We met Kureha, a human surrounded by bears, and Gingko, the bear princess with whom she falls in love in Volume 1.
In Volume 2 of Yuri Bear Storm, what is already a confusing story, takes on extra layers of obfuscation as Lulu, another bear in love with Gingko, shows up. The three of them end up living together, and we begin to learn that Gingko and Kureha are linked by a long list of connections, not the least of which is that their mothers, and Yurika, the school principal, were apparently lovers in the past.
While every piece of the plot is presented as a “Once upon a time” fairytale, none of those pieces seem to fit together, quite, although they clearly belong to the same puzzle. By the end of volume 2, we can see that Gingko and Kureha are bound by fate, but how, exactly and what that fate is, are seen from two sides of a one-way mirror. Each girl knows the other is there, but they can’t quite see….
And added to the equation is the appearance of Bear Witch Sumika, (Kureha’s lover from the anime.) She appears to know something about Kureha that the girl doesn’t know about herself. What that is, we might learn, but equally, we might not, in this Ikuhara Kunihiko story, stamped all over with the seal of a lily, but frequently without plot threads that connect.
I really love this manga for Morishima Akiko’s art, and the cognitive dissonance between her cherubic characters and the significant psychological (and, occasionally, physical) violence of the story. These are the cutest bears disemboweling humans you’ll ever see.
Translator Katie McLendon does heroic work making this story make as sense as it possibly can, while the entire Tokyopop team does a fine job of giving this book the feel and finish it deserves.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8 We get more Yurika!
Yuri – 8
Service – 5
Overall – 8
For an adorable fairytale about multiple three-person relationships, death, destruction loss and love, Yuri Bear Storm is a pretty amazing (if not “good”) story.
Something I’m a little bit curious about, why do you do separate reviews for the same Japanese and English tankoubon? And why do you usually buy both?
I honestly can’t find any reason to buy the English tank for any series (given that you own the Japanese ones/already read the digital raw). Firstly, where I live English tanks are more expensive than Japanese ones by a whopping $6-7. Secondly, while I can’t say my Japanese is as good as English, the quality of the translation provided is still more often than not disappointing (or I was just very unlucky for my purchase, which was YagaKimi by 7seas)
Well, because the Japanese volumes – until very recently – came out far ahead of any licensed English version, so by the time the English edition was available I had already read and reviewed the Japanese. Often years previously. Also, because I want to and enjoy supporting sales of Yuri in English, I buy both. For years I have been hearing fans tell me that they “would buy it, if it came out in English” and then not actually do so, because they had already downloaded some scan and if I am exhorting people to buy things, the very least I can do is put my money where my mouth is. I frequently buy copies – even when I get review copies – to show my support for the genre to which I have dedicated the last 20 years of my life.
Lastly, I do separate reviews because it makes sense for me to do so. My review of a manga in Japanese is more about creating awareness and my review of that same manga in English is about motivating the readers to buy it (or not.) My sales numbers for JP manga are small, but I do know that publishers are following this blog and do pay attention to things I say about books. It may not influence their licensing, but they will know what I think and whether I will be promoting their new books.
And then, sometimes, there are significant changes, positive or negative issues to be addressed. For instance, my review this week of Bloom Into You noted improvements in the animation over the streamed version. Soon I will review an English manga that found a new way to irritate the living fuck out out me, the person who should have been its loudest evangelist. Those kind of things are not possible if I only review the Japanese.
You don’t need to justify your decisions to me. But this is why I do what I do.
It seems a little odd to insist that your Japanese is poor but you think the translation of Bloom Into You by Seven Seas is not good. Bloom Into You isn’t a complicated story linguistically and Seven Seas does a fine job. It’s more sensible to just admit you prefer reading it in Japanese, rather than cast doubt with no basis. ^_^