Archive for the Guest Review Category


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! 

 




Gunbured x Sisters, Volume 2 (ガンバレッドｘシスターズ), Guest Review by Mariko S.

April 13th, 2022
I’m extremely pleased to welcome back the Okazu Guest Reviewer who takes on series that I’m not going near…Mariko Shinobu! /extravagant flailing of arms/ For a refresher, check out her review of Volume 1, which is now available in English from Seven Seas. Please welcome back Mariko with your warmest Okazu welcome!
 
Time for round two of everyone’s favorite (and likely the only) Yuri nunsploitation manga! In honor of the official English release of volume 1, I’m here to whet your appetite for the further adventures of Dorothy and Maria, our dynamic duo of Church-adjacent violence and sex in Gunbured x Sisters, Volume 2 (ガンバレッドｘシスターズ).
 
As the story continues, we think we know the lay of the land. Our heroines will investigate and confront the escalating vampire threats to keep the populace safe, while attempting to unravel the deeper mysteries surrounding both the undead and Maria herself. When the volume opens, we meet what is surely to be the next major threat for the Red Sisters – a dapper, regal-looking vampire who perches on an overstuffed armchair sipping premium blood from a goblet. And just as he’s gearing up for his big villain speech… exit, stage left, courtesy of Maria’s pistol and Shannon’s daggers. These women are not intending to play “business as usual,” and they’re not about to let a preening villain get in the way of the conversation (read: “fist fight”) they need to have about Dorothy.
 
However, convolutions are writhing beneath the surface of the story. We get the first hints that the Church is not a pristine force for good courtesy of wunderkind inventor Chloe and her massive robot sidekick Sanders, whose grandfather invented the Optare (the cross-like weapon Maria wields when she really means business.) Meanwhile, Dorothy tortures a vampire she captured – not for information, but “just because (she) wanted to.” She ends up with info on the new vampires anyway, but again we see the damage that hides beneath her “perfect leader of the Church” facade. A facade which, by the way, she doesn’t even attempt to keep up around her friends, and barely maintains around the Church elders.
 
And then, suddenly, things get real. The force behind the sudden uprising of new, more powerful vampires reveals herself – “Doctor J,” the pure-blood vampire mad scientist. She has been testing the Church with her hybrid genetic monstrosities, and is utterly and completely unafraid of anything our heroines can throw at her. She looks at every encounter as a chance to gather data, whether it’s Dorothy and Maria fighting one of her creations, or shooting herself in the head with Maria’s gun. And the data she gathers is foreboding – she is able to counteract and reverse Maria’s dhampir mode, regenerate any injury completely and instantaneously, and only decides to retreat from Shannon’s entire Knights of the Cross brigade because it might be “annoying” to kidnap Maria under those circumstances.
 
Despite the complete and total loss, though, Maria finally gets the bit of critical information she has been seeking all these years: Noelle is alive, and Doctor J knows something about her. As the book closes, we glimpse even more foreshadowing that things are not as they seem with the Church or the vampires. And we are left with so many concerns for both Dorothy and Maria, who are hiding so much pain from themselves and each other. Dorothy, in particular, has a scary way of being tender and kind with Maria directly, but dead-eyed and mercenary when discussing her with others. Does she have any genuine feelings for Maria, or is the dhampir nothing more than a monstrous tool to effect her revenge with?
 
If you’re back for another helping, you don’t really need the warning, but the buffet of service of all kinds continues unabated. There’s lingerie and blood. Shower scenes and severed body parts. Nighttime liaisons, flashers, and bloodlust-as-intimacy. There was even “Maria beats up some guys who were creeping on Dorothy and one of them ends up with a daikon in a very uncomfortable place,” which is not a type of service I knew I needed but nevertheless enjoyed. Caveat emptor. As far as Yuri, we’re mostly on the same wavelength as the first volume, just a little more intense: Shannon is desperate to be Dorothy’s princely protector, to win her favor and reserve “Dolores-sama’s” affections for herself. Dorothy and Maria continue to have a very physical relationship as the result of Maria’s vampire needs. Some of it Dorothy clearly plays up for her own amusement, but there are definitely signs during, for example, the night Maria spends in Dorothy’s bed, that there’s more developing. Maria catches herself a few times getting emotionally invested in Dorothy’s past and well-being, and though she tries to correct herself… she’s catching feelings. Dorothy is a thornier issue, though. While publicly she is flirty and forward, even at times kind and affectionate, when her mask slips it becomes very unclear if she is capable of love for anyone, or if all that will ever matter to her is her mission.
 
 

Ratings:

Art – 10     I still think it just “fits” this story, despite (or because of) its messiness. The fight scenes in particular do a great job of clearly orienting the participants in space and making the action legible.
Story – 6     Relatively little actually happens in this volume. But, I like the way subversive elements are casually woven into the story in pieces rather than having characters just exposition dump all the time.
Characters – 9     Chloe the disabled inventor, Sanders her robot bodyguard, and Father Marco, the deranged priest that wields a mace topped with a skull the size of a beach ball are worthy additions to our funhouse gallery of lovable weirdos.
Yuri – 6     Shannon is very clearly in love with Dorothy and wants to be her “prince.” Dorothy and Maria… it’s complicated.
Service – 10    All the service, all the time.

Overall – 8

 

The girls were sure in for a shocker
From the vampires’ perverted mad doctor
Much more violence and sex
And time for Dorothy to flex
All the assets her station has brought her

Gunbured Sisters, Volume 2 is available on Amazon JP, Bookwalker JP or CD Japan. in Japanese and in English in July, from Seven Seas!

Erica here: Thank you very much for the review, Mariko. I look forward to your reviews of this series more than to the series itself. ^_^ Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is the last Yuri nunsploitation series I can think of. It’s been a  while and we were due. ^_^





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!