In Luminous= Blue, Volume 1 (ルミナス=ブルー ), Tarumizu Kou loves photography. She loves taking pictures of landscapes and buildings, but most especially, of people. On her way to her new school, she discovers two girls from the same school who immediately become her favorite subjects to photograph. She’s come to this high school specifically to join the renowned Photography Club…only to learn that its been dissolved. Unfazed, Kou accepts a challenge from the former club president to reform it if she wins a competition.
More importantly, Kou meets her new muses, Amane and Nene. As she spends time with these two close friends, Kou find herself inspired artistically, and moved emotionally. After a photo shoot with amateur model Nene, in which Kou learns Nene’s secret and her pain, in time-honored fashion, Kou finds herself falling for her muse.
Meanwhile, we can see the club president and Amane also have some kind of relationship. Amane is modeling, but is it something more?
This series has now completed in the magazine, but this beginning was a so strong that I had a hard time purchasing this volume, as it kept being sold out! I can understand why, too, as this is an unusually compelling story for which I honestly could not imagine a good resolution. (Spoiler: it had a great resolution.)
Ratings:
Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 8
Service – 4 The visuals are occasionally erotic, whether they read as salacious is up to you.
Yuri – 6
Overall – 8
Iwami Kyouko’s work is already familiar to us, Transparent Light Blue was licensed early this year. I’m hoping that we’ll see this series, which is vastly superior in both art and story telling.
I have heard nothing but good things about Luminous= Blue and I am happy to see your review. It would be surprising if it does not get licensed given its success and popularity. I am looking forward to reading this even more now (as soon as I can get my hands on a copy)!!
The path chosen by the creator was not the one I expected. It worked for me, certainly. YMMV, of course! ^_^
Unfortunately it wasn’t commercially successful. Ending at volume 2 was a case of being cancelled due to volume 1 not selling well enough.
That’s quite irrelevant, as the ending worked well and, to be frank, a longer story wouldn’t necessarily have been better.
I was mentioning it just in response to “its success” in YuriMother’s post. It wasn’t a reply to your post if that’s what you thought, nor was I trying to say YuriMother shouldn’t look forward to it.
That said, I think the developments in the last 2 chapters felt obviously rushed in order to wrap it up, falling short of the potential the series had shown. It would only be worse as a longer series if Iwami had really dropped the ball with the writing compared to how it had been going and that didn’t seem likely, so I would much rather Iwami had had the chance.
My mistake. Although it is confusing that it was not successful, given how hard it was for me to get a copy. That sounds like publisher under-published, not that sales were bad.
If the demand was there then there would have been a reprint (重版). With Luminous=Blue, Iwami tweeted about the series being in danger and mentioned a reprint as what to aim for. It’s a general rule of thumb with the manga industry that a new series which got a reprint has done okay and is likely to avoid cancellation.
The publisher responded to the disappointing initial sales by putting out a promotional video for the series. That makes it look like it was a series they really thought had the potential to sell better and were still hoping to encourage demand.
There should have been a reprint, as it was clearly so hard to get, and it had sold out quickly. This could be (speaking as a former publisher) a miscalculation by the publisher about the demand or some other problem – I can imagine at least 4 different issues that could have complicated the objective “success” of this volume.
You thought Scarlet was in danger as well and here it is, still going. Perhaps the creators are using that kind of appeal to bump sales. And I can guarantee that no publisher spends money on a trailer for a book that is not selling well. ^_^ That is not how anyone in publishing thinks. Failed properties are usually allowed to fail quietly.
It’s not worth conjecturing, honestly. At two volumes it was a very good short series.
The mangaka of Scarlet said it was in danger and it indeed has ended in the latest issue of YH. Volume 2 will be the last and ending was really rushed.
Two volumes is not a failure. As I said, I think we can stop picking at this scab….there is nothing new being said or learned here. Luminous=Blue was a good series that got two volumes. That’s fine.
This is one of three recently cancelled new Yuri Hime series (confirmed by the mangakas on twitter). The other one was Ikemen Sugidesu Shiki-senpai! and Scarlet. Sad.
Does it matter to my review that it was cancelled? I am finding it quiet bizarre that commenters are scratching at that as if it has any relevance. In publishing there are dozens of reasons why titles are canceled. This one was excellent in two volumes. I don’t really care why there isn’t a third volume. I think everyone have picked this scab quite thoroughly and we really do not need to address it further.