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.

It’s funny how fashion works in things you wouldn’t imagine. You might read a magazine and note that it has a story about, say, a runaway. Then you notice that a new runaway story just started elsewhere. The next thing you know, it’s runaways all over the place. True, some of that is confirmation bias, but sometimes, something just rides the zeitgeist. Last autumn there were a handful of AI Yuri stories that all kind of hit at once. One of them just happens to have been Uno Zinnia’s “Katachi ga Onajinara” in Galette, No. 11 (ガレット). I’m kind of a sucker for android/AI Yuri. ^_^

Amano Shuninta’s “Toma-kun” has ended and, while I’m not sad for the same reasons the characters are, I’m still sad it’s over. ALSO, put a pin in this, because “fashion.”

I find Hamano Ringo’s work to be very…relaxing. There’s so little stress here, “Sora-iro Melancholic” was perfect wind-down reading.

“Esthetician Amagai ha Akiremenai” by Isoya Yuki, a new name to me, had an old MIST magazine feel, but I had to love it when the final pose was the most inappropriate pieta ever. ^_^ I think I loved it.

Hakamada Mera’s “Sekai Owaru Sono Maeni” is…good. And possibly unpredictable, based on future chapters… I’m looking forward to reading this story of an adult couple. Honestly, it’s my sincere opinion that Galette has been really good for Hakamada-sensei. I feel like she’s finally hit her stride here.

A new character has made quite the impression in Kitta Izumi and Momono Moto’s “Liberty.” I can feel it going way darker and wondering where it’s going to go. I’m still all in for the ride, though.

Morinaga Milk’s “Watashi no Kawaii Nekochan” is also getting a little serious, but not in a bad way! Yuna and Rena and, of course, their cat, have moved into a bigger place and their lives together have really begun.

Aoto Hibiki’s “Girl Meets Bunny Girl” feels like the PG cut of a R-rated movie. ^_^ Fun, but is that really what it was supposed to be?

As always, there are other stories that I didn’t call out that were perfectly entertaining.

Ratings:

Overall – 9 I get a lot of entertainment out of each volume. ^_^

You can subscribe to Galette on Bookwalker Global or get it on Amazon Kindle (in Japanese) or get print or JP Kindle from Amazon JP. You can also support the creators directly and help the magazine get made through the crowdfunding site, Fantia. Gold level will provide you with PDF copies of Galette Meets and back issues of the magazine. I see a bunch of familiar names on the “thanks” pages every month. Why not join us this year?

Volume 12 is already out (and I’m reading it now~~~)