In Yoshimurakana’s MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 5, little girls wearing yellow boots and carrying blue umbrellas are turning up strangled and the police are stumped.
Kuroko works on the case…and one of the bereaved mothers. She also finds time to meet with her erstwhile opponent at Virginal Rose, Teresa, now going by her real name, Narumi, who has gathered the Virginal Rose survivors and is trying to make a safe space for abused girls. Kuroko offers to underwrite the shelter/school if they work as informants, an idea that has been used in some of my favorite literature for centuries, so I approve.
In the meantime, we are subjected to the trials of Sora, who was kidnapped by the killer, so that we can be creeped out by the storyline. It is successfully creepy.
Kuroko wraps this storyline up swiftly, for which I am now twice thankful. Even more thankfully, the end of the book see the return of weird-eyed Reiko the sniper in a new, exceptionally violent chapter.
Final chapters are both silly and awful in equal part. Hinako is coming across as ever more unhinged.
Reading this manga has taught me a lot about myself. I’ve known since Ikkitousen days that I do not mind violence as long as it is between two equally matched people. Exploitative or abusive violence enrages and disgusts me (probably much as the kind of violence I don’t mind makes other people feel, I imagine.) I like weapons expertly handled. There is no form of hand-to-hand combat that I find dull, but man, do I really dislike the idea of people being beaten to death by skillless jerks with bats. Pisses me off no end to see people beaten by cowards who have to gang up or sucker punch victims. Huh. So, this too, goes into the folder of “no” when it comes to tolerable violence. On the other hand, I have a mental folder for tolerable violence. Huh.
Yuri? Yes. Kuroko’s amassed quite a harem by Volume 5. Chiyo is her steady, of course, and we see her with Nanami and Matoi and of course Yuria, the medical examiner (who I had completely forgotten by Volume 10 in Japanese, which I was reading along side of this. Good thing she was here to remind me who she was. )
Ratings:
Art – 6 No less ugly than usual
Story – 5 Violence against little girls is in the no folder.
Characters – 8 Manipulative and vile, but I like ’em.
Service – 10 Nothin’ but
Yuri – 8 Having a lesbian psychopath as a protagonist definitely keeps this rating high. ^_^
Overall – 9
I love the next arc and any and all time spent with Reiko. Spider ahoy!
“I do not mind violence as long as it is between two equally matched people.”
As a yuri fan yourself, how do you justify two girls fighting each other? I understand if it’s just some catty nonsense; however, the way you describe it (weapons, etc.), the girls are out to kill each other.
That is not yuri, that is internal misogyny. Girl power isn’t about girls asserting lethal dominance over one another. Girl power is about girls working together to overcome obstacles. If the female gender turns on one another, then all it does is weaken females as a whole and strengthen the patriarchy.
This review was written in 2018, so I hope your views on female x female violence has changed.
I love it when girls compete against each other in the form of non-lethal sport. (such as ping pong and basketball) but it is NEVER okay for females to be physically (or emotionally) hurting each other.
I disagree with this comment on two points. Feminism means giving every woman and girl the opportunity to thrive on their own terms.
I enjoy martial arts, I do not object to women of matching abilities engaging in physical combat and I strongly object to your insistence that it is wrong to do so. I taught martial arts for some decades and do not agree. “Girl power” is a marketing phrase – feminism gives me and the women who read, write and engage in fighting the right to enjoy what they like.
To paraphrase you, is NEVER okay for anyone to tell a woman what they may or may not do.
You are allowed to not agree with my tastes, but you may not dictate to me what I am allowed to like and dislike.
I never told you what to like and dislike. I asked you to justify your tastes. (Females fighting each other in particular)
You learned martial arts to defend yourself. You did not learn it to find some random girl on the streets and challenge her to fight death for little to no reason.
Training martial arts and sparring are two different things. One in non-lethal intent and non-lethal action and fighting to the death is lethal intent and lethal conflict.
“Feminism means giving every woman and girl the opportunity to thrive on their own terms.”
If feminism means a woman “thrives” by stomping all over her fellow female, then your definition of “feminism” is corrupted. As I said, females, turning on one another, strengthens the patriarchy—nothing else.
“I asked you to justify your tastes. ” Exactly.
I won’t. I have every right to like what I like. Women telling women what to do upholds patriarchy. Feminism is about choice. I choose to enjoy what I enjoy, the way I enjoy it. You may enjoy what you enjoy they way you enjoy you. You may not come on to my blog, insist on random lists of things that you approve and expect me to take you any more seriously than I would if a man did the same thing.
I will continue to enjoy an explicitly fantasy fiction manga informed loosely by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos that includes pointless violence of all kinds, including violent fights between women.
Have a lovely day.
“Exactly.”
And what’s wrong with asking you a question? Why do you act like you’re above answering it? You have every right not to explain it; however, for someone with a blog, you should be open to conversation.
“I have every right to like what I like.”
Never did I say you didn’t. You’re acting as if though I’m demanding you change your views. I’m merely attempting to understand them. Especially when it goes against empowering women. (I thought that was what feminism was about?)
You asked me to justify my views. I will not. ^_^
You said I hoped I had changed my opinion. I have not.
You may not tell me what patriarchy is or is not, and what feminism must be, or which kinds of violence are approved by you, which you did.
This conversation is over. I am closing comments on this thread.
Have very pleasant day.