Archive for the Magazines Category


Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 LeParadis) Manga Magazine, Volume 6

July 12th, 2011

As always, reading an issue of Rakuen Le Paradis is like a trip into the adult reading room when you’re usually stuck in the kid’s room at the library.

We’re at Volume 6 now, and there’s a rhythm to the stories. They focus on so many kinds of relationships – from consensual abuse to tentative first love, with every kind of experience in between. But they are rarely same-old, same-old.

For Yuri fans, Nishi UKO’s “Collectors” continues to be touching and amusing, as Shinobu, Takako and their friends hit up a hot springs resort for a weekend away, only to find their conflicting personalities and priorities split them up almost immediately.

Also from Nishi UKO comes a rather touching homage to the story of Galatea, “Mannequin.” This was a totally “awww….” story, told in style by an elegant artist.

Takemiya Jin’s “Omoi no Kakera” continues with a shocking confession by one of Mayu’s friends who is sick of hearing Mayu say that gays make her sick…because she’s gay herself.

As always, these Yuri stories are only a few examples of the quality artists and storytellers captured in the pages of this volume. If you’re not reading this magazine yet and are wondering if there’s more to manga than just the same three plots over and over, I once again recommend Rakuen Le Paradis.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

For grown-ups who want to read manga for grown-ups.





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

May 16th, 2011

Another excellent volume of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫). At this point, the magazine is balanced pretty well for me, by which I mean there’s about half stuff I like and half I don’t. It’s good that there’s stories I don’t much care for, because it gives people with different tastes than my own a chance to enjoy the magazine, as well.

“Justice For Girls” starts off on the cover once again. This time, we’re back at the high school in which all students carry firearms and shoot at each other. A girl is in love with her class representative. Did I mention they carry guns? Well, they carry guns. My favorite line comes in the beginning, when the class representative, Kotono, describes Hisami’s gun and mentions how annoying it is. Good writing, because I found her gun annoying too.

Of course the opening story in this volume is “Yuru Yuri” with a ton of info about the anime.

Among the most memorable series for me were:

Uso Kurata’s “Yuri Danshi” adds a fourth girl to the fantasy Yuri team in Hanadera-kun’s head, and offers a variety of new Yuri fantasy scenarios to his delusional brain. When he confronts Matsuoka and tells her he’ll be her ally, she replies with a strong hook to the eye. I loved Matsuoka at that moment. ^_^ But…maybe Hanadera wasn’t wrong after all?…. …. ….

“Start Line” by Nanzaki Iku is a nice look at tension between two girls who never spoke while they were in school together. Will this continue? I certain hope so.

Tanaka Minoru writes a vampire story with an ironic twist in “Vampire Girl.”

Ah ha! I was right after all and I’m not that happy about it. “DNA Double XX” by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki is doing exactly what I thought it was going to do and I’m vexed all over again. OTOH, I trust them to balance it, so it doesn’t just become a fake-BL story. I really feel quite strongly about this, because BL has some tropes I find strongly unappealing and I really hope they’ll avoid those. On the other hand, I very much liked Aoi’s challenge to Sakura for being so utterly dumb that it was funny. I’m trusting them…I’m trusting them.

Minamoto Hisanari’s “Fu~Fu” follows Kina’s older sister Kana, as she deals with something she’s not used to – failure with a girl.

“Renai Joshikka” was Morishima Akiko at her finest. This is a woman’s perspective, looking back at the turn of the century, and youthful behavior, and  grimacing. ^_^ This chapter introduces some new characters in our all-lesbian Wedding Boutique. For the first time, the issue of…ready?…same-sex marriage…is broached in Comic Yuri Hime. Rah! Rah! Morishima-sensei!

The story that blew me away though, was a surprise. I didn’t much much like Momono Moto’s earlier works, but “Aru Shoujo no Gunjou” was fantastic. A high school girl finds herself drawn into the life of a female couple and witnesses their break-up, and becomes part of the solution to healing. Although there were some very typical plot points here, the story worked as a whole.

Kowo Kazuma offers a solid give and take between two girls in “3-Second Rule,” which is a great title. The 3-second rule is simply -if you ask a girl to go out and she doesn’t answer in 3 seconds, cut your losses and move on.

And last for me, if not for the magazine, was a side story from the “Itoshii Hito” series, about Nana’s second chance to apologize to Youko for rejecting her years ago.

Overall, a strong volume with a lot to like. The more experienced creators are really coming up with characters we can care about, and there’s less and less reliance on the tropes of “Story A.” I think we can safely say that Comic Yuri Hime is growing up nicely. ^_^

Overall – 9





Yuri Manga: Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) Volume 4

May 5th, 2011

You know all the stuff I keep saying about Rakuen Le Paradis? That the stories are written for an adult audience who wants to be treated like adults, and it takes couples beyond happily ever after? Well…none of that applies to Pure Yuri Anthology, Hirari, Volume 4 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり).

In fact, very few of the stories even read “Yuri” to me at all. If they called it “Pure Friendship Anthology Hirari,” I would say it was more accurate that calling it Yuri. In fact, if anything, calling it Yuri stretches the definition of Yuri even past what I’m willing to admit Yuri is. Hirari is, mostly, stories of girls developing emotional closeness with other girls. Call it best friends or, maybe, in some cases, more…but not really. Almost every story in this collection is so removed from love or desire that I find it honestly ridiculous to call it that. Maybe a few stories have some light crushiness, but most of them sound like this:

In Hakamada Mera’s “Black and White,” creepy-looking, magic-user Kurosawa enters a new school and resigns herself to being alone as she always has been. Until another girl becomes her friend. But, when Kurosawa gets good grades on a test, she is accused of using magic and is ostracized. Until her friend comes and rescues her from class-imposed solitary life and forces the other kids to apologize. And…that’s it. It’s a great story of a nice friendship. Perhaps, maybe, it will develop into more, but after several chapters, referring to it as Yuri is just stretching the truth.

Ratings:

Overall – 6





Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 Le Paradis) Manga, Volume 5

May 4th, 2011

I have been singing the praises of Rakuen Le Paradis (楽園 Le Paradis) magazine since the first volume. We’re up to the 5th volume and I really have nothing more to say about it that I haven’t already said. So, instead, I’m just going to talk about the series I like best in it.

The first of these is “Collectors” by Nishi UKO. This is a series of short vignettes about two adult women who have been together since college. They clearly love one another, but they have a problem – they have competing space issues. Shinobu obsessively collects books and Takako does the same with clothes. Their friends are well aware of their foibles and it provides as much amusement for them as it does annoyance. ^_^ I love this series because it is precisely what I always say I’m looking for – after “happily after after.” And it is drawn by one of my favorite artists.This is not high drama, this is the kind of boring, delightful every-day drama of making a life with another person. I adore this manga and can’t wait for it to come out in a collected volume.

Next up is Takamiya Jin’s “Omoi no Kakera.” This story has shifted considerably from where I thought it was going. A gay boy’s younger sister has begun to find herself obsessed with the lesbian girl, Mika, who befriended her brother. When Mayu sees Mika head into a love hotel with another woman, unexpectedly strong feelings of jealousy surface. This story really stands out to me for the discussion of what it means to “be gay.” Do all gay people sleep with anyone or do they only sleep with people they love…or is it different for everyone?  Obviously, it’s different for everyone, but Mayu’s just trying to make sense of her brother’s life and it’s not helping at all that she’s finding herself interested in another girl.

Of the straight romances, my favorite is Mizutani Fuka’s  “14-sai no Koi,” a story about two unusually mature young people. They are both smart, very together and they are in love. But, as grown-up as they act, they are still just 14 and their feelings for each other are captured with tenderness and lack of nostalgia, but very cutely. Really, they are just an incredibly cute teen couple. ^_^

I also love Kowo Kazuma’s “Dear Tear,” another young love story about a boy who hate girls who cry and a girl who hates crying and their tentative and awkward courtship.

While these are my favorite series, there’s a good other handful I really enjoy. Nakamura Asamiko, Unita Yumi, Ninomiya Hikaru and Shigisawa Kaya all do stories I enjoy.

I don’t know what else to say about this magazine other than I really like it.

Overall – 8





Yuri Manga: Tsubomi (つぼみ), Volume 10

April 14th, 2011

Earlier this month, I wrote a review of “Story A” for Hooded Utilitarian. In many ways, Story A is like a music hall song. You know music hall songs – these are songs that you know – at least the chorus. When music hall was a common entertainment, popular songs were sing-a-longs, with songs like “A Bicycle Built for Two.” (By Blur. Because music hall music is timeless.) Don’t know the lyrics?   Performers would display the lyrics as they were sung, so *everyone* could join in.  My wife’s favorite music hall song is “Let’s All Go Down The Strand” (also by by Blur, because why not)  which is a very singable song. Try it, go ahead, you’ll have fun. Here’s the lyrics, so you can follow along. The Strand is a large street in London, like 5th Avenue in New York City, with a lot of stores and museums and Trafalgar Square. Popular place to go and “be seen.”

The point is – when you know what to expect, sometimes it’s more fun, because you can just relax.

In Tsubomi (つぼみ), Volume 10, we can just relax and sing the chorus, because we already know the story: There is a girl, she likes another girl, the girl likes her, the end. Like a good music hall song, there’s nothing unpleasant about repeating this refrain over and over because we enjoy it.

Sometimes, there’s even a new verse or two.

Ratings:

Overall – 9