Archive for the Magazines Category


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





Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Recipe (ひみつのレシピ)

November 10th, 2011

Underclassman Wakatsuki is reasonably sure she’s gay, but not entirely, so she convinces her sempai, the president of the cooking club, to y’know, kiss her, just to see.

And so, Morinaga Milk’s Himitsu no Recipe, (ひみつのレシピ）begins with a very cheap, servicey opening, and then desperately tries to make a story out of it.

Now that she’s convinced she likes girls, Wakatsuki is also convinced that she likes Buchou. A lot. A lot a lot. And, um, she really wants Buchou to like her back. So Wakatsuki joins the Cooking Club and plots to be closer to the club president, who is almost completely oblivious of her not-all-that-mixed signals.

For her part, Buchou really wants the Cooking Club to be successful and she’s putting her heart and soul into recruitment and training, pretty oblivious of Wakatsuki’s ulterior motives.

Unfortunately for readers, the heart aching sincerity of GIRL FRIENDS is pretty much completely absent in this series. The first chapter very much reads like a one-shot. The overall feel was that the first chapter was a tryout to see if Morinaga-sensei and the Tsubomi editors got along and when they did, they just told her to continue with these two characters.

It’s hard to be sympathetic to Wakatsuki, who would be completely sympathetic if she had her crush, treasured it, fantasized about it, and told herself the whole story in her head, as we do with crushes. But it’s impossible to really like her the 5th or 6th time Buchou has pushed her off and said, “No.” Because sexual harassment isn’t funny or cute or, really, entertaining, no matter how moe the art is.

The big summer training camp is coming up and Wakatsuki has her battle underwear ready to go. I’m almost hoping that Buchou fends her off, gives her what for and throws her out of the club. From my perspective, Wakatasuki needs to be trained properly.

I’m sorry this manga isn’t better, but it had such a bare bones opening and really hasn’t developed any muscles since.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 6
Service – 6

Overall – 6

If you were a big fan of GIRL FRIENDS, I think you might be better off skipping this. If you just love Morinaga Milk’s work on principle, then definitely get it. It has her signature art style, but I know she can write better stories than this.

Sorry all the recent reviews have been grumpyish, but we’re getting down to the bottom of the pile of things I bought in September. And I’m saving the best for last. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) September 2011

October 26th, 2011

The September 2011 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) is filled with many interesting things. And I’ve read about 5/6ths of them, so I’m going to punt on some of the stories, particularly the novels…it’s just been crazy and I really haven’t had time to read them.

In terms of the manga, I’m actally going to begin at the back of the book with a chapter of Uso Kurata’s Yuri Danshi. Hanadera-kun is in ecstasy – he’s going to a Yuri-only doujinshi event! Surely there he will see the Yuri behavior he so desires to see, the beautiful and pure love between girls that is Yuri!

(Quick digression: I have NO IDEA AT ALL what you guys mean when you write me and tell me you love the “pure love” between girls. I never have and frankly, I don’t delve into it too deeply. Love between girls is pretty much just as messy and complicated as love between a girl and a boy or two boys. No clue what you’re thinking it’s like…)

So, imagine his shock when Hanadera-kun realizes that the girls on the train are all headed to a Tiger & Bunny event on the other side of the space…and the only ones at the Yuri event are guys. He’s creeped out and falls into despair because…and then he’s spotted by a bunch of Yuri Danshi who invite him out to dinner, where they delve very deeply into why, despite Comic Yuri Hime‘s stated readership of 70% women, the only women at the Yuri event were artists. The conversation is one that I myself have had with so many, many people.This particular iteration of it is made more amusing by Kurata’s choices of names: Sakuragaoka-kun,  Musahino-kun, Kamakura-kun, Kagome-kun.

I had to laugh out loud at those at the confusion of these Yuri Danshi between that Yuri world of girls’ private schools and actual real women. And their analysis of whether Yuri is “for girls” or “for boys.”

Sorry guys. Yuri=fantasy, honestly. Nothing real about it. Poor Hanadera-kun has to come to that conclusion on his own…by himself…in the rain.  Really, I’m trying not to laugh at his/our pain.

Back at the front of the mag, Tanaka Minoru starts off what looks to be a off-beat story called “Rock it, girl!” in which a singer is told off for sucking, then invited to talk to an agent…about her guitar playing.

In Kowo Kazuma’s “ulacoi” (which I would have suggested transliterating “urakoi”) a girl quite literally falls for the back she stares at all day.

“Fu-fu” takes a step back to detail the everyday kisses and acts of affection in a “married” life. This series is so cute it makes me teeth ache. ^_^

Hiyori Otsu’s “Roundabout” had a pretty damn big handwave – Chiharu’s somehow forgotten the girl she went out with in high school, and now that they’ve been together for a few years…still hasn’t remembered. Asami’s angry enough that she feels it’s time to walk away from this otherwise perfect relationship.  Kids – this is how not to do it, okay? Just *talk* about things first. Hissy fits are never the answer.

Amano Syuninta’s “Otona no Onna ha Muri o Shinai” is also a pretty silly handwave-driven story, but the idea of challenging ones’ self in life by eating *really spicy ramen* and the ensuing swollen lips jokes were so goofy, that I enjoyed it anyway.

“Koigo Interactive” is a slightly too-intimate look at the affect of writing erotica on two members of a literature club. No sex, but, some overheating and blunt emotions.

In “Love Gene DNA” we once again deal with the ever-amusing mystery of “why do girls go to the bathroom together”…and we (and Matsuri) can see that there’s something to be worried about in Sakura and Aoi’s relationship. During a mixer of the Adam and Eve Top Stars, Aoi is confronted with what, in a more visceral way, Sakura being “engaged to” Erika means. She does not take it well at all…

Crisis looms in “Renai Joshikka.” Saki’s ex has inexplicably returned, just as she and Arisu were settling in together. What does that mean for them?!?

There’s other stories, very few of which I didn’t like and, of course, there’s “Girl’s Uprising,” the cover story, in which Tatsuki catches up with her lover Hyouko’s beloved sister, Chisato, and short stories “Aoi Yubisaki” and “Mahou ha Kotono o Kagesuteru: as short story chapters, none of which I have had a chance to read yet.

Overall, an excellent issue of Comic Yuri Hime, with more women in love with women (as opposed to school crushes, proto-Yuri or first loves)  per volume than ever before.

Overall – 9