The subject of today’s review isn’t really Yuri, although I’ve seen it on a number of Yuri lists. Despite that I want to talk about it, in part because I mentioned it recently during an interview. Ah toka Uh shika Ienai, Volume 1 (あーとかうーしか言えない ) is the story of Toda, a woman who is a very decent ero-manga artist, but who finds it challenging when it comes to expressing herself verbally. Tanaka, her editor, shows remarkable skill in interpreting Toda’s monosyllabic responses “Ah”s and “Uh”. Together, they make a great team.

After a few pages establishing their partnership, we learn how Toda debuted at “XtoC” magazine. That established, the manga becomes more about the cuthroat world of manga rankings. And within that, we get to see Toda and Tanaka working beautifully together.

About halfway through this book I wondered out loud whether I was enjoying it. I wasn’t sure if Toda’s communications issues was being presented as a gag, which I would have found intolerable, or not. But, after Toda and Tanaka spend the day doing research at an amusement part and Toda really starts to open up to her editor and together, they push Toda towards the top of the rankings, I found that I was enjoying it, after all. Specifically, the page with Toda smiling in front of the ferris wheel, telling Tanaka she was having fun. That pretty much set me into a positive spin about this story.

To encourage and support Toda, Tanaka has her move in with her. And in the end, Tanaka says that she likes reading the manga written by a person she likes. The end of Volume 1 comes and we are totally team Tanaka /Toda and rooting for them to beat the author/editors combos to the top of the rankings.

The two things I found to be standout notes on this series were, first, that any Yuri, if there indeed will be any, is not as important as the teamwork that Tanaka and Toda develop. It was pleasantly surprising to have a story which is openly festooned with sexual imagery to not be about sex or sexual objectification of the principle characters. Additionally, this is the second manga I have encountered in recent days, that deal with different forms of difficulties with verbal communication. Yesterday’s Lily Lily Rose presented us a child whose verbal skills were hampered by trauma. In today’s story, Toda’s overwhelmed by the words themselves. In both cases, understanding and supportive partners help the protagonists communicate. As a person who loves words, but who is likely to become overwhelmed when I am communicating verbally (and who is losing access to words more often, presumably as a result of MS,) I’m really feeling Toda’s struggle.

Ratings:

Art – Kind of amazing, really, because its required to present multiple styles and phases of creation 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 7 There is quite a bit, as they work for a porn magazine
Yuri – 1 but it doesn’t matter

Overall – 8

I’m 100% behind the idea of a positive working relationship for two women as the backbone of this manga. Whether or not it ever becomes a romance is irrelevant to me.

In Volume 1, we met Nobara whose quiet live is upended when the daughter of her late sister arrives on her doorstep. Lily is a quiet girl, but slowly, she becomes more comfortable with her aunt and her aunt’s boarder, Maya.

As Volume 2 of Lily Lily Rose opens, Lily is doing well – she’s talking more, she’s playing with local kids. Nobara, however, is not doing well at all. Haunted by her late sister’s death, we accompany Nobara as she mourns the relationships she and Yurika had…and the betrayal she felt at her sister moving on to a life without her.

Nobara starts to take her anger at Yurika out on Lily. Lily withdraws into her noverbal state and Maya stands between her and Nobara. Maya rebukes Nobara and points out that Lily is not a stand-in for her sister and should neither be treated like one, nor blamed for Yurika’s failures.

In the meantime, we learn that Lily was there when her mother killed herself. She and her father could only watch from the shore as Yurika drowned herself in the ocean.

Nobara apologizes to Lily and the girl graciously accepts, but established clearer boundaries between them. They need to need one another, but neither of them will be allowed to become dependent, now.

As we established in Volume 1, Noabara and Maya are not lovers, but there is a comfortable closeness about them that does feel like they are partners. When Nobara and Lily are estranged, it’s Maya who step in to parent Lily. Crossdresser Saotome comes by for tea and refers to  Maya as Nobara’s wife. Nobara is honestly confused by this, so Saotome says, “partner, then” and goes on to note what is obvious to all of us…that whatever they see their relationship as, it has morphed into a kind of family, whether Nobara likes it or not.

As the series end, we see that the three of them have indeed become a family and we’re assured that Lily and Nobara will both be able to move on and grow.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
LGBTQ – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

This was an uncommonly gentle and sweet story by a creator who often fills her Yuri stories with incest and violence. It felt like  throwback to her days of gentle school ghosts in Himitsu no Kaidan (Volume 1 and Volume 2). The end of the story was sweet and satisfying and I’m glad I was able to read it.

We enjoyed the Revue Starlight anime, didn’t we? It was fun, with an edge of wtf. The music was appealing, the fights were colorful…there was a giraffe instead of a creepy obsessed adult human which would have made us feel bad.

So, I’m walking around Melonbooks, looking for Junna x Banana doujinshi (and finding a couple of non-skeazy ones!) and I see this: Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― SHOW MUST GO ON Manga, Volume 1 (matinee) (舞台 少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト ). The title takes up approximately 50% of the cover. I liked that. I thought, well, how do you create a comic out of a surreal musical action show? So I picked it up.

The only problem with this book is the same problem the anime had – Hikari is unlikable and I don’t care if she ever shines again. But that aside, Ayatsugi Tsubaki does a pretty amazing job of rendering this particular nonsense in comic form.

What hooked me right away was the girls introducing themselves in song. It was loopy and a little gonzo. Of course we must imagine the music, but we can see the words, and the graphics indicate the tenor of the song.  But…the story, when ripped away from the shiny graphical rendering of symbolic fights, suddenly turns darker. I mean that literally. The girls find themselves fighting the faculty, other classes and each other.

I keep mentioning the giraffe, because it is objectively creepy for a bunch of young women to be forced to fight in order to excel on stage. Even more creepy, they sing songs about about their internal struggles, their hopes and dreams and fears. This is not the hallmark of a cutesy story, it is the hallmark of a horror story. Baring their souls, these girls “perform” combat for the ability to star in a horrible, tragic miserable play. The person overseeing the fights being an adult human male would be intolerably horrible. He would immediately become a vampire, feeding off their secrets. And that would suck. (hah) So we get a giraffe, and it gets put into the WTF box.

Here in the manga, the giraffe is merely a symbol of the audition, and the driving force behind the combat is…a creepy adult human woman! Not much less intolerable and yup, she sure comes off as pretty darn vampirey. Everything about her is drawn that way – broad, dark lips, pulled back in a carnivore smile, long dark hair, crazy eyes. And suddenly, this story which makes sense as a triumph of will only if you don’t poke too hard at it, looks about as creeptastic as possible. Hikari’s anger, Karen’s refusal to see the truth, Maya’s ego, Claudine’s self-esteem issues, Junna’s rejection of her true self, Banana’s desire to be loved, Mahiru’s dependence, on and on….the “audition” is a therapist’s office where each girl is forced to lay bare their weakness.

If I thought for a second that the second volume of the manga would not just be a facile reminder of friendship, love, trust, teamwork and belief in self will, triumph, I’d get it. While there’s a lot that could be done with this set up…I’m convinced none of it will be done. I will be happy to be proven wrong.

Ratings:

Art –  7 Really interesting more than good
Story – 7 The way it is rendered is again more interesting than the plot itself
Characters – 7 Still decent, except Hikari
Service – 7 for emotional vampirism, otherwise none
Yuri – Nope

Overall – 7

For a sequential graphic rendering of singing, dancing, and fighting, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― SHOW MUST GO ON, Volume 1 (matinee) is a fascinating visual exercise.

While I was binge-shopping in the various Yuribu of Tokyo this past February, I repeatedly encountered this attractively put together photo collection of Yuri “poses”, Yuri Sekai Hikareau Futari wo Kaku tame no Pose Shuu (百合世界 惹かれ合うふたりを描くためのポーズ集). It looked quite slick and interesting…and large enough that I left it on the shelves and didn’t try to stuff it into my overfull luggage. ^_^

Now that the magic of overseas shipping has delivered this book to me, it was time to give it a closer look. The book is broken into three sections, which feature three pairs of women in various poses dressed as a high school couple, a couple in college and a pair of careerwomen in the office.

The point of this book is ostensibly to provide life drawing poses for a Yuri couple. The number of shots is astounding, and the variety of perspective is quite exceptional. If you’re an artist and cannot afford a model, this book would be an asset. It also provides key visuals of cloth draping or pulling, how shadows fall or lighting hits parts of the body.

Also exceptional are closeups of individual scenes,  so you can see hands from a variety of angles; how a hand crumples the material of a blouse when on a shoulder and specifics like that.

All of the photos are clothed, there’s nothing suggestive or creepy, but I’m not going to lie, after the 30th angle of two people almost kissing, I felt like a stalker. At some point I felt my skin crawl at the idea of the photographer circling the models taking photo after photo after photo. ^_^; 

Ratings:

Overall – 8

If I were in any way artistic, this would be a valuable resource.

Oyasumi Sheherezade, Volume 1 (おやすみシェヘラザード) (Subtitled in English “Nighty-Night Sherezade) by Shinofusa Rokuro is a Yawara Spirits webcomic that is surely in the running for the strangest thing I have ever read.

Asato hears rumors of “the 13th witch” who lives in Room 13 in her dorm. Should she ever be taken into that room, she will never come out the same, she is told. But one night when the dorm mother is about to catch her out on a late-night bathroom trip, the door to Room 13 opens and Asato is pulled in. And it turns out that rumor, as far as it goes, is true.

What Asato sees is a voluptuous young woman, dressed in sexy lingerie…who begs Asato to keep her company. Herezado Shie was used to talking with her mother as she fell asleep and being in this huge room by herself makes her lonely. What Shie wants is to tell Asato about the movies she loves. If Asato is able to stay awake all night with her, she will receive a “treat” of undetermined nature.

Initially, Asato is sure that this treat will involve physical intimacy, as Shie is very sensual and free with her body. Asato metaphorically girds herself to have a sexual experience with Shie, but, no, all Shie wants is to talk about (and sometimes act out portions of) movies. Asato, who has no particular interest, ends up falling asleep every night.

Asato shares her story with her friends who are delighted and cheerfully freaked out. When they meet Shie-sempai, one of them turns out to share her love of movies, but her friends are bored to tears. Partially because Shie talks about the movies in great, yet random, detail. Even movies I know sometimes are hard to follow. And Shie’s acting looks more like scenes from a horror movie.

As volume 1 comes to an end, we learn that there is a history between Shie and Asato’s super-strict and apparently uptight class President. I am not sure whether I actually wish to know what it is. I was torn between finding this so bizarre and ridiculous that I couldn’t stop reading…and kind of boring, so that I’m not sure if I’ll keep reading. Like Asato, I don’t much care about movies.

Shie is actually kind of cute in an obsessed way and Asato and her friends are pretty normal. The weirdness is only in the setup, within which everyone seems kind of nice. The art is quite good when it comes to pinups of Shie and purposefully mediocre at other times, which I quite like.  I just don’t know if I like it enough to keep reading.

Ratings:

Art – It can be as high as an 8, but often isn’t
Story – ????? I have no idea how to score this at all
Characters – Same
Yuri – 1
Service – 8 All cheesecake

Overall – I don’t know! 8? 3? I have no idea! Even if you like movies, I think it would still be really strange. Let’s call it a 7

If you wish to experience this series in all its unique strangeness, then catch the newest chapter on the Yawara Spirits series web page.  You’ll at least get to see what I mean about Shie’s lingerie.

Volume 2 is already available and Volume 3 will be released at the end of May.