Archive for the Artists Category


The Rose of Versailles Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 8th, 2019

The Rose of Versailles, Volume 1 is a definitive edition of Riyoko Ikeda’s magnum opus. I say this with absolute conviction in and knowledge of the amount of work – and love – that went into it’s making. 

Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette’s palace guard, Oscar is brought face-to-face with the luxury of King Louis XVI’s court at Versailles. Joined by her servant André, Oscar is privy to the intrigue and deceit of France’s last great royal regime.

I am quoting the editorial slug for this book because I wrote it in the first place and I think it stands as a perfectly fine synopsis. ^_^

Volume 1 begins at the beginning, with the births of three of the main players in our drama, Hans Axel Von Fersen in Sweden,  Oscar François De Jarjayes in France and Royal Highness Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne de Lorraine D’Autriche, in Austria, known to her family as Maria Antonia and to history as Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

The story takes us through Oscar and Maria’s childhoods, through the moment their lives converge upon Maria’s arrival in France to marry Louis-Auguste Bourbon, the Dauphin of France all the way to Fersen’s confession to Oscar of his love for Marie and Oscar’s patronage of Rosalie Lamorliére, an orphaned Parisian girl. It’s 498 pages of high drama. And, for the first time ever, color pages have been restored to their original chapters, as they were seen in the original magazine run. (For those of you wondering why there was a such a long delay between the license and the printing, finding good quality versions of these images was among the many things the publisher needed to do. The original magazine files were no longer available through the Japanese publisher. And all of the placement had to be approved by the creator. )

The book itself is gorgeous. Hardcover, with raised red and gold lettering, and a truly brilliant cover design by Andy Tsang. The only touch it is missing is gilt-edging, but I guessed (and the publisher has confirmed) that that would have pushed the cost per book up significantly. Still… it would have looked sweet.

The biggest surprise to me, having never read the entirety of the story before editing it, was how much less decent a person General De Jarjayes is in the manga than the anime.

As I edited the book, I kept capturing Oscar’s face from various panels. The end result is a fantastic short version of her evolution as a character. ^_^ Here she is at the beginning and the end of Volume 1.

The art is very of its time, the story more compelling for the characters we meet and begin to care about. Translation was done with painstaking research, and I sure as heck did my best with the editing!

If ever you have thought that you want to buy the kind of book that will be with us 40 years later and still be as timely and meaningful…this is that book.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Uhhhh, Oscar in a uniform is service, so 6
Yuri – 1 for the court scenes, 2 for Rosalie

Overall – 9

The Rose of Versailles is a remarkably accurate telling of a true story from the perspective of a wholly fictitious character. It is also disturbingly timely as we move inexorably towards a similar climax here in the USA and, based on other protests we’re seeing globally, we can be pretty sure which way the cannons will point.





Yuri Doujinshi: Siren to Rosebud (サイレンとローズバッド) and Yuricon Travel (ユリコン Travel)

October 23rd, 2019

Back in the early 2000s, when Yuri was more of a feature of various manga than a genre of its own, Yuri doujinshi and anthologies were the main ways fans could access Yuri created by the people we now think of as “Yuri artists.” As more of those artists have gone professional, more magazines have given Yuri artists a chance to publish work (and have run contests to attract new artists,) and as more manga has been released in English, it is not that hard to ignore doujinshi as an important area of Yuri creativity. But, we shouldn’t.

Doujinshi are still a terrific medium through which both aspiring and established writers and artists, can play with their own and other people’s styles and ideas to create amazing works. Comic shows foster collaboration and creativity. For instance, I picked up some Riddle Story of a Devil collaborations that paired series artist Sunao Minakata with Yuri Bear Storm artist Akiko Morishima. ^_^

While in Tokyo for the 100 Years of Yuri Tour, I took some time to visit Akihabara and dig through the shelves at Comic Zin and Melonbooks, specifically to get the books I am reviewing today. Both are Yuri doujinshi by artists we know and love here at Okazu.

Siren to Rosebud (サイレンとローズバッド) is the first new original work in a while by Jesus Drug, aka Hayashiya Shizuru. (Her more recent doujinshi have been wrapping up the Strawberry Shake series.)

On a desert island, a teacher and her student wash up after a shipwreck. They survive and, ultimately fall in love. Although Shiho promises Suzu-chan that they’ll be together forever, when they are rescued, she disappears. 8 years later, Suzu-chan, now 22, finds Shiho hiding from the world in a small seaside home in Okinawa, having become an author and shut-in.

Suzuka tries to rekindle their relationship, but Shiho rejects her, claiming to be lolicon. Suzu leaves the next morning, but as she walks the beach, Shiho runs up, saying that she lied, she was just scared of how she felt then and how she feels now. Its happy ending for the two, as Suzu teases Shiho.

This doujinshi does a couple of fun things, including the use of QR codes for random objects, specifically mangoes, jackfruit and paracord bracelets which were popular a few years ago. And there’s a MP3 link that I have not been able to get to work. All in good fun.  The art is better than ever, and her comedic beats are just as solid as always. Despite the gags, this may well be one of the sweetest, most romantic doujinshi I have by Hayashiya-sensei.

Melonbooks is always an education in how badly anatomy lessons are needed for artists, but it has a fairly interesting Yuri section and  it was worth it to get Siren to Rosebud. ^_^;

 

While at Girls Love Fes,while browsing the Comic Zin bins, I was able to pick up the next book in the Yuricon series, Yuricon Tabi-joshiben (ユリコン旅女子編 ), which is available in Japan from Booth. I reviewed the Jimoto Hougenhen volume in 2018, which you can read digitally on Bookwalker.

There are two additional volumes out this year, Yuricon Otakuben (ユリコン オタク女子編), also available on Bookwalker, and Otona Yuricon 2019 (大人のユリコン2019 which I have thus far only found on JP Kindle, and therefore not obtainable by me. ^_^; But here are some sample pages.

The Yuricon Tabi-joshiben collection includes stories by Ajiichi, Kitao Taki, Takemiya JIn and Riru all of which center on travel.

Ajiichi’s follow two women who are deeply in love. And also sisters.

Takemiya Jin’s “Sentimental Journey” was an entertaining story about a rather mopey woman looking for the worst in people and finding someone good.

“Onsen ha Ikou e” by Kitao Taki follows women on a company trip to an onsen who have to actually share their true feelings or hurt one another.

And Riru’s “Torikago Ryoukan” follows a model and her manager on a hunt through the woods for a natural hot spring. This story was very silly, but I loved the art.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story 9
Characters – 9
Service – Occasional nudity
Yuri – 10

Buying original Yuri doujinshi is still one of my favorite things to do in Japan. And because I liked Siren to Rosebud so much, I bought an extra for the next Premium Lucky Box, so you too can look at the QR codes. ^_^ Lucky Boxes will be happening soon, so keep an eye out!

It is extra fun to me to realize that I picked up two doujinshi that focus on travel (and unintended adventure,) on my wildly adventurous 100 Years of Yuri Tour!) How…fitting.





Yuri Manga: Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume ５ (私の百合はお仕事です!)

September 25th, 2019

We all make mistakes, of course. And we all live with the consequences of those mistakes. But, how are you supposed to be accountable for mistakes, when you don’t understand what mistakes you made..or how they were even mistakes at all? In Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu, Volume 5, Yano Mitsuki is plagued as the specter of her past invades her present. Hime struggles to understand where the disconnects are, but…

It begins so nicely, too. Hime and Kanako spend a day shopping together – a “date,” Hime says. While Kanako puzzles the meaning of the word “date,” Hime buys some presents for everyone in the salon, including a matching set for her, Kanako and Mitsuki. But when she tries to give the present to Yano, its rejected with some force. Hime has no idea what she did wrong, this time. But this time, she’s not at fault. Instead, it’s Mitsuki’s inability to read the humans around her that’s the problem. And she knows its a problem…and she’s really trying, but she simply cannot understand what she cannot understand. She doesn’t want to make the same mistakes, even as she can see that she is…but what those mistakes are, are still beyond her grasp. She’s especially struggling to understand Hime.

I resonated with this volume for a lot of reasons. Its really hard to know what to do to fix a problem when you don’t understand what the problem is. And when the “problem” is human relationships, fixing it might not even be an option, even if you do know – but not knowing is maddening. Watching all four of the cafe employees struggling to understand how they were messing up because of their limited understanding of each other’s reactions was powerful. I know a lot of people, (including myself) who struggle with various aspects of this kind of thing daily. I have friends who drive themselves into a tizzy, just as Mitsuki does here, trying to make head or tails out of what others can see are random and inconsistent reactions – and I’ve certainly been in similar situations where, like Kanako, I struggle to understand the implication of something someone else may have said casually or thoughtlessly.

As a result, I’m suddenly finding many thing to like about Hime. She’s patient with Kanako, explaining what she means when she says something and why it may not match with her actions. Her outside image may take the blame, but she’s honest about how words work when she speaks privately to Kanako. Props to her for that. Hime is also surprisingly persistent in being nice to Mitsuki even though she doesn’t understand the other girl entirely. Sure, its for her social reputation and outward appearances, but that doesn’t explain it all away.

So this volume struck me as hard to read emotionally, but a necessary logjam that will require an explosion to clear it.

Now that the series has moved past all the role-based conflicts and we’ve settled into it being a log-term story, Miman-sensei has time to actually take the story below the surface. Forget cake set names…the story here is in the shifting boundaries between characters. Until recently, I would never have imagined that this story was really going to manage a romance, but I kind of see where this is going now and its going to get ugly before it gets better. But it will definitely get better. ^_^

The art has ramped up, as well. There’s been such visible improvement  even in the 5 volumes of this series. The writing is getting stronger, too. All in all, an excellent volume of  story I find I’m enjoying beyond the silly premise.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 3 Nothing salacious, but the premise is service
Yuri – ????? I can’t even There’s a lot and very little at the same time.

This is not the first comedy-turned-drama that we’ve seen here and, like Whispered Words, I think it’s going to be worth it. Volume 6 is going to be explosive when we get there.

Tachibana-sama makes a return visit to the cafe. I still want to know why she gets a face and a name.

Yuri is My Job, Volume 5 will be hitting shelves in English in December, so you don’t have much of a wait until you can watch the collision build up slowly enough to not ruffle collars or stir skirts at Liebe Gakuen.





Yuri Manga: Itoshi Koishi, Volume 2 (いとしこいし)

July 29th, 2019

Hina is a high school student who loves cooking and baking. She is dating Yayoi, an older woman. Yayoi is very aware of the difference in their ages, and steadfastly holds herself to high moral standards of behavior because she loves Hina so much. In Volume 1 we learn that Yayoi wants nothing more than to marry Hina, and thinks her girlfriend is an absolute angel.

Hina deeply admires Yayoi, and when she’s good-naturedly poked and prodded by Yayoi’s friends, she takes it all in stride. Her concern is not with the way the older crowd treats her…but with how honest she can be with her own friends. Itoshi Koishi, Volume 2 (いとしこいし) starts with Hina and Yayoi meeting Hina’s schoolfriends at their New Year’s shrine visit…a meeting that sets off a year’s worth of Hina trying to figure out how much to tell her friends, and how to do it.

Almost immediately, one of her friends indicates to Hina that she’s figured out that Hina is standing with the mysterious older lover they all know she has. Hina lies about her relationship with Yayoi and then spends the year stressing over it. Yayoi understands the stress of coming out and offers a balanced perspective. When, later in the year, Hina’s friend takes her aside and confirms that, yes, she has figured it out, she reaffirms how much she- and their friends – love Hina, which brings tears to the girl’s eye.

Itoshi Koishi gets my vote for the “Most likely to have an actual coming out to friends scene” for several reasons. The story is leaning hard in that direction. Takemiya-sensei is an out lesbian artist and I have often commented that her work meshes Yuri and LGBTQ life more than most other creators I follow.  It seems to me that this series is the perfect venue for a scene we so rarely see in Yuri – coming out and talking about what that means. Bear in mind that Kase-san,  which is notable for following its characters out of high school into college, has not yet done more than touch a toe to this particular sea of plot complications. Could it? Maybe. Will it? I don’t have any more of an idea than you. This plot which is so common in LGBTQ stories in western media is rarely seen in Yuri or BL. I don’t wish to see Yuri inundated, but this is such a lovely story, where it would really suit the tone and situation. 

In fact, this series is so grounded in friendship and like and love and is wholesome as can be, I have a wish for this series.

The top Japanese bar association has asked the Diet to support marriage equality.  Ishikawa Taiga, an out gay politician who represents Toshima was elected to to Japan’s Upper House (along with two severely disabled representatives, which is a huge win for Japanese disability activists. Do feel free to write Reuters and let them know to change the phrase “wheelchair-bound” to “wheelchair users.” I’ve done so, but I’d like to see the pressure stay steady.)

And it kind of flitted into my mind in the middle of all this that it would be really nice and very much in keeping with the tone set here if Japan were to get marriage equality before the series ended. ^_^ Vain hope, wishful thinking, whatever. This way when Yayoi finally asks Hina to marry her, we get more than just a ceremony, we get to see them accepted by society.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9 I love time spent with this series
Characters – 9
Yuri  – 10
Service – 3 Hina and Yayoi edge up the intimacy just a notch.

Overall – 9

If there is a single Yuri series and a creator I expect would care that this marriage portrayed as more than just a chance to wear a pretty dress, it’s this series and this creator.





Yuri Manga: Yuri is My Job, Volume 4 (English)

July 22nd, 2019

Yuri is My Job is unquestionably rooted in Yuri tropes. It is indubitably based around intense emotional relationships between women. There is one one-sided romantic relationship, the acted frisson of relationship between two characters and, in Volume 4, we learn of a past romantic relationship among the Liebe cafe staff. But there is not a romance among the main characters…as of yet. For all I know, there may never be.

So, I ask you, my dear readers: is Yuri is My Job a “Yuri” manga?” ^_^ Think about it, then tell me what you think in the comments. I’m not planning on editorializing about this, I just want to know what you think.

In Yuri is My Job, Volume 4, we delve ever more deeply into Kanako’s inner life, as she is poked and prodded by Sumika, who presents herself as coming from a high moral ground, but may in fact be more self-serving than she appears. We get to see that Nene is the staff member whose relationship Sumika has told Kanako about and it turns out that she may well have gotten that wrong, too. As Nene states so plainly. “I think I at least know how to fall in love with people on my own.”

Finally, the Blüme contest is on. Even after securing her vote, for some reason, Sumika will not leave Kanako alone. Kanako thinks of it as bullying, Sumika thinks of it as concern. And, after order has prevailed, Sumika as “third-year” has won; after all of the drama, the politics, all of Kanako’s desire to see Hime pull off a coup has been left behind, they come to a place where they are able to confide in one another. Kanako – finally – puts a name to her feelings for Hime.

And then the cafe moves on to the next marketing event! For the first time the “students” will be wearing summer uniforms. This brings a whole new crisis…and a whole new solution.

We get a couple of extras, including a fun little Yuriten-themed short Miman-sensei had drawn a “Yuriten Cafe” comic for the event the year I attended and I was all whiny at the staff about it not being real. Uchida-san told me they just couldn’t manage it that year. I hope they consider doing one eventually! I want to go to a Yuri-trope cafe and be made to feel uncomfortable about my interests. ^_^

The second extra follows Nene handling the various teas, and what motivated her to talk to Sumika about their failed sisterly bonds.

Once again, Miman-sensei gives us insight into their process, which I continue to find fascinating.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 4 since one piece of this volume pretty wholly focuses on breasts.

Overall – 8

Yuri is My Job hits all the right notes for all fans of classic “S” Yuri literature, animation and comics. One of my favorite volumes so far. There’s a lot of strong character-building for all of the staff.

So, what do you think of Yuri is my Job? Is it – by your standards – Yuri?