Rakuen Le Paradis 29 (楽園 Le Paradis) officially launches Nakamura Asumiko’s “Mejirobana no Saku” as a regular series. Having made a name for herself fund raising for a festive Christmas tree, formerly almost-outcast Ruby now finds herself in the confusing position of being popular.
What is far worse is that any intimacy she and Steph shared over the winter break is gone and Steph appears to be comfortable with deflecting Ruby’s attempts at friendship. In a fit of pique after Steph is publicly unkind to her, Ruby tell the older girl to never come near her again.
Until Ruby learns that she is being removed from this school, where she has finally carved out a place for herself. Her mother admits she simply doesn’t have the money to keep her there, now that she’s divorced Ruby’s wealthy father. The headmistress makes an offer – if Ruby can hit a certain mark on the entrance exam, she will be eligible for a scholarship. Ruby, whose grades are middling takes up the challenge and heads to Steph’s room. “Teach me Latin,” she tells the other girl, when the door opens.
So that was a chunky 32 pages of this fraught and emotional girl’s love at a private school story.
The only other Yuri in this issue is in, somewhat surprisingly, “14-sai no Koi” in which we once again turn to look at like from Kanata’s classmate Shiki Aoi’s persepctive and her unrequited love for Kanata. Aoi is able to confide in the school doctor and have a brief moment of satisfaction as Kanata cries in her arms. That Kanata is cryng about being in love with her boyfriend is beside the point.
Ratings:
Overall – 8
I’m pleased that there are still Yuri stories in this magazine, because I might never read it otherwise. And it’s always interesting. Nakamura Asumiko’s Maiden Railways is now available in English from Denpa Books, and it too, contains a Yuri story.
I heard that Rakuen Le Paradis is quite well known for their works about the life of adult Japanese women. It’s nice to hear that they are open to yuri, because seinen editions are usually very careful about male homosexuality.
They have been since the very beginning, more than 6 years now.
I feel someone picking Rakuen up thinking it would be good for stories about adult Japanese women might be a bit disappointed. There’s a few, as well as about adult men, but there’s more school stuff.
Rakuen is intended to be quite free, with mangaka not restricted by aiming at a particular demographic of manga reader, and its strapline is “the forefront of romance manga”, so it’d be rather against its ethos if it didn’t do yuri.
Positive representation of gay men is found in seinen series, for example What Did You Eat Yesterday (TV drama starts very soon) and My Brother’s Husband. There’s a lot of variety in seinen.
Thanks for the information. Well, 2-3 stories, no matter straight or yuri, are already good. The older I get, the more I realize that I am beginning to be interested in works with adult, mature characters, and not teenage stuff.
Yeah, I heard about these works, especially the second. Its plot and storytelling is perfect for my country, so I hope that My Brother’s Husband will receive a license following “My Lesbian Experience”, which has already begun to be published here.
I generally consider a magazine worth it if 2 stories an issue are compelling, and everything good after that is a bonus. ^_^
Well, if Rakuen Le Paradis continues to successfully publish and traditionally receive high ratting from you, then this is really worth reading :)
P.S I apologize in advance for my poor grammar.
No apologies needed. Your English is fine.
I like Rakuen le Paradis because it is off-beat. Everyone has their own ideas about things.