Archive for the Luce Category


My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 2 Guest Review by Luce

April 6th, 2022

Please welcome back Luce, who will take a look at the remaining volumes of this series for us!

In the first volume, we saw Sakiko get over a good part of her shyness and awe of Chihiro, the girl sitting next to her that happens to be her favourite idol in a group called Spring Sunshine. She also manages to somewhat wrangle Maaya, a Spring Sunshine superfan, into their group, and there was a surprise concert – they all go, of course, but now Sakiko is awestruck by Chihiro again!

Volume 2 of My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over starts where we left off. Sakiko, having had Chihiro wave at her from on stage, is elated… But also awestruck? Having seen Chihiro as Chiro-chan the idol has made her nervous about the distance between them, although it seems somewhat evident to the audience that may only be half the problem.

Next, a sports festival, in which Sakiko tries to protect Chihiro’s identity from her photographer senpai so she doesn’t get outed as an idol. The three of them go on a ‘chic-nic’. Chihiro faces some criticism from classmates. And Sakiko and Maaya try to protect Chihiro from possible scandal in their own ways…that may not be very conducive. Finally, someone confesses to Chihiro! A lot happens in these chapters!

Now that Sakiko has come out of her shell a lot, the whole thing is a great deal better. That said, she has her hands full dealing with/mitigating the effects of Maaya. I think these two are intended to show two sides of fandom: the invested but respectful, and the obsessed and possessive. Due to Sakiko’s influence, Maaya never quite succeeds on her schemes, which largely involve singling Chihiro out and getting rid of any ‘interfering’ parties (in her opinion), but it is annoying. Her stalkerish tendencies will never become comfortable, and I hope she leaves them behind either by force or by choice. I feel a plot point in a future chapter may well be Chihiro linking Maaya and the forum aggressor as one and the same, and her reaction. But her view currently is clearly ‘Chihiro belongs to me’, and it is uncomfortable. Her actions towards Sakiko at times and some other characters are definitely not alright – if you can ignore them, the manga can be quite enjoyable. If it’s too close to home, maybe give it a skip. Vol 3 came out and by the end of that she’s not much better, Sakiko is just working more as a conscience engine for her. I await further developments.

Sakiko is another story. Being friends with Chihiro (and Maaya) has helped her immensely – we see her converse with other people in class quite freely by midway through, and it’s lovely to see her grow into herself. It seems fairly clear to us that she at the very least has a crush on Chihiro, and their growing closeness unsettles Maaya, who reacts in a… very Maaya way. It could be worse, and it’s resolved fairly quickly. One of her photography club senpais even thinks to herself about whether Sakiko is in love with Chiro-chan. So on the yuri front, I would say it is increasing. For her part, Chihiro seems to have had a bad experience in junior school, so her friends are very important to her, although she tends towards Sakiko – could we see something into this?

We get a few more characters in this book, which is nice. A thought I had is that’s its nice to have male characters who aren’t portrayed as creepy and aren’t just there for plot drama. We get some people who aren’t into idol groups, and announce their discovery of Chihiro as an idol in a slightly unfavourable way, which is greatly frustrating to the three of the main characters – but Chihiro deals with it in her own way, which was lovely to see. Especially with the other two seeming to think she needs to be protected – she is a bit clueless at times, so there is some reason – it was good to see her stand up for herself in her own way.

Story: 8
Art: 8, its bright and sunny, suits the story it’s telling.
Service: 1
Yuri: 5. Sakiko hasn’t made it there yet. Not sure if Maaya is in love or just obsession. Possibly both.
Overall: 9

The story is tending towards Spring Shine getting more popular, even if just within the class, but if they do, that could change things quite significantly. Maaya is uncomfortable at times, but over-ride-able in my opinion. I’ll be staying tuned – Volume 3 and and Volume 4 have come out as of 5th April!





5 Seconds Before A Witch Falls in Love, Guest Review by Luce

March 9th, 2022

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu. We welcome back Luce who is taking a look at a collected volume of stories by Zeniko Sumiya that ran in Comic Yuri Hime. Take it away, Luce!

5 Seconds Before a Witch Falls in Love actually has three stories in it, although you wouldn’t know from the outset. The first and third are linked  in that they follow the same characters in stories set about a month apart: The ‘Untouchable Sorceress’ Meg, and the witch hunter Lilith. They fight frequently, although Meg has always managed to one-up Lilith, so never getting caught. When Meg turns Lilith into a cat and someone makes off with her, things change. A bit. In the second story, from Lilith’s point of view, a month afterwards, she is convinced that Meg has cursed her with a love spell. Why else would she be feeling so het up!

The third story is sandwiched between them, and isn’t at all related. In this, Kamiari Kanna is an otherwise normal school girl, who can see supernatural beings, and offers to help them. After finding the demon Belphegor wounded and the angel Samael apparently collapsed and offering to help them, they both fell madly in love with her and follow her around near constantly. A transfer student seems a bit suspicious though, and a supernatural entity is on the loose…

This book is a one shot and totally contained, which I do like. I’m not so fond of tsunderes, which Meg and Lilith emulate somewhat, but they were different enough that I could kind of get behind them. Being so short helped – you don’t actually have to endure the swathes of denial prior to the depicted story. I’m pretty happy about that. Meg was pretty fun, everyone calls her an old hag which pisses her off, and while she’s implied to be extremely talented with magic, she generally uses her magic to play ridiculous pranks on the townspeople. That said, when she does get serious, she goes all in. I personally would have liked Lilith to have a bit more… pizzazz(?) about her? She is cute, though. What I liked most was the ‘warlock pharmacist/drugstore owner’ Hachi. Well equipped with an armoury of snappy comebacks, he was great, and seemed to know more than he actually stated.

I’ll single out something that pleasantly surprised me – Meg apologises for kissing Lilith without her consent (to turn her back from being a cat). Seeing as consent is rarely even mentioned or asked for in manga, I greatly appreciate this. Meg also gives Lilith the opportunity to leave, by which she means to allow her to leave the situation altogether. I like this, and these small details made it far more enjoyable.

I think I enjoyed the second story a bit more though, which is funny because the only advertisement it gets on the cover is the three main characters on the back. The blurb doesn’t even mention a third story at all! The idea of a kind-hearted girl helping all sorts of supernatural spirits isn’t new, but Samael and Belphegor being obsessed by her was made infinitely better by a.) Kanna saying things how she meant and b.) them not getting too handsy about it. They fight over her, but it’s never serious. It’s clear that she is very dear to them, but they never force their affections on her – Bel is upset because the transfer student hugs Kanna… Because she wanted to. Kanna hugs her. It’s actually really cute.

Story: Meg and Lilith 5, Kanna’s story 7
Art: 7
Yuri: 8
Service: 3?
Overall: 7

Erica here: Thank you Luce! I’ll be sure to pay attention to that third story when I have a chance to read this collection. ^_^





Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Volume 2, Guest Review by Luce

February 9th, 2022

It’s Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu and again we welcome back Luce for continuing coverage of Eri Ejima’s school life series!

In volume one, we met Mitsuki Aya, a girl who had given up fighting games prior to joining a posh game-banning school on schloarship, and ‘Shirayuri-sama’, a girl who is highly revered for her poise and elegance… And just so happens to love fighting games! The two embark on matches together, but their previous safe haven had been locked. They can game outside at the weekends if the weather is good, but that’s not good enough!

Thus, in volume two of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, we see them try to find a place indoors where they will be able to game. There happens to be an empty room with a broken lock, but just when they think it’s safe, there’s a knock on the door… The Dormitory Affairs Committee!

The second volume is as daft as the first, but we gain some teammates. One isn’t so good at fighting games – or rather, has become disillusioned with losing to online players, and they set her to training. The other craftily joined the committee so she could have a single room and therefore game to get hearts content. Those closest to the law, and all. With the four of them in one of the Dorm Affair senpai’s room, they are free to game. And game they do. Surely that lack of sleep has got to catch up with them?!

Amusingly, who we thought was called Shirayuri-sama… actually isn’t called that at all. It’s a nickname unwillingly given to her by the gushing school girls: she’s actually called Yorue Mio, and Aya’s agreement to use her name makes her pretty happy, but also opens up rumours around school that they might be dating. We have in-universe yuri shippers. This flies over their heads because they’re far more concerned with mentally strategising about beating each other to a pulp (in their fighting game).

There is a lot of fighting game talk in here. I’ve never played fighting games, but I have played some other games, so some concepts are more foreign to me than others. For the people not in the know, there are notes peppered around if something can be easily explained, but at the end of each chapter, there’s a more thorough debrief of the concepts included, so you don’t feel too alienated by the talk. It’s actually nice to see someone doing a manga around something they are clearly passionate about – and choosing to do it with notes helps with not having heavy exposition laden text. I applaud that decision, as conversation flows better, and means we don’t have to have the token newbie who knows nothing like usual. 

The art, as ever, cracks me up. It feels very real to have two teenagers complaining that they’re going to die if they can only game at the weekend. It’s actually really nice to see those tumultuous emotions not applied to romance. As for romance, clearly their schoolmates think they’re dating. They clearly aren’t, and I’m on the fence, but it’s so self-aware of it looking like a romance that I could probably see someone getting together at least. Maybe those senpais…?

I’m enjoying this series a lot more than I thought I would, starting out. It’s ridiculous, but in a good way.

Story – 7 (now I think about it manga about girls gaming feels kind of rare?)
Art – 8
Service – 3? Aya is in a bath, but it’s never purposely salacious.  
Yuri – 5? The in universe shippers certainly think something is going on, but some frames…
Overall – 9

I think this is actually one of my favourite new series coming out at the moment! I’m looking forwards to more. Next time: a tournament! Looking forward to seeing how these girls practice and sneak out of school for that one. 

 
 




Double Your Pleasure Yuri Anthology, Guest Review by Luce

November 24th, 2021

A cropped header of the cover of Double Your Pleasure Yuri Anthology. (I have used the cropped one as the full image whilst not explicit, is not really safe for work)

I’m Luce and often my curiosity gets the better of me. See also: I read and reviewed it so you don’t have to! Gave Erica a break, anyhow. You can find me on the Okazu discord as farfetched, and on tumblr as silverliningslurk. Onward, at your own peril.

Double Your Pleasure is an erotic yuri anthology based around twins, from authors such as Naoko Kodama who has done Days of Love at Seagull Villa. I think this is what they call ‘Dead Dove content’, also known as ‘does what it says on the tin’. I don’t know if I was expecting anything different from what I got, to be honest.

This review could be as short as: a series of twins having sex in various places. That’s pretty much all this is. If that’s your thing, then it’s great. I do find twins interesting… but not so much in this context. As far as I’m aware, sibling relationships are much more common in Japanese media than they are in English media, as are teacher-student relationships. I don’t know why – someone more versed in Japanese culture might be able to comment more thoroughly on it – but for some reason, they seem to go down a treat, at least with enough people to get published. I somehow can’t imagine something like this being published in the western world, but this made it here, so presumably there is some demand. I could possibly guess the type.

To be honest, where a third party was included it was a bit more interesting to me, but the focus on twins being so obsessed with their differences felt quite odd. Maybe it was low-hanging fruit, but nearly all of the stories featured twins either trying to be exactly the same, or very focused on the few things that they matched in. I’m not a twin, so I can only imagine that it probably is something they are concerned about to a degree, but I feel like most twins (I happen to know two separate triplets, too) I know don’t like being compared, and are no more interested in their siblings than non-twin siblings.

Basically, this is a fetish-catering manga. There is a lot of focus on nipples, and the sex is shown. The preview on Bookwalker has one full short story, and it’s about the same from there. One of the ones that particularly irked me was a story where two twins are very different… but their weights are the same. Why? Because the one tries to match her intake and output to the other. Loosely linked to binary stars?

Basically, if you’re into it, you’re into it, and it does what it says on the tin, and does that pretty well. If you’re not, you’re probably reading this with a sense of horror. If you’re curious, read the preview on Global Bookwalker, (with an 18+ warning to click through) and if you hate that, it only gets better in the sense that the rest of the book isn’t quite as non-consensual. Oh, did I mention that? In the first story, the twins get annoyed that someone can tell them apart and force themselves on her as punishment. It’s my least favourite… not that I had any favourites. I won’t be reading this again.

Ratings:

Art – 7 – mixture of artists, all fairly decent.
Story – 1: twins have sex, sometimes someone else is included, in one it was a dream. I think.
Characters – 2 – few characters have any depth beyond ‘I’m obsessed with my twin and this correlates to sexual activity with them’.
Service (level of salaciousness) – 10. Lots of sex. Every story. Dead dove content, if you will.
Yuri –  10, I mean. They’re all explicit yuri, so…
Overall – 4.

Thank you to Seven Seas for the review copy. I’m off to read something a little more wholesome.

Erica here: Thank you Luce, for once again stepping in to give us a solid review of this jiggly collection.

For my part, I was merely sad that none of the creators tried to do something interesting with the premise. Like, an astronaut returns fall in love with another astronaut of a space station and they find they were separated at birth…or something. But as you say, this is “a series of twins having sex” so, if that’s a reader’s thing, then that reader ought to like it.  ^_^





Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games! Volume 1, Guest Review by Luce

November 17th, 2021

Cover image of the manga Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games by Eri EjimaI’m Luce, several time reviewer here and long-time book collector who is very much a tsundoku exhibiting person. I’ve been reading my manga though, including this one, a small gem from Seven Seas who are probably my new favourite company. Not that I really have those, but they do a lot of Yuri. I’ll ignore some of the other series they do. Anyhow! I can be found on the Okazu discord as farfetched, and on tumblr as silverliningslurk. Ready, fight!

In Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Mitsuki Aya is one of the only new students in Kuromi Girls Academy, a prestigious private school, attending on a scholarship. She’s trying her utmost act as ladylike as the other (mostly rich) girls in the school, but none more so than Shirayuri, the epitome of elegant grace and another new student. At least… That’s what everyone thinks, including Aya, until she catches her late at night not only playing fighting games, but violently trash-talking the person she just trounced. Outing herself as a gamer to Shirayuri accidentally, Aya is asked to join a match, but she’s given them up – or at least, tried to. Aya’s own previous obsession with fighting games and a new-found rivalry between the two aside, there’s a big problem here – all games are banned at the school!

It sounds ridiculous. It kind of is ridiculous. It clearly doesn’t take itself too seriously, with the name ‘Shirayuri’ (literally white lily) being pointed out in the translation as something incredibly flowery and a highly unusual Japanese name. But it’s good. The way that Shirayuri flips on a coin from a lovely girl held on a pedestal to someone downright crass is funny, and some of the responses to things that Aya says are hilarious. For example, Aya starts saying how she eschewed fighting games to become a ‘proper lady’ and all this noble speak… And Shirayuri basically responds with ‘wtf you talking about, fight me’.

That’s pretty refreshing, honestly. Shirayuri clearly has no intention of leaving something she loves to fully become the mask she portrays everywhere else, and doesn’t see why Aya is so hung up on this ideal. They have several virtual matches, which are pretty well drawn and narrated as such by Aya’s thoughts, breaking down her predictions and actions in a way that feels pretty smooth and close to what I feel like a slow motion fight scene would feel like. They get caught… and their escape is just as ridiculous and funny as the reactions. The series flips quite well between the elegant lady aesthetic and a caricatured ugliness of real emotion. The mangaka does both quite well.

As for yuri, well, I’m not 100% sure that it will be yuri, but if it is, it certainly won’t be something fluffy like Girlfriends. They’ll be fighting all the way along. But some of the scenes and panels on their own make me feel like this series could well go on a yuri-ish direction. There is clearly a lot of idol worship towards Shirayuri that could lean that way, but even other than that, some of the art just makes me think this will be yuri. Natsume, Aya’s roommate, clearly thinks they’re together. I mean, Shirayuri, her name aside, is introduced with lilies in the background. Bookwalker told me it’s yuri, so I’m going to believe it, since it feels too self-aware to not be.

Next volume, they decide they have to find something safe to game inside. I hope Aya comes to a revelation that she can enjoy things and be elegant, or just… enjoy things and not worry so much over what other people think. I’ll be looking forward to it.

Art – 8 – does both pretty and grotesque quite well. The comic violence in and occasionally out of the in-manga game is good.
Story – 6. It’s ridiculous. I have questions. But it’s fun.
Characters – 8
Service (level of salaciousness) – 2? Aya is in a form-fitting turtleneck at one point, but that’s about it, and it’s not played for anything. It’s also not a male-gaze type of form-fitting. The skirts are not magic, either.
Yuri – 4. For the moment.
Overall – 8

My questions are mainly: how many first year students with long white hair can there possibly be, and how can you be (presumably) that loud and not get caught. It’s not meant to be serious, so they’re not serious questions. I also want pg115 on my wall, it’s glorious. Other than that, check it out!

Erica here: Thank you very much for this fantastic review. I hope you’ll all take this chance to pick up and enjoy this silly story. ^_^