Archive for the Series Category


Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 2 (山田と加瀬さん)

December 16th, 2020

Happy anniversary to Takashima Hiromi-sensei for 10 years of Kase-san and Yamada.  Who could have imagined that, when the series debuted in 2010 in Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, we’d be still  be following Yamada and Kase-san a decade later? It’s an absolute triumph of will that here we are at Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 2 (山田と加瀬さん).

College life has presented a number of challenges to Yui and Tomoka, both personally and relationship-wise. They are no longer able to see each other every day. Yui still has an unfortunate tendency to default to low self-esteem thinking, but a trip to the seashore with Mikawacchi and Hana seems just the thing to kick her out of her funk. Once there, she discovers that Tomoka is staying at the same inn! Only, of course, nothing is that simple. Tomoka and Yui eek out a few moments of time, and work on their own jealousy issues.

In the background a couple of interesting things are going on. Aikawa, Tomoka’s high school rival is hanging out with Fukami, Tomoka’s roommmate. And what on earth is going on with Fukami? Because something…definitely…is. 

We have watched over a decade as Takashima-sensei’s art has grown stronger and the characters become more who they are. And here we are, able to continue to enjoy that very thing Yamada and Kase-san in love. What a fantastic way to close out a brilliant (if slightly surreal) year for Yuri. ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 9

Happy 10th anniversary to Yui and Tomoka, and to Takashima-sensei…and to us! We’ve all come a long way. ^_^

I couldn’t wait for this to arrive in print, so I picked it up on Global Bookwalker.  ^_^





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 16

December 11th, 2020

This volume of Yoshimurakana’s series begins with a wholly gratuitous lesbian sex scene. Later in the volume there is another. Just in case you wondered if there was any reason to read Volume 16 of MURCIÉLAGO.
There are, of course, other reasons to read this volume, but they are much less lesbian in nature. ^_^ There’s also a surprising number of baths for a series that is about serial killers.

The “Comedy Writer” arc proceeds and both of the obvious culprits are obvious, so the story isn’t nearly as much about who as about why and what. One of the things I genuinely love about the series is that the creepy weirdness always has a why, but you’d be hard pressed to explain it to anyone.

Hinako is an endless source of contemplation, as well. She comes extremely close to beserkering her way to killing someone, and it’s only the timely interference of Chacha who keeps her from becoming someone she’s always far, far too close to becoming.

Once again, I find myself reminded that this series is not “good” in the sense of being likely to survive ages of literary criticism, but I will argue that it it timeless and, as an homage to Lovecraft’s oeuvre, as good as any.

We are just about caught up now to the Japanese volumes. I only just reviewed Volume 17 in Japanese last month. Volume 17 in English doesn’t yet have a pre-order up. We’re all just about as current as we can be. So the pace of creative murders and ugly sex is going to be a little slower. I don’t honestly know whether that’s good…or bad! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 10,000
Yuri – 10, but its ugly

Overall – 8

This series has, as I said in my review of the Japanese volume, an explicit not-quite consensual lesbian sex scene, some generic bathing scenes, and extraordinary violence and a creepy murderer. Oddly, not one of these things involve Kuroko. She spends the volume having a polite conversation before killing someone neatly and quietly. And then she has some consensual sex.

 





The Rose of Versailles, Volume 2

December 6th, 2020

Unrest is starting to build among commoners as royal spending, bankrupts the country. while Oscar is struggling to balance unrest at home, in Paris and at Versailles. Rosalie is being pressured by her birth mother to come live with her, and her sister, the grifter Jeanne Valois, is at the center of one of the greatest scandals of the Queen’s life.

This volume is full of so many tears, it almost becomes comic….almost. It never is, because the cost of human suffering is as immeasurable in the 18th century as it is now, only we’re far more likely to have a bigger-picture understanding of it.

Nonetheless, Ikeda-sensei’s work makes understanding suffering almost unavoidable in fact, as she pinpoints individual stories in the middle of the greater situation. We’re more aware of the plight of Parisians in general because we spend time with Rosalie and Bernard.  We’re meant to understand them in a way we and Oscar will never understand the lack of empathy of the noble class.

Volume 2 of The Rose of Versailles is also one of the “Yuriest” volumes of this classic series in one sense and in another, not really. Jeanne implicates the Queen in the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace and, while testifying before the court, insists that she and the Queen were lesbian lovers. In addition, she accuses Oscar of being Marie Antoinette’s lover, as well. Oscar is not amused.

Her sentiment, a sneered “I Lord Oscar, lesbian? I’m breaking out in hives! To hell with you! What a joke!” is hard for us in 2020 to take at face value, when mere pages separate that and her repeated vow that had she been a man, she would have married Rosalie herself.

Volume 2 is about structural change. When the foundations of a building begin to crack, the people on the highest floors can feel the instability, even if they are initially insulated from the immediate damage. Once again, I’m reading this volume thinking it is just a little too on the money, as our society is shaking the foundations once again for all the very same reasons.

I want to shout out here to Jeannie Lee, whose lettering is so exceptional and to both Mari Morimoto and Jocelyne Allen for doing painstaking work on the translation. I’m still blown away by this gorgeous edition of a long-awaited classic manga. It was a privilege to have worked on it with them.

Ratings:

Art – 8 As Oscar matures, so does the art
Story – 8 Dense and melodramatic
Characters – 9 Everyone is flawed and human
Service – 5 Oscar in a uniform and in a dress.
Yuri – 1 No, but…kinda?

Overall – 8

 





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 15

December 3rd, 2020

Today’s review is a mostly-word for word quote from my review of this volume in Japanese. The plot hasn’t changed. ^_^

In MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 15 , we wrap up the Gold Marie redux arc with a somewhat unexpected reward for Kuroko. Narumi asks for physical contact. Kuroko is glad to oblige. When Narumi backs off, we see that Kuroko requires consent, which makes her a better person than most love interests in romantic comedies. ^_^

Kuroko and the gang are then launched into a creepy Elder God-inspired circus, (like circuses need to be any creepier than they already are.) A criminal from the past known as the Comedy Writer is back, and with the cover of the Bugg Shash circus, is manipulating people’s consciousness. It seems like more of the same – almost-supernatural hijinks and murder, except…

…what it actually becomes is kind of a cold case police procedural, in which questioning suspects is more than just a motivation for expository commentary.  What are the nature of the drug Francis and its relationship to Ceasare? Are they how the Comedy Writer manipulates people into deeply creepy actions or is it something else? Tsuru and Chacha are on the case! And, compared, with some of the previous arcs, this case might actually take their specific skills to crack.

My thanks to the folks at Yen Press for making what is kind of mush of a plot with three too-many things that really aren’t all that sensible, into something coherent and still pleasantly creepy. I do not envy translator Christine Dashiell’s job here. ^_^ Alexis Eckerman’s lettering gets a little chance to shine, with GIANT VOICEOVER shots. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 Horrific and freakish more than violent this time
Story – 8 Inexplicably weird
Characters – 8
Service – 4 Other than straight up nakedness, surprisingly not
Yuri – 4 In a different timeline Narumi and Kuroko would make a decent pair

Overall – 8

Many thanks to Yen Press for the review copy!





Rose of Versailles Anime Full Analysis Mook (ベルサイユのばら アニメ 大解剖)

November 22nd, 2020

One of the best things about shopping in a bookstore is the serendipity of finding a completely unexpected, marvelous, find. Over the years I’ve found all sorts of unexpectedly wonderful Yuri shopping in used bookstores like Mandarake and bookstores all over the world. This month I had the pleasure of coming around a corner at my localish Kinokuniya and finding a reprint of an older anime guidebook book of the Rose of Versailles anime. This is a “complete preserved edition” according to the cover. Actually, the cover has a lot to say! “A historical romance that continues to fascinate women all over Japan!” and “The fate of the Splendid Rose”.

The title of this publication is Berusaiyu no Bara Dai Kaibou (ベルサイユのばら アニメ 大解剖) which I’m translating as a “full” analysis rather than”big” but hopefully you get the point. This is one of those mooks with art from the series, character profiles, interviews, key scenes summarized with accompanying stills, a timeline, a full 40-episode synopsis, historical timeline of events and related art, character designs, scenery, and pages of series goods that are available. This volume includes title card gallery, still shot scene gallery, a color illustration gallery by Himeno Michi, interviews with Oscar’s voice actor, Tajima Reiko, Andre’s voice actor Shigaki Taro, and “Berubara Fan” and SKE48 member, Hata Sawako.

Well, that means this isn’t just an archival reproduction, but also has new content. The goods shown go at least as far current as the face masks, which I have bought for Oscar and Rosalie embracing on the packaging. ^_^

I’ve been so consumed with looking at the pretty pictures, I haven’t had a moment to read the interviews….but I’ll get there. In the meantime there’s a lot of shiny to look through.

So if the UDON edition of The Rose of Versailles manga has whetted your appetite for more, take a look at this lovely book in your spare time, while waiting for some company to re-license the anime for streaming.

Ratings:

Overall –  10

If you, like Hata-san, are a Berubara fan, this mook is a treasure chest of shiny melodrama and fun.