Archive for the English Manga Category


Strawberry Fields Once Again, Volume 3

July 23rd, 2021

In Volume 1, we met Akira, a withdrawn loner and Pure, an outgoing and positive transfer student who tells Akira that she’s from the future where they are lovers.  In Volume 2, Akira slowly and surely grows to love Pure, only to find that the other girl has disappeared.

In Strawberry Fields Once Again, Volume 3, we find ourselves in a cascading series of fractured timelines. As we watch Pure and Akira miss each other over and over, we begin to pick up the thread of the story and it turns out that indeed Pure was from the future!

Akira and her brother Ruri, after the death of their mother, each chose to withdraw from life in a slightly different way. Akira dedicated herself to otome games and unbeknownst to her, Ruri dedicated himself to repairing what he believed was the true timeline. But – and this is really an important point in real, life, I think – Ruri only sees his parents from a child’s point of view and doesn’t account for them having lives as adults that he’s not privy to. From his immature and self-serving perspective, the timeline he’s seeking to restore is the “correct” one…but as we learn, there is no timeline in which his family is restored in the way he wishes.  But selfishly, he puts his energy towards stopping Pure, rather than himself, becoming what passes as this series’ bad guy.

When Ruri is confronted with this truth, he relents and Pure and Akira finally meet up after a series of failures in Pure’s time-travel attempts.

In the end, the timeline for Pure and Akira are restored enough for them to find one another and be married, and what started out as a kind of weird little typical school drama, ends as a weird little time-travel story with a Yuri wedding and a happy ending for mostly everyone.

So yeah, this book travels a long distance from that first chapter, but now that we’re here at the end, it was definitely an interesting ride. In Japanese I ended up reading this volume through 3 times, just to make absolutely sure I understood it and, if I had not, I probably would have had to read this English-volume through more than once. ^_^ Amanda Haley does a fine job on the translation, so it’s not on her – honestly a very excellent job, as she helped me clear up some small details I had missed or ignored, and I enjoyed the clean look of Abigail Blackman’s lettering – also, not credited, but whomever did the editing, nice job! (Yen, could you please give folks credit when they work on a book? ) The rough-texture of the cover stock is intriguing addition, I think this series might have been better served by glossy, but I kinda like the feel of this anyway.

Overall, a strange little series that was totally worth reading.  ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Character – 7
Service – 2
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

The main weakness of the story was character, it was very hard to actually like anyone until after you understood the whole picture and by then, it was too late for about half of them. ^_^;





A Witch’s Love at the End of the World, Volume 3

July 9th, 2021

At the end of Volume 2, Mari and Alice found themselves in the “real world” only something has gone wrong with the timeline and nothing Mari remembers is true.

Here in A Witch’s Love at the End of the World, Volume 3, the real mover of the story is revealed. This, it turns out, is a story that transcends time. Of course, Mari isn’t particularly interested in the whys and wherefores…she’s only concerned with Alice. Alice, who is suffering from loss of power, due to her feelings  for Mari.

We learn the whole story at last. And then we turn to watch Mari rewrite the entirety of history – which was worth it. Mari changes the world so that she and Alice might live in a timeline together without the hatred between humans and witches and, frankly, everyone can go hang.

KUJIRA’s art is solid throughout, and the story, while not earth-shakingly unique, was honestly pretty well put together. If it has a fault at all, its a bit of oversentimentality, but I wouldn’t not recommend it on that account.

If you’re looking for a little magic in your school girl Yuri, this series is available now from Yen Press!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 5

Overall – 7





Sex Education 120%, Volume 1

July 7th, 2021

Sex Education 120%, by Kikiki Tataki, with art by Hotomura was a very good book. I’m saying that right up front.

I won’t belabor us all with the details of how execrable “health” education is in school. We all have our own excruciating tales of teachers unwilling or unable to talk plainly or parents bent out of shape at even basics. I probably am old enough that my sex education, despite it’s heterocentrism, was at least still accurate…if not wholly adequate. And since then, it’s pretty obvious that the adequacy has dropped even further, which is why I think I would definitely give this book to a tween if I knew one to give it to.

The story is straightforward, Tsuji is the health teacher in a Japanese high school who is teaching the kids actual sex education, despite the constant push-back from her colleagues and administration. But that’s only half the story. Yes, the sex education as far as it goes (and it goes relatively far) is both accurate and adequate, but the story is about a lot more than just sex. 

There’s a chapter on coming out, as two of the girls admit to being in a relationship – and we get a discussion of dental dams and how they work. Same sex couples are given some quality time. A goofy chapter ends up educationg readers on the fact that love hotels are not allowed to discriminate against same-sex couple. There is a chapter about masturbation. There’s also a lot of (mostly useless and goofy, ala Heaven’s Design Team)  tidbits about animal behavior, and a nod to omegaverse and BL. We learn enough about Tsuji to root for her and enough about sex to pass part of an exam…there are notable bits about heterosexual stuff left out, presumably either to appear in later volumes.

The characters were likable, the lesbian couple is cute and Tsuji’s enthusiasm is just exactly ridiculous enough to keep you rooting for her and this was an incredibly fast and fun read. Thanks to CW for letting us know about it just before it was licensed by Yen Press.  On the sensible premise that the sex education most people get is limited and barely adequate, I highly recommend this series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Not really, except to make a point about salaciousness.
Queer – 10 the lesbian couple is out by the end of this volume

Overall – 9

I picked this book up on Global Bookwalker with some extra coins I got from Yuri Day specials and was very pleased with my purchase. ^_^ It’s also available on Amazon, RightStuf and a manga seller near you! Volume 2 will ship in October.

 





The Rose of Versailles, Volume 5

June 25th, 2021

Today we look at what was, until 2015, the final volume of the grand historical epic The Rose of Versailles, by Riyoko Ikeda.

After the death of Lord Oscar François de Jarjayes, one might expect a final volume of tears and recrimination as the republic she died for turns to wholesale slaughter and a new threat of empire…buuuuuut……..no.

The chapters that comprise The Rose of Versailles, Volume 5 were written a decade after the original story ended and involve Oscar and André as the comedic sidekicks to Oscar’s precocious niece Loulou de Laurencie. These 10th anniversary chapters are an epic unto themselves, known as “The Great Detective Loulou.”

Loulou (and her doll, which functions as something between a backpack and hammerspace) turns out to be incredibly perceptive. Significantly, Oscar recognizes this and after the first adventure, in which Loulou cracks a group of jewel thieves, she takes Loulou’s antics very seriously. Loulou’s influence continues to expand to André, then Rosalie and beyond. It’s a good thing, too, because Loulou proceeds to stop a human trafficking ring and an illicit drug ring.

A little side story here… translator Mari Morimoto and I had a days long conversation about exactly what drug it might have been. I think it was cocaine-laced laudanum based on the chronology and supposed effects. (Heroine wasn’t common for another few decades and opium created a lassitude that any reader of Sherlock Holmes will be acquainted with.) But it’s all speculation and we’ll never really know what Madame Heberra was selling. ^_^

Ironically, the was the first volume of the series I worked on. Mari asked to bring me on since we had been discussing the series already and she wanted someone she knew. It was a lot of fun working on these chapters with her too, as there were so many things that were really left way up in the air after those incredibly detailed, historically accurate earlier volumes.

You might ask at this point if this is where we are meant to leave it all. After all that emotion, all those tears, we’re just walking away on a bunch of stories about a child genius? No, actually. Because in 2015-18, for the 45th anniversary of the series, Ikeda-sensei drew another 4 volumes, all of which I have reviewed here, in fact. I will spoil nothing, except to say two things: 1) I had completely, totally forgotten the one thing at the end of the story and OMG, and; 2) Even as I edited these chapters for the final volume for UDON, I found myself tearing up at Rosalie. Hopefully you will, too.

I don’t know when the final volume will be released, but as soon as I know, I’ll be sure to tell you!

I want to thank all of you who have picked up these books and enjoyed them so much. And my heartfelt thanks to Udon, to Erik for trusting me with these, to Mari and Jocelyne for being awesome to work with and Jeannie Lee, for low-key killing it doing the lettering. Honest to god, she did an outstanding job, matching the s/fx to the shape and feel of the original, and you should notice this kind of artistry.

I’m going to leave you with one more anecdote. After I got the chance to work on this series, I was in Japan, at Mandarake in Nakano, as one does and I saw something I had never, ever before seen – three whole issues of Margaret magazine when Rose of Versailles was running! I was gobsmacked. I grabbed them all and gave Mari and Erik one each as thanks, and kept one for myself.  Here is why.

This is the moment when Oscar, having found and lost her true love, throws herself at the Bastille, to join him as soon as possible. So….yea. I have this volume. It lives on a set of shelves I cleared for the entirely of the Rose of Versailles kanzenban, reference materials, mooks, magazines and…this magnificent collection. It’s just so lovely, I can’t get over it.

Not gonna rate this one, just want to bask in the glow. ^_^

Tell me how much you love this set in the comments!

 





Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 1

June 11th, 2021

Sahoko shows up at a reunion for her high school class. As she greets people she hasn’t seen in a while, she’s on the look out for someone else who is not there. and isn’t expected to attend. Adult Sahoko casts her mind back to her school days, when she was always looking out for the other girl…

In school, Sahoko is popular. She wants to be popular. It’s pretty much the most important thing to her. So her own uncomfortable obsession with Aoi Koshiba really annoys her. Koshiba’s athletic and popular, but doesn’t care at all about anything that passes for important in high school. She quits her clubs and team and heads home every day. Sahoko cannot put her finger on why it’s important to her, but suddenly becoming Aoi’s friend seems…critical. And when she learns Aoi’s secret, it’s suddenly become more important than anything, even her other friends.

Back in the present, Sahoko’s school friend Anna wistfully proposes that maybe it would be best if Aoi never comes.

So….there’s some very good things in this story and some not good things, and mostly I think the not-good things are stuff that was put in before the story kind of gelled. On the good side, I love Fly’s art generally and it was that art that got me to pick this book up in the first place, as you may remember from my review of Volume 1 in Japanese. Thumbs up to the Kodansha team for a good looking volume of manga, as well.

Sahoko awkwardly chasing after Aoi wasn’t bad, but their “accidental kiss” was inexcusably tropey. In Volume 1, it’s almost impossible for me to actually like Sahoko, or no, like isn’t the right word…sympathize, or empathize maybe is closer.  Nor are we given much to work with for Aoi, until her entire story is dumped on us in like 4 pages. So this whole volume left me a bit cold when I first read it, and I haven’t read past Volume 2 in Japanese,but…

…re-reading this made me think I want to pick up Volume 3 in Japanese now, when it comes out this summer. Seems like something to get on Bookwalker and keep in my pocket. (Although re-reading my V2 review, I know why it dropped down on my to-read list.) I keep foolishly wanting stories about high school reunions to be about the present…not the past. As Volume 2 is now out in English, you can read it for yourself, then get back to me and let me know what you think!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 2 some random underwear for no reason
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

And now I’ll just wait get V3 and see if it goes where I hope it might, or it just circles the giant drain of lost high school loves. ^_^