Archive for the Artists Category


Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 3 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)

October 19th, 2021

What is love? How do we fall in love? What does that even mean? How do we make space in lives that are full already, for other people?

In Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 3 (欠けた月とドーナッツ), Hinako and Asahi are wrestling with these questions and others. They aren’t the only ones, either.

The story begins with a crisis from an unusual quarter: Subaru is not planning on taking the college exams. Asahi, who has been working on the assumption that her younger sister would go to university, is confronted by an immovable will. Subaru has watched her older sister sacrifice everything for her and, frankly, doesn’t want that any more. They have a fight, Subaru says she’s leaving. Asashi insists it’s too late, so she’ll leave. And so she does, ending up with Hinako.

This precipitates a crisis with Fuuka, who is tired of waiting to be noticed. It’s too little, too late, but it does clear the growing miasma. Asahi and Hinako both have come to a realization about what they want…but they both, in their own different ways have no how idea to understand their own needs and desires. More importantly, they haven’t found a way to talk to each other about it all.

I love this series. I love how complicated every character is, how neither Asahi nor Hinako have any context for what I’ll call romantic affection in their lives, for completely different reasons. Asahi, who has prioritized her sister, is discovering her sister has other plans than the track Asahi expects. When that sister is off on her own, will Asahi even be able to prioritize herself? Hinako had been trying to fit herself into a path that does not fit and ever day is finding that path more confusingly unsuitable… . Now she’s starting to see the direction she needs to head in.

And for both these women, Fuuka and Subaru can see more clearly than they and know that they cannot squeeze too hard, or these fragile emotions will break.

I am interested in a frank conversation Fuuka and Hinako have here, about Hinako’s desire for Asahi. Hinako realizes that, while yes she does want to be with Asahi, she does not seem to have desire for her. As I am reading ahead a bit in Comic Yuri Hime magazine, I hope that this expression of asexuality is not tossed aside causally as it was in Bloom Into You. I’d like to see Hinako continue to be asexual, as opposed to her having never felt desire for her boyfriends because they were guys. For no particular reason I can verbalize, I trust Usui Shio-sensei more on this matter. I may be wrong, of course. It’s clear that Asahi and Hinako are on a course to, at the very least, be by each other’s side. What that relationship will look like is still in the future…but not that much more in the future, as this series is ending with Volume 4. (This link goes to Yuri Anime News, a great bunch of folks who translate JP Yuri news into English. Follow them on Twitter!)

Could I read about these characters forever? Yes. Should I? No. This story is going to end, and that’s okay. Usui-sensei has more to come and I will be here for it.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 0

Overall – 9

Volume 2 of Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is out now in English, from Seven Seas and Volume 3 will arrive next March. You can pre-order it through this appropriately labeled affiliate link to Amazon, or, as soon as it’s listed on all of our multiple vendors, on the Yuricon Store. ^_^





Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3

October 12th, 2021

Akari and Ayano met in Volume 1, but their relationship was instantly complicated by the fact that Ayano…is married. In Volume 2, Akari moves to give herself a fresh start only to find herself literally face to face with Ayano, as her new home is across the street.

In Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3, Akari can’t get a break…she’s walking to the train in the morning with Ayano, and home with Ayano’s husband Wataru. As they chat, Akari is sucked deeper and deeper into the quicksand of their family life and her own past. Akari returns to her previous job, which means she’s meeting her ex, as well. It’s a complicated set of circumstances in which no one is wrong, and everyone is trying, but the mortification just keeps piling up. Poor Akari.

I’m absolutely convinced that this is the best work Shimura-sensei has ever created, as the people are all relatable; from the two girls in Ayano’s class who may be targeted because they like each other, to Eri, Wataru’s shut-in sister.

Every single character here is doing their best; every single character is trying to figure out how to be, how to navigate the complicated waters of society and relationships. And nearly everyone is struggling. I love this story. There’s no good guys or bad guys, there’s no one who is more than slightly, very normally awful. Everyone is smiling, but also hurting, and trying to figure out how to make it through the rapids of life safely.

In and among all of this, I am particularly on tenterhooks about the two girls in Ayano’s class. They don’t know, yet (or ever) that they have an ally, but I hope that they end up okay.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7 I’m liking most of them, even if they annoy me sometimes ^_^
Service – 0
Yuri – Yes. Also Queer.

Overall – 8

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy! Volume 3 is hitting shelves today, so grab yourself a copy of this queer and complicated story about adult life. Excellent lettering by Rina Mapa, as well as outstanding translation by Jocelyne Allen.

I especially loved this panel of a phone argument. ^_^





Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Volume 2

October 1st, 2021

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon, Volume 2 continues to be one of my favorite Yuri manga series. It has almost everything I like in it, it’s thoughtfully fraught, fully adult, and packed with unpacking all the baggage we carry in an adult life. Most importantly, it contains powerful lessons for shedding that baggage and learning to relate to people as they, and we, are.

Here in Volume 2, Hinako is absolutely sure she has some kind of feeling when she’s with Asahi, but has no way to identify that feeling…because her entire life has been lying to herself about how she feels about things.

Asahi is on the cusp of letting go of the one thing she’s been clinging to instead of living her life and it terrifies her so much that she’s in almost complete denial.

These two are women like so many women I have met, who were trained to diminish themselves to the point of barely existing. Now that they are being given room to expand, they fear it. To Hinako’s credit, we can see that she’s pushing back a lifetime of normalization of a single, narrow path to happiness. One piece at a time, she’s throwing a stepping stone down, and tentatively letting her weight rest on it. It’s absolutely beautiful when she tells her woks friends for the first time what she’s thinking and they respond in pretty much the best possible way.

Asahi’s going to be a tougher nut to crack and it will take some external pressure that Hinako cannot provide. Two other characters will be the arms of that nutcracker, Asahi’s old friend Fuuka and, much more critically, her sister, Subaru. Subaru is a fantastic character…a very aware, very smart and very sensitive young woman, surrounded by what can only be seen as adults who are incapacitated emotionally. Subaru can see that Hinako is the fulcrum of the cracker and Asahi can only be squeezed just enough, before she shatters. Watch this space, is all I’ll say about that.

I love this story, I love the art, I love the characters and the writing ….and I love the care and attention Seven Seas is giving this story! Jenny McKeon’s translation is fantastic. There were a few turns of phrase that had me clapping my hands. Adaptation and editing kept it a tight and easy read. I continue to love the logo design by George Panella and lettering and retouch by Rina Mapa. This is the kind of book where all the details of localization fade into the back, but that’s exactly the point of good localization – it reads naturally, authentically. This team brings us another authentic manga reading experience.

This book is a guaranteed top 5 on my end of year lists and I hope Usui-sensei continues for many years. This is my moe – adults finding out who they are and what is important to them.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6 and climbing slowly
Service – 0

Overall – 10

I want to thank Seven Seas especially this time for offering me a review copy because this book has been particularly difficult to get a copy of in print. It was never really available at any book store or online, and is now so unavailable, Amazon isn’t even really saying “unavailable”, it’s saying “Give it up kid, you might want to just get it on Kindle.” I expect you all have heard about the supply line issues publishers are having. Well, this is affecting pretty much everything, from manga to appliances to food to clothes. My HVAC guy says he can’t get parts for air conditioning repairs. If you’re in the US, it’s not going to get better any time soon, but do consider calling your state and federal representatives to ask them what they plan on doing about it. ^_^;

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is an outstanding and beautiful adult Yuri drama. Get it today from Seven Seas!





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

September 9th, 2021

What if you had the chance to remake the entire world in order to save the person you love…and learned that the world was never what it seemed?

The first thing you will note about Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5, (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) by Inori, with illustrations by Hanagata, is that it is a large-ish volume. That is because there is a lot to get through.

We left Volume 4 with a number of major and minor plot points up in the air. Since, once again, you will be able to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 4 this winter from Seven Seas, I will not spoil those plot points, except to say that they are mostly all entirely relevant to Volume 4 and only one is relevant to Volume 5. This volume mostly takes place in the Nur Kingdom and when I tell you “the world was never what it seemed,” please consider that as much of a spoiler as you will get from me beyond the cover art, which is also a spoiler. I’m actually glad I read this on Amazon’s Kindle app, because the translation dictionaries made it that much easier to wade through some of the terminology. My Japanese vocabulary is not up to economics and finance, and other specific disciplines.

Because so much happens here – loss and gain and loss once more and salvation and damnation and eternity, it’s actually impossible to talk about it, so I will content myself with the least important thing I told Sean Gaffney as I messaged him to spoil the living hell out of it. If you are familiar with Doctor Who, you will entirely understand how everything in this book works…and how it must work. ^_^ This leads to the only criticism, if you can even call it that, I have. Because of that specific narrative structure, there was no way to give it a punchy ending, which was perfectly okay. It ended as it had to…and then didn’t end for a few more post-epilogue shorts. When you like your characters, it’s hard to let go, I understand completely. ^_^ 

Inori-sensei’s writing has evolved. Originally published as a webnovel, the chapters moved quickly, were carefree and goofy. The story began to take on a serious bent as the plot unfolded in later volumes. Through everything, the writing was very, very aware of LGBTQ+ issues in the real world. This is true through the very end of the story. What has changed is that the writing now is very visually descriptive, where before it was narratively descriptive. Inori-sensei clearly has the currently running manga and any potential future anime (which has not yet been proposed, the author’s note states) in mind. That kind of writing works very well here in what must be described as a grand, sweeping, epic finale, in a way that it would not have in the earlier volumes.

Typical of a Light Novel, the art is portraiture and serves to illustrate the characters, rather than the scene. Hanagata’s art has also improved and evolved, which is kind of fascinating, because we got to watch it in real time.

So what can I tell you about this volume? I can tell you that a couple of times I thought the story was going to make me cry. It didn’t…until it did, and the character that did that, was probably one of two characters I would have absolutely guaranteed that you could not get me to care about. ^_^

While this book wraps up every loose end – even the ones it creates – and finishes the story as such, Inori-sensei is still hard at work. “She’s Such a Cheeky Commoner,” is the story (not entirely the same content) from Claire’s point of view. You can read the webnovel of this if you become a subscriber to Inori’s Pixiv Fanbox.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Very little, for perfectly good reasons.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

I said of Volume 3, that it was juggling and plate-spinning on a high wire, I called Volume 4 a “wild ride.” Volume 5 of Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. was an epic parade of the entire circus. ^_^ 

 





Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ)

September 2nd, 2021

In Amano Shuninta’s Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ) we meet Kimura Rin, an office worker who is being sexually harassed by a superior at work. She has no allies among the women in the office, and the harassment is exactly on the line that some men think is being friendly, but is not that, at all.  As she cries alone in the bathroom of the restaurant where her group is having their after-work drinks, Rin encounter Ryou, who thinks she needs to fight back. Ryou tells Rin that she is a lesbian sex worker for ‘Yuritopia’ and tells her how much it costs. Rin takes her up on it, and that experience changes everything.

Rin quits her job and decides to become a sex worker. There’s a lot to learn and of course that learning curve is the story. She sleeps with a Yuritopia sempai and it just serves to highlight how out of her depth she is. Even Ryou turns out to be not what she seems, as the cast at Yuritopia seem kind of cliqueish and not at all kind. Which, I will admit, bothered me quite a bit (and  didn’t make the Yuritopia manager look good. She was nice, but if her employees are jerks, then, uh…something’s not okay.)

Eventually, she gets her first date, a repeat customer of the company who likes to go out with the new girls. The situation is confusing, until she figures out what that customer is looking for and she gets her first high rating. She’s on her way in her new life!

My absolute favorite scene was probably the most ridiculous one, where Rin chooses her working name. She’s stressed out and unsure. The manager gives her a cup of hot chocolate to soothe her nerves (hey, here’s some caffeine and sugar, that’ll relax you!). Rin takes a sip and as the sweet, warm flavor fills her, she decides her name will be Cocoa. It was very her. ^_^

Amano-sensei’s art is really interesting in this series. It’s well-drawn, but she’s focused on partial views, shadows and  skewed perspectives which really works well to communicate Rin’s feelings. As the story ends, the panels become straighter, the backgrounds a little more detailed, giving us a much more grounded feeling.

This volume ends with an interview with Obou, a straight male representative of a lesbian sex work organization, Club Tiara. the same organization made “famous” by Nagata Kabi-sensei in My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness.  I knew it was a guy who ran that, but it still makes me feel icky that it’s not a woman in charge, so I declined to read the interview, but the questions seemed to focus on the technical details. What are the various courses, how are cast chosen, that kind of thing.  I checked out Club Tiara’s site and found that they offer options for women, men and couples, which makes perfect sense. They have specific infor for lesbian customers, a phone service, naturally, and a guide to using their service. I didn’t  check to see if they do streams or sexts. As websites go, it’s got a welcoming, not an exploitative “Hot girls live! XXX!!” feel, which is reassuring. If anything, their site felt a bit like a josei manga magazine. I don’t know if this is something I want for myself, but am glad that it exists in the world.

They also are promoting a number of manga on the Club Tiara site, including Nagata-sensei’s and Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology from Ichijinsha that I reviewed here on Okazu, along with the sequel.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 Rin really grew on me
Service – Not really? It’s about sex, and isn’t coy or creepy; the art is artsy, rather than explicit. So sex, but no fanservice.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

Volume 2 is out now in Japan and I imagine I’ll read it, (probably on Bookwalker, since I’m out of space..again. ^_^