In Volume 1 of Manken (まん研) we learned that the B-team manga club doesn’t so much draw manga, as hang out, make first-year member Saki play dress up and, well…fuck around.

In Volume 2, there’s even more of that. Also, more of the A-team manga club and their goth and loli club president, Kumiko. And…uh, that’s pretty much it.

Less Yuri. In fact, barely any Yuri. Shiina stops fantasizing about Saki, except as a live model for her fave fetish clothing.If anything, it’s more Shiina and Reiko and kind of Shiina and Kumiko, in that Kumiko is very tsundere about her. But it’s also kind of hard to tell, because she’s tsundere about everything.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 3

Overall – 7

Different volume, same Comiket gags.

You know what the Japanese national sport is, right? Oh, sure, Sumo is usually given the place of honor, but really, Japan is absolutely, passionately crazy in love with…baseball.

There are a ton of baseball manga in Japan and Major, a baseball anime/manga franchise, has not one but two anime series on Japanese TV. (One follows the older brother and one follows the younger brother.)

It’s true that few of the loads of sports anime and manga ever make it over here. There’s all sorts of theories why, but I wager it’s a pretty simple thing – soccer is not as exotic as ninjas. If American otaku are interested in soccer, they’d play or watch soccer. One of things that appeals about being an otaku is the exotic-ness of the “other.” Ninjas are exotic, service is titillating and lacking from teen literature here and Japan is…Japanese. It is ostensibly not America, or Europe or wherever you are from. Soccer is normal. It’s right out the window. Baseball is what your /insert baseball-obsessed relative or friend here/ endlessly obsesses over online and on TV.

When I heard that there was going to be a baseball anime about girls, set in the Taisho period (1912-1926) I cringed. I thought, great. It’ll be a moe-filled, demeaning “aren’t they cute” series full of typical diminutized and diminished female accomplishment. Well gosh, I was SOOOOO wrong I could not have been wronger. Except for the moe part. It is indeed moe.

The story follows Koume, a school girl during the Taisho (the word is properly pronounced “Tai-shou” but is more commonly spelled Taisho in English) period. The year is 1925. Japan is rushing to modernize and westernize. It is the “S” movement’s heyday, when early feminist sentiment was starting to filter through Japan on the wings of magazines for girls and women.

Koume’s dear friend Akiko asks her to form a baseball team in response to a sexist sentiment from Akiko’s baseball-playing fiancée. Girls, he says confidently, really don’t even need to go to school, because they will just stay home and raise children and run the household. Akiko decides to form a baseball team and challenge his worldview. And so, Koume and Akiko start looking for more players.

The feminism is portrayed in a genuine, real and totally intelligent way in this anime. Nothing cringe-making about it at all. And the sentiment isn’t lost in the moe. It comes back again and again to remind us that it’s just ridiculous to see woman as inherently inferior.

I don’t mind sports manga and anime, although the typical patterns sometimes get up my nostrils. The tropes work *really* well here, so the trials they have in learning the game, working together as a team, finding an opponent and dealing with each new obstacle is, simply, good entertainment.

There is exceedingly mild Yuri akogare (admiration/desire, crushiness) because it is a girls school. Hunky, sis-con Tomoe has a pair of uber-dedicated fans, one of whom stays on the team when Tomoe (coached by Koume) embraces her and tells her she can’t do it without her. Kyouko never had a chance. ^_^

At the beginning of the series, Koume clearly akogares Akiko and, as catcher and pitcher they are told to become like husband and wife. I couldn’t call it closer than shinyuu, best friends, but they are fun to play with. ^_^

The voice cast has some notable “Six Degrees of Yuri” names, including a passel o’ Marimite voices.

But beyond all that, what makes this story work is the story. It’s a *good* story. Yes, I can see some of the issues coming from a mile off, but each episode makes me smile, makes me laugh out loud, makes me sniffle a bit sometimes, and is a rattlin’ good yarn. It makes me remember why I used to love baseball, when it was a sport and not an industry full of over-paid whiny brats. I would not hesitate for a second to show this anime thus far, at least, to anyone of any age.

If you haven’t yet given Taisho Yakyuu Musume a try because you’re hesitant to see moe-ified girls playing baseball, do try it. If you hate sports and sports anime, avoid it. It’s *about* baseball. In my opinion, it is an enjoyable combination of girls, baseball and Japanese history…all at once.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Still too moe for my taste, how I would love a live-action of this series
Story – 8
Characters – 9 My favorite is Kawashima, the de facto team manager
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Like A League of Their Own, the ensemble is half the fun and the story the other half, for a total good time.

I am now up to about 20 emails/posts/comments a week requesting recommendations for other Yuri titles that people would like me to guess that they would want to read (usually scanlations, because very very rarely do people ask what they can buy.)

I do not do recommendations.

I’m not really comfortable suggesting series for people, because I don’t really know if your taste and mine coincide. And even if they do, I’m still not comfortable making series suggestions.

I will suggest that you join the Yuricon Mailing List and ask there, since a lot of people do not have the same issues suggesting things to other people that I do.

Also, I suggest going to Lililicious, I believe they have their scanlations arranged in different ways and you may be able to find series you like there.

Of course the “Yuri Manga” category at Okazu has hundreds of Yuri manga reviews, but you’ll need to decide for yourself what you are looking for in a manga.

And if you are looking for something to buy, of course I recommend visiting the Yuricon Shop where you will find hundreds of Yuri Anime and Manga to choose from, with synopses and reviews to help you choose.

In any case, I wish you the very best of luck with your quest!

***

You may remember that, at the end of June, I mentioned that Deb Aoki, editor and writer of manga.about.com, had spearheaded a program to make the point that women and girls not only read and buy, but also make comics, after a particularly bad media backlash about female fans of the Twilight series “invading” San Diego Comic-Con.

There are two entirely different issues being addressed by people writing articles on both sides of this discussion. Most of the women seem to be saying that, Twilight and the fans are not the issue – the issue is the serial dismissal that female comics fans have always gotten from the male fans. Partly because of social and emotional retardation and partly because men simply dis women so unconsciously that when women point it out, we’re being over-sensitive. Male writers seem to be saying that they aren’t dissing “women” in general, just the not “real” fans, the Janie-come-latelys, who they perceive as being only into one thing – obsessed with the mainstream media and not the “real” media (i.e., books or comics.)

I’m not sure either side is really listening to or cares about the other. I’m with Deb – let’s stop the discussion and make the point. Twilight is not the issue. Women who are fans of comic books are “real” fans. They always have been. There are already women in the comics industry, the comics press, the movie industry and, in case you haven’t noticed, in the audience for Iron Man as well as Twilight. I do not care at ALL what you say, no one is ever going to convince me that Robert Downey Jr. is considered to be a hunk. It’s not his abs that convinced people to watch that movie. It was his armor. It was the chance to see Tony Stark, THE Tony Stark, come to life.

Seriously, do you think I was born a manga fan? I have a tremendous collection of early Marvel – because I am older than most of you and was collecting Avengers when those comics were coming out. lol I’m a Marvel girl, the wife collected DC and between us, we have a collection that would make any “real” comics fan cry with envy.
Because we *are* “real” comics fans. As are many women.

So, Deb decided to find a creative, fun and rewarding way to make that statement. She created the “Women Make Comics” project. Which has now launched on Cafepress. To the credit of all the folks involved, there are t-shirts in many colors and sizes, including, I am happy to note, sizes for women which are actually for women.

Proceeds from sales will go to charities such as Friends of Lulu, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Because all of those support women in comics and you don’t catch folks at MoCCA bitching about being “invaded” by females. (Or media coverage assuming that women “only” go to MoCCA for some other reason than comics.)

This will not solve the problem. At the very heart of it, there *problem* is that there are just some people who will dis anything women are into precisely because those things appeal to women. I get this all the time, when guys write me telling me – arguing, insisting – that Yuri is not for women and I should butt the hell out. Yes, seriously. Still. Not everyone. Not every guy. But some will, yes.

We need to recognize that there are going to be some genres out there that are not for us – that are not something we like. But that does not mean they are any less valid. OL comics are not for me – but the art is not deficient just because I find the content repulsive. Nor are “girl’s” comics any less sophisticated than “boy’s”. I’ll put Yazawa Ai (who I do not like) up against Alex Robinson (who I also do not like) any day. Hands down, Yazawa wins as the better technical artist. So, which is more of a valid art form? Neither. Both are art.

Look around pictures of SDCC, of Otakon, of Nascar for pity’s sake. Look at the wonderful, diverse mix of people. Ages, genders, ethnicity.

The real point here is that women and comics are already established law. There is no conversation to be had about what, if any, our place is in the field. We’re here, we’ve been here, we will be here.

Let’s take a deep breath, wear our Women Make Comics t-shirts proudly, and know that with every step forward that we take, we’re still trailblazing through this wilderness of fandom. :-)

Ah, the dramatic love triangle. What would we do without you for tired, retread, yet eternally fascinating drama. I love you, but you love him and he loves me. It’s been done so many times it’s almost not funny. But, add in a drenching cold rain, a deathly fever and a psychotic cross-dressing brother and you have…well, pretty much the same thing as always.

Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi, Volume 2 starts dead on in the middle of a melodramatic love triangle, composed of Renge, who likes Aki who likes Ayame who likes Renge. At the end of Volume 1 Aki confesses his feelings for Ayame, which seemed to set her off on a course of hysteria and increased mental instability. Worse, because Aki’s figured out that Ayame likes Renge, she feels that he can wield that over her. Renge admits that she likes Aki, which only makes Ayame feel even more out in left field. But it all comes to a head when Renge overhears rumors to the effect that Ayame likes Aki – she runs off to confront Ayame, only to be told the absolute truth…that Ayame is actually in love with Renge. Renge runs off, shocked.

We get a bacgkrounder on Ayame’s family – it will come as no surprise to most of us that her mother was cold and distant, her father was unpredictable and violent and we already know that her brother is a slightly psychotic cross-dresser. I hope this part of the story wasn’t meant to be super shocking and revealing, because it’s been done similarly about a million times.

We then fast backward to middle school days when Ayame and Renge first met and became friends. It’s interesting to note that before Renge, Ayame was, despite her appalling parents, a popular and fun person. The boys liked her, the girls liked her, she wasn’t phobic about schoolwork. Another lesson here – not only are lesbians mentally unstable, even so much as falling in love with another girl is enough to completely destroy your emotional stability and functionality! Oh no! But back to the after-school special…after Ayame learns that her mother doesn’t give a shit about her children, she cuts all her hair off, which makes her stand out in school, which cascades into a cycle of being ostracized and rejected. She reacts violently, but when that is brought to a halt by her accidentally hurting Renge, she starts to take it out on herself. As so many will attest, cutting brings relief, because she can feel the pain and know that she’s still alive. (I will suggest that, if you are tempted to cut yourself because you desire to know that you are alive, that is proof that you are alive. Next time you’re tempted to cut, think about that. Please.)

In a climactic moment, Ayame appears to be throwing herself off the roof, although to her own mind, she is really just trying to reach up to be in contact with a bird. As she climbs the fence on the roof, Renge pulls her back to earth and to sanity. Ayame and Renge dance on the roof, enjoying the movement for its own sake and the company of the other.

Back in the now, in the Hanayashiki, Ayame’s brother Kakitsubata asks Aki to leave the dorm, so his sister can be happy again.

Aki is looking through school photos, finding picture after picture of Renge and Ayame together, until he notices that once he arrived at the dorm, Ayame’s smile disappeared in all the photos. He decides that in order to let Ayame and Renge be happy again, he does have to leave.

Just as with the first volume, I’m torn between wanting to find out what happens and not caring all that much. I’m inclined to think that, as the unspoken lessons about liking other girls are so negative and the set up is so stereotypical, that the next volume will reveal the utterly unshocking, totally predictable revelation that Ayame’s affections are now focused on Aki. This will never really be a Yuri manga, despite Ayame liking Renge, because it’s clearly a flawed affection, based on pain and immaturity that has to change to a “real” love for her to be healed. I’d love to be wrong about that, but I’m not putting any money down on it!

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Once again, my sincere thanks go out today to Komatsu-san for sending me this book and sponsoring today’s review! And also to thank him for his patience, because he sent it a really long time ago and I just got around to it. (And worse…I still have one more of the bunch to review….)