Archive for the English Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Bloom Into You, Volume 6 (English)

April 5th, 2019

The moment has arrived….the school festival is here and now, at last, the Student Council will perform a play. Touko will achieve the thing her late sister was never able to do. She will be able to put her sister’s phantom behind her. And then what?

In Bloom Into You, Volume 6 Touko will have to ask the question that has been plaguing her for years – and she’ll do it literally in front of the entire school all her friends and her family.

Unusually for a manga, we are allowed to see the whole play. Konomi nails the character each council member plays and it is especially lovely to be able to see how close to the mark she got in the dialogue, not just hear about it. (Even though, of course Konomi is not writing, but being written that way, it  still works in context.)  We are also given the opportunity to see audience reactions, like Touko’s parents looking pained when the dialogue lands on their lap, or the intrigued whispers at Sayaka playing Touko’s lover. All of it skirting >this< close to plausibility that the audience – and readers – might be tempted to think it was the truth.

This volume was both a triumphant climax for the series and one of the best school festivals play episodes I’ve ever read. It’s a pretty common trope for the play to reflect the story in an unsubtle way, as we’ve seen with Torikaebaya in Maria Watches Over Us, or Shuu-chan’s original script in Wandering Son. This one wins. Now Sayaka will have to deal with everyone wondering if she and Touko are, were, or could be lovers. Which, if she weren’t actually in love with Touko, might be funny.

And Yuu, at last, has to confess out loud what we’ve already known for a while now – she has failed to keep her end of the promise she and Touko made. Her heart-wrenching confession puts Touko into a tailspin.

We, the audience of this play-within-a-play are in the somewhat unusual position of having to wait to find out what happens because Volume 7 does not come out in Japan until the end of April and in English in December! I have read one or two of the chapters in Dengeki Daioh magazine where it is serialized, but am otherwise in the dark about where this story now goes. Which I quite like, so please do not helpfully spoil me, thanks. ^_^

Seven Seas’ edition continues to be excellent. This volume was, I think, particularly critical for this series, with a lot of future ramifications being laid out, and I was confident that translation by Jenny McKeon and adaptation by Jenn Grunigen were solid. The technicals were also especially good. Once again I feel that this volume offers the authentic manga reading experience fans are looking for.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 8

In my review of this volume in Japanese, I called the play “terrifyingly accurate.” While we know damn well that that’s contrived, it still worked.

 





My Solo Exchange Diary 2 Manga (English)

March 29th, 2019

Kabi Nagata’s My Solo Exchange Diary 2 begins with an apology. At the end of the last book, she explains, we may have been rooting for her as she met someone she felt she could begin to imagine having some kind of feelings for. But that person does not come into this book.

Instead, this book is about the revolving door of her life, as she develops an addiction, and does stints in the hospital as she valiantly lives with what is obviously ever-more crushing depression, She’s careful at the end to explain that this manga is just one piece of her life – but that it is, in a very real way, her life. Boundaries are hard for a lot of people and people who are ill or disabled, often have an extra difficult time defining and/or defending boundaries. That she’s set some for us, the reader, at the end is the most positive sign, in my opinion. The conversation with her editor about it is terrific.

Even more importantly, this volume includes an original, non-essay work, “Chika-chan’s Depression” which was surprisingly hopeful.

Nothing about this volume is easy. Nothing about being Nagata-sensei is easy, right now, I think. But this comic essay is an important piece of Graphic Medicine. And regardless of the content, we know this is a story about a queer woman dealing with a severe chronic illness for which treatments are inconsistent at best. Again, it is my opinion that makes this worth reading, as “LGBTQ individuals are almost 3 times more likely than others to experience a mental health condition such as major depression or generalized anxiety disorder” according to National Association on Mental Illness (and if you are suffering from either, please visit the NAMI site or call their helpline!)

No ratings will be assessed for this book, as I do not feel I can adequately judge the content of a person’s life. I hope that her other readers and reviewers will consider that this is her life when doing a review. 





Yuri Manga: Beauty and the Beast Girl (English)

March 20th, 2019

Neji’s Beauty and the Beast Girl is, exactly as it sounds, a Yuri fairytale.

A blind girl named Lily Blind meets and falls in love with a beast girl who she names Heath. Let it never be said that fairytales aren’t symbolic. Heath hides from humans in the forest and spends most of her time loathing her own form until Lily brings her out of her shell.

What follows is a gentle tale of redemption and love and growth for both Lily and Heath. As this is a fairytale and a romance, we never have any reasonable expectation that Lily and Heath will be parted, but as all good fairytales have some conflict, this does have some potential for disasters that are, of course, averted by love.

Neji-sensei is clearly a fan of non-human x humans romance, as I am simultaneously reading Volume 2 of Prisontown e Youkoso! (my review of Volume 1 can be read here,) from Comic Yuri Hime, in which a human finds herself in a supernatural town where she lives alongside fanciful creatures from myths, fairtyales and legends.  So this particular pairing is spot on for this creator’s ouvre. ^_^ The story is sweet, with more attention paid to character design than plot, which also seems typical of Neji’s stories.

The ending of this comic is very doujinshi-esque, where it ends, rather than wraps up, but it is, after all a fairytale, so “and they lived happily ever after” is acceptable. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Service – 3
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

Commenting on Heath’s name, Lily says “I think there was another name for that flower” which, I am obliged to remind you is “Erica.” ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kase-san and Cherry Blossoms (English)

March 13th, 2019

Love after high school graduation. Surprisingly few Yuri manga address the idea of a same-sex relationship in the “outside world” after secondary education. There’s a good reason for this, honestly, as life rapidly becomes more complex once a person is on their own. One day, you’re picking out a set of plates for your own kitchen and the next, you’re searching for renter’s insurance and a job that still offers real vacation time. 

Of all the many thousands of reviews here on Okazu, a mere handful of Yuri manga have so much as explored that space between high school and adult life. Morinaga Milk’s GIRL FRIENDS literally took a look at it, then shied away from dealing with the reality of adulthood. 

All of which is why I absolutely love Kase-san and Cherry Blossoms by Takashima Hiromi, the fifth book of the Kase-san series, out now in English from Seven Seas. Yamada does not suddenly become a confident adult the moment she graduates, Kase-san is not suddenly less jealous than she was, Miwachi isn’t less of a haphazard mess. They are all who they were in high school….and then again, they aren’t. The thing I’ve liked best about this series from the beginning is the naturalness of it. I feel like we’re watching these people in real time (although, as Takashima-sensei notes in the Afterword, the series began in 2010 – that’s a long time to be in high school!)

Kase-san and Yamada, that is to say, Tomoka and Yui, sleep together and grin goofily at one another, as one does. They support one another and spend time together. It’s just lovely to see them maturing and becoming adults who are in love. 

As always, Jocelyne Allen’s translation is so good, I can hear Yui and Tomoka saying the lines. The reproduction is high quality. Once again, Seven Seas has provided us with an authentic, enjoyable manga reading experience.

Ratings:

Art – 8 So much improved over the early days
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri -10
Service – 6 Some gratuitous underwear shots

Overall – 9

It’s unlikely that we’ll see Yamada and Kase-san addressing homophobia, social or political issues; some other manga will have to go there. But that’s okay. That’s not what we read the Kase-san series for.

 





Yuri Manga: Now Loading…! (English)

February 14th, 2019

There’s an old chestnuty saying that “you should never meet your heroes.” In Mikan Uji’s Now Loading…! this is simultaneously true and untrue at the same time.

Takagi has scored her dream job at a small gaming company. As an independent game developer, she loves creating new stages, but has hit a plateau in downloads and ideas. Her boss, Sakaurazuki is pretty harsh, but when she learns that Sakarazuki developed her favorite game ever, Takagi is motivated to try harder. Takagi is pretty sure the boss hates her, or at least hates her work, until one day Sakarazuki kisses her suddenly.

The team they are on can see that they like each other, so while they are working overtime on the game, the team is also working overtime to set the two of them up. As the volume closes, they get it together and finally admit what literally everyone else in the office can see.

I find that I never reviewed the Japanese edition of this manga, although I know I read it. Having re-read it in English, I absolutely know why. While I acknowledge that stories, that is, fictitious works of workplace relationships can be fun, the reality is not good and boss/employee relationships are very not good….and relationships that begin with a boss suddenly kissing an employee without their consent is extremely not good. So much not-good that I find it hard to enjoy most narratives that begin that way. Worse, with “happily ever after” after that particular beginning premise.

As the anime industry is flailing with the idea of consent being a thing that everyone deserves in every single situation, this is a particularly difficult “cute” story set-up.

So, while I’d like to say that this is a cute workplace romance, which is how it is presented, it just comes off as a little tone deaf. Unless this particular situation is your boom…and then, by all means enjoy. I won’t judge, I like MURCIÉLAGO. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – This is early for this creator so let’s give it a 7
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Service – 0 Not really
Yuri – 7 Two couples out of five characters

Overall – 5 I wanted to love this when it ran in Comic Yuri Hime. It could have been a 9 with a single change, but it was just too problematic for me to enjoy.