Back in the early 2000s, when Yuri was more of a feature of various manga than a genre of its own, Yuri doujinshi and anthologies were the main ways fans could access Yuri created by the people we now think of as “Yuri artists.” As more of those artists have gone professional, more magazines have given Yuri artists a chance to publish work (and have run contests to attract new artists,) and as more manga has been released in English, it is not that hard to ignore doujinshi as an important area of Yuri creativity. But, we shouldn’t.
Doujinshi are still a terrific medium through which both aspiring and established writers and artists, can play with their own and other people’s styles and ideas to create amazing works. Comic shows foster collaboration and creativity. For instance, I picked up some Riddle Story of a Devil collaborations that paired series artist Sunao Minakata with Yuri Bear Storm artist Akiko Morishima. ^_^
While in Tokyo for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour, I took some time to visit Akihabara and dig through the shelves at Comic Zin and Melonbooks, specifically to get the books I am reviewing today. Both are Yuri doujinshi by artists we know and love here at Okazu.
Siren to Rosebud (サイレンとローズバッド) is the first new original work in a while by Jesus Drug, aka Hayashiya Shizuru. (Her more recent doujinshi have been wrapping up the Strawberry Shake series.)
On a desert island, a teacher and her student wash up after a shipwreck. They survive and, ultimately fall in love. Although Shiho promises Suzu-chan that they’ll be together forever, when they are rescued, she disappears. 8 years later, Suzu-chan, now 22, finds Shiho hiding from the world in a small seaside home in Okinawa, having become an author and shut-in.
Suzuka tries to rekindle their relationship, but Shiho rejects her, claiming to be lolicon. Suzu leaves the next morning, but as she walks the beach, Shiho runs up, saying that she lied, she was just scared of how she felt then and how she feels now. Its happy ending for the two, as Suzu teases Shiho.
This doujinshi does a couple of fun things, including the use of QR codes for random objects, specifically mangoes, jackfruit and paracord bracelets which were popular a few years ago. And there’s a MP3 link that I have not been able to get to work. All in good fun. The art is better than ever, and her comedic beats are just as solid as always. Despite the gags, this may well be one of the sweetest, most romantic doujinshi I have by Hayashiya-sensei.
Melonbooks is always an education in how badly anatomy lessons are needed for artists, but it has a fairly interesting Yuri section and it was worth it to get Siren to Rosebud. ^_^;
While at Girls Love Fes,while browsing the Comic Zin bins, I was able to pick up the next book in the Yuricon series, Yuricon Tabi-joshiben (ユリコン旅女子編 ), which is available in Japan from Booth. I reviewed the Jimoto Hougenhen volume in 2018, which you can read digitally on Bookwalker.
There are two additional volumes out this year, Yuricon Otakuben (ユリコン オタク女子編), also available on Bookwalker, and Otona Yuricon 2019 (大人のユリコン2019 which I have thus far only found on JP Kindle, and therefore not obtainable by me. ^_^; But here are some sample pages.
The Yuricon Tabi-joshiben collection includes stories by Ajiichi, Kitao Taki, Takemiya JIn and Riru all of which center on travel.
Ajiichi’s follow two women who are deeply in love. And also sisters.
Takemiya Jin’s “Sentimental Journey” was an entertaining story about a rather mopey woman looking for the worst in people and finding someone good.
“Onsen ha Ikou e” by Kitao Taki follows women on a company trip to an onsen who have to actually share their true feelings or hurt one another.
And Riru’s “Torikago Ryoukan” follows a model and her manager on a hunt through the woods for a natural hot spring. This story was very silly, but I loved the art.
Ratings:
Art – 9
Story 9
Characters – 9
Service – Occasional nudity
Yuri – 10
Buying original Yuri doujinshi is still one of my favorite things to do in Japan. And because I liked Siren to Rosebud so much, I bought an extra for the next Premium Lucky Box, so you too can look at the QR codes. ^_^ Lucky Boxes will be happening soon, so keep an eye out!
It is extra fun to me to realize that I picked up two doujinshi that focus on travel (and unintended adventure,) on my wildly adventurous 100 Years of Yuri Tour!) How…fitting.
All the time I wanted to ask you why you use a separate line for fanservice? As far as I remember, you do not review ecchi and hentai.
Because fanservice in this case is explaining the level of gratitous and/or salacious perpective. Or sometimes other things, and I usually explain what I’m applying it to. In this case, nudity.
Well, I understand the very idea of such markings, it just seemed to me personally meaningless, since you rarely touch salacious or lewd works. However, you better know what your personal blog needs.
The concept of salaciousness or male gaze is not limited to porn. Not every fan in “served” by tits and ass.
More importantly, it doesn’t really matter to me if it is meaningless to you. This is my site and I will continue to do things as I wish to do them.
I have answered many dozens of questions for you here in comments. From now on, I will expect you to do your own thinking, based on the things I have said already, and the opinions I express in my writing. It seems pretty clear that you could, if you wished, think about things from a perspective that differs from your own and puzzle out motivations, without having every single thing explained for you.
I will probably not answer you as much as I have, going forward. You’re smart, you can figure things out.
Well, that’s why I say that you better know what is needed for your site. But anyway, I apologize if I was obsessive. I often losing my head and stop paying attention to reasonable boundaries.
These sound fun, and I completely appreciate the context provided for doujinshi as I’m sometimes confused to see bigger names participating in it (my confusion has everything to do with my false preconceptions of what doujinshi is in general, which again, is why the context is so appreciated).
Also, having visited the Melon Books website several times in my search for K&WL rarities, I sure do get the aside about anatomy!!
Haha, yeah, as Timeboxer noted, “melon” is apt.
So doujinshi – most people have a fairly limited understanding of them.
Doujinshi translates literally (and awkwardly) to a “coterie” work – that is, a work by a small group of people on a specific interest. I tend to summarize them as small-press or self-published works by a person or persons. They can be about literally anything. Trainspotting records, or weapons specifications, your cat, bao recipes, whatever. They can also be parody works of popular media, anything from anime to Takarazuka, games, famous singers, your cat’s Youtube channel. There are doujinshi novels, DVDs, games…in fact, Touhou began as a doujishi game.
If you think about what Japanese media western fans are most familiar with, it makes sense that the parody books are the best known…and if you know anything about human nature, you’ll understand why the porn is the most shared. But not all doujinshi is porn, and even professional artists often do their own doujinshi, sometimes riffing on their own or other pro works, sometimes original.
Doujinshi markets made a great place for professional companies to discover new artists – online comics have increased the access points for new artists, as well. Pixiv functions like an always-running comic market.
Thank you a million for taking the time for that :)
Anytime. I love doujinshi, honestly and love to talk about them. ^_^