Archive for the Guest Review Category


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.





Me (A Guy)… Lesbian?!, Volume 1, Guest Review by Luce

August 11th, 2021

I had no idea this manga even existed, so how happy am I that Guest Reviewer Luce offered to take a look at it for us! ^_^ So kick back and Luce tell you a story about a story. Welcome back Luce, the floor is yours…

I’m Luce, reviewer of Dear Noman. That series didn’t quite work out, but today I’m here with a review of a series I thought would be terrible, and surprisingly wasn’t! Hope you enjoy the review, I can be reached on the Okazu discord (open to all) and on tumblr at silverliningslurk. Onwards!

In Me (a Guy)…Lesbian, Volume 1, available digitally on Bookwalker, Yuuki, a male high school student, is cycling home one day and accidentally knocks an inari statue over at a shrine. Panicked, he puts it back… and typical of a high school boy, adds a face to it when he sees it has none. The fox spirit within the statue is none too pleased about this face, done in permanent marker unknowingly over her own face, and as revenge for not being able to sympathise with a ‘women’s heart’, turns him into a girl. And magically enrols him into an all-girls boarding school. Now, she (I’ll refer to Yuuki as she for the remainder of the review) has to create ‘love relationships’ with girls to get the fox spirit, Yori to regain her power so she can turn Yuuki back.

I will admit, with that title, I was very sceptical of this being anything much at all, but I was bored, there was a Yuri manga sale, and I bought it. It’s 8 chapters, so I would guess slightly longer than one regular collected manga volume. It’s full colour, and it’s done nicely, although there is a bit more service than I’d necessarily go for. I still have trouble thinking that girls so casually undress around each other, but aside from that, it’s surprisingly heart-felt. It’s no grand epic, and there are all the ‘magically switched genders’ tropes that you’d expect – randomly turning back at inopportune times, the fear of getting found out, sitting and acting more like a guy than a girl normally would… But it is genuinely sweet. Yuuki gets things wrong, and apologises for them, she starts to get on with the various girls of the school and gets used to life in her female body. For such a short series, it actually gets quite a bit done, so it feels longer than it is, but in a good way – for me at least!

As for Yuri, well. There are definitely two girls who have romantic feelings for other girls, something that is displayed front and centre, although in the English, the word ‘lesbian’ only features in the title. Yuuki herself comes to have crushes, there is the girl prince that Erica has mentioned in several panels recently as a common Yuri trope, the childhood friends where one falls in love. I would imagine this series is meant to appeal to men with the fanservice (it never gets ridiculous or anatomically incorrect, but it is there), but equally, it has all sorts of women and the cast, Yuuki aside, is entirely female. But Yuuki doesn’t make any opportunities to perv on the other girls, getting embarrassed and/or respecting them enough to not look… even though ‘she’ wouldn’t necessarily be found out. I will say that the author does put her in these situations, but there are no drooling perverts here, thankfully.

If you’re looking for a deep dive into the intricacies of having a gender switched, this isn’t it. It doesn’t even mention Yuuki’s parents or friends, although I suspect Yori’s power may have been involved. However, by the end (I will spoil a little as I feel like it makes this stand out) Yuuki doesn’t elect to turn back into a boy. She seems to remain at the school, intending to live – at least for now – as a woman. Yori, the fox spirit, even says that she’ll have to work to be perceived as a girl by the one who knows Yuuki’s secret. That surprised me, as usually when presented with a way to go back, they do. I would say that if you enjoyed Kashimashi, you’ll probably enjoy this one, too. It even doesn’t have the creepy father!

Ratings:

Art – 6 – not the best art in the world, but pretty, readable, and all in colour!
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Service – 8 – you will definitely see some cleavage
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

For some light reading and a hopeful ending, I’d say it’s worth it. ‘Surprisingly wholesome’ would be my short review, honestly.

Erica here: Thank you very much for the review. I’m glad to know this is out here and that we have eagle-eyed reviewers like you. ^_^





Kaijuu-iro no Shima, Volume 1 (かいじゅう色の島), Guest Review by Mariko S.

July 28th, 2021

It is Wednesday and you know what that means! It is indeed a Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu. Today we welcome back Mariko S. (whose compelling review I have sincerely missed!), with a look at Kaijuu-iro no Shima (かいじゅう色の島), Volume 1. Please give her a warm Okazu welcome back. The floor is yours, Mariko!

I can remember clearly a certain type of person from my tween years, as we all navigated that transition between child and not-child. Smaller than other kids, shy, awkward, left out. Maybe because of those things, still interested in (or, at least, still holding onto) “childish” things. A little scared or uncertain about the adulthood their peers were rushing toward (seemingly) eagerly. Chigawa Kon is a girl like this. Slight and tomboyish, she scuttles barefoot around her tiny island town in a one-piece swimsuit and ill-fitting shorts, passing another lazy summer alone.
 
I remember another type of person from those formative years, too. A little too hurried to put on the markers of adulthood, forced by a body that seemingly overnight changed unrecognizably into something else to pretend they’re ready for it. Even more than that, putting on a front of maturity to try to mask the deep insecurities and immaturity that roiled in them as well. Hitoto Furuka is this girl. Taller, more developed, with painted nails and stylish clothes, her sudden appearance on the island presents a curious interruption for Kon, who doesn’t exactly understand the crushes her peers are so excited about, but who now finds Furuka compelling for reasons she can’t quite articulate.

What I find most remarkable about this manga is how grounded it is. That sounds like an absurd thing to say about a manga in which a (maybe real) mystical sea monster features heavily, along with supernatural phenomena of various kinds. But this is a manga about school girls in Japan that features NONE of the tropes or fetishes of school girl Yuri. There are no uniforms, no zettai ryouiki, no absurd clubs or sharing of cakes. This story could take place for any kids anywhere whiling away a summer vacation. Men exist and aren’t toxic creepos – Furuka’s uncle is an easygoing laborer who is confused as to why he has to suddenly put up with a freeloading relative. Kon’s little brother is a fun-loving kid who is really into kaijuu. More than anything, the vibe this story gives off to me is like Blue Drop, another slow-burn sci-fi Yuri tale set in a sleepy seaside town with a richly developed cast.

The first volume isn’t very long, and moves at a languid pace, and yet somehow many momentous things have happened by the end, and many more mysteries have been set up for the future. Does the monster exist? If so, is it embodied in Furuka? What is the relationship between Kon and the women sacrificed to the monster generations ago? Does Furuka have a mysterious power, or was the intervention with the bullies related to the monster somehow? Kon and Furuka have already kissed by the middle of the book, and maybe more, so with that out of the way we can focus on the real development of their relationship, on whether they can overcome both the mundane and fantastic challenges set before them, and of course on delving deeper into the lore of the island.

This story comes closer to transcending the definition of Yuri as “lesbian content without lesbian identity” for a school setting than any other I have read recently. Despite Furuka’s efforts to look mature, she quickly reveals that she has basically run away to this island with little to no plan for her future. Chief among her reasons is her despair and loneliness at not fitting in because she is gay. She never uses the word “lesbian,” but she describes knowing since the fourth grade that she wasn’t like the other girls, and only had eyes for one of her female friends. Unfortunately, she describes herself as “sick.” Kon isn’t thrown by this at all, and decides she must have this same “sickness” since she feels this way about Furuka. I’m not going to say everything that happens between them feels realistic, but it certainly fits in just fine with plenty of other coming-of-age teen romances. Kon is believably depicted as a girl just starting to awaken to the idea that she might love another girl, and Furuka is a sympathetic example of a girl who already knows this about herself and unfortunately feels outcast because of it. Yes, we all love Yuri stories where the protagonists face no obstacles to their love, but it’s also nice to have a story that acknowledges and deals with still very real prejudices.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Extra points for the variety of character designs and the imaginative sea monster renderings
Story – 8 I’m enjoying it very much, it’s different from anything else out there.
Characters – 7 Kon and Furuka feel like real people. There isn’t much of a supporting cast at this point, though.
Yuri – 7 Kon and Furuka’s relationship is at the center of the story.
Service – 7 I wouldn’t say it is prurient, but there is a fair amount of (not explicit) nudity, and a scene of Furuka brooding that is set unnecessarily in the shower.

Overall – 8 Intangibles and personal taste make this a solid 8 for me, I’m eager to see where the story goes! Alas, as I understand it, new installments are released only quarterly, so we may be waiting awhile for the next volume.

Erica here: Thank you so much for another fantastic review! I want to run out and get this manga, right away, now.

Kaijuu-iro no Shima,Volume 1 is available in print from Amazon JP, or CD Japan and available in digital format on Amazon JP Kindle or Bookwalker JP. And, if you haven’t already seen it, take a moment to watch the animated trailer for this volume of manga!