Archive for the English Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 2 (English)

February 8th, 2015

ww21Whispered Words, Volume 2  (Amazon / RightStuf) is the English-language edition of Sasamekikoto, Volume 4, Volume 5 and Volume 6.

And, as I said in my reviews to those volumes, when this much pressure has been built up…something’s gotta give.

The series started as a mostly-comedic “best friend with a crush” plot, expanding out to almost all the possible Yuri tropes that we were familiar with. For that alone, this was a pretty terrific series. But then the veil of comedy became thinner and thinner and we started to see a serious drama beginning to unfold…and more importantly, the abyss of possible tragedy. In a fascinating sort of reverse meta, the characters are painfully aware of the impending calamity.

Sumika and Ushio are speaking to one another, but nothing is being said. Everyone around them can see what lays between them. Even when they know what it is, they can’t just say it. The logjam becomes untenable. Thankfully, the tragedy that breaks it up is laughably mundane. Phew.

This volume has some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in schoolgirl Yuri manga. No complicated school rituals, no gender switched plays…no tortured metaphors. Just two people you can imagine knowing, in a situation you can imagine happening, and the manga is still funny and ridiculous and painful in places…just like life.

Technically, Volume 2 is a notable improvement over the first printing of Volume 1. I know just how difficult it is to publish a 100% error-free book, and it amazes me how jarring even a single typo is. Generally speaking, I think 1 error per 100 pages is acceptable. This book has fewer than that. Nice work by One Peace.

Volume 2 includes a sweet little short about a schoolmate of  Ushio and Sumi’s with powers of divination who can’t see her own future. It has a very “awww” ending.

The best part of this review? Volume 3 is already shipping. If you gave up on this series, for whatever reason, I ask you right now, as a personal favor – give Volume 3 a chance. It’s worth it. I promise.  ^_^

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Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Many, many thanks to One Peace for the review copy.  Volume 2 was as emotionally wrecking as I suspected, and I’m very glad it’s in English for us all to be brutalized. ^_^ Volume 3 ahoy!





Yuri Manga: Citrus, Volume 1 (English) Guest Review by Amanda B

February 4th, 2015

CitrusV1SSELast week I confessed I just wasn’t enjoying Saburouta’s manga Citrus, and asked you, my dear readers  to jump in with a review. And once again you are the best readers ever. As a result, – it’s another Guest Review Wednesday and we have another Guest Review! Please welcome Amanda B who has graciously written up her look at Citrus, Volume 1 for us!

Saburouta, who made an appearance in Yuri Hime Wildrose Volume 7 back in 2007 with a smutty one-shot, has returned to the Yuri scene with a drama-filled, pseudo-incest manga titled Citrus. Citrus is currently in its 4th volume, running bimonthly in Comic Yuri Hime, and was recently licensed in English by Seven Seas (yay for more Iuri!). It has caused such a stir in the Yuri world that a Promotional Video was created (voiced by a few notable actresses featured in various Yuri anime titles) to recount the manga up through its 3rd volume! It’s pretty obvious this series is a guilty-pleasure read. Not everyone is into the whole “incest” factor, so discretion is advised if this isn’t your cup of tea.

The carefree and fashionable Yuzu Aihara’s world is turned upside down after transferring to an all-girls high school upon her mother’s remarriage. Not even making it through her first day of school she manages to sully her reputation and anger the beautiful, but snobby student council president, Mei. After returning home, Yuzu finds out that Mei just so happens to be her newly inherited younger sister, a detail mom forgot to mention. It is made evident that evening that Mei clearly has some boundary issues after randomly kissing Yuzu, at which Yuzu becomes literally dumbfounded about her newly appointed role as the “older sister”.

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Throughout the volume, Yuzu finds herself constantly conflicted between her increasing lustful desires, and trying to gain Mei’s respect in order to increase their family’s cohesiveness. One night when attempting to kiss Mei, Mei cries out for her father, whom we have yet to see, and the matter is not discussed further (at least in this volume anyway). After a series of disastrous events, Yuzu finds Mei’s grandfather (headmaster of the school) collapsed on the floor of his office and brings him to the hospital. After coming to understand Yuzu acted as the caretaker for her grandfather, Mei appears to be somewhat grateful before instantly returning to her tsundere mannerisms. The final arc of the volume centers on Yuzu coming to the conclusion (after consulting with bff Harumin) that her attempts to become an older sister figure have failed and that she is in fact, in love with Mei.

As a fan of Saburouta’s Yuri works, I am beyond pleased with the artwork. It is gorgeous! There is quite a bit of service throughout with various kissing scenes, particularly the shower scene. The story however is very chunky with a plethora of forced drama. Mei’s cold exterior warrants the obvious dramatic plot-hole I’m sure will be explored at some point. I get the feeling a good portion of the fandom for this series are in it mostly for the illustrations – watching pretty girls go at it is something I too enjoy.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 4
Characters – 5 (definitely room for character development in the upcoming volumes)
Service – 6
Yuri – 9
Overall – 7

Sometimes I can’t help but wish Saburouta would just instead collaborate with another mangaka capable of writing a decent drama (maybe Shuninta-sensei) while she provides the illustrations. Volume 2 will be available in April.

Erica here: Thank you Amanda! Much obliged for the review.

I was reading Fujimoto Yukari’s essay in Eureka magazine’s “Yuri Culture” issue and something sort of dawned on me. In Oniisama E, we spend a lot of time watching Miya-sama and Saint Just’s unhealthy relationship on screen, but there’s actually another half-sibling relationship directly in front of us the entire time that is perfectly healthy – for a number of reasons, not least of which because Nanako doesn’t know it exists. Henmi and Nanako serve as sane, healthy foils for Rei and Fukiko, letting the audience know that it’s not normal to be so weirdly manipulative of one’s half-sister. Citrus is in desperate need of a foil couple, some representative healthy relationship,  to relieve the thick atmosphere of “this is not and really cannot be a good thing.”





Western Comic: Tomboy

November 18th, 2014

tomboy Graphic Memoirs are a bit of a conundrum to me. They are super popular, often incredibly well executed and yet, as I read them I often feel a sense of intense boredom, as I might if anyone were to tell me their entire life story in a monologue, without any kind of break.

Tomboy by Liz Prince hit me square in the middle of my problem area. Prince’s art is quite good, but her life…was my life. I already knew about the feelings, the gender expression issues, and the teasing. Although the details were different, the substance is the same. I wouldn’t bore anyone else with those details – at this point they are 40 years old anyway, what’s the point? So, reading about Prince’s experience with a gender expression at odd with society’s expectations was, for me, a trifle exhausting.

Two things made this book pop for me. The rare moments when Prince stops telling the story to comment on it were exceptional. It’s the adult voice looking back at the child that interested me most. I dealt with 13-year old issues at 13, it’s hard to be terribly enthusiastic about that now. But 31-year old Liz Prince commenting on things that were incongruous…“The irony of being called a farmer while wearing a suit jacket and carrying a leather satchel briefcase was lost on me.”…that was worth reading!

The second stand out feature was, honestly, the very end of the book, when she suddenly realizes that, although she thought she was telling a story about her life and the guys she looked up to and wanted to hang with and be with, she has a sudden epiphany that the story is equally about the women in her life. The girls she emulated, adored, befriended, who guided her and gave her the chance to become who she is. As I read that bit, I – for the first time in my life – had my life flash before me, in a series of memories of all the girls I looked up to, who broke my heart before I knew that was what was happening, who were my best friends until they weren’t and those who were there for me when no one else was.

In that one moment, this book went from good to excellent. Because while I don’t expect everyone to care about me, or my childhood, Liz Prince quite literally pulled it whole out of my brain and laid it out for me to see.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – My life, my friends, my experiences and me. 10
Service – 1 on principle
LGBTQ – 5 the narrative is wholly about being gender non-conforming

Overall – 8

So, from one tomboy to another (and who also gets mistaken for a guy about half the time) – Thanks, Liz Prince. Let’s climb a tree together one day. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 1 (English)

August 27th, 2014

ww1It’s been an exciting summer for Yuri fans, with series new and old that we love. One of the most exciting titles of the year to be released in English is Ikeda Takashi’s epic dramedy of Yuri tropes, Whispered Words out from One Peace Books. Volume 1 is available on RightStuf or Amazon.

The story follows the life of a high school student, Sumika, who is in the unenviable position of being in love with her best friend and classmate, Ushio. Sumika has everything going for her – classic looks, she’s tall strong, athletic, smart and a competent leader. Unfortunately for Sumi, Ushio dreams, not of being swept away by someone princely, but sweeping away her own petite and cute princess. Although Sumika is always by her side, Ushio never even notices Sumika’s feelings. Complicating this one-sided love, are about a hundred things, all of which are silly tropes of Yuri.

A male classmate who likes Sumika, is a cross dresser and is, in fact, so cute, that Ushio falls for him as a girl.

Aoi, Yuri light novel fan, thinks she’s found a like mind in Sumika…but she hasn’t.

Sumi and Ushio discover that there are, in fact, two lesbians in their class, and through pretense and blackmail are made to join Tomoe’s “Girls Club” for girl-lovers.

An extremely cute foreign student transfers in. Ushio, predictably falls for her, but Lotte wants to be strong like Sumi.

Each plot complication piles on Sumi, who bears the weight of Ushio’s obliviousness. And it’s apparent – especially after the somewhat messy arc with Aoi – that Sumika is a really standup kind of person. Ushio’s cluelessness hurts, and in a vulnerable moment, Sumika lets her mask slip. But will it bring them closer together?

Volume 1 covers the first three volumes of the Japanese edition (here are my reviews of Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3), which includes some emotionally charged reading in places. The story is comedic, but there are places where characters (and, possibly, readers) are found in tears. For a comedy, Volume 1 has a lot of drama. ^_^;

Technically, the book is much better than I expected.  It had only a very few typos in nearly 500 pages and nearly none of the other issues I noticed with the preview copy. The translation is absolutely excellent – I could really hear  the characters’ individual voices in the dialogue.   The story is by turns hilarious, heart-wrenching and lovely. Ikeda’s art is reproduced well and I like both the heft and paper quality of the translated edition. I feel like I’m getting something solid to hold, but not hideously bulky or heavy.

Volume 2 is already up for pre-order, with a release date in November 2014. I know that the typo issues are mostly resolved in the next Volume, and while these three volumes are the hardest to get through (Volume 4, Volume 5 and Volume 6), the finale of this series is well worth hanging in there for, I promise!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

If you’re looking for excellent Yuri, definitely get Whispered Words – good sales will translate to more Yuri. ^_^

My sincere thanks to One Peace Books for a review copy of Volume 1! It was great to be able to see this excellent Yuri tale told in English. ^_^





Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Short Stories, Volume 1 (English)

August 13th, 2014

pgsmss1As Kodansha has wound down the last of the releases of the 15th anniversary volumes of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, I want to take a moment to discuss, at long last, the Sailor Moon Short Stories. These shorts were included with the original artbooks and with the Japanese collected volumes. They have never made it over here as a whole before, so this was new for Kodansha’s English-language release.

Some of the stories in the two short story volumes are known to fans through the Sailor Moon movies. Probably best known is  “Princess Kaguya’s Lover,” which became the basis for the Sailor Moon S movie, while one of the Chibi-Usa’s picture diary stories, “Beware of the Transfer Student” made it into the legendary SuperS Special, which I believe we are getting as part of the Viz release, at last. (I’ve worn my old VHS out watching that, because the Uranus and Neptune short on it is so very wonderful. ^_^) These are both in Volume 2 of the Short Stories.

Volume 1 has one story of especial interest for us at Okazu. In this volume each of the Inner Senshi faces a crisis about their lives. Some of these are very poignant, especially Rei’s story. (And again, Ami’s chapter, “Ami-chan’s First Love” was an animated special and is also quite wonderful.) Interestingly, Rei features in Minako’s crisis chapter and the story was the basis of many a Rei x Minako fanfic back in the day – and will no doubt be again, for the opening color artbook picture alone, if nothing else.

Minako find Rei’s perfection vexing, and who wouldn’t? So she asks the question that set a million fans a-tittering, ala Beevis and Butthead. But that *still* isn’t why we should care about this story. We should care, because when Rei is possessed by the genus loci, she starts to kiss all the other girls at school, including Minako…perhaps forseeing their reincarnations’ smoking hot romance in a live action drama, 15 years later. Or not. ^_^; It’s service, but fun. ^_^ Also fun is Sailor Venus’ reveling in the adoration and crushiness of the girls’ school students.
Ratings:

Art – 7 Standard PGSM art
Story – 6 Sloppy storytelling, but I don’t care because…
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service – 2-ish

Overall – 8

So, while it’s confined to service and light akogare, Short Stories, Volume 1 has some Yuri.