Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Éclair Special Sukinano ha Onnonoko Kitao Taki Yuri Sakuhin Kessakusen (エクレアSpecial 好きなのは女の子 北尾タキ百合作品傑作選)

March 18th, 2019

It is always a special pleasure to be able to review a collection by an artist I have been following for many years. Today I will indulge in this pleasure once again by talking about Kitao Taki-sensei’s Éclair Special Sukinano ha Onnonoko Kitao Taki Yuri Sakuhin Kessakusen (エクレアSpecial 好きなのは女の子 北尾タキ百合作品傑作選) a collection from Kadokawa of 8 stories by a creator whose work has made me happy since the early 2000s.

Kitao-sensei’s stories are almost always centered around a pair of women, one of whom suffers from painful embarrassment and their lover who gently teases them because it’s so much fun. This collection also includes a few stories in which next morning jitters or poorly communicated feelings have a place in the plot but, everything generally works out.

Characters here are mostly adults, some workplace romance, some drunk sex, a few ill-considered choices, but there’s little melodrama.  There’s a lot of “this could be happily ever after, if that’s what they both want,” which works just fine for me. ^_^

The art is style that lays somewhere between loose sketchiness and tight drawing, but is neither one, nor the other. I’ve always like her style, but your mileage may vary on that, obviously.

My favorite stories in the collection are the bookmarks at the beginning and end, which follow Aki and Minami, an adorable couple, as we follow them in the morning and at night as Aki returns home from the office. Totally squee. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – 8 Slice of adult life
Characters – 7 We don’t get much time with them, but they tend towards the emotional and adorable
Yuri – 9
Service – 4 There is some nudity

Overall – 8

This collection is a great opportunity to get a chance to see a less-known-than-she-ought-to-be veteran Yuri artist have free reign with her work.





Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Manga, Volume 5 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )

March 7th, 2019

Since this week has sort of naturally slipped into “manga that vaguely annoy/disappoint/vex me” week, I think this is a perfect time to review Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 5 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ). ^_^;

Being an otaku takes a lot of work and a lot of money, as we’ve learned in the previous 4 volumes, but it also takes a kind of compulsion, a need to be there for the singers you’ve all but adopted as yours. In Volume 5, the Cham Jam otaku follow their idols to an overnight camp, where they get to do camping chores and sit at the campfire with them and get commemorative pictures and to Tokyo for their first show in the big city.  It’s not at the Budokan, but the group does get to take a picture outside the Budokan, so that’s something.

I was going to be really snarky and say “and then a thing happened,” but as I think about it, a number of things happened, it’s just that the scale of “happen” is so small for this series. There’s always a side story within the group itself,  this time, it mostly focuses on the group in Tokyo and them trying to keep their energy up after a 10-hour van ride into the city. I’m more and more convinced that two of the group are a couple, but just not telling anyone (Yumeri and Yuuka, maybe, I have a hard time keeping them all straight. I only recognize Maki and Maina of the 7 Cham Jam members at a glance. I am a terrible otaku and Hirao’s art leans slightly more realistic than fantastic. The Cham Jam members all have hair that looks normal and is varying shades of black and gray. Maina wear twin tails, when she takes them out, I have no idea who she is.)

In the meantime, we’re still watching Eri and she’s definitely changing, albiet very slowly. We get to see her at her bakery job, which she genuinely enjoys and which gives her time later in the day to do the otakuing she needs. We also get a glorious moment when Motoi brings along his younger sister Rena, who used to be a Cham Jam otaku, too and we can see Eri in the company of another woman her age outside the otaku world. It felt very refreshing, even as, of course, Eri, Motoi and Kumasa mostly talk about the group.

Most importantly, during handshake time, Maina and Eri *finally* have a short conversation with no mishaps. It’s banal and keeps to the established territory of fan/idol interaction, but they manage a whole few minutes together.

The more I read this story, the more I desperately hope it’s meant to be a cutting commentary on the utterly brutal idol industry, and the equally brutal hobby of being an idol group otaku. Otherwise, it fills me with despair. (Yeah, I know, I know, I keep bringing it on myself.) The idea that this manga is getting an anime is already annoying, but it will probably be meant to be a comedy and I will just want the world to burn. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – I don’t even know anymore~~~~
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 2 Their eyes meet, they have a conversation, no plants fall and Eri doesn’t end up injured. They are practically married.

Overall – 7 

If the crushing awfulness of idol/otaku relations is an intentional target, I would like it so much more, but I think crushingly awful is just what the artist does.





Yuri Manga: Ame to Kimi no Mukou (雨と君の向こう)

March 4th, 2019

Since yesterday we started off the week by discussing a manipulative twin sister plot, let’s talk problematic narratives again today!. Momono Moto and Sakuraya Yukino’s Ame to Kimi no Mukou (雨と君の向こう) is a good choice for oh so many reasons.

Kanou Yuka is a middle school home room teacher. She has no boyfriend and is feeling the pressure of being 27 unattached.  Medarame Aki is a student in her classroom whose dead eyes and romantic overtures to her teacher scream “sexually abused” to this reader. 

Yuka and Aki’s relationship is not a healthy one, not from the very beginning. Aki is manipulative and uses things like Yuka’s virginity as a weapon against her, which is just gross. Yuka tries going out with a guy and just finds herself going back to seek Aki’s company. When she and we see that our guess that Aki has been abused is correct, it still doesn’t make anything that’s happened okay. 

Possibly worse, the two are given a happy end in which we see Aki older, them living together and presumably happy, but I think I broke a tooth grinding my teeth. Of course I understand that fiction is not reality, and I have even been able to enjoy a problematic teacher/ student narrative before, but there were just so many things wrong here. Yuka’s abject misery at being not desirable, Aki’s obvious struggle with physical, probably sexual abuse, their age differential. It was not okay, even when I saw that the story was meant to be tied up in a ribbon of okay.

I love Momono Moto’s work, but she may well be one of the most problematic artists I like. I nonetheless like her art, and damn, if she didn’t capture Aki’s dead eyes far too well for me to ever feel comfortable with her as a romantic anything.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 3
Characters – 5 No one would get a lunch invitation. Well, maybe the guy who goes out with Yuka, he seemed okay.
Yuri – 8
Service – No visual service, but the whole concept of an adult being attracted to a sexually abused child is a level of creepy I am unwilling to accept as anything other than criminal. 

Overall – 5

I didn’t enjoy this book, but then I didn’t expect to. Now I’m putting it out of my mind and waiting for Liberty (リバティ) to come out next month. ^_^;





Yuri Manga: 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei , Volume 8 (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。)

February 11th, 2019

When we left Kaede and Nanami at the end of Volume 7, Kaede was confronted by the fact that she was, in fact, attracted to Nanami. As 2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei., Volume 8 (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。) dawns, she is in full-blown avoidance of the woman she likes.

Yes, Kaede has built-in excuse for it, work has never been busier. And she’s received big news, but can’t bring herself to talk to Nanami about it. Instead she gives Nanami an expensive present and hides in her room again. Nanami has to ask Koyuki for the scoop – and finds that Kaede’s manga is being turned into a drama. Big news indeed.

But the tension between them goes on, until Nanami forces a confrontation. “It’s over” she says. She doesn’t want to stand in Kaede’s way, now that she’s reached her goal. At which point, Kaede realizes that her goal now includes Nanami and, at last, they come together as equals.

The epilogue follows some of the other characters and the lives they have chosen. We meet Ruuko’s new junior (a character who gets a story of her own in the Chocolat anthology Thanks for the correction, CW, the anthologies have all started to blur a bit. ^_^; ) and find out how married life is treating Aoi and we revisit even Mahiru, whose gotten a girlfriend of her own.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 0

Overall – 9

This final volume came with a copy of “Monthly Motivation” a booklet of inspirational quotes by Ruuko to keep us going. Ohsawa-sensei’s love affair with this supporting character absolutely cracks me up.

8 volumes is an incredibly solid run for this series. I’m sorry it’s over, but look forward to seeing what’s next for Ohsawa-sensei!





Yuri Anime: Bloom Into You, End of Season Review

January 28th, 2019

Bloom into You, streaming on HIDIVE, wrapped up and I wanted to to take a look back at it as an overall series and discuss what it did well. Because, I’ll admit, it did a number of things very well. 

To star with the weakest link, I do think we need to revisit the current trend of eyeball closeups in anime.  And live-action television and movies and every other visual media. I do not want to be that close to anyone except my wife. It is creepy. Please stop. And with the strangely animated eyes (eyes are hard, I know, but that is not how they look) I found it very distracting to have to view them so close, so often.  It was particularly vexing as the animation was otherwise quite pleasant. I really wish they’d just back up.

The story was a fair representation of the manga. It ended just before the play – I sincerely wish we had been able to see that because it is such an important moment, but the anime captured two of the other pivotal scenes and did an excellent job with them, so I accept the decision. (It would still make an awesome Blu-Ray extra.)

The thing the anime excelled at was bringing the characters to life. Voice actors gave the characters more depth where needed and less heaviness where it was not warranted. We were able to spend time with Maki and Sayaka, two side arcs that I found in and of themselves intriguing. And we herd the characters’ voiced in a way that really gave them more agency than I ever would have expected. Yuu is especially strong in this regard. 

Overall, I was deeply impressed by the anime; far more so than I would have expected. In fact, it was because of the anime I was able to “hear” Sayaka so clearly when I read the Light Novel about her.

Ratings:

Art – 6 The eyes were a genuine distraction
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5 + 1 for Sayaka, so 6
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 8

If you still haven’t taken a look, or you like or are on the fence about Bloom Into You, I hope you’ll watch the anime and let me know what you think in the comments!