Archive for the Magazines Category


Yuri Manga: Liberty, Volume 1 (リバティ)

June 27th, 2019

Liberty, Volume 1 (リバティ) follows Honjou Maki, a boyish young woman who works for a small game company and is happy enough with her life, although the constant talk about who is seeing whom and who she might be or not be interested in is tiresome. Maki’s boyish , but still resents the fact that the other women just presume she’s not interested in men. She’s on her way home when a woman runs out into the street in front of Maki’s car. It wasn’t a suicide attempt, though…the woman was just trying to save a kitten from being run over. The women is flirty and flighty and before Maki drops her off, the woman asks Maki if she likes women. Maki isn’t able to answer, but the woman, also recognizing her specific boyishness calls her “Walking Coming Out” and writes down a phone number on Maki’s hands before she get out of the car.

Maki calls the number and learns that it’s for a musical performance venue. After work she goes over the location where the line is very long to get in. She learns its for the band Liberty and that the woman she met is its lead singer… and, that she is expected, although her new nickname is now “Aruku Coming Out” and she is a walking advertisement for her own sexuality now, whether she likes it or not. The singer takes her aside after the show and aggressively kisses Maki, making it very plain that she is interested in the other woman.

The next day Maki meets the new band that’s been signed on to do the music for the game her company is working on– the band is Liberty and their lead singer is Liz. Maki is clearly genuinely interested in and attracted to Liz, but Liz’s reactions are not…within normal parameters. When Maki gives her a pair of earrings a present, Liz yells at Maki to get out. We and Maki eventually learn why, but by the end of Volume 1 Liz is still mostly an enigma to both us and Maki. And her reactions are still over-the-top in any situation.

This manga is a collaboration between voice actress Kitta Izumi (Cordelia from the Milky Homes franchise)and Yuri manga artist Momono Moto, whose work I have followed for years. This story really plays to Momono-sensei’s strong points, too, with strong emotions and reactions and Liz’s light-gothic fashion look, which contrasts nicelyto Maki’s downplayed business casual. I’ve liked this story since it debut in Galette in 2017 and have been eagerly awaiting a collected volume. I noticed immediately that when Kitta-san announced this on Twitter, it was not published by Galette Works, instead it is a Kadokawa book. Good for them for getting the investment. (It’s not too hard to see Kadkoawa’s angle – voice actress from a Kadokawa series, veteran Yuri artist and their current investment in Yuri as a growth market. It all adds up.)

The book includes a short interview with both creators that is surprisingly cute and energetic.

As an adult life story with both a cute mostly-closeted boyish character and a beautiful melodramatic feminine character, Liberty makes for great Yuri soap opera.

Ratings:

Art  – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 7 Yes, in an adult female-focused way. Maki’s seduction is not explicitly consensual but meant to be understood as mutual.
Yuri – 10 with a light flavor of LGBTQ

Overall – 9

I really like this story and am pleased that Maki and Liz are going to get a chance to develop as characters and as a couple.





Yuri Magazine: Comic Yuri Hime June 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年6月号)

June 11th, 2019

It’s my great pleasure to be able to discuss with you another solid issue of monthly magazine Comic Yuri Hime for June 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年6月号).

A news series has begun, and based on the opening color pages, I will be wholly ignoring “Yurimeguri yuimeguri.” Aside from childish faces on too-adult bodies and bathing scenes it appears to have little going for it. This is a series who knows it’s own audience and doesn’t care about me. I am convinced that it was commissioned to be turned into an anime, which I will also ignore.

I’m quite fascinated by the nothings-going-on of Miman’s “Watashi no Yuri ha Shigoto desu!” because really, nothing much can be going on, since our cast is approximately 7 people, a pair of which are taken up with each other. So we turn back to Yano, who is deeply struggling as is Hime. It’s been established that they each believe they were the victim, and from our perspective they were both also the bad guy. But what they have not yet had is the conversation they need to work through all of this. And really, after holding onto it for so many years, would it even be possible to talk this through? Yano doesn’t think so – she can neither forgive, nor forget.. Hime seems to believe there is nothing to forgive. This is going to have to come to some kind of a head.

“Luminous Blue” by Iwami Kikyoko is edging slowly, but inexorably, towards a crisis that we have been able to see coming for months.

I still really like Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayaku Youni Koi o Utau” for reasons I cannot define. Perhaps that everyone seems so drama-free and just enjoy each other’s company?

FLOWERCHILD’S “Warikitta Kankei desukara” is meant to make me feel uncomfortable…and so it does.

Hisona’s “Goodbye Dystopia” is meant to make me feel nostalgic and fails. But it feels so much like something is about to come to an end in that. I hope it’s not the series.

In “Itoshi Koishi” Hina is going to have to decide what to do with her life. Imma gonna guess and say she’ll study baking or cooking because, we’re headed there. In a weak moment, seduced by chocolate and Hinano’s adorableness, Yayoi breaks down and gives her an adult kiss. I’m waiting patiently for what I believe will eventually be an actual coming out scene in this manga. It’s got the right setup.

“Ikemensugi desu Shiki-senpai” has now entered conventional romance territory, and I kinda like it. By necessity, both Shiki and Hina end up coming out-ish and realize that they really, really, really want to be together. I’m all for it.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

As every other month, these are not the only stories in the magazine, nor even all the ones I read. I am following all but three of the current serializations, and those you could not pay me to read. ^_^ So, something for everyone.

A solid volume and another one on the way. I’ve just gone through the July issue and if anything, I think it was even a little better.

 

 

 





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime May 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年5月号)

May 16th, 2019

Due to a conflict with a recent update, the Yuricon Store is not currently functional. We’ll get it back up as quickly as we can, but in the meantime, links on Okazu will go straight to Amazon or Amazon JP. We apologize for the inconvenience.

It seems a lifetime since I read Comic Yuri Hime, May 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年5月号).

The first story, by Usui Shio, “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” tells a bittersweet story of the sacrifices a woman makes in her life to be correct and popular; the breakdown she has over her inability to be what society expects of her and the coworker who comes to her rescue. Will it be love? We’ll have to tune in to find out. (No, obviously not, it runs in Comic Yuri Hime for pity’s sake. It will be love, duh. ^_^)

Although it appears to be yet another high school love story, I am really liking Takashima Eku’s “Sasayaku You ni koi o Utau” about a girl and the lead singer she’s fallen for – and who is shocked that she’s falling back.

Iwami Kiyoko’s “Luminous Blue” is heading for a confrontation between various pieces of this love triangle and I don’t see any way around it.

Okay, it’s time to talk honestly about Kodama Naoko’s “Uminekosou Days.” I do not dislike it. I actually kind of like it. But can I just admit that I hate the main fetish here? Mayumi has run from a relationship with a guy with whom she didn’t (couldn’t? wouldn’t?) have a child. And that relationship and the idea of having a child (or not…it’s not really clear whether she wants to and can’t or doesn’t want to,) is haunting Mayumi here in this tiny village in nowhere. This is why I have never loved anything Kodama-sensei writes, even when I like it…it always centers around a compulsion or fetish and won’t move past it. I hope to heavens that this series moves past this, because I actually *want* to root for Mayumi and Rin.

Flowerchild offers two different teacher x student things. “Idola the Coward” is another cute workplace story, by Kayoko, whose art reminds me of something.

Ah…ha! “Itoshi Koishi” by Takemiya Jin has cracked the “coming out” wall. I have been waiting to see this story from her for years. Hanano and Yayoi are making their New Year’s hatsumode when they run into a bunch of Hana’s classmates. Hana, under pressure, lies and says Yayoi is a relative. The older woman is totally understanding, but Hana is devastated by her own internalized homophobia. Yayoi asks Hana if she’s afraid her friends will reject her. Hana says they *know* she’s seeing someone older…and she thinks at least one has figured it out, but…she finds herself, yes, scared. She decides she’s going to tell them. Soon.

This is the narrative we almost never see in Yuri manga. Watch this space as it develops.

“Scarlet” wraps up the current arc and we learn of the promise between Fine and Iris.

In “Goodbye Dystopia” nothing important is said, but as we walk away from Asami’s story, we are clearly about to head into Mizuki’s.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

As always there are many more stories I didn’t mention and some I didn’t read, (and some I did, but this review had gotten so long I wanted to wrap up!) and overall this was a really strong issue of Comic Yuri Hime, that ought to appeal to just about everyone, from moe Yuri fans, to folks looking for fetishy stuff or those looking for adult life Yuri and it’s even edging towards having a lesbian character.





Yuri Manga: Cotton Candy

April 11th, 2019

Hamano Ringo’s Cotton Candy was the first of the Galette collected volumes to be printed. I feel a little bad that it’s taken me this long to get around to it because, like it’s name, it’s very sweet.

There’s nothing objectionable at all, about the collection but for me the stand out story is the first, the titular “Cotton Candy.” This three-part story follows two girls who share a commute to school. They don’t really talk much, but after one has a run-in with a male schoolmate, and is rescued by the other, they become friendly. Mii often goes to a local coffee shop to talk over her experiences and feelings with the owner, Bun-chan.The older woman is a good confidant and helps Mii figure out how she feels about Hinako, as those feeling amble past friendship into attraction. More importantly, Bun-chan tell Mii that she, too was in the same position, because she likes women. This opens Mii-chan’s eyes and she is able, after some initial hesitation, to make her feelings known. When it turns out that they are returned, Mii brings her new girlfriend to the coffee shop to meet Bun-chan.

For what I think are obvious reasons, I really like this story. ^_^ Adult role models show young people that they are not outliers, not weird, not alone. There is nothing I want to see more of in Yuri than this…not even a sports series. ^_^

Hamano-sensei’s art is old-school cute without being moe. Lots of cute kids and bright smiles, school settings and sweets. It’s all kind of innocent and…nice.

Ratings:

Art – 8 It’s definitely old-school and I like it
Story – 7 School life
Characters – 8 Likable and cute
Service – Not really. 1 but on principle only – the most service-y thing in the book is a filler image of two girls in their pjs.
Yuri – 7 First love, crushes, exactly what you’d expect

Overall – 8

Again, like the confection it’s named after, it’s not filling, but the memory of sweetness lingers.





Yuri Manga: Galette, No. 9 (ガレット)

March 27th, 2019

Galette, No. 9 (ガレット) is just such a genuinely lovely book, that it took me a long time to read it because I kept paging through it admiring the actual thing itself. Every issue the cover illustration by pen just enchants me.

There a quite a few color pages; inside cover, photos and illustrations, including two absolutely charming pieces, of a lovely white lily themed piano duet 2-page spread by  Murasaki Noa (I’m probably wrong on the family name and welcome correction on  that) and Kabocha’s joyful fireworks illustration. These made a terrific mid-issue break.

This issue includes Petit Galette and a comic from the Galette Meets series, in addition ongoing stories from Morishima Akiko, Morita Miyuki, Yatosaki,  Haru Amano Shuninta and others, as well as one-shots by a number of other regular contributors.

It’s a strong line-up, with a nice variety of art, although the story lines have seemed to settle back into school life more often than not. Nonetheless in my opinion, Galette is always well-worth the money I’ve spent supporting and purchasing it. This one I was pleased as punch to be able to buy at Comitia this winter, which just made it that much better. ^_^ I believe in Galette so much, in fact, that I’ve upgraded my support on the Fantia crowdfunding page for the magazine. I quite like the Gold course, as it provides me with PDF versions of the magazine and Meets. (Sorry, Erin, we won’t be next to each other in the credits anymore. :-( )

Ratings

Overall-9

As always, Galette is available digitally on JP Kindle and US Kindle. Volume 8 is available at the end of this month on Bookwalker.