Archive for the Magazines Category


Yuri Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 14 (つぼみ)

January 10th, 2012

Tsubomi, Volume 14 (つぼみ) starts off with a very interesting story. “Walk Wit Me” [Sic] takes place in the Dust Bowl of America during the post-WWI area. This is not entirely apparent in this first chapter, but the abandoned oil rigs and clothing are a big hint in that direction. I’m not sure what Wendy’s mother’s issue is, but nonetheless Mallory and Wendy face issues of class, and of course acceptance.

In “Hana to Hoshi” Hanaii is made aware of Hoshino’s relationship with her sempai and this shock is compounded when a male classmate confesses he likes her.

Kiku-chan is drawn into the Manga Research Club in Hakamada Mera’s “Higashitotsuka of Eden.” This seems like it’s a good thing, but Kiku-chan certainly doesn’t appear all that happy with it. That may be more because she just doesn’t know what to do with her rich, attractive, neighborly next-door neightbor, Hiyoshi-san’s outgoing personality.

Another one of those series that I took a long time to getting around to noticing is “Prism” by showhigashiyama. Once I noticed it, I suddenly realized that I actually liked it. Hikaru and Megumi have a shockingly normal and realistic relationship. I look forward to seeing this in collection now, so I can retrace the story of two very real young ladies in love.

“Kuraimori, Shiroimichi” isn’t heading anywhere fast, but I want to believe that Shou will realize her feelings for the blind woman who has intruded into her life.

“Candy” continues with an entirely unrealistic, but very cute chapter, in which Kanan and Chiaki commit a minor piece of school vandalism in order to have an intimate moment together.

And that was it for stories I liked this month. Less than half but there’s probably something in there for you, so please, remember to support Yuri when you can with actual money. Downloading scans doesn’t pay the artists. Thanks. ^-^

Ratings:

Overall – 7

 





Yuri Manga: Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 Le Paradis), Volume 7

December 21st, 2011

Hrm. So, if anyone asked me how to build a Josei magazine that men might also read, I’d say, get lots of top names to draw stories that are refreshingly different in that they are pretty much the same as everywhere else, except that the women are slightly more in control of their lives. Add in some Yuri, in the form of already-proven artists, and then mix in some stories about guys. I’m not saying that’s what Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 Le Paradis) had in mind, but that’s what it’s doing.

Volume 7 hits the Yuri fandom hard right at the front of the magazine, with Nishi UKO’s “Collectors,” which begins with a backstory about Takako in high school. The bridge between these two chapters made me extremely happy, with frames of Shinobu and Takako playing with each other’s hair in a beautifully intimate scene as they talk. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m looking for – adult intimacy, without it being porn. This series is pretty much the series I keep talking about wanting to read – after the happily ever after. When this series comes out in a collected Volume, it’s instantly Number 1 for the year.

Then we get the backhand with something many manga readers have long wanted – another overtly Yuri story by Hayashiya Shizuru-sensei. In “Heart Cooker” popular actress Nasu Renge is invited to be on a cooking show. The hosts of the show are Barahara Ruriko, an older, very Dame Edna-ish character and Shiohara Satsuki, a young, attractive host. Right from the first moment Renge walks on stage, Ruriko notices a certain…tension…between Renge and Satsuki. And, as they introduce Renge, it turns out that Satsuki and she attended the same school. Satuski was a year younger, but had always admired Kawakami-sempai (Renge’s real name) as she practiced for track and field. At first Renge doesn’t remember Satsuki, but then she recalls a day when she passed the ball back to an energetic underclassman in the softball team, who she was instantly attracted to…. The entire time this is going on, the production staff is frantically looking to get the cooking part of the show moving along, but Renge and Satsuki start to fade off into their own little world, so Ruriko steps in to save the day and make the dish, and let’s the two women have their moment. As Ruriko finishes the dish, Renge asks Satsuki out for a drink and Ruriko smiles in satisfaction at the results of both cooking and matchmaking.

And last, but definitely not least, for Yuri readers, Takemiya Jin’s “Omoi no Kakera” continues, as Mayu struggles desperately to get her feelings for Mika in order and to deal with her best friend’s snarky, but accurate assessment of those feelings.

So, lets just turn around for a moment and survey the landscape. Three Yuri series, two about adults, all by women, two of which have actual lesbians.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Le Paradis, indeed. I think I’ve died and gone to Yuri heaven.





Megami Lily Magazine

December 10th, 2011

So, I’m not sure if you know about Megami magazine or not. It’s pretty much a full-color anime-focused magazine, carefully crafted to serve the needs of the creepiest FanBoys, with lots of full color pictures of rosy-cheeked school age girls presenting their animated asses, crotches and whatever breasts they have to full view of the readers who, presumably really enjoy looking at pictures of cartoon characters’ crotches, etc. Megami also includes large, full-color posters of pantsless cartoon characters, cartoon characters in wet, clingy skimpy bathing suits and with whipped cream on their faces.

To be blunt, Megami is not to my taste.

But when they put together a Yuri-focused Megami Lily, I had to at least give it a look. Not surprisingly, it’s the /u/ of magazines.

The first 30 pages is filled with Yuru Yuri, and then it’s a pretty predictable series of moe-focused Yuri; Strike Witches, Saki, Tamayura, Makenki, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, A Channel, Hidamari Sketch of course Maho Shoujo Madoka Magika, followed by some slightly older favorites; Ikkitousen, Aria and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

At the end of this I found myself rather more depressed than elated. Megami Lily really pressed home the fact that Yuru Yuri was exactly the very correct anime to lead off with from Comic Yuri Hime. The anime audience is, apparently only interested in rosy-cheeked, slightly brain dead school girls. I am no longer anything like the anime audience and there is very little anime being made for me.

Once again, I’m thrilled that Comic Yuri Hime is making money hand over fist from Yuri Yuri, but now I realize that a radical shift in anime will need to happen before we see a Yuri anime that doesn’t make my skin crawl.

No more Megami Lily for me. I’m not much interested in looking at cartoon schoolgirls with no pants.

Ratings:

Service – 10





Yuri Danshi Manga (百合男子) Volume 1

November 30th, 2011

Yuri Danshi, Volume 1 (百合男子) is…unsettling.

The premise, for those of you not reading it, is the life of a Yuri Fanboy. Hanadera-kun is sincere, but creepy. In fact, that’s kind of the point – he’s sincere in his love for Yuri and his desire to see and nurture true Yuri love in the girls around him. Which is just creepy when you’re one of those girls.

Each chapter begins with a challenge – buying Yuri at a bookstore, uncovering what he considers to be a pure Yuri love in his classroom, visiting a Yuri doujinshi event…and each chapter ends with a realization that his love for Yuri, as passionate as it is, is completely hopeless and empty, because where there is a “Yuri couple” someone like him would be no more than an annoyance at best.

It’s a funny series, overall, but I still can’t quite get a hold of who it’s supposed to be for. As a portrait of Yuri fanboy life, it’s a little distressing. I asked a friend in Japan his opinion of it and he said that he also finds it unsettling, as that is pretty much him on those pages. I commented that the series gave Yuri Fanboys a little taste of what it feels like to be a lesbian reading Yuri manga. And maybe that’s the point.

Katherine H has the best line about it, “I’ve never read Comic Yuri Hime thinking ‘Gosh, I’d really like to read a satire about the daily life of a Yuri Fanboy.'” Yup.

In the end of Volume 1, there is an interview of creator Uso Kurata, by Comic Yuri Hime editor Nakamura-san. In the interview we learn that this is Kurata’s semi-autobiographical tale of being a Yuri Fanboy, but that doesn’t make it any less unsettling. As a portrayal of a Yuri Fanboy, it’s the equivalent of Mai HiME‘s Shizuru as a lesbian. Not really wrong, per se, but not really a comfortable or laudable portrayal, either.

So, while I don’t hate Yuri Danshi, I probably won’t be getting the next volume unless there actually is some Yuri in it that isn’t in Hanadera-kun’s imagination.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – …
Characters – …
Yuri – …
Service – …

Overall – …

Who is this comic *for*? The 70% female of readers of Comic Yuri Hime to have some lolz at the 30% male readership? Or the 30% male Yuri Danshi readers to teach them what it feels like to be a lesbian reading Yuri? I don’t know. I just don’t know.





Yuri Manga, Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) November 2011

November 22nd, 2011

The The November issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) starts off, as it has for the past issues since its rebirth, with a chapter of “Girls Uprising” by Fukami Makoto. In this chapter, the (relatively) happy couple of Sayaka and Chisato are split so Chisato can go play prince to Hyoko’s Rapunzel…even though she’s not in the tower anymore. Oh, and of course she and Tatsuki were a couple previously, because this entire world only has 6 people in it. /facepalm/ This chapter thoroughly vexed me. I would very much like to see one of the many guns mentioned in the story take Chisato out. Unfortunately, this appears to be the last chapter of this story. Both cover art and layout change with the next volume. Meh.

In “Fu~Fu,” Kinana and Su-chan are about to celebrate their first anniversary together. Kina and Hayase head out to buy some food, when inexplicably (and I mean that sincerely) a strange woman approaches Kinana and tells her that she’s fallen in love with her. Kina runs home to Su-chan’s arms. Readers are left with a question mark floating over their heads comically.

“Tsuushin Omachishite Orimasu” (erm, “You’ve Got Mail” basically…) by Takemiya Jin was predictably adorable, with a love/like/hate triangle that intersects at different angles in real life and online.

The final chapter of “Ame-iro Kochakan Kandan” was lovely, as expected. I teared up and everything. Then I teared up again at the unfairness of the world that only allowed 2 volumes of this work to exist in it. It was, nonetheless, a gentle, lovely end to this gentle, lovely series. Sob.

“Sakashima Cinderella” was a bent little story of a girl asking another out, for all the right reasons, but going about it the wrong way.

Amano Syuninta’s got a new series about college students and their various affairs. The first chapter was awkward and I liked it quite a bit. ^_^

Sakamoto Mano has an longish short story about an idol and her former partner in a two-person idol group. This was an excellent self-contained non-linear story. I very much hope we get a continuation of this. I’d like to know what happened to Nako after she and Eriko were split up.

In “Love Gene DNA XX” Aoi is worried about Sakura kissing Erika, and Erika is worried about Sakura’s friendship with Aoi. Aoi is getting very close to figuring out what the feeling she’s feeling for Sakura is….

“Yuri Danshi”…I just can’t quite figure this series out. I’m still not sure if it’s meant to explain the life of a Yuri Fanboy to the women who read this magazine or explain Yuri in a larger context to the Yuri Fanboys that read the magazine. Or, it it an elaborate joke by Kurata Uso on both sides? In this chapter Hanadera and a strange man in a book store have an otaku-off and Hanadera has to confront the fact that he was born to be a Yuri Fanboy.

“Renai Joshikka” wraps up what will no doubt be the second (and final? I don’t know, the line-up for the next volume isn’t up on the website yet) volume. Arisu helps Saki confront her former girlfriend. One-upping Seriho and Sarasa, they promise to be together for 60 years. ^_^

As always, these are not all the many stories in this volume, just the ones I though worth mentioning. The magazine seems comfortably split between adult and schoolgirl stories right now and I’m really pleased with it overall. I hope they keep it right about here for a while.

Ratings:

Overall – 8