And here we are, at last. The final volume of Saitou Chiho-sensei’s magnificent edition of the Heian epic, Torikaebaya. Before you read this review, please make sure you read Jason L’s review of Rosette Willig’s translation of the source material, The Changelings, which we published yesterday on Okazu. I ask you to read it because a great deal of what Jason said about the Willig book is true for this manga version as well.

Quick note: The names of the characters in Willig’s translation are more properly their positions. Chuunagon is a counselor of the second rank in the Imperial Palace, a Middle counselor. (Sei Shonagon is so known because her father held the rank of Shonagon, lesser counselor). Naishi no Kami is the something like a head position among the women of the Imperial court.  In the manga, Sarasojuu was a Chuunagon, and Suiren was Toguu’s Naishi no Kami. Now, at the end of the book, Suiren is Chuunagon and Sara is Nasihi no Kami. Got it? Good, now forget it, because…..

Torikaebaya Manga, Volume 13 (とりかえ・ばや) begins with the malevolent spirit of the evil priest Ginkaku causing a fire to be set in the Imperial palace. Both Sarasoujuu and Suiren leap to assist, but in order to do so, Sara must once again put on men’s clothes. Tragedy is averted and, at last, the Emperor is confronted by both Suiren and Sarasojuu dressed identically as Chuunagon. Suiren and Sara finally get to tell the Emperor the whole story and he, because he is an ideal Emperor, accepts the story and the two siblings and that is that.  The Emperor, because he is an ideal Emperor, then uses the magical abilities the gods have bestowed upon him to bring rain from heaven and quench the flames. 

And here is where almost everything Jason said about gender and sex in Willig’s book is relevant for our tale – except for the focus on sexual violence. For this series, at least, sex is consensual. After Sara’s sexual encounters with Tsuwabuki, which were consensual but left her feeling dysphoric (not that that word was used), all the sex is entirely consensual and, at least in these final pages, welcome.

In the final pages, the conniving head of the women, Umetsubo, takes orders as a nun. The Emperor takes Sara, who now uses her given name, Suzushiko, as a wife. She bears him a male child and heir, thus solving the issue of succession. Suiren, who will forever live as Sarasojuu, marries Ichinomiya-hime (the former heir, Toguu-sama,) and they, too have a child. 

Undoubtedly, the straight, cisgender readers of Flower Comics understand this ending as a happy one. The ending is absolutely a happy one…unless you care about the lead characters’ gender identity. Everyone will be blissfully happy, except for readers of this blog. It is understandable, I think, that we find this ending less than perfect, because, like Jason, we do care that the characters get to be the gender they know they are.

It’s not like it could have ended another way, I knew that from the beginning. I mean, even in Heian Japan, Sara might have had a happy ending if he had been honest with Yon-no-hime and they kept his birth gender hidden, but there would have been no such luck for Suiren. As I finished the pages, I indulged in fantasizing a 21st -century update in which they could have remained the sex they were, and not the one they were assumed to be, and still had a happy ending. But it still wouldn’t have worked, because now they could live as the gender they were and it would have taken all the drama out of the story. 

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 2

Overall – 10

As I’ve said repeatedly, Saitou-sensei’s art has been sublime from beginning to end here. Her storytellng has kept me on the edge of my seat. The ending was happy and beautiful and…still left me unsatisfied.  I guess there’s a lot of limitation to updating classics from a thousand years ago.

My sincere thanks to Jason for his review and to Saitou-sensei and her team at Flower Comics for one of the most beautiful manga I have ever read.

I am here today, my friends, to talk of insect. Not just any bugs, but beneficial, friendly, and dare I say it? attractive, bugs.

And girls.

Girls and bugs are most of the point of reading Mai no Mushi Gurashi（麻衣の虫ぐらし), so if if you’ve mourned the lack of bug science in Yuri, this is the book for you!

Shimizu Nanako helps her elderly grandfather run his small farm. They keep it going by selling their produce at roadside stands and to local businesses. Her best friend Sakurano Mai, helps her out. Mai, is an entertainer at a restaurant, and is the object of a rather service-y gaze by both reader and Sudou Raika, a naturalist who is working on creating better breeding conditions for butterflies in the nearby forest. 

In the course of volume one we encounter bugs that burrow in bark, that fly, that lay there, that crawl; many kinds of bugs, some of which I only now have a passing familiarity with on account of having read this book. I doubt I will ever remember that a namitentoumushi is a ladybug past the time it takes me to write this…but, on the other hand, the world has a weird way of requiring me to remember pieces of information exactly like that. ^_^

Yuri is in the form of Raika’s passive-aggressive dis/interest in Mai. The rest of the story is more about Mai and Nanako’s friendship. Both of them are thoroughly likable and their friendship is no more and no less than a close friendship. The volume ends with a heartrending chapter in which Nanako’s grandfather dies while watching the two young women harvesting the tomatoes for which the farm is known.

This book marks the very last of the pile of random things I picked up at the Animate Yuribu last November. I had no idea what this series was about, so it was a pleasure to find that it was both educational and entertaining. Having finished that pile, I’m very ready for a visit back to see what other delights those shelves hold, probably-a-vampire Yuri notwithstanding. 

For those of you interested in insect and their potential in a Yuri story should definitely take a look at this so-far single volume with it’s special-insert manga card.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Good, if a tad service-y
Story – 6 Slice of life with insects
Characters – 7 Pretty likable
Service – Amegappa Shoujogun the artist, likes drawing naked women, especially Mai
Yuri – 2 It’s not much but it is there.

Overall – 7

I was glad that my last book of the November crop was unique and not a vampire story. ^_^

Catcher in the Rhyme (キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライム) by Segawa Noboru is my new favorite thing ever.  ^_^

Takatsuji Satsuki suffers from that painful, paralyzing embarrassment that functions as a major plot complication in so many manga. She’s a lonely child, berated for not having skills no one has ever bothered teaching her. Unable to even manage a decent self-introduction, Satsuki is pretty sure she’ll be eating by herself forever.

While walking around campus looking at clubs she doesn’t have the bravery to join, she comes across Anzu and Ren, who are advertising for a “Rap Battle Club.” The prospect of rapping in public horrifies Satsuki, and although Ren and Anzu attempt to include her, she can’t…she just cannot…until she hears someone in her class unable to remember her name. And then another, and suddenly words pour out of Satsuki, many self-deprecating, some strikingly erudite, Satsuki ends with a loud, ringing pronouncement of her name, which is received with applause by the gathered students. Takatsuji Satsuki joins the Rap Battle Club. Or, it would be a club, if they had five members.

They are approached by another first year who wants to join, Harutsuki Utsugi. But first, she must let them know that she is a  transgender girl. The three girls respond with shock, then awe, and we see one painful panel as Utsugi can feel her hope slipping, then the three celebrate her joining…and she’s one of the club. It’s not that it’s never mentioned again, but when it is, there is a reason..because…

With four members, someone has to be a club president, so they have a short rap battle to see who wins. Ren takes on Anzu and wins, Satsuki beats Ren. Utsugi and Satsuki take on each other in a dozens that gets kind of rough. They both hurt each other a bit and although I personally thought Utsugi was better, she awards the win to Satsuki. Satsuki has now become the president of the Rap Battle Club.

The girls then turn their eyes towards getting a fifth and legitimizing member. When Anzu discovers Iroha Kaede on the roof, listening to some beats, we’ve found her. Break-dancing Iroha becomes our DJ and ta-da! we become an official club.

The rap rhymes are not brilliant, but I can follow most of the rhythm (which is indicated by font weight.). But, they are better than I could do, and fun and, as these are high school girls creating a rap culture for themselves by osmosis, it works just fine. Satsuki’s skill is to pull out complicated verbiage and rhyme it, but her stage presence has a long way to go. The school festival lays ahead of them now and that seems like a perfect goal for this manga.

I really like all the characters. For a Japanese manga, it manages a little diversity –  Satsuki is painfully shy, Ren is a tad vulgar, Anzu’s chubby, Utsugi’s a trans woman, and Kaede is a breakdancer, all things that put them on the outside of typical student life. It works well for a base to the plot and I’m a sucker for the sports-type competition manga when I like the characters. ^_^;

There’s no Yuri, yet, but I kind of think Satsuki and Utsugi would be cute together. 

Ratings:

Art – 6 Loads of funny faces and fonts
Story – 8 Give me that blood, sweat and tears 
Characters – 9 
Service – 2 Very little, surprisingly. Some lingering glances at Anzu’s chest
Yuri – .005 Headcanon for now.

Overall – 8

Right now, it’s a manga about youth and friendship and teamwork and rap. And it’s fun. You should read it.

A couple of months ago I came across a post by Ogata Megumi (Tenoh Haruka’s voice from the original Sailor Moon anime) saying that she was recording a version of “Moon Revenge” with Kastuki Masako (Kaoih Michiru’s voice actress from the original Sailor Moon anime) for a new album. With a little research I found that I had completely missed the chance to back that album, which she had crowdfunded. Woops! But the good news is that her campaign had been successful and so I did the next best thing I could do to support her work – I bought the album.

Animeg 25th (アニメグ25th) is a collection of songs sung by Ogata Megumi from franchises in which she’s featured. It begins with Platina, the second OP from Card Captor Sakura and includes songs from Angel Beats, GTO, Persona 3, Danganronpa, Evangelion, Hamatora and, of course Sailor Moon, as well as a few others.

It was a very pleasant album to listen to. The music was – as anime music tends to be – banal and appealing. Ogata-san is singing most of the songs in her mid and lower voice range, which I quite prefer. I’m at that point in my fandom lifecycle where I’m not watching that much new anime and don’t game at all, so while I have seen at least  some of most of the series covered here, I haven’t seen all, and haven’t seen that much of most. I know of the the Persona franchise but have seen none of it outside promotional ads, Even Angel Beats, which is a fairly old franchise with surprising longevity in Japan, is something I know about, rather than know. Nonetheless, I notice that many of these franchises are keeping MO busy and for that, I’m pleased. 

But I know you want to know how “Moon Revenge” was? It was loads of fun and very easy to imagine Haruka and Michiru singing it a karaoke and pissing the Inners off because it sounded so good. That was how I imagined it, anyway. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9 

This was a brilliant CD to have on in the background while I weeded my doujinshi collection. Just perfect. ^_^

In Volume 1 of Soirée Gakkyuu, we met Beni and Ruri, two close friends who attend an unconventional high school with a host of other characters for whom the traditional high school model is just not going to work. The story is told, generally, from the perspective of one of their classmates who becomes their friend, Yanagi.

In Volume 2, the final school festival of their time at this school approaches and they decide to actually do a thing. They set up an elaborate haunted house with effects and costumes. Beni is in charge of getting people in – challenging at this school, where participation is not required.

While at the festival, a couple of guys mack on Beni and take pictures of her in costume. When they appearoin an amateur photo site, she’s not all that displeased. We get a little more development of Beni as a person, but then, something happens. Ruri can see something has happened – they all can all see something has happened, but Beni isn’t saying.

Ultimately we learn that Beni’s family is moving to Shanghai. They offer her a chance to stay and finish up school, but she’s torn. When she finally tells Ruri, we can see she feels guilty for wanting to go and live a different life completely. Ruri sees it too, and lets Beni go. Any threads that might have held Beni back are unraveled as they admit the importance each other has in their life, but they need to move on.

The book wraps up with each of the characters graduating at their own pace and moving on. An epilogue five years later brings Beni and Ruri back together for a night, in which they talk like they used to – just like old times, but nothing more or less.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little sad at the end, when I felt that the writing skirted any of the things that might have been said, but it also seemed consistent with the story as we were told it. And then the mangaka’s notes at the end of the volume went on in detail about the office chair she sits in, so maybe it was okay that it ended that way.

Ratings:

Art – 6 
Story – 6 
Characters – 6 
Yuri – 0
Service – 1

Overall – 6 it had potential, but stayed where it was and ended up a nice enough thing to read but nothing that has to be read again.