Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Omoi no Kakera, Volume 2 (想いの欠片)

September 13th, 2013

One of the three titles I chose for 2011’s Top Yuri Manga was Omoi no Kakera, Volume 1 by Takemiya Jin.  Specifically, I very much enjoyed our introduction to Mika, a confident, self-aware young lesbian.

In Omoi no Kakera, Volume 2, Mika’s relationship with underclassman Mayu develops significantly. Where in Volume 1, Mayu begins with distaste that develops into a crush, in Volume 2, Mayu starts to genuinely care about Mika…and Mika learns that she’s developed some affection for the younger girl. After the coffee house owner lays it out to Mika, that her insistence that she prefers older women is merely a way of clinging to her past, Mika tells Mayu the whole story of her first love. Mayu’s reaction is very sweet. And for the first time, I have some confidence that they could, possibly, become a healthy couple, maybe. Just as they reach this place, it appears that Mika’s past has indeed caught up with her.

The main story has a few Intermissions. Under “not really a couple and, so, not unhealthy, but wtf?” comes the coffee shop owner and her roommate. I have no idea what the deal is with them. ^_^;

The Intermissions include a short, really cute story about Mayu’s brother (who we know from the early chapters of Volume 1, is gay) and his crush, a male classmate.

The book also contains a short story called “Love & Piece,” which has a rough start in some hideous stereotypes and a really bad set of choices, but ends in a good place.

I have saved the best/worst story for last.

As Mayu has manages to get closer to Mika, her best friend Saki has taken a lot of hits over the years. When Mayu expressed disgust for gays, Saki was unable to admit that she was a lesbian. But when Mayu needed her, she was always there. Now Mayu is falling for Mika, and Saki’s lonelier than she ever thought possible. Saki’s story is heartbreaking, but very well told. I can only hope that Volume 3 brings her some happiness.

I love this story. It is full of the hormonal, irrational, high/lows of teenage life, and full of gay kids who are still finding themselves. Mika, Harada-kun and Saki are not alone, but we all have to reinvent the wheel for ourselves to some extent.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 9 / Lesbian – 9
Service – 4 for “Love & Piece”

Overall – 10

Takemiya-sensei tells a damn good story.





Yuri Manga: Eden no Higashitotsuka, Volume 2 (エデンの東戸塚)

September 11th, 2013

Very occasionally, I come across a creator whose work I should like, but, for whatever reason, I cannot. If you’re a regular reader here, you’re probably wondering if I have some personal beef with Hakamada Mera-sensei or something – maybe she kicked my puppy or was rude to me? No, not at all. I have never met her and I’m sure she’s lovely. She’s certainly very hard working and prolific and I admire that deeply.

So, what the heck is my issue with her work? I don’t know what it is – it just misses the mark. I used to think it was because the feelings were vague and could have been anything, as in  Saigo no Seifuku, but then that finished that up with a bang-up ending.  And then I thought it was that her characters never got past basic confessions, but then she drew Kanojyo no Sekai and I though that was too much.

And then there was Eden no Higashitotsuka Volume 1. And again, it was close, but it put a tedious trope in as the main plot and it tired me all out all over again. Now we’re at Eden no Higashitostuka, Volume 2 and I really, truly tried to like it. I really did. I promise. I feel terrible though, because it just misses the mark again for me. I didn’t hate it, I never hate her work, it just doesn’t resonate.

Kiku, our protagonist, wants a better life for herself, so she’s determined to do well and become an elite. Her next-door neighbor, the chaotic neutral Hiyoshi appears to be getting in her way, but as the pages of Volume 1 end, Kiku has come to grips with Hiyoshi’s place in her life.

In Volume 2, Hiyoshi turns out to have a girlfriend – the student council president of her old school. “Lovers” they tell Kiku, but it is clear that they have little physical relationship – and Hiyoshi really doesn’t know what it means to be “lovers.” Hiyoshi, I’m sorry to say, doesn’t really know a lot of things, and moves through her own life being clueless about the people around her. So when she studies a bit and gets better grades than Kiku and can draw better than Kiku, she cannot even remotely guess why Kiku doesn’t want her around. At this point we are told a heart-wrenching story about how/why Yutenji-sempai and Hiyoshi are dating, but instead of making her seem more sympathetic, I felt that it made Hiyoshi seem more aggressively clueless. Causing pain unintentionally is one thing, but being unable to even see that you’re causing pain is something else – and not something I find sympathy-making.

Yutenji-sempai pretty much tells Kiku all this, and Kiku, who again realizes that her life is less fun without Hiyoshi, makes a decision. She comes home to their dorm to learn that it will be torn down. Kiku makes up with Hiyoshi and they take out their frustration by destroying a wall together.

The epilogue shows Kiku and Hiyoshi living together as adults. Kiku has realized her dream of becoming elite. She has it all.

And I’m left wondering what it was that I wanted out of this story.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 6

Clearly the problem here is me. And I’m sorry for that, Hakamada-sensei.





Yuri Manga: Onna no ko Awase (女の子合わせ)

September 10th, 2013

This summer saw two manga collections  by Morishima Akiko-sensei released at once. The first one I reviewed,  Hajimeta, Kanojou to. was a look back at the beginnings of couples that had been established in later stories. This collection, Onna no ko Awase (女の子合わせ) are one-shots she drew for Comic Yuri Hime and the Yuri Hime Wildrose and Girls Love anthologies.

The first half of the book is stand-alones, and because many of them are anthology stories, they are more sex-focused than her serial works. The first story can be summed up with  “we’re in love, what do we do now?” A graduating senior and her underclassman lover spend a morning reliving their good times in school. Two girls in a private Catholic girls school indulge in questionable taste as they enjoy a bit of non-consensual BDSM in the chapel in front of Mary. A college student teaches her tutor how to have fun on a vacation.

The second half of the book is a mini-series about “Nega”, a girl with negative vibes, who desires a fellow clubmember whom she sees as a perfect angel that she wants to dirty. Nega has a lot of issues to get past and her image is just one of them. For her part, the object of Nega’s desire, Tsukimiya, is totally on board. They learn to trust themselves and each other. Kei, a idol of the school who helps Nega rework her image,  and Nana, Nega’s friend, have a parallel relationship that goes from friends with benefits to something more. No surprise, I liked this series best, since we took time to get to know the characters, rather than just rushing them to bed.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Stories – Variable – 4-8
Characters – Same
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 7

I definitely prefer Morishima-sensei’s series. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Strange Babies (ストレンジベイビーズ)

September 8th, 2013

In Ohsawa Yayoi’s Black Yagi to Gekiyaku Madeline, we met Yagi-san, a “typical” unpopular girl with a surprising secret – she has a popular occult net show, in which she stars wearing a goat’s head. Yagi meets another net idol, super-cute Madeline and the two of them team up to do combined shows. They strike up a friendship that definitely has potential to become more.

In the sequel, Strange Babies, (ストレンジベイビーズ) Yagi and Mado-chan’s burgeoning relationship is stomped flat by Kokoto, a fan of “Yagi-sama.” Kokoto inserts herself in between Yagi and Mado-chan in order to capture Yagi’s affections. Yagi, having never had any friends, now finds herself surrounded by a harem. She’s blissfully happy…only, something is nagging at her. She’s not sure that Kokoto really sees her as a person, and she misses the time she used to spend alone with Mado-chan.

It all comes to a climax, when Kokoto invites herself to a recording session of Yagi-sama’s show. Madeline, completely cut off from Yagi, leaves. Yagi learns the source of Kokoto’s admiration – which is a nice story, but, it becomes obvious to her at last that Kokoto has no feelings for the girl behind the mask. Leaving Kokoto, Yagi runs to Mado-chan’s home and they reunite, tearfully admitting their feelings for each other.

We don’t even have to feel too bad for Kokoto, as her best friend and sidekick, Arisu, is well-placed to pick up the pieces.

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As overwrought and crazy as the premise appears, this wasn’t a bad story at all. Making Kokoto sympathetic was critical, or she would have been too annoying and hateful to have been an effective plot complication. Giving Arisu feelings for Koko-chan was more or less just padding her fall in our heads, so we don’t have to feel guilty that Yagi’s rejection will send her back into depression. The hardest thing about the story is Yagi’s cluelessness. It is, however, not hard to imagine that she is unable to see Mado-chan’s feelings for her, having lived so alone her whole life.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Character – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Strange Babies was a really weird series, but it worked. And it had a Baphomet, so it gets extra points. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika, Volume 2 (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か)

September 5th, 2013

Volume 2 of Amano Shuninta’s Yuri soap opera Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か) was…excellent.

Having established that Ruki and Sachi are interested in each other, we set them aside as main players and turn our sights towards what appeared to be the single stable couple among the two groups – Asuna and Fueko.

As the volume opens, we “meet” Asuna, as she learns about sex with women and about herself, and then jump to post-breakup, when Asuna and Fueko meet again. Although they cannot resolve what lays between them, they come to a place where they can part without regret. We then back up to get to know Fueko a little better. Finally, we see the both of them moving on. Last, wee see the root of their breakup.

The reordering of their story worked incredibly well. I had fooled myself into thinking they were a better couple than they were. This volume really brought home how wrong I was. Asuna was not nearly as sensitive as I (and the characters) had convinced myself that she was and Fueko was more selfish than I had realized. Breaking up was probably the most mature decision she’d made so far.

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Tucked into the background of this volume, we’re getting more detail about the other characters, as well. Ma-asa as Asuna’s tutor kind of blew my mind. The revelation about Meru’s past was sobering, upsetting and a little frustrating. But it made me see the cast as one complete unit, with friends that pull each other up, rather than just pairs to be watched and they couple and decouple. There is so much thought going into the storytelling here. It’s not a Story A, it’s about lives lived by characters that could be real. If you’re reading this series, pay attention to what you are looking at. Amano-sensei is a master craftsman.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 3 Mostly tasteful nudity

Overall – 9

I joked in my review of Volume 1 that this series was a Yuri The L Word. There is no doubt in my mind now that Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika would make a *fantastic* live-action drama series.