Akko and Yuri have been friends since high school and Yuri has always been a bit of a basic bitch. Akko has bailed her out over and over, but since Yuri got married to a very rich man who beats her, Akko hasn’t been able to do much. Until circumstances bring her and Yuri together one long night in Bakajo, 26-ji, Volume 1, (バカ女26時) written by Touno Meza, illustrated by Ayano Ura.

Akko invites Yuri out, handing over a bag which she says contains Yuri’s abusive husband’s head. In fact, it holds a motorcycle helmet, but the conversation inspires them both to hop on Akko’s motorcycle, head to the airport and get out of Japan. They end up in Vietnam, where an acquaintance of Akko’s (who is a chat app idol,) gives them a place to stay.

The problem is that Yuri learns nothing from all this. She constantly relies on Akko, for money, information, ideas, and solutions, while she worries only about her appearance. Embarrassed by the scars on her arms as she is, Yuri still insists on buying an Áo dài . It’s not until Fotui, Akko’s friend, offers her a jacket, that she covers up the thing she’s most embarrassed about.

It’s hard to understand Akko by the end of Volume 1, as well. Yes, Akko clearly cares about Yuri enough to take care of her – even to the point of killing her husband, which she seems to have done. While they are in Vietnam there is news about an explosion in an expensive Roppongi mansion. 

It is even harder to sympathize with Yuri, even with the visible reminder of domestic violence. She walks through this manga making really weird choices, even to the point of repeatedly doing the one thing she was asked to not do.

It’s hard to see what Akko gets out of this “friendship,” which does lead one to believe that Akko’s feelings are stronger than just friends. But there is no sign of that in her behavior and we are not given much time in her interior monologue. What we do get is Yuri stomping through the world simultaneously oppressed and oppressor…and wow, it’s annoying. They call her a “baka,” but surely there has to be something stronger than that for someone so demanding, so clueless and thoughtless and yet also helpless and hurt.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – ? I have no idea.
Characters – 5
Service – There is some, we encounter Fotui doing a group sex stream, let’s say 4
Yuri – Tough call. Maybe. Let’s say 3

Overall – 6

The plot had me thinking of the vastly superior GUNJO throughout. Where Nakamura-sensei’s characters were deep and compellingly flawed, I don’t know if I really care to find out what happens to Yuri or Akko in Volume 2. Maybe if I need to find something to read, who knows. I bought this with points on Bookwalker, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes Bookwalker useful. Maybe if I get a lot of extra points again, I find out what happens. ^_^

If flights of fantasies about escaping DV to another country without a plan suits you, then maybe you’ll enjoy this story more than I did.

I am *still* cleaning out stuff that I picked up in Japan last year! As a result, I have 3 Lucky Boxes this round.

All are premium boxes with media, manga, candy, toys and goods from Japan. They also include other flat fun things like artbooks, stickers, bookmarks or postcards which are equally random and frequently bizarre (and often not at all Yuri.) As always, there are random pieces of paper like memo pad sheets and individual flake stickers of random things like PreCure or cute food.

My promise to you is that you’ll get random things, sometimes in other in random things. ^_^ I assure you that this is all 100%, unadulterated stuff.

This round we have:
1 Large USPS Flat Rate, 1 Priority Mail Box and 1 Medium USPS flat rate box.

Large Box 1 – $60 – Claimed
Priority Box -$45 – Claimed
Medium Box 1 – $50 – 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 with the Yuricon Contact Form 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. These will be shipped out asap, as well; the whole point of this is to get these out of my house. ^_^

Thank you and enjoy!

The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation is an outstanding read.

For reasons that are discussed in the book itself, translator Yilin Wang, found themselves the center of attention after the British Museum used her work without permission or pay, and when asked to please address that, they responded in the most British Museum-ish way ever, by pulling not only the translation, but the original words of feminist poet Qiu Jin from their exhibit, symbolically silencing both the women that had made them look foolish.

So, when Wang said that their translations were forthcoming in a new book, I hastened to pre-order it to show my support for both Wang and Qiu Jin. I am so glad I did. I’ve been reading this books slowly, savoring each poem, delving into the translator notes and realizing how much I have missed by not attending to Chinese poetry.

Qiu Jin is best known as a revolutionary in post-revolution China, but in her poems it is clear that she did not appreciate the gendered nature of clothes, or life choices. She was known for dressing in men’s clothes, learning to read, write, ride horses and doing activities that were (and, in some places, still are,) assumed to be “for men.”

“To always strip off hair ornaments to pay for books” – Qiu Jin was clearly one of us. ^_^

I loved her poems so much. Although her loneliness is not mine, I share her rage for the unjust treatment of women. But, perhaps, even more powerful than the poetry itself, is Wang’s essay about their connection to Qiu Jin through time and space. Wang’s insights into the poets she is translating are a form of poetry themselves. I described Wang’s work as “translating and enriching” the work, because we learn the how and why of their choices, when both Chinese as a language and poetry as a medium favor ambiguity and layers over clarity or specificity.

As much as I really enjoyed Qiu Jin’s poems, it is Dai Wangshu‘s single line, “I think, therefore I am a butterfly” that has changed my life. The way he so deftly combines two iconic globally recognizable philosophical statements actually made me gasp out loud. By combining Descartes and Zhuang Zi, Dai Wangshu is able to combine two of his own multitudes – as he was a translator of western work into Chinese.

Fei Ming’s work gave me the sense that the New Culture Movement was oddly akin to Dada, and then, suddenly, I am reading Xiao Xi, writing about a world I know and I have lived in.

Sometimes, one anticipates a book and finds it to be…satisfactory. The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation exceeded my every expectation.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

I’ll be watching Wang for more work and will be taking recommendations on Chinese feminist poetry now.

The links above are directly to the publisher’s site, but The Lantern and the Night Moths: Five Modern and Contemporary Chinese Poets in Translation is also available on Amazon and other online bookstores.