Archive for the Artists Category


Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 2 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~)

August 4th, 2020

What if you entered a school that had a fabled old tradition and it sounded so beautiful and romantic that you couldn’t wait to be part of it…but once you did you found the system was broken and toxic?

Nao has been partnered with Asagiri Ibuki and she find that she’s genuinely falling in love with her sempai. Ibuki is kind and thoughtful and it definitely seems like the feeling is returned.

Kairo has been partnered with Abiko Yuuka, but while Yuuka and she have become lovers, Kairo is sure she’s being used. Abiko-sempai is emotionally manipulation and occasionally abusive and even when she is being kind, it hurts.

Both Nao and Kairo can see that Ibuki and Yuuka have a past. Ibuki lies about it to Nao, but Yuuka tells Kairo the truth.

Kairo is also going through a little crisis about herself. She refers to herself as “boku” and it’s pretty obvious that she’d like to be more princely. I think she’d specifically like to be Nao’s prince.

Yamada from the newspaper club says it first…the Aikata System is not working. People are being hurt. It’s broken and it needs to be broken up.

Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 2 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~) did not go *anywhere* I thought it would and wow, am I impressed. Creator Hakamada Mera is showing us a version of Marimite‘s souer system that is a poisoned well, and I find that, as difficult as this book is to read or enjoy, it’s a compelling story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 3 Partial nudity, sexual situations.
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

Although I was deeply distressed by Abiko-sempai’s treatment of Kairo, I was relieved that by the end of this volume, Kairo, Yamada and Nao are all aware that this system is not working. I think it would be interesting to see the first-years band together and take down the system, although that might be asking too much of this series. ^_^





Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー)

July 15th, 2020

Bloom Into You has undeniably had a pretty big impact on the current Yuri audience, with the original manga, light novels, anime and an official comic anthology in the space of the last few years. Even with the series finished and everyone living happily-ever-after, there’s always room to play a little.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Koushiki Comic Anthology, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 公式コミックアンソロジー) spends some extra time with characters fans have grown to love by a variety of creators, from folks you know well, like Canno and series creator Nakatani Nio as well as popular anthology contributors like Kumosuzume, Yodogawa and others.

It will come as no surprise whatsoever, that my favorite stories center Sayaka. Yodogawa’s” 6-nen Ato mo Anata no Tonari de” in which Miyako spends a little time teasing Sayaka and they have a heart to heart about what relationships mean. I’m always so happy when I see the two of them being given a little time to just..talk.

But I especially loved the opening story by Fuyu Yutaka, in which Sayaka has something in her eye and Yuu helps her find her way around the school, while rumors fly around them. ^_^ It’s just goofy fun.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If you love the characters of this series, you won’t have to be convinced to spend more time with them, If you don’t, you won’t miss anything critical. But it’s always fun seeing an official anthology of a good series. I only wish Maria-sama ga Miteru had come out now….imagine what we might have seen! I mean, there were tons of unofficial anthologies for that series, but what an awesome thing an official series might have been. ^_^





Uminekosou days, Volume 2 (海猫荘 days)

July 14th, 2020

Mayumi’s job as a teacher in this small town has begun and she is settling in. Well, settling isn’t the right word at all. If anything, in  Uminekosou days Volume 2 (海猫荘 days), by I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up creator, Kodama Naoko, she’s become increasingly unsettled as she learns more about Ashima, the young woman who hangs around the Umineko boardinghouse.

The daughter of a prominent businessman with his lover, Ashima’s family situation is complicated….made more so by a romantic relationship with her half sister…and even more complicated by Ashima’s feelings about Rin the boardinghouse landlady. When she sees Rin and Mayumi bonding, Ashima is not at all happy for them or for herself. But while Mayumi is dealing with Ashima’s emotional turmoil, she’s ignoring her own.

And she is in turmoil. She’s developing feelings for Rin and starting to feel like one day she might belong somewhere, when her “friend” from home, shows up. Touko is the woman who stole Mayumi’s boyfriend and instantly we can see that she’s no friend to Mayumi. She’s one of those hideous toxic people who undermines the people around them and sure enough the first thing she does is sabotage something Mayumi was working on.

And the book ends with us hoping that Mayumi will be able to see what her “friend” is like before she gets hurt.

The final chapter of the series is waiting for me and, even if I don’t necessarily believe in Mayumi, I definitely believe in Rin. She’s introduced to us as a former yanki, but she’s always shown as a good person who interprets the word family as anyone under her roof, and has that family’s best interests in mind.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Service – 5 Bathing Whee
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

 I’m just hoping to see Mayumi be the one to kick Touko in the butt. ^_^

You’ll be able to read this series in English this autumn from Seven Seas as Days of Love at Seagull Villa..





Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu., Volume 7 (兄の嫁と暮らしています。)

June 23rd, 2020

Kuzushiro’s Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu. (兄の嫁と暮らしています。) lurches along, awkward, uncomfortable, neither a romance nor something else, and yet, I cannot look away. I last reviewed Volume 5, in which Nozomi has been struggling with her unexpressed feelings for her sistet-in-law, Shino. I did not review Volume 6, during which Nozomi’s mother’s drama took up most of the space between them. Shino eventually goes back to their home, while Nozomi sticks around her childhood home, moping because Shino is having fun without her. In actual fact, Shino is going to school and working and moping because Nozomi isn’t there and her friends are helpfully distracting her.

Now they are reunited in Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu., Volume 7 (兄の嫁と暮らしています。) and Nozomi has decided that, as sisters they should just relax with one another more. Shino is not objecting, but finds it very hard to relax when Nozomi and she touch. Especially when she is musing about a thing she’s heard that the underside of one’s arm is as soft as a breast and Nozomi let’s her test this theory out on her.

All the pieces in this 1000-piece puzzle are in play and it’s just a matter of filling in that complicated bit and this other. What the picture will be, though, is as yet unknown. Neither we nor Shino and Nozomi truly know what relationship they will have at the end of this series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I have some weird soft spot for this story and I’m not even sure what I want for Shino and Nozomi at the end of it. ^_^;





Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 1 (おとなになっても)

May 28th, 2020

Shimura Takako’s work with gender and sexual minorities has been very influential and popular among western manga readers, and series like Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering Son end up on LGBTQ manga reading lists with reasonable regularity. So it comes as no surprise that her newest lesbian manga Otono ni Nattemo has been picked up for license by Seven Seas as Even Though We Are Adults, just as I picked it up off my to-read pile. ^_^

In Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 1 (おとなになっても) teacher Ayano meets Akari after work one night and they end up sleeping together. It’s not a relationship…but it’s not a one-night stand, Akari hopes, when Ayano says that she’ll stay in touch. Only, the next time she sees Ayano, she’s with her husband. Unsurprisingly Akari does not feel great about this major fact having been left out of their communication.

Nonetheless, they do see each other again, this time kind of starting from the beginning. The problem is that Ayano appears to be happily married. And Akari isn’t sure what she wants, generally, with her life, but she’s starting to think that she wants Ayano, specifically. I’m not at all sure what I think about either woman. It’s tempting to be angry at Ayano…but I’m not and neither is Akari. It’s tempting to be distrustful of Akari, but I’m not, and neither is Ayano.

The art is good, shockingly detailed for Shimura, in fact. It looks exactly like the Jousei manga it is.

This is an uncomfortable story about two adult women flailing a little bit while trying to figure out this adulting thing. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what to expect from this story – I’m not even sure I liked it – but I think I’ll end up reading volume 2 anyway. ^_^ I don’t see a happily-ever-after-ending…to be honest, I’d be disappointed if this ended that way. I wouldn’t mind it staying kind of uncomfortable for the course. Let’s get stories about things that aren’t sappily ever after for once.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – A not-sure-yet 7
Story – Same 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 Hardly any, in fact. The 1 is mostly on principle

Overall – 7

I’m still unsure of so much yet, but I guess I’ll keep reading. Shimura’s work is, in my honest opinion, very flawed, but if she’s going to lean into the flaws, we might get an interesting story.

Volume 2 is available in print in Japan, but not in print shipped to the US at the moment. Both volumes are available digitally on Global Bookwalker. I’ll be getting Volume 2 digitally. Even Though We’re Adults has a January 2021 release date.

Speaking of Global Bookwalker – they are holding a huge “Stay Home and Read” deal with up to 50% back in coins, that can then be used to buy more books. Seven Seas and J-Novel titles are included in the sale. ^_^