Archive for December, 2023


Comitia 146

December 3rd, 2023

It has been nearly 5 years since we’ve been at Tokyo Big Sight. It was a bit moving to be back.

Comitia was not as large as it was in 2019, nor quite as high-level on design (for, I imagine, reasons of economics, time, health and sundry) but it was lovely to walk through a chunk of the hall to search Yuri circles.

We met up with Prof. James Welker and some of his students as they did fieldwork for class. They were lovely. Thanks for hanging with us! We also met briefly with Deb Aoki of Mangasplaining and the French translators she was accompanying. What lovely people.

We met Mutsumi Natsuo-sensei, the lead behind the Boyish² Butch x Butch Yuri anthologies and I briefly chatted with folks from Yuri Cafe Anchor, which we intend to visit later this week. I picked up some books by Taniguchi Shouichi who did Futari Escape and Tsukiko of Futaribeya as well as a couple of favorite circles. Here’s my gets:

 

We had a lovely dinner with James, then crashed and watched Mt. Fuji be amazing.

A night time walk around town and we found a second I’m In Love With The Villainess anime advert, this time in Ikebukuro Station.

While out and about, we encountered the Sailor Moon x Sanrio collab and dropped some money on stuff. Definitely some of these are for Lucky Boxes!

Today’s plans are a romantic lunch at a French restaurant, then Harajuku for more stuff!





Around Town

December 2nd, 2023

We’ve made it safely back to Tokyo for the first time in 4 years. I’d say about 35-40% of folks are masked and of course we are, but I would feel better if it was more. Folks, please be considerate of yourself, your family and disabled and ill folks – wear a mask around other people. It will save lives.

Our first two days were mostly getting our city legs back. Riding the train, finding places to eat, braving Shibuya at rush hour on a Saturday…stuff like that.

On the way over I watched Barbie, Blue Beetle, A Haunting in Venice, and Encanto. Thoughts about all of them later. I have a lot of thoughts about them.

There is now a Melonbooks in my part of town, so I nabbed inori-sensei’s Yuusha ni Naritai Shoujo To, Yuusha Narubeki Kanojo (勇者になりたい少女と、勇者になるべき彼) light novel, with acrylic standee and bonus book cover and a couple of Yuri doujinshi that looked nice. That and a Akane-banashi gatcha have been my only gets so far.  Comitia today, so that’s likely to change!

Also fun, we walked right by the I’m In Love With The Villainess advert at Shinjuku station! The wife was like, “LOOK!” and I  said, “I guess I ought to take a picture.” LOL Later, I was yelling at myself for not being more excited.

 

 

See you on the other side of buying some doujinshi!





Joshi-kou no Ouji-sama ha Watashi Shika Ganchuninairashi Yuri Anthology Comic (女子校の王子様は私しか眼中にないらしい 百合アンソロジーコミック)

December 1st, 2023

In a fervent wish that this next week be a week of discovery of amazing things, today I’m beginning with a new anthology and new imprint! Joshi-kou no Ouji-sama ha Watashi Shika Ganchuninairashi Yuri Anthology Comic (女子校の王子様は私しか眼中にないらしい 百合アンソロジーコミック) from LatteComi, is one of two Yuri anthologies they’ve just put out. As the title indicates, this volume is centered around the theme of the school prince.

This was a nice little collection, honestly. You’d think the theme of “school prince” was played out, but no, these are all solid takes on the trope. Which is not to say that they are all wholly original. The very first story, by Pya, is about Ruka and Rena, a Prince/Princess pair who looks shockingly like two familiar Sailor Senshi and a second school Prince who looks awfully like a French noble we know well. The story is, nonetheless quite cute, as Ruka and Rena complain about each other’s foibles to the hapless protagonist in “True Blue Baby.”

“M-na Ouji ni Aishikatta” by Junrei tells the story of Horimiya, a student who learns the prince’ secret, so they become friends, then more.

My favorite story happened to be by Takemiya Jin and combines two things she loves a lot – gaming and Yuri. Two girls who share the love of a specific character in a specific game find each other years after they first meet…and once again, the game brings them close. This was a very gentle and charming story that had me smiling the entire time. ^_^

A prince helps another student at a performing arts school get past her stage fright, and a girl is reunited with her prince at long last, but feels utterly inadequate, in other stories in this collection. All of these work perfectly fine as shorts, and the collection ends with character designs from each artist.  The whole collection was enjoyable without requiring deep emotional commitment.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Quite good
Stories – 8 Fun, with little depth
Characters – 8 YMMV, but there wasn’t anyone I disliked as a character
Service – There are different kinds of service, but no nudity or creeping.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Most importantly, it was quite nice to see a new imprint. LatteComi is specializing in BL, Yuri and isekai. I hope it does not go the same way as the last two BL and Yuri imprints went, which is to say, they both do only BL now (there’s a trivia question – which two imprints am I referring to? They both came in to being and died in the last 5 years. If you get the answer, I’ll send you a prize!) 

If you’d like to give this anthology a try, there is a 15-page sample on Bookwalker JP for you to check out. Let me know what you think in the comments, if you do.