Last year Ultra Jump (Shonen Jump‘s older brother magazine) did an awkwardly titled Yuri anthology called Yuritora Jump.The title’s awkwardness comes from it being an “Ultra Jump” off-shoot, so Ultora Jump ウルトラジャンプ becomes Yuritora Jump ユリトラジャンプ…yeah…, no, it doesn’t work in Japanese either and people keep making fun of it. ^_^;
I could have sworn I did a review of the volume, but don’t see it anywhere. ^_^; There wasn’t much in it I liked, except the excellent story by Hayate x Blade creator Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei. (Quick synopsis of Tanerabo manga do it! (『たねラボ manga do it』) : A manga editor asks an author for any kind of a Yuri story except isekai and the author keep proposing nothing but isekai. The proposal I liked the most was a girl asking to fight her onee-sama at a school for warriors in a series titled “Shiritsu Amazoness.” It was a fantastic mashup idea…I would love to see it for real. ^_^ This year, the Yuri Anthology by Ultra Jump magazine artists got a second volume. Generally speaking I enjoyed this much more than the first volume.
Yuritora Jump ~ Ultra Jump Yuri Digital Anthology~, Volume 2 (ユリトラジャンプ～ウルトラジャンプ百合アンソロジー～ Vol.2) is a digital comic and is available globally on Bookwalker Global for a mere 500 yen. The cover is a bit less infantile than Volume 1 and this time there are two stories which I really liked.
The first story that I want to tell you about is, again, by Hayashiya-sensei. Called “FRIDAY IS THE DAY” in English, this may well be the story I have waited all my life to read. In a gym, two women compete in a no-holds barred, brutal, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) competition, after hours. The two of them seem to be working through some kind of grudge, but as the other folks in the gym watch this increasingly violent fight, it becomes apparent that this fight is a confession of love. As the fight ends with the two women confessing their feelings, the spectators break out into applause.
This is what I mean when I say I want to read a sports manga. Funny, as all of Hayashiya-sensei’s work is, ridiculous, violent as fuck. It was beautiful. Can I have a 8 volume series of this? Please~~~? I would be so happy.
Aoki Juntaro and Shina Yoshinao paired up to create “Italian Beef” (イタリアンビーフ) a Yakuza daughter vs Yakuza assassin story that was also a happy romance wrapped in death and destruction.
Hrm. I see to have a type.
Despite my fixation with fighting manga, there were a number of rather pleasant school girl stories. Fewer really annoyingly infantile entries. If you have $5 and can only get one of these volumes…go for this one!
Ratings:
Overall – 8
Everything is so variable, but overall, I read and enjoyed way more of this volume than the first.
Frankly, the whole thing was worth it for FRIDAY IS THE DAY.
Are these stories and / or authors somehow related to Ultra JUMP as a magazine? Or is it just an anthology under their brand?
These are collections of stories that were originally published in Ultra Jump.
Otaki, one of the mangaka who did stories that got collected in these books, has started a yuri serialization in Ultra Jump now.
Not all of them. FRIDAY IS THE DAY never was. Although, Hayashiya-sensei’s story from the first volume, was.
Thank you, very good to know.
From the first volume, definitely. FRIDAY IS THE DAY never was, nor had I seen Italian Beef in the magazine. I might certainly have missed that, but I follow Hayashiya-sensei’s Twitter and would have, I hope, seen that she had something else in the magazine.
The only one that isn’t listed in the contents as being originally published in an issue of Ultra Jump is Blue Miserable no Shiro (the full color story at the end of vol 2).
Okay. I stand corrected. ^_^
It is both an anthology with the Jump brand (they have don’t one-off issues before, this is not new) and also some of the creators, like Hayashiya-sensei have been published in Ultra Jump.
Thank you for your clarification! I’m just used to the fact that Ultra Jump focuses mainly on ecchi seinen, so I wondered if they had published other works by these authors.
Have you ever looked into the manga Teppu? It’s about women’s MMA and it seems up your alley. It’s not yuri, though there’s plenty of subtext and one girl overtly has a crush on another girl. It has a lot of good qualities, but personally what I found most refreshing was the variety of female faces and body types depicted: those women had muscle, broad shoulders, thick eyebrows and even masculine haircuts in some cases. It was a nice break from all those girls’ sports series like Harukana Receive and Keijo!!! which exist as vehicles for fanservice and moe.
You’re not the first person to recommend this and it’s on my radar, but I haven’t yet had a chance. Thanks for reminding me to put it in an inbox. ^_^