It’s a new year and a new look for Comic Yuri Hime January 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年1月号)! I love how they are shifting up the look every year now, with a new cover artist and a whole new feel. I’m not sure if I actually like the cover art itself. I like the color scheme, but it’s hard to tell where arms and legs actually are and the proportions were odd. But the women seem happy, so that’s all to the good. ^_^
The opening story is one that ought to have been excellent. Ogino Jun’s “semelparous” is…not excellent. The setup is blatantly derivative of Attack on Titan, but even that would have been perfectly fine. Bug-eyed monsters are subject to fashion too. ^_^ The problem is the outrageously awful anatomy. Women’s breasts do no look like that, they do not act in those ways, nothing about them is based on any sort of reality. It’s some of the laziest, least competent anatomy I have ever seen in a published manga. Which is a shame, because an action story about women fighting unreasonably large monsters for some reason or other is just fine by me, (heck, I love SHWD,) I’m deeply repulsed by giant overstuffed water balloons passing for breasts. Because I like real women, I also enjoy women’s actual bodies, not tiresome fetishist fantasies of women’s bodies created by men who don’t actually like women. It’s just such a disappointment to me that the editor doesn’t look at this and says, “Great story, how about you draw those tits a little more natural, after all the majority of our audience is women.”
Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” takes an odd turn, but one I imagine was chosen so there is “a conflict,” so there may later be a “reconciliation.” Not sure we actually needed that, but hey, I’m not the editor. (Wish I was, though. There’d be zero water balloons breasts or lolicon creepiness. I just don’t think those yen are worth getting.)
No idea where “Pocha Climb” is going….probably nowhere. Club + Yuri is an easy story. It will go a volume or two and be soon forgotten. (Tune in later this month for my review of Koisuru Asteroid, an anime choosing the same route. That’s a climbing joke.)
“Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” is…kinda nice. ^_^ I like Usui Shio’s art and while Hinako has to keep being reminded to not be mopey, she’s kind of coming around to being cheerful.
“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” by Miman is a bit of a clip episode from Mitsuki’s point of view. We already know her story, but as she prepares to, well…let’s be honest, we can see she’s heading for a harsh, but she’s still young…she’s gearing up to try and love again. Gosh I hope I’m wrong, but Hime hasn’t dealt with herself at all yet. I don’t see things going well. yet. YET. I have high hopes for this series! ^_^
Ohsawa Yayoi’s “Hello Melancholic” was so very good, I kind of forgot everything else. ^_^ The festival arrives and the band has to find a way around Hibiki-sempai’s injury, which they do. A horrible thing is averted and the band has a triumphant performance in which Minato blasts through her fear of people and is magnificent. After the performance, Minato stumbles on Chika and Sakiko in an intimate moment and has her mind blown.
And…and…and…! Takemiya Jin’s “Itoshi Koishi” takes the plunge! After exams have been taken and passed, Hina faces her friends and tells them there’s something she wants to tell them….she’s been seeing an older person, a woman. One friend who clearly knew jumps right in to say that she’s happy for Hina, which prompts the rest of them to follow along. Micchan drags up the old TV show”true tales” of gay people living alone and miserable, but Hina – with a smile – assures Michhan she is very happy indeed. The only shock comes when Hinako mentions that they’ve already met her girlfriend. We cut to Yayoi discussing work with her friend, noting that Hina’s coming out had gone well
I want to unpack this all a little. It’s not often we get coming out scenes in Yuri. But I’ve had my finger crossed for this one in particular. Not just because I like the story, but because Takemiya-sensei does something important here. The reaction Hina gets is positive, supportive, accepting and loving. We kind of knew that was going to be the response….but the response is not the point of coming out. The point of coming out is that a person, who has never previously stated something out loud says that something out loud. Hina’s friends love her, that is no surprise, but it still takes effort to come out. It’s still stressful. It’s important.It’s an ongoing process. If Hina and Yayoi stay together, Hina will quite probably have to replay this scene over and over. Because people still think that being gay is a lonely existence, because once upon a time on TV there was a documentary about that. It’s ridiculous, but that’s how people really think. Being gay was taken out of the DSM in the 1970s and there are still people who talk about it as an illness. People in countries that have legal gay marriage but who simply will not wrap their heads around the last 50 years of history having happened. So what we here get is the most modern possible coming out – showing that it’s still not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard.
I hope that kids all over Japan read this issue and came out to their friends. ^_^
This is followed by yet another joy-filled issue of Saki and Asuka being cute as can be together in Ohi Pikachi’s “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru.”
CW reminds me to mention that there is a new autobiographical series by Inui Ayu about living with her girlfriend. (I wasn’t kidding about forgetting everything! ^_^) Thanks for the reminder.
As always there were any number of stories read, but not mentioned and others not read, because this is a magazine full of ll sorts of stories! Overall, a great start to a new year!
Ratings:
Overall – 8
The February issue is on shelves now. ^_^
Toward the back of the magazine there’s a new autobiographical series by Inui Ayu about living with her girlfriend.
Yes, there was definitely that. ^_^
I wasn’t kidding about being so happy about the one thing I forgot the others. ^_^ I’ll add this in. Thanks.
I was wondering, is yuri still considered niche or not anymore?
Sorry, I meant in Japan, is yuri still considered niche. I ask because that is what I was told but when i do a google search of the kanji for yuri, a lot of hits are of the genre, so I wanted to know if this means yuri is mainstream in japan like anime is
Of course it is. Manga as an interest for adults is still niche. Any niche of a niche is clearly going to be a niche. ^_^
All around the world comics and animation are presumed to be entertainment “for children” and adults who like them are a niche market. This is all despite the actual numbers that anime, manga and gaming bring in.
But frankly, knitting, which is massively popular and also bringing huge amounts of money is considered a niche hobby.
If it helps to think about it this way – what kinds of hobbies are reported about on television? Sports is really the only “not niche” hobby. Everything else is open for dismissal as “niche.”
But what does that really even mean? Is it important in the context of the conversation? Of course queer comics are a niche of comics. Does that make them less important to the people who read, create or publish them?
Yes, Yuri is one genre among (by my count now,) six genres. The biggest, best selling titles are shounen. BL is still a “niche” of manga, which is to say a small percentage of the overall sales.
Yuri is likely to always be niche. It will always be at war with itself because men who like water balloon breasts and straight women and lesbians who don’t will always be in conflict for the primary audience. All of that is fine.
There’s nothing wrong with being a niche. ^_^
Oh, let me clarify. Nothing wrong with being niche I mean, comics/animations/knitting etc are considered to be niche, but individuals are at the very least familiar with them/aware for them. I was asking as since stuff like BL/Gl sells less /small percentage, less people might be familiar, if yuri in japan is considered like more niche. Again I ask cuz if i google the genre name/kanji in japanese google, first hits are of the genre, so does that mean its seen as niche like how manga is is in general or still less familiar
I have already said that yes, it is still niche and then explained why that might be.
Now that you have asked and I have answered, its up to you to take that information and think about it, then come up with your own conclusions. I’m confident that you can do that. ^_^
I mean, what about what I mentioned with the google search of 百合 in japan? I know its the word for lily, but as I mentioned, the genre comes up when its googled Doesn’t that indicates its familiarity/mean its somewhat mainstream though?
A search from Google pulls up results based on other searches. Geeks search things. Probably more nerds search for Yuri manga than flower geeks search for Lily flowers. Results on online searches is not related to real-world money in publishing, and a LOT of folks still use online to find titles to download and read illicitly. These two things are only tangentially related.
And now, I have answered your same one question four times. It is now UP TO YOU to consider the implications of what I have said in my answers and not insist I give you more of my time or expertise. Thanking me would be a nice thing to do, as well. ^_^
So does this mean the yuri kanji 百合 in a typical/general sense in japan refers to the genre instead of the flower
Both things share the same word. This is not unheard of in language. It is no more confusing that the word film as in a movie or film as in thin layer of something. Both share the exact same word. One is derived from the other, just as the genre name is derived from use of the flower as a symbol.
It is not mainstream as a genre term the way “metal” is in the US as the name of a genre of music. But in the right contexts it would be understood as the genre rather than the plant, just like “vine” could be understood as being a short video.
Thanks for the reply on my post. I had a last thought/small question if you know. I was reading verena’s masters thesis on yuri and she mentioned how the lily had a meaning of purity in japan and this meaning is still applied to the genre. I was wondering, if you know by any chance, is the idea of the lily = purity in general and not just for the genre is still known in japan. I was told by someone who lives there that it’s not obscure and is relatively well known, so maybe not like super mainstream, but like semi-well known or something like that
It come from the Victorian “language of flowers” and so people who are familiar with that (or the echoes of it that have come down through literature and media) might well be familiar with that meaning.
There’s also separately a delusion among some male fans that love between girls is “pure”, presumably because it does not include penetration with a penis. This is the kind of thing Pure Yuri Anthology was meant to reflect. Frankly, I find that infantile. ^_^
Oh, sorry for asking so much. Kinda new to this whole yuri thing and just didn’t know to what to make of that. If it’s all right with you, then this is the last thing I’ll ask as I don’t want to take more of your time, does the google search result indicate/mean that among general japanese anime/manga consumers and not just yuri fans the kanji/spelling is more associated with the genre than the flower or is it also tangentially related and not indicative
Thank you very much for the responses, much appreciated
It is not that you asked too much. It is that you asked and I answered. And then you asked again…and I answered. And then you asked again, without taking any time to consider attempting to answer your question yourself.
I do not mind answering. I do mind people mistaking me for a database. I expect my answers to become part of the thinking you do around a thing. For instance you know how Google works, don’t you? It pays attention to where you go and what you look for, so if it sees a lot of anime things in your history, when you search Yuri it assumes you are interested in the genre. If you were a gardener, you would probably have gotten the flower instead. Algorithms tailor your searches to you. This is very well known and, had you taken a moment to consider how search works, you would have answered that part of your question for yourself.
Learning how to your own research and thinking around a question is very good skill to acquire.