Archive for the English Manga Category


Cheerful Amnesia, Volume 1

December 11th, 2023

It’s a stock romance trope – one partner loses their memory of the other and ends up falling in love all over again. It’s a great trope, because when done well, a character in a stable, loving relationship gets to feel the thrill of a new love and the other partner gets to woo their lover all over again. Cheerful Amnesia, Volume 1 by Tamamushi Oku (creator of Yuri harem romp I Don’t Know Which Is Love, reviewed on Okazu by Luce), somehow manages to create a story that sacrifices all the wonderful bits of the memory loss trope for not-terribly-funny gags about underwear and having sex.

Our late friend Bruce’s last review here on Okazu was of the Japanese edition of this manga. I’m sorry to say, I agree with his summary, “Arisa and Mari have been living together for some years. But as the story begins Arisa is lying comatose in the hospital, suffering from a severe case of plot device. When she awakens, she has no memory of Mari or their life together. Mouth wide open she wonders who this lovely, unfamiliar, unsmiling woman is sitting by the bed. When Mari informs her she’s her lover, Arisa’s little brain short-circuits. She blushes, shrieks, squirms, squees, wriggles, and generally provides evidence as to why Mari never once smiles through the rest of the Manga.”

In a nutshell, this is the main problem with this manga. At no point do Arisa and Mari have a single important conversation about…anything. Was Arisa’s amnesia from accident or disease? No idea. How does Mari like her coffee? No idea. What did they do for fun? No idea. What was Arisa like before her coma? No idea, except that she initiated sex. Instead of asking Mari any one of a thousand questions about their lives together, Arisa obsesses about the idea that their bras are in the same drawer. Instead of learning how to foster a new intimacy, Arisa freaks out over and over at the idea that she has had sex with her lover.

It feels very much like Arisa has returned to her life as a 14 year old. And maybe, if that had been said, it would have worked. Instead she’s an adult person completely- repeatedly –  befuddled by the idea that she had a life with a woman with whom she lived.  As Bruce said,  “From this point on Arisa has to get reacquainted with the intimacies that go with living as a couple. She doesn’t manage it well. She actually doesn’t manage it at all. She’s just so embarrassed and excited and squirmy to know that her lover is this lovely, unfamiliar, unsmiling woman (wait, wasn’t that page 1? Yes, and many, many pages beyond). It’s heavy going for Mari as they work their way from holding hands to soapy bath-times to the frilly underwear. It’s heavy going for us all.”  Oh Bruce, how I miss you. ^_^;

I can totally see how this series could read like a very fun, goofy 4-koma, if one read a page or two at a time. As a volume, I felt so desperately sad for Mari who has the body of her lover back, with the soul of a gaping child inhabiting it. I also know a LOT of people really love this series and were looking forward to it being out in English. I am very happy for them! I’d recommend reading this series first, then taking a look at I Don’t Know Which Is Love, to see how the creator’s work has and (has not) changed.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – It could have been amazing
Characters – My sympathy to Mari in these trying times
Service – Mari injures her hands so Arisa has to gasp! wash her
Yuri – 9

Overall – 6

The team at Yen Press did a great job with this volume.  I honestly wish it were worth it. If you are interested in Tamamushi Oku’s work, I highly recommend the interview on Yuri Times. Part 1 and Part 2 have been translated into English, thank you Ayumi-san!





Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 7 Guest Review by Sandy F.

November 29th, 2023

In Otherside Picnic, Volume 7 of the manga we have the conclusion of ‘Resort Night at the Beach of the End’, ‘The Attack of the Ninja Cats’ and the latest edition of Kozakura’s ongoing rebuttal, ‘The Tanuki Guards the Night’. The final chapter of ‘Resort Night at the Beach of the End’ is an intense read as Sorawo and Toriko’s fun on the beach becomes a more traditional Otherside event as they are pursued by a cavalcade of Otherside entities determined to drive them mad. Though they escape, Sorawo receives a glimpse of something that has the potential to impact her relationship
with Toriko.

‘The Attack of the Ninja Cats’ begins with a conversation between Sorawo, Toriko and Kozakura. As well as being a debriefing covering the events of the Beach at the End and the follow-up party in Okinawa, Sorawo discusses a recent encounter with a fellow student, Akari Seto. Sorawo crankily discusses how Akari wants Sorawo to help her with a problem because she has latched on to the idea,

much to Sorawo’s annoyance, that Sorawo is an occult expert and so just the person to help her as she is being stalked by Ninja Cats. Yes, Ninja Cats! One thing I appreciate about Otherside Picnic is how Iori Miyazawa can work with what often seems to me a fairly ridiculous concept and convince the reader to take it seriously. I may have rolled my eyes when I first read about the Ninja Cats, but not for long as it doesn’t take long to realise they are a threat. For a variety of reasons Sorawo initially isn’t interested in helping Akari, including a surprising revelation, Sorawo likes cats and is fearful if she gets involved, she may have to do something that terrible that will change her perspective on cats.

Cranky Sorawo has a cute side! But the crankiness remains as we witness Sorawo trying to cope with the gosh-darned perkiness of Akari, with Toriko not helping. Sorawo and Toriko meet with Akari, and as a result of this meeting we are introduced into a new aspect of connection
between our world and the Otherside through the realm of the Ninja Cats. The Ninja Cats prove to be formidable foes, and the artwork rises to the challenge of depicting the resultant battle. It will be during this struggle that Sorawo will learn more about how her eye can influence people as well as the entities of the Otherside.

With the conclusion of the events of ‘The Attack of the Ninja Cats’ Toriko is confronted by a surprising revelation involving Satsuki Uruma, who continues to be a shadowy influence from the Otherside. Before I forget I should mention that in this volume we also have a Public Service Announcement on the dangers of online shopping while drunk because you never know how people will respond when an agricultural vehicle is delivered to their doorstep!

One of the ongoing themes of Otherside Picnic is how the characters struggle with trauma and its consequences. In ‘The Tanuki Guards the Night’ Kozakura reveals how she deals with the trauma of the consequences of being associated with Sorawo and Toriko. In her story, she shares her thoughts on how she is treated by Sorawo and Toriko. At the end of the story and the manga we discover that Kozakura might need a bigger Tanuki…

Ratings:
Story – 9
Artwork – 9, the usual excellent job of conveying the horrors
of the Otherside.
Character – 8, some different glimpses of Sorawo illustrating
how much she has changed through knowing Toriko
Service – 6
Yuri – 8, there is an important conversation with Sorawo making it clear to Toriko that she considers their accomplice relationship to be an exclusive one.

Overall – 9





The Two Of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 3

November 27th, 2023

Two woman in bikinis frolic down a beach happily together.To paraphrase myself from my review of this volume in Japanese, “One of the defining characteristics of an adult life is facing setbacks. You can work really hard, gambare with all you have and still not achieve the goal. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s just life. In The Two Of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 3, its both.”

“Wanko” is giving it her all, doing audition after audition. The one job she had gotten is canceled for reasons that are beyond her control. (And which resonate kind of hard this season, after the recent scandals of a major production group in Japan.) She’s working that treadmill hard, but she’s not getting anywhere.

Ellie is struggling with a wholly different problem. She’s been given an opportunity. One of the best in the business is mentoring her, with a tough love attitude and hard, cold facts. Now that she has an opening, she’s not at all confident that she’ll be able to move forward. 

Wanko really wants to be a full partner in their lives together, so despite her loss of her job, she contributes to the month’s rent. Ellie would be happy to let Wanko keep it, but she’s 100% supportive of her partner’s choice. Again, as I said, in my review of the JP edition, ” get yourself someone who looks at you the way Sakuma looks at Wako.”  Ikeda-sensei’s art is great in this volume, with expressions and body language really dragging you in to the emotional backdrop of every scene. But – and I will say this every time – his art hits new levels when he just does a panel of Ellie. He loves drawing her and it shows.

Solid work by the team at Seven Seas. Anh Kiet Ngo had a few challenging passages here and came through with a solid translation. (I was thinking about this just a moment ago, when I made an excruciating pun to my wife that was both in-joke and tortured English and I had a thought about how impossible that is to translate. This series is full of that kind of thing. Rina Mappa’s lettering is solid, but she is not given time to retouch which would have looked better. Give letterers time and money to retouch!

Overall a funny, poignant volume of this lovable series.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Service – 5 Light nudity
Lesbian – 10

For a slightly goofy, slightly realistic story of two women (and their colleagues and friends) adulting together and being in love, this is a quietly outstanding story.  I hope you’ll pick it up and give it a read.





If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan I Would Die, Volume 4

November 26th, 2023

Seven female pop idoss, dressed in slight different iterations of yellow chinese-dress style costumes face us. No one thinks that the life of a pop idol is a free and easy life, not any more. We all know that – even aside from abusive management companies – it’s a hard life. It’s a lot of work that is rewarded by the whims of fans. If the fans don’t show up for the idols, no matter how much they do, it’ll never be enough.

But what does that make the life of a fan? You show up to the shows, you buy the merch, you get a handshake and, maybe, a kind word. Does the idol remember you among the many fans they have? In If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan I Would Die, Volume 4 we see this overtly transactional relationship from many different angles.

Cham Jam’s participation in the Okayama Idol festival is finally announced, but the fans already knew…which takes away a bit of the energy. While the idols toil to be their best selves, we get a glimpse of their motivations. Yuka’s only real desire is to be liked, while Maki really wants Yumeri to surpass her. Maina is happy where she is, Aya is not happy where she is. Sorane looks to Reo who is having a small crisis. Cham Jam will be on the same stage as Maple Doll, a popular group from Hiroshima, which features another member of Reo’s former group. It’s hard for Reo to see Mei’s group and not feel as if she’s lost something.

From the other side, the fans are struggling with just how best to support Cham Jam. Kumasa and Eripyo visit a Maple Doll concert to see the competition where they are spotted by Yuka and Aya. This causes all kinds of miscommunication that they are “two-timing” Maina and Reo. I’m gonna admit that that this section made me rage. People can like more than one thing at once, folks. It is really not at all okay for companies or other fans to make that taboo. Like, really, fandoms, get a grip.

Eripyo invites a coworker over to watch a promotional clip for the Idol Festival, only to accidentally create a rabid fan in another fandom. Woops.  She also becomes incoherent whenever she’s near Maina and it annoys her as much as it does me.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Painful, but poignant at times
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – Argh

Overall – Argh

I know I struggle with the “comedy” aspect of this series. Maybe if you read it, you’ll think it’s hilarious. I hope you do and let me know in the comments!

Thank you very much to the folks at Tokyopop for their excellent work making this convoluted tale of business and love make sense and for the review copy!





A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 9

November 22nd, 2023

Two girls in navy blue jumper-style school uniforms smile at us, their arms entwined. One wears a flower and holds a diploma scroll, the other wears frog and salamander mascots on her bag.I’m playing clean-up in my files this week and this book, which is the final volume of the series, had been put aside for several reasons. The main one was that a friend of mine was really into it and planned on reviewing it for us on Okazu, but she died of COVID in 2021 and was never able to do so. So, I spent a year avoiding this series like the plague I associated it with. A little over a year ago, I finally was able to finish the series in Japanese. Today I’m holding up my promise to Claire Monserrat Jackson and reviewing A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 9, by Makoto Hagino.

Konatsu and Koyuki have come a very, very long way since they first met. Koyuki has begun to understand the people around her, and allow herself to be part of a group. Konatsu is still not entirely sure she’s communicated everything she wanted to say to Koyuki, but is definitely sure that the other girl is very important to her.

Their final school festival together is a culmination of these two refrains. Even when her classmates’ behavior is a little frightening to Koyuki, she is able to understand that they don’t mean to hurt or scare her. And when she comes to the Aquarium Club’s cafe, she completely understands Konatsu’s message to her, in the form of a frog and salamander pancake combo.

Koyuki graduates and is off to the big city.

In an epilogue, we learn that Kaede’s big sister is a famous model and she thinks that Kaede has the chops to be one, too. Poor Fuyuki. But he finds an interest in photography…so maybe they will meet again after all.

When she comes to Tokyo to visit, Konatsu learns that Koyuki absolutely understood her message to her…and, at last, the older girl is able to respond. This salamander and frog need each other and they want to be together. As I said in my review of the Japanese edition, they will not be heading into the future together, but they will be there for one another. Whether their relationship develops into more than friendship will depend on many things. I see it as a possibility, not a probability. Upon re-read, I call it a fairly high possibility. ^_^

Regardless of any romantic possibility, this series was a very gentle look at the relationship between two young women. It was worth reading for that alone, but I’m also glad that the ends leaves room for recognition of intimacy and desire to have the other person in their lives.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 5

Overall – 8

I sincerely hope the Nagahama High School Aquarium Club got  lot of new members from this series. It looks like they do a lot of cool stuff, in this article from earlier this year!