Archive for the Momono Moto Category


Yuri Manga: Yuunagi Marbled Complete Volume (夕凪マーブレット完全版)

October 16th, 2017

Yuri manga artist Momono Moto is well-known to us here on Okazu. She’s working on my current favorite story in the quarterly Galette magazine, “Liberty”. But in the meantime, she also has the honor of creating the first collected volume from Galette Works, the publishing team behind Galette.

Yuunagi Marbled Complete Volume (夕凪マーブレット完全版) is a collected volume of one of Momono-sensei’s doujinshi series, from beginning to end. 

The cover, like all the Galette covers, is beautiful, with a light, prismatic polka dot pattern over the image, giving the cover the feel of watching water or flower petals sparkling in the light.

Ena is a typical highschool student. She’s out walking her dog when she sees a girl about her age, standing on the ocean’s edge. The girl turns and mouths a word. Ena is convinced that the word is “Sayonara.”

The next day, that very girl is a transfer into Ena’s class. Although she is aloof and hard to like – and there are rumors about her – Ena befriends Nanjou Mishio, that girl from the water’s edge. 

Ultimately, Ena and Mishio start to have feelings for one another, although their relationship is complicated by truth of Mishio’s past, which included an affair with a teacher and an attempt at suicide. But they make it past that.

Ena and Mishio graduate and move to Tokyo and completely by accident run into the teacher who was Mishio’s former lover.  Mishio finds that there is nothing left tying her to Rika, and she and Ena end the volume by visiting the ocean, together.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Slick and professional in every way
Story – 7 Good without being compelling.
Characters – 7 Mishio is another Simone/Sachiko/Mei, while Ena is every Resine/Yumi/Yuzu ever. I’m not saying I’m tired of classic beauties who mope….except yes, I am. I’m tired of mopey leads.
Service – 1 On principle only.
Yuri – 8 This is Yuri 101

Overall – 7

Yuunagi Marbled Complete Volume is a fairly typical Yuri story, but tightly told, and well-drawn. If schoolgirl stories are your boom, this is a very good example of the breed. Nothing new in this plot, but all the pieces were well-put-together. For myself, I’ll be waiting for “Liberty” with bated breath. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Houseki no Youna Mono (宝石のようなもの）

June 9th, 2016

HnYMMMSince we’re doing stories that are kind of cringeworthy except when they are not, this seems like a really good time to review the latest collection by Momono Moto, Houseki no Youna Mono (宝石のようなもの). This is a collection of Momono-sensei’s doujinshi in a self-published, but very highly produced volume.

The collection is mostly one-shots, but it includes two doujinshi based on her own works, Kimi Koi Limit and Rainy Song, both of which have been reviewed here on Okazu. In “Kimi Koi Limit Plus” we see that Satomi and Sono are still together and that things basically look okay for them.

It becomes obvious by the end of this book that Momono-sensei likes her attraction salty-tears flavored and her favorite form of complexity for a character is melancholy. None of these stories were bad in any way, and most of the couples end up together, if that kind of thing works for you.

The art was variable since, as I mentioned these are one-shots drawn over time, but overall, you can’t really fault her for technique. Her art is slick and you can really tell the later work vs the former, as the art is visibly more layered and tighter.

I mentioned that this is a self-published volume, but I want to highlight the high-quality of the production. This is a professionally put together book, not at all out of place on shelves with Ichijinsha or Futabasha books.

This collection fills a need that I would personally like to see more of – professional artists collecting their original doujinshi. Like Amano Shuninta’s Philosophia, this gives us a chance to see the artists, free of editorial interference…and a glimpse into their hearts directly.

Ratings:

Art – 6-8
Story – Averaging at 7
Characters – 6 I can’t ever quite *like* most of her characters
Service – 5 There are some sex scenes and nudity
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

Honestly, I intended to be a little unkind about this book when I started the review, but talked myself into liking it about halfway. ^_^

If you like Momono-sensei’s work, I recommend taking a look at Watashi no Muchina Watashi no Michi, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (which was reviewed here, although Volume 1 never was.)





Yuri Manga: Watashi no Muchina Watashi no Michi. Volume 2 (私の無知なわたしの未知 2)

February 2nd, 2016

WMWM2Now here’s a thing we don’t see much any more – a review of a Volume 2 of a series for which Volume 1 was never discussed. Remember this kind of thing from back in the day, where we’d get a side plot in a long series? Like Loveless, or Usotsuki Lily? Only this is not like those at all.

Momono Moto is a Yuri artist who specializes in adult life series. Her Kimi Koi Limit exasperated me and her sequel Rainy Song redeemed her in my eyes.

Well last year, she began a short two-volume series titled Watashi no Muchina Watashi no Michi. Volume 1 followed Minato, a typical woman in a typical office who is slowly being strangled to death by boredom. Until she meets Asami, a moody coworker. I did not review it, because the story centered mostly on Minato realizing how she was dying a little each day and Asami was more or less the catalyst. I wasn’t sure if this series was going anywhere.

In Volume 2, Minato and Asami are starting to break down walls between them. They become lovers, but almost immediately it becomes apparent that there is a dark secret that involves them both. Asami used to study music with Minato’s father…until he claimed her music as his. When it becomes apparent that Asami knew Minato’s relationship with the man who stole her music, and was trying to “get revenge” of a sort, it splits them up. However, Asami realizes that she’s been a dolt and has actual feelings for Minato.

Having nothing left to care about, Minato leaves work and takes a job doing something menial that she can give a shit about. Three years pass and she never stops looking for Asami. I won’t give away the ending as it’s basically the the most interesting bit of the story.

Momono’s work has visibly matured. The art is assured and in places, even delicate. A professional’s work.

And the story too, has matured. Where Kimi Koi Limit took broad strokes at human nature, this series has finer lines and more subtlety. Where I loathed Sono, because of her unremitting selfishness, I could not dislike Asami. Although – in real life, I would not root for Asami and Minato to get together, I would want Minato to grow beyond the relationship and find herself someone without baggage, but of course in the manga we are supposed to want them together.

Another strong quality of this manga is the fact that everyone has society. As moody as Asami is, she has friends, nor is Minato isolated in her world. They exist outside the role they are given in their relationship. That is part of what, for me defines, this as an “adult life” manga, versus a “romance”, like Yagate Kimi ni Naru.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8, there is no discussion of their relationship as such at all.
Service – 1

Overall – 7

Watashi no Muchina Watashi no Michi is a good, if ephemeral, josei Yuri series from Kodansha.





Yuri Manga: Rainy Song (レイニーソング)

May 25th, 2014

We start today’s review with a “well, I never expected that” moment. ^_^ In 2010, I was exasperated beyond tolerance by Momono Moto’s Kimi Koi Limit. The protagonist was, I felt, unlikable and selfish and the most interesting character was treated poorly. I never expected to see poor Hiroko again. Well, here we are 4 years later and there’s Hiroko again!

We begin the first story in Momono-sensei’s current collection Rainy Song (レイニーソング). with “Aru Shoujo no Gunjo”, a bittersweet story about a girl who shares in the relationship highs and lows of fellow train commuters, and her attempts to cheer up Eri, a woman who loses her female lover to marriage. It’s not  happy story, but I quite liked it – and it’s the strongest story of the collection

Following this, we turn to “Kurayami no Asterisk,” the story of underachiever Tendou Nozomi, known as ‘Ten’. She’s gone through school and just hasn’t found her purpose in life. Right now she is unmotivated by a job at a cafe and sees no particular goal for herself. So when she meets, and falls for attractive, polite and slightly sad Hiroko, she find herself in turmoil. I found myself amazed that 4 years later we were finally learning what happened to Hiroko after Sono left her.

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Hiroko has an office job where she does her work competently, but doesn’t connect with anyone, and she works nights at a friend’s “ladies” bar. She, like Ten, is moving through life on automatic. When the two of them meet, it will throw them both into confusion. But ultimately they find each other and, we hope, happiness.

In “Snow Frakes” a long-delayed confession is finally conveyed, to the delight and sadness of a best friend.

And in the title story, “Rainy Song” a persistent fan in school becomes a friend to an aloof musician.

What a change in personality-types from Kimi Koi Limit! For one thing, there are none of Sono’s hideously selfish behaviors here, and while Hiroko starts of sad, there’s only a little moping to be dealt with. This collection has surprising depth, despite the reliance on shorts, especially given how superficial the story in Kimi Koi Limit was with all that length. Momono-sensei has a much more mature feel in this volume and her ability to convey complex emotions is touching and entertaining.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri/Lesbian – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 8

A much, much better sequel than I could have ever expected. And, it was an unexpected pleasure to see Hiroko happy.





Yuri Manga: Kimi Koi Limit

June 7th, 2010

Kimi Koi Limit is one of the Yuri Hime cell-phone manga releases by Ichijinsha. Drawn and written by Momono Moto, it tells the story of Sono, one of the most selfish cretins to ever inhabit a manga.

We start the manga with a scene late in Sono’s high school life when she confesses her feelings to, and is rejected by Satomi, who is leaving after graduation to go to school in Tokyo.

Time flies and we see Sono, now also in Tokyo, with a lover Hiroko. Sono contributes nothing at all to the household – she’s a slob, a slacker and a jerk. Hiroko can tolerate all that but when, not for the first time, Sono says someone else’s name as they make love, Hiroko has had it – she throws Sono out.

Sono quickly becomes homeless, because she’s a slacker. And in a crazy, unbelievable, but nevertheless predictable, handwave she is found and rescued by none other than Satomi.

To her credit, Sono moves into Satomi’s life as if she has been given a chance to find happiness by the gods. She starts to clean, cook, she even gets a job at which she perseveres. She knows she can’t stay with Satomi forever, but she can at least get herself straightened out to be worthy of her. She still lusts after Satomi and this proximity isn’t lessening that one bit.

In yet another unbelievable yet predictable handwave, not only do Hiroko and Satomi attend the same university, they work together at the same library on the same shift. In a casual conversation about Hiroko looking unhappy, Hiroko spills that she just threw her lover out and is worried that she is homeless. Satomi mentions why, how odd, she just found a friend who had been homeless, thrown out by her lover! But it’s not until Satomi *sees* a picture of Hiroko and Sono toghether that they put it all together. Hiroko’s feckless lover and Satomi’s roommate are both Sono! zOMG!

Before I go on, I have to say that, at this point, I absolutely loathed all three of them. There was no ending that was going to make me happy, unless it ended with Sono going the hell away. And what were the chances of that?

Through a series of even more handwaves, uncomfortable situations and cliches, Sono leaves Hiroko for Satomi who decides inexplicably that she’s suddenly in love with her. Honestly, getting Sono out of her life was probably the best thing for Hiroko.

In the end, we’re to believe that because she attained her dream, suddenly Sono found ambition, skills, a career, etc. We see her in typical careerwoman get-up, while Satomi plays the role of wife. And they live happily ever after.

Bleah….

While this manga is nicely drawn, extremely well-toned and really, really well-executed as compared with, say, Gokujou Drops, Kimi Koi Limit had so many things I had to just accept, so little plausibility, that *my* Koi Limit was stretched. And on top of that, Sono was just an unlikable little prat. If Sono had been a good lover to Hiroko, a kind friend to Satomi, I might have been able to hack it. But she wasn’t. She was a selfish, narcissistic jerk right to the very end.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 4
Yuri/Lesbian – 10
Service – 4

Overall – 5

This is probably the best-looking of the YH cell-phone manga. I just wish I liked the story a bit more than I do.

And, in the way of such things – I have an extra copy to give away!　Yes, you too can be annoyed by Sono and her inability to appreciate what she has.

To enter you must be 18 and this time, I’m keeping it domestic – contiguous 48 states only. Not because I don’t love you overseas folks, I just want to cut back on shipping.

So – if you are from the US (not Alaska or Hawaii) and would like a copy of this beautiful, but emotionally unsatisfying manga, please tell me in the comments where *you* draw the line. Keep the comments non-pornographic please. I’m not asking for your least fave sex position, I just want to know what behavior stretches your love to breaking point.