Archive for the Artists Category


Akatsuki-iro no Senpuku Majyo Manga, Volume 1

November 24th, 2008

Akatsuki-iro no Senpuku Majyo by Hakamada Mera is, according to the obi on the book, a “Magical Youthful Love Yuri Heartful School Story.” I’d call it whimsical, certainly.

Once upon a time, a school for magic existed. Into that school transferred a new student, with the name Akira. To everyone’s surprise, Akira came into the schoolroom wearing a giant armored suit, and was unable to speak. The students were unkind to Akira, but the class president Tokiko rebuked the other students.

One day, a fire broke out in the school, but no one was able to break in to rescuse the student inside the room. Only Akira inside the iron shell stepped up to try. There was a loud bang and Akira’s magic burst past the seal on the door. When the girl inside had been saved, and the smoke cleared, everyone was amazed to see that the iron shell housed a young girl.

Thus begins the Akira’s adventures at the school of magic.

Tokiko and Akira become good friends, and Akira confides that she is looking for her older sister, who her grandmother told her might be at this school. When her grandmother died, Akira was sealed in the iron suit as part of a curse – but her release of magic to save Yoru-sempai had freed her.

Most of this volume is very typical Hakamada hijinks. There’s the usual school stuff, festivals and lunchtime and gym, and in the cracks are some service-y type situations. In fact, this could be Last Uniform all over again, except that it takes place at a co-ed school in a world where magic exists.

Tokiko and Akira look like they might become an item, but by the end of the book, Yoru-sempai has pulled into the lead position of substitute onee-chan, if not the real one. And Mochizuki-sempai likes to snuggle Tokiko because she’s soft and fluffy. The obi tells me the series is Yuri, but by the end of the first volume, we’re mostly working with Yuri goggles on high settings.

Who will turn out to be (or become) Akira’s onee-chan? tune in next time!

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 0

Overall – 7

If you like The Last Uniform or any of Hakamada’s other works, you’ll enjoy this manga as well.





Yuri Manga: Hayate Cross Blade, Volume 1 (English)

October 30th, 2008

It has been almost three and a half years since I first reviewed Hayate x Blade and in all that time, never once has my delight in this series lessened one iota. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to tell you now about the English-language edition of Hayate x Blade, Volume 1. (In case you somehow missed my raving about this manga, please feel free to check out my reviews of the volumes already out in Japanese.)

The story of Hayate x Blade is an entertaining mix of comedy, action, drama, chicks with weapons, and a a Yuri-ish setup that grows ever more Yuri as the plot develops. Pairs of girls, sword sisters, competing in battles for supremacy, power and money….and mostly for the amusement of the chairwoman of Tenchi Gakuen, the wholly whimsical Amachi Hitsugi. This is awesome stuff.

In terms of the reproduction there’s something I really need to tell you. It was my pleasure to be able to be the copy editor on this book. No, seriously. Remember way back last spring when I told you that I had gotten a side job? Well, that side job was to be able to edit manga for Tor. I love working on the Seven Seas manga, not just because it gives me the opportunity to see the books early (because, frankly, I don’t really feel any need to see Inukami ever, much less early) but because they do such good work. It’s very enjoyable to be part of the process.

So, before I tell you that the English edition is damn good, you need to understand that it’s pretty much a conflict of interest. ^_^; Nonetheless, I honestly think they did a pretty damn good job with this book!

The volume is not entirely without problems, but those that exist are so small – slightly too thin paper, slightly too dark print, I don’t really love the design for the logo – are so incredibly small and tedious that they bear mentioning only in the interest of fairness. The important stuff – the reproduction, the translation, the adaptation, the lettering, the sound f/x, etc. are all top-notch.

Yuri in Volume 1 is mostly confined to the existence of openly lesbian (i.e., shounen-style pervy girl) Kuga Jun, roomate to one of our leads, Mudou Ayana. But don’t be disheartened, the Yuri quotient rises as the series goes on. And I just finished reading the most recent chapter and can swear to you that the series has never let me down in any way. Yuri, comedy, drama, action – it’s all there in spades.

I am so very, very glad that Hayate x Blade made it out in 2008, so I can happily name it the best English-language Yuri manga of the year.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2
Overall – 8

Run! Run! Buy this for yourself and two copies for friends. Yes, it’s that good.





Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 3 (ささめきこと)

October 13th, 2008

Today we turn our attentions once again to the trials and tribulations of Murasame Sumika, aka Sumi, and her hopeless love for her best friend forever, Ushio.

Volume 3 of Sasamekikoto (ささめきこと) begins with the advent of the school sports festival. Someone appears to be targeting Sumika in an attempt to sabotage her class’s chance at victory. As Sumi lines up for the final race, a shoo-in for her, she runs off to save a “kidnapped” Ushio. Sumi and Ushio – now in penguin costume – are happily reunited.

The school erupts in wonder at the arrival of Lotte, a cute little German girl who transfers into the school in order to experience Japanese life. Resisting Ushio’s attempts at dressing her like a doll, Lotte idolizes Sumi’s strength. In order to train Lotte in karate, Sumi picks up her own training for the first time since she met Ushio. We learn that she quit it because Ushio likes cute girls. Now back in the dojo, Sumi remember just how much she loves karate.

In trying to become strong like Sumi, Lotte over exerts herself and collapses. Ushio blames Sumi for not allowing for Lotte’s size and condition. Sumi responds that Lotte *wanted* to train hard, and likes Sumi’s size and strength – that yes, she is NOT cute. Sumi goes running out into the rain and promptly falls ill. (Once again causing me to speculate on Japan’s bacteria-endowed rains….)

Ushio comes to Sumi’s house and nurses her back to health, but pays the price and gets the cold herself. We spend a little while in Ushio’s backstory, learning how she and Sumi became friends when she transfered in, as a result of the rest of the girls in the class ostracizing her when she admitted to liking girls.

Sumi comes to visit Ushio – seeing Ushio upon the veranda, Sumi’s expression says volumes about her feelings, but Ushio runs away. Sumi bangs on the door and demands to see Ushio who, after extracting a promise that they will always be friends (despite the fact that, at this point, neither of them want to be just friends anymore) falls sobbing into Sumi’s arms.

What will happen in the exciting volume 4 of this manga? I don’t know! But I’m very much looking forward to reading more of this really quite excellent tale of best friends in love.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 5

Overall – 8

My favorite moment was watching Sumi watching Yabase Takemi fighting. The tension in her body, that desire to be out there, to test her strength against another champion…awesome. Like Lotte, I enjoy watching Sumi being not cute at all.





Yuri Manga: Gunjou, Chapters 8 and 9

September 5th, 2008

Erica is on vacation and is likely having way more fun than you are right this moment. Except for the bits when’s she’s feeling a bit socialist and irritated by the excess of early 20th-century landowners and captains of industry. Tacky bastards. In any case, expect delays…with…stuff…and stuff, until she gets home and caught up on sleep and reintegrated into life.

Squee! Two whole chapters of what is unconditionally my favorite manga of the year.

In Chapter 6 and Chapter 7, the blonde (called “Sensei” by the Japanese fandom, on account of her being a vet,) and the brunette (likewise referred to as “megane” for her glasses) have spent a tempestuous evening, full of heightened emotions, dark despair, sexual tension, passion and fury. We left them in the tub, as the blonde lets the brunette see the tearful face she makes – as she tries to kill her.

In Chapters 8 and 9, we take a step back to see the moments before the beginning. When BL and BN have met again for the first time in many years, and how their akashic ties slowly, surely and irrevocably become intertwined in a way that affects not only their own fates, but those around them.

We know what happened to BN’s husband – after all, his murder is the beginning of everything in this story. But, what happened to BL’s life when she picked up one day and walked out of it? We know that she has an ex-lover. What we learn here is that she and her lover had been together for almost ten years and that her lover had gone so far as to call her parents and invited them to visit, because she wanted them to meet the person she wanted to spend her life with. They do arrive, but never get to meet that woman….

We see the results of the violence, the cascade of emotions that catapult them eventually into a life on the lam. We see the friends, the coworkers, the normality that BL walks away from. In counterpoint to this, we see the misery, the drudgery, the physical and emotional agony, and the utter hopelessness that BN faces every day.

In fact, we gain such a clear picture of how we got here, that the only question that remains has *got* to be – where are we going?

In her blog, Nakamura-sensei has discussed the sadness with which she contemplates the end of this series. It makes me lonely to think of a life without Gunjou, so I can understand her feelings – and their aren’t even my characters! ^_^;

Here’s my thoughts on the end of this series. I think that the *best* we could hope for is that they die together. But that’s not the way this series has gone at all. So, my real guess is that when the police catch up to them – and they will – the blonde will confess to the murder and to having kidnapped and beaten the brunette, turning her into a helpless and sympathetic victim. The blonde will take the rap and by doing so, will free the brunette for the first time in her life of being beholden to anybody at all.

It’s not what I *want* to happen, of course. ^_^ That’s what I *think* will happen.

In the meantime, I wait with bated breath for my next monthly fix of the most amazing manga I’ve read in ages.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 10





Lesbian Novel: Sempai to Watashi

July 16th, 2008

Mori Natsuko-sensei is a well-known and well respected author in Japan. She got her start in speculative fiction/horror, and built up quite a following. She happens to be a lesbian and also writes lesbian and gay stories, many of which are extremely explicit and often, in my meager experience with her work, to have at least mild bondage.

Mori-sensei currently writes the “Yuri doujou” advice column for Yuri Hime magazine, in which she fields the same three questions over and over ad nauseum, but does it with the kind of humor and flair I would never be able to muster about someone else’s tedious relationship problems. Mori-sensei also happened to be a guest at Yuricon 2005 in Tokyo, where I found her to be a sophisticated and cultured woman.

Previously, I reviwed her book, Himeyuri-tachi no Houkago, which was a hilarious collection of exceptionally filthy short stories, almost all of which were so bonkers that my shrieks of laughter disturbed many an Acela passenger that weekend.

So of course when I learned about Sempai to Watashi I ordered it right away. ^_^

The story is pretty much identical to the setup in Hitohira and just as realistic. At T. Women’s University, there is an erotic novel writer’s club. There is also a competing club, which for argument’s sake I’ll call the erotic novel appreciation society, because I never bothered translating the long names for each club. The ENWC has five members and puts out a beautifully printed, perfect-bound anthology called the “Monthly Gomorrah.” The ENAS, which consists of two members, our protagonist Mitsue and her sempai Amari, puts out a copy book called the “Monthly Amazon.”

Both publications focus on lesbian sex, but where the members of the ENWC are self-admitted lesbians and to gain ideas for their monthly stories engage in free sex together, Amari-sempai is adamant about *not* being a lesbian herself, but rather being interested in erotica only for masturbation. Mitsue is head over heels in love and lust with Amari-sempai, so pretends to agree with her so she can remain by Amari’s side. However, after Mitsue is approached by Hanayo, the leader of the ENWC, she finds herself drawn into an ever deepening and widening circle of BDSM lesbian sex. Some of these chapters are not for the faint of heart. No lesbians were harmed by the making of these chapters, unless you like your lesbian sex to be sweet and cute and not involve tape over the mouth and the creative use of vegetables, in which case you’ll really want to avoid this book like the plague. LOL

(At some point I couldn’t help but wonder why it is that in my recent anime/manga/novel perusals, I keep coming up against so many things with the same style of ball gag? I have no opinion either way about BDSM., although I do believe strongly that it can be a lot more beautiful in text than it ever is in real life.)

In any case, after being the bottom to Hanayo’s top, and the bottom to evil loli Ruri and Jinko’s top, and the top to Hanayo’s bottom (a very nice bottom I gather, from the book,) and a voyeur as Hanayo is pleasured by her Vice President and adoring lover Eri and any number of other combinations, Mitsue defects to the ENWC, partially because sex is better than no sex and partially because Ruri blackmails her into doing so.

Of course, when the tables are turned and Ruri, who had during the course of the book kidnapped Hanayo and was keepng her as a pet (please don’t make me explain that…) is finally defeated by Eri, and both Hanayo and Mitsue are set free.

Mitsue immediately runs back to Amari, gives her the newest chapter of her erotic series “The Secret Adventures of Princess Karen” and is stunned to be told to get out by Amari-sempai. Predictably, the reason Amari wants Mitsue to go is that her new story is really hot and Amari is getting horny. Mitsue applies a *teeny* bit of physical coercion and bondage and convinces Amari that she is, in fact, a lesbian, and that lesbian sex is way better than masturbating alone.

And they all live happily ever after…except for Ruri, who is now the punching bag for everyone in the ENWC.

The End.

It wasn’t as funny as Hime Yuri-tachi and some of the extended BDSM scenes got a little tiresome (“You want this don’t you?” Nod. “Say it.” “I want that.” “Want what? Say it.” etc, etc…) but overall it was just a big, creatively executed pile of porn, in which a few scenes were really standout and occasionally quite sexy.

You know what I always say about this kind of thing – why else would you study a foreign language except to read porn on the train, while no one around you can tell. :-)

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 10000000000000
Service – 10000000000000 (Yuri fanboys would hate it. It is neither cute, nor sweet, nor loli, nor that “Story A” type Yuri that they all love so much.)

Overall – 7

I wonder what the reaction to me reading it on a Japanese train would be…. ;-)