and finding someone good.

“Onsen ha Ikou e” by Kitao Taki follows women on a company trip to an onsen who have to actually share their true feelings or hurt one another.

And Riru’s “Torikago Ryoukan” follows a model and her manager on a hunt through the woods for a natural hot spring. This story was very silly, but I loved the art.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story 9
Characters – 9
Service – Occasional nudity
Yuri – 10

Buying original Yuri doujinshi is still one of my favorite things to do in Japan. And because I liked Siren to Rosebud so much, I bought an extra for the next Premium Lucky Box, so you too can look at the QR codes. ^_^ Lucky Boxes will be happening soon, so keep an eye out!

It is extra fun to me to realize that I picked up two doujinshi that focus on travel (and unintended adventure,) on my wildly adventurous 100 Years of Yuri Tour!) How…fitting.