The connection between Konatsu and Koyuki is extremely tenuous. They both are aware of this, but whenKonatsu begins to avoid club…and Koyuki it comes to a head. Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 7 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる) is fraught.

(I appear to have not reviewed Volume 6 in Japanese.  It will not radically affect this review. I’ll review A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 6 in English when it comes out next month!)

Faced with a future without Koyuki, Konatsu is unable to move forward. It’s not until her father comes for a visit and comes very close to throwing his own future away for his idea of his daughter that she realizes what she’s giving up to avoid having to look ahead. For once it’s Koyuki who can be strong for Konatsu.

In a series which has had a number of very good “talking it out” scenes, this volume has several which stand out. As much as this series looks like a shoujo series about girls in school, it runs in a seinen magazine, Dengeki Mao. What stands out  about that for this series isn’t a matter of fanserivce at all, but unusually instead, we get adult characters who act like adults and function as parents for their children, something that is surprisingly thin in manga as a whole, which tends to rely on hyperbolic daily situations. ^_^

So here, Koyuki has a heart to heart talk with her mother that helps her decide what she needs to do, Konatsu overhears her aunt and father talking about her and then has a conversation with her father about it. Finishing up the volume was something that I don’t think I’ve ever read in a manga before – Konatsu’s father and Koyuki’s father have a conversation about their daughters that was…really nice, and supportive, of both the girls and of each other. It was so absurdly pleasant to see fathers in manga being decent, concerned, and supportive of their children and another parent. I’ll take more of this please! (Also a feature of I’m in Love With the Villainess, by the way. Rae’s parents when we meet them, are super supportive, and Claire’s father dotes. ^_^)

And in the meantime, Konatsu and Koyuki open up to one another a little bit more.

And this, in a nutshell, is why I am still reading this story. Nothing is “happening” but everyone is growing.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 1

Overall – 7

We know that this series will end with Volume 9, so I’m even more interested to find out what will become of them.

Things fall apart rapidly in the second half of Go Nagai’s DevilMan Lady.The center was never meant to hold.

Jun advocates for the humanity of those people who show signs of the Devilbeast Progress, while the humans that are creating the afflicted – then dehumanizing them and hurting them – become less and less human themselves.

Having saved and lost Kazumi several times and only for one brief night allowed to acknowledge their love – Jun becomes despondent, then ultimately enraged, as society crumbles. As Asuka pushes Jun to her limits, Jun finds some strength at last.

In a deeply dark and violent ending, Asuka, who is intersex, rapes Jun, then forces her into a hell of Asuka’s making. There Kazumi is able to speak with Jun one last time and Jun sheds the very last of her inhibitions to become the Devilman Lady that defeats Asuka’s distorted form of godhead, saving what is left of humanity.

Through the final arc, as Asuka’s past comes to light, I was reminded so very much of Apos in Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. Also portrayed as a evil “hermaphrodite” (a word that has had a long road, from tragic Greek figure to slur,) Apos and Asuka also share megalomania and disinterest in humanity other than as tool for their own ambitions. I now wonder how much Apos was influenced by Asuka…and how much Rin: Daughters of Menmosyne was influenced by Go Nagai Devilman franchise. The Devilman himself, Akira, makes a cameo appearance here, and where the rest of this series is very 1990’s, he is purest 1980s.

This series remains a dark, violent and often depressing look at humanity’s inability to treat others well, very similar to Devilman Crybaby. Sure the monsters are scary, but armed men with guns threatening innocent children is far more terrifying  because it is something we all actually see on a daily basis. But. Unlike Devilman Crybaby, it has hope. It is true that Jun does not have a happy ending with Kazumi, but because of her, Jun is finally able to accept herself. The world is not destroyed. Children play, humans evolve after all, despite themselves. There is hope for the future, for Jun…and for us.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 Horror in every form.
Characters – 9
Service – 8 Yes, very. This is Go Nagai we are talking about.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

As I have said elsewhere, “All of the Devilman franchise seem to be about humanity’s complicity in its own destruction. By that standards, Devilman Lady has a happy ending as Jun only loses everyone she’s ever met, and both arms, but Tokyo/Earth survives.”

As you may remember, this autumn I engaged upon a massive renovation of my office. That meant clearing *everything* out, every box of books, every bookshelf, every file and folder. Even the filing cabinet was weeded and man did I find some stuff in there. ^_^ This first crop of Lucky boxes for the year are full of manga (Japanese mostly, but also some English,)  western comics and doujinshi, toys, stickers, candy  – I can assure you that the mochi cube candies were really pretty good! – and other random things to marvel at. The Premium boxes include other flat fun things.

This time we have 3 Large Premium boxes, 2 Medium Yuri boxes for you.

As always I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff. Lucky Boxes are created by me shoving a bunch of things in boxes until I can barely tape them shut. I don’t  remember what went in, so no..I can’t tell you what is in each box. I do try to put random things like postcards and papers and toys in there to make the unpacking process an adventure. ^_^

When you email me, please refer to the box you want by the title and #1. First come, first served and these always go fast! These are listed out so I can cross them off as they go.

Large Premium Box 1 – $50 Claimed

Large Premium Box 2 – $50 Claimed

Large Premium Box 3 – $50 Claimed

Medium Box 1 – $25 Claimed

Medium Box  2  – $25 Claimed

***

To be eligible to buy a Lucky Box, follow these instructions carefully. Please. Thank you. Failure to follow all of these instructions will disqualify you. It’s not personal, they are all claimed pretty quickly and I don’t have time to track you down for a piece of information.

1 – You must live in the Continental USA (contiguous 48) only, no APO/FPOs. This is disappointing for me too, so I apologize.

2 – You must be over 18, I am not policing books or recipients.

3 – Email me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject “Lucky Box”. Use an email you check regularly. Because I will reply asap. The first person who responds to my email gets the box.

4. *****Please include your name, age, mailing address. ***** Tell me which box you want. Even if you’ve given me your address previously, please include it, I am very lazy.

5- I will contact you at that point and give you details about payment by Paypal. Please be prepared to check your email and get payment out so this post doesn’t linger. Thanks in advance.

This whole process will be handled with utmost capriciousness, as usual. ^_^ 

Ready? Get your Lucky Boxes!

Cleaning up some last items from the great office clean up renewal  and you know what that means…. Lucky Boxes to start 2021! Keep your eyes peeled for the post here on Okazu. ^_^

In the mean time, I’m taking today off to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 2, which dropped this morning and *nothing* is as important as me reading it right now. It’s amazing. Go read it and we can talk about it when we’re all done. ^_^

In 2013, I reviewed a manga call Kageki Shoujo!. I enjoyed it immensely. It had all the elements of a strong Shoujo manga story, but was running in Ultra Jump magazine, Shounen Jump‘s older brother. After that review, the mangaka moved publishers and it was relaunched as Kageki Shoujo SEASON ZERO, a reboot of the series with Hakusensha that ran in Hana to Yume magazine…an audience that seems, on the face of it, more sensible for this series. Volume 1 of this reworking is a larger volume than the original V1 I reviewed. It was with great delight then, that I heard that Seven Seas has licensed this manga as Kageki Shojo The Curtain Rises!.

Narata Ai is a former idol with a major group, who has been forcibly “graduated” as a result of her calling a fan a creep. Desperate to be in a world without men, Ai decides that a career with the all-female musical review troupe seems the perfect escape so she applies to the school.

Watanabe Sarasa is a highly enthusiastic fan of Lady Oscar and, by extension, the troupe that brought that show to light, the Kouka Revue. She’s a bumpkin, tall and not particularly graceful, but she has energy and enthusiasm in abundance and Ai dislikes her instantly. Ai and Sarasa are, of course, roommates upon entrance to the school and of course, have to deal with bullying from older students, but they have other issues, too. The root of Ai’s fear of men is much darker and Sarasa’s dreams are much more aspirational, than we initially understood.

The art in this series is really wonderful. There is a deep love for the glittering shinyness of Japanese musical revue theater on every page and the drama of the story echoes the struggle to achieve and transcend, the gut-wrenching emotionality and triumph of a Takarazuka play.  It’s exactly the delightful concoction of joy and pathos that makes a great musical revue play, balled up in a fun, otaku-friendly manga story. I’m so very excited that you can read it!

The story is not Yuri, but there is a deep root in it to stories that are. There are a good half dozen references to anime, manga and other media that we all recognize in this volume. This story about two girls striving towards stardom together may not be Yuri, but it will always be welcome on my shelves.

The folks at Seven Seas did a great job of bringing the references-to-other-things-filled narrative to English, so kudos to Katrina Leonoudakis for translating that messy pile of cultural references. Laura Heo’s letter and retouch was excellent, especially as a lot of the effects here are artfx. I do also want to say that logo designs at Seven Seas have upped their game significantly and this one, by Courtney Williams is a lot of fun. Great work as always to the folks at Seven Seas.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Character – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 3 some nudity and ugly stuff implied

Overall – 8

If you like Takarazuka, or Shoujo drama, sports manga, or frankly, pretty much anything at all, do give Kageki Shojo! The Curtain Rises a try. It’s a great production of a manga. ^_^ I know I’m looking forward to Volume 2!

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy!