Archive for the English Manga Category


My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 2 Guest Review by Luce

April 6th, 2022

Please welcome back Luce, who will take a look at the remaining volumes of this series for us!

In the first volume, we saw Sakiko get over a good part of her shyness and awe of Chihiro, the girl sitting next to her that happens to be her favourite idol in a group called Spring Sunshine. She also manages to somewhat wrangle Maaya, a Spring Sunshine superfan, into their group, and there was a surprise concert – they all go, of course, but now Sakiko is awestruck by Chihiro again!

Volume 2 of My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over starts where we left off. Sakiko, having had Chihiro wave at her from on stage, is elated… But also awestruck? Having seen Chihiro as Chiro-chan the idol has made her nervous about the distance between them, although it seems somewhat evident to the audience that may only be half the problem.

Next, a sports festival, in which Sakiko tries to protect Chihiro’s identity from her photographer senpai so she doesn’t get outed as an idol. The three of them go on a ‘chic-nic’. Chihiro faces some criticism from classmates. And Sakiko and Maaya try to protect Chihiro from possible scandal in their own ways…that may not be very conducive. Finally, someone confesses to Chihiro! A lot happens in these chapters!

Now that Sakiko has come out of her shell a lot, the whole thing is a great deal better. That said, she has her hands full dealing with/mitigating the effects of Maaya. I think these two are intended to show two sides of fandom: the invested but respectful, and the obsessed and possessive. Due to Sakiko’s influence, Maaya never quite succeeds on her schemes, which largely involve singling Chihiro out and getting rid of any ‘interfering’ parties (in her opinion), but it is annoying. Her stalkerish tendencies will never become comfortable, and I hope she leaves them behind either by force or by choice. I feel a plot point in a future chapter may well be Chihiro linking Maaya and the forum aggressor as one and the same, and her reaction. But her view currently is clearly ‘Chihiro belongs to me’, and it is uncomfortable. Her actions towards Sakiko at times and some other characters are definitely not alright – if you can ignore them, the manga can be quite enjoyable. If it’s too close to home, maybe give it a skip. Vol 3 came out and by the end of that she’s not much better, Sakiko is just working more as a conscience engine for her. I await further developments.

Sakiko is another story. Being friends with Chihiro (and Maaya) has helped her immensely – we see her converse with other people in class quite freely by midway through, and it’s lovely to see her grow into herself. It seems fairly clear to us that she at the very least has a crush on Chihiro, and their growing closeness unsettles Maaya, who reacts in a… very Maaya way. It could be worse, and it’s resolved fairly quickly. One of her photography club senpais even thinks to herself about whether Sakiko is in love with Chiro-chan. So on the yuri front, I would say it is increasing. For her part, Chihiro seems to have had a bad experience in junior school, so her friends are very important to her, although she tends towards Sakiko – could we see something into this?

We get a few more characters in this book, which is nice. A thought I had is that’s its nice to have male characters who aren’t portrayed as creepy and aren’t just there for plot drama. We get some people who aren’t into idol groups, and announce their discovery of Chihiro as an idol in a slightly unfavourable way, which is greatly frustrating to the three of the main characters – but Chihiro deals with it in her own way, which was lovely to see. Especially with the other two seeming to think she needs to be protected – she is a bit clueless at times, so there is some reason – it was good to see her stand up for herself in her own way.

Story: 8
Art: 8, its bright and sunny, suits the story it’s telling.
Service: 1
Yuri: 5. Sakiko hasn’t made it there yet. Not sure if Maaya is in love or just obsession. Possibly both.
Overall: 9

The story is tending towards Spring Shine getting more popular, even if just within the class, but if they do, that could change things quite significantly. Maaya is uncomfortable at times, but over-ride-able in my opinion. I’ll be staying tuned – Volume 3 and and Volume 4 have come out as of 5th April!





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17

March 28th, 2022

It has been 2 years since I last reviewed a volume of this manga. Not for any particular reason, just that these two years have been full to the brim of incredible, groundbreaking Yuri and I just sort of forgot to keep reading this series. ^_^ But here we are once again, as I play catch up with the volumes I read in Japanese, and get ready to switch over to the series in English, since it has caught up to where I was when I left off.

As I pointed out in my review of this volume in Japanese, this series does not hesitate to make us feel deeply uncomfortable about our reading habits. MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 does something unusual in this regard. This volume introduces a new horrible human being as the bad guy, Sendou, and we are shown quite clearly his being sexually excited by his acts of violence. It is, frankly, quite unusual to be so blunt in this message, precisely because the audience is expected to be men who are sexually excited by the violence in this series. Straight men are generally very oversensitive about looking at male genitalia, as if the admission that they too are turned on by this is too much to handle. But, having been required to be audience to some extremely explicit and unrealistic lesbian sex, I think this is a good thing for the remainder of the audience. Now we can all trade stories about how this series made us feel uncomfortable. ^_^ That said, the one place in the world I’m not interested in staring is some guy’s crotch. (-_-);

On the Yuri side, there is a surprising leap in Chiyoko’s admission that Kuroko is 1) her girlfriend and 2) important to her. Who would have imagined that an actual relationship is forming the maelstrom of monstrous killers in this series? And that Chiyo-chan and Kuroko enjoy a healthy sexual relationship? Certainly, not I.  And yet, there we are. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Because it’s gotten better, it’s actually messier than usual. More detail, means more gore.
Story – Uh….
Characters – Senpachi’s cool, emotionless old Yakuza guys are boring. Chiyo’s actually kinda cute for once?
Service – We are literally staring at this guy’s crotch constantly and it’s not serving me, I’ll tell you that. (-_ -)
Yuri – Not-ugly lesbian sex, so that’s a win.

Overall – ?

What do ratings even mean when it comes to this series? My commendation to Christine Dashielle on translating and Alexis Eckerman on lettering this weird, violent, lesbian grandchild of  HP Lovecraft fanfic. ^_^

Now that Yen Press has caught up on MURCIÉLAGO, I’ll picking these up digitally…they long ago chewed up too much space on the shelf. Volume 18 has already been released and has been added to the Yuricon Store.





Catch These Hands, Volume 1

March 25th, 2022

Takebe used to be the toughest girl in school, but all her old friends have moved on, are getting married, having babies. She can’t even keep a real job. She’s stuck in her delinquent lifestyle and doesn’t know how to get out, in Catch These Hands!, Volume 1, by murata. While shopping for an outfit for a school friend’s wedding, she meets the one person she could never beat, her old rival the ridiculously-named Soramori Kirara.

Soramori also recognizes Takebe and asks her for a strange favor. Will Takebe go out with her? Taking this as a some kind of back-handed challenge, Takebe does. It immediately becomes apparent that neither them have much in the way of humaning skills. Takebe choses dates as a form of hazing, Soramori chooses things that are supposed to be fun, but she doesn’t understand why. ^_^ The chapter of the two of them snapping photos for Onstegram had me giggling out loud.

They are awkward and charming as heck and immediately, you want it all to work out, somehow. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “I don’t know that we’ll ever see the scowl leave Takebe’s face or the two of them get any less awkward with each other, nonetheless, this series tickled my funny bone.”

The art is simplistic, which works fine here, as the awkwardness and the resulting gags are the entirety of the plot. ^_^

Amanda Haley’s translation is wonderful, giving Takebe a rough edge, without making her vulgar, and allowing Soramori to be over-formal and extremely awkward at the same time. Bianca Pistillo does a good job on lettering, establishing tone where she can. Yen’s policy of not doing full lettering of s/fx is kind of noticeable here where there is a lot of free space. It would have been a nice touch that would have added just one more ounce of immersion. Nonetheless, an excellent job all around for the Yen team.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 Although I agree with Soramori, and do think Takebe looks good in that leather jacket
Comedy – 10 Gags that work in translation are precious and rare and should be treasured
Yuri – Yes? I mean they are going out. So, yes.

Overall – 8

One of the too-many projects I’m working on right now is a video of girl gang anime and manga as an intro for this series. I hope to get that up on Yuri Studio soon!





My Wandering Warrior Existence

March 21st, 2022

Kabi Nagata is back once again with a volume of her comic essay work. My Wandering Warrior Existence is quite possibly her best work to date.

To begin with, let me provide a Content Warning of some significance, Nagata talks about a sexual assault she experienced as a child, and the retraumatizing consequences. This was not sugarcoated in any way and was rough to read, so be warned. The experience is not presented out of context however, and it comes not as the point of the story, buy a jumping off point for a comic essay that will make you feel many things. Horror and anger, yes, but also triumph and, dare I say it, joy.

The volume begins with a search for joy in fact. That search takes Nagata-sensei into her own past and out again, as she talks about her relationship with her body, her sexuality, her gender, building a habit of self-care and self-love. There are many deeply moving moments including one key moment when a fan letter explains something that she had not been able to understand and, as a result, is for the first time to see those things she was missing in her understanding of relationships.

Of all her works, this one feels the most crafted to reach an audience. Her first books were diaries and there was a sense that a reading audience was a nice to have. There are some many things in this book that indicate that, for the first time, this book was meant to be read, by us and our reactions are accounted for. This becomes even more obvious as we approach the end of the book and are assured that Nagata-sensei is finding joy in her life these days. And much of the content is constructed to be far more relatable than previous volumes, which focused on her personal struggles.

When I read this book in Japanese, I laughed out loud at this image of the thing that brought her a lot of happiness….a giant fridge! I had also gotten a new fridge not too long before I read this and let me tell you – you cannot overestimate the power of a new fridge to bring joy. ^_^

We’re left, as a result, thinking, if small things like this can make her happy, then maybe there is hope for her…and by extension, there is hope for us. ^_^

Once again, ratings seem pointless. But, both narrative and art here are more confident and there is humor, along with the harrowing.

As always,the care an attention from the gang at Seven Seas, means we have all the right tools to work through this book. Thanks to everyone who made this such a great reading experience!

I joined the Lum and Colton of the lovely Manga Mavericks team to discuss this book on their podcast this weekend, so keep an eye out for that when it is hits their website. It’s always fun to dissect a book with them. ^_^





Cocoon Entwined, Volume 4

March 14th, 2022

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the role of “Prince” around here. But what we have rarely considered is the role as a burden that is too much to bear.

In Volume 4 of Cocoon Entwined, Yuriko Hara has us watch as Hana is bowed under the weight of this role that she was given by an absent Hoshimiya. But so much more interestingly, is he evolution of Youko into the prince that might just be able to save her after all.

But first, we see where Youko has come from. Specifically we meet and instantly dislike her onee-sama, Reina. ^_^; We are treated to, as I said in my review of the Japanese volume, “the obligatory, “holy shit, this school and it’s clothes and all the people who attend, are SUPER CREEPY” story….”

And then, the war is on. Youko  on the one had, being strong enough to save Hana and refusing to let her fall and Kujou, who is clearly hoping to break Hana to her will. It will come as no surprise that I am still rooting for Youko.

The art in this book is fabulous. I’ll never be comfortable with all that hair, but in this volume, it becomes sublime. It is symbol, and character, and bonds and freedom.

Ratings:

Art – Honestly 9
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Service – 5 This volume amps up the creepy, the sex, and the dark
Yuri – 8 See above.

Overall – 9

Cocoon Entwined, Volume 4 is available now from Yen Press!