Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Seijun Shoujo Paradigm (聖純少女パラダイム)

June 16th, 2015

downloadIn Seijun Shoujo Paradigm (聖純少女パラダイム), Morishima Akiko gave Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari readers her take on the most common private Catholic girl’s school tropes. And typically, she has a lot of fun with it. ^_^

At Saint Paradigm Girl’s School (one of a long line of nonsense Saint names in Yuri literature, but sometimes it’s hard to tell, I’m looking at you Saint Scholastica,) Aoi is all excited to get her elite high school experience started. Even the sight of a girl confessing to an upperclassman (and being rejected) makes her feel like she’s in the middle of a novel. And when the teacher leaves the room and the girls all drop their proper facades to pick up their phones and play games, or text their boyfriends, it depresses her.

Depressed as she is, she’s still more cheerful than Lily, the girl who had been rejected.  Lily actually likes girls, but is rejected regularly. Aoi, who has no interest in a boyfriend, agrees to be Lily’s best friend. Until Lily gets a girlfriend, she and Lily will love each other best.

The story splits off a bit to deal with some other couples among the student body – the president of the literature club and a member who have been lovers for years, but still have some issues. and the President and Vice President of the Student Council who are a perfect Takarazuka couple and, despite the fact that they live together and know they love each other, have not gone beyond a kiss on the cheek. Lily’s lack of tact is the key development that allows them to close that final gap between them.

After the school festival, Lily confesses seriously once more…to Aoi. Aoi knows they’ve agreed to love each other best, but this seemed different. As their second term begins, Aoi comes to realize she has deeper feelings for Lily, and the book and the story draw to a close with an “awww.”

Ratings:

Art – 8 Morishima’s usual cute faces and cheerful style
Story – 8 A sweet series for a Yuri-themed magazine
Characters – I liked them all, but sympathized with the literature club’s Midori most, who just wanted to hear “I love you” more often
Yuri – 9
Service – 3 Some underwear scenes, Morishima does underwear nicely

Overall – 8

Morishima-sensei says that this is her first Yuri set “among the sakura” and I immediately thought of a tagline for this kind of Yuri. Not “strawberry” at all – they had the wrong fruit. This is Yuri with “The scent of lilies and the flavor of cherries.”





Yuri Manga: Chou Chou Nan Nan (喋喋喃喃)

May 27th, 2015

downloadThe girl/guy next door, the childhood friend who has always been there for you, who can always read your mood, and knows just what to say; it’s a well-worn trope in every subset of romance. It’s equally as common to show the protagonist unable to return the favor, unseeing when their friend has deeper feelings than friendship for them, as they moon over someone else – usually someone unobtainable. It’s so entirely universal in fact, that it almost boggles the mind.

In Chou Chou Nan Nan (喋喋喃喃), Takemiya Jin takes a(nother) swing at this trope.

Aoi is in love with Chihiro and her best friend Nao can see it from a mile away. Unfortunately, Nao is in love with Aoi and Aoi can’t see it at all. Chihiro can see what’s going on and, because she’s a cheerfuly manipulative jerk, she teases Nao by manipulating Aoi’s feelings. Shino, the fourth of the group is uncomplicated and doesn’t care who is love with whom, just as long as they are all having fun.

There is never any reason to think that Aoi and Nao won’t get together, so it’s more or less just a matter of watching them get there, enjoying the stolen kisses, “shock!” eyes and narrowed eyes/manipulative faces that Takemiya-sensei does so well.

It is also stereotypical that the story comes to a head during the school festival, as Nao plays the prince and Aoi plays Sleeping Beauty. Reading as much manga as I do set in school, I thank my lucky stars that I never once had to do a play in a school festival. (The only thing I can recall doing for a school festival was making a highly popular, heavily alcoholic Black Forest Cherry cake one year for German Club.)

They end up together (of course) and we never learn, really, whether Chihiro feels bad about her role in keeping them apart or finds it all a hilarious joke. I was very much hoping that the doujinshi follow-up “Chou Chou Nan Nan 2” would look at Chihiro’s real feelings (my bet is that Chihiro found it hilarious. People like her are never sorry. ^_^;), but instead it gives Aoi a chance at taking the lead in a kiss for once. Also okay. ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

A pleasant trip along a favorite path, decorated with beloved flowers. We all know it well, but it’s perfectly fine to enjoy it once again. ^_^

Many thanks to Jye N. for being kind enough to get “Chou Chou Nan Nan 2” and several other doujinshi for me! I’m savoring every page. Thank you for your kindness!





Yuri Manga: Renai Manga (レンアイマンガ)

May 15th, 2015

51Iqpki8CmLOne last book for “low expectations” week but, in this case, to show that having low expectations isn’t always the same as expecting something to be bad.

In 2011, I reviewed a book called Renai Manga, by Kodama Naoko, that had been published by Tsubomi Comics. I gave it “a warm fuzzy, comfortable 8” as a score.

Now, Yuri Hime Comics has re-released Renai Manga (レンアイマンガ). And it is the same, all the way to the very end, where a new chapter is new, but not any different.

Haruka is a new editor at Sweets Magazine, where she is assigned to manage her favorite author – the one who inspired her to become an editor in the first place. Only, Kuroi-sensei is not the fashionable woman she imagined, but a hoody-wearing recluse. Haruka pulls Kuroi-sensei out of her shell just a bit and Kuroi-sensei gives Haruka the courage to stick to her guns and stay in Tokyo as an editor when her mother pressures her to marry.

The end of the book ends up eating it’s own tail as it turns out that Haruka’s fan letter to Kuroi-sensei was her first, ever, and a charm she’s kept all these years to keep her going.

Now, since I knew exactly what to expect from this manga, I was able to pay attention a little more to small details; how Haruka is manipulated by the editor-in-chief, who obviously knows both parts of the story, how Kuroi-sensei finds herself after a long slump because of Haruka. I was also able to enjoy the now almost-silly climax scene as Haruka runs around town looking for screentone. In a mere few years that has become significantly less of  crisis, as so much more of manga is done digitally, it’s almost hard to imagine that this might have been a thing.

The original manga ends with Kuroi-sensei being honored at a party for the new TV Drama of her series. A new chapter turns away from the tale of professional persistence to – for the first time, really – the couple of Haruka and Sensei, who I now think deserves to be referred to by her given name, Ritsu. Haruka and Ritsu are, clearly, already important to each other, but Ritsu takes a big step and asks Haruka to move in with her so they can be together all the time. Haruka agrees happily. In the final panels, we see the editor-in-chief being not at all surprised and thinking that the two of them ought to get married already. (Ironically, since, as we know, they still can not legally marry anywhere in Japan except Shibuya.)

My expectations were low, but not because I expected this to be bad, but I expected nothing significant to have changed. And so it hasn’t. This manga remains a warm, fuzzy slipper of a story – nothing surprising, nothing alarming. Just a nice story told nicely.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2 Kuroi-sensei still needs a better bra

Overall – Still an 8





Yuri Manga: Spice Girls (スパイスガールズ)

May 5th, 2015

downloadI really like Ohzawa Yayoi’s weirder works. Her collection Spice Girls (スパイスガールズ)  is much less weird than her best stuff, but still has a quirk here or there to offer us.

The first story, which seems kind of like an idea that didn’t quite work out, follows a girls with a part-time job at a used bookstore, dealing with a schoolmate bring a metric ton of porn in to sell. The ending is a beginning, one hopes.

There are two separate sets of stories that deal with teacher/tutor and student. Neither are particularly creepy, but I prefer the second story in which a student learns more about her doofusy young teacher than she imagined.

The final story follows a niece and her newlywed young aunt by marriage in what could easily have become a not-good relationship, but didn’t. Phew.

Nothing here is particularly passionate, but most of it is sweet. Even when there’s no relationship as such at the end, the sense of people caring about each other is pleasant.

Ratings:

Art – 9 I really like her art
Story – Variable, averaging at 7
Characters – Same
Yuri – 6
Service – 4 for the first and last stories

Overall – 7

This isn’t going to be a go-to read for me, but if you’re a fan of Ohsawa-sensei’s work, this is a decent addition to the library.





Yuri Anime: Dear Brother Set 2, Disk 2 (English)

April 30th, 2015

DearBrother2With Disk 2 of  Dear Brother set 2, we finally encounter the full depths of madness that runs in between Miya-sama and Saint Just and, if we are completely honest, we find it pitiable.

Miya-sama who, we learn, was always an entitled jerk, was jilted by her first love at 12 years old, and has spent the last 6 years wallowing in her own bile and torturing her half-sister because she’s a sadistic jerk.

Now, on the brink of adulthood, her sadism and jerkishness are about to hit a wall…the common decency of a decent commoner.

Miya-sama takes the coincidence of Nanako’s relationship with Henmi personally, and in the twisted scales she uses to judge everyone but herself, finds Nanako to be a threat. She’s tried threatening her, controlling her through the sorority, and in the bottoming out of her sanity, even attempts to seduce her. Luckily for Miya-sama, Nanako is a kind and decent human being and is neither seducable or attracted by insanity. Unfortunately for Saint-Just, she is.

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Now we know everything there is to know about Miya-sama and not one iota of it is good.

Nanako is firming up as the drama deepens. Tears have been replaced by confidence and defiance and she’s such a good person that she’s successful in dragging Mariko back into the world. If Nanako were a real person, I would have no doubt at all that she would be the Sorority club president as a third-year and radically redefine both the school and the sisterhood as her legacy.

It’s not going to get any easier as we move forward, but at least we’ve lanced the wound fully and now we just have to let it drain.

Ratings;

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 3
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Miya-sama is a terrible person. Hold onto that thought.

Now, remember, this anime ran on Japanese TV in 1991-1992. And 7 years later, Tenjou Utena ran into a haughty Student Council member who was cruel to her, who had a head of pre-Raphaelite curls and a name as upper-class as Ichinomiya. Imagine, then, what Arisugawa Juri was supposed to make us feel when we first saw her, as she is meant, quite specifically, to recall Miya-sama. When we first saw Juri, we felt…fear.