Archive for the English Manga Category


Not Yuri Manga: Yen Plus (English)

August 24th, 2008

It’s obvious that I primarily focus on Yuri here at Okazu, not because I don’t read and/or watch anything else, but because there’s still very few people who blog on Yuri at all and pretty much no one who brings my particular perspective to the table. In fact, I do watch and read any number of series without Yuri (no, really, I do!) but I don’t tend to talk about them here. However…

Yen Press was kind enough to send me a copy of Yen Plus, their new manga anthology magazine (thanks Yen!). As a business model, I find it both encouraging and interesting. If I understand correctly, the intention is to run five chapters of a story in the magazine – one collected volume’s worth – then when it goes to tankoubon, move it out of the magazine and replace it with a new story. The idea being that by then, you’ll know if you want to follow the series or not. It’s not quite the same impetus as a new chapter every month eternally in a magazine followed by collected volumes, but it’s a step in that direction. Also interesting is that Yen Press chose to put the Japanese manga stories in the book reading right to left, and Korean and English stories left to right – something that I considered doing for Yuri Monogatari 5 as well, but chose not to. (The decision for not doing so was based primarily on my outreach to non-manga fans, especially lesbian comics fans. They are not used to right-to-left reading and with so many other learning curves for them to deal with when reading ALC anthologies, like honorifics, I felt that it would simply be asking too much of a non-manga-reading audience. In case you wondered why we flip the Japanese stories…)

Now, normally, I wouldn’t bother reviewing this volume because there is no Yuri (except in one advertisement for what sounds to be a brutally unfunny series with a great title, Alice on Deadlines) and because every other reviewer in the manga-verse has already reviewed it. But, I couldn’t help but notice that as I read it, I pretty much *disagreed* with every other reviewer in the manga-verse about the stories. In fact, the stories I liked, no one else seems to, and the stories everyone else raves about, (notably “Pig Bride,”) I didn’t like at all. So I decided to review this, just to put out a completely different point of view on things.

Starting with the left-to-right side:

“Maximum Drive” does not seem to have garnered much enthusiasm from reviewers. I’m not a big James Patterson fan, and yay the heroine seems to be a “cute lil’ urchin” so you can guess that I really don’t care what happens next. But. In and of itself, it didn’t seem that bad. The art’s aesthetically pleasing and easy to follow. Whether the story ends up being interesting, we’ll have to wait and see.

Unlike most reviewers, I quite liked “Nightschool” and didn’t really see the problems that most people felt it had. Too much setup, too many characters at once…neither of these bothered me. It’s true that Japanese manga tend to parse out the character introductions a few at a time, rather than dumping them all on us at once, but I found it refreshing to see a pile of players, rather than thinking we had teams established, but oh, wait, there’s a new bad guy/good guy/MOTD. This was one of the few stories I might care to follow.

Okay, I just do not know what everyone sees in “Pig Bride.” I found it cloying, predictable and utterly tedious. (Not to mention insulting to women who are not model-types.) The fact that the hero is a grade-A asshole neither surprised me nor pleased me. I’m just not seeing the charm.

The same goes for “Sarasah” – it read like a typical josei-style romance in which the horrible girl likes a horrible guy and horrible things happen. It instilled in me the same feelings of murderous frustration I felt upon reading Peach Girl. Dear straight women – what the hell is entertaining about reading/watching women being complete idiots and being abused by men?????? I just do not get you or your desire to watch women being treated like crap. UGH.

“One Fine Day” is an adorable little cartoon about the adorable little animals that live with some guy and the adorable little things they do in their adorable little girl avatar forms. I hate it, but it wasn’t the comic’s fault. I just hate kids and cats. And cute things. If you like kids, cats and cute things, it will be a very enjoyable story.

Everyone has already talked about “Jack Frost” and mentioned how violent it is, etc, etc. I didn’t mind the violence, but the disembodied head reagrding her own upraised rear end was a tad gratuitous, I felt. Violence does not put me off usually, but the story wasn’t compelling. I prefer my homicidal maniacs to be women.

Over to the Japanese side:

“Soul Eater” was dreadful. I want that time back.

I was all ready to dislike “Nabari no Ou” but amazingly, didn’t. Sean said that he felt that the lead was okay, but the premise was meh. I liked the premise, but thought the lead was meh. lol I like Aizawa and the Nindo club advisor – and I kind of liked the thought that, as stupid as they seem, they are actually right on top of things. Ninja stories are okay by me, too, as long as we stick to basics. No Naruto-esque techniques need apply. Above all, I really liked the end of the chapter and would very much like to know what happened.

“Sumomo Momomo” was also dreadful. I want that time back and the piece of my soul it took away as I flipped the pages.

I ran into a bit of a bind with “Bamboo Blade.” I *know* it becomes a totally awesome story later on, but for the first few chapters, we’re forced to watch the idiot teacher being an idiot. If I did not already know that BamBlade turned awesome, I’d probably never read another chapter after these two. (And it seemed obvious to me that chapter two was included so we could bask in the wonderfulness that is Tama-chan. I bet that they realized that if they only ran chapter one, everyone would not give a damn about the series.) But I do know it becomes awesome, so I’ll probably stick it out and start reading the collected volumes from Volume 2 on.

“Higurashi: When They Cry” was not a series I enjoyed in Japanese. I was not at all surprised that I did not enjoy it in English. I know I’m in the minority with this opinion, but there’s something very unpleasant about this series from the very first page/panel/seconds of anime, that makes me cringe. It wasn’t the violence – it was the lack of caring about the violence. There’s no meaning in it. It’s just a means to a very heavy-handed set of messages. So, I’ll pass.

Technically, I think Yen did a very excellent job. Everyone else thinks so too, so no surprise there. And everyone else has commented on the kind of “random audience” issue that one runs into with stories of such variety, so I won’t belabor that.

The outcome is that there are two stories of the eleven total that I genuinely enjoyed and one that if it was going to run long enough in the magazine, that I know I would enjoy. There were three that I’d be willing to give a little more time to and the rest I found utterly without merit. In general, that’s enough of a “okay” percentage for me to get a magazine. So, I’ll try another issue or two and see how it goes. However – and this is key – I, like most other reviewers am not sure if this magazine something that I would bother subscribing to. And there, more than anything, is the big hurdle Yen will have to confront in 5 months. Is the variety of the stories going to bring more people in, or put more people off. Tune in at the beginning of 2009 to see! In the meantime, I recommend to Yen the technique Japanese manga magazines have of finding out which series people like and do not – insert postcards with marketing questions (age, location, etc,) and which series you like best and least. These get sent in for the possibility of prizes, so the company gets a running commentary on which series are the most and least popular. This might be moot if they are planning on moving stories out of the magazine after five issue, but also might serve to help them decide what *kinds* of stories are doing the best.

Thanks again to Yen Press for the copy of Yen Plus – and by all means, do NOT make your decisions based on my opinions. Get your own copy and tell me in the comments field what you think!





Angel/Dust Manga (English) Guest Review by Eric P.

August 22nd, 2008

Today, we have another guest review – this time by Friend of Yuri Eric P, who has become a right-hand pinky to me, if not a whole right hand. lol Eric sends us news items, suggestions of things to keep an eye out for and reviews, as well as always being a big supporter of Yuricon and ALC. So, thanks Eric – take it away!

Angel/Dust is a one-shot manga about Yuina, your typical plain-jane high school girl who never stood out much and preferred it that way.

One day an angelic woman literally falls from the sky in front of her. She reveals her code-name to be ‘Seraph’ and that she’s an Emulate, a bioroid from an alternate dimension of Earth. In the world she came from, Emulates were made to integrate with human beings on an atomic level, drawing out their latent capabilities.

While stranded on Yuina’s Earth, she forms a contract with Yuina(sealed with a kiss much to Yuina’s surprise,) exchanging memories and knowledge, and thus the typical plain-jane high school girl becomes a winged super-girl and, through this, discovers many aspects of herself. Another female Emulate named Lucifer arrives on the scene, forms a contract with Yuina’s classmate Akiho, who in turn regards Yuina as a (pathetic)rival. What follows is a customary battle between Good and Evil.

At this deceptively simple manga’s heart it’s about a young girl growing up, but there are still a range of plot complexities squeezed into just nine chapters. While trying not to go into real spoiler details, it sheds light on what kind of world Earth becomes in the future. Unless Yuina just bears a striking resemblance to the woman Seraph said was important to her, it even hints Seraph and Yuina may have known each other in that world, and regardless of the manga’s bittersweet ending they would find each other again. How that happens, it doesn’t say; it just leaves you wondering.

To try to describe this manga would make it sound like a condensed mess; while it might be condensed it’s certainly not a mess, at least in my opinion. What’s important are the concepts and themes it revolves around, such as living life and not running away from facing problems, and there it says everything it needs to say.

While not groundbreaking, Aoi Nanase’s artwork is really beautiful. Maybe readers have seen better, more finely-detailed angelic imagery in manga like Angel Sanctuary, or even anime like Haibane Renmei, but the designs in Angel/Dust are still lovely eye candy. When I first followed this manga in Newtype USA (before it went defunct), it was like seeing it all on a big-screen theater, especially with the Emulate battles. In its smaller-sized manga format, it’s like appreciating it on the home TV. The pictures are still pretty to look at, but it’s really something else when you get to read it in the original Newtype size.

Whatever Yuri there is, it’s all subtext. I know what you’re all thinking; if it’s subtext, it could easily be seen as not Yuri (Ms. Friedman made it clear to me in an e-mail she doesn’t believe there’s any trace of it in this title, and this review’s not likely to change her mind). We’ve heard this argument many times over, in such titles as Haibane Renmei and Noir, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, all of which have plausible deniability built right into them.

After when Seraph ‘forms the contract’ with Yuina, the latter wakes up in bed the next morning and finds Seraph in bed with her and screams. Later in the story, Seraph tries making Yuina breakfast, with imperfect results. These are classic/standard scenes out of almost all awkward romances that involve one of the two characters not being human. On the other hand, they can just be seen as usual comedy/fanservice scenes and nothing more. Yuina and Seraph have many moments together that could be interpreted either way.

So what example could make readers at least open up to the idea of the subtext? For a good example, I’ll have to reference the sequel manga, Angel/Dust Neo. In this story, average-joe Akito forms a contract with not one, not two, but three Emulates. The contract-sealing ‘kiss’ itself may mostly be to exchange knowledge/memories and to bring out the person’s latent potential, but their bond still develops into something more, and they all vie for his attention and affection. So if making a contract is a metaphor fors ealing a romantic relationship of some kind, why would it be any different between Yuina and Seraph? Maybe in their case, it could be seen as an example of that ‘intense emotional connection’ that Erica has touched on before, where it’s not consciously recognized as ‘love’ or ‘desire’ but the attraction’s still there on a subtle level. \\

Quickly regarding Angel/Dust Neo; it may have a more upbeat narrative than Angel/Dust, but I wouldn’t recommend it so much. Angel/Dust’s storyline may feel rushed, but at least it had a beginning, middle, and an end. Angel/Dust Neo has a beginning—then stops. Its ets everything up for what might have been a long-running series, but then just ends before the real story gets rolling; literally nothing happens. It’s a good thing it stops before we’d have to read through another generic, formulaic harem title (even here you’d find the amnesiac girl, punkish girl, and lolicon girl), but then what’s the point? The only two things that make Angel/Dust Neo worth reading would be to see more of Aoi Nanase’s artwork, and for Yuina’s(all-too-)brief cameo in the first couple pages, which provides a miniscule, cryptic clue to how her world bridges with that of Seraph’s world.

All in all, Angel/Dust is one of those stories where you can find deeper meaning to it if you want, and even if you just take it at surface level you might still find it enjoyable light reading. Just looking at the cover should give enough sense of what you’re in for.

Ratings:

Art – 9 (you can’t go wrong with angel-images, and AoiNanase does it well)
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1 (I’d actually say 2, but I’ll just play it safe here)
Service – 0 (unless you count Seraph’s getup in thesecond chapter, then maybe 1)

Overall – 7

Erica here again. Thanks Eric, it’s always great to get a point of view that is not my own. It’s true that I don’t think of this series as Yuri, but plenty of people do, so I’m really glad that you wrote this review for us. ^_^





Battle Club Manga, Volume 4 and 5 (English)

August 20th, 2008

Battle Club is one of those manga that I read, then immediately think “Why am I reading this?” I’m not desperate for the sight of breasts or crotch shots, and I’m not enamored of bathroom humor. So after asking myself “why?” pretty much every single time I finish a volume of this, I can only come up with two possible answers: 1) I’ll read just about anything and, 2) I’m taking one for *you,* my loyal readers, so you don’t have to. ^_^; You’re welcome.

To be blunt, there’s nothing good about Battle Club. It scrapes the bottom of the gutter with every issue. In a bizarro way, it’s still sort of entertaining, if only to watch the author flail as he has to come up with new set-ups for the same three gags (“accidental” breast nudi

Volume 4 is pretty much Yuri-free, but has lots of the usual service as the members of the Swan HS wrestling club take on the nefarious – and rather irritating – members of the absurdly named N.O.B. organization. Tamako loses, which crushes her ego for a whole *chapter,* before eating a lot of curry and beating a bunch of guys up, which cheers her up right away. I can sort of sympathize with this. Beating people up makes me happy too. :-)ty, crotch shots, hard-on/pee jokes.) I love the pointless attempt to include something like a plot in the middle of these three things over and over. Very amusing.

Volume 5 continues the N.O.B. arc, and implies that there’s a real plot behind this all, but in reality the important scene is when the “lesbian” Vice Manager of the club, Higuchi, fake-kisses bathing-suit wearing loli Koumoku for mouth-to-mouth, then precedes to strip her and assumably do something naughty, or something. We are archly reminded that the VP is a lesbian, because we might have forgotten – or more likely thought that she was really a bottom-feeding guy. She is also seen later with a gaggle of female attendants giving her a tongue bath. Lesbians always do that, too. Mukoda almost fake-kisses Tamako, but doesn’t. The rest of the volume is cluttered up with wrestling and revenge and other uninteresting plot stuff.

Hey – did you know that girls wear underpants? But not bras, apparently.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 1
Characters – 3
Yuri – 2
Service – a million

Overall – 4

Thanks to today’s heroes, Dan P. and Everett L. for sponsoring yet another Okazu review. Your kindness is greatly appreciated. Now can you get me something *not* scuzzy to read? ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 2 (English)

August 15th, 2008

In an epic display of overthinking things, it occurred to me that one could, if one was so inclined, consider Kannazuki no Miko Volume 1 as a story that stars Himeko, and concerns the bad choices she makes. In which case Volume 2 can equally be seen as an explication of Chikane’s story and her own series of bad choices.

I’m not saying that they *are* this, just that one *could,* if one was in the habit of sitting on a train and overthinking crappy manga, think that. ^_^

Tokyopop did a very superior job with this series. I want to say that right at the top of this review, because otherwise it might get lost in the middle of my damning with faint praise. ^_^

Volume 2 of Kannazuki starts with the morning after Chikane choses to protect Himeko by doing something unforgivable and making Himeko hate her, with Himeko forgiving her. Chikane pushes the envelope further and further, joining and destroying the Orochi, all to protect Himeko from having to chose an unhappy fate “for eternity.”

The best scene is when Sister Miyako uses her mirrors and illusions to seduce Chikane in the guise of Himeko. Faced with her heart’s (and other organ’s) desire, it takes everything Chikane has to refuse the illusion’s offer – and it’s the first honest glimpse of who she really is, behind the facade of cynical cruelty.

Once again Kaishaku show themselves as trendsetters, by bringing the series to a close with Chikane and Himeko reborn into a happy love affair as sisters.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8
Service – 8

Overall – 7

I can’t help but wonder – will this actually be the last Kannazuki no Miko post I ever make? Has this series’ time passed? A whole new generation of Yuri fans are being born even as we speak. What generic tropes and hideous fetishes will they be indoctrinated with…? Stay tuned to find out!





Yuri Manga: S.S. Astro, Volume 1

August 13th, 2008

Of the three 4-koma manga with Yuri put out by Yen Press, by far and away my favorite is the subject of today’s review, S.S. Astro, Volume 1. This should come as no surprise to anyone, since the characters are adults and there is at least one openly Yuri character. (For those of you who truly understand my tastes, you’ll also understand why she is not my favorite character.  ^_^)

So, for those of you who have not read it, S.S. Astro is a 4-panel comic strip series about 4 teachers in a generic high school. Izumi Maki is the usual slightly doofus-y lead character, this time a terrible homeroom and P.E. teacher who can’t remember her students’ names, and who is basically coasting through work. She is accompanied by Karasuma Kaname, who instantly falls hard for Maki and who spends the entire volume swooning and nose bleeding. Nagumo Yuko, the Japanese language teacher who looks ultra-refined, absurdly so, in fact, but at heart is a total BL fangirl. And my favorite character, Arai Setsuna, the school doctor who is evil incarnate and spends her days hoping someone will come into the infirmary really messed up and bloody. I like her.  ^_^

The comics are typical of the breed – situation setup with pun/punch to the head/nosebleed/hands over mouth -type endings. But unlike many “gag” 4-koma I actually laughed at more than a few of these! Crazy, huh? ^_^

As much as I approve of Karasuma’s suit, glasses, hypercompetence and crushiness for Maki, I find the fact that every time Arai pretends to hit on Maki, Maki forgets to protest, far more appealing. In general, Maki is the clearly Yuri fodder – not only does Karasuma lust after her, and Arai (who went out and broke up with Maki’s brother, so you can be sure that fanfic writers are all *over* that relationship) can’t stop herself from making inappropriate comments, Maki’s an all-around pere who happily plays bishoujo games and sets herself up in very Yuri-service situations.

The best bits are the character profiles, which are not only hysterical, but label Karasuma’s “gender” as “Yuri.”

With a *teeny* little rewrite, this manga would be perfect. If only Maki, Arai and Karasuma were all lesbians and Yuko the straight fangirl. Perfect, right? Only, it’s not, so we’ll just have to accept this not-quite-so-perfect-but-still-very-good actuality.

Ratings:

Art – 5 – sort of generic and hard to follow until you get used to everyone
Story – 7
Characters – 8 they grow on you as the volume goes along
Yuri – 4, with extra helpings of pointless service for laughs
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Kudos to Yen Press for the exceptionally not-jerky translation notes on both Yaoi and Yuri-related items. You win.

And let me thank Jo W. for sponsoring today’s review! A fun manga and a lovely gesture. Thanks Jo!