Archive for the Artists Category


LGBTQ Manga: Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), Volume 6

March 17th, 2015

Torikaebaya6When we last left Chiho Saito-sensei’s beautiful and tragic retelling of the Heian classic tale, Torikaebaya (とりかえ・ばや ), I was having a crisis. It’s so damn beautiful, I want to keep reading, but it’s so damn heart-wrenching, it’s hard to keep reading.

Volume 5 ended with Sarasojuu running from the capital, pregnant with Tsuwabuki’s child, devastated that she can no longer live her chosen life. Suiren, overcome by love for Toguu-sama, gives in to desire and kisses her.

As Volume 6 opens, I keep wondering if there are any more boots to drop…and, of course, there are.

Suiren has been called up to the Emperor’s residence to be one of his women. This precipitates a decision that Suiren can never go back and change. Refusing the Emperor’s call, Suiren confesses that he is a man to Toguu-sama. He leaves her service, and returns home, to become the man his sister was. Passing is merely a matter of not interacting because, although Suiren and Sarasojuu are identical in looks, Suiren has none of Sarasojuu’s skills at horseback riding or other pursuits.

Suiren, disguised as Sarasojuu, overhears a rumor of Tsuwabuki’s second woman being pregnant, guesses what has happened and heads off to find Sarasojuu.

Sarasojuu, having been taken in by Tsuwabuki, is now called Sara-hime, and is pining away, as the baby’s birth grows near. Conversely, Tsuwabuki is beside himself with joy, having both the women he loves and their children in his home. Sara is not on board with this, and poor, poor Shi-no-hime, who had no idea who this other woman was, until her son calls Sara “father”. Shi-no-hime, who has been unconscious for much of the volume swoons once again. Of everyone, I feel the most pity for her, a woman drawn into someone else’s story with no good way out.

Sara’s baby is stillborn and, naturally, she blames herself.

Suiren finds Sara, at last, as she is just about to drown herself. Suiren tries to convince Sara to return to the capital and resume their lives as before, even though he himself is not sure he can ever return to the life he’s left.

I am less distraught this volume, as I carefully fed myself a few pages at a time, knowing that this story was going to offer no respite. Parsing out mere pages of exquisitely gorgeous, emotionally agonizing story, meant that I was able to get through it without trouble. I’m desperately flailing in mind, as I read every fresh hell, to come up with ideas for a non-horrible ending. So far I am failing. And the one ending I foresee that will give the characters the happy end they deserve will have to be a very annoying tengu ex machina. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 1
LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

Saito-sensei’s art has always been exquisite and here, she reaches her pinnacle. It’s so perfect a tale for her style.





Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 3 (English)

March 10th, 2015

ww31Yay!! Woo!! Other terms of exuberance! We have reached Whispered Words, Volume 3, out in English from One Peace Books! Whee!!

But before we celebrate, let us take a look back at how far we’ve come.

In Volume 1, we met Sumika, who is tall, athletic and hopelessly in love with her best friend, Ushio who never even considers Sumika as a possibility. Ushio isn’t trying to be cruel, but she is sure that Sumi is “normal” as she terms it and doesn’t want her to get roped into the negative treatment she’s come to expect from the other students.

In Volume 2, it becomes increasingly obvious to everyone even, eventually, them, that Sumika and Ushio are in love with each other. Even as they start taking tentative steps to be together, life gets in the way.

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In Volume 3 as Sumi, Ushio and their friends all start thinking about graduation, Ushio’s grandmother is injured and asks for Ushio to come and take care of her, potentially splitting her and Sumi apart just as they are starting to have something to stay together for. Ushio’s brother reunites with an old flame and their grandmother puts pressure on them to marry.

While all that is going on, Sumi runs for Student Council President. When rivals for Student Council President use dirty tactics, and a member of the Karate Club gets in a fight, Sumi feels her best action is to remove herself from the contest. To everyone’s surprise, Ushio steps up and takes her place in the election. There can be no underhanded tactics, after all, Ushio’s been out since middle school.

The end of this volume is everything we could really have hoped for. Recognition that life is not easy – it even has some real-life homophobia, so when love wins the day it’s just that much sweeter. It’s a story we’ve been told a million times since we were kids, but it’s rare that we get to see it in a Yuri manga – sure, the real world can be awful, but love makes us strong. And so it does. Also weak. And stupid. But sometimes it works out  and when it does, it’s totally worth it. Just like this manga series.

The third volume goes on sale officially on March 17th. Pre-orders have already shipped.

I promised you – I swore to you – that this manga was worth it. Trust me, the ending is just as much fun in English as it was in Japanese. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

Thanks very much to Robert of One Peace books for the review copy, it was even better than I had hoped. ^_^ If you’re still waiting to get a copy of this series, take this opportunity to check the offerings out on the new Yuricon Store, where Volume 1 and Volume 2 are currently listed with multiple vendors and Kindle Editions are also available!





Yuri Manga: Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Volume 2 (あの娘にキスと白百合を)

March 3rd, 2015

AKnSw2Last June I read and reviewed a somewhat typical, but surprisingly enjoyable, little school life Yuri manga, Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo. I was frankly amazed to learn there was a second volume. This first ended tidily and I’m always kind of loathe to believe that there are that many female couples…even a girl’s private school.

In Volume 1, we met typical hper-competent Shiramine Ayaka and annoyingly talented slacker  Kurozawa Yurine. Despite their rivalry, well, probably because of it, they fall in like.

In  Volume 2, we turn to other students; this time, Chiharu, Ai and their crush, Hoshino-sempai. They are friends first, so love feels almost like a distraction and yet, there it is. Chiharu has it bad for Hoshino, who is graduating at the end of the term.

Chiharu and Hoshino are locked in a storage room. Feelings are acknowledged, even if they can’t go anywhere. The second half of the book introduces Izumi, who makes it possible, for Chiharu to say good bye to Hoshino with her whole heart.

We get a brief cameo of Ayaka and Yurine in the main story, but the end chapters introduce Yurine’s younger sister who is jealous of their relationship and is taking it out on Ayaka, but fails to win Yurine back.

Generally speaking I liked the character of Chiharu more than either of the protagonists in the first volume. Where their feelings seemed sort of rote, Chiharu struck me as a fairly well-developed character. You can imagine her outside the school. And her feelings for Hoshino are not fully developed, nor is there a presumption of them ever potentially being a couple. The second volume felt more like a real story than the first.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 Definitely more realistic than the first volume
Yuri – 5
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

If you like Canno-sensei’s art, check out this Pixiv page where you can gawk at art, including some for this series, doujinshi and other illustrations. If you’re a fan of the schoolgirl Yuri it’s worth a visit.





Yuri Manga: Omoi no Kakera, Volume 3 (想いの欠片)

March 2nd, 2015

onk3At last, I had a chance to sit down a read the climax of Takemiya Jin’s Omoi no Kakera (想いの欠片) series. As you may remember, Volume 1 introduced us to young lesbian Mika, her classmate Harada who is gay,  and his younger sister, Mayu, who falls for Mika. In Volume 2, Mika and Mayu become closer as friends, and Mika confides to Mayu that her first lover was a tutor of hers, an older woman. And we become aware that Saki, Mayu’s friend, has feelings for Mayu that are not only unreturned, but unnoticed.

 Volume 3 begins during the school culture festival, with the appearance of a woman, whose very presence is enough to make Mika freeze, her old tutor. Mayu sees what is happening and drags Mika away before she can be hurt. When Mika recovers herself, she realizes that her ex is now with someone else. She confronts them and asks if they are happy. When she receives an affirmative, Mika is able to let the past go, at last.

Saki, however, is still burdened by her feelings. She confronts Mika only to be put in her place. Unbeknownst to Saki, however, Mayu has heard the whole thing. And in a moment, has had her entire world turned upside down.

The climax comes with tears and embraces and “awwwww”s all around. ^_^

But wait, there’s more! We had a thread hanging from earlier volumes. Takako, the coffee shop owner and her passive-aggressive roommate finally have it out in the extra chapters. Phew. Like Mika, I wasn’t really getting what the problem was there.

In the final chapter, all the characters reunite at the coffee shop where Mika is now working. Mayu and Saki are spending some relaxing time together, as they all make fun of Takako’s roommate. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 9 / Lesbian – 9
Service – 1, but not really

Overall – 10

And, on the last color page, as we close the scene on the coffee shop, we learn that Mika has found her own happiness.

And so we leave the story of Mika, Mayu and Saki, three young likable young women, in a Yuri school life/adult life story that contained actual lesbians. Yaaay!!

Takemiya-sensei remains one of the best Yuri creators out there.





Yuri Manga: World Canvas (Tagalog)

February 26th, 2015

world-canvasToday’s review is truly, “Now for Something Completely Different”. World Canvas by Godley Malabanan is the first commercially published Yuri comic in Tagalog!

We live in amazing (wonderful/awful) times. Even a few years ago, I would have only been able to look at the pictures, but Google Translate now includes “Filipino” and so, I was able to actually read this book by typing in the words. Machine translation is not perfect, but it’s plenty good enough for manga. ^_^

The story follows Sera, who is the younger sister of a museum curator and in art school herself. She’s got heterochromia, and her left eye bestows  a power and a burden – if she sees something a person has written, she can “read” their life story in it. Needless to say, this has kept her alienated from people. Through trope-y circumstance, she encounters a younger woman, Rhiannon, and gets sucked into her life.

The story, while is enjoyable, is chock-full of tropes, even aside from the magic heterochromia (which is merely a backdrop to the story and Sera’s life.) Rhiannon is passive-aggressive, saved from harassment by street toughs, abusive adults, and a parental abuse back story.

Additionally, although Sera is stated to be 21 and Rhiannon 14 (which is problematic in itself) Sera is drawn more like the eternal 15 of manga and Rhia more like 9.  While I did not love the character designs, the art as a whole was superb.

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In terms of characterization, Sera is really well developed, especially for a short single-volume like this. I really grew to respect her through the course of the story. Since the story is essentially the rescue of Rhiannon from her awful real life, hidden behind the veil of a glamorous life, she’s much less developed. As with so many stories, I wish we could check back with them in a couple of years and see who they have become.

And I look forward to more work by Godley Malabanan, now that’s she’s hopefully worked through all the tropes.

The book is published by Black Ink Comics and is available at National Book Store and Precious Pages stores. I know we have a lot of Filipino readers – here is your chance to support you very own home-grown Yuri! How exciting is that?

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – A solid 7

Today’s review was sponsored by Okazu Superhero and friend, James W. who spotted this book in Manila and nabbed it for me. And congratulations and good luck to Ms. Malabanan!