Archive for the Fujieda Miyabi Category


Yuri Manga:Ameriro Koucha Kandan stories

September 5th, 2006

I’m cheating today. This is not a collection of manga I’m writing about, it’s two different stories in four different places, and two are cameos, which all happen to star the same characters. Because it *will* be a new series starting in the next Comic Yuri Hime magazine  I thought it would be fun to tell you the story as it exists currently.

The story in question tells of the women of the Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan (飴色紅茶館歓談). It begins in the book pictured above, [es] Eternal Sisters 2 anthology. On the cover are the two principles of the story, Seriho (left) and Sarasa (right.) In the ES collection, we meet Seriho who is the owner of the Ameiro Kouchakan, (loosely, the Amber Tea Pavilion.) Sarasa is a local high school student who spends an inordinate amount of time at the cafe, and asks, quite cutely if she can just work there. But Sarasa’s motive is not money – she’s in love with Seriho. Seriho reciprocates the emotion, and Sarasa comes to work at the cafe. In this story we also meet regular customers Haru – who runs some kind of freaky fortune website, and her friend/partner in mischief Hinoko. Hinoko is the obligatory goth-loli girl that one always finds in Fujieda Miyabi’s work.

The second “chapter” of this story takes was published in the extra comic inserted in the August 2006 volume of Yuri Hime. In this little omake, we are given character profiles in which we learn that Seriho, despite her youthful looks is 25, and Sarasa is 17. Huh. How ’bout that.

Tanabata is fast approaching and Seriho wants to something extra special for the cafe. They come up with a special blend of tea that they pour in a long stream (evocative of the milky way, which features in the Tanabata story.) Haru and Hinoko join the staff for the day and the four women have a successful and lively day full of customers. To thank them for their assistance Seriho offer to treate everyone for dinner. Haru and Hinoko leave first, while the others remain. Seriho tells Sarasa that, long before today, she had planned to close the cafe. Sarasa reacts strongly, protesting that people – she – loves the cafe. Seriho and Sarasa have an emotional scene, but Sarasa is successful and the cafe remains open. Phew.

The third appearance of the ladies of the Ameiro Kouchakan is Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodma no Majyo to manga. In this volume, Letty, having newly freed Tsumugi from her confinement in the shrine, takes the miko to her favorite watering hole. The big scandal here was when Tsumugi – assumably unfamiliar with ways of the outside world – expresses her love for Letty firmly and loudly. Poor Seriho almost dies of embarrassment…

And the fourth, but not at all final, appearance of the Ameriro Kouchakan is the MikoMajyo Drama CD (the one packaged with the manga in the deluxe set), in which Letty and Tsumugi once again visit, this time accompanied by the errant mountain god who has run away. Shrine guardian Isuzu is forced to drag the wayward deity back to her shrine bodily. Tsumugi’s request for Letty to open up and say “ahhh” forces Letty to confront her inner femme, and inspires Hinoko to fluster cool Haru by doing the same.

Now, to be honest – these four appearances are the ones I have, or have noticed. I have no doubt that somewhere along the line there’s some crossover with Fujieda’s other series, especially the ones I’m less familar with.

But what does exist is cute enough that I though it warranted a mention. And I bet that, once the story begins running in Yuri Hime we’ll get a collection that includes both of the first two chapters.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

No ratings, since it’s not *yet* a collection, but overall – even more adorable Yuri from Fujieda Miyabi!

BTW – Happy Birthday me. Older, as my mother says, but not at all wiser. If you’re moved to send a present, buy a book from ALC Publishing or t-shirt or mug or something from the Yuricon Shop. That’s all the present I need. ^_^





Drama CD: Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to

August 11th, 2006

When you purchase the deluxe edition of Fujieda Miyabi’s Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, it comes with a Drama CD. As I promised in my review of the MikoMajyo manga, today I will be reviewing the Drama CD. Let me begin by summing up with “Squeeee!” ^_^

The CD begins with Letty the witch (Nabatame Hitomi/ Hanazono Shizuma from Strawberry Panic) and Tsumugi the miko (Nota Mamiko/Toudo Shimako from Maria-sama ga Miteru) walking along. Tsumugi’s outside world skills are still a little rough, so when Letty asks her to stay put for a second, Tsumugi finds herself swept up in the waves of people walking by, becoming separated from Letty. Letty comes running to the rescue, thanks to their red string of fate. Tsumugi asks to get a drink of something, so Letty gives her some money and *she* promises to stay put until Tsumugi comes back.

Unbeknowst to her, Letty is being watched…this time the mysterious watcher is not Isuzu, as in the manga, but the god of the shrine herself! And she’s still wearing Tsumugi’s body and voice. (Since now Isuzu is her main squeeze, everyone’s happy with the choice. Except Letty…). Kami-sama jumps Letty and pretends to be a *very* daring Tsumugi when she openly propositions her to spend some time getting to know each other better – at a hotel. Letty’s about to cave when the real Tsumugi returns. She’s pleased as punch to see the god she served for so long, and naive – or confident- enouigh to not be bothered by the fact that she and Letty seem to be awfully close. Kami-sama takes being busted with good grace and decides to accompany her former miko and her girlfriend for some refreshments.

Which takes them to the Ameiro Koucha Kandan…again. (I *told* you that you’d be hearing alot about this place!) The god introduces herself as Tsumugi’s twin older sister, Kinu. Letty splutters adorably through this brazen lie. The proprietor of the the cafe, Seriho (Nogami Yukana/Yukishiro Honoko from Futari ha PreCure, Nakanotani Mina from Air Master) and her employee Sarasa (Mizuki Nana/ Fate Testarossa from Lyrical Nanoha, Shinobu from Shinobuden/Ninja Nonsense) are immediately charmed by Kinu-oneesama, while Letty is clearly trying to keep herself from leaping across the table and strangling the mountain god. Just as their cake arrives, however, Isuzu (Watanabe Akeno/Fuho from I Me My Strawberry Egg) crashes in and drags the god back to the shrine.

This leaves Letty and Tsumugi with an extra piece of cake to share. Letty tells Tsumugi to say “ah” and feeds her. When Tsumugi attempts to return the favor, Letty falls apart. She explains that it’s not really her nature to be the one fed – or pursued – and um, she tends to do the feeding, and the pursuing, you know. Tsumugi thinks that Letty’s butchiness is adorable, but proceeds to feed her anyway. ^_^ Isuzu pops back in to remind Letty to take care of Tsumugi, then runs off after her own, infinitely more difficult, girl.

Impressed by Tsumugi and Letty feeding each other, the two friends and regular customers of the Ameiro Koucha, computer whiz Haru (Asakawa Yuu/Sakaki-san from Azumanga Daioh) and goth-loli loli Hinoka (Koyama Kimiko) decide to feed each other too, thuse giving the cafe that special yuri love-love feeling all-around. (Wait until I get a chance to discuss the women of the Ameiro Koucha Kandan in detail….)

The last track is once again Letty and Tsumugi walking together. Tsumugi is, as always, glad to be with Letty anywhere, doing anything. Letty manages to pull her butchy self together, mentioning that the god, that is, Kinu, had sort of propositioned her…and wouldn’t it be nice, really, if the two of them went somewhere to become a little closer. Tsumugi agrees happily. The conversation devloves into excruciatingly sweet nothings, and Letty ends it all by saying that she is looking forward to being together with Tsumugi, wherever, forever.

Ratings:

Story – 7
Characters – 8
Voice Acting – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle

This is yet another goofy grin-inducing thing from Fujieda Miyabi. Totally worth getting the deluxe version on MikoMajyo for…and yet another terrific way to practice those Japanese listening skills!

I’m told the bundled manga and Drama CD are sold out. BUT, when I’ve had that happen, I just keep the order around in my Amazon JP inbox, because it often comes back in a second shipment. Don’t give up, just yet. :-)

It looks like there’ll be an upcoming full-length Drama CD for this series. Here’s a link to buy the CD “Magrigal Halloween”: MikoMajyo Drama CD You can be sure that I’ll be getting it.





Yuri Manga: Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to

August 9th, 2006

From the creator of Iono-sama Fanatics, comes an equally adorable, equally yuri-riffic series, Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, by Fujieda Miyabi. (Transliteration supplied on the book itself.)

MikoMajyo, as Fujieda refers to it in his afterword, ran in Yuri Shimai, then Yuri Hime magazines, and has now been collected into a single volume. There are two versions – the manga only and the deluxe version which comes with a Drama CD. If you know anything about me, you’ll be able to guess that I bought the deluxe version. A review of the Drama CD will be forthcoming. ^_^

As with the other Yuri Hime Comics volumes, I’m going to review this story as if we have never read it before. Some of you may have not…although you absolutely should.

The story begins with European witch Letty, complete with broom and big pointy hat, arriving at a small shrine in Japan that is hidden away by a magic barrier. Letty penetrates the barrier without difficulty and finds that a lone priestess, Tsumugi, tends the shrine. Something about Tsumugi’s plight moves Letty and she takes it upon herself to free the miko from the magical ties that bind her to the shrine. Tsumugi finds herself immediately attracted to Letty and tells her so unhesitatingly. Letty is loathe to free the miko and leave her without normal life skills, so she agrees to take Tsumugi with her. To save Tsumugi from getting lost, Letty conjures up a magical string to connect them. Tsumugi says her favorite color is red, so they are bound by a red thread of fate…and how embarrassed is Letty to find out what that means in Japan! But Tsumugi isn’t fazed – she feels an instant connection with Letty, Letty’s pronouncement that the kiss they shared was just so the magic could work notwithstanding.

The first order of the day is to get refreshments. They just happen to stop at a cafe which you will hear alot more about in the upcoming days – the Ameiro Koucha Pavilion. (The characters from this story were originated for [es]Eternal Sisters 2 and will be the main focus of the new series from Fujieda-sensei for upcoming Yuri Hime issues.) Tsumugi embarrasses the bejeebus out of Letty by happily, loudly and publicly saying that she likes the witch. Letty rationalizes it as a comment from a child, since Tsumugi is essentially a babe in the woods when it comes to personal interaction.

Miko and witch head over to what I can only guess must be a cross-over with another Fujieda series. At a stab, I bet it’s the crowd from Twinkle Saber Nova, Fujieda’s other ongoing manga series. I haven’t read it, yet. (9/5/06 note: Wrong. The designers are all from Alice Quartet, yet *another* original series Fujieda does. It dawned on me when I was going through my Drama CDs and found the first Alice Quartet volume. I had forgotten about this series entirely… it’s about five – yes, I know – clothing designers. Hence Letty and Tsumugi coming to their shop to get clothes.) In any case, Letty and Tsumugi trade in witch and miko costumes for regular street clothes and proceed to go out for a walk. Despite Letty’s reticence, Tsumugi continues to press her case for liking Letty, until Letty is forced to admit that maybe her feelings are not like a child’s. Tsumugi confides she has very little memory of her past. We see that they are being followed by a mysterious someone, even as they are growing closer.

While they are out in a boat on a lake a mysterious wave soaks them. The mysterious someone mysteriously communicates that she’s found Tsumugi and will watch her until she can get her back to the shrine. Mysteriously.

The two women find themselves in a hotel, where Tsumugi once again makes a strong case for her feelings. Letty thaws enough to allow them to share a bed platonically, even giving Tsumugi a good night kiss. (From my perspective, at this point, Letty’s just playing hard to get – I’ve never in my entire life rolled over on someone like that to give them an innocent, chaste goodnight kiss. But…more on that later in the Drama CD review. ^_^)

The next morning Tsumugi seems to have developed a nagging cough. Throughout the day, her condition worsens, until the mysterious someone arrives and blames it on Letty! Turns out that the mysterious someone is a servant of the shrine, Suzushiro Isuzu. Isuzu tells Letty that Tsumugi’s well-being requires her being at the shrine, and Letty having released her is what is killing her. Tsumugi regains consciousness and tells Letty her unhappy story – in order to save her life, her mother gave her to the god of the shrine as a servant. While she eventually got used to it, as a child the abandonment weighed heavily on her.

Letty is determined to save Tsumugi from this fate, and decides to have it out with the shrine’s god. In a magical handwave, she is once again the witch and hops on her broom to save the woman she loves. Tsumugi comments that she never expected her knight on a horse to be a witch on a broom. Isuzu is shocked, but a little impressed with Letty’s skills.

I won’t give away the ending, which you already know if you’ve read my reviews of Yuri Hime anyway, but trust me – the girl gets the girl. ^_^ And she does it with some style, too!

Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 8

Once again, Fujieda Miyabi-sensei comes through with an original work that doesn’t at all read like every other yuri manga ever. It is unrelentingly cute without ever getting cloying. The ending is solid – and cute – with a great lead-in to the Drama CD!

A definite must-have for Yuri manga fans.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 5, Part 2

July 30th, 2006

We pick up the thread of Yuri Hime 5 with a short post-“Hatsukoi Shimai” story set-up for the two cover girls, Mihiru (left) and Nachiru (right). They are the very bestest of friends and treaure each other but for some reason Mihiru did not join the same club as Nachiru at Tsunojo High…! The reason why is still a mystery – assumably we get their story in a future issu or maybe future covers will have other Tsunojo students until, like Lillian, and Astoria and whatever the school is in the Morinaga Milk stories, we can add Tsunojo to the unwritten list of “lesbian high schools.” ^_^

Sigh…”Nanami to Misuzu” still presents me with unpenetrable, not terribly amusing shorts. This issue they center around summer activities and much cutesy pouting.

Our fractured fairy tale is, oddly, a repeat from Yuri Hime 1. “Snow White” stays with her cute loli dwarves, and the Prince/ss is a failure.

This brings me to the biggest disappointment of this volume. The third chapter of “Simoun” is…the last. Without the least sign of the cool plot they could have built, or any hint of the actual war, the manga ends very lukewarmly. Not surprisingly, Neviriru and Aeru vow to fly together. Don’t get me wrong – the story didn’t end badly or anything, I was just hoping for *more* of it.

“Kawaii Anata” is yet another “school festival play at a girls’ school” story, where the boyish girl is glad to play the prince to the beautiful girl, but is really, really hating being pinholed by the rest of the girls. The “twist” at the end was pretty obvious, but cute nonetheless.

The last piece is an interview with three of the voice actresses for the Kotonoha Miko to Kotodama no Majou to Drama CD, which came with the manga of the same series. (A review of which will be forthcoming.) The three seiyuu are, not surprisingly, high on the “six degrees of yuri scale.” Nota Mamiko, Nabatame Hitomi and Watenabe Akeno, discuss their characters and the story of the Drama CD. My favorite moment was when Watanabe (who uses “boku” to refer to herself) was discussing her character’s (Isuzu) love for Nota’s (who is called “Notachi” by both of the others) character (Tsumugi, the Miko). Watanabe starts to talk in first person – “I love” rather than “she loves”. It was probably a calculated moment, but like the story above, sometimes you’re willing to accept it at face value anyway. lol

And that’s it for this volume….which brings me to the best thing about it. Yuri Hime 5 comes with a delightful little omake volume of a new comic by Fujieda Miyabi (of “Kotonoha no Miko to…” and Iono-sama Fanatics fame.) The new series is slated to begin next issue. This little story is called “Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan” which they translate as “Heartful-Talking in Ameiro-koucha Pavilion.” I’d probably translate is “A Pleasant Chat at the Ameiro Cafe.” In this story, we meet Seriho, the owner of Ameriro Cafe, her employee Sarasa (who has it really, really bad for Seriho) and two friends and customers, Haru and Hinoka. These characters, and the Ameiro Cafe were originally introduced in the anthology [es]Eternal Sisters 2 which I reviewed back in September 2005. (I knew I recognized the characters right away, it took me mere moments to locate the right anthology.) The story is, as with all Fujieda Miyabi stories, the kind of sweet, pleasant yuri that makes one smile and sometimes laugh out loud. This chapter revolved around a Tanabata special that Seriho would like to do at the cafe. I look forward to future chapters. :-)

So there you have it – some good, some okay and some little disappointment, but overall as usual, Yuri Hime 5 – a strong showing for good Yuri. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime 5, Part 1

July 26th, 2006

Yuri Hime Volume 5 has much that is good, some that is okay and one or two things that were disappointing.

Starting with the cover, as I always do, the characters are not Touko-sensei and Akiho, as I had hoped, but two entirely new characters who are nonetheless are from Tsunojo High School, the setting for Hatsukoi Shimai. There is a short bio for each of the characters and a discussion of their relationship.

Starting with the less good, to get it out of the way:I have heard that this particular issue was plagued with some difficulties, including illness (Morinaga Milk is reported to have fallen ill…we wish a speedy recovery if its true), so there’s a sort of tentative feel to the whole issue. There’s nothing by Morinaga Milk, Fujieda Miyabi or Morishima Akiko in this volume. BUT, don’t despair! We expect to have all three back next issue. Indeed, this issue includes a short bound volume as an extra containing an intro to Fujieda Miyabi’s newest story. More on that later…and a little surpise relating to that, too, even later. ^_^

On to the stories!

The volume begins with everyone’s favorite yuri love comedy, “Strawberry Shake Sweet.” At last, Ran and Julia are reunited – with some surprising outcomes. Sena confront the photographer that broke her heart, with some surprising outcomnes. And Saeki gets more exercise than she’s used to.

“Mermaid Line” is a new series about a pair of mismatched friends – one who is beautiful, graceful, etc, etc and one who isn’t, or so she feels. The beautiful girl, Megumi, jokes that she is really a mermaid, but seems to swim awfully badly for one. :-) When, after Karasuma buys Megumi a copy of a picture book of the mermaid fairy tale, she begins to fantasize, just a little, that she is the Prince. To Be Continued…

The essay on yuri history covers “Applause” – a title familar to those who like “classic shoujo” yuri manga.

Chi-Ran’s story this issue, “Shoujo Bigaku” is a little departure from the norm. Beautiful Natsuki (BTW, clearly “Natsuki” has replaced “Yuri/ko” and “Kaoru” as the new “default yuri character name…) is completely in love with cute Kanae. In order to be able to go out with her, Natsuki has cut her hair and is masquerading as a boy. Their relationship progresses to the physical, but as much as she’d like to, Natsuki can’t bring herself to confess the deception. One day Kanae ends up outside the school and is verbally assaulted by some of the students for being unworthy of Natsuki-onee-sama. Kanae is, quite sincerely, confused, but the light dawns when Natsuki arrives to disperse the crowd. Her secret is out. Kanae runs away. Natsuki skips school for three days, until Kanae arrives to apologize – and to admit that she was naturally surprised, but decided that she loves Natsuki, period. Happy end.

Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki present what appears to be “Little Red Riding Hood,” a sequel to the earlier “Female Wolf.” This story was pretty much a radical departure from their usual overwrought tone – and as a result, it was GREAT!. Fuyuka, having been given encouragement by the school doctore to pursue her feelings, decides that she’s going after Natsuki (ahem) the school’s female “wolf”. She devises the usual “Come over to my house, no one else will be there” stratagem and awaits Natsuki’s arrival with nervous anticipation. Natsuki arrives and the two proceed to eat dinner, dessert, play a video game and watch a movie. Natsuki thanks Fuyuka for a fun evening and takes her leave…. Leaving poor over-stimulated Fuyuka a complete mess. Was she wrong about Natsuki’s feelings? She ponders the question at school, as Natsuki has a run-in with the school’s “jaguar” to her “wolf”, Haruka. Fuyuka bails only to slam into Haruka’s pet girl, Akiho…who looks awfully like Fuyuka herself. It’s a tag-team Yuri something! Continued next issue – but who knows what will happen….

Oh my, how pervy “Tokimeki Mononoke Jogakuen” has turned out to be. I don’t know why I was surprised, really. The original color splash for it was pretty suggestive and, as I pointed out, female demons are almost *always* portrayed as possessing unusual (for women, as assumed by men) sexual appetites. Arera is confronted with the fact that she will NOT be communitng to school, and then is forced to realize that despite her claim to be a rain fairy, there’s incontravertable proof to the contrary – she’s got a navel. Pero and Neko agree to hide the fact and encourage her to participate in normal student life. Arera agrees, until she’s told that normal student life appears to include a lot of okazu…if you get my meaning. If not, check out the very first post here ever.

Color pages of “midsummer love” follows, with random couples shown sexing it up. A few lines fill in details about each, as if anyone cares. ^_^

And I’ll finish this part off with the latest chapter of “Hatsukoi Shimai.” Touko-sensei’s arrival has the whole school in a tizzy – but none more so than Chika, Akiho and Haruna. Chika’s greatful for Touko’s ride home, but would rather have been with Haruna. In order to keep Touko away from Chika, Akiho is throwing herself at the teacher as a roadblock. She’s not even sure why. In the meantime, Haruna is starting to have dreams about the stressful time when she confessed to her former sempai and was (it’s implied) rejected – the thing that made her originally so cold to Chika. We learn that the dream had gone away since Chika came to the school…. As she feels Chika growing closer with the new teacher, Haruna withdraws, ultimately snapping at Chika in a very hurtful manner. Again, some of the stuff that’s going on is new from the original Drama CD, so I approve – especially the Haruna backstory, and Akiho’s overreaction to Touko-sensei. ^_^

I’ll call it quits here and try to get Part 2 up soon!