Archive for the English Manga Category


I Don’t Need A Happy Ending, Guest Review by Eleanor Walker

February 14th, 2024

A woman and her maid embrace gently, on a bed surrounded by draped cloth.Hello, it’s 3 opossums in a trenchcoat disguised as a person back for another review. You can find me dotted around the Internet as @st_owly. Today I’m reviewing I Don’t Need  A Happy Ending, a collection of short stories,  by Mikanuji, the creator of Assorted Entanglements. I liked that series well enough to go in blind on this one when I saw it in the bookstore so here we go.

I’ve always had a soft spot for short stories. Telling a complete tale in a limited amount of pages is a skill unto itself, and a good short story anthology should have something for everyone. With that in mind, I cannot recommend the first story in this book, “I’ll Never Fall In Love With You”. It’s rapey, creepy and everything I dislike about yuri manga written for the male gaze all rolled into 36 convenient pages. 

Happily, the second story in the book is much more pleasant. This is the titular story “I Don’t Need A Happy Ending” and features a historical forbidden love story between a mistress and her maid. Unlike in the first story, the characters actually feel like people rather than sex objects, and without giving too much away, they do get their happy ending. I will freely admit I’m a sucker for historical romance and as someone who adores Victorian Romance Emma, by Kaoru Mori, this scratched the same itch. 

Back to the present day for “I Don’t Know What Love Is,” which features a nihilistic college student and her adoring kouhai. I didn’t particularly care for this chapter either, but it did at least have more plot than the first one and the characters are adults this time. The author also really likes drawing people having sex in (semi) public places.

4th in the collection is “A Day off from Work” in which two childhood friends finally realise their long held feelings for each other. Short and sweet, it’s always nice when two people find each other.

The penultimate story in this volume also appeared in “Whenever Our Eyes Meet: A Women’s Love Anthology” which is also available in English from Yen Press. Another office romance, this time the new temp at the company is the main lead’s fling from the night before, and she’s not out at work. More semi public sex and everyone is happy.

Finally, we finish with a sequel to “I Don’t Need a Happy Ending,” which begins with a timeskip of several years, and that is merely a convenient plot device for more illicit sex. It takes 3 pages before they’re at it.  

Overall, your mileage may vary. as to be expected with an anthology. The author definitely has certain tastes which are reflected in this collection, and if her tastes don’t align with yours you might leave disappointed. For me “I Don’t Need a Happy Ending” and sequel were by far and away the standout of the book, with the others ranging from “get me the brain bleach right now” to “ok that was cute but utterly forgettable.”

Ratings:

Art – 8. The sex scenes are well done and the boobs don’t look like balloons. 
Story – Anywhere from 3 to 7
Characters – Anywhere from 3 to 7
Service – 10. This one is rated M and shrink wrapped for a reason
Yuri – 7. It got better as it went on. 

Overall – 6.5

 





The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 3

February 13th, 2024

Two girls in bed, bathed in a golden glow. A girl with light-colored hair girl watches a dark-haired girl intensely as she sleeps.I’ve been filled with joy reading this series since my first glimpse at it almost two years ago. In my review of Volume 3 of Amayo no Tsuki, (雨夜の月) I said, “we get the last piece that would make this series perfect, IMHO. Whatever happens now, I am in the front row, rooting for everyone.”

Representation is a complex matter. It’s incredibly powerful just to see or read about someone who is like ourselves. In this way, this series has been fantastic, in providing excellent representation of disability and the way accommodation can function when people understand what it is intended to do. But in both narrative and real life the best representation is to actually meet someone like yourself and understand how their lives play out. In The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 3, Saki meets two critically important people.

First, she randomly meets a hair stylist in training who, quite disconcertingly, “sees” Saki, in a way that she is not yet ready to see herself. Akira’s gaydar absolutely pins Saki, and the younger woman is on the receiving end of a cautionary tale about first loves which makes her more self-conscious about the skinship between Kanon and herself. This becomes a bit of a crisis, as Kanon’s sister asks Saki to keep Kanon company one night. Kanon sleeps over and Saki is ecstatic and panicking all night long.

And then, Saki meets Kanon’s former friend, Ayano, who warns her about the price one pays as a caretaker. We can see right away that Ayano’s situation was different, and tragic on several levels –  but the warning Saki receives is, once again, reasonable. In both cases, she is seen and understood, and yet, not understood. Representation is complicated. Saki is going to have to figure this one out for herself…but not on her own, one hopes. Kuzushiro is pulling out all the stops here.

While translation, lettering and editing are all fantastic, technically, this book is a bit problematic. On the Okazu Discord, we recently had a discussion about the indifferent quality of recent print books from Yen and Kodansha. This book arrived with the cover cut too short for the pages. I might have assumed that was a fluke, but a second copy – from a different company – was the same. My last few volume of books from Yen have likewise been not-great quality. She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat had pages cut unevenly, and both publishers have had low-ink faded pages in recent volumes. As I type this, I notice the spine is not lined up correctly in one of the two copies I have. These are production issues that need to be addressed. I hope they’ll both improve their QA a bit this year.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Really not
Yuri – 4, LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

Volume 3 put this series on my top ten lists for last year (and Volume 4 and Volume 5!) It’s a tremendously good series, with a LOT to say about life. If you’re not reading it yet, I really think you should.

Volume 6 of Amayo no Tsuki is out in Japanese and Volume 4 of The Moon on A Rainy Night, will be headed our way in April.

 





Kiss It Goodbye: The Complete Edition

February 7th, 2024

A girl in a green coat over a school uniform and a girl in a sports jacket . holding a bat, sit under the same tree, not looking at one another.by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

“So, how did y’all meet?”

Ah, this old chestnut. You think back to the countless times you’ve told this story, each iteration becoming more and more exaggerated and elaborate. It’s not that you are trying to fool anyone, you’re just tired of going over the same beats time and time again so you’re trying to have a little fun with it. As you recount the story, you sneak glances at your partner, watching them roll their eyes as you enthusiastically assert how impressed they were over tales of your prowess at Magic the Gathering. OK, you were terrible at flirting, and still are. But no one else has to know that.

Kiss It Goodbye: The Complete Edition is the story of Aruka and Yukimi, two women in their mid-twenties. One night, a friend of theirs asks them to tell the story of how the two, who are of very different temperaments, got together. Aruka is a rough-and-tumble tomboy with a penchant for throwing fisticuffs while Yukimi is a studious girl with a love of fashion. They meet as children, grow close together up through middle school, have a falling out in high school, but reconnect before graduation. A couple years later they realize their feelings for each other and begin dating. The end!

If that were all there was to this story, you wouldn’t be reading this review. There are a handful of things that seem like small pieces but add to a story that reads better than its synopsis. The framing device adds so much character to the telling. Aruka tends to puff herself up only to be brought back down to earth by Yukimi. They talk honestly about their feelings and how they evolved over time. It’s a nice way to spice up what could be a pretty standard story and doing so in a way that allows the characters to express themselves.

There are other unique factors. I like how instead of opting to settle for maximum drama, the big turning points in Aruka and Yukimi’s relationship are worked through in awkward, vulnerable conversations. OK, there is definitely SOME drama, but plenty of the development happens beyond that. I like that the two are not the same orientation: Aruka is an allosexual lesbian however Yukimki is biromantic and asexual. It’s rare to see a pairing to see partners with different needs manage to work things out. The two even have different socioeconomic class and career backgrounds.

Although this story takes place in Japan, it is drawn by Ticcy, who hails from Italy. I find it is interesting to look at a work that borrows heavily from manga but is shown through a different cultural lens, which puts this book in the same bucket as the works that have been reviewed on the site such as Alter Ego, Just Friends, and Mahou Josei Chimaka. All of these works vary in how much they borrow from manga, with Kiss It Goodbye sitting somewhere between the latter two in that the setting is clearly influenced by Japanese media but the art, paneling, and dialogue have a more Western flavor.

What drew me in right away was the art. The character designs are clean and expressive, there are plenty of detailed backgrounds, and the whole comic is rendered in beautiful color. The whole package The series originally published on the online comics platforms Webtoon and Tapas, but was adapted into print through the publisher Hiveworks (who coincidentally also published Chimaka) after a successful Kickstarter in 2022, which I backed. It’s one of the nicer printings on my growing yuri shelf, in a large format with stout glossy pages. Thankfully, physical copies are now publicly available on Hivework’s website along with an eBook option. KIG was released typically one page at a time, but thankfully it was storyboarded in such a way that you would not be able to tell its webcomic origins in print form. (Also, regular GL webcomic readers may spot a familiar face or two in some crowd shots.)

I would say the biggest criticism I have is false advertising. See, this is called the Complete Edition, however there is more comic out there! Ticcy has written two additional bonus chapters to date that are not collected here and supposedly there is more to come down the road. The book also lacks any additional commentary that came through Q&A segments Ticcy posted during the comic’s run that help flesh out some details on the characters that didn’t make it into the main body of the story. I would suggest anyone who picks up the book also go find the comic online in order to get that extra content. Ticcy has hinted at the possibility of a second book down the road, but at the moment there are no plans for release and new bonus chapters have been on a hiatus as she focuses on her newer series Dragon’s Mercenary that she posts on her Patreon page.

Really, the biggest sin is that there is criminally little time spent with Aruka’s softball club-cum-girl gang, especially their leader Saori. Would love to see more of them in a future bonus chapter. Did I mention there is a softball club that beats on street toughs? Yeah, gimme more of that.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Really gorgeous front-to-back, especially in print
Story – 8 The flourishes in the delivery make an otherwise standard story stand out
Characters – 8 Aruka and Yukimi bounce off each other well in both the comedic and dramatic moments
Service – 1 Would be higher with more girl gang escapades
Yuri – 10 / LGBTQ – 9 Would like to see more atypical identity pairings like these two

Overall – 9 It is high! It is far! It is…GONE!

I met my wife on New Year’s Eve having just driven 6 hours that day to move to a new city without a job, an apartment, or much of a plan to get either. If you ask nicely, I may tell you the rest of the story someday.

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network. Any tales of his exploits as a teenage delinquent have been greatly fabricated.





Finding the Good in Bad Media or, a treatise on Interspecies Reviewers by Mash Whitehouse

January 31st, 2024

Mash Whitehouse is a transwoman who never updates her blog at mashforxp.com and has written several tabletop RPG books. She can also be found refusing to say anything succinctly about Video Games, Anime, and everything else @mashforxp.bsky.social

After a rousing discussion on bluesky, and a failed attempt to bring Erica in as an expert witness, I found myself deep in thought about fantasy sex work. The only sex work that isn’t real work. When I’m not picking polite fights on social media, I write about RPGs or pretend to be an expert on them. Common consensus is that sex and D&D don’t mix, but you’re lucky that we’re not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about a manga I like and the anime of it that I hate.

I’m talking about Interspecies Reviewers. Wait, please don’t leave!

IR burst into the western consciousness in a spectacular fashion, when the anime’s release was canceled by Funimation. In the age of streaming, before every company became one congealed Tetsuo-esque amalgam, the many services were scrambling to grab every launching anime they could. Any one of which could be the next One Piece, the next Goblin Slayer, or something actually good. For the 2020 season, Funimation picked up the anime for Interspecies Reviewers, a gag manga about the worst adventurers trawling through the red-light district in a fantasy world, looking to experience the many sensual experiences such a world has to offer, and then publishing their opinions for fellow adventurers.

The premise rides a line to be sure, but perhaps in the days before streaming, with a chance to review the product before purchase, Funi wouldn’t have jumped in blindly. Instead, they found themselves with a very raunchy anime and pulled it, 3 episodes in. I found the situation farcical, but it also piqued my morbid curiosity. My proactive wife bought me the first volume of the manga before I could find a source for the anime.

The opening chapter plays out like this: The Elf adventurer, Zel, has a penchant for spending his rewards from adventuring on a middle-aged human “Succu-girl” (this fantasy world’s term for a sex worker), Stunk the Human questions why he would pick her. The very well named human brings up how wonderful he thinks Elven girls are, and Zel counters with the fact that most Elves are pushing 800 years old, as opposed to the youthful 50 year old woman that Zel frequents.

As the argument heightens in their local tavern, other regulars join in to review the two species. A myriad of different fantasy people, from Halflings to Kobolds all participate in the ridiculous activity, resulting in the middle-aged woman winning, with each barfly giving reasonable reasons for why the idealized and unachievable beautiful elf is not their preference. The gag that won me over was the presentation of the reviews. Four of the barflys write up Famitsu-style critiques: brief paragraphs and 0-10 scores. Excellent. This is an ongoing bit for every chapter. It helps keep the conceit of the title going. To me though, it helps create a theme of sexual positivity, overcoming sexual repression, and acceptance of varied body types and their beauty…while also rating women’s bodies.

Enter Crimvael; the reason this manga would merit a Lambda Award. Crim is a wonderful intersex angel (he/him), and I mean angel literally, his halo is damaged, keeping him from returning to heaven, so he ends up slumming it with these losers. With their “help”, he begins to discover his sexuality, what the mortal world is like, and maybe finds love along the way. On his journey, Crim meets Elza the Gnoll. For those not in the know about fantasy creatures, Gnolls are hyena people, and just how the real world Spotted Hyena have pseudo-penises, (go look it up, nature is amazing!) so too does Elza.

While this is a fun and subtle joke connecting Gnolls and Hyenas, Elza herself is never made out to be a joke, she is cool and arguably sexy, unlike the portrayal of many gender non-conforming characters in media. Crim’s experience with Elza is given a 9, and he leaves no further expounding details. It is a wonderfully affirming queer moment, and Elza shows up from time to time, clearly having left an impact on Crim. The rest of that chapter is focused on the other reviewers getting to experience “lesbian sex” at the Gender Swap Inn. This is treated in much the same way as men’s yuri or lesbian content. Unfortunately.

The manga definitely falls on the seinen side of the seinen/josei divide, and the only regular female character is the harpy bar owner. Who acts like a harpy, in the sense of the derogatory term for women. Of course, the men are no better, constantly drinking, focused on sex and generally being of a low brow demeanor. They are not portrayed in a positive light, but they are at least portrayed. Crimvael, the only queer character of the main cast, is at least likable.

Now we come to the anime. It has a stigma about it. One that is earned. The anime is just softcore porn. The Japanese channel AT-X aired it with no censorship, followed by other channels re-airing with blurred censorship.The manga used diegetic censorship of hair, Crim’s halo, another character, swords, etc., to create consistent background jokes. Which are lost for a chance to show bare nipples and tout a lack of censorship on TV. The conversion to animation damages the message and shifts the focus. A prime example: The Will o’ Wisp Succu-girls, Light Elementals in humanoid form, glow so brightly that you cannot see anything “fun”. A good joke. In the anime, they are just glowing nude women, everything bare for the viewer to gawk at. A joke lost. Without the joke, you are left only with the smut.

So, Because of the widely known fiasco that is the anime, I hesitate to even recommend the manga, despite the amount of charming and queer moments. I would have to give a giant preamble if I ever wished to attempt such a futile endeavor, and if you have to begin any conversation with “I’m not a pervert, but-” you’re not starting from a strong footing. So, I’m not a pervert, but-

Ratings:

Art – 8Story – 4Characters – 3Service – 9 (Anime 11)Yuri/Queer – 4

Overall  – 7

All 9 volumes have a space on my manga shelf. Along with vol 1 of the spin off anthology Darkness.

If you have a secret place to read, or access to blank dust covers, the manga is available from Yen Press. If you’re interested in watching the anime, I recommend getting on a dating app, being honest on your profile, don’t include a picture of your dog, and you’ll find someone that likes you. 

Note: Links lead to Global Bookwalker, as not all volumes of the manga appear to be available elsewhere.





Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 8

January 26th, 2024

Two women hold their hands over an ornate box, out of which fly red bird shadows. Sorawo and Toriko take steps to explore the Otherside on a more permanent basis in Otherside Picnic, Volume 8. At the same time, they learn about the consequences of contact with the Otherside….will this deter them?

No, obviously not.

The gate opening in Kozakura’s front yard is a boon for Sorawo and Toriko, even if it is a burden for Kozakura. She’s living in fear most of the time now, and is starting to get used to it, something that does not thrill her.  She’s worried about the other two, too. Their reckless behavior (from her perspective) is going to get them in trouble and she’s half annoyed she’ll have to pick up the pieces and half upset that they will get themselves hurt. This would all feel more adult, if she wasn’t portrayed like a child, honestly. It’s nice to have an adult in the room, but it is hard to take Kozakura seriously as an adult.

Now that Sorawo and Toriko have determined to investigate deeper into the Otherside, they are taken to the halls of DS Research, the obscure organization that is buying the artifacts they bring back. While this book has always had a horror element to is, relying on netlore and urban legend for the weirdnesses of the Otherside, for the first time, our intrepid adventurers come face to face with the results of digging too deeply into the “Ultrablue Light,” or UBL.

As if on cue, Uruma Satsuki appears and leaves behind an item that is a very direct attack on Sorawao and Toriko. The Toribako, a curse box full of bird-like shadows that fly through one’s body, shredding it from the inside, was illustrated in the manga as horrifyingly as it was described in the novel. Up until now, the Otherside has been vaguely menacing, but now…now it it actively trying to kill our protagonists.

This is one of the two scariest moments of the novels and once again Mizuno Eita does an absolutely outstanding job of illustrating it. I cannot get over how much the art enhances the already subtlely terrifying aspect of the UBL. Much as with Aonoshimo’s art for I’m In Love With The Villainess manga, the compelling narrative of the novel really is enhanced here by the art.

Now we must wait to see if Toriko and Sorawo will survive Uruma Satuski’s attack.

Ratings:
Story – 9
Art – 9
Character – 8,
Service – 0
Yuri – 7

In the meantime, Toriko has pointed out to Sorawao how she is changing  and becoming more caring about other people … and that terrifies her. Intimacy is the great hurdle here and will be for some time.