Yuri reviews, news and interviews are the primary function here at Okazu. Over the years, I’ve also sneakily (sometimes not very sneakily) found a way to include art, music, dance, photography, literature and the like into my reviews in hope that I can encourage you to experience things outside manga and anime…and because Okazu readers are often seeking those things out themselves, we’ve had a lot of great art conversations here. Like Bruce’s discussion of Maurice Prendergast, or the time we looked at Yuru Yuri because of a riff on Velasquez’s Las Meninas. Today we’re going to look at a manga that overtly marries Yuri and fine art, Koisuru Meiga (恋する名画) by Mimoto.

Each chapter in this book, subtitled in English, “The masterpiece I love,” presents a Yuri vignette, tied to a piece of famous art. The first chapter follow a young girl who looks through a window to see a beautiful woman posing, in a way that recalls DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. A few of the paintings were instantly recognizable to me, Munch’s Madonna, (a painting I quite like) Millais’ Ophelia,;but many of the paintings, if not the painters were new to me.  To be honest, paintings are a weak spot in my overall education, so I was delighted to learn about Okamoto Taro’s Itamashiki Ude and a number of the others. We laughed when we got to Fragonard’s The Swing, because it was very Fragornard-y. 

My favorite chapter followed an artist who is once again able to paint her favorite model, in a reproduction of Ingres’ (in)famous Grande Odalisque.

The final story is a Maria-sama ga Miteru-esque piano interlude with a girl and her beloved onee-sama, which was meant to reproduce Renoir’s Girls at the Piano. It made a lovely, classic ending to a veritable gallery of delights. 

Ratings:

Art – 7 Good, but it suffered in comparison to looking up masterpieces. ^_^;
Story – Variable, but none were horrid, let’s say 7 average
Characters – Widely variable from creepy awful twins to adorable lovers
Service – 5 Some nudity. Duh, also some other pointless service
Yuri – 7 

Overall – 8 Should be a 7, but I give it an extra point for general effect. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

I’ve never not hated a Renoir before. It feels weird. ^_^;