Since I’m doing books that include my A-Team creators this week, it seems like a good day for talking about Galette, No. 17 (ガレット). And, much like my post yesterday, I really wanted to talk about it for one specific story.

Those of you who follow Morishima Akiko’s series Hanjuku Joshi when it ran Yuri Hime, will remember that there were two main couples. We’ve been enjoying the return of Yae and Chitose in Motto Hanjuku Joshi, and this chapter we see the return of Mari and Ran! Now that Mari is in pre-med, we might expect their relationship goes more smoothly, but…nope! ^_^ The reason why is the subject of this issue.

Akiyama Haru’s story is very short, but absolutely lovely, with a magical portal to a ryokan in a women’s basement. “How come we don’t have one of those?” my wife asks.

And the remaining stories give us a number of ways to look at relationships and the people in them. Interestingly, Hamano Ringo’s “Sora-iro Melancholic” continues on and wow is the Bun-chan we see here a different person. She’s really grown since that first volume that I recently reviewed.

The magazine has seen some changes in the past few issues, as I’m sure both artists and supporters have found their circumstances altered by the pandemic, but makes me happy to go through the list of supporters and see some of your names there! I know that as long as I can, I’ll be helping to make this magazine, because I think it needs to exist. They’ve opened up a Pixiv Fanbox in addition to their Fantia page, so now you have another way to help good Yuri manga be created.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Every day Galette exists is a good day for Yuri. ^_^

Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) marks a shift in my collection and starts with a multi-layered tale of woe. ^_^

Due to the  pandemic, this issue was offered in limited amount to backers as a physical publication, and eventually, it was offered to overseas backers but, for a number of reasons, I was unable to purchase the physical copy. Mostly, it was timing.

Jumping forward, Volume 15 is also being made available to backers but due to chicanery and corruption on both sides, packages sent by Japan Post to the USPS are now being held up for a minimum of 8 weeks on the Japan side, and who know what will happen on the US side. This is not hyperbole. When I shipped a package from Japan in July, I had the choice of around $200 by DHL (around, but I was completely unable to get an actual estimate off the DHL site, because the English-language page wouldn’t accept the Japanese address and vice versa, of course.  Apparently Tenso will only tell me what it actually costs after I commit to DHL shipping. So I chose JP Post to USPS – this was before the current administration’s open interference with the US Post Office – and was told right up front that it would take 8-12 weeks to ship. I have a package sitting in a warehouse in Kawasaki since July for, as far as I can tell, no reason whatsoever, except to make using a public service unappealing and shifting us to much more expensive shipping by private company, making what was already a huge barrier to overseas purchases practically insurmountable for normal humans.

As a result of this utterly malicious fuckery on both sides of the Pacific, I find myself unable to purchase the physical copies of Galette magazine. I’m saddened, but I upped my backer level, so I get a PDF copy of each volume when it’s released. Yay digital!

So here we are at No. 14, my first digital-only copy. I’ve linked to the Global Bookwalker version, which I also bought, because I wanted to see how it read. Honestly…I love it on Bookwalker. I use Bookwalker on a tablet, and it’s almost the same size as the magazine. I love being able to read the page on a large screen and page through it as I might in a physical copy. When I get the PDF, it reads on a browser as vertical, but I’m going to see if the Bookwalker reader will handle the PDF. It ought to. For those of you in Japan, it is also available on JP Kindle.

All the continuing stories are still continuing, which means ongoing works by Morinaga Milk, Morishima Akiko, Hakamada Mera, Hamano Ringo, Yatosaki Haru, Uno Jinia and Kitto Izumi and Momono Moto;  some of which are doing surprising and sometimes really interesting things. Morinaga Milk’s characters Rena and Yuna have moved into a larger home and are about to embark upon building a life together. This isn’t just “let’s live together,” this is “we’re a couple and this is us figuring out our lives together.” Kitto and Monomo’s “Liberty” has taken a dark turn and I really don’t know at all where it’s going.

But the winner this issue was definitely Hakamada Mera’s “Sekai ga Owarau sono mae ni.” It was just a really good chapter, probably some of the best work I’ve ever seen from her.

There was a fun take on Cinderella by Ei Imura, and the usual compliment of photography and art. All of which make Galette a satisfying read, that I look forward to every issue.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Volume 15 is available as PDF and physically by mail to backers on Fantia at Gold level or higher, on Amazon JP Kindle and, kind of weirdly, in Japanese on US Kindle, but not yet on Bookwalker.

Reading Galette is one of my very sincerest joys these days. When Galette, No. 12  (ガレット ) arrived, I just kind of sat on it, deferring that joy, just to make it last. ^_^

There is so much wonderful work here that I hardly know where to begin! Instead of listing everything, I just want to touch on two stories for which I have a lot of interest – and hope.

Hakamada Mera is a creator that has been the target of a lot of criticism from me in the past decade. Not because she’s not good…because she is good and I have felt for more than ten years that she could be better. I feel like something in her work has shifted recently and she is – at last – doing the work I expected of her or more probably she’s doing the work that she wants to do. I liked her previous series a lot. Even though it was set in a high school, t never felt threadbare. And her new story, “Sekai ga Owareru Sono Mae ni” is the best I have ever seen from her. I cannot quite put my finger on what is different, but it contains a feeling of honesty and real-ness that I felt had been lacking in her early work. (I liken it to the sensation I always has reading Melissa Scott’s novels in the 1990s – there was just something that she wasn’t putting into her wok and its absence was notable. I am delighted to be reading Hakamada-sensei’s work right now.

The second story I want to talk about is “Liberty” by Kitto Izumi and Momono Moto. This, too, has been skirting something important and, while I have liked it anyway I am absolutely here for this story now, as we learn a little bit about Liz. More importantly, we can see the abuse and manipulation Liz was subjected to by her former manager. This issue’s chapter was terrifying and hard to read..while being completely “normal” on the surface. So much was revealed in this chapter, it sets us up for a completely different story now. I cannot wait to see where it goes. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping we’d get in Galette.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Both these are are just two stories among several along with some primary Yuri research and columns. The time it takes me to read Galette is always time well-spent and I look forward very much to Galette No. 13 which is available on Amazon JP – which marks the start of Year 4 – in a few days. 

Galette No. 12 is digitally available on Amazon.com.  Up to Volume 11 is available on Global Bookwalker as well.