Archive for the Manga Category


Yuri Anthology: Maria’s Wink, Volume 2

February 7th, 2007

One of the more unique things about Japanese copyright laws is the ability for “parody” works to be made with little to no legal consequence. (Of course, that may change in the future, and a recent article about an exceedingly popular Doreamon doujinshi has an interesting example of what can easily be cited as an abuse of the privilege.)

Maria’s Wink 2, is one of a seemingly endless supply of Yuri doujinshi anthologies in existence for Maria-sama ga Miteru. It is available through Amazon JP (click the cover picture or the title link) and/or various manga and used manga stores.

The advantage to a doujinshi anthology is obvious – it’s a collection of many different stories by many different circles. Like ALC’s Yuri Monogatari series, that means that you’ll get a wide variety of art, story and tone. The other advantage is that an anthology will cost a lot less in time and effort than trying to track down all of the original doujinshi individually.

There are some adult anthologies, but most of the ones I picked up in Tokyo this time were “gag” anthologies. Maria’s Wink has a definite Yuri strain running through the stories, but little more than a kiss here and there. Nonetheless, no Yuri goggles are needed to see that the couples are, indeed, couples.

This particular anthology has selections by some circles I quite like including K-Do, and about three whose names are too long and difficult for me to translate, but whose work I have in doujinshi form and really like. (Nice and specific, there, I know. Very helpful….)

What makes Maria’s Wink a good place to start in terms of Marimite anthologies is that there is really something for everyone. Pretty much every popular pairing has at least one story. The obvious soeur couples, and the most popular non-soeur, like Youko x Sei, Sei x Yumi, Yumi x Touko, all are represented. There’s even a Kanako x Touko story. Kei makes an appearance in a few stories (that’s for you, Sean), as does Yuuki, and even Kashiwagi gets a naked cameo. So, really, there’s something for everyone.

In particular Rei x Yoshino fans will like a few of the stories, which really focus on the explodingly cute aspect of their relationship. There’s also a fairly well-known Rei x Yoshino story called “Treasure” that portrays them both as pirates. It’s based on a single line from one of the novels where Rei thinks that Yoshino’s surgery scar makes her look like a pirate. :-) (I find this story appealing because I too wrote [an incredibly silly] story in which the Yamayurikai and friends are pirates.  ^_^) So, as anthologies go, there’s quite a bit to like about Maria’s Wink.

Ratings are variable, but I don’t think there was a story I disliked or art that skeeved me.

Overall – 8

If you’ve always wanted to dip a toe into the vast pool of Marimite doujinshi, an anthology is a nice way to start in general, and this volume of Maria’s Wink in particular. :-)





Yuri Manga: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Volume 6

November 16th, 2006

Maria-sama ga Miteru, Volume 6, Valentine’s Gift, Last Part, is simply chock-full of Yuri love-love, as it covers the second half of the Valentine’s Day arc. This includes all three of the half day dates with the bouton, and the creepy, yet pity-worthy Sachiko stalker, Mafuyu’s, story. The manga much more closely follows the novels which means, thankfully, no stupid fake cliffhanger as Yumi loses sight of Sachiko for a millisecond, and much more lovey-dovey ends to all the dates.

The manga begin with a replay of the “Surprise Chocolate” scene from the end of the first half of the arc, at the end of which Yumi and Sachiko agree to go on a half day date. Having agreed to that, Yumi is now completely at loose ends on where to go and what to do. Once that’s settled, we turn to the trials and tribulations of ace cameraman Tsutako and newspaper club president Minako, as they try to snag a good story and photo.

Yumi and Sachiko have a painfully cute date. We get to watch them wooja-wooja at each other as Sachiko talks about not ever fitting in, and enjoy Yumi raging at how unfair it is that Onee-sama is richer, taller, skinnier and more beautiful than she is. Most enjoyably, we can watch Yumi overheat at the thought of Sachiko undressing on the other side of that changing room curtain. ^_^ Yumi hangs on Sachiko romantically as Yoshino shouts “go go!” from behind, as she did in the novel. (Big grin from me on that.)

Next up, we follow Yoshino, as she stalks Rei and Chisato on their date. I am rapidly coming to find Yoshino so adorable that I’m in danger of exploding when she pouts. ^_^ When Chisato pays her a visit and admits that she’s insanely jealous of Yoshino and acknowledges that Rei called her “Yoshino” 5 times, Yoshino really shows how decent a person she is.

Shimako’s date begins at the end of Valentine’s Day, as she and Sei walk out of Lillian together, and Sei thanks her for the cake. Shimako is unaccountably shy about it; Sei takes her hand. Shizuka, at the beginning of the date seems a little cool and far off, but when she gazes at Shimako intimately and says she wants to get to know more about her, Shimako, and this reader’s, heart pounds just a bit. ^_^ Their date is, of all of them, I think the most interesting. But that could be because I find Shizuka a fascinating character. The day ends as Shimako breaks down, for the last time, in Sei’s arms and we get to see her be “big sister like.” Because of the way the characters were portrayed in the anime, this relationship is the hardest to get a bead on, but looking back now, its easy to see that of all the soeur relationships we see in the Rose Mansion, Sei and Shimako are very much like real sisters.

The last story covers Mafuyu, the girl who has admired Sachiko since kindergarten and follows her as she hides the red card for the Valentine’s Day treasure hunt. Mafuyu is much less a creepy stalker in the manga than she is in the anime and WAY less creepy than in the novel, where she was downright creepy. ^_^ The whole story reads more like a tragic love from afar than anything else.

I just started reading the 17th novel of the series last night, so stepping this far back to the 6th novel was well…novel. Watching how unsure Yumi is “back then,” knowing how much more confident she is “now,” is interesting. And kind of charming. Yoshino is da bomb, and Shimako remains the most mysterious character – and a fitting companion for both Sei and Shizuka, in this volume.

Of the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga volumes, this one has most closely followed the novels. And, as a result, I’ve liked it best. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6 (Everyone is drawn cute in a downward aged way and I honestly don’t like Sachiko’s character design at all)
Story – 8
Character – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 7





Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga, Volume 4

July 11th, 2005


I love getting my Maria-sama ga Miteru manga fix from Margaret magazine twice a month, but there’s definitely something extra special about getting a whole volume with a complete story in your hands. The down side is, you don’t always get the splash page art (especially if the series has alot of color splashes) but you get wonderful goofy filler pictures where all the magazine blahblah went. :-)

This week I got my paws on the manga of Maria-sama ga Miteru: Rosa Canina. And even though the story only ended a month ago in serialized form, it was amazing how much more I can catch when I read it as one whole continuous story. I guess I’m just not all that good at remembering who’s what where from month to month. LOL

I have actually discussed most of the differences between the novel/manga/anime and Drama CD in my notes from the 4th novel, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much. Let me just draw your attention to a few things: 1) The manga inserts some internal Shimako dialogue that doesn’t exists anywhere else and which heavily foreshadows her Cherry Blossoms arc; 2) I am steadfast in my belief that Shizuka is coming on to Sei in a big way after the school elections.

Included in this volume is the New Year’s arc, which is marginally more accurate to the novel than the anime, but still changes alot of things. And sadly…we don’t get to see Sei flirting with the miko who was handing out the fortunes. I think that would have been worth a panel, at least. Because the New Year story (Nagakiyono) ran in Margaret before the Student Council election arc (Rosa Canina), that’s the order they appear in the volume, the reverse of the novel. This is a truncated version, since the hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year) scene was done as a short by Hibiki Reine for Cobalt Shueisha Magazine, the magazine where Marimite is serialized.

The only down side to the New Year story in the manga is that we *still* don’t get much of Sayoko, Sachiko’s mother – and she was so *cute*! I think we were ripped. We should demand more Sayoko. (In fact, fans must have done so, because in the one-shot short “Library Book”, which was included in the 19th novel, In Library, we get a bit more of Sayoko as a student at Lillian. And its a REALLY cute story, full of truly obnoxious groan-inducing puns. LOL I did a really crappy, rough translation of the one-shot for the folks on the Yuricon Mailing List. The translation is in the group Files – if you join you can read it and have a good laugh at my expense. :-))

Let’s see, what else is notable…well, the incidental filler art this time is on the theme of “sports”. Sei is given a surprisingly sexy beach volleyball figure. In fact, thinking about it – she’s always drawn really sexy in these incidental art pieces…. Actually, thinking about it – I’m always surprised when any of them look sexy in these pieces. I guess I’m so used to seeing the girls in those awful school uniforms that it’s a system shock to see their figures. LOL And to be honest, the first-years look cute, not sexy. Eriko in racing leathers is quite nice, but Youko’s baseball catcher’s outfit made my wife say, “What is she? A turtle?” LOL

Probably my favorite picture in the whole book is at the end, where Sachiko is feeding Yumi. It’s impossibly adorable. lol

The other thing of note is how the art is changing slightly to reflect the characters as drawn in the anime more. At this point the anime is long over and the manga is on-going, so the artist probably has a little less pressure to conform.

Ratings:
Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Yuri – 9

As always, another enjoyable entry in the Marimite body of work. It’ll be going up on the Yuricon Shop in the next few days!





Maria-sama ga Miteru Yuri Manga Update – Ibara no Mori

September 22nd, 2004

The first two volumes of the Marimite manga have been collected and released in Japanese. Each one is a complete story, the first and second novels in manga form.

Because the manga moves more slowly than the anime, there is more detail that we saw with the anime. In particular, internal monologues and thoughts were restored, and several scenes that were switched around in the anime (mostly because the third novel’s arc was moved to late in the season) have been put back in their rightful place. (For the record, the Drama CDs seem to have a smidgen more detail…and, obviously, the novels would contain the full story, something I’ll cover next entry.)

The character designs are not the same as the anime, but the characters don’t differ wildly from their animated counterparts. Of them, Sei looks the most unlike her anime avatar, and personally I’m inclined to think the anime version is better. But they are all recognizably themselves. The tankubon also have silly incidental art, like dress-up pictures of the various cracters, (Sei as a cowboy, Eriko as a waitress, etc,) that make the manga volumes a fun purchase.

Right now, Margaret magazine has just completed the first half of the Ibara no Mori: Forest of Thorns arc, in which a novel of the same name causes rumors to fly around Lillian Academy, that Sei, Rosa Gigantea, may have been the author. Yumi ultimately learns *why* the rumors exist at all, how accurate they were, who the real author is, and her little secret, all culminating on Christmas Eve.

When Yumi comes across the Yamayurikai, she learns that they are preparing a Christmas party. Notable in this scene is Youko, happily decorating a Christmas tree inappropriately with tanabata wishes, wearing a crown on her head. It’s utterably adorable. ^_^

In the final scene of this first half of the story, we get something completely left out of the anime. Sachiko gives Yumi one of her embroidered silk handkerchiefs as a Christmas present (you all remember that in Japan presents are usually exchanged between lovers, right?) Yumi is miserable, because she has nothing for Sachiko. Sachiko sees that Yumi looks like she’s about to cry, and makes her soeur a deal. In exchange, Sachiko will take one of Yumi’s hair ribbons for her present. She unties Yumi’s hair, takes the ribbon and ties it into her own hair, and they walk away hand in hand. It’s all very touching and romantic.

Things are different from the anime in the manga. The mood is more solemn, the pace slower, the emotions run higher. When Sei confesses to Yoshino and Yumi that the rumors aren’t that far from the truth, there’s more of sense of intensity in the scene…Yumi even comments that Sei is burning for her past love. Sei herself is more remote-seeming than the anime Sei…but that may be me having 20/20 hindsight. ^_^

The next half of the Ibara no Mori manga begins in October, and of course, I can’t wait. I’m *dying* to see how they portray Shiori (one of the things that was noticeable about her anime image was that she wasn’t *really* attractive – I liked that, and I wonder if it is intentional, part of the character description, or just a whim)…and the interaction between Sei and Youko, when they were en bouton. And I wait with bated breath to see what the manga image of the former Rosa Gigantea is. ^_^

The manga definitely has more of the “the pleats on our skirts shouldn’t be out of order, we should walk slowly” feel than the anime did. If I had read the novels first, I think that I too, would have been driven crazy by the rushed anime, and only marginally mollified by the manga. But, fortuitously, I’ve done it the other way around, so I can enjoy the story all over again, each time I encounter it, with more detail.

I won’t rate the Ibara no Mori manga yet, until I see the conclusion (an 80-page spectacular, or so they say) and I’ll report back on the tankubon and Drama CD, which go on sale in October as well! Banner month for Sei fans, huh? ^_^

Next up – notes on the first novel.





Maria-sama ga Miteru Manga Update

May 21st, 2004

It’s been about a month since the Marimite anime ended, and of course, we’re all waiting with baited breath to hear any news of a second season. In the meantime, however, I’m filling the void with the manga, running in Margaret monthly.

And since I have to kill about forty minutes here at work before the week ends, I figured an update of the manga story was in order. ^_^

As I’ve mentioned about a thousand times since this series exploded onto the Yuri scene, the manga is more detailed than the anime, and in some cases, more exact to the novels. Although for purists, any cut is a bad cut.

The first volume of the manga has been out since the end of February and we can probably expect a second volume pretty soon, even though the installments are coming monthly now and not biweekly. I’ve covered some of the differences between the anime and the manga of the first arc in my February 6th entry.

Well, now the manga is firmly into the second arc, aka “The Yellow Rose Revolution” and I wanted to share a few of the fun bits either changed in or left out of the anime with you, because I can. ^_^

Just to remind you (or introduce you to the story) the second arc deals with the repercussions when Yoshino (Rosa Foetida en Bouton Petite Soeur) returns her rosary to her oneesama, Rei (Rosa Foetida En Bouton.) This happens shortly after Yumi has become Sachiko’s soeur and she is still very new and uunsure of herself in her role. It absolutely shocks her when Yoshino returns Rei’s rosary, undoing their relationship…and poor Yumi is even more apalled when other girls do the same thing. In the meantime, Rei is training for a kendo match, at the same time that Yoshino is preparing to have heart surgery.

Here are a few of the more romantic/funny moments so far…

So, Yumi and Sei (Rosa Gigantea) are in the Rose mansion and Sei is coughing up the fact that Eriko (Rosa Foetida) is basically good at anything she tries to do, but is seriously unmotivated.

Sei throws her arms around Yumi, once again completely taken by Yumi’s cuteness. Yumi grimaces and says, “Why don’t you get yourself someone as a boyfriend?” and Sei laughs and says, “I couldn’t be faithful to some guy. Only Yumi-chan.” and kisses Yumi…just as Sachiko walks in.

The rest of that conversation is in the anime as well, with Sachiko telling Sei to play with her own petite soeur. Sei says, “Gee, I never thought of that…” and Sachiko yells at Yumi for not struggling to get away, and not to do anything that would make Rosa Gigantea happy. ^_^

While tying ribbons into Yumi’s hair, Sachiko calls Yumi Rei and Yoshino’s “carrier pigeon.”

Yumi is immediately distracted as Sachiko takes her hand, quite forcefully, and begins walking towards the bus stop. As they walk hand in hand, Yumi’s head explodes and her heart begins to pound and she desperately wonders if the other petite soeur have this problem of so wanting to be close to their onee-sama that they can’t quite cope. Her face becomes so red and distracted that, despite Yumi’s fervent wish that they stay connected a while longer, Sachiko lets go – she thinks she’s bothering Yumi. When they approach the bus stop holding hands – a few of the other girls see them and go all girly-squealy, but sotto voce, about how sweet it is that they Rosa Chinensis en bouton and her petite soeur are holding hands.

Later, at Rei’s shiai Sei wanders over with lots of snacks for Yumi, reassuring Yumi that she doesn’t need to be paid back, but Sachiko insists on paying for her. Yumi feels awfully contrite, because she didn’t think to bring her purse. Sachiko smiles gently at her and tells her that she, Yumi, should let her, Sachiko, act like an onee-sama every once in a while. Yumi sits, once again overwhelmed by Sachiko’s coolness. ^_^

One other difference is that Eriko’s absence is more notable – people at school have commented that she’s missing, and Yumi thinks she sees her, but each time, Eriko is gone when she looks again. At the hospital while visiting Yoshino, Yumi thinks she sees Eriko’s “ghost” because she looks so pale and is in all white – with further reflection Yumi might have realized that Eriko was wearing a hospital gown, but at the moment, she strikes her as ghost-like. It is from these things that the weird rumors will presumably begin about Eriko. ^_^

In any case, the manga is more satisfying than the anime, if what you crave is more interaction, more story, more personal details, etc. I imagine that I’ll write another update at the end of this arc and by then, we ought to have some news of the new anime season! ^_^