There are two crucial qualities for a “Love Comedy” (as opposed to a ‘romantic comedy,’ which is something else entirely.)

First, there ought to be Love. Almost without exception, both Japanese manga and Korean manhwa fail at this part. (I don’t know if Chinese manhua does, since I have read very little of it, but I suspect so.) Instead of characters who love one another, they are filled with characters who barely tolerate each other and are, from time to to time actively violent both verbally and physically. This, we are meant to understand is because they *care deeply* about one another.

It’s not that this is particularly unrealistic. There are many couples who show their love by sniping incessantly at one another. But it’s less fun than a barrel of monkeys for people caught on the sidelines. (I’m saying this with complete awareness that my wife and I have a strong tendency to be that kind of couple.)

Translated to a story, it makes the characters really unlikable. If you don’t like him, we think, why not just walk away? Love is not some overwhelming magnetic force that means you *have* to stay with her.

The second thing a Love Comedy needs is Comedy. This is also something that manga and manhwa are pretty slipshod on. Flipping up a girl’s skirt is neither romantic nor funny, for instance. “Accidentally” grabbing a girl’s breast is simply not as hilarious as manga editors seem to think. And manic-depression in the form of denial, even when you call it tsundere isn’t really all that charmingly fun.

The problem with Click, Volume 4 is that it completely fails to have much Love or much Comedy.

There is *some* love. Joonha is “in love with” her idea of Jinhoo, but it’s not Love. It’s more like an obsession, or an itch. They would even make an okay couple since Jinhoo knows from years of experience what an ass Joonha is, but Joonha’s gender change is as much an obstacle to their being together as her original gender was.

Since we all know men and women absolutely, positively cannot be friends without sexual feelings for one another, a perfectly good friendship between perfectly good equals is ruined by Taehyun’s feelings for Joonha. On the one hand, it’s exhausting, on the other, Taehyun’s interest in Joonha is pretty much the only honest affection there is in the story.

And then there’s Heewon. She has no Love in her, for Joonha, for herself, for anyone. She’s wounded and angry and lashing out. And as a joke, she’s tired. Her verbal and physical abuse of everyone around her is exhausting, and the fact that Taehyun’s lackey friend is a perfect partner for her dominatrix side isn’t really satisfying on any level.

Every one of these characters has gobs of talent and money and not an ounce of Love or Comedy in them. It makes for a constipated read, something you watch like a train wreck, waiting for the inevitable crash.

However, I can’t find it in my heart to hate these characters. They, like Jessica Rabbit, were drawn this way. I can’t *quite* stop reading this series until Heewon gives up Joonha for good and then everyone will be tucked neatly in proper little heterosexual boxes, except for the Jinhoo x Joonha thing, which will be strung along as a fake BL story as long as the author can manage.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – .5
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Thanks kindly to the sponsor of today’s review, Dan P. I feel bad for you, my heroes, that better stuff is not being translated, but your support is nonetheless very much appreciated!

Oh, and a Love Comedy that does work? Strawberry Shake Sweet. Funny, and actually about love.

I want you all to know that I REALLY tried. I took a deep breath, smiled and prepared to do my very very best to approach Maria Holic Volume 1, with an open and cheerful mind. It is absolutely obvious that Maria Holic is meant to be read as broad parody of Yuri tropes. (Yes, yes, pun intended.) What it is, however, is broad and crude.

Kanako is attending a very elite all-girl’s school where she hopes to become closer to the memory of her late mother who was a student there, and to find a soulmate, because she is attracted to women. Kanako is portrayed as a typical “onnazuki,” a person who likes women, but is too hapless and hopeless to get a girlfriend. Kanako falls for practically every girl she sees, which is both cute and sad at the same time.

Because this is not a romance, but a “comedy,” Kanako immediately falls into the clutches of physically cute, but emotionally sadistic Mariya, who is really a boy cross-dressing for reasons not yet mentioned. (I know they will be. I’m reviewing *Volume 1*.)

Kanako blunders around the school both befriending and be-enemying various characters, and generally making a fool of herself for our “entertainment.” The people around her act in ways that make no sense, except that they are meant to be exceedingly broad parodies of typical Yuri tropes, and so act like those tropes unrestrained by sense or sensibility.

I want you to know that I did my best to not read more into this manga than was warranted. I will *not* rant about how Maria Holic is not only anti-Yuri but anti-woman. I squelched that pretty hard as I sat there gritting my teeth, feeling more and more cranky as I read.

I will not talk about how a feminist reading of this volume made me want to grab up my friends Mr. Knife and Mr, Hot Tar and take them trick-or-treating with me, because that would be me being ridiculous and you’d all take me seriously.

What I will say is this – I found the anti-lesbian “humor” painful. At one point, Mariya calls Kanako “lesbo girl” and it really, really upset me. It was meant to be hurtful to Kanako. We’re supposed to find humor in her reaction to this. But, when in a single panel she pleaded with her dead mother (or the Virgin Mary, it’s really moot which,) “why is everyone picking on me?” I lost it and started to cry. If you found that line funny, I hate you. It’s as simple as that. It wasn’t funny, it was cruel. Bullying is not amusing.

When I reviewed the Mariaholic anime, I said that the anime was, at it’s core, about the emotional torture of a young lesbian. I can see that the manga is not quite that – it’s colder, more dispassionate. Where Sasamekikoto plays with typical Yuri tropes in a goofy way, drawing on their faces, if you will, Maria Holic is more mean about it – flipping up skirts and then saying *we* overreacted.

Ratings:

Overall – For me, it’s in negative numbers. Too many tears, too many nosebleeds, too much pain.

The very worst thing about this series is knowing that, instead of finding love in a healthy relationship, Kanako will be fall prey to Stockholm Syndrome, and Mariya – who is loathesome – will become progressively more sympathetic until we can justify what will clearly be an unhealthy, unequal, unreasonable relationship. Once again, it is Mariya on the cover, not Kanako. And that says everything there is to say about this series.

Thanks to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for sponsoring today’s review!

Thank you for purchasing Lily Brand Yuri Goggles, the only Yuricon-approved Yuri Goggles on the market.

Please take a moment to read these instructions before you use your new Yuri Goggles to assure your experience is a safe and pleasant one.

Start by removing your Lily Brand Yuri Goggles from their package. Be sure to keep the lenses free from fingerprints or any anything that might interfere with the view.

Fit your Yuri Goggles snugly around your head, make sure they are correctly positioned on your face (See Figure 1) then go ahead and open any media you have. You’ll instantly see the difference! Women in the same frame will be converted into lesbian lovers and any two girls that actually touch will become a couple in a committed relationship. It really is that easy.

For practice, open up the copy of Gakuen Alice, Volume 6, that we’ve included in the box. Go ahead. If you read it without your Yuri Goggles, you’ll see a typical inconsistently written story, starring little children who should be allowed to be with their parents and play outside, not be used like circus animals to perform for corrupt adults.

But! Put on your Yuri Goggles and, like magic, it transforms into a beautiful story of young love between Hotaru, who finds it hard to talk about her true feelings and Mikan, her garrulous and outgoing best friend. Watch as Hotaru sacrifices herself for love and watch as Mikan’s love drives her into a dangerous – some might say unbelievably idiotic – situation.

We hope you enjoy your new Lily Brand Yuri Goggles. Please be sure to let us know about your best Yuri Goggle experience!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Hope you don’t mind me being a little silly today. It’s just been that kind of week. ^_^

In Zombie-Loan, Volume 4, Volume 5 and Volume 6, zombies are bound to die.

Zombies, of course, are the perfect displacement for wanting to kill another human. They are persistent, repulsive, annoying, dangerous and most of all, they are already dead, so you don’t have to feel guilty about snuffing out a life. The folks working for Z-Loan, kill people-shaped “things” for money, not people.

In a nutshell, Volume 4 ends the illegal zombie/golem-making mad scientist arc, and politics breaks out among the rulers of the not-quite-otherworld. Shito is captured and rescued and his back story, which had been previously established, turns out to be a huge lie so the artist can introduce a new bishie or three. Chika goes through about three crises of conscience and identity and in the end Shito, Chika and Michiru sort of all pull together as a team. Kinda.

In Volume 5 the politics take precedence and the dialogue – which was never award winning – descends into near incomprehensible pseudo-spiritualist babble. Thank heavens I’m not really trying to follow anything here – mostly all the pretty boys look the same to me and if Chika and Shito didn’t keep screaming each other’s names, I’d probably forget which was which.

In Volume 6 a rival zombie-hunting company, cleverly called “A-Loan,” opens up across the street and, as with all good rivalries, the new team is one-upping us all over the place. But something or someone else is catching all the good zombies and both teams are in danger of dying, oh noes!

Amid all the screaming and running, it would be nice to have a little bastion of comfort and quiet, such as a home usually provides, but alas, no rest for the weary almost-dead. Even during those would-be quite times, Koyomi’s unquiet personality makes it hard for Michiru to relax.
The Yuri in these volumes is most notable for its absence. In Volume 3, Michiru rejected Yomi’s confession that her feelings for Michiru were real. Since then, Yomi has not made an appearance. In fact, it is Michiru who calls the situation to our attention the first time – and it’s Michiru who keeps bringing it back up. Additionally, when it appears that Koyomi likes Soutestu, Michiru’s reaction is obvious even to herself. She’s feeling jealous. It is perhaps understandable that Michiru is led to believe that her interest must surely be in Soutestu, rather than Yomi, but it’s is still deeply annoying. It’s also unconvincing, as Michiru quietly calls Yomi’s name when in the bath with Koyomi.

I know that there’s no hope for them. It’s not really part of the story and should Yomi come back, I have no doubt that she will have subsumed her genuine interest in Michiru into being satisfied by service – because that is what is done in manga and I do not expect this to be something other than it is. Regardless of the reality, I believe that Michiru is feeling more than normally sentimental about Yomi and if they were left alone to it, they might come to like one another. Equally, they might grow to loathe one another, but we’ll never know…will we?

All the screaming and bickering has gotten on my last nerve. It was a trial to read Volume 6. Compared with something like Black Lagoon, or Dogs, Bullets and Carnage – both of which are equally filled with screaming and vast amounts of violence against both living and dead humans and both of which are significantly superior to this series (and gosh how I wish they would have the smallest smidgen of Yuri for me to make a review viable,) Zombie-Loan just doesn’t walk the walk.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6, dropping to 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 3

Overall – 6

Today triple thanks are due to Okazu Superhero Eric P for nabbing all three of these volumes and allowing me to sum up a number of evening’s reading at once!