Archive for the Guest Review Category


Monologue Woven For You Volume 2, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

June 22nd, 2022

Welcome to Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu – we’re thrilled to have Matt Marcus back with terrific critique. Please give Matt your attention and offer him some kind words in the comments!

The role of Reviewer will be played tonight by Matt Marcus. He is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, such as the anime watchalong podcast Boku No Stop, which is currently covering the yuri anime Flip Flappers.

Ah, the theater: a sanctuary where we can escape our everyday life in order to live many others, filled with mirthful joys or aching tragedies. In Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1, two star-crossed lovers, Haruka and Nao, connected over their love for the stage. But, while they have had a very smooth Act 1 of their courtship, each carries a secret that they fear would break them apart should they let it out.

Monologue Woven For You, Volume 2 pushes towards rising action, albeit in fits and starts. The story only has a single source of conflict with both Haruka and Nao going through similar arcs in separate chapters: they brood about whether they should admit their secret, the other partner notices their down mood, and instead of talking about it they just brush it under the rug and snuggle for a bit. Sure, there are lower-stakes obstacles, such as Haruka’s insecurity about taking the initiative in physical affection, or Nao’s worry about Haruka’s unawareness of others’ attraction to her. But all of that is fluffy filler akin to cotton candy: sweet, but unsubstantial (however please still visit our concession stands during the intermission).

What is ultimately frustrating is that even at the end of this volume, we still have no further insight into the incident that drove Haruka to quit acting. When Haruka reaffirms her love of the theater in Volume 1 and changes her dream to supporting Nao’s acting career, it seems we are meant to feel the same relief that Haruka does. However, without knowing any more detail on what caused her to quit, we cannot say whether this turn is a wizened healing of an old emotional wound or simply casting aside a denial of self that was given undue import by the intensity of teenage emotions. When Haruka turns down an opportunity to return to acting, I believe we are supposed to trust her judgment, but I don’t feel it. When it comes to rising out of the ashes of a dashed dream, Aquatope on White Sand this is not.

The weakest part of this volume is the introduction of a new character, Rei–a sullen 2nd-year high school student who, in an incredulous twist, is intimately familiar with Haruka’s acting past despite the four year age gap between them (this city must really love their high school theater). She’s also the love interest of Nao’s friend Yuki, which is troubling to say the least.

Now, the first thing that made this series stand out is that it is in full color. It’s refreshing to see, however I would rather that more attention had been paid to the page layouts. There is a visual density to each page in both panel and word balloon count, yet often there is a poor sense of motion from one panel to the next. On the fashion side, the outfit designs are very plain, such as a hoodie and jeans or a dress over a t-shirt. Practical? Yep. Realistic for college students? Sure. Boring to look at? Absolutely. One of the benefits of a college setting over high school is having more opportunities to use fashion as a means of characterization or storytelling, and the designs here pale in comparison to other works in similar settings (see: How Do We Relationship). The real rub with the art is that if this manga were in black and white, there would be very little to visually latch on to.

So, should you line up to buy tickets to this show? As long as you don’t expect Shakespeare, there is some entertainment to be had. Maybe don’t spring for the box seats.

Ratings:

Art – 7 The full color is nice, but the panel compositions and sense of motion leave a bit to be desired
Story – 6 Domestic fluff aside, the only point of conflict in the story is starting to wear thin
Characters – 5 Cute, but one-note
Service – 2 Sex happens off panel, though there is a little canoodling
Yuri – 9 / LGBTQ – 1 The girls are clearly dating but that’s about it

Overall – 7 At best would be cast as an understudy

Erica here: Well said. Thanks so much for offering us your perspective of this series.

 
 




semelparous, Volume 2, Guest Review by G-Man

May 24th, 2022

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday, Today we’re welcoming back G-Man, who has a lot to say about semelparous, Volume 2. ^_^  Take it away, G-Man!

Time for a much overdue look at the continuation of everyone’s “favorite” yuri action manga! More action, more gay, more twists and turns, and more controversial art! But is this new installment in the semelparous saga an improvement on the first? Let’s take a look…

Spoiler Warning! To discuss major plot points in this volume, I gotta talk about the big twist I mentioned in my Volume 1 review.

When we last left our protagonist Yorino, she’d discovered that the kaiju attacking the walls between their world and ours were in fact spiritually connected to a person in the human world. In other words, every time Yorino or another bouhekishi soldier kills a kaiju, someone dies. Despite knowing this, Yorino powers ahead in her goal of putting a stop to the attacks once and for all. She’s willing to “descend into hell together” with her partner, Captain Youko.

Right out of the gate, Volume 2’s plot is much better than the first. Whereas Volume 1 felt like a kaiju-sized pile of setup, with exposition being dumped left and right and characters not being given much of a chance to shine, the opposite (for the most part) is true here. A lot happens in this volume. Like, a LOT. New characters are introduced, relationships are deepened, new plot elements are revealed, etc. We also finally get a glimpse at some human villains working behind the scenes. One could potentially argue that too much happens in this volume, resulting in breakneck pacing that doesn’t give readers much time to digest everything. However, I’d argue that it makes sure the story is never boring. I finished the entire thing in one sitting, always eager to see what would happen on the next page.

Volume 2 also does a good job of raising the stakes. Ever since the Kaiju-Human connection was introduced, I knew it would result in more heartbreak for Yorino. Lo and behold, a routine kaiju takedown results in one of Yorino’s school friends dying. While it does relegate said friends to more plot devices than actual characters, they do their job rather well. Not only does their death, combined with Haruka’s death from Volume 1, reveal that Yorino is being directly targeted by the villains, but it also gives the sense that no one is safe in this world. Seeing Yorino grow closer with Youko has me now fearing for Youko’s safety as well. And it was at this point that I realized something… I was actually starting to care.

Yes, this manga is still a guilty pleasure as many elements of it are problematic and completely ludicrous. As such, I can’t say that everyone will grow invested as I have. But I can say that what started as a mindless yuri action romp with distracting male gaze has become something that feels like it has genuine effort and passion put into it.

Speaking of caring, the characters (at least the main duo) are given some decent development. Yorino continues to have more trauma piled onto her with the death of another person she was close to, instead of just more random citizens. The scene where she goes to school the day after the fight only to find her classmate in tears is a genuine gut-punch. As for Youko, the volume starts with an entire chapter dedicated to her backstory and how she killed her own sister through a kaiju. She’s definitely the more interesting of the two leads as it’s not always clear how she’s feeling. It almost seems as if she’s accepted her past demons and become completely numb to them, and now she simply goes with the flow and doesn’t allow herself to feel anything beyond surface-level joy, anger, or other such emotions. Okay, maybe I’m reading a bit too much into it, but it could explain why she’s so desperate to protect Yorino. A scene where she has to persuade Yorino to mourn her friend’s death, saying “Crying is what keeps you from losing your heart,” reads to me as her trying to prevent Yorino from becoming like her.

There are a few other characters of note this time around, but not nearly as much to say about them. Yorino and Youko get two new bouhekishi partners in the form of Rina Kitamura and Ryouka Manabe. Rina crushes hard on Yorino like a typical tsundere, which some may find endearing, but she can also be rather creepy and borderline stalker-ish, as she enjoys reviewing Yorino’s combat footage and getting off to it (did I mention this manga was made by a hentai artist?). Ryouka has very little going for her, aside from occasionally teasing Rina about her crush on Yorino.

The artstyle pretty much carries over from Volume 1 in every way. The girls all still suffer from absurd proportions, impractical combat outfits, and in-your-face camera angles. Of course, as mentioned above, we’re stepping into hard NSFW territory now with Rina pleasuring herself to Yorino. This is not helped at all by character bios inserted between chapters that remind you these girls are in their teens. Bleh. However, what continues to impress me about the art unironically are the action scenes. I think I can safely say that semelparous has hands-down the best action I’ve seen in any yuri manga (which isn’t saying much given the lack of action yuri, but still). Ogino Jun truly understands the power of “wind-up and follow-through”; every punch thrown and sword swung is preceded by a panel of the kaiju or bouheksihi rearing back for the strike, which makes the force of the resulting impact that much more felt. That, in tandem with the destruction that follows the combatants’ strikes, makes the fights truly feel like clashes between colossal monsters and superpowered humans.

Finally, we have the yuri content, and I’m pleased to report that it’s yet another step forward. The leads’ relationship in Volume 1 was cute, but it was mostly just Youko teasing and Yorino getting either annoyed or flustered. Here, the two support each other not only in combat but emotionally. Youko wants Yorino to live a normal life and not be consumed by her mission to defeat the kaiju, and thus encourages her to spend time with friends. She’s also the first person Yorino shows a vulnerable side to, such as in the aforementioned scene where she tells her it’s okay to cry. It all culminates in their first kiss and declaration of love, and it’s honestly very heartfelt and adorable. After that, they share plenty more cute and flirty moments, including another shower scene (still a hentai artist). Yorino questioning whether Youko truly loves her, only for the Bouhekishi Captain to proudly declare she’s totally her type and would love to have sex with her admittedly put a stupid grin on my face.

 

Ratings

Art – 7 (again, when discounting the ridiculous proportions. 5 when counting them)
Story – 6 (a lot more going on and thus never boring, but still very nonsensical and can feel rushed in places)
Characters – 6 (the leads get more development, but the new additions are fairly flat so far)
Service – 10 (still for all the wrong reasons, only now we’re entering NSFW territory)
Yuri – 9 (seriously, what the heck is this sweet and healthy dynamic doing in my dumb ecchi action series???)

Overall – 6 (If this were my personal opinion I’d give it a 7, but I have to be fair. While several aspects are improved from Volume 1, there are still things that readers may find uncomfortable and impossible to look past)


One last note– as of writing this, semelparous is still on hiatus due to Ogino Jun undergoing medical treatment. Opinions on the manga aside, please wish Jun-sensei good health and a swift recovery.

Erica here: Thank you so much for this review. semelparous Volume 2 by Ogino Jun is out now from out from Seven Seas, available on Amazon, Bookwalker, RightStuf or wherever you get your manga. Volume 3 will be on sale this summer (Amazon, RightStuf).





Blue Reflection: Second Light, Guest Review by Christian LeBlanc

May 18th, 2022

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu. Today we we’re bringing back Christian LeBlanc, with a very enthusiastic review of a game he has not shut up about on the Okazu discord! ^_^ I was very much looking forward to his review of this game and he does not disappoint. Get comfortable and let Christian convince us all that this is a great game!

 Blue Reflection: Second Light (Blue Reflection: Tie in Japan) available on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and PC/Steam (screencaps and review based on Nintendo Switch version)

Cover image.

I’m going to start this review by touching on three very important points right off the bat:

  1. Yes, it’s Yuri
  2. There is, at least in my opinion, a positive depiction of someone with autism
  3. You need to play this game.

With that out of the way, let’s take our time and expand on this a little. Blue Reflection: Second Light (from developers Gust) is a JRPG, Yuritopian, slice-of-life, magical-realism, end-of-the-world, light-feeling comedy/romance/sci-fi/isekai/mystery with a touch of visual novel/dating sim where you and the other magical girls (called Reflectors here) have to figure out why you’ve been transported to an empty school, surrounded by water, and without your memories. And look for a way back home, of course.

I don’t even know where to begin with all that. Ok, it’s a dating sim?

Well, it’s not actually a dating sim per se; but you do spend a fair bit of time on dates with the other girls resulting in Fragments you can equip, powering up their Technique Points to spend on abilities, stat boosts, etc. And they’re not really dates so much as hang-outs: maybe you need to fetch something upstairs together, or you may both decide to visit one of the booths, or someone wants to see the wind generator you’ve built, etc. So it’s a JRPG, but you also just hang out a lot.

Wait, did you just say you build a wind generator?

Yeah, you also get Technique Points when you fulfill requests for people: someone might ask you to find an item for them, or build something for them like a beach chair, or a wind generator, a grand piano, a train platform…Ao’s real handy, what can I say!

Yuki, no!

Ao?

Ao Hoshizaki, the main character you play as. She’s actually the only one who shows up at this school with her memories intact, and she kind of ends up being the Usagi Tsukino of the group. The designers even give you rabbit ears if you pre-ordered, or a rabbit on your head if you clear the free demo (PS4 or Switch only).

Wait, so they’re like “Thank you for supporting us with a pre-order, please enjoy these cute bunny ears. Oh, you held out for the free demo? Here, try not to let this thing crap down the back of your shirt I guess.”

I mean it’s still cute, but, yeah, I see where you’re coming from. Anyway, getting back to the dates – they’re just hang-outs, but you learn a lot about the other characters, you get closer to everyone, and you can flirt like crazy or be more chill (some characters flirt right back, turning the tables on Ao). You get occasional dialogue choices, but the conversations end up at the same place regardless of what you choose.

Ao, slow your roll!

Oh, and you walk around holding hands after you’ve spent enough time with someone! And there’s cinematic cut-scenes. Actually, the whole game has these animated cut-scenes that move the story along, it’s really fun. The camera’s swinging around and zooming in, or cutting between characters – I actually really like the direction they take. These story beats happen during dates, during plot scenes, during Heartscape explorations…they’re all animated computer graphics, and everyone’s real expressive, and –

Wait, you said you hold hands?

Yeah, there’s a fair bit of hand holding! It’s just so…cute!

So is this game LGBTQ+?

Well, mostly. It’s a Yuritopia, where it’s more or less assumed that everyone is into girls, boys don’t exist, and where hand-holding is just an expression of closeness. I just resolved to take the flirting and hand-holding for what it was and enjoy it, but then – we get an actual Yuri relationship in the game!

Yuri confirmed!

Yuri confirmed! Lol. By Okazu standards, it’s lesbian content without lesbian representation, and that’s fine. Honestly, the whole game plays out like a really good Yuri series, so I feel like this will be the first time that some players experience the sweetness that Yuri manga excels at. And also the first time they see a lesbian relationship portrayed with the emotion and sincerity of Yuri, and the first time they see everyone else in a game treat this relationship as just normal (which it is), and I think that’s really cool.

Niche literature.

Getting back to our girl Ao: so she macks on every girl within eyesight?

No, that’s silly…she’s got a cel phone, you don’t have to establish line of sight for her to start flirting.

Well, as long as she knows her way around a good wind turbine, I guess. You gotta bring something to the table, right? So she’s really building all these facilities to impress the ladies?

Well, some of it ties into the plot, too, but I don’t want to spoil anything.

Gotcha. So is there a lot of grinding? Like do you have to keep fighting and fighting to level up before you can leave an area, or save up to buy equipment?

No, just start fights with the enemies you see on the map until you start to feel overpowered and the experience points don’t do much anymore, and then you can just run past the other enemies if you want. You make your own items (there’s a robust crafting system that I mostly ignore until the plot needs me to make something), and there’s no weapons or armor to buy. Everyone fights with the weapons they start the game with: scythe, sword, shotgun, etc.  Everything’s marked on the map for you, too: items, enemies, bosses, etc.

Hinako: I don't think most girls dream of wielding a scythe. Looks like all the action manga was to blame.

That’s convenient.

It is. Actually, there’s a lot of design choices in this game that favor convenience, so you can just enjoy the story and dialogue and interactions without getting needlessly frustrated or held back.

So the gameplay is pretty simple.

Well, it is, and it isn’t. My last JRPG was when Final Fantasy was still in single digits, so my learning curve was a bit longer than someone else’s would probably be. But once I got the hang of everything, I ended up actually enjoying the fights and stat boosts and all the nuts and bolts. The gameplay doesn’t just feel tacked on, is what I’m saying. They didn’t skimp on it. But yeah, getting back to convenience: you can just menu your way out of a Heartscape, teleport your way around the school or to a specific character, only watch Magical Girl transformation sequences once a level, etc. And when you’re exploring a Heartscape, you and your whole girl gang ride or die together, so everyone in your party levels up at the same time, even though you’re only fighting with three characters at once.

What are Heartscapes, like the dungeons?

Pretty much. Every character ends up getting their own Heartscape to explore, searching for their lost memories until you fight the boss and get some closure. Each Heartscape is tailored to each character, so it represents them and their memories. It’s symbolism! Beautiful symbolism, actually – Blue Reflection gleans a lot of its character from just how creative and pretty these internal landscapes are.

When you say there’s geography that symbolizes people and you recover memories and there’s an abandoned schoolhouse, I’ll be honest, my mind is going to Silent Hill. This isn’t horror or anything, is it?

I thought that too when I started playing it, but no. I don’t know if it’s intentionally trying to subvert all that, but it treats getting your memories back as a good thing. What you uncover means a lot to the characters, and it can be affecting or touching, but there’s no real trigger warnings I can think to give out. There’s a little bullying in the first set of flashbacks, but it’s kid stuff, nothing real traumatic or anything. Like I say, there’s generally a ‘light’ tone to everything. Sometimes it gets SERIOUS, but never super heavy or anything. Except when it does!

Like when you were up playing this game until 2:30 that one night and sniffling?

…One of the later chapters does *not* hold back. It’s so good. I just couldn’t put it down. And the audio helps out a lot with that. There’s a lot of voice acting in the game, and it’s quite well done. You can really hear the difference when a character lets their guard drop, for example. (This is all in Japanese by the way, subtitled in English.)

How about the music?

It is totally artcore!

Did you just make that up?

No, it’s a thing! Strings, piano and high-energy electronics and beats. Well, those are for the fights; a lot of the game’s music is more chill. The score is mature, but also playful, emotionally resonant, thrilling, intelligent – it enhances what’s going on in the game, or a certain character, but without feeling manipulative. Apparently the first game’s soundtrack is supposed to be even better, and, well, the mind boggles, because I love this soundtrack so hard. A lot of the themes repeat but in different moods, some tunes are re-works of themes from the first game – it’s just really cohesive, you know?

I get it. So who did the music?

Hayato Asano. They also did the score for the first Blue Reflection and those Atelier Ryza games, which are apparently a sister series to BR? I’ve never played them, but there’s DLC you can get that ties into it. Anyway, yeah, the music reminds me of something Sailor Neptune would have composed, which fits, because this is a magical girl game after all.

And speaking of magical girls, you can really feel Sailor Moon’s DNA in little ways in this game. Not just because magical girls in general, but the way Ao is there for everyone, and also how everyone interacts when they’re not fighting. One of my favorite aspects of Sailor Moon is when they all hang out together outside of fights, how they’re free to goof around and just play off one another. There’s a lot of that in this game.

Actually, this was honestly the first time I felt really sad when the game was over because I knew I wouldn’t be hanging out with these characters anymore. Like when you finish a really good book and you’re basking in that feeling afterwards. This very easily could have been an epic sci-fi Yuri manga series, except it’s all in one video game instead, and, I think that this story and these characters just work better as a game – although I’d still buy the hell out of a manga adaptation, if they ever made one.

Ao looks up at the starry night sky.

Everyone just feels so well-developed. Some of them suck at sports while blowing off steam at the gym, while others get way too into it, some of them do fan-fiction, some of them are shounen manga nerds – they talk about foods they like, what they want to be, problems they’re struggling with – everyone just seems so well-rounded and well-realized in the end.

There’s also, in my opinion at least, a really positive portrayal of autism in the game. And I haven’t really seen many people mentioning this online, so I think it’s important that more people know about it.

Is it just, like, this person is autistic! And then they fade into the background, or…

No, actually! Well, firstly, the game never comes out and says she’s autistic, but the way she says she doesn’t experience emotions like most people do, and the way she info dumps on Ao when they’re talking about one of her interests, I think you’re meant to infer. And I didn’t know enough about it to assume, so I looked up information online and actually learned a few things, which made me appreciate the character a lot more – and the game, for getting me to learn more about autism.

That’s cool.

It really is. Like, at first you think she might have alexithymia, which is the absence of emotions, but then you start thinking it could just be a smaller touch of that, along with the idea of someone just processing emotions differently from everyone else. The character is figuring all this out as they’re getting their memories back, and Ao and the others are really supportive – for a magical girl game where Emotions are a form of energy and power, it’s fascinating exploring a character who claims at first not to have any. And I realize that different people will have their own take on this depiction, but it just feels so positive to me that I can’t help thinking this had to be a very close topic for someone who worked on the game. In terms of who you end up shipping Ao with by the time the game is winding up, this person is on equal footing with everyone else. They’re not marginalized within the game, I feel.

So if you like this game so much, are you going to go back and play the first one now?

Yes. Although I heard that this game improves on almost everything: gameplay, playable characters, there’s way less fanservice in this game…I’m not saying it’s service-free, even if they try to avoid it in weird ways…there are shower scenes but everyone’s wearing one-piece swimsuits and talking to each other, so, everyone’s a never-nude, I guess? White dress shirts get wet, but you don’t see much. But there’s so many times you see a character jumping or sliding without the obligatory panty shot that it *does* stand out.

Like the notes you don’t play in jazz – it’s not about the service you see, it’s about the service you *don’t* see.

Ao: Oh, but I am surrounded by a whole bunch of lovely ladies, just like in my anime!

There’s an anime as well (Blue Reflection: Ray, as reviewed by Aurakin), and some characters from the first game and anime return here. There’s also going to be a mobile game, Blue Reflection: Sun.

Was there anything you didn’t like? You’re overwhelmingly positive here, are you sure you’re not just hyper-fixating on something you’re taken with and ignoring the negatives?

Well, to be fair, sometimes you’ll get really into the story and want to progress and fight, but the girls keep interrupting you for obligatory story dates, so depending what you’re in the mood to do, that can get a little frustrating. Also, sometimes the game wants you to go on stealth missions which can get a little unfair in the later levels. If you keep saving your progress, that will help with that, though.

My biggest complaint is that the game wants you to play through it again after you beat it in order to get the “true” ending, as well as go on more dates etc. that you weren’t able to the first time around – I think most people will just end up going to YouTube for that kind of content, though. Although I’ll admit, I’m actually enjoying my second playthrough, seeing what happens when you make different dialogue choices, enjoying the story with the full knowledge of everything that happens, etc.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Wonderful character designs by Mel Kishida, and hauntingly gorgeous landscapes of imagination to explore. Where Silent Hill goes bleak, Blue Reflection goes in the opposite direction.

Music – 9 Hayato Asano does a fantastic job with the themes in this game.

Characters – 10 I love any piece of media that allows their characters to be dorks sometimes.

Story – 10 The underlying sci-fi mystery is very compelling, and the way everyone interacts with each other is charming a.f. All of the writing awards for Akiko Waba, please. I haven’t touched much on the plot besides introductory set-up because there’s a lot of fun in working your way through and discovering what’s going on.

Yuri – 8 I repeat: this is a Yuri manga in JRPG form. Also, the couple sometimes ask others for relationship advice, which is great to see.

Service – 3 as a base level; there’s some questionable camera work from time to time. You can dress everyone up in one-piece swimsuits if you like, as well as a two-piece for Ao, which bumps us up to a 5. There are also DLC costumes for everyone you can buy, with everything from animal ears to maid costumes to revealing swimsuits, which would probably ramp us up to a 7 or 8?

Overall – 10. I foresee this game achieving cult status, where those who have played it, really love it.

Yuki: Eff yeah!

 

Erica here: I’m sold! I really wish I played games, because this sounds fantastic. One day I’ll have to watch a playthrough. ^_^ Thanks so much Christian for this terrific review.





Soulmate, Volume 1, Guest Review by Laurent Lignon

May 11th, 2022

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday and welcome back to Journaliste/Chroniqueur Laurent Lignon! Laurent is going to introduce us to the French-language edition of a Chinese webtoon and I, for one, am thrilled to have some manhua on Okazu! So settle in, give Laurent your attention and your usual warm welcome. Laurent, the floor is yours!

Hello there, this is Laurent, your Frenchman guest reviewer. I wish to once again express all my thanks to Erica for running such a great website and allowing a French guy like me to talk about some Yuri that may not have been translated in English yet. Enough talk, on to the review ! Soulmate, Volume 1 has been released as a webtoon in Mandarin Chinese by Kuaikan Manhua and the printed version in French by Nazca Editions.

Qi and Yuanzi are 27 years old each, and have been living a happy couple life for the past 5 years. They started to date when they were students but knew each other since high school, albeit from a distance. When one morning Qi wakes up 10 years in the past, her adult mind stuck in her teenage body, she sees this as a chance to start to date Yuanzi 5 years before their official meeting. However, what she don’t know is that her teenage self has woken up in her adult body, with strictly no clue of what has happened during the past decade and is struggling to adapt to this new environment… Including the fact that she has fallen in love and live with a woman who has a few years left to live.

From then, we follow alternatively Qi in the two different timelines. Adult Qi has no problem to adapt to her past life, having already lived it. She actively starts to befriend the lonely Yuanzi, much to the astonishment of her classmates. This change the way Yuanzi lived her school years, as she was already aware of her own attraction to girls and voluntary avoided any friendship for fear of being forced out of the closet. We see that, even back then, she had already noticed Qi and was probably feeling attracted to her, despite being ignored.

On the other hand, Teenage Qi has difficulties adapting to her adult life, both professional and private. Most notably, she lashes out violently at the idea that not only she’s attracted to women, but also is currently living a satisfying couple life with one. Her angry reaction to this has the side-effect of revealing, both to Teenage Qi and the reader, that Yuanzi is dying and may have only a few years to live, if not months, due to an illness that went undiagnosed during her high school years (a fact that Adult Qi is well aware of, and which his fueling her need to date Yuanzi earlier than expected in order to have her diagnosed and saved). Yuanzi takes Teenage Qi’s angry rants for a way to cope with her incoming death while Teenage Qi learn to adapt her mind to the difficulties of her professional life, as well as trying to understand how her relationships with Yuanzi came to be and what it mean about her own possible internalized homophobia.

Both timelines features dangers for the couple. In the past, there is Chen Shuo : the most popular boy in school and Qi’s best friend, who is secretly in love with her and feels suddenly rejected when she prefers to spend time with the lonely Yuanzi instead of him. In the present, there is Xinjue : Qi’s 20 years old and rather intrusive assistant, who seems to have a toxic infatuation with Qi.

Wenzhilizi (writing) and Keranbing (drawing) deliver here an interesting and beautiful story about what it is to be a lesbian couple in contemporary China. The main characters are well fleshed out, both in their adult and teenage years. The story eschews lesbian clichés, but simply shows two women in love living a simple life together to the fullest until what they know will be the inevitable end. Qi’s fight in the past is all motivated by her love for Yuanzi : she does not want to just be with her for 5 more years, she want Yuanzi’s disease to be diagnosed early enough so it can be treated and they will live a longer life together. She understand that Yuanzi is her soulmate and that no other woman could ever replace her. In the present, seeing the toll the disease takes on Yuanzi allows Qi to become more mature and to understand that a couple life is not the romanticized version she fancied in books and movies, but an everyday struggle to enjoy those moments of happiness. As the volume ends, danger lurks on the horizon for Qi in both timelines, with Teenage Qi about to face a betrayal that could put her professional life and her couple in danger.

Ratings:

ART : 7 – Keranbing’s art is very similar in style to Japanese manga. Considering the story was designed to be read on e-readers and cellphones, you may find the computer-generated colors quite awkward on the first reading. I find those perfectly fitted to the story myself, with warm and sweet colorization being the norm. As with all manhua, the volume is fully colorized and must be read left-to-right.

STORY : 8 – Well written, full of characters one can relate to and some cultural differences are pointed out (most notably the fact that military service is a mandatory part of the school curriculum). It’s pure slice of life, except there’s that fantasy body switching twist thrown in it.

CHARACTER : 8 – Qi and Yuanzi are endearing characters : I’m eagerly waiting to see how they will face their incoming challenges and hope that all will end well for them. The secondary characters aren’t as fleshed out yet, with the exception of Xinjue which will be important for the second volume.

SERVICE : 1 – The story open on a two pages love scene. However, due to the Chinese censorship concerning sexual acts, it is all done with some beautiful non-ero way to show what is happening and strictly no nudity.

YURI : 10 – It is a story of a lesbian couple in today’s China, but it is also a story about two women that are more than just lovers. The title doesn’t lie, and it is expressed in every way when Adult Qi is looking at Teenage Yuanzi and Adult Yuanzi do her best to reassure Teenage Qi.

OVERALL : A good story, that manages to alternates fuzzy moments with more dramatic ones while never succumbing to either full sugar-coated love story or dark, devastating pathos. The comic moments are well dosed (using super deformed for Adult Qi’s teenage life). The cliffhanger is perfect, and announces a more intense second volume.

A SMALL NOTE ON LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN CHINA : Homosexuality was accepted in China from ancient times until the Westernization of the country in the late 19th Century. It was then banned for the most part of the 20th century until being fully recognized and legalized in 1997. However, same sex marriages or civil unions aren’t recognized (but a legal guardianship agreement exists in order to protect the rights of the couples), same-sex couples cannot adopt children and trans people can’t legally have their gender recognized on their legal documents unless they have undergone a complete gender reassignment operation (which is extremely expensive in China). Due to family pressures, most gay people in China are closeted but the number of coming-outs is rising by the year with microblogging sites existing to help people come out to their family. Homophobia exists and is generally fueled by Western ideas found on social networks.

Erica here: Thank you so much, Laurent. I’m very excited that you’re brought this to my and everyone else’s attention!  I’m very interested to see how the story develops.

Thanks to Luce for the heads up – you can read Soulmate in English on webtoon platform Tapas!

 
 
 




My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 3 Guest Review by Luce

April 20th, 2022

Once again, it is my great pleasure to welcome guest reviewer Luce back to Okazu!

In volume 1 and volume 2, we met and got to know Sakiko, a shy girl who is a big fan of an idol group Spring Sunshine, and Chihiro, her favourite member, who sits next to her in school. Alongside is Maaya, an obsessive fan who is very focused on Chihiro as well, and their school lives together.

Volume 3 of My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over begins with the fallout of the confession – Chihiro thanks him but doesn’t accept, and is not impressed by Sakiko and Maaya’s interference, unsurprisingly, seeing it as unfair to her and Tanaka. Sakiko has a photography club competition with the theme of friends – but she can’t put a photo of Chihiro in as it goes on the website. They change into summer clothes and Sakiko notices. They have swimming lessons and her and Maaya both notice. They have finals at the same time as an album release, and Chihiro has some doubts about her idol life…? Finally, Spring Sunshine are announced for a big summer rock festival! Whilst this means Chihiro isn’t free much, Sakiko and Maaya are still thrilled. Upon getting there, though, they meet up with the girl in their class who was somewhat disparaging of Spring Shine…?

I’ve noticed that this series has a lot happen, because things wrap themselves up quite fast – not too fast, but they’re not endlessly dwelled upon. There aren’t many ‘wasted’ panels, not so many lingering looks or agonising thought monologues. It does what it needs to do – it helps that Chihiro, by nature of her being away from school so often, has to make the most of it when she is there, and Maaya is always driven to get closer and interact more with Chihiro, so we have two driving forces who are not shy about what they want. Sakiko is almost a different person from who she was in the first volume, which as I said last time, is great to see. Being able to be up front about her interests and becoming friends with Chihiro has done her a world of good.

This volume brings them into summer – which means summer uniforms with shorter sleeves, a heat wave, and swimming lessons. As such, the yuri quotient has gone up – not in a service kind of way, but Sakiko outright thinks herself a pervert for noticing Chihiro in a way she hasn’t really before. It’s pretty innocent, really, things like her pale upper arms and her neck, but it definitely makes it onto the yuri front. The swimming chapter is pretty funny, as Maaya distinctly can not deal, although Sakiko only does a bit better. When Sakiko promises to cheer for any prospective crushes Chihiro might have in future, Maaya… can’t. Possession? Love? I’m still not sure.

We get a bit of backstory for Chihiro in this volume, and some focus on her doubts about the reality of being an idol. One of the things that I actually really like about this manga is that it doesn’t idolise Chihiro – Sakiko and Maaya do, but the manga itself portrays her as a real person, who happens to be an idol. It actually does the same with the rest of Spring Shine. But she works through her doubts and fears about missing things and, with the help of the other two, comes out more sure of her direction. It was nice to see.

Story: 8
Art: 9 (I’ve noticed that everyone’s face is subtly different, something I like in manga)
Yuri: 6
Service: 3? Swimsuits and short sleeves. It’s the tamest service I’ve ever seen
Overall: 9

I’m a little sad this isn’t coming out as a physical book, honestly, I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. In Volume 4, Sakiko meets the girl who made fun of Spring Shine at the festival, and the summer concert!