Archive for the English Manga Category


MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 12 (English)

November 29th, 2019

I’ve never reviewed Volume 12 of MURCIÉLAGO because it’s probably one volumes with the least lesbian content in the series. It does, however, contain a tale of obsessive love that, while incredibly bizarre, is not at all creepy (in the sense of it being straight up horror and not sexual in any way.)

Someone is killing the traditional swordmasters of Japan. Kuroko and the gang are called into to track down the killer, who appears to be a phantasm. In actual fact, she is a phantasm, the soul of a deeply broken woman who would have been the greatest sword wielder had she lived. Instead, killed by her sister, she has possessed her sister’s body and in enacting her vendetta. To combat her, Kuroko challenges her to a duel, but Kuroko may have, at last, met her match.

This volume still has more straight up action than almost any previous volume, which is both really interesting and not at all interesting, as the art is less worried about the specifics than the general effect.

A short epilogue lets us join in with Kuroko as she takes sniper Reiko out for some new clothes. We get to see Reiko play dress up and are left knowing that she’s buying them for her girlfriend, which is the only Yuri we get in the volume, but I’ll take all the Reiko I can get. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 For this series, it’s quite good
Story – Same as above
Characters – 8
Service – 3
Yuri – 1

Overall – 8

An even more action-packed and fight-filled volume of MURCIÉLAGO than usual.

Next up, we’re gettin’ weird. Again. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Still Sick, Volume 1 (English)

November 20th, 2019

We are edging ever closer to the event horizon where Yuri manga in English is coming out at the same time as in Japanese. It was only March of this year when I reviewed this book in Japanese. Here we are, a mere 7 months later and we’re looking at Akashi’s Still Sick, Volume 1 in English, from Tokyopop.

Shimizu Makoto is a hard-working team leader for an engineering group. She’s also an otaku, with a hobby of drawing Yuri fanzines for comic markets. When she’s discovered by her coworker, Shimizu is desperately afraid that Maekawa will use the knowledge against her. Instead, Maekawa turns out to have a secret of her own. The two of them grow closer almost against their will. It’s not a bad relationship, but it isn’t a good one either. Maekawa uses Shimizu’s emotions against her to protect herself, Shimizu is hiding from everything to protect herself. It’ll take some serious work for the two of them to move forward. In the meantime, they are becoming more of a team and closer as friends…it’s all very messy and human.

There are a number of translation choices that are worth noting. “Fan comics” and “fanzine” for doujinshi are spot on, and I laughed at the use of “headcannon” because…yes. ^_^ The definition of “onee-sama” as being used by bottoms to address tops is a bit dodgy. It’s not wholly incorrect, but not really correct, either. In any case, I probably wouldn’t have described it that way. ^_^; The discussion of Yuri in between chapters was solid, no complaints here. Overall, Katie Kimura did a decent job translating. Tokyopop’s technicals are solid, all the visuals and the font are comfortab;ly legible, even in digital format.

Of all the working society Yuri manga I have been reading, this is one of my favorites. The characters are slightly broken, in a very human way, and the outcomes of their exchanges are not at all predictable. Still Sick gives us a very otaku view of office relationships, and a very human perspective on Yuri.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Solid, not outstanding
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 3, with a lot of potential
Service – 0 so far

Overall – 8

This is not girl meets girl, girl falls in love, the end. This is broken woman meets broken woman, they don’t fall in love, but they kind do, only not really, and there’s some other stuff they need to work on, not the end.

Thanks very much to Tokyopop for the review copy.





Yuri Manga: MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 11 (English)

November 11th, 2019

In a world where almost everything is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft’s Chthulu Mythos and all bad guys are deranged, and violence is almost always the answer, “horror” becomes relative.

In MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 11, horror is indeed relative…and also relative. The Deep One arc, which began with a giant shark, ends up as it inevitably must, in a lab where human brains are stored. The arc allows us to get an unusual glimpse into Tsuru’s past. It will come as no surprise, I hope, that it is filled with horror, while the deeply broken priest and his mother decay into even more gibbering madness than ever.

(It suddenly dawns on me that I have lost a great number of opportunities to write reviews of this series in Lovecraftian patois. I am saddened by the loss. I can’t do anything about it now and the next few volumes aren’t conducive. Bleah. I’ll just have to wait for another opportunity.)

We all get an unexpected few days off, filled with sea slugs and bonding with murderous children and ugly lesbian sex before the new arc picks up. When it does, we probably could not have expected that it would be a young woman possessed by the spirit of a master swordsman. But, it is.

Ratings:

Art – As I said in my review of the Japanese Volume 11, you have got to know what you’re in for by now
Story – Same as above
Characters – 8 Cheerful psychopaths, ftw
Service – 9 Sea Slugs and ugly lesbian sex
Yuri – 9 Ugly lesbian sex ftw

Overall – 8

I know I keep telling you I love this series. I adore the bizarro deaths, the creepy complications, the hideous monsters, the ugly lesbian sex and the fact that a psychopathic lesbian and her pack of cheerfully amoral, exceptionally violent friends are the protagonists. As the author never hesitates to remind us – there are no good guys here. Only good bad guys.

Thanks very much to Yen Press for the review copy. It’s always such a pleasure to read this series. Except when it isn’t. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 10 (English)

November 1st, 2019

And so, Shiramine Ayaka’s long quest is over. In Kiss and White Lily for My Dearest Girl, Volume 10, in and around the graduation festivities, surrounded by students leaving the school, Ayaka struggles to figure out her feelings, for her rival, her friend, her confidant, her support, Kurosawa Yurine.

To get herself to that conclusion, Ayaka revisits all the people, all the couples and all the relationships…all the Yuri tropes… we’ve seen in this series, giving us one last time to enjoy them before they and we move on.

As the curtain is drawn on this series for the last time here on Okazu, Ayaka finally figures out what we have seen for basically 10 volumes – that she is in love with Yurine. Yurine responds to this with white lilies and a kiss.

Now we say good bye to this series. It was always entertaining if rarely groundbreaking. Canno-sensei had a chance to spend the last six years on this series, working on her art, her characters, her comedic timing and it shows. Her lines, both drawn and spoken are more confident. After this breakout series, I’m looking forward to seeing where she heads with her work. I hope,of course that she’ll be working on something original, but we can see her current Starlight Revue project, Starlight no Ou on Pixiv.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 8 Ayaka was, in my opinion, the best character of the series
Story – 7
Service – 0
Goofball grin-making Yuri – 10

It feels like the closing of a beloved picture book, to be set back on the shelf as we turn towards something more adult. It’s not that we love it less, it’s just that it has become less relevant to our lives as we matured.

It’s time to get dressed and ready for adult romance. ^_^

Many thanks to Yen Press for the review copy!





Yuri Manga: Yuri Bear Storm, Volume 1 (English)

October 28th, 2019

As Yuri Bear Storm, Volume 1 begins, Kureha is invisible in class, and is desperately afraid people around her whom she believes to be bears.  Until Ginko , a classmate who is definitely a bear and Kureha become friends. Kureha starts breaking out of her shell of invisibility, and find herself part of a much larger and much more complicated story. But, it doesn’t matter to her at all, as long as she can protect Ginko (and Lulu who inserts herself into their story, with an arc of her own that Ginko cannot remember.)

Kureha is not wrong, most of the people around her at school are in reality bears, and so is Ginko. But that no longer matters, as Kureha is falling in love with her worst enemy and best friend the bear princess, Ginko.

No, really, no matter how many times I read or watch this series it really doesn’t make any sense, but that’s okay. I’m just thrilled to pieces to see Morishima Akiko’s art in an English-language manga, with gleefully meaningless storytelling by Ikuhara Kunihiko, presented as a timeless and profound fairy tale which it completely is not. ^_^

Yuri in this volume is surprisingly staid, especially as compared with the anime. Kureha’s discovery of her feelings, Lulu’s public pronouncement of love for Ginko and a few kisses make a gentle counterpoint to the utterly impersonal sexual banter of the Student Council and the casual way Ginko offers her body for Kureha’s safety.

The best way to read Yuri Bear Storm is the same way you first watched Utena….cluelessly, guilelessly. Be an uncarved block and enjoy the story and don’t try to figure out what it means until you’ve finished it…and then you can back into whatever symbolism you believe you’ve parsed. It’s way more fun that way. In the mean time, marvel at the image of one of Morishima-sensei’s adorable pink-cheeked cherubs, aiming down the barrel of a long range rifle threatening to kill all bears. Because that’s a thing you’ll get here.

Tokyopop has done a fine job with the technicals, and I did not envy translator Katie McLendon her job. Making this make sense is a fool’s errand.

The next volume will give us another, even more complicated, love triangle and more bears. I am looking forward to it!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8 More Yurika, please!
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

Overall – 8

My review of the anime and this first volume in Japanese had me thinking of Picasso. Reading it this time reminded me of Andy Warhol’s famously repetitive imagery. If we just keep saying “Bear” over and over, surely it will come to have meaning.

In the meantime, if you, like me, are a fan of Morishima-sensei’s work, keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Conditions of Paradise, a manga that does make sense and is kind of sexy, too. ^_^