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!

When Yuri Network Correspondent Sean G. drew my attention to this manga, he did it in the least appealing way, much as he might have introduced me to a creepy relative. “This is Aunt Claudia. We have to invite her.” ^_^ So, while it wasn’t high on my list of manga to read, it went onto the list and eventually, onto the pile of things to review.

Ichiroh, Volume 1, follows the life of Nanako, a girl who fails to get into college, her friend Akane who shares her fate and friend Shiino who makes it in. These three are surrounded by other one or two joke characters that fill out the cast of this completely typical wackiness-filled 4-koma manga.

As with most 4-panel strips, the comedy relies on goofy, abnormally extreme behaviors, puns, and exasperation on the part of the non-comic characters. If you’ve read any other 4-panel, you’ve read this one. In fact, other than the translation being in actual fluent English, it’s not that different from Lucky Star.

There was one thing that bothered me. Nanako is a serious, level-headed studious girl. Who, for no apparent reason, doesn’t make it into college. Everyone around her is driven by an Id-obsession. Greed, Lust, Power, Sloth all make frequent appearances. And yet, the other people seem to do fine. While Nanako, who only wants peace and quiet and a decent grade is forced to suffer for their sins. When she nearly fails a mock exam after studying diligently, I almost gave up on the manga. Shades of Azumanga Daioh‘s Yomi, who is one of the smartest in the class suddenly, for *no* reason fails to pass the exam, while hyperactive and not all that bright Tomo gets in. Thankfully, the near-failure turns out to be a computer grading glitch. In reality, she did very well. So, I continued reading.

The Yuri is confined to the meaningless bleating of Nanako’s friend Shiino who, as Sean says, “lusts pointlessly” after Nanako. She is joined in her repesentative of a popular fetish act by Nanako’s older brother who also bleats after his sister.

I didn’t dislike it nearly as much as I expected to. If anything, I found it surprisingly not terrible, only a little exhausting. If the world of 4-koma manga are the cast of Peanuts, Ichiroh would be Frieda.

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

Completely coincidentally, today’s sponsor is once again Okazu Superhero Dan P. It’s not on purpose, really. He sent me a lot (that’s how one gets to be Superhero, after all) and I happened to have been picking his off the pile quite randomly. No favoritism meant or implied, I assure you. (Check’s in the mail, right Dan?)

Ichiroh

It’s a full-on “stress about your gender” a-thon in Click, Volume 3.

Joonha, now trapped permanently in a woman’s body, is not one whit less gynophobic than she was a a guy. Men’s bodies, she says, “sure are strong and beautiful,” while women’s bodies are “impossible to move around in and annoying as hell.” Yep, you sure gotta like Joonha, especially if you’re into whining and self-loathing.

And then there’s Heewon Jun who, in frustration at her unresolved love for Joonha, has taken to being the meanest, most violent, crude girl she can be. She smokes, she uses physical violence and she curses up a storm. And she’s brought to a screeching halt when her friend from her former school points out the obvious and tells her that the guy she’s in love with…is a woman. Obviously. Duh. I mean, no guy would wear a skirt, right? It could be fun and Yuri-ish if she decides she doesn’t care. I foresee “funny” sexual harassment.

Then there’s Joonha’s actual real love of her life, her old and dearest friend Jinhoo, who is relieved and pleased to see his best friend – but not so much to find out that Joonha will not tell him why he left school.

And finally, there’s Taehyun, living a triple life of privileged wealth, Robin Hood businessman and tough-guy slacker all at once. He and Joonha actually make a good couple, but unless Jinhoo dies, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be together. Actually, even if Jinhoo dies. *Especially* if Jinhoo dies. The author is bummed that none of the fans of the comic seem to like Taehyun and I’m with her. He’s the only character who accepts Joonha for what she is *right now.*

As a comedy, this is high melodrama. As an action story it’s silly. As a cross-gender morality play it’s dismal. As a cast of self-flagellating adolescent characters beating themselves senseless upon the altars of their own misery it’s just fine and dandy. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service- 1

Overall – 7

Once again, the “pigeon of thanks” wings its way to Okazu Superhero Dan P! Thank you for sponsoring today’s review and letting us all whack ourselves over the head with Korean gender switch “comedy.”