Archive for the Guest Review Category


Yuri Espoir Volume 2, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

July 13th, 2022

We’re back o schedule today with a Guest Review Wednesday! Matt Marcus 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. Welcome Matt back and give him our attention and kind words at the end of today’s review.  Take it away, Matt!

Back in the pre-pandemic, I would commute to work by bus. After a day of slaving over the computer, I would schlep my exhausted self into a seat near the back and space out while listening to a podcast. As the bus meandered through the suburbs of Maryland, I would often find my eye wandering to the other passengers. Among them, there were two regulars who stood out: the first, a white woman with a boyish haircut dyed Jolly Rancher red; the other, an Asian woman with an undercut, the top of which was colored a deep cyan. They didn’t know each other–in fact in the three years of that commute I don’t think they even sat near each other once–but on those dreary rides home, a part of me would wonder. What if…?

Had Kokoro Komadori been seated on that bus, she would have been furiously sketching a meet-cute, with hearts in her eyes and lilies blooming out of her hair. In Yuri Espoir Volume 1, Kokoro, a third year high schooler and daughter of a powerful CEO, learns that her father has picked her a “suitable” fiancé whom she will marry after graduation. However, Kokoro is only interested in girls–and “yuri” relationships in general. Knowing that she can’t refuse her father, she resolves to spend the “last year of [her] life” indulging in every yuri fantasy she can imagine and capturing them in a sketchbook with her best friend and comrade in arts, Amami, who is secretly in love with her. The volume ended on a cliffhanger as Kokoro receives a confession from a first year girl named Mitsuru.

And thus we come to Yuri Espoir, Volume 2. As with the first volume, each “chapter” comes in two parts–the daydreamer’s version chock full of familiar tropes followed by the real story that is more complex. I continue to appreciate that the true stories occasionally have some bite to them with a touch of bitter aftertaste, like 70% dark chocolate. Thankfully they are not all like that, else the reader would be left with a very dour outlook for real life yuri relationships. So far, we have yet to revisit any of the couples from volume 1, though this volume includes two bonus chapters that tell the backstory of side characters that made appearances in Chapters 2 and 3.

This volume focuses on Kokoro’s outlook on her situation and the perceived limits of her agency. Yes, she wants a love story of her own but not if it has an expiration date…or perhaps, it would have to be with a particular someone. One thing I like here is that Kokoro’s sense of filial piety has nuance to it: sure, she doesn’t want the marriage and will never forgive her father for arranging it, but also she knows and appreciates that he had not previously pressured her with any extraordinary expectations like is common for other children of powerful families. She is given a push by Mitsuru and later Amami to speak to her father and voice her feelings on the matter. Whether she will follow through with it is another matter entirely.

Amami gets to step up a bit in this volume. She may be a neophyte to yuri, but she is willing to indulge Kokoro in her lily-scented flights of fancy. The second daydream scene was a particular highlight that I won’t spoil, but it was very fun to see Amami get in the spirit of the exercise. Unfortunately, it seems that her behind-the-scenes machinations with her art teacher to thwart the engagement are not working out to her advantage.

To be honest, I didn’t care much for newcomer Mitsuru. Usually, when the object of your affection rejects you and slaps you in the face, that should not deepen your feelings for them. Maybe she proves herself a worthy character down the road, but here she comes off as a nuisance. I do like that Sou, the fiancé, is starting to get a bit of page time. The story seems to be trying to humanize him somewhat, but his eyes have never been drawn on his face which clearly feels pointed. I’m certain we will learn more about him in the next volume.

The art makes wild tonal swings, often to great effect. Whenever the topic of the engagement comes in, things suddenly take a horror manga turn with heavy lines and deep cross-hatching. The backgrounds are generally not very detailed, with most of the effort put into the characters. Overall, there is something about the art that feels “vintage” in a way that I cannot quite put my finger on. It’s got charm.

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but this series is surprisingly funny. Every chapter or so there’s a gag that hits me at just the right angle. The premise in general is a vehicle for coy winks to longtime yuri fans, so Okazu readers such as yourself will likely get a lot out of this series.

I am curious to see for how long this story ends up running. Could be four volumes, could be ten. So far, the series has felt quite fresh, but I wonder if this dual chapter trick will continue to sustain it.

It has been over two years since I’ve had to take that bus ride. Maybe the next time I do, a little Kokoro will be perched on my shoulder, weaving new stories in my ear as she sketches away. 

Art – 7 Simple but charming

Story – 8 Mostly vignette-driven with a heavy dose of winking metafiction
Characters – 7 With one exception, the characters all have a fun rapport
Service – 2 A couple of suggestive fantasy panels, but nothing too scandalous
Yuri – 9 / LGBTQ – 1 It’s yuri all the way down

Overall – 8 The formula still works, the question is for how long

PSA: please don’t actually ship real life people. Also, don’t smoke.

Erica here: Thanks Matt! Are strangers you see on a bus really “real people”? Especially if you only see them once and never again? Of course they are real…with lives of their own…and thinking about those is what makes sonder a great exercise in creativity. I’ll admit that at least one fiction story I have written was inspired by compete strangers on a train. I also agree on not smoking. Smoking is really quite disgusting.

Yuri Espoir, V2 is on my to-read pile and I’m glad to hear it’s taking this unique way to look at Yuri tropes and building a real story with it!





The Executioner and Her Way of Life Anime, Guest Review by Megan

July 7th, 2022

Once again, I am extremely pleased to welcome Megan back for a Guest Review here on Okazu. This summer has been magnificently busy and I’m thrilled to welcome Megan back to have her thoughts on this anime!

The rise of isekai has been unstoppable over the past decade or so, and it’s no surprise we’ve seen isekai media branch out into different genres and demographics: from mature ‘slow-life’ stories, to BL and Otome. As regular readers of Okazu will know, as part of this trend we’ve been seeing some excellent Yuri isekai. Mato Sato’s light novel series, The Executioner and Her Way of Life, marks the milestone of the first Yuri isekai to receive an anime adaptation. 

Executioner begins with our titular character, Menou, being assigned the task of taking out a reincarnated Japanese girl, Akari. In this world, all ‘otherworlders’ are marked for death, thanks to the destructive powers they will develop if left unattended. Akari’s power presents a unique problem though: She has the ability to wind back time, meaning the usual tricks of the trade can’t finish her off. With an unassuming Akari in tow, Menou sets off on a journey to find a method capable of carrying out the execution – that is, if her growing feelings for the other girl don’t get in the way first. 

The plot is an interesting mix of some elements that feel familiar to many isekai anime, and others that subvert isekai expectations. There’s a medieval setting, there’s a magic system, and there’s Japanese people reincarnated into this world along with powerful skills. Even the detail of Japanese influence on this world’s culture, from architecture to language, has parallels in popular isekai like Re:Zero. The twist to the isekai formula here is that the Japanese transfers’ powers soon turn destructive: indeed, this anime’s world is something of a post-apocalyptic one, picking up the remnants of a once advanced civilisation destroyed a millennia previously by the four otherworlder “Human Errors”. Finding out the truth behind these Errors (just the names are evocative: the Sword of Salt; the Mechanical Society) turns into a major reason to keep watching. 

An isekai needs to nail more than the background lore in the transition to anime though, and Executioner offers a mostly engaging mix of fun scenes with the characters, action, and the occasional flash of horror. On the last point, this anime adaptation irons out some of the tonal inconsistencies the novel’s earlier volumes struggled with. The anime’s generally lighter tone, with the dark and horrific scenes presented as more of a contrast (at least until the B-movie turn of the final arc), also help make this series more accessible to a wider audience, which I think is, in this case, a beneficial move. 

As for the Yuri in this Yuri isekai, our main couple is Menou and Akari. From the start, their relationship has a couple of hooks. First, the girls are a classic case of “opposites attract”: Menou, closed-off and traumatised beyond her years, and Akari, bubbly but more than a little airheaded. Second, the entire structure of the narrative is a constant reminder of the tragic fate – of executioner and victim – we want the girls to somehow escape. Before long, a certain reveal suggests there may be more to Akari and her past than we think. There’s a good amount of screentime devoted to building up the girls’ bond, and while by the end of the anime Menou has barely taken a first step towards figuring out what Akari means to her, overall it’s easy to get invested in the girls over the course of the show. 

This anime may be a case of the side couple stealing the show from the main, since we also have Momo and Ashuna. Momo starts the show as Menou’s junior and sidekick, and honestly my initial impressions of her and her creepy clingyness with Menou were not good. That being said, the story soon makes the fantastic decision to split Momo from Menou and instead pair her with the violence-loving AWOL princess Ashuna. Every scene of their love-hate relationship is a blast to watch, and if anything I was left wanting to see even more of them (or with Akari and Momo pairing up like happens later in the novel). 

Another relationship that defines Executioner, though in this case for all the wrong reasons, is that between orphan Menou and her mentor in the execution profession, Flare. Personally, there’s something about the story of Flare taking this little girl and putting her on a path to becoming the same sort of monster she is that I find strikes a frighteningly real note. The anime’s OP also smartly suggests that Flare may be the truest villain of Menou’s story. The mysteries set up around Flare do reflect a weakness any 1-cour light novel adaptation like this almost inevitably struggles with: there’s a lot of intriguing questions, but only hints at answers by the time episode 12 ends. Still, this isn’t something I can hold against the show too much, especially since both the source novel and manga adaptation are available in English for anyone wanting to continue the story. 

Before Executioner’s anime aired, my expectations were tempered by the fact JC Staff were handling the animation. Seasoned anime viewers may know them from a string of disappointing adaptations, from One Punch Man’s season 2 to the recent and underwhelming Rose King. All this makes me happy to report that JC Staff did a solid job this time round, despite the typical decline in quality in the last few episodes . The characters are expressive, the magic is flashy, and the action scenes are suitably fluid. One point I have to particularly praise the anime staff for is significantly reducing the fanservice compared to the novel’s frequently questionable art. There’s still the occasional bath scene, but at least the framing usually avoids leering over the girls’ bodies more than the source text strictly requires. 

Executioner might not win over viewers put off altogether by isekai, but with its combo of likable Yuri romance and some smart twists on the usual tropes, it has potential to appeal to fans tired of the usual formula. It represents a confident step in a new direction for both the Yuri and isekai genres – one with room for improvement, but a step in the right direction all the same. 

 

Ratings: 

Story – 7, does just enough to stand out from the usual isekai anime
Characters – 8, it’s a lot of fun watching the characters’ personalities bounce off each other
Art – 7, nothing exceptional but attractive with good action
Yuri – 6, plenty of potential 
Service – 4, pleasantly turned down from the novel art 

Overall – a high 7 

PS –  in case you’re wondering about the anime’s seemingly unrelated alternate English title “Virgin Road”, I’d guess it’s an awkward case of Japanese to English translation from one possible abbreviation of the the series’ Japanese title 処刑少女の生きる道. Thankfully the official English novel and manga releases, as well as HiDive’s stream of the anime, have restored a better translation. 

Thank you for reading another of my reviews! I’m currently on break from my Twitter, but I might be returning soon-ish. In the meantime as always I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Erica here: Thank you so much Megan! To sum up my own thoughts, I think this anime was far better than the source LNs deserve, which was…unexpected. 

The official Japanese title is 『処刑少女の生きる道』(しょけいしょうじょのバージンロード),  Shoukei Shoujo no Virgin Road, so not a misreading. Ikiru michi is just supposed to be read “virgin road.” FWIW, “virgin road” is what Japanese versions of western-style weddings call the wedding aisle, so perhaps it’s meant as a comment on the “purity” of these pure priestesses. Or, maybe, it’s one more messy thing shoved in by a writer who care very little about keeping the story tidy. ^_^

Thank you again for your thoughts and we’ll look forward to your next review!





A Transition Telegraphed by Yuri: Learning to Love Myself By Reading about Girls Loving Girls, Guest Post by Meru

June 30th, 2022

We’re just squeaking into the last hours of Pride Month and I am so happy to bring you an article that I’ve been dying to read! I spoke to Meru some months ago about an article for Okazu, about navigating Yuri fandom as a queer black Yuri fan in a world where fandom seems to be filled with more angry people who take their shitty choices out on others than it used to be. Time got away from both of us, but now I’m super excited to have this article right now, at the end of what has been a month of jumping years backwards.

As a reminder, Stonewall Uprisings were a protest against mistreatment by cops and government – it was followed by the first Pride March, as queer folks stood up and said “We Exist.” This Pride month, the story we’re sharing is that no matter what the worst people say, we can’t be made to go backwards. It’s not possible. We’re still here and are joyfully embracing our truest selves.

Please welcome back Meru to Okazu with your warmest thoughts.

This article has been a long time coming: I’ve thought of a multitude of topics, of ways to approach. Initially, this was going to be about being a Yuri fan in Japan: I was going to recount going to events and reflect fondly on Yuriten 2019 in a world where conventions seem like a dream to me. But this Pride Month, I’ve decided to do something wholly personal and brave since Erica’s given me the space to continue to be myself.

I’m going to come out as trans, and yes, it’s because of Yuri.

I first got into Yuri as a middle-schooler on the cusp of matriculating into high school via Kashimashi, also known as Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. The first volume, published in English on November 29, 2006 by Seven Seas, was precious to me, spirited away from the shelves of my hometown’s Borders bookstore to my rickety particle board bookshelf heaped with discounted manga from the local Half Price Books. I passed the volumes around between childhood friends, the sole sapphic in our group. Secretly, I envied Kashimashi’s lead Hazumu, a trans girl who well… got to transition. I couldn’t place the feeling at the time: I thought my jealousy was more about , especially since I was, technically, female. It was the gender marked on my birth certificate: presumably, I’d always circle “F”. After all, what else could there be?

Growing up, I believe that I was a girl: society told me I was, my parents told me I was, and the burgeoning, often frightening changes in my body told me I was going to be female, whether I wanted to be or not. I grew my hair to the middle of my back, wore pinks and pastels and soft colors, learned to sway my hips, raised the pitch of my voice, and did all the things girls should do. At the height of my adolescent femininity, I added makeup, smearing on caked-on layers of vivid gold eyeshadow from the local pharmacy via dipping my thumb directly into the palette. I tried so hard to be a girl, tried so hard to give into being soft and pliable and feminine. It was a daily struggle: I thought that if I could erase my fatness, which I now readily embrace, I’d be one step closer. When that didn’t work, I thought if I just doubled down and was hyperfeminine, that might cancel out my physical body.

Amidst that all, I frequently lamented having hormones: when my cycle came, unpredictable and unrelenting due to my PCOS, I wept, begging my mother to take me somewhere where I could get my hormones removed. I wanted to rid myself of my endocrine system, so desperately desired to toss the whole thing out and be born anew. I don’t think I wanted to look different: I just wanted to not be a girl. I didn’t have the words and wouldn’t until about 2012 when I joined Tumblr and found the word “non-binary” on a blog post.

By proxy, my Yuri collection started to grow: BL —Boy’s Love— has always appealed to me, but as my gender started to flux and force me to ask questions too big for my teenage mind, I snuck more Yuri into my collection. My next volume, after sneaking in Kashimashi’s five volume run, was Voiceful: fitting for a bass clarinet player in love with music. After that, it grew and grew. I added bigger and better titles while in college: in Japan, I’d start to collect Kase-san, Yuri is My Job!, and a slew of Japanese titles. When I left Japan on August 11, 2020, the bulk of my collection followed me back to the US, bouncing around from residence to residence until I came to reside in Northern Washington just two months ago. I’ve since added Sailor Moon, which I suspect will be incredibly formative to my gender exploration with Haruka and Michiru, and heck, even Usagi and her crushes on her fellow feminine teammates.

But in the end, I always seemed to come back to Kashimashi.

It’s meditative, in a way. At least once every year and some, I circle back around to thumbing through physical and digital copies of the series, enough that I’ve even podcasted about it and have a small collection of merch dedicated to the series. When my thoughts go quiet, I drift back to Kashimashi’s storyline, and up until recently, I pondered why I still envied Hazumu when I had long since divorced myself from “she/her” and found mild comfort in “she/they.” As I shifted to the more fitting “they/she” and now fully to “they/them”, it became apparent to me, albeit over the course of about two years: I envied Hazumu’s transition, not their gender. I envied being able to wake up as a version of myself that was different, desired a paradigm shift from feminine to wholly de-gendered, save for the aspects of gender I wanted to play with.

Nowadays, the manga is very outdated, at least to me: the way Hazumu is treated makes me think of the kind of person who views transition, and generally being outside the binary, as something that changes the personality of the individual, versus being something that affirms them. As a feminist, I find it hard to read because there’s a lot of biological essentialism tucked around the edges, leaving very little space for any of the characters to question what it means to be attracted to someone pre- and post-transition, and how that may beautiful broaden their own understandings of their gender and sexuality. It’s also got the world’s worst dad, but… this isn’t about that. Plus, I think that there’s something radical about embracing flawed media: we’re not made of perfect instances after all. Each of us is wholly human: shouldn’t our media be just as messy?

I sit here, today, with an inch of hair, with a prominent mustache above my lips —a natural result of my PCOS and higher testosterone levels— and a gorgeous unibrow as thick as. I use they/them freely, and truncate my name to the more pleasant sounding “Meru” versus the overtly feminine sounding full name that I inch closer to casting aside. 

And now, when I look at Yuri, I see myself: I see the soft butches that could, in another series, be they/them or even they/he. I see bodies and ideals and identities that mirror myself. I feel less alone. I feel natural in a country that would rather me turn my back on playing at soft masculinity and gender ambivalence in exchange for kitten heels, a lack of body hair, and legs crossed at the ankle. When I crack open a volume of Yuri and see tomboys and boyish girls and girls straddling the lines of socially acceptable gender and being themselves. 

I see myself in hands held, in kisses traded between sapphic, feminine characters so in love with their partners that it becomes their sole reason for breathing. I find my own heart, genderless as it is, in series like Roadqueens, Our Teachers Are Dating, and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. (Really, anything Nagata Kabi writes, if we’re being 100% honest here.) Because of Yuri, my life is full of a desire to exist, and the more and more I see myself reflected in each manga or light novel I devour, the more and more Yuri guides me towards becoming who I desire to be.

I suppose that in the end, that’s why Yuri matters so much to me: it’s a look in the mirror at a version of myself worth loving, of a sapphic body that has meaning and is worth loving, kissing, and being affectionate with.  It’s my way of examining the world, a lens for my feminist praxis and by proxy, a way to telegraph my non-whiteness into media made by non-white creators. It’s a way to explore gender, and a way to radically recognize who I am and who I have the potential to be. Yuri is powerful like that, and something tells me its inherent power will only grow, given its century long history.

It’s why on today, June 30th, 2022, I can say/type this: My name, for now, is Meru, and I am a trans masc non-binary feminist who loves Yuri. (I am also a very, very soft boi too. Yuri brought me that as well.)

As my thoughts wrap up, there’s a multitude of people I’d like to thank: first and foremost, Erica here at Okazu for giving me the space. This is not at all the article I expected to write, but is very much so the one I needed to. I’d also like to thank Vrai Kaiser of Anime Feminist for (unknowingly) modeling tran masc happiness, and for generally being one of the best people in my life; TJ Ferentini, an Editor at Kodansha and a dear friend, for showing me that transition is what we make it, and that it only takes a declaration to yourself to be who you are; Kit, one of the cohosts of TomoChoco and my best friend who loves me all the time, no matter what pronouns I use; and my partner, Kaylyn Wylie, who has supported me and certainly will hold me when I inevitably weep from seeing this piece go live.

Honestly, I don’t know where my transition —ongoing as it is— will end: I don’t know if it’ll one day involve testosterone or if one day, I’ll decide that a different shape to my feminized body will suit who I am better. I suppose that’s why it’s called a transition, right? It’s a process with no time limit, even though there’s days where I’d love to be. My evolution into who I am is far from over: but hey, at least there’s heaps of good Yuri to help me envision a future where I am me and, by proxy, I matter and have a right to exist.

 

Erica here: Welcome to your self, Meru! You know you’re always welcome here as a writer and a Yuri fan. Thank you for this post and a happy  fucking Queer Pride to all of us. ^_^

 





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).