Archive for the Guest Review Category


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!





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

March 9th, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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