Archive for the English Manga Category


My-HiME Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 30th, 2008

In Volume 1 of My Hime, strange things are afoot at Fuka Academy. Monsters are appearing, girls with magical powers are fighting…and all of it seems to surround one boy, a transfer student by the name of Yuuichro Tate.

Tate is trying to redeem himself after a series of unavoidable choices caused tragedy to both him and the girl who admired him most. Instead of redemption, Tate finds himself in the middle of a storm, in which exceptional girls with exceptional powers want him to provide them with the means to fight.

Unlike the My HiME anime, this story is not about Mai, or Natsuki, or Mikoto. And unlike the anime, the service here has a nasty edge. Welcome to Champion Red and it’s special brand of woman-hating seinen manga. Despite the fact that you can expect to see woman depantsed, and deshirted with steady frequency, and the occasional rape thrown in for good measure, there are still some things to like about My Hime. The story is similar enough to the anime, that you can at least follow it,and there’s no Duke Nagi putting women in chains and beating them, for one thing. But that’s not what I was referring to. What I was referring to, of course, is…the Yuri service.

Shizuru remains a decidely Yuri character, with fangirls falling over themselves to be close to her. She also remains eyes only for Natsuki, so if that’s a key feature of the My/Mai franchise for you, then rest assured. The implied frottage between Mikoto and Mai is of questionable value to me, but I think that for this manga’s audience it’s spot on for appeal.

And despite the fact that this manga series is not about any of the many interesting characters in My HiME, instead focusing on the least interesting character in the known universe, it’s really quite all right for a trashy fantasy about trashy fantasy. ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 6

Speaking of fangirls, I am a huge fangirl for today’s sponsor, Okazu superhero Ana M! She is the absolute bomb! And btw, please notice the spiffy new “Hero Roll” on the right sidebar. Become an Okazu superhero by sponsoring a review and you too can be enshrined there for our permanent admiration.





Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2008

December 29th, 2008

Unless you’re a brand new reader, I don’t think anything on this list will surprise you. Here’s my choices for Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2008:

English Manga

5) Strawberry Panic – The manga was stoopid and silly and the light novels were *hysterical.* The manga series was killed in Japan, and the light novels died an equally ignominious death here in the US, but they gave us all something to talk about – and were the start of my Yuri military force. lol For using more than one private helicopter in a single volume, and putting a helipad on the top of the tower in St. Spica *high school*, I graciously give the number five position to the literary portion of the Strawberry Panic franchise.

4) S.S. Astro – It was yet another 4-koma with yet another Yuri-fetishist character. But it was not about school kids and their names were not cleverly thematic and the Yuri character was a suit- and glasses-wearing adult woman. Score. All of that *and* we get to welcome a new publisher to the list! Thanks Yen Press – give us more S.S. Astro!

3) Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl – As a story, it was flawed in any number of ways. As an adaptation, it was nearly perfect. For not turning Hazumu back into a guy and actually having a resolution, the final volumes of Seven Seas’ translation of Kashimashi makes the top five of the year handily.

2) Hayate x Blade – I want to apologize, because this series has made one of my top ten lists I think for every year since I started doing them. But this year is different! Hayate x Blade is making the English language portion of the list, so how about that? I love this series and you’re all just gonna have to deal with me telling you over and over and over how good it is, so there. Seven Seas comes in with their third book on the list at number 2 for 2008.

1) Maka-Maka – Maybe this does surprise you. In a way, it surprises me. The story is totally “PWP.” The characters are surprisingly real and therefore, kind of annoying. lol But Media Blasters did such a spectacular job of reproducing the book that after reading both volumes I still think I like the English editions slightly more than the originals. My number one English-language Yuri manga of 2008 is Maka-Maka.

Japanese Manga

5) Girl Friends and Rakuen Jouken – While these two manga are written for completely different audiences, they have quite a lot in common. Both of them deal with “coming out”s of a sort; Girl Friends in a high school setting, Rakuen no Jouken in adult life. In every case, the story is driven by a woman coming to understand her feelings for another woman. In every case, the emotions feel totally honest to this reader. Because of this, they both make my number five.

4) Clover – I know that no one is paying any attention to Otsu Hiyori’s work. And I know that my words will not suddenly catapult this book to superstar status, but by god, if you want to read Yuri that does not suck AND has a happy ending, buy this damn book!

3) Octave – Unlike Clover, Octave is getting a lot of press (probably because it’s at least partially scanlated already.) Another example of a story that is not about schoolgirls, it touches on some very reasonable issues about sexuality and sex, it’s surprisingly adult and extremely well written. It’s a genuine pleasure to add Octave to the top five this year and here’s hoping that I’ll be able to do the same next year.

2) Sasamekikoto – Yeah, it’s back to schoolgirls again, but you know, it’s funny. Laugh Out Loud funny. And sweet, in a really annoying way. And touching in a really touching way. Above all, Sasamekikoto is a conglomeration of just about every possible Yuri trope all at once and it works. Waiting for Ushio and Sumi to get it together and get together is such pleasant agony. It’s a clear shot at the number two slot for this series.

1) – No surprises here. I told you right from my very first glimpse that this would be my number one Yuri manga series of the year. And nothing I saw convinced me otherwise. The writing is stellar, the art is captivating, the story is compelling, raw, horrible and beautiful. I have never read anything like it and probably never will again. Absolutely, positively the numer one Yuri Manga of 2008 in any language is Nakamura Ching’s Gunjou.

As always, you can find all the English manga listed here and many other titles available on the Yuricon Shop, where your support nabs you great Yuri. ;-)

Check back in a few days for my Top Ten Yuri of the year!





Day of the Revolution Manga, Volume 2 (English)

December 23rd, 2008

Have you read Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s love letter to Vita Sackville-West that she cleverly disguised as a novel? If you have, you have also read Day of the Revolution, Volume 2.

Megumi, formerly Kei, is dealing with the single most pressing issue of her *entire* life – how to find a boyfriend, quickly, before she cracks under the pressure of being the only desirable female in the entire school. Really, shouldn’t there be at least one other issue that is at least as important than the absurd notion that she must hury-hurry-hurry and pair up immediately!!!!!!!!! Oh, right, right it’s a comedy. And it is amusing, as Megumi’s best friend forever hooks her up with her own little brother, Mikoto. Mikoto, you might remember is forced to cross-dress on a regular basis in another of Tsuda’s stories, Princess Princess. So, of course he’ll understand Megumi’s issues. Unfortunately, Mikoto’s still just a kid, so Megumi’s kind of forced to be the seme in that relationship, and for both their sakes they will have to take it slow. Which works out okay in the end.

Like most classic “comedies,” the girl who was a boy gets the boy who is occasionally a girl for money, and everyone lives *happily* ever after. ^_^

What?

Oh, Yuri? Ah, nope. But the author’s notes are as interesting as ever.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 0

Overall – 7

Many thanks to Amanda M. who is the sponsor of today’s review and our newest Okazu hero! Amanda, email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com and receive your Hero’s Badge. ^_^





Hitohira Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 15th, 2008

“In manga, no one can hear you scream….”

Or not scream, as in the case of Hitohira, Volume 1.

The manga follows almost exactly the same (non-)plot as the anime of the same name (reviewed last year by guest reviewer Hafl.) In short, a girl named Asai Mugi, who suffers from debilitating shyness, is coerced into joining one of two Drama clubs in the school, thus thrusting herself both literally and figuratively on to both dramatic and political stages.

Also like the anime, Mugi’s problems almost immediately take back seat to those of the charismatic and dedicated – perhaps too dedicated – club leader, Ichinose Nono and her intense love/hate relationship with the leader of the other Drama club, Mirei Sakaki.

Because this is manga, we are not forced to listen to Mugi’s protracted mumbling, or ineffective stutterings. Unfortunately, it also means that we aren’t able to listen to Nono’s wonderful voice. But we’ll take the bad with the good, I guess.

I was underwhelmed by this manga, but only because I find the story to be as thin as Mugi’s voice. The reproduction of the book is quite good, and the art is pretty much exactly what we have come to expect from the anime. Interestingly, although the book was published at the original Japanese size and reads right-to-left, Aurora has chosen to not use honorifics and reversed the names into Western name order…. It seems a bit haphazard, but doesn’t particularly affect the story.

Perhaps future volumes will be more Yuri-riffic, but this series relies mostly on Yuri goggles in any case. Nono and Mirei are a solid “best friends gone bad” with a frisson of maybe…if we squint hard…a little bit more than just that.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Characters – 7
Story – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Much thanks to Okazu hero Dean C. (who is clearly angling for superhero status ^_^) for sponsoring today’s review!





Sunshine Sketch Manga, Volume 2 (English)

November 28th, 2008

In Volume 2 of Sunshine Sketch, Yuuno is settling into life at the Hidamari dorms. School life is filled with quizzes no one studies for, class trips, midterms no one studies for, festivals, lunchtimes, final exams no one studies for, waking up late and falling asleep in class, eating food, taking baths and other minutiae of happy school life. Just like in Volume 1.

Here was my freshman high school year schedule:

5AM Wake up
5-7 – commute to school, then to the YMCA
7-8AM Swim team practice
9:00 arrive at school late, exhausted and with red, puffy eyes so the junkie who sat next to me wondered what I’m on (totally a true story)
2:50 PM – class gets out, go to German Club/Trivia Team/Marching Band depending on day of the week
5:30-6:00 PM eat dinner
7PM-10:00 PM Swim team meet/football game/band competition

When I think about it, I cannot imagine how I passed. When the heck did I do my homework? (Well…I know how I passed geometry. A belated thank you to Suzanne for turning the pages in my book, and nudging me when I snored, and Edmund for doing all of my homework, except the stuff I cribbed off Barbara and Celeste.)

Anyway….

Yuuno’s life is about that level of busy too. She is joined in these daily hijinks by Sae and Hiro, who really would make a great couple if they were left to it, and punchline-girl Miyako, without whom all the setup would be wasted.

Yuri is pretty much on one page – two related gags that pair Hiro and Sae up and make the unneccessary extra point that Sae=Yuri, in case we managed to suddenly look away from the page at the key moment – something that is later negated for no reason whatsoever. It makes me wish I could see the continuing adventures (alternate fanfic version) where Hiro pursues Sae and they live happily ever after.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Another amusing 4-koma comic strip that makes pleasant reading, but leaves no lingering flavor.

Thanks be to Dean C’s sponsorship of this moment of nostalgia! Dean – email me and get your “Okazu hero” badge for display on website, blog, email or wherever fine digital badges are displayed. ^_^