Archive for the LGBTQ Category


She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3

October 23rd, 2023

Last winter I reviewed Yuzaki Sakaomi’s Volume 3 of Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna (作りたい女と食べたい女), expressing my delight over the entire volume – even squeeing throughout. Today I was able to revisit those moments of joy with the release of She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3 out now from Yen Press.

In Volume 1 we met Nomoto Yuki and her neighbor Kasuga, two women who bond over their use food as a form of escape from stress and entertainment. In Volume 2, Nomoto realizes that her feelings for Kasuga are more than friendship.  Here in Volume 3, Nomoto finds another friend and confidant with her online pal Yako, a woman who loves food, but doesn’t care about cooking.  And Kasuga befriends the neighbor who lives in between then, Nagumo, a young woman with a very fraught relationship with food. The four women build a family together, a space in which every one of them is accepted for who they are and their needs are accommodated. This volume is moving and funny and adorable in equal measure.

Yako gives Nomoto a primer in sexual diversity, freeing Nomoto up to stop comparing herself to other people and find her own story. Yako’s light-heartd acceptance and casual speech really blasts barriers away, so it’s an especial delight to have Caleb Cook’s outstanding translation here. In this volume we also get to see the core issue between Kasuga and her family, which is, simply, lack of respect. This is echoed by Nagumo, so they become close over the shared experiences of dealing with family that blames them for not being compliant. I don’t think I have to tell Okazu readers how powerful a message that is. When Kasuga comes to understand how she feels about Nomoto, there are layers and layers being addressed.

In this month, where we have I’m In Love With The Villainess in anime, with heartfelt discussion of queer experience, this manga is the perfect pairing for even more discussions of diversity within sexual and gender minorities. ILTV is a great ice-breaker for folks unused to these conversations in their entertainment, but She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3 is rooted in real experiences and reflects the kind of community that we as queer fans create for ourselves.

An outstanding volume of one of the best LGBTQ manga of the last few years.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Yako and Nagumo give Yuzaki-sensei a chance to ramp up expressions to 11
Story – 10
Characters – 9 (only to give them room to be even more wonderful)
Service – 0  Unless, like Nomoto, you consider watching Kasuga eat “service.”
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

I was also pleased that letterer Phil Christie get to retouch S/Fx, at least on some pages, where it wouldn’t affect the art. More of that, please!

There is one more volume available right now in Japanese, but since Chapter 40 of the manga, the series has been on hiatus due to the manga artist’s health. Were’ all wishing Sakaomi-sensei a safe recovery.





My Date Is A Total Ike Woman

June 11th, 2023

A short dark-haired woman in red and black carries a woman with short light-colored hair in a denim jacket and white pants, who gently strokes the dark-haired woman’s chin. The title “My Date Is A Total Ike Woman and a small image of a merry-go-round in lavender. Logo that says Tomboy in the upper right corner in blue. In the upper left, also in blue read “Butch x Butch” and “Presented by Natuo Mutsumi.”Mustumi Natsuo is a name with which we at Okazu are familiar. Mutsumi-sensei was the face of the Boyish² Butch x Butch Yuri Anthology project last year. This year, Mutsumi-sensei ran a Kickstarter for a new work, also a butch x butch comic. And, like the last project, this one blew past early goals. In fact, we’ll be getting a voiced reading of the comic at some point, since stretch goals were likewise met.

So today, I thought we’d take a look at My Date Is A Total Ike Woman, the English language edition of Date Aite Ga Ikemen Onna Datta Kudan (デート相手がイケメン♀だった件). Both Japanese and English language editions are available on the Tomboys Booth.pm page, where you can purchase them both as a physical book and as digital. When I backed the Kickstarter, I pledged for both the JP and EN editions as physical books. As soon as the PDFs became available, I scooped them up, so I could talk about them here!

The title of this comic is a pun on the Japanese word ikemen (イケメン) which means an attractive guy. We’ve seen that in some works here, like, Ikemen Onna to Hakoiri Musume and Ikemen Sugidesu Shiki-senpai! For anyone familiar with the term, this title would be expressive.

My Date Is A Total Ike Woman is a 37-page comic about Ushio and Asahi, two otaku butches on a blind date at an amusement park. In this short story, there are so many qualities that makes this comic worth owning and reading. When they meet for the first time, they are both blown away how cool each other is…and immediately become intimidated in rather cute and relatable ways. They spend their date negotiating boundaries both mental and physical. Both are otaku, with different interests, but both have had some negative experiences and don’t want to give up to much and get hurt. As the date goes on, they learn to open up and be honest with each other. This comic ends in a perfectly satisfying way that makes me hope for a sequel some day.

The translation is very good. In an early page Asahi sees Ushio for the first time and thinks, “Crap, their hotness level is clearly over 9000!” which of course made me laugh out loud, being a good otaku myself. The art is simple, with fantastic body language and facial expressions. When they should look cool, they look very cool indeed. For sample pages, check out Mutsumi-sensei’s Twitter page. 

If you’d like to read an engaging comic featuring two butch women on a date, definitely get yourself over to Tomboys and grab yourself a copy!

Ratings:

Art – 9 100% in wheelhouse
Story – 9 Covers a lot of ground in few pages
Characters – 9 So cute
Service – Well, ahem, cute butch women, so…10 for me
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 9

The book ends with an interview of Mutsumi-sensei, about trying to create more queer comics in Japan. Obviously, I will always support that.
I hope we’ll get more of these two and their various otaku pursuits. ^_^

 

 
 

 

 





Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 4

May 15th, 2023

Two women face us , holding hands. One with long brown hair wearing a brown skirt and white blouse, smiling brightly, shorter woman with short black hair, where pants and a white blouse, smiling gently. "Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon" is written in orange letters, with a chocolate glazed doughnut for the letter O, and a crescent moon just above and to the left of the O. Number 4 in the upper left hand of the page, a squiggle line, the Art & Story by Shio Usui.When Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) landed in summer 2022, I said this about it, “…this was the perfect, most exactly correct ending to this series that we could have hoped for.” Now, in 2023, as I read Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 4, I would not change a word of that. This was the perfect ending for this series. We could not have asked for better.

Hinako is every person who has been measuring themselves against a set of criteria that do not fit at all. Asahi is everyone who is spending their energy on someone else so they don’t have to think about themselves. When they meet each other, their ill-fitting facades begin to crack. Neither of them have ever had the leisure to develop any adult relationships. Asahi, because of her parents death, has kept her one old friend, but been unable (unwilling?) to make others. Hinako’s friendships are – she believes – based upon the construct she had created to pass in society, while she blames her failures to build romantic connections on herself.

This is a lovely, gentle story of lonely people breaking out of the habit of loneliness that they built up as the cornerstones of their lives.

This manga checks off so many of the things that makes  a good manga for me – adult women building different kinds of relationships with the women around them, emotional intimacy of differing kinds with those women and adult women breaking free of the constraints put upon them by society, family and themselves. Joyfully, this manga is also full of adult friends who continue to be friends when their friend basically stops pretending to be someone they cannot be.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 10
Service – 0
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

Asexuals are getting their time in the manga limelight right now, as well – if you were looking for a book about adults understanding themselves better, this should definitely be on your list.

I was *sure* that Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon was a shoo-in for a best Yuri manga of the year when Volume 4 hit, but it has to compete with Birdie Wing and She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat, both of which are so outstanding. That said, this is an excellent manga and you should not miss it!

 

 





She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2

April 13th, 2023

Hi all, I am back with my first review since falling ill and I hope you’ll all keep supporting me and Okazu, as I have a LOT of new stuff to talk about this month. I’ll do my best to develop some kind of a schedule again, as I have the energy!

To get back into the swing of things, I really wanted to talk about She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2 by Sakaomi Yuzaki. I’ve been singing the praises of this series since I first read it last year. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “Nomoto and Kasuga playing house is my new hygge.” And that’s pretty much the point of this story. These two women free each other up to find a life for themselves that suit them in a way that nothing they’d been offered by family or society ever had.

This really comes home as Nomoto once again falls ill and is pummeled with feelings of failure and being a disappointment to her family. Once again, Kasuga comes to the rescue, but this time, Nomoto allows herself permission to “like” the other woman, a huge step forward. And she learns just enough about Kasuga to understand her appetite is it’s own story. Each woman begins to carve out a place for the other in a wholesome and supportive way. It’s inspiring and adorable…and I cannot get enough of it.

Caleb Cook’s translation  is outstanding. Sensitive, where it needs to be, light-hearted where it can be, it allows us to really feel a full range of adult emotional experiences.

In between emotional revelations, this volume is laugh-out-loud funny, as they Netzflitz and chill. They make classic home recipes and share special holiday treats. All I can say is that this is a manga I needed in my life. I’m sure I am preaching to the choir here, but if you have not picked this series up – do! Thanks Yen for giving us a fantastic rendition of this fantastic manga!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Still saying that the food here are the money shots
Yuri – Let’s edge it up to 4, now that we know Nomoto is in like.
Food – 9 It all look so good. What the what, I could make a fruit sandwich!

Overall – 9

I cannot be the only person who checks out the color images of what they shopped for, surely? I know I’m not the only person who loves visiting food stores in other countries. ^_^





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

March 6th, 2023

Before we start today’s review, I want to let you know that until May my reviews are going to be less regular. I have a relentless schedule for March and April, but at the end of it, I hope I have a lot of fun stuff to share with you all.

Today, to get this new schedule off with a bang, we’re looking at Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) In the aftermath of the Commoner Movement and the resulting loss, Claire is depressed and Rae is desperately trying to cheer her up. But when Claire does cheer up, it is because Rae’s only real rival is arriving – Manaria, the crown princess of the neighboring country Susse. Manaria is good-looking, popular, accomplished and worst of all, she’s the only quadcaster in the world. She’s top-level at all four elements, to boot. Even worse than worst, Claire has a childhood crush on her “oneesama.” Manaria is an understandably popular character, but in the real world, she’d be insufferable. ^_^

Now it’s Rae’s turn to feel loss…and have her worldview challenged. Manaria pushes Rae to be honest about her feelings for Claire, then destroys her in a duel. But when Rae gets back up and challenges Manaria to an epic battle of vows of love, it will change everyone in the story. This is one of the most popular arcs of the original series, according to inori.-sensei. For good reason. There’s a lot of nail-bitingly good stuff here.

Art-wise, this book is phenomenal. From the tension on the spectators’ faces during Rae and Manaria’s duel to the incredible climax of the Scales of Love contest, there are whole volumes in Claire’s eyebrows. ^_^

This arc is a breather before the story takes a darker turn – a breather that is still quite intense. It’s also the first time Rae is able to meet someone in this world who admits to being queer…a remarkable thing that heralds many other remarkable occurrences in the series, as well as laying some foundations down for future arcs.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – Manaria is a kind of service. ^_^

Overall – 9

This volume does not yet have a English-language release date, but when it does, don’t hesitate – it is wonderful. ^_^