Archive for the Artists Category


The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 2

January 16th, 2023

Snowy, bare white scene, with a few trees and a building in the background. Two woman stand. One wears a mid-thigh length green hooded winter coat, she looks at the other woman, who wear a pink hoodie, brown shorts with black leggings underneath, and is reaching down towards us presumably to grab some snow. Black and red letters read, "The Two Of Them Are pretty Much Like This", In black a large 2 is in the bottom right corner, and in the bottom left, in black, "story and art by Takashi Ikeda."In Volume 1, we met Ellie a scriptwriter and her lover Wako, and aspiring voice actress. In The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 2, Wako’s career gets a big bump with a role in an upcoming anime. What will that mean for Ellie? Well, it won’t mean that Wako’s paying the rent just yet. ^_^

In this volume we meet an editor friend of Ellie’s, the kind-of-hapless Ataru. and Wako’s fellow voice actors. There are moments of intimacy, and hard work, and mistakes and embarrassing moments with neighbors. Just every day life things. This is a low drama, low comedy, and low low-key slice-of-life comedy. that’s a fun read, without asking much of us. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese,  the only problem I had with it was the “birthday gag” in the final chapter, a gag that I strongly dislike. You know the one – “Oh, no, everyone has forgotten my birthday.” UGH.

Ellie and Wako are in love, they are adorable together and we (well, maybe not Ataru) are rooting for them all the way.  I didn’t know how much I needed another Yuri manga from Ikeda Takashi until I read this the first time., but yeah, I really did. His art is outstanding, the tone is goofy without being exhausting for a beautifully balanced story. 

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8 1 point off for the surprise party
Service – 5 Nudity and acknowledgement of sex, but not more. It’s more just like, knowing an adult couple as friends.
Lesbian – 10 and then sure, Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

As I said the first time, “Fun, relatable and way better than I anticipated, but that one point off for that goddamned awful surprise birthday party plot.” I very much enjoy the recurring Wako-as-an-idol gag. ^_^

Volume 3 will be hitting shelves in English in June!

 





Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11 (私の百合はお仕事です)

January 12th, 2023

Two girls, with gold and silver hair, wearing old-fashioned green Japanese school uniforms, sit in a garden. The blonde wears glasses, leaning back on the bench, looking over her shoulder at the other girl, who leans on the bench back. White letters read, "Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11" ( in Japanese 私の百合はお仕事です, presented by miman."A whole bunch of volumes ago, when Liebe cafe was having it’s Blume competition, Sumika pulled Hime and Kanako aside and told then a story. It was a sad story, about how a conniving cast member stole her little sister away. Sumika blamed love. She dislikes romantic loev because it tears people apart. As Blume, all she wants for the cafe is that everything remains the same as it is right now. Even at the time, Nene pointed out that Sumika’s version of that story wasn’t complete.

Here in Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11 (私の百合はお仕事です) we learn the rest of that story.

But first, we must spend time with an increasingly unstable Kanako. It’s not because she’s isolated. Hime and Sumika attempt to reach her. But she’s convinced herself that the problem is not her.  She may be partly correct, but that still leaves a lot of the problem being her.

We kow understand Nene a little better, we think. But it turns out that Nene may not have understood herself back then…and no one understood Youko. She’s not playing a manipulative character, she is manipulative because it is fun. Consider this a warning. She plays this game hard and doesn’t seem to care about casualties.

We finally get all the pieces of that above story, when Nene and Sumika finally talk it all out. This was an outstanding scene. There’s a lot of movement on the page, a lot of references to Nene’s and Sumika’s time as schwestern and some fantastic body language and expressions.

But that still leaves Kanako hanging out there, vulnerable and manipulable. And Youko is right there to pick her up.

Next volume is gonna be a thing, let me tell you. I’m reading the current chapters doing a lot of screaming at the page. ^_^

But here’s the amazing thing…this manga is getting better. It started so funny and cute and now it’s deep and darker and I feel like the goofy characters are turning into people. Miman’s art is getting better and better – how about that cover? Here we are, an unthinkable 11 volumes into this series that was a goofy comedy and we’re getting better mood and narrative than ever before.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 2 There is  bit of body staring, especially in the decolletage. It’s not appalling, but it is there.
Yuri – 10  It doesn’t get Yurier, surely
LGBTQ -10

Overall – 9

This series has been a real surprise in every way, not least because this “S” Yuri concept cafe story is actually quite queer after all. ^_^

Volume 12 is not yet out but get those vocals chords ready. It’s a screamer. ^_^





Yuri is My Job, Volume 10

January 9th, 2023

Pictured: 5 girls in an old-fashioned dark green Japanese school uniform pose in front of a large sunny window. In the front row, are three girls, one sitting to the side with pinkish hair and a bow tied in a "rabbit ear style on top of her head, a blonde in the middle, and leaning on her, a dark-haired girl, with her hair pulled up primly. In the back row are two older-looking girls. One with long-brown hair, and one with blonde hair and glasses. A white fancy bracket encloses the words in white: Yuri is My Job! In the top left corner in black, there is a 10 and the author's name: mimanI’m currently in the middle of reading Volume 11 of Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! so what a great time to take my pent-up feelings out on Yuri Is My Job, Volume 10! ^_^ /Insert scream here/

This series, which began with a parody of ‘S’ tropes as seen through the lens of a popular light novel series, and has always always been a rom-com, unless it wasn’t, suddenly…isn’t. Not really. For one thing, it’s gotten rather queer, almost despite itself (I jest. Miman is a capable author and knows what they are doing…) and the insertion of Yoko into the story has made it feel rather grown-up and darker than it had previously been. Have a bit of pity for Kodansha, a company that licensed a goofy comedy and now has a pretty heavy story on their hands.

There’s an important little thing that happens in this arc. Originally, Sumika gave her version of what happened in the cafe to Kanako and Hime. Now we’ve encountered Yoko, and Nene has given us her version. There’s one more version to go. Wait for it. It’s important.

We now officially have an unwinnable situation. Nene is fucking done with everyone and who can blame her? Sumika is in denial, Kanako is delusional, Yoko is toxic relationships on the hoof and Hime and Mizuki are pretty much relegated to supporting cast. I wasn’t sold on Hime previously, but here she steps up and is a genuinely good friend to Kanako. Too bad it’s too late. Kanako is not okay. I wish I could feel bad for her.

The climax of this arc hasn’t yet happened and I really have no idea what will happen, but I know what I want to see. I want Sumika and Nene to team up and take Yoko down. Will I get that? Tune back in and we’ll see!

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10 Nene is now my favorite character. Sumika, you’re killin’ me.
Service – 5 Large breasts
Yuri – 9 Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Overall – 9

I summed this volume up in my review of the Japanese volume 10 as “Yikes.” But what amazingly scripted and drawn “yikes” it is.

I must mention Diana Taylor for a great translation job here – everyone has their own voice. You can practically hear Yoko ooze. Jennifer Skarupa does a fine job matching the S/fx to the Japanese’ everyone on the Kodansha team is giving us an excellent reading experience! Cannot wait to see what they do with the two-page color spread that just ran in Comic Yuri Hime. (It was a lot of Yoko’s breasts.)

Volume 11 is out now in Japanese (and on my list of things I will review shortly!), but you’ll have to wait until June to see Yuri Is My Job!, Volume 11 in English.





Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 3

January 3rd, 2023

Beginnings are easy. You have an idea. There’s this character and stuff happens and it affects them and they react. Why are they there, what happens, how it affects them, can all be built up over time. But beginnings, they’re easy. The hard part is what happens after you’ve explained why they are there, and why that thing that happened affected them that way. Then, you have to buckle down and show what happened after that.

In Volume 1, we met Minato, an introverted and unusually tall first-year in high school whose love of music had been ruined, when she was traumatized by bandmates in her previous school. She is recruited by Hibiki, a second-year, to join an impromptu band club. It was a beginning that hit me hard. Re-learning to enjoy music, struggling to fit in, typical school stuff. We’ve all been some part of “there.”

In Volume 2, Minato and the rest of the band gel, and they give an amazing live performance. Minato takes her first steps out of her shell and in a moment of having had too much fun, admits she likes Hibiki.

Now we are at Volume 3 of Hello, Melancholic! by Ohsawa Yayoi and all the beginning stuff has been laid out. What can possibly happen? Well..a lot.

Hibiki will be graduating. Minato’s basically in denial about that. She concerned that Hibiki (and the rest of the band) will reject her. And in the middle of this, Hibiki, ignoring everything that is laying between them, pushes Minato to take the chance of a lifetime. It doesn’t go well when they try and talk it out the first time. Minato is concerned that every joy she has is too fragile to survive the moment.

I loved this series when I reviewed it in Japanese and my fondness for it carries over into the final volume of the English language edition. Girls finding love in band…well, I’ve been there, so yeah. ^_^ Ohsawa Yayoi’s art continues to improve, her characters’ expressions of shock and pain and joy are just fantastic.

The translation by Margaret Ngo and adaptation by MaryKate Jasper was terrific. You could *hear* their voices as Hibiki and Minato have it all out. Extra props to Seven Seas for bumping up almost all the lettering to full retouch. It looks fantastic. I know it’s harder and takes longer, but thank you Mo Harrison for the effort.  Once again a top effort from the team at Seven Seas and an outstanding reading experience. Now can we get 2DK, GPen Meshamashitokei, I wonder?

Beginnings are easy, but picking the first manga I review of the year is hard.  Hello, Melancholic! wraps up something that feels like it began a long time ago, and now we’re all ready to move on into what’s ahead. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 More conflict in this volume is a good thing, as Minato becomes less passive
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

 

I’d give this adorable 3-volume series to anyone who wanted a feel-good schoolgirl Yuri story.





Ayaka-chan ha Hiroko-sempai ni Koi Shiteru, Volume 2 (彩香ちゃんは弘子先輩に恋してる)

December 22nd, 2022

In Volume 1, we met the popular and charming work sempai, Hiroko, who is the object of Ayaka’s ardor. Ayaka tries very hard to gain Hiroko’s attention, but Hiroko remains a bit stand-offish. What can Ayaka, a woman who loves women, do to gain the woman of her dream’s attention? Unbeknownst to Ayaka, she is making an impression. The only problem is that Hiroko, also a woman who loves women, thinks Ayaka is a clueless straight girl sent to torture her.

In Ayaka-chan ha Hiroko-sempai ni Koi Shiteru, Volume 2 (彩香ちゃんは弘子先輩に恋してる), the heat ramps up as Ayaka drowns her misery at a local lesbian bar, only to learn, that Hiroko-sempai is a regular!

In the meantime, Hiroko is trying to resist the irresistable Ayaka, not realizing that she’s also queer as the day is long. But, even if she was, would a workplace romance be a good idea? The chaos levels rise, until Ayaka can stand it no longer.

She bursts into the office and demands everyone listen to her publicly and clearly state her feelings for Hiroko-sempai.

This is very much a “wackiness ensues” farce of a Shakaijin Yuri manga. You can just about hear Khachturian’s Sabre Dance playing in the background, while doors slam and people run to and fro. The resolution of this manga will also be anticlimactic. It’s the tension between ladies’ woman Hiroko unable to give in to her desires and Ayaka wearing another tantalizing – yet professional – outfit and trying to get sempai’s attention that is the plot.

Those readers who find the Black & White series by Sal Jiang a bit too much to swallow, might enjoy the playful goofiness and cuter art of this series. I’m here for the ridiculousness of the scenarios that surely could not exist in a real office for even a second. The more ridiculous this story gets, the more I enjoy it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 10
Service – 6 When Ayaka stops dressing for attention, it’s actually pretty funny
Yuri – 7
Lesbian – 9

Overall – 8