Archive for the English Manga Category


Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2007

December 23rd, 2007

Arrrghhhhh! How on earth am I supposed to pick a Top Ten? There was so much with dribbles of Yuri and so little that was *good*. I could do a Top 4 easy, 3 anyway. lol Again, to ease my indecision crisis of conscience, I’m splitting the list into English and Japanese…and cheating by having a bunch of Honorable Mentions. It’s not like this is a science or I get extra points for precision or anything. lol

English Language Manga

Honorable Mentions: Because they made the Top Ten lists last year and because I’ve beat them to death here at Okazu, I would like to give Honorable Mentions to both Read or Dream and Strawberry Marshmallow. I can’t get enough of them, but I’m sick to death of singing their praises. :-)

5) Kedamono Damono

This series is a go nowhere dead-end shoujo romance story where the Yuri is meant to provide comedy and ballast for the straight romance. But as far as the volumes I read went, the *only* part of the romance that was even marginally functional was the Yuri part, so, despite my personal disinterest in the story, we’ll give it fifth place.

4) Yuri Monogatari 5

This year’s anthology from ALC is almost *exactly* the book I want to publish. With 6 stories by Japanese artists and 8 by artists from the rest of the world, this is an awesome book. Happy sad, realistic, fantastic, there’s something for everyone. I don’t personally love every story, but every story taught me something. As the only example of josei Yuri by women for women out there, I’d be remiss if I ignored it out of humility. If I hadn’t published it myself, it would have still made this list – and probably at a much higher rank.

3) The Last Uniform

How I wish I liked this series. But I don’t. I don’t care for the endless gavotte these girls dance around one another and I have never liked the art. But Seven Seas does an exceptional job of reproduction and it’s the only really Yuri manga they mangaged to get on to the shelves in 2007, so I could point to it and say, “this is Yuri.” For the sheer Yuriness of it, The Last Uniform comes in third.

2) Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl

I was so very, very sure when I first read this series, that Hazumu was going to end up the series as a boy. I’m very pleased to have been wrong about that – and about every other thing in regards to this series that I predicted. lol The story had some serious handwaves to overcome, but is fairly solid as a love story and a Yuri one at that. And extra points to Seven Seas for what continues to be the best adaptation of a manga into English that I’ve seen.

1) Iono-sama Fanatics

I can’t tell you how excited I was that this apparently obscure Yuri manga was translated. It’s whimsical, fun, action-filled and well…Yuri. Fujieda Miyabi’s art is moe to the max, and yet it really grew on me. He writes sweet, somewhat goofy stories that don’t adhere to most of the tropes of Yuri. No schoolgirls here, just a Queen and her handmaidens, ridiculous adventures and Yuri love. While Infinity definitely can improve in their adaptation of the book, the story and characters carry this series far above and beyond the rest of this year’s lot. The winner, without question for this year’s best Yuri manga in English – Iono-sama Fanatics.

Japanese Language Manga

Honorable Mentions: These go to Kools which I have yet to read, but am adding to this list solely on the basis of Erin’s glowing recommendation. :-) And Gunsmith Cats Burst for bringing back Evil Psycho Lesbian Goldie and notching up Misty’s campaign to stay near Rally in a way that will surely start a new round of fanfic somewhere. lol

5) Sakura no Kiwa

No one paid the least bit attention as I reviewed this ridiculous series by the same artist that created Transistor ni Venus. lol It has a passive-agressive lesbian couple – in all sorts of denial – and slacker family members, and way too many cats. In a sane universe I would have loathed and despised it, only, I didn’t. In fact, I’m really hoping against hope for a 4th volume I know will probably never come. No one’s gonna scanlate this. No one cares. No one but me, that is. Fifth, dammit.

4) Kawaii Anata

Like many of the Yuri Hime collections, these stories work better as an anthology than they did as separate stories in the magazine. Hiyori Otsu also eschews the typical tropes for older, sometimes randomly cracked characters, but even the typical characters seem to have some depth. The art is pleasing, the stories don’t make one want to bang one’s head against the wall, so it comes in at an easy fourth.

3) Hatsukoi Shimai

This series, with two volumes out now in Japanese with a third around the corner,and one out any day in English, is so stereotypically “Yuri” that it hurts. Like The Last Uniform it is about love among students at an all-girl’s school. Unlike The Last Uniform, the girls actually get together, with admissions of love and kissing (necking, even) and all the stuff that so frequently is missing from schoolgirl Yuri. And it has Touko-sensei, whose inappropriate and unethical relationsip with Akiho is my most favorite couple in the series. :-) When they get together, this series goes up a rank. Third place for this Yuri Hime serial where the girl actually *gets* the girl.

2) Hayate x Blade

In reality, there is only one lesbian character in this series. But there are dozens of couples. Hitsugi and Shizuku, Kiji and Michi, Akira and Sae, Momoka and Isuzu…the list goes on and on. But above all of them, Jun, with her openly proclaimed love and desire for women and Hayate with her openly proclaimed love and desire for Ayana, make this baka school/action/comedy win for Yuri fans everywhere. With Hayashiya Shizuru at the helm, you can be sure to get laughs and Yuri love aplenty.

Envelope please…this year’s winner for best Yuri Manga in the Japanese language is….

1) Aoi Hana

Technically, this book was published right at the end of 2006, but I bought, read and reviewed it in the beginning of 2007. Sweet Blue Flowers is yet another schoolgirl Yuri story. With a simple, quiet feel, an understated realism and touching, interesting characters, this story, like Hatsukoi Shimai is practically a poster child for the genre. I was honestly hoping to have Volume 3 by now to review, but I’ll be sure to pick it up asap in Tokyo. Fumi and Yasuko’s relationship has few fireworks, but the drama is solid. For taking the same old story and doing something *good* with it, Shimura Takako’s Aoi Hana takes top prize.

We have one winner from the boy’s side – Iono-sama Fanatics and one from the girls’ side – Aoi Hana. How balanced we are here at Okazu!

Tomorrow – the final countdown for the year! Bring popcorn!





Eternal Alice Rondo Manga, Volume 1 (English)

December 20th, 2007

Two quick things before we wade into today’s review:

One, I want to thank everyone who has bought items off the Yuri Wishlist this year with special thanks to Ted, Dan and Eric. I’m usually a little uncomfortable accepting gifts and everyone’s generosity leaves me a bit breathless. But I believe that accepting gifts graciously is the responsibility of the receiver so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you all, and especially those three gentlemen. Because of you, Okazu keeps rolling along and I can have clothes and food, too. :-)

All orders between now and 12/23 will go out on the 24th. After that, I’m suspending shipping for a few weeks while I am out of the country. This also goes for all third-party orders for alc_pub items through Amazon. Items purchased through Amazon directly other third party vendors are not affected by this, unless they are on backorder and then there’s a whole other set of issues.

That’s it for my announcements. Today’s review is entirely because of something Dan said today in an email – that Okazu allows him to “groom his inner LFB.” ^-^It’s such a great line, I wanted to do something especially servicey for him today. And looking over my pile of things to review, Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo, Volume 1 certainly seems to fit the bill.

When I originally read this manga as it ran monthly in Dengeki Daioh I was struck by the sensation that Kaishaku was flailing pretty desperately during this series, in both art and story. Month after month, I slogged through the chapters and basically never figured out what the heck was going on (aside from the obvious.) It came as no surprise to me to find that the story makes no more sense in English than it did in Japanese. Eternal Alice Rondo is simply a shitty story. ^_^

The story is basically the same as that of the anime – there are two famous “Alice” books that everyone knows and a third that was never written. The third lives in the hearts of girls who fight each other for fill-in-the-blank-reason. Aruto, a “nice guy” who loves the Alice books and wants to write his own Alice stories, bumbles into the magic world where these girls fight, and finds he has the ability to read and copy the stories in each girls’ heart. He does this to collect the whole of the third, unwritten book.

Of course that’s not what the story is about. The story is really about the unhealthy obsession Aruto’s sister has for him, her attempts to “get closer to him” while he fights off interest in or from every single female in this female-heavy series. Each girl pretty much represents a fetish, something Kaishaku does with regularity. Aruto’s actual love interest, Arisu, is a dead ringer for his idea of what “Alice” looks like. She seems pretty normal, so you just know there’s going to be a catch. (And there is, but it doesn’t happen in this volume.)

The Yuri fetish is represented in Volume 1 by Kisa, Aruto’s sister Kirara’s bestest friend. Kisa is a monomaniac, as all lesbians are, and incapable of expressing her feelings, as all lesbians are. So she seems pretty realistic. Except for the whole magical girl fighting giant key thing. I have yet to see a lesbian do that. :-) Because Kirara is also a monomaniac, she never notices Kisa’s feelings and because they are both girls Kisa gets away with a lot, without giving anything away. But the relationship is destined to go nowhere. I predict a single farewell kiss as Kisa dies in a future volume. Because we likes our Yuri characters hopeless, crazy and/or dead, yes we do. ;-)

I’m not really torn about Eternal Alice Rondo – I always thought the story sucked. Sucked when I read it the first time, it sucked as an anime and isn’t any better in English. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Aruto’s hair was criminal – 4 at its best
Story – …seriously? – 4 at best
Characters – Other than Kirara – 5 Kirara – 2
Yuri – 3
Service – your pick, but the incestophiles win – 9

Overall – 4





Yuri Manga: Strawberry Marshmallow, Volume 4

November 28th, 2007

Hi Hi! Miu Matsuoka here, the most adorable of all girls in the entire world! Yay!

I’m supposed to thank some guy named Ted for something. Beats me why, and what kind of name is “Ted” anyway? Let’s call him…Greenie, no, wait, Bellboy! Thanks, Bellboy, for whatever it was that I was supposed to thank you for!

I’m here to tell you what Strawberry Marsmallow, Volume 4, is about, and since it’s obviously about *me*, you ought to appreciate my personal appearance.

First, some weirdo pervy saleman harrasses me and the others, and I had to teach him a lesson about being a freak near cute, innocent girls like me. And I managed to score a really nice case of makeup, too.

Then I explored my creative side with some awesome manga that I drew. (Aside from being cute and athletic, I am also incredibly talented as an artist. It’s hard to find such a rare genius as I.) Of course, because I’m way ahead of the curve artistically, no one was mature enough to appreciate my work. Pfft.

Matsuri had a really disturbed dream about me as a dog. I really worry about that girl. And then Chika thought she was getting fat. I helped her work it off with some sage advice about exercise. Nobue ruined it all by pointing out that Chika had gotten taller. Really, she’s a total joykill.

Chika totally needs to be a little more vain, because every time I write on her face, hours go by before she notices. ^_^

Nobue worries me too. Seriously. She’s always hanging out with me and the younger kids and she never seems to go out. I came up with a genius plan to get her to dress all girly and get ready for a date, just in case a guy should ever, one day, want to. Like that will ever happen.

Oh, this was a good one! Matsuri, Ana and Nobue went back to school to get Mats’ recorder. Chika and I tried to scare them, but Nobue totally got us back. It was awesome.

Then there’s some school life stuff. I slept through most of it, so it’s kind of boring.

And then we were all stuck inside and I tried to come up with some excellent amusement for Nobue and myself. Chika didn’t appreciate it. Man, that girl can deliver a beatdown when’s she’s mad.

In between all the great stuff I did, there were these questions and answers that we had to do. I was brilliant as usual. And you know what, Ana’s a super bore. Nobue really needs to look for a domestic beauty, such as myself.

Ratings:

Art – This is *me* we’re talking about! 10, at least. 11, since, me.
Story – Not bad, although there was a little too much Matsuri – 8
Characters – Me – 10, Nobue – 10, Chika – 9, Matsuri – 3, Ana – 2
Yuri – mmmm….I like Nobue, and Chika’s sort of my soulmate, but I swing both ways, so – 4
Service – like that pervy salesman guy? Ewww. – 5

Overall – The bits with me, 8, definitely

I think you should get this book and send me fanmail. But there’s no way I’m giving you my email or anything. Just contact my agent and don’t bother me with your drivel. I’m much too important to deal with the likes of you.





Najica Blitz Tactics Manga, Volume 1

November 17th, 2007

I finally had a chance to open up the bag of manga I bought at Yurisai to sit down and read it, and lo and behold, I find I had bought Najica Blitz Tactics from Bill at Anime Castle. Why? I have no idea. And so today I sat down to read what is clearly a plotless piece of junk.

You know how some people have good gaydar? I actually do, but that’s not the point here. The point is that I also, inexplicably, have exceptionally good Yuridar. I can pick a book quite randomly off the shelf at Book-Off and find that, magically, there is some Yuri in it. And not just Yuri in which two women are near each other a lot and they seem to like one another, no I mean – Yuri as in a raging lesbian who sleeps her way through the book. Yet another magic lesbian power for Erica. Woot.

Let’s face it – no one in their right mind cares about Najica. It’s so junk that it makes other junk look good. (On the other hand, last night I watched the end of ICE, which was so bad that it made Najica look good, so everything’s relative.)

The plot is thin and silly – Najica and her non-human sidekick Lila are agents for CRI, a top-secret perfume company.

…

Should I continue?

Okay, then. Together they wear short skirts and fight against corporate espionage, random baddies doing who knows what and occasionally save a small European kingdom along the way.

In one of the chapters, Najica is sent to assasinate a competitor who is flooding the market with cheap off-brand copies of a high-end perfume her company makes. (Noooooo! the wife says) She tracks him to a casino, where’s she’s hit on by some young jerk. The competitor disappears, but Najica finds him trussed up, because he had the young jerk’s parents killed back in the day. Najica sympathizes, but won’t get paid if she doesn’t do the work, so she’s the one who shoots him. As it turns out (I know you’re waiting for it) the jerk is actually a woman. As Najica and Lila drive away, young, female, but no less jerky than before, jerk runs after Najica trying to get her name, her number, her body…bwa-wa-waaaah.

In other news, Najica and Lila have that typical fanboy-Yuri relationship which implies that they might have some feelings for one another if, say, Lila was human. But she isn’t, so any emotions you see are entirely you projecting. Najica is clearly fond of Lila. Any other emotions you see are entirely you projecting.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 2
Characters – 4
Yuri – 3
Service – 8

Overall – 4

It’s crap. It’s not even so bad it’s good. But it’s still better than ICE.





Aqua Manga, Volume 1 (English)

November 8th, 2007

Before I launch into today’s review, I have another news item of interest that I want to add to yesterday’s news.

English manga guru and editor of Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson, has named Yuri Monogatari 5 one of the hottest translated mangaof the autumn. Thanks Jason! We think so too.

Okay, so on to today’s review!

Aqua was the predecessor to Aria and is pretty much exactly the same, only a little less refined. This volume is the first of the “new” Aria volumes by Tokyopop. I can’t say I was hugely impressed. I admit to having some actual expectations of quality for this volume, so when I got it, I was disappointed. See – there’s that thing about expectations, again. Not having them makes everything so much easier.

The story of Aqua Volume 1, is delightful, whimsical and fluffy – exactly what one expects from another sojourn on the planet Aqua and the in city of Neo-Venezia, specifically. Volume 1 follows the ironically named Mizunashi Akari as she travels to Aqua to take up a position as a gondolier-in-training at Aria Company, and her adventures once she gets there. For a previous look at the story, here is my review of Aqua in Japanese.

Yuri is confined to Aika’s raging case of akogare. As this is the beginning of the story, her case is a bit more persistent and crushy than it will later become. If you were to read this first, you could easily be half-convinced that Aika’s pretty far gone. It’s a cute, classic “schoolgirl crush”-type crush. ^_^

For the story and characters – I agree with most other reviewers, Aqua is great. But technically…

Aside from the not very attractive new logo for Aqua, the cover of this volume is also burdened by the cover art used for the second release in Japan – a picture I really just don’t like. The first cover was ever so much more attractive. I know it’s just me being old and grumpy – but the picture makes me feel like my eyes won’t focus right.

The reproduction of the color pages in black and white is simply *bad*. Very, very bad. And the reproduction quality for the entire volume fades in and out without rhyme or reason. Maybe it was a printer error, maybe it was something else, but it irked me. Alot. I’ve had similar problems putting together the Yuri Monogatari series, but I’m working with multiple artists and systems, and varying levels of understanding about DPI and format. Tokyopop wasn’t. So what was the deal?

My only other complaint is just me being a total asshole. ^_^ (Hey, why should today be any different?) The preview at the back of the book, which is titled Aqua, Volume 2, is inexplicably actually a preview for Aria, Volume 1. I guess the editor hadn’t read the manga and wasn’t familiar with the actual story. But I was kind of surprised that that wasn’t caught.

Now, the thing that Tokyopop was trumpeting about the new acquisition and the eventual release of their own editions of Aria 1-3, was the new and improved translation. I had no problem with the original ADV translation, but that’s probably because I wasn’t paying attention. I read those first volumes in English once – a million years ago it feels like – and haven’t looked at them again.

I will give TP total props for leaving in all the honorifics. That was great. It was so great that I never even noticed that they were there, because I was just reading the story, not squicking at “Miss Alicia” and the like. So total thumbs up for that, TP. In asshole mode once more, I didn’t much like the font they chose for the words – and you know, I’m not sure I ever really felt that strongly about a font before. There was just something about this one. My last completely absurd LFG complaint is that, while I understand completely that they had to change some things to differentiate from the ADV translation, changing “embarrassing lines are prohibited” to whatever it was that they used just to make sure it was different, felt forced and awkward. AND they were changing the meaning of the words, which is unforgivable. Use “embarrassing lines are forbidden!” or something, if you must. But again, that’s me doing that LFG thing where if it’s not exactly the way we want it, we fans lay on the ground and kick and scream until we get a lollipop. ^_^

Objectively, if one had no expectations, Tokyopop did a fine job, with the exception of the rendering of the color pages. Those were just…bad. As an adaptation from the Japanese, linguistically is volume is good, but technically not so much.

Ratings:

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

Translation – 8
Reproduction – 4

Overall – 6

For my part, I’m probably going to give this volume to the library and stick with the original Japanese volumes when I want to spend some time with Akari and the crew.