Archive for the Series Category


Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. -Revolution-, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-)

April 7th, 2022

It’s almost impossible to believe that I have never actually read the Japanese Volume 1 of this series, but it is true. I had read some of it as a webnovel, when it was licensed by Seven Seas, before I had a chance to pick up the GL Bunko digital edition. I read and reviewed Volume 1 in English a year and a half ago, in fact, and then ran ahead to read the rest in Japanese, because it was that good. Until now, it was only available in digital form in Japanese.

Well, now Ichijinsha has licensed the series for a print release and, finally, I have had a chance to read the first novel in Japanese. Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. -Revolution-, Volume 1 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-) was just as excellent as I remembered. Company drone Oohashi Rei wakes up as the protagonist of her favorite otome game, and decides to romance the villainess, the high-minded daughter of nobility, Claire François. Rae Taylor’s actions are ham-handed, but her experience with the game gives her powers and knowledge that offers many advantages.

Having had a year to experience the entire story from Rae’s point of view (and some of the story from Claire’s point of view) I can now see many things that were seeded to be resolved later…and some hints of the Truth (TM) about the world. It’s nice to see those things being seeded way back in the beginning. I know many more will also appear in the next two volumes. The overtly queer content still makes this series stand out from a lot of Yuri work. I’ll never get tired of that. ^_^

Ichijinsha did a great job on the book, with color dust cover, color character page up front (with hanagata’s original art for the GL Bunko cover as  fold out. The cover for this edition is a new work by hanagata. All of the original illustrations are included and two extra stories. The first story is from Lene’s point of view, the final bit from Misha’s. I think I’d love to have this whole story once more from Misha’s point of view, for reasons that are a spoiler. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Portraits of the people, mostly, rather than the scenes
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7 one-sided in this volume, but…
LGBTQ –10
Service – 2 Dressing and undressing, Rae acting like a perv….

Overall – 9

This print edition doesn’t add anything new to the story, but it gives us a definitive volume for lovers of this series. If you’re still a holdout and where waiting for a print edition in Japanese, now is the time to grab a copy. Although, I won’t lie, having the Kindle translate feature makes reading the GL Bunko volumes a breeze.

It will be such a pleasure to be able to give this series more space on my shelf. ^_^

 





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17

March 28th, 2022

It has been 2 years since I last reviewed a volume of this manga. Not for any particular reason, just that these two years have been full to the brim of incredible, groundbreaking Yuri and I just sort of forgot to keep reading this series. ^_^ But here we are once again, as I play catch up with the volumes I read in Japanese, and get ready to switch over to the series in English, since it has caught up to where I was when I left off.

As I pointed out in my review of this volume in Japanese, this series does not hesitate to make us feel deeply uncomfortable about our reading habits. MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 does something unusual in this regard. This volume introduces a new horrible human being as the bad guy, Sendou, and we are shown quite clearly his being sexually excited by his acts of violence. It is, frankly, quite unusual to be so blunt in this message, precisely because the audience is expected to be men who are sexually excited by the violence in this series. Straight men are generally very oversensitive about looking at male genitalia, as if the admission that they too are turned on by this is too much to handle. But, having been required to be audience to some extremely explicit and unrealistic lesbian sex, I think this is a good thing for the remainder of the audience. Now we can all trade stories about how this series made us feel uncomfortable. ^_^ That said, the one place in the world I’m not interested in staring is some guy’s crotch. (-_-);

On the Yuri side, there is a surprising leap in Chiyoko’s admission that Kuroko is 1) her girlfriend and 2) important to her. Who would have imagined that an actual relationship is forming the maelstrom of monstrous killers in this series? And that Chiyo-chan and Kuroko enjoy a healthy sexual relationship? Certainly, not I.  And yet, there we are. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Because it’s gotten better, it’s actually messier than usual. More detail, means more gore.
Story – Uh….
Characters – Senpachi’s cool, emotionless old Yakuza guys are boring. Chiyo’s actually kinda cute for once?
Service – We are literally staring at this guy’s crotch constantly and it’s not serving me, I’ll tell you that. (-_ -)
Yuri – Not-ugly lesbian sex, so that’s a win.

Overall – ?

What do ratings even mean when it comes to this series? My commendation to Christine Dashielle on translating and Alexis Eckerman on lettering this weird, violent, lesbian grandchild of  HP Lovecraft fanfic. ^_^

Now that Yen Press has caught up on MURCIÉLAGO, I’ll picking these up digitally…they long ago chewed up too much space on the shelf. Volume 18 has already been released and has been added to the Yuricon Store.





Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 2

March 11th, 2022

Kase-san and Yamada have been dating for a few years now, and while they are both working on building lives for themselves that include each other, their schedules make it very difficult. And maybe that would be okay, but it means that they haven’t really had the time they need to discuss themselves with each other.

A surprise summer vacation for both Kase-san and Yamada makes them very aware of those gaps where their lives don’t mesh. In Kase-san and Yamada, Volume 2, that gap seems impossibly wide to Yamada. Unsure, made to feel unconfident, she still sees Kase-san as someone too cool and popular for her, someone she’s not worthy of. This causes a number of problems for them –  and for us, as readers. We’d become used to seeing Kase-san be unreasonably jealous, and thought we had left that behind. Now it’s Yamada’s turn to be unreasonable and we’re likely to be less tolerant as a result. But…is Yamada being unreasonable?

I think it’s worth remembering that Kase-san’s sempai teased her rather mercilessly only a year so so ago, and now she’s dealing with Kase-san’s roommate Fukami being a grade-A jerk. (It’s super obvious that she has a crush on Kase-san and all I can hope is that rather than dealing with that noise, Fukami will realize how shitty she’s being and feel badly about it.) As an adult reading this book, I kind of want to have a stern talk with Fukami-san. The more I think about this story, the more I think that Yamada’s done amazingly well, given how much crap she’s had to take from other people. So, I’m cutting her some slack her as she wallows a bit here. It is very easy to find other people’s relationship drama annoying, but since we’re reading How Do We Relationship…maybe we can cut Yamada a little break? ^_^

When it comes down to dealing with the problems, Kase-san shows she *has* matured. She accepts Yamada’s concerns, is supportive and understanding AND addresses the underlying issue – what does their future look like? Neither they nor we know what shape their future will take, but Kase-san is trying to create a future that will include Yamada and that’s good enough right now.  It would be nice if the two of them get to just be together and talk without everyone wanting to get in their way, but oh well, it’s a rom-com. ^_^;

The fantastic translation by Jocelyne Allen means I’m hearing different characters sounding like different people and outstanding lettering by CK Russell. It feels so much like it’s part of the original, I hardly notice it. Thanks again to the entire Seven Seas team for their great work.

If you’re looking for a comedy college life Yuri series that feels awfully like real life, with bumps in the roads and fully-fleshed out characters, Kase-san and Yamada fits the bill.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 5 a bit of skin
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

In the middle of all the running around, Hana being a rube and tanning jokes, let’s give a round of applause to Mikawacchi for finally figuring out a path forward for herself!





I’m In Love With The Villainess Spin-Off on Sale in Japan Today!

February 28th, 2022

Last week, inori-sensei announced that her newest novel was picked up for publication by her e-book publisher GL Bunko. Today Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina! (平民のくせに生意気な!)  is on sale as a digital work on Japanese Kindle and in Japanese on US Kindle.

This spin-off of the the original I’m in Love With the Villainess novel, follows the events from the perspective of the villainess of the game Revolution,  Claire François! Get a lot of insight into Rae’s love interest, learn about her close friends and watch as her feeling for Rae changes in real time. ^_^

It has not yet been licensed, but I don’t doubt that we’ll see a license soon enough for She’s Such A Cheeky Commoner! ^_^

 




I’m in Love with the Villainess, Volume 2

February 11th, 2022

I’m in Love with the Villainess, Volume 2 is a super fun volume of this story. In many ways, it’s the first turn away from goofy comedy to serious story. This volume contains the first of many conversations about sexuality and gender that this series will provide. I know I reviewed this back in February, in digital, but I wanted to take a look at the print volume as well. ^_^

For the first time, we really meet the three princes, the love interests of the game “Revolution, “and get to know their personalities. This is followed by the student ranking, where we finally understand that Rae, as protagonist of that game, is overpowered and formidable. And how obsessed she really wad with the game…and Claire.

This is followed by a magical battle against a giant water slime, that forces Claire to save Rae, but also keeps Rae on the lonely path she had set for herself. We know this because this is the volume where Misha asks Rae if she is homosexual. I want to stop and say that the art in that section is devastating, as we see Rae with her usual smile, talking about the old her, about how she’s used to her love not being returned – and –  how she’s convinced herself that Claire’s happiness is enough. Devastating…and irrelevant as we know. Phew.

And then(!) the volume wraps up with the lead-in to the Academy Knights arc…and more magic battles, lest we forget that this is a magic isekai. ^_^

Following the manga is a bonus story about Claire and Relaire bonding, which of course is ridiculously cute, and character descriptions.

Many thanks to Joshua Hardy on translation, Courtney Williams handling the lettering, Nicky Lim for the cover design and the rest of the team at Seven Seas for an enjoyable reading experience.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Service – 1 Very little for this series
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9