Archive for May, 2021


Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 6 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)

May 19th, 2021

You know how you feel after you’ve had a fever, when the fever breaks and you’re soaked in sweat? You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel better, somehow. Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 6  (付き合ってあげてもいいかな) by Tamifull, feels exactly like that, particularly after Volume 5.

Many things have happened to Miwa and Saeko since they met in Volume 1. Some good, some bad, some weird, but overall the story has not been about them as a couple but been about their growth as people by means of their relationship. This sounds complicated, but this story is complicated – and I like it best when it doesn’t shy from those complications.

Here in Volume 6, neither Miwa nor Saeko are the people they were. In my opinion as both a reader and a writer, this is the absolute best thing I’ve seen. It’s less like a manga, and way more like a story someone you know might tell you, in dribs and drabs over many conversations.

By now, Tamifull’s art is confident and the characters are finding themselves, as well. I don’t know – can’t, and wouldn’t want to guess – what is in store for these characters…which is exactly what will bring me back for future volumes. As a romance story, there’s only so much I can look forward to. As a “coming of age” story that isn’t about puberty, but about becoming fully formed adult individuals, people with experiences and desires and drives to do things that exceed school and romance, I’m all in.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8 Thing are changing.
Characters – 8 Rooting for them more, now
Yuri – 7
Service – 5

Overall – 8

I love that the cover design shifted for Volume 5. It suggests a shift in the story, a shift I welcome.  Also check out the difference in the cover art between Volume 1 and now. What a fantastic leveling up.

Volume 3 of How Do We Relationship? will be hitting shelves in a few weeks and I for one cannot *wait* for you all to read it. I want to real talk about this series and don’t want to spoil anything. ^_^

 





Superwomen in Love, Honey Trap & Rapid Rabbit, Volume 1

May 17th, 2021

When the evil Antinoids attack and human life is at risk, the hero Rapid Rabbit will appear to save the day! Buy what happens to humanity when Rapid Rabbit is almost defeated? This question is answered in the opening pages of Superwomen in Love, Honey Trap & Rapid Rabbit, Volume 1 by sometime, out now from Seven Seas.

What happens is, of course, that the evil Honey Trap, manager of the Antinoid Army, falls head over heels in love with Honjou Hayate, a part-time costume hero show actress and full-time real-life superhero! This grown-up version of a sentai show is both fun and a little creepy at the same time. In my review of the Japanese edition, Hero-san to Moto Onna Kanbu-san, Volume 1 (ヒーローさんと元女幹部さん) I wrote, “Sometimes, like Honey, we all just need a attractive, athletic, female hero to sweep our evil plans away.” But I also know from Volume 2 and Volume 3, the story will get a little darker and also a little Yuri-er. ^_^;  I’m going to trust sometime to give our heroes the redemption arcs they deserve and the power-ups we crave.

The art in this manga are very action series-like, with loads of power ups, explanations of  armor and weapons and interpersonal bantering in the middle of battle. There’s also some cute art when it comes to Honey and Hayate’s personal relationship and while we get slightly suggestive comments and fantasies, there’s very little actual service beyond the costuming. As a result of the art being so action-y, I want to call attention to Mercedes McGarry’s lettering which in some places was superlative. I know exactly how complicated it is to replace art s/fx and I always appreciate when a letterer has the skill and is given the time to do so. While the dialogue is not literary, I also want to nod at Amanda Haley’s translation which has to make sense of nonsensical gadgets.  As always, my thanks to everyone on the Seven Seas team for an authentic reading experience.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 4 Bikinis
Yuri – 4

Overall – 7

A villain falls in love with a hero and they team up to fight the bad guys, but will love save the day? Find out in Volume 2, which is  heading our way in late summer!





Yuri Bungei Shousetsu Contest Selection 2019 (百合文芸小説 コンテスト セレクション)

May 16th, 2021

This story begins somewhere in the middle of itself. I was online one day and saw an announcement for the 2nd Yuri Literary Short Story Contest on Pixiv, co-sponsored by Comic Yuri Hime. I bookmarked the contest site to read the stories and went on my merry way. In the middle of doing something else I suddenly thought, “WAIT! The 2nd Contest?” How did I miss that there was a first contest?!? I guess the first one wasn’t as big as the Second and Third versions were. You can see the larger list of sponsors on the contest sites.

In 2019, you may remember that I took a group of folks to Tokyo on the 100th Anniversary of Yuri Tour. At the end of that, I took a day to go back to a few places I hadn’t spent enough money time at. One of those places was the Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara. It has one of the  one of the best Yuribu, which contains manga and mooks and artbooks…and that year it had the subject of today’s review, the winners of the contest. It has taken me this long to read it, but the Yuri Bungei Shousetsu Contest Selection 2019 (百合文芸小説 コンテスト セレクション) is genuinely some of the most original work I have ever read in a short story collection. Sadly, this volume does not seem to be available online, but you can read the winners on the Pixiv site.

To be clear, I don’t like every story in this collection, but the stories I read are honestly so original that I’m excited to be talking about  this volume. I’ve written before about my contentious relationship with short story collections, so you might understand my delight at reading a book that is filled with things I have not read before! 

As I’m reading through the stories, I’m making notes on what the stories I enjoyed are about, or I absolutely would forget. The first story has a girl overhearing another girl’s confession to the girl she likes and a heartfelt conversation between them after that. A body swap story that wasn’t creepy, two women who meet at a flea market, a bunch of girls trying to make an aphrodisiac, two young women who meet on the train (trust me, it isn’t totally unoriginal), two girls who attempt to find students who have gone missing.

My so-far favorite is a wonderful story about the time in 1999 when the demons opened up portals to come to our world and sparked a “spot game” for humans to find those portals…and the tourist trade between the worlds. Our protagonist ends up having an overnight adventure in a mall with an elf girl she sees in the mall food court. Everything about this story was just fantastic, from the voice of the narrator, to the matter-of-fact world building. “Shopping Mall no Eruko to Watashi” by Pickles Ginger (ショッピングモールのえる子と私。 – ピクルズジンジャー), can still be read on Pixiv, and I recommend it for the sheer pleasure of reading a great short story. ^_^

Now that I have read most of this book, I’m genuinely looking forward to reading the next collection, Yuri Bungei Shousetsu Contest Selection 2 (百合文芸小説コンテストセレクション2) which is available on the Booth.pm store for Pixiv (or, possibly if it is on the shelves at Shosen, when I finally get back to Japan!)

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I’m so pleased at the originality of these writers and hope to see more of them in the future.

 





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – May 15, 2021

May 15th, 2021

There is so much news this week and I have an opinion at the end, so strap in!

Yuri Manga

Nagata Kabi’s new book My Alcoholic Escape From Reality is out, she did an interview with Deb Aoki for TCAF which will stay on Youtube until May 21, so don’t miss it! and Seven Seas has announced the license of her next book, Nagata Kabi’s My Wandering Warrior Existence!

Rafael Antonia Pineda has the news that Hara Yukiko’s Mayu, Matou (released by Yen Press as Cocoon, Entwined) is going on a 4-month hiatus in Comic Beam due to the creator’s illness.

Seven Seas has released Syrup: An Anthology, Volume 3, which covers couple’s first nights together.

Galette WORKS has some good news and some bad news. The good news, is that Galette No. 18 (ガレット) is coming out next month and Galette MEETS 15 is on sale as well.  The bad news is that the website Galette Online, is shutting down, so all the short stories and voice comics will be going away at the end of this month. The magazine is thus far still in publication. You can still support the creation of Galette on Fantia or Pixiv Fanbox.

Ajiichi’s Dekisokonai Hime-tachi, Volume 5 (できそこないの姫君たち), continues this emotional rollercoaster for a group of of girls in high school.

Shakaijin Yuri foodish manga Minna Watashi no Hara no Naka, Volume 1 (みんな私のはらのなか) is available in print or you can check it out on Takeshobo’s Storia Dash online in Japanese.

Eden no Shoujo, Volume 1 (エデンの処女) is a science fiction story about a world with no men.

Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! Volume 8 (私の百合はお仕事です!) comes to a climactic moment, and Mitsuki is not ready…

 

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Yuri Events Online

If you have ever wanted to attend an academic conference on anime and manga and were unable to…this year is your year! Mechademia is going online and has a non-academic/student rate for attendees. Videos are going live today for panelists, while public registration opens up tomorrow. Please enjoy presentations by myself, James Welker and Verena Maser on Transporting Yuri Across Borders and join us for a panel on June 5th!

This weekend is also the Queer Comics Expo Online, which includes the PRISM Comics Award.

You can also join me and a other panelists at CasaCon, free on Discord, from June 25-27th.

TCAF 2021 has a wonderful panel, LGBT + Micro and Macro Perspectives, that is available for you to watch now on Youtube!

And don’t forget to watch the newest Yuri Studio episode, Yuri: How It Began – How It’s Going, in which I take a look at a couple of the key Yuri tropes and how they change over time. Subscribe to Yuri Studio for a nice mini-course on Yuri!

 

LGBTQ News

Alison Bechdel is working on an animated Dykes to Watch Out For series! This is absolutely the right time and place for this.

With Pride month just around the corner, Companies are gearing up to rainbow wash everything from NFL jerseys to Twitter’s logo. Comics companies, dragged reluctantly into the 21st century and reckoning with decades of suppressing non-white, non-male, non-straight voices are doing…things…to fix this. I am 100% supportive of these companies and their pride branding, but it is also always business first, statement second. My opinion of efforts to present these non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-abled voices – the very efforts most hated by the mediocre men of *.*gate – is that I think they have power despite themselves.  When a company fronts a non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-abled person and actually gives that person tools to succeed, that person becomes a role model…even if the original intent was merely to pretend to be woke enough to convince investors to stick around. I won’t pretend that Conde Nast putting a black woman in charge of Bon Appetit wasn’t a calculated move, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t the right mov or that she isn’t the right person for the job. Dawn Davis has already had a visibly positive impact on the magazine.

The point is that there is a position that companies can take that isn’t tokenizing – it can invest in lifting up diverse voices, centering them, letting them be heard and seen and appreciated. I make fun of gay cereal and cookies, but both Oreos and General Mills are real-world allies to LGBTQ folks, too, supporting inclusive legislation and policies.

Which brings me to Marvel and DC. I could probably talk about why I think that both companies are choking on their own bullshit here, but that isn’t the point. The point is…they are doing something and they are doing it publicly and I think they may actually be doing it okay this time, ish at least. Better than usual.

Marvel is celebrating Pride Month with a series of variant covers by out artist Phil Jimenez for characters being featured in the Marvel Voices: Pride #1, which also features queer writers and artists.

DC is also releasing DC Pride #1, with contributions by queer actors from the DCU and artists (including Phil Jimenez), as well as variant covers of relevant titles. Check out a preview of these on the DC blog. Sneak peak of some pages here, and variant covers here.

I’ve linked to Amazon and Comixology here, but you know…what a great time to call up your local comic store and give them some business! I’ll be doing that as soon as I finish this report. ^_^ Check out Comicshoplocator.com to find a store near you!

 

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My Alcoholic Escape from Reality by Nagata Kabi

May 14th, 2021

Right now the first Virtual Toronto Comic Arts Festival is underway on Youtube and this week we had the pleasure of watching Deb Aoki doing a pre-recorded interview with Nagata Kabi, the creator of comic essay My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, and its sequels. This interview will be available online until May 21, so definitely watch it while its available – its not often we North Americans get a chance to see our favorite manga artists.

This month also saw the release of Nagata-sensei’s newest work in English, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, detailing her bout with alcohol-induced pancreatitis. As with her previous works, this book covers a number of personal details, physical and emotional. She made it very clear in the interview that she has regrets about the way she talked about her family in previous books and she addresses that in the book, as well.

In my review of this book in Japanese, I said, “We’ve watched Nagata-sensei struggle with food, with alcohol, with depression, and now with her pancreas. It’s all very heavy going, but as a reader I don’t feel like I have the luxury of wallowing since, for any bleak feelings I might have, I have to believe that it’s harder for her. To some extent, the only thing we can do is be distant, abstract cheerleaders on the sidelines of the parts of her life she chooses to share with us. We have to know were not getting the whole story – and we have to be okay with that. So we mentally pull for her and send good thoughts.”

And, indeed, we do mentally pull for her and send her good thoughts and she could see that in the interview chat, if she was interested. Especially now that we’ve put a face to the name, I imagine fans will care about her even more. Which makes this book harder to read, not easier, honestly! But there are two things I want to note – one, the second half of the book is less about her struggle with her physical body and more about the creative struggle…which I interpret as a very positive thing. The creative struggle, while no less real, is also much more abstract and requires the ability to think about something other than the pain in one’s abdomen. I’m sure we can all identify with how difficult it is to work when we don’t feel good. It’s a testament to her strength of will that she could work in such circumstances.

The second thing I noted in my review of the Japanese volume was that she’s back with East Press for this book. They aren’t the biggest publisher she’s worked with, but I’m kind of happy that she’s with them again. They are a very pro LGBTQ content company. Her newest book series is with Futabasha, another company that has been really positive for queer manga creators and content, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing what they do together!

Following this all up, Seven Seas announced the license of her next book, Meisou Senshi・Nagata Kabi(迷走戦士・永田カビ) as My Wandering Warrior Existence. You can read this online in Japanese on Web Action. This has a projected release date in English of March 2022. But wait, Nagata-sensei is working on *another* series now, Meisou Senshi・Nagata Kabi Gourmet De GO!  (迷走戦士・永田カビ グルメでGO！) the first chapter is also available on Web Action in Japanese. This is the story she alludes to in this volume – a food manga. I am really looking forward to this, as it’s an audacious and amazing concept having a food manga written by a woman with eating disorder and a contentious relationship with food. It should be fascinating.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Her style has really grown and visibly become more confident
Story – 8, by which I mean it can be gut-wrenching
Character – 9 ^_^;
Service – ? There’s some details in there.
LGBTQ – N/A, but wait. The next book is about her gender and sexuality

Overall – 8

Watch her TCAF interview and then take a look at this book translated ably by Jocelyn Allen. I also want to nod in the direction of the lettering and retouch folks, Karis Page and Gwen Silver, since Nagata’s pretty heavy on the in-art sound effects here. Thanks to the entire Seven Seas Team for their work on this book, and to TCAF staff, Jocelyne Allen for her delightful translation and interpretation and Deb Aoki for another great interview.