Volume 1 of Rakuen Le Paradis was hardly perfect. But I liked how it bucked convention and did whatever it pleased. Volume 2 is no less unconventional and sometimes, as a result, it’s downright disturbing. But even with a few stories I didn’t care for, I found this volume intriguing.

Because this is a Yuri blog, I’m going to focus on the Yuri stories, but the magazine has much the same lineup as last time, so if you like any of those artists, it’s worth a look. And at least two of the straight stories were very good, IMHO.

The most important story is the second chapter of “Collectors” by Nishi UKO. If you’ve been following Okazu for any length of time, you’ll know that she is one of my favorite artists – I love her clean lines and the unabashedly adult sensibility with which she imbues her stories. Nishi Uko-sensei often writes stories in what I am calling (as of this week) the Yuri Gap.

The Yuri Gap is that space after “zOMG! We’re in love!” and even after the obligatory first sexual encounter, but before “we’re an established couple.”

As I posted recently on the Yuricon Mailing List:

1) There’s Yuri in which a character is perceived to have a one-sided crush. (There’s TONS of “Yuri” in which there is no one-sided crush, but fans decide there is and interpret everything to fit their idée fixe.)

2) There’s first love Yuri in which two girls/women realize – to their shock – that they love one another.

3) There’s PWP Yuri in which two girls/women, for virtually no reason whatsoever, suddenly have a physical relationship.

4) And there’s relationship Yuri in which two women are a priori living together as a couple.

There are *of course* exceptions to these. But in my opinion, there’s a distinct gap here. The gap is that bit that interests me most, to be honest.

It’s obviously easy to sell 1) one-sided and crushy Yuri – no commitment is needed from the reader to make the relationship work. And it’s pretty easy to sell 4) a pre-existing relationship to a reader because, duh, it’s pre-existing so you either accept it or you don’t read the manga.

Most of “Yuri” fits neatly in 2) and 3). First love stories are titillating in an emotional way, and sex in a physical way and sometimes either kind of story can be titillating in either, or both ways.

And yet…I can’t help but notice a gap.

The gap is that bit after “we’re together as a couple” and before “we living together.”

This is the kind of story I covered in “Playing House” in Yuri Monogatari 4 and what “Fufu” is doing in Yuri Hime S. This space when two women are past building a physical relationship out of an emotional one and trying to translate that into real life. Moving in, getting furniture – dealing with bills and budgets and family and food and…stuff.

In “Collectors,” the couple isn’t living together, but they are together. But the stories are about the little things. The very little things. Sharing space and sharing clothes and little pieces that finish off the big life puzzle. And for that reason I like that story more than I can convey simply. And this chapter was funny, too.

Takemiya Jin covers the newest most popular Yuri couple with the high school girl and the college student tutor that fall for each other in “Omoi no kakera (2 piece).” It’s kind of safe territory, but the author gets to play around with the kind of character she does best – apparently amoral, but actually very nice character.

And in “Parfum” Nishi Uko once again deals with one of the important little pieces – when a couple fights for no goddamn good reason at all.

In “Sukina Hito” a sister’s nighttime affection for her older sister is starting to put some cracks in her relationship with her boyfriend.

There’s also at least two stories that cover “Girl’s Talk” episodes, and which are true enough to life that most folks will automatically write the relationships in as having some physical component when it really doesn’t, because clearly when women are complaining about their boyfriends, the only logical conclusion is for them to have sex together. It’s not really there, but I know my audience. :-)

My only disappointment with volume two is that this time there wasn’t any BL included. I very much liked that the last volume had some (even if I didn’t actually like the story itself.) Based on the kinds of stories being included in this volume, the readership is skewing strongly female, so I’m really hoping to see some more variety in the next volume.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Like all anthology magazines, I don’t expect to like all – r even most – of the stories in this magazine, but I seems to be enjoying about half the work in this magazine. That’s a pretty high “like” ratio. :-)

In an industry that primarily determines genre by target audience, the rarest of publications is one for “anyone who wants to read this publication.”

There are a few of these kinds of magazines. Kodansha’s Morning 2 can fall into that category, as can F Comics’ Manga Erotics F magazine. Not surprisingly, I really like both of these magazines. The stories are really meant for adult readers, but the content is varied, kind of odd and offbeat. In Morning 2 you have a sincere, cleanly drawn story about a young man who is a rising star as a magician, right next to some really strange, supernatural, violent, non-linear crazyness. Neither Gunjo nor Peepoo Choo were at all out of place in what is an overall experimental magazine. Erotics F runs stories of adult relationships or gang warfare right next to something like Aoi Hana.

To me, what these magazine say is that there is a different manga reading audience. A niche audience. This audience is composed of adults who admire manga for more than just the heroic fighting or the romance aspects, adults who are looking for good stories, drawn interestingly.

I count Rakuen Le Paradis as one more of these rare magazines. This one particularly seems to be for whoever wants to read it, rather than a particular demographic niche. And it is the very first magazine that I have ever seen that carries stories with straight, lesbian and gay pairings under one cover. I can’t say I liked everything in the magazine, but damn if I wasn’t impressed with it as a whole.

The first story is by Kowo Kazuma, the creator of Junsui Adolescence. It’s a straight romance that I quite liked, with a decent bit of character building in a short space. Following that is what was possibly my least favorite story, also straight, about a guy and woman who were a terrible match and not at all likable, separately or together, by Kiko Urino.

This was followed by a story of an established lesbian couple by Nishi UKO. They are established, but not without conflict. One can’t stop buying books and the other spends all her money on clothes. They can’t stop fighting about it, but it doesn’t stop them from loving each other. I loved this one, I admit it. Their befuddled friends were a great touch. :-)

Mika Hisaka’s story left me a tad cold, but it wasn’t bad. After sleeping with the guy, she leaves him her key. I’m not really sure what the moral was there. :-)

The life of a salaryman is charted by Takeda Chu in a story that combines trains and koto playing. This was charming, but difficult for me to follow.

“Overpass Junction” by Asumiko Nakamura is a rather unique look at Yuri. A girl sees a woman having a screaming match with her phone on the train platform, and finds herself drawn into the other woman’s life…and into love with the woman herself. This was a totally different approach to girl meets girl than I’ve ever seen and I liked it quite a bit.

Unita Yumi’s “Know me now” was a lovely little ditty about a boy and the girl next door. He’s in like but cluesless. Lucky for them, she’s not clueless at all. I like this artist and I really liked this story.

Then came “On,” by Rendou Kurosaki, which was probably the ugliest art in the magazine, but somehow it fit the story. The entire thing is basically a guy having sex with someone, who you think is female until the end, when he turns out to be a guy. I was glad to see BL in the book, but didn’t really like this story.

Takemiya Jin’s “Omoi no Kakera kata” had something I don’t think I’ve ever *seen* before. A girl who knows she’s gay and is totally cool with it, a priori. She likes going to this woman’s cafe, because she gets to read, thinks the owner is attractive and basically likes being around women who are probably gay. When she sees a group of loud woman making another of their group miserable, she walks over and pours a glass over the head of the loudest. Ultimately she meets with the woman she saved, who is having issues about maybe preferring women. Our heroine offers to sleep with her to see what happens. Years later we see our protagonist working at the cafe and the woman she slept with walking by pushing a baby carriage happily. I didn’t love the story so much, but I hope we see more of the protagonist. I loved how straightforward and no-nonsense she was.

“Otome Loop” is some high school wackiness by Suruga Kiryuu that totally missed me.

“…Gokko” was a story that honestly flipped me right out. Hikaru Ninomiya’s story appears to be a brother/sister incest story. But. I really should have read the title. That’s all I’m saying.

Nishi UKO has a second story, “Mio Post” about a woman who sees another woman on the train every day and wonders who she is and where she comes from or goes to. The end has the feeling of a “fateful meeting.”

Kaya Shigisawa’s “Anata sae Inakereba” was, IMHO, a lot of nothing. Very typical relationship drama. The art was nice, though.

Rendou Korosaki weighs in with another supremely ugly piece about a woman sexually harrassing a man. It looks totally consensual, but messy and blecch.

And finally another Kiko Urino “Nichiyoubi ni Jissatsu,” which starts with a guy getting ready to hang himself and his meeting with a young woman who had just killed herself in the afterlife. It was all right. The art was good, the ending a bit typical.

So, let’s see, finally tally was 6 out 15 stories I liked. Not bad for an anthology, really.

In general, it wasn’t that simple to know who this book was for, which I liked a lot. I’m a big fan of ambiguity in target audience. After all, why shouldn’t books be “for whoever might want to read it?”

Ratings:

Everything is variable, of course.

Art – 2-8
Stories 2-8

Overall – 7

My gut sense is that most of these artists have established followings individually, and the goal of the anthology was to utilize the collective buying power of these fans. I hope it worked! There is an ad in the back that mentions a second volume available in February. I will be very interested to see where this collection goes.