Archive for the Series Category


Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

June 22nd, 2023

A girl with medium-length brown hair in a maid's outfit, lifts a blonde with big banana curls wearing an orange dress, in her arms. Green flowers blooms, a bird flies overhead, a water-blob creature wear scuba mask on the brown-haired girl's head. Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) manga covers a pivotal moment. Yes, Claire and Rae are on vacation and yes, Claire is finally getting a literal taste of commoner life and finding it, unsurprisingly, unpalatable. She meets Rae’s family, and some folks who knew her back in the day…and the mystery of Rae Taylor is no less mysterious for all that.

But then the story takes a a turn. A ship of the Undead has arrived, which is bad enough, but there is something much more malevolent at work here. One of Rae’s old acquaintances turns against them – an act of desperation, but also with a clear mission of stopping Rae Taylor and Claire François. Who is pulling the strings?

Rae and Claire prevail, but the truth of Lui’s decision further radicalizes Claire to hate income inequality. A hero has begun to be born, only she doesn’t know it yet. And we are looking at the beginning of a revolution. There are still some arcs to go, yet, however. Next up, we will meet Lily and the Church will become a piece on the board. The volume ends with a few short scenes, and a short story from Misha’s point of view.

inori-sensei’s story gets better every time I read it. I’m free to pay attention to smaller and smaller details each time. And Aonoshimo-sensei has shown themselves to as deft with big action scenes as they are scenes of domestic joy – i.e., Claire finally getting food she can eat – or beach pinups.  Always, this series is a delight. We’ll be getting Volume 5 in English from Seven Seas in October, so look forward to that.

Ratings:

Art – 9 The fight scenes are quite excellent
Story – 9 It’s starting to get serious
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – Bathing and bathing suits

I had a thought today – this mostly medieval society has bikinis. Huh.





Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 4 (作りたい女と食べたい女)

June 19th, 2023

A large woman with long hair in a ponytail, wearing sweats carries fresh greens, a shorter woman in cream blouse and long, green skirt carries a box of groceries. They are smiling gently at one another.There are so many reasons that Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 4 (作りたい女と食べたい女) is an amazing volume of manga, that I’m hard pressed to pick one thing. That said, the best thing about this volume of manga is that it is extremely queer even as the characters basically just sit around eating food. ^_^

I don’t want to spoil anything about this volume because it is just so good, but I will tell you that it includes Valentine’s Day, important backstories and a huge decision that will change everything. I just love how everything in this series is rooted in reality. The story acknowledges trauma, but does not wallow in it. In fact, it offers a clear – and kind – path forward.

In the mean time, Nomoto and Kasuga have developed a family. Nomoto’s friend Yako hosts wonderful food parties, so we can enjoy them making takoyaki. New member of the family, Nagumo, begins to find her own self because of Kasuga’s and Nomoto’s kindness. That, in a word is why this series has become important to me – it is rooted in women taking care of each other, of accepting one another as they are. There is so much pressure even – often, especially – by other women, to conform to certain norms, that a series based around women caring for one another is exceptionally wonderful.

Because so little happens, and the story mostly revolves around people talking and eating, the expressions carry a lot of narrative weight. Yuzaki-sensei’s art is lively and fun, especially when the four are all together having a food party.

I will also tell you that Valentine’s Day is, typical of this manga, more to that than just shared chocolates. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 10 It’s not perfect but the expressions are fantastic
Story – 10
Characters – 10 Ahhhhhh!
Service – 0
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

This volume just came out – I bought a print copy, but that wasn’t going to arrive until today, so I also bought this on Bookwalker so I could read it on the 15th. ^_^ Now, having written this review, I’m heading over to get caught up on Comic Walker. ^_^ Not obsessed much.

We’ll be getting She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat, Volume 3 in October from Yen Press.





Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition, Volume 2

June 5th, 2023

A green-haired android poses in the middle of a busyish street. Her hands are clasped as she faces us. Some of the passersby look at us as well. The words "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition," the number 2 and "Story and Art by Hitoshi Ashinano" are in prismatic rainbow colors.In Volume 1 we met Alpha, an android who runs a small coffee shop in what once was Musahino, and is now a wind- and sand-swept landscape. Alpha’s owner left years ago, now she spends her days making coffee for the occasional guest at her cafe, and experiencing the world around her.  In Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Deluxe Edition, Volume 2 we get to know more about Alpha and the people around her…and a tantalizing little bit about the twilight of humanity.

Alpha’s every day is filled with something, but it’s the somethings that fill a life when there is nothing particular to do. She goes to Yokohama to buy coffee beans (there aren’t that many left for sale), she meets the local ojisan, and the only remaining two children, Takehiro and Makki. Even so, Alpha can see that Takehiro is growing up, as time passes.

We get to see Kokone at work, and learn more about her, and then see her obsess about Alpha. They visit each other and pass the time together. Everything is quiet, here at the end of everything as we know it.

This is one of my favorite volumes, because we are introduced to Alpha playing the Moon Lute. In the second Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Drama CD, which I reviewed on Okazu back in 2007, we were able to hear Alpha vocalize to the Moon Lute and at that point, I had pretty much fallen in love with this series – much like Kokone, I had been completely charmed by Alpha.

But time passes here, and we get some tidbits from the old professor – and the ship that floats gracefully above the planet – about the fate of the people living on it. There is a soft melancholy that pervades this story and allows us to hold on to the high points as Alpha does, enjoying those ephemeral moments more than we might in our busy lives.

This is such a beautifully drawn book and so well-handled by Seven Seas. With all that space on the page, letterer Ludwig Sacramento is able to do retouch on the s/fx – something that I actually feel quite strongly about for this series. It is a series of silences, and few noises, so those noises are important. Daniel Komen’s translation and Dawn Davis’ adaptation make for a story that reads so smoothly, I had to slow myself down to savor the moments. Nicky Lim’s cover design is just beautiful. Thanks to everyone who worked on this at Seven Seas. It is one of my favorite series of all time and I am so glad it is getting the treatment it deserves.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 1 on principle, but for me, the pinup images of Alpha and Kokone are 10
Yuri – Kokone’s feelings about Alpha are certainly Yuri-adjacent

Overall – 9

If only the end of humanity was this gentle and quiet.

 





Birdie Wing, Continued, Continued

April 25th, 2023

It’s not that often that I write a review and mere hours later, everything I said was *completely* wrong, but Birdie Wing has done it, by golf!

Golf changes *everything* here. It ruins the dreams of young women by leading them to defeat in a single high school doubles tournament, which clearly is the end of the road for any athlete.

Golf brings people together and tears them apart. It kills people (with the help of one of my favorite shoujo troupes, the cruise liner accident – and a love triangle between serious, yet dysfunctional, adults, a la Marmalade Boy.)

But all of this serves a purpose, I swear! If none of this happened, Aoi would pine after Eve and never really find her own golf. It is imperative that our protagonists develop an intense rivalry or they will just going on being a golf manzai partnership, with increasingly extreme reasons to not take their golf seriously at all.

As Steve Jones puts it on ANN, golfing hard is the message here: In Birdie Wing, “Golf becomes the axis on which the world rotates. You can golf hard enough to save your adoptive family. You can golf hard enough to cure amnesia. You can golf hard enough to die.” Surely, our protagonists can golf hard enough to be a happy couple, now that the most obvious twist turns out to be twistier than we thought.

Vipere returns this next week and the Birdie Wing fandom is (un)reasonably excited, as Eve – having helped Aoi win her competition, and unlocked her own memories*, is rewarded by being deported. Of course she is, that’s totally normal for Birdie Wing – and we love it.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10 
Characters – 10
Service –
Yuri – Now that they aren’t sisters, maybe Aoi might get that kiss. Probably not, though.

Overall – 10

My love for this series is endless.

*Remind me to tell you my theories about Eleanor Burton.

 





Birdie Wing, Continued

April 16th, 2023

The first “season” of Title Poster for Birdie Wing featuring an ensemble of high school girls playing golf, surrounded by adult men and women looking portentous and menacing. Birdie Wing was an absolute triumph that didn’t so much come to an end, as just stopped. ^_^ And now what was being called the second “season” is more or less a continuation of the first.

In the middle of what might have been a climactic arc in any high school sports story, for Birdie Wing, it was just another stepping stone from one plateau of unreality, to another. What began as a high-tension story about underground mafia golf and corruption morphed effortlessly into a high school sports drama, complete with a rival pair that Aoi and Eve would have to beat before moving on to re-address the cutthroat world of adult golfers and lingering threats. Only this is Birdie Wing, not any other story and when Eve and Aoi finally take on Himekawa Mizuho and Oikawa Kaede…..they are rendered instantly irrelevant by Eve’s orange bullet. Watching Himekawa crushed might have even been a moment of pathos in any other story, but here is a passing note of “yup.” We’ve seen the opening credits – there’s like another dozen people to get through. ^_^

Also, almost as an aside, it is confirmed that Eve and Aoi are half-sisters, but if this came as a surprise to you then wow, were you not paying attention. Why and how are also pretty irrelevant in this series and I don’t think it matters at all how they are related, when Aoi’s primary goal is to get a kiss from Eve and Eve’s primary goal is to eat lot of hamburgers. As this series has established, there are no rules which it will not cheerfully break.

I don’t think I have to exhort anyone reading Okazu to watch Birdie Wing, by now, but let me just remind you to definitely watch Birdie Wing. It is the perfect sports Yuri anime precisely because both sports and Yuri are entirely wack.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Loving shots of unreal golf
Story – 10  Everything is valid when nothing is real
Characters – 10 Delightful and nonsensical
Service – There are things that can be considered service, depending on how much on likes detailed animation of golf strikes
Yuri – Aoi’s desire for a kiss, not much else, but it doesn’t matter much

Overall – 10

This is still the greatest anime I have ever watched.