Archive for the LGBTQ Category


Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3

October 12th, 2021

Akari and Ayano met in Volume 1, but their relationship was instantly complicated by the fact that Ayano…is married. In Volume 2, Akari moves to give herself a fresh start only to find herself literally face to face with Ayano, as her new home is across the street.

In Even Though We’re Adults, Volume 3, Akari can’t get a break…she’s walking to the train in the morning with Ayano, and home with Ayano’s husband Wataru. As they chat, Akari is sucked deeper and deeper into the quicksand of their family life and her own past. Akari returns to her previous job, which means she’s meeting her ex, as well. It’s a complicated set of circumstances in which no one is wrong, and everyone is trying, but the mortification just keeps piling up. Poor Akari.

I’m absolutely convinced that this is the best work Shimura-sensei has ever created, as the people are all relatable; from the two girls in Ayano’s class who may be targeted because they like each other, to Eri, Wataru’s shut-in sister.

Every single character here is doing their best; every single character is trying to figure out how to be, how to navigate the complicated waters of society and relationships. And nearly everyone is struggling. I love this story. There’s no good guys or bad guys, there’s no one who is more than slightly, very normally awful. Everyone is smiling, but also hurting, and trying to figure out how to make it through the rapids of life safely.

In and among all of this, I am particularly on tenterhooks about the two girls in Ayano’s class. They don’t know, yet (or ever) that they have an ally, but I hope that they end up okay.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 7 I’m liking most of them, even if they annoy me sometimes ^_^
Service – 0
Yuri – Yes. Also Queer.

Overall – 8

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy! Volume 3 is hitting shelves today, so grab yourself a copy of this queer and complicated story about adult life. Excellent lettering by Rina Mapa, as well as outstanding translation by Jocelyne Allen.

I especially loved this panel of a phone argument. ^_^





Manga de Wakaru LGBQ+ (マンガでわかるLGBTQ+）

September 19th, 2021

I follow a number of Japanese sexual and gender minority groups on Twitter. I’ve even created a Twitter list with all the JP groups I follow, knowing that new groups aspring up all the time. One of these groups, Palettalk, recently announced a new book on LGBTQ+ issues. I was interested in the book and marked it down for future purchase. Here’s where this story gets a tad weird. ^_^ I visit Kinokuniya monthly to get Comic Yuri Hime and random other manga purchases and, that next visit, as I walked around the store, on a shelf of cat manga that I never look at, facing out, like someone just dropped it there…was this very book.  The chances of it being in my local Kjnokuniya seemed infinitesimal, and yet, there it was.

Which is how I came to have Palettalk’s Manga de Wakaru LGBQ+ (マンガでわかるLGBTQ+), instead of just ordering it like usual. ^_^ It’s a great little volume that I highly recommend to folks who want the allies among their friends and relatives to understand them better and be just that much more sensitive to their concerns. In essence, it’s a workbook for allyship.

The book is broken up into short manga of case scenarios, discussions designed to look like online chats, workbook pages, Q&A and informational essays and definitions. The case scenarios are mostly focused on adult life, but many of them hearken back to school situations, as well. As a result, it moves quickly through scenarios, like dealing with insensitive things a bisexual might have people around them say to them, how it makes them feel. Then it goes into what we, as allies, need to understand about bisexuality so we don’t unintentionally hurt our bisexual friends  – or allow other people to intentionally hurt them.

Discussions range from how it feels when straight folks make erroneous assumptions about gay folks, to the unintended consequences of coming out or not. The Palettalk staff weighs in with their own experiences, and there are worksheets for us to think about the scenarios for ourselves.

Because all of this is done in an easy-to-read manga form, with scenario comics interspersed with short essays, informational pages and the rest, it’s informative and approachable.

Ratings aren’t really relevant for this book, but I hope folks in Japan will pick it up and share it with friends and family.

I’m really glad I picked this up and my sincere thanks to the folks at Palettalk for putting this book together.





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 5 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

September 9th, 2021

What if you had the chance to remake the entire world in order to save the person you love…and learned that the world was never what it seemed?

The first thing you will note about Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 5, (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) by Inori, with illustrations by Hanagata, is that it is a large-ish volume. That is because there is a lot to get through.

We left Volume 4 with a number of major and minor plot points up in the air. Since, once again, you will be able to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 4 this winter from Seven Seas, I will not spoil those plot points, except to say that they are mostly all entirely relevant to Volume 4 and only one is relevant to Volume 5. This volume mostly takes place in the Nur Kingdom and when I tell you “the world was never what it seemed,” please consider that as much of a spoiler as you will get from me beyond the cover art, which is also a spoiler. I’m actually glad I read this on Amazon’s Kindle app, because the translation dictionaries made it that much easier to wade through some of the terminology. My Japanese vocabulary is not up to economics and finance, and other specific disciplines.

Because so much happens here – loss and gain and loss once more and salvation and damnation and eternity, it’s actually impossible to talk about it, so I will content myself with the least important thing I told Sean Gaffney as I messaged him to spoil the living hell out of it. If you are familiar with Doctor Who, you will entirely understand how everything in this book works…and how it must work. ^_^ This leads to the only criticism, if you can even call it that, I have. Because of that specific narrative structure, there was no way to give it a punchy ending, which was perfectly okay. It ended as it had to…and then didn’t end for a few more post-epilogue shorts. When you like your characters, it’s hard to let go, I understand completely. ^_^ 

Inori-sensei’s writing has evolved. Originally published as a webnovel, the chapters moved quickly, were carefree and goofy. The story began to take on a serious bent as the plot unfolded in later volumes. Through everything, the writing was very, very aware of LGBTQ+ issues in the real world. This is true through the very end of the story. What has changed is that the writing now is very visually descriptive, where before it was narratively descriptive. Inori-sensei clearly has the currently running manga and any potential future anime (which has not yet been proposed, the author’s note states) in mind. That kind of writing works very well here in what must be described as a grand, sweeping, epic finale, in a way that it would not have in the earlier volumes.

Typical of a Light Novel, the art is portraiture and serves to illustrate the characters, rather than the scene. Hanagata’s art has also improved and evolved, which is kind of fascinating, because we got to watch it in real time.

So what can I tell you about this volume? I can tell you that a couple of times I thought the story was going to make me cry. It didn’t…until it did, and the character that did that, was probably one of two characters I would have absolutely guaranteed that you could not get me to care about. ^_^

While this book wraps up every loose end – even the ones it creates – and finishes the story as such, Inori-sensei is still hard at work. “She’s Such a Cheeky Commoner,” is the story (not entirely the same content) from Claire’s point of view. You can read the webnovel of this if you become a subscriber to Inori’s Pixiv Fanbox.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Very little, for perfectly good reasons.
Yuri – 10
Queer – 10

Overall – 10

I said of Volume 3, that it was juggling and plate-spinning on a high wire, I called Volume 4 a “wild ride.” Volume 5 of Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. was an epic parade of the entire circus. ^_^ 

 





Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ)

September 2nd, 2021

In Amano Shuninta’s Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ) we meet Kimura Rin, an office worker who is being sexually harassed by a superior at work. She has no allies among the women in the office, and the harassment is exactly on the line that some men think is being friendly, but is not that, at all.  As she cries alone in the bathroom of the restaurant where her group is having their after-work drinks, Rin encounter Ryou, who thinks she needs to fight back. Ryou tells Rin that she is a lesbian sex worker for ‘Yuritopia’ and tells her how much it costs. Rin takes her up on it, and that experience changes everything.

Rin quits her job and decides to become a sex worker. There’s a lot to learn and of course that learning curve is the story. She sleeps with a Yuritopia sempai and it just serves to highlight how out of her depth she is. Even Ryou turns out to be not what she seems, as the cast at Yuritopia seem kind of cliqueish and not at all kind. Which, I will admit, bothered me quite a bit (and  didn’t make the Yuritopia manager look good. She was nice, but if her employees are jerks, then, uh…something’s not okay.)

Eventually, she gets her first date, a repeat customer of the company who likes to go out with the new girls. The situation is confusing, until she figures out what that customer is looking for and she gets her first high rating. She’s on her way in her new life!

My absolute favorite scene was probably the most ridiculous one, where Rin chooses her working name. She’s stressed out and unsure. The manager gives her a cup of hot chocolate to soothe her nerves (hey, here’s some caffeine and sugar, that’ll relax you!). Rin takes a sip and as the sweet, warm flavor fills her, she decides her name will be Cocoa. It was very her. ^_^

Amano-sensei’s art is really interesting in this series. It’s well-drawn, but she’s focused on partial views, shadows and  skewed perspectives which really works well to communicate Rin’s feelings. As the story ends, the panels become straighter, the backgrounds a little more detailed, giving us a much more grounded feeling.

This volume ends with an interview with Obou, a straight male representative of a lesbian sex work organization, Club Tiara. the same organization made “famous” by Nagata Kabi-sensei in My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness.  I knew it was a guy who ran that, but it still makes me feel icky that it’s not a woman in charge, so I declined to read the interview, but the questions seemed to focus on the technical details. What are the various courses, how are cast chosen, that kind of thing.  I checked out Club Tiara’s site and found that they offer options for women, men and couples, which makes perfect sense. They have specific infor for lesbian customers, a phone service, naturally, and a guide to using their service. I didn’t  check to see if they do streams or sexts. As websites go, it’s got a welcoming, not an exploitative “Hot girls live! XXX!!” feel, which is reassuring. If anything, their site felt a bit like a josei manga magazine. I don’t know if this is something I want for myself, but am glad that it exists in the world.

They also are promoting a number of manga on the Club Tiara site, including Nagata-sensei’s and Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology from Ichijinsha that I reviewed here on Okazu, along with the sequel.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 Rin really grew on me
Service – Not really? It’s about sex, and isn’t coy or creepy; the art is artsy, rather than explicit. So sex, but no fanservice.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

Volume 2 is out now in Japan and I imagine I’ll read it, (probably on Bookwalker, since I’m out of space..again. ^_^





Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology

August 15th, 2021

Some days, the weather is just perfect and all you need is something plain fun to read. Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology is very fun to read. There are no bad stories and, depending on what you like, there are a lot of good stories and a few that just gut punch you in the right buttons and are otherwise great.

The anthology starts off strong, with a wonderfully whimsical story by Alison Tam, “Margo Lai’s Guide to Dueling Unprepared,” and continues on with a wide array of fantasy and science fiction (which, at this point, are largely identical, only, one involves spaceships, generally speaking,) and queer characters of all kinds.

For me the gut punch of greatdom came in the form of Freya Marske’s “Elinor Jones vs the Ruritanian Multiverse,” for entirely mushy story of little Erica and her little wife reasons. Back in middle school we had a tricky tray auction and I had excitedly gotten a tray of three books, one of which was The Prisoner of Zenda. The punchline was that the person who had created the tray was my now wife. “Awwww.” (The other two were A Swiftly Titling Planet, still my favorite of the trilogy, and one of the Elric books, which have now been thoroughly, permanently and hilariously ruined for me by Bimbos of the Death Sun.)

The world borrowing and building in so many of these stories are a real testament to the skills here of the authors. Cara Patterson’s “Little Birds,” and Yoon Ha Lee’s “The City Unbreachable” feel like stories we have already been told so many times and know so well. Aliette de Bodard’s “The Scholar of the Bamboo Flute” borrows a world we’re all so, so familiar with here on Okazu, and still breathes a whole new life into it.

For my money, the two best stories are “Positively Medieval” by Kaitlyn Zivanovich, which seamlessly melds fantasy and cyberpunk in a wholly unique and disarmingly adorable way and “The Parnassian Courante” by Claire Bartlett which was…perfect. Paros no Ken, step aside, this is the correct ending to that scenario.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

With a diverse cast of characters and writers, Silk & Steel was fantastic read.