Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Volume 7 (あの娘にキスと白百合を)

January 18th, 2018

In Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Volume 7 (あの娘にキスと白百合を), Yurine gets a new underclassman in gardening club. As a near-last act, her sempai show up and say, “Here, this kid wants in.” Haine is thrilled to be part of the club and to be near the famous Kurozawa Yurine, but. As it turns out in our story du volume, Haine is famous in her own right and she’s frankly unimpressed by her impressively talented sempai. She takes Yurine to task for not caring about anything she does and calls her life “empty.” 

Yurine, for the first time in this entire series, is deeply hurt. The idea that she’s living a meaningless life sends her, in tears, to Ayaka. But this crisis is good for her, when she comes to realize that she actually does enjoy acting and her rivalry with Ayaka. She’s not empty after all.

Final exams are on the line. Ayaka bets Yurine that she’ll beat her this time for sure. Yurine, confident that she is unbeatable as always, jokingly says that if Ayaka loses, she wants a kiss. The grades are posted. and….I won’t spoil the ending.  ^_^ You’ll be able to read it for yourself soon enough, as the English-language releases are coming out fast. 

This volume is not the first time we’ve taken a look at Kurozawa’s life, but it’s the first time the series has gone to any length to make her sympathetic in any meaningful way. Equally, this volume takes a moment to show us a Shiramine who has softened a little. As they move closer to one another, for the first time in all 7 volumes, I feel like I can root for them as a couple.

The final chapter takes a look at Itsuki and Sawa, and Towako and Yurina show up to tell us that they’ve both gotten into the school’s college, so they’ll be sticking around. I can see that this series, having taking such pains to create a bunch of couples, aren’t going to just let them go simply.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7 
Yuri – 5
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 7

For the look at Kurozawa’s weaknesses, this is a good volume. And a much-needed one.





Yuri Manga: Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 4 (English)

January 11th, 2018

Mizuki is facing a crisis. It’s her senior year and her last chance to make the nationals in track. But her longtime friend and her inspiration, Moe, can see that it’s not so simple as just ramping up training.

Moe insists that Mizuki stop using her as a muse and find it in herself to run because she wants to. In Volume 4 of Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Mizuki loses the battle, but wins the war when finds her love of running again, and she and Moe get to admit their true feelings for each other.

This is, to date, one of my favorite volumes of Canno’s series. The set-up feels more honest and less “plot complication”-y than most of the scenarios in the series so far. I also quite like Moe because she’s says what she’s thinking, a quality not often see in Yuri romances. Additionally, the series has sort of settled in for a longer haul now, and we can turn our eyes almost completely away from main couple Kurozawa and Shiramine without fearing that the entire series will disappear in a puff. So, while Yurine and Ayaka do make an appearance, it’s almost a walk on, until the amusingly snarky final chapter, which was all obligatory Valentine’s Day stories ever, all at once.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7 Cute, sweet, etc
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

The English-language Volume 5 has a release date of late February, and I’m working on Volume 7 in Japanese right now. At this rate of release you’re all gonna all catch up with the Japanese series by next summer!





Yuri Manga: Sweet Blue Flowers, Volume 2 (English)

January 8th, 2018

A good translation of a manga can be a little bit like magic. You pick up a book and without effort you are able to read this story created in a different country, in a different time or place. It’s an extraordinary feeling. The Viz Media edition of Takako Shimura’s Sweet Blue Flowers is a little bit like magic.

In Volume 1, we met Manjoume Fumi and Okudaira Akira, two childhood friends reunited as teens, and their school friends. 

In Volume 2, Fumi is coming off a relationship with Sugimoto, an older girl who hadn’t been honest with her and she’s feeling a bit bitter about it. Even worse, Sugimoto keeps trying to salvage it, but is doing a crappy job of it. Fumi’s had it with her ex, and lets her know that in no uncertain terms. 

Akira is surrounded by people who are falling in love and isn’t sure at all how she feels about it. When she asks Fumi, Fumi admits that Akira was her first love and again Akira has no idea what to do with the information. It’s almost as vexing as one of her friends going out with her annoying older brother. And when she overhears something she didn’t want to know about her friend Kyoko’s family, she has no idea what to do with that, either.

Back at school, the girls are all second-years now, with new students coming in. We meet Ryoko Ueda who kind of reminds Akira of Fumi and Haruka Ono, who is clearly (to us) bearing the burden of a (to us) fairly obvious secret of her own. Side stories indicate that there’s more complexity to relationships than just what we see here in the main story.

This volume moves quickly and slowly at the same time. Scenes are slow and leisurely – drama club practice, sleeping over a friend’s house – but time is whizzing by. One second Mogi sort of likes Akira’s brother, then next they are dating and we never actually saw them together much at all. Good translation can be magic, but it can’t fill holes left by a serialized manga schedule. ^_^;  Shimura’s super strong on developing characters, but putting in all the details of the story has never been her best skill.

This volume comprises Volume 3 and Volume 4 of the original Japanese edition. This is an excellent English release and I think we can expect it to maintain this high quality.

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Lesbian – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Volume 3 of the English edition will be available in March, so you have plenty of time to pre-order. ^_^ If you haven’t already picked up this “new classic” of Yuri, I definitely recommend it, for having a depth of early 20th century  literary history and still being grounded in the present.

 

 





Yuri Manga: Hana & Hina After School, Volume 3 (English)

January 4th, 2018

In Volume 3 of Hana & Hina After School, Hana and Hina face a growing distance between them manufactured out of their mutual desire to avoid their feelings for one another. Nonetheless, we’re probably not all that concerned about it, and the story just sort of coasts along from small crisis to confrontation to confession and finally conclusion.

Because we’re not really concerned at whether the principals will get together – it’s pretty much assumed that they will – it’s more or less how they’ll get there that is what we’re reading.

In my review of the Japanese volume, I noted that it’s extraordinary for a Morinaga Milk Yuri manga story to address any real-life issues. I wrote:

“In Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossoms Pink, Hitomi merely fantasizes about a future in which she and Nana are adults and can be together. In GIRL FRIENDS (Volume 1 and Volume 2) Morinaga-sensei took a step outside the isolation of a “couple in love” and gave Akiko and Mari friends…friends who accepted them and their relationship. In the very end, Mari even gave some thought to the issues of coming out to parents and what school and work might think…in the future.”

And that’s about all we get. In this volume we touch briefly on the concept of same-sex marriage at the very end and, in a roundabout way we see the possible awakening of same-sex interest in classmate Takagi, although it’s somewhat disappeared by the translation. My memory of the original has her saying something like, “I think I’m like that, too…” rather than “I want to do that, too.” Of course I could be wrong – and I could have been wrong originally, as well. I’m not motivated to go find Volume 3 to find out. ^_^ The rest of the technicals are top notch, as always. I just remember this particular scene as bing a “whoa!”moment for Hina’s classmate.

So brief touches on the realities of a life after getting together is all we’ve gotten and all we’re likely to get, but I still hope that one day, Morinaga-sensei writes something that goes beyond Story A. (Wouldn’t it be nice if in a future girl-meets-girl manga, we see a grown up Nana and Hitomi (or Hina and Hana they are mostly interchangable, so it hardly matters) who are there to help the main characters through their first-love-crisis-du-jour? I kinda think it might. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 6 
Yuri – 8 

Overall – 8 

3 volumes was just the right length for this series. I think Morinaga-sensei is at her best when she has time to work through the “zOMG we’re in love” crisis, without having to rush it or drag it out. 





Yuri Doujinshi: Kitao Taki and Yorita Miyuki Short Story Collections

January 3rd, 2018

A million years ago, back in November, I was wandering around Comitia throwing money at Yuri doujinshi artists. In the hurlyburly of buying many things, I managed to pick up two collections that I wanted to tell you about.

The first, 2013-2015短編集 (BQ) 北尾タキ is a collection by Kitao Taki-sensei, an artist whose work I have been following for many, many years. 

This collection contains doujinshi by her from the last few years. There’s one short series, the rest of the stories are one-offs. A few of these are about schoolgirls, but many of them follow older, working, women.

The stories tend to feature a confident, (sometimes seductive) character and one overwhelmed by the overt display of lust shown by that character. “Overwhelmed” is something Kitao-sensei is both good at and clearly enjoys. She draws “flailing” with panache.

It’s amazing how many different ways “staying over my place after a night out” can be developed into a fun story, and [BQ] Short Story Collection explores them all. ^_^

This collection is available to folks with Japanese Kindle accounts or at doujinshi shows at which circle [BQ] is participating. You can also grab her 2016-2017 collection on JP Kindle or check out her Pixiv account.

Another doujinshi collection I nabbed at Comitia was by Yorita Miyuki-sensei. And I wanted to make sure I told you about it because you can get it on American Kindle (in Japanese)  under the name kanojonokuchizuke kansensururibido sosyuhen1! The individual chapters are also available on Kindle, as well and on Amazon JP in print as 彼女のくちづけ感染するリビドー総集編１.

This collection is a short series that follows two young women who meet in a hospital. One is cool and aloof, the other, interested but dishonest about her feelings. As they get closer, their health issues get in the way, but love conquers all and they end up with a lovely, dreamy happily-ever-after, removed from reality. 

The art for this series is professional-looking shoujo style art. Nothing happens here that will wow you, but for a solid story and a happy ending, this collection is very satisfying. 

Ratings: 

Kitao Taki [BQ] Short Story Collection – 8

Yorita Miyuki Kanoujo no Kuchizuke Kansensuru Libido – 8

It’s true that you can (and should) get work by talented Yuri artists online, but I still get tremendous pleasure from being able to walk up to an table and hand money over directly to these hard-working, unsung artists..and I hope I’ll be seeing them in future pages of Galette or other Yuri anthologies.