Archive for the Guest Review Category


Yoru To Umi, Volume 1 French Edition, Guest Review by Laurent Lignon

October 6th, 2021

We welcome a new guest reviewer, Journaliste/Chroniqueur Lauren Lignon, who will be looking at the French translation of Yuri manga Yoru to Umi by Goumoto. I’m very happy to have Laurent here to talk about this series…and what a great review this is. Laurent, the floor is yours…

This review is based on the French translation of the Plongée dans la nuit, Volume 1.

“In a flash… I went under”

Tsukiko Yano is a half-Japanese/half-European transfer student. A withdrawn and solitary girl, she spends her time between home and classroom, rebuking potential boyfriends and never trying to get along with the other schoolgirls. Until the day she sees by chance a fellow student, the extrovert Utsumi Aka, swimming in the pool. Struck by the grace of Utsumi’s movements in the water, Tsukiko will try to get closer to her… Not knowing that herself has also been noticed by Utsumi, who is fascinated by Tsukiko’s cold and distant attitude.

Thus starts the first volume of Yoru To Umi (夜と海) (The Night and The Sea, translated as the delightfully poetic title “Dive Into The Night” in French), a very interesting take on the classic love story between schoolgirls. Each of the five chapters is told from a different point of view : Tsukiko, Utsumi, the Theatre Club (most notably would-be actress Maihara), then once again Tsukiko and Utsumi. Through each point of view, we see how each character sees her surroundings and what their relationships with others mean to them.

Tsukiko, when retreating inside her thoughts, sees the world as the bottom of the ocean, calm and without sound, full of fishes and sea creatures. A vision linked to her memories of a trip to a seaquarium she undertook with her father as a child. This is what attracts her to Utsumi, as she see the swimming girl as a graceful sea creature whose form and movements in the water fascinates her to the point of wanting to keep looking at her swimming all day long.

Until meeting Tsukiko, Utsumi’s only pleasure was to spend hours swimming and diving in the school pool, feeling only at home in the water. Utsumi sees Tsukiko as a cold and otherworldly creature of the Night, a beautiful vampire from a movie she saw as a child, an inaccessible nightflower, out of her reach, but whose nocturnal beauty enthralls her. Both girls, very different in mindsets, manage to reach a sort of friendship that seems to bloom into something else… Except that each one of them struggles in her own way to understand the other one and express her feelings.

This is a slow story, going at a rather dreamy pace. The talent of Goumoto-sensei resides in the way she manages to picture some rather casual actions as having a deep impact on the the characters. This is not a story of blushing and cherry trees, but of the slow discovery of what brings two different people together. You can find in it as much a strong romantic friendship (in the Class S style) as blooming love, and it is up to you, the reader, to fill the blanks. However, this is not without some humour, most notably when Tsukiko imagines Utsumi as a suffocating out-of-water fish when the swimming pool is closed for the holidays.

But it is in the landscapes and the surroundings that Goumoto-sensei’s drawing talent shines the most. Every time Tsukiko retreats into herself, or looks at Utsumi, we see fishes and waves. And her mood impacts the way she envisions her environment (whales skeletons swimming near her when she feels down, an nocturnal abyss when she sleeps and dreams, a crashing wave materializing Utsumi’s difficult speech to her at the end of the volume, and so on). When Utsumi looks at Tsukiko, she sees castles, stars, the night and even a few bats. It is a very poetic way to represent the emotions and feelings that animate each of the two heroines, and it is beautifully translated into the drawings.

As the volume ends, Utsumi, although being quite a loquacious girl, gets to ask Tsukiko something that she’s never been able to say to anyone else before, leaving Tsukiko speechless, and the story to be continued in the next volume. (Volume 2 is available in Japanese or French.)

Ratings:

ART – 9 : this is brilliant from start to finish, and one can get lost in the amount of details on some pages

STORY – 8 : slow pacing, dream-like sequences, a few gags but still the story moves on correctly. The Sundays or The Cocteau Twins were my soundtrack for this reading session.

CHARACTERS – 7 : Outside of Tsukiko and Utsumi, the rest of the cast is rather non-existent for now.

SERVICE – 1 : a single pantie shot that could have been avoided, despite being logical in the context. Then there is Utsumi always swimming in a one piece swimsuit, but nothing is made to sexualize her.

YURI – 6 : this is so far a well done Class S story. The note reflect the fact that, to some, this may still not be Yuri enough.

OVERALL – 8

It is an unusual Yuri : although not said clearly, there are hints that at least one of the main character can be defined as asexual/aromantic, a rare representation within the genre. The story fills you with a soothing feeling, and the main protagonists are lovable enough to make you want to see more from them.

POST SCRIPTUM : On my first draft of this review, I had assumed that the character of Tsukiko Yano was an Asexual/Aromantinc lesbian, a rare representation in Yuri manga. However, confessing my own ignorance towards the Aro/Ace spectrum (as noted by A/A online contact Bee : “ Confusing a lack of romantic feels as just a general lack of feelings is a very common misconception so its honestly really understandable”) , I’ve asked some A/A people I was in contact with to read the manga and give me their own opinions. I was graced with the following interesting answer from Bee :

“Just the opening monologue makes me wonder if she’s a little bit on the autism spectrum […] Disinterest or disconnect from common things but random fixation on others […]  Yano has very questionable social skills – like she clearly enjoys the company of people she wants to spend time with, just doesn’t really pick up on social cues, seems to prefer personal space snd physical distance so I would learn more towards Autism or Aspergers than A/A”

This would make for an even rarer representation in Yuri. I’ll leave up to you, the reader, to make your own opinion about this very unusual character in a very unusual manga.

Erica here: Thank you Laurent for such an evocative review! I hope we can ask you to return for Volume 2.





School Zone Girls, Volume 2, Guest Review by Christian LeBlanc

September 29th, 2021

Welcome to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! This makes a third guest review in a row and we have at least two more on the way! If you enjoy our guest reviews, I hope you will support the Okazu Patreon. Thanks to our Patrons, who make reviews like Luce’s review of Volume 1 of this series and Christian’s review of Volume 2 possible! Welcome back, Christian LeBlanc for today’s review. ^_^

So, let me admit something to you: Ningiyau’s second volume of School Zone Girls from Seven Seas has proven to be a very hard book for me to review, as I would often find myself re-reading the stories instead of trawling its pages for beats to describe and funny lines to quote. Flipping back and forth through its short, episodic chapters is like a ludic loop of dopamine hits.

With its ensemble cast of misfit high school girls and their cool-as-hell uniforms of black dress shirts and white ties, this manga feels a bit like if Azumanga Daioh went through an emo phase (at least stylistically), abandoned the 4-koma style, and leaned more towards slacker than absurdist humor. Chapters are three to eight pages long on average, and this brevity perfectly suits the lighter tones of this book full of lovable, surly idiots.

Tall, breezy, beautiful Yokoe Rei (as seen on the cover) is still disastrously crushing on her best friend since middle school, the short, perpetually-perturbed Sugiura Kei (last volume’s cover star). Their friend and classmate Negoro Yatsude is the connective tissue between most of the cast, since she’s also friends and classmates with Matsuri Fuji, and club senpai to Hinase Tsubaki, both of whom we’ll get to. Yatsude’s withering reactions of concern and/or annoyance over everyone and their bull$#!t make her the perfect foil for her friends’ eccentricities, bouts of despair, etc.

Hinase Tsubaki is a bit of a wallflower (a friend of a friend describes her as “a gloomy li’l reject loner girl”), although bright and cheerful Kaname Yamashiro keeps taking the initiative of being friends with her. Tsubaki’s twin, Hiragi, is a surly loner, and also has a bright, cheerful classmate (Utsugi Ren) she’s getting closer with. To be honest with you, it wasn’t until I got towards the end of this book that I realized these were four different people, instead of two (Volume 2, due to reasons, was my first time reading School Zone Girls). We do see some flashbacks in this volume, so I expect we’ll soon learn why Hiragi hates her twin Hinase so much (which may or may not be related to Hinase’s let’s-hope-the-author-just-drops-it sister complex, ugh).

Matsuri Fuji is new to the cast, and is first depicted playing a crane game with increasing fury; the prize (which she thinks looks stupid anyway) has twisted itself in her mind into some form of character growth, like a next stage of enlightenment she needs to attain. You’d be right to assume from this that she takes herself way too seriously; she speaks with a heightened dialect that only makes her look more awkward to the arcade employees, and tortures herself with inner dialogue spirals about honor, respect, doing good deeds for selfish reasons, etc.

Once arcade employee Kishiya admits to feeling embarrassed over something, she becomes an inadvertent mentor to Fuji, helping her realize that even adults can be imperfect – and that’s ok. It’s almost like the relationship between Miyako and Sayaka at the coffee shop in Bloom Into You, except, well, Miyako would never laugh her ass off if Sayaka freaked out and gave herself a nosebleed. (Or keep replaying the moment in her mind, laughing a little harder each time.) Incidentally, I hate to admit how much Fuji reminds me of myself at that age, and I have to wonder why I’m being called out in this manner.

Most of the time, our cast is just $#!tting around: hanging out at school, riding each other over who can’t wink with their eyes, watching TV during homework dates, falling down 3 flights of stairs into a bloody mess before admitting they need someone to walk them home because the ad for a scary movie messed them up, etc. Stakes are fairly low all around, in spite of how hard Rei freaks out whenever she interprets Kei’s gruffness as affection, or Fuji’s obsession with winning that stupid stuffed toy at the arcade.

As I said earlier, School Zone Girls eschews the 4-koma style, so the comedy has more room to breathe naturally. Chapters are exactly as long (or short) as they need to be, contributing to the natural rhythms and quick pacing. I think this makes the poignant 18-page It Was a Joke stand out that much more, increasing its dramatic impact. This tale sees present-day Rei narrating some flashback scenes from middle school that shed light on why her crush on Kei hasn’t gone any further than it has. I’ll admit, the slapstick and spit-takes up to this point had my guard down, so I wasn’t expecting to see such an affecting portrayal of why two girls would still be stuck in a “will they or won’t they?!” stasis required by the plot. And, I know I can be a bit of a soft touch for scenes like this, but I dare you to flip back to the first page of this chapter again after you’ve read it and not feel something for poor Rei.

This section actually struck me as realistic (as opposed to contrived for the plot), but I got hung up on whether or not that was for me to judge. I asked Erica for her opinion, and she reminded me that authenticity is individual, but to go with my gut; my gut simply told me not to speak for others on what is or isn’t authentic to them. And then I wondered if I wasn’t overthinking a book where someone got punched in the tit last issue. Such is the genius of School Zone Girls!

Ratings:

Art – 9 A good comedy needs expressive, inventive body language and exaggerated expressions, and this one has it. Clean lines, screen tones that expertly give depth to the page and guide the eye, and engaging character designs all contribute to this rating. Ningiyau is particularly skilled at rendering affectations of disdain.

Story – 7 There’s a lot of fun nothing happening, except when Ningiyau decides to hit us in the feels with some of those bittersweet drama times. And that’s fun too.

Characters – 7 The twins still confuse me, but there’s hints that we’re about to see their history soon. Rei is best girl and I want everything to work out for her.

Service – 2 One panel stands out as a little cheeky, but otherwise there’s a welcome lack of gaze.

Yuri – 6 The audience is meant to root for Rei and Kei to get together. I can see some relationships forming among other cast members, and others staying platonic, but everyone else is just friends at this point.

Overall – 9 There’s a fair bit of substance here, in spite of its plain title and covers. The humor is dumb but in a smart way, and it feels like there are hints of relationships and future story arcs sprinkled throughout.

Special commendations should be given to the translation/adaptation team of Avery Hutley and Jamal Joseph Jr. for translating a comedy that reads briskly, naturally, and lands all the jokes and interactions, along with slang that sounds fresh, natural and unforced. Aidan Clarke’s lettering helps convey all the different beats as well – font types and sizes change when they need to, and sound effects do a great job matching the varying ways the original kana are written.

Erica here: Thank you so much, Christian! You and Luce have convinced me to read this comic! As we mentioned last time, Volume 3 is on the way in November, as well.





School Zone Girls, Volume 1, Guest Review by Luce

September 22nd, 2021

Another Wednesday, another Guest Review – and this one comes with a built in bonus, as Volume 1 will be followed next week with Volume 2! Please welcome back Luce, with a review of School Zone Girls, Volume 1, out now from Seven Seas in print and digital. Luce, the floor is yours!

I’m Luce, the owner of a book collection too big for the room I currently inhabit. I own a lot of yuri manga, and Erica kindly asked me to review Volume 1 of this manga. I can be found in the Okazu Discord under the name farfetched, and on tumblr at silverliningslurk. Now, on to the review! 

School Zone Girls shows us the daily lives of two friends; Sugiura Kei, a short-haired, short-statured generally sensible girl, and Yokoe Rei, a beautiful but nonsensical girl. Alongside their fellow students, it depicts their high school lives and adventures. Or misadventures, as we see very quickly.

In many ways, this feels much more like what actually happens at schools than any shoujo. Romance drama? I don’t remember much of that, more having daft conversations with friends, the weird things you were into and all the things school said you had to do but you didn’t want to. School Zone Girls is very much this. The chapters are short, with a four-koma style comedy about them, despite being normal manga form. There are no school princes of any gender here, just people in often ridiculous conversations and situations of their own making. Kei and Yokoe are the kind of friends that you don’t really know how they’re still friends – and neither do they – but they do care about each other underneath the bantering. I love it.

One of my favourite things is the expressions. They’re not ridiculous (most of the time), but get the emotions across very well. The characters also look distinct from each other, with different eyes and such, which I appreciate. There are a set of twins who look very similar, and they’re about the only ones you would mix up, but they have different uniforms, as they go to different schools, so that’s sorted too. Speaking of uniforms, I really like the uniform of this school. I haven’t seen anything else like it in manga. Never mind all the sailor uniforms, this is the one I’d want.

As for yuri, the blurb on the book makes no secret of the fact that Kei and Yokoe like each other… but maybe can’t admit it. This isn’t so much a blushing rom com though – more of the comedy, without the stupid set-ups. By halfway into the book it’s clear that Yokoe is very aware of her feelings, whilst Kei is… not really there. Mainly, Yokoe is usually annoying her too much to actually dwell on it while they’re together. There is a great scene where Yokoe confesses because she thinks Kei isn’t listening… Turns out she was kind of listening. But misconstrues it anyway. When you consider that Yokoe often proposes to Kei when she’s in her post-exam ‘anaphylactic shock’ (nothing to do with allergies), perhaps it’s not so weird. It feels like a character that is so often daft that she no longer knows how to be serious about something even when she wants to, something that’s touched on more in the second book. If anything, I find it hard to believe they will get together, just because it almost feels like them getting together might ruin the dynamic of the manga. But we’ll see how that goes! I’ll trust in Ningiyau, since they’ve done a good job so far.

Ratings:

Art: 8 for the faces. The ‘serious’ art is pretty nice, although pretty standard for decent manga
Story: 6 
Characters: 9, I love them all, but I hope the twins reconcile in later books
Service: 1 purely because a bra gets mentioned once. I guess they were in swimsuits at one point? It’s not a male gaze series at all.
Yuri: 6? More friendship based at the moment than romantic

Overall: 8

It’s daft, but I really enjoyed it. Second book in the series is already out in digital and print, which will have a guest review next week, and the third will be along shortly I believe. 

Erica here: Thanks so much for this heads up. I know I could sure use a goofy, fun series on my  tablet these days. Next week we will indeed have Volume 2 on tap, with a review from Chris.
 




I Summoned a Ghost to Be My Girlfriend, Guest Review by Jennifer Linsky

September 15th, 2021

Hello and welcome back to the first of several Guest Review Wednesdays in a row, hopefully. ^_^ Today we welcome back Jennifer Linsky who has graciously offered to review one of an increasing number of independently published Light Novel- and manga -inspired creations on Kindle.  So let’s settle in and let Jennifer have the floor!

The number one thing I say that I want from lesbian cinema is less lesbian cinema, and more movies that are whatever they are, and happen to include two female characters who kiss each other. So when I saw the light novella I Summoned a Ghost to Be My Girlfriend on Amazon, I figured it was worth the two bucks to buy it and try it out. I’m glad that I did, because it’s the kind of book I enjoy — a book about things.

It was written by “Kyuuen,” which is a pen name for Chris Ing, as he himself says in the author notes at the end. And while I know nothing about Kyuuen as a person, I can tell you two things: he’s a hard-core light novel fan, and he doesn’t actually live in Japan. I know the first of these things because he captures the beats of light novel writing perfectly; I know the second because he puts the characters on a train from Tokyo to Okinawa… a train route which doesn’t exist. But those complaints are easily considered and set aside. What’s more important is that the book has things which make it a joy to read.

Mae, the protagonist, is a high school student at an all-girls school in Tokyo. While on a class trip to a museum, she falls in love at first sight — with a girl who has been dead for eighty years, a girl she sees in a photograph on the wall. She delves into necromancy, and before you know it… well, it’s right there on the cover.

Beatrice, the love interest, reacts surprisingly well to being summoned back to Earth, and begins a campaign to set right the things in Mae’s life which have led to Mae being alone and lonely enough to fall for a dead girl in a photograph. Thus begins a sweet tale about the healing power of love, as Mae gives her love to Beatrice whole-heartedly and unconditionally. In return, Beatrice’s support helps Mae heal the wounds of the betrayals she has suffered.

This is a good book, but it could have been a great book. The antagonist is two-dimensional, a snarling figure of nastiness who never does reveal why she’s nasty. Mae forgives far too easily, and Beatrice is barely examined as a character. If the book had paid more attention to substance while upholding the style with which it is crafted, it could have been a solid ten. As it is, it’s light, it’s fluffy, and the girls do some smooching. What more can you ask for, when all is said and done?

Ratings:

Art – N/A
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Service – 3
Yuri – 10 
Overall – 6

Jennifer Linsky was born in Japan, but grew up mostly in Arizona. She’s the author of Flowers of Luna, available from Amazon or Smashwords, and she tweets sporadically as @walkyrjenny.

Erica here: Well, thank you Jennifer! I’m really glad you took a chance on this and even gladder that you brought it to our attention.





El-Hazard: The Magnificent World OVA 1 + 2 Collection, Guest Review by Xan H

September 1st, 2021

Hello and welcome to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! I’m thrilled to welcome back Xan, with another terrific review! Settle in and give Xan your full attention, and get ready for a retro ride into anime – and our own – pasts. ^_^

I’m Xanthippe, creator of the comics Pandora’s Tale  and Thinking Too Much to Think Positively. Today I’m here to talk about the long-overdue Blu-ray release of the anime probably best remembered as Tenchi Muyo’s peculiar younger sibling, El-Hazard: The Magnificent World OVA 1 + 2 Collection.

It’s hard for me to be objective about a show that I have a lot of personal history with, and El-Hazard might just be the most personal of all. This was the first anime I loved, my first online fandom, and my introduction to Yuri. In fact, it was the first media I’d ever seen in which a gay character was just there, a part of the main cast, existing for something other than a punchline or to make a point. It might be hard to imagine these days, but in the mid-nineties, this was a revelation.

It’s also probably true that a show in which a boy has to pretend to be a missing lesbian princess with the help of said princess’s girlfriend might have held some special appeal for a closeted trans girl who was mostly attracted to women.

Some years ago, Erica reviewed the first OVA which comprises the majority of this set, and I mostly agree with what she had to say, so I’m going to try to avoid covering too much of the same ground here. But for an overview: El-Hazard was an isekai before there was such a thing as isekai. Taking cues from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, this is the story of three high schoolers and their teacher who are transported to a fantasy world, gaining strange powers along the way. Protagonist Makoto and teacher Mr Fujisawa are pulled into the politics of the royal family, who are quick to take advantage of Makoto’s resemblance to the missing Princess Fatora, and Fujisawa’s newly-acquired super strength. Wannabe tyrant Jinnai finds himself among a civilization of giant insects, who quickly appoint him as their commander, while his sister Nanami has the misfortune to be deposited in the middle of a desert.

I appreciate the amount of care Nozomi Entertainment put into this collection. The cover is the same one used for the most recent Japanese Blu-ray release, and I’m admittedly not a fan of the art or the bluish color palette – I feel that the sandy-colored cover of the old DVD collection better captured the feel of the show. On a brighter note, I’m happy to report that the numerous Easter eggs recorded by the dub cast for the DVD release have been preserved, and compiled into a short feature. They’re a mixed bag in terms of quality, but they prompted a few smiles, and it’s just nice to see the effort made to preserve a part of the show I feared would be lost with the change in format.

The original, seven-part OVA is easily the strongest incarnation of the series, and this remastered version looks gorgeous. The background artists took full advantage of the fantasy setting, giving us one lovingly detailed painted environment after another. This OVA, while probably not being quite long enough to do its large cast justice, manages to tell a complete story with a satisfying conclusion.

El-Hazard’s second OVA functions as more of a side story. Loosely adapted from some of the El-Hazard radio dramas, it’s half the length of its predecessor and never really reaches the same heights. The animation is noticeably rougher, and with no remastered version available, these episodes have been upscaled to HD. It’s an improvement over previous releases, but the drop in visual quality between the first and second OVAs is still quite noticeable. That’s sort of OVA 2 in a nutshell: it’s fine. If you enjoyed the first OVA enough that you’d like to spend a couple more hours in the company of these characters, this should scratch that itch.

Probably the most notable element of the second OVA, at least from this review’s perspective, is that we get a lot more of the show’s lesbian couple, the bratty Princess Fatora and her adoring consort, Alielle. There are elements of these characters that haven’t aged all that well – the archetype of “girl-crazy lesbian who doesn’t respect boundaries” is something I suspect we’re all tired of at this point – but damn it, I can’t help but love these two. At the time, I didn’t see stereotypically horny lesbians making a nuisance of themselves so much as I saw two queer women who were loudly, insistently proud of who they were. There’s a moment late in the first OVA when Fatora, who has been absent for the story thus far, asks with the most knowing smile if Alielle tried to cheat on her while she was gone, and it speaks volumes about their relationship. Fatora knows as well as the audience that Alielle has been chasing girls the whole time, and is mostly just amused at her attempt to deny it.

Another aspect of El-Hazard that still stands out today is its English dub, often cited as one of the earliest truly high quality anime dubs. Ironically, it succeeds in part because it hails from an era when dubs weren’t held to the same level of scrutiny as they are today; the dub script has plenty of little additions here and there to spice up the comedy that I suspect a modern dub wouldn’t get away with. In the original, Jinnai names his insect lackeys after characters from the sitcom Sazae-san, a reference that would be immediately familiar to Japanese viewers but lost on almost anyone else; in the dub, they’re named for the Marx Brothers. A scene in which Fatora tries and fails to impersonate Makoto has some discussion of his dialect, which doesn’t translate particularly well into English; the dub takes a different approach and delivers what I still consider one of the funniest lines ever uttered in an anime dub.

The strong script is ably delivered by a mostly excellent English cast. Especially notable is Robert Martin Klein’s Jinnai, a radically different take on the character compared to Ryotaro Okiayu’s booming tones. Meanwhile, Melissa Fahn’s performance as Alielle conveys some depth I personally feel was lacking in the original, and is altogether more believable as a royal consort, while still maintaining the original’s peppy charm. Finally, on this rewatch I was particularly impressed with Nanami, a character who feels a little underused, but is nonetheless played with great energy by Lia Sargent. It would be remiss of me not to point out one sour note with the dub, though, and that’s the use of a certain homophobic slur beginning with “d” – though thankfully not aimed at either of the show’s openly lesbian characters. The Japanese script uses no such term, so I’ve no idea what happened here, but it’s a downright weird choice in an otherwise great script. Despite this wrinkle, I still strongly recommend checking out the dub for an altogether funnier experience and what I’d consider to be the definitive versions of these characters.

As I said, I agree with much of Erica’s review of the show, so my overall ratings are similar, with a few exceptions:

Art – 8 (The remaster really lets OVA 1’s gorgeous background art shine)
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7 (bumping this up a point for the extra focus Fatora and Alielle receive in OVA 2. They even get to frolic adorably in a lake! Can’t say no to frolicking.)
Service – 4

Overall – 8

As a teenager, I adored this show and wanted to lose myself in its fantastical world. Then I got older, became more conscious of its flaws and backed away from it, perhaps a little embarrassed by my earlier enthusiasm. Well, now I’m even older and I can say… honestly, it really was a fun little show, and I can see why my younger self was so enthralled with it. To be sure, there are parts of it that show their age, as one might expect of a show from 1995. At the same time, the show is queer in a way that felt downright subversive for its day, and holds up far better than many of its contemporaries.