It is 1900, and Hanako, a Japanese woman, has traveled to England to find her favorite author, Victor Franks, whom she can’t meet. With no options, she is taken in by Lady Alice, a beautiful young noblewoman who carries a deep sadness. Alice offers a deal to Hanako – she will introduce Hanako to Victor Franks, but only if Hanako helps Alice die. Hanako accepts the offer, but is sure she can somehow convince Alice to live.

Hanako learns Alice doesn’t want to marry Edward, although doesn’t understand why since he seems nice enough. As her maid, Hanako can see that Alice lives in a darkness that she’d like to bring light to. Unbeknownst to Hanako, she’s actually caught up in a surprising coincidence, which turns out to be no coincidence at all.

Deciding that she wants to be by Alice’s side is Hanako’s choice, but what Alice wants is still a mystery to her.

Despite the mystery with which they are treated, the complications here are not all that complicated. In fact, by the end of Volume 1, you ought to know who Victor Franks is and why Hanako was sent to England. ^_^ Nonetheless, if you were looking for a less-realistic Yuri Emma, with an emphasis on underwear and books, you won’t be disappointed. Dr. Pepperco’s art is competent. This is not meant in a dismissive way – the Victoria Sponge looked, even in black & white, like a recognizable Victoria sponge. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Character – 8
Story – 7
Service – 4 Underwear because of course there is
Yuri – ACTUALLY, it’s LGBTQ. There is a discussion of same-sex relationships and Japan and England’s relative lack of feminism. So…7?

Overall – 7

Very recently, I have been reading a number of historical Yuri/lesbian romances and they all do exactly the same thing. But I will let Dr. Pepperco explain it themselves in the author’s note, as “Drawing all my proclivities!” ^_^ So not only do we have maids outfits lovingly detailed and teacups and corsets and stately home libraries and other Victoriana miscellany, but we enjoy pretense to upperclassishness in scene and language. This inconsistency in historical knowledge and desire to set tone has been rendered in English as well as can be hoped, so the occasional lapse into faux-Wildean (as faux-Sperian is not a valid term here,) is not on translator Amber Tamositis and adapter Cae Hawksmoor. They do a fine job. Katlyn Wiley’s lettering is surprisingly delicate. You might never notice it, which is exactly what one hopes for from lettering and retouch. As usual, Seven Seas does such a decent job, you may never even think about it. You should. That’s a lot of work by a lot of people to make this book work.

When I originally reviewed the Japanese volume just over a year ago, I never expected to be reviewing it in English. But here we are and I’m glad you to encourage you to look up Victoria Sponge on your own. ^_^

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy!

Shimizu Makoto is a hard working corporate team leader – she’s good with the guys she manages. To blow off steam, she’s a Yuri doujinshi creator. When coworker Maekawa discovers her secret Shimizu is sure she’ll be blackmailed or bullied, but Maekawa seems to want to help! When Shimizu discovers that Maekawa was a previously a successful manga artist, the tables are turned. Shimizu isn’t the bullying kind, though…all she wants is for Maekawa to draw again. 

Volume 2 of Still Sick, by Akashi, available from Tokyopop, is extremely interesting as a story and slightly annoying as a reality.^_^ In the first volume, it appeared that Shimizu was going to be the emotionally stunted character, and Maekawa would kind of step in and save the day. But here in volume two, Shimizu is becoming more and more grounded, while Maekawa is acting right out of the advanced passive-aggressive playbook.

So, while Shimizu is forced to realize that yes, she does prefer women…and always has…Maekawa is massively unwilling to confront whatever baggage she’s carrying from her former relationship and how it *obviously* affected her professional work.

On the company trip, Shimizu talks out her quandary with a coworker and his advice is very reasonable. Only, Maekawa was there to hear it all. She asks Shimizu to talk…in Volume 3. And there we wait for the next volume, you for an unknown time period, me since last summer when the Japanese volume 2 came out. If you’re really motivated, there’s always the Pixiv comic, which usually has the last two current chapters available in Japanese. ^_^ You have to know I’m reading them. ^_^

The technicals are very solid, translation by Katie Kimura captures the petulant tone of Maekawa’s struggle. Well done, by everyone at Tokyopop! Here’s hoping we’ll get more Shakaijin (working life) Yuri in days to come from them.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 3, LGBTQ – 5
Service – 0 so far – even in an onsen

Overall – 8

Yes, Maekawa’s passive-aggressive routine is icky, especially when she’s cruel to Shimizu, who doesn’t have enough self-confidence to fight back. For whatever reason, I find myself rooting for them anyway. ^_^ And it has to be “for whatever reason” as – even as they are moving forward as a relationship, Maekawa’s coping skills are not that healthy. But Shimizu, she’s awesome. ^_^;

Are you a “save the best things for last kind” of person? I am. Now that I’ve cleared all the vampires out of the way (and before I take on new vampires from the new pile,) my last couple of books on the old-to read pile are some of the best!^_^

*No commentary on it being a plague year is intended. It just worked out that way.

There is horror and then there is horror. Horror can be cerebral, or emotional, horror can be funny or outraging, horror can be grotesque or violent. Emily Carroll’s horror is not the same as Yoshimurakana‘s. And for different people, horror will serve different needs. Chiri Yuino’s Scarlet, Volume 1 sits on a fence in the middle of several kinds of horror, but commits to none of them.

Finé and Iris are bound by a promise made in blood. Iris, a werewolf will protect Finé and let her drink her blood, until Finé breaks the curse of the drug that she is under and becomes human once again. Then Finé will pay her debt with her life and let Iris eat her. Until then they travel together trying to stop the scourge of this drug that turns humans into blood-drinking monsters.

Whether this is a fairytale reworked to be gritty, or an allegory of drug addiction or just a mutation horror story, I still am not entirely sure. Nor am I sure that the creator was sure. In any case the story moves briskly from not being able to help a young girl to losing her sister (accurately named Misery) to a far more powerful evil.

Yuri has two equally unattractive varieties: Iris and Finé are lovers as much as they are anything else. As I said in my review of the Japanese volume,  “They are shockingly likeable. Iris is a cheerful drunken werewolf, Finé is the requisite emo bloodsucking creature with a sword. All is well with the world. Unless you are a elixir-mutated demon.”There is a kind of affection between them, certainly, in that they care for each other the way one does with a medication.

And, when they come to confront the demon sharing the drug around, they encounter an orgy of soon-to-be-inhuman women.  None of it is aesthetically pleasing but I assumed it was not meant to be. If you’re a fan of blood and mutating bodies, this might appeal to you. I found the breast-squeezing painful to look at, and we do spend a lot of time looking at Iris’ breasts.

The story will come to a climax and an end in Volume 2, which is slated for an October release.

“Scarlet isn’t a vampire story
Although it’s plenty bloody and gore-y
A fairy tale it is not
Revenge against evil is the plot
Against a Goth-Loli demon in all of her lace glory”

Also borrowed from my review of V1 in Japanese.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 6
Yuri – 6 In their own hungry way, Iris and Finé care for one another.

Overall – 8

Scarlet is slightly better than the sum of its parts, and not really a vampire story, but not really a drug story or a monster story, either.

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy!