Archive for the Series Category


Yuri Manga: Yagate Kimi ni Naru (やがて君になる )

January 6th, 2016

YKNN-275x390Nakatani Nio’s Yagate Kimi ni Naru (やがて君になる ) is a sweet little Yuri romance that I both enjoyed a lot and also have several real problems with.

Yuu begins high school with a major burden. A guy she went to middle school with has confessed his feelings and has been waiting patiently for her answer. Yuu really has just no idea at all whether she “likes” this guy. He’s nice, but her feelings for him are…nothing. She doesn’t find herself getting the kind of heart-pounding that the girls around her talk about.

Touko is a popular honor student and member of the Student Council who is well-known for rejecting all suitors. Thinking that she’s found someone like her, Yuu offers to help Touko in her duties for the Council.

But not too long after, Touko leans over and kisses Yuu, admitting that she’s fallen in like. Yuu feels conflicted – she likes Touko, and admires her, but she feels betrayed, as well. But after this, Yuu finds it in herself to give the guy who confessed an answer – she says a gentle sorry, and his response is a gentle thanks.

Yuu’s like and admiration win out over her confusion and she is by Touko’s side as the older girl runs for Student Council President in the coming year.

Touko and Yuu have a talk, in which Yuu explains her position and Touko hers, and they agree to continue as they are and see what happens. Which brings us to the end of the first volume.

Before I offer criticism, let me begin with praise. All the characters feel real. The school has boys in it and they are not disappeared and only one has been drawn faceless, a shortcut I find rather grotesque. This is a world with males and females and they aren’t all the same. There are admirable and decent guys, as well as admirable and decent girls. This, above all things, is a refreshing change in what has increasingly become a cloistered Yuri world.

The art is clean and typical for a shoujo manga – which this not. It is from Dengeki Comics and I think that’s notable. Yuri is not uncommon from Dengeki, but more often than not is of the highly service-y kind. So it is super encouraging to see them putting out a nice, rather than vaguely icky, Yuri series.

All this having been said, I need to bring up two important issues I have with this manga. The first is that it is presented as a romance. The story is apparently that we’ll side with Touko as her sincere feelings for Yuu are eventually returned. This is a problem. I’ve very active on Quora, a Q&A site on which one of the most common questions asked goes something like this: “How come this girl said no to me, when my like is so sincere?” I’m not making this up. The presumption many young men have is that their sincere feelings are a kind of contract, which must be returned by the object of their affection. If not, she is of course a bitch (or worse).

The thing that is obvious to many not-young women is that no guy is owed anything just because he has an idea in his head of what he’d like.  This is a very serious problem globally, apparently. These guys feel that their sincerity means they deserve the girl. And, to some extent, that is how this scenario is presented. Touko’s feeling are honest and sincere, so of course Yuu will come around to falling for her. But why? If Yuu doesn’t feel it, why do we assume she must eventually do so? This bugs me a lot. In real life, on Quora and in media.

Which leads me to the, I think, obvious conclusion abut Yuu. What if she’s asexual? If so, she’s never going to have those feelings for Touko or anyone. She might come to love Touko and continue to admire and like her, but never have sexual interest in her. So, then I can’t help but see Touko’s coming on (to be crude) to Yuu as another burden, rather than a blessing.

Both these things nag at me while I read this manga. And I worry that Yuu’s agency will be stripped from her as the narrative continues.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 8, with the above reservations

The upshot is, that while this manga has some good qualities and it definitely is making a splash in Yuri circles, I think the story also has some problems, which I hope Volume 2 address satisfactorily, rather than just throwing Yuu into the Yuri factory.





Yuri Manga: Shortcake to Kase-san. ( ショートケーキと加瀬さん。)

January 4th, 2016

StKastH-275x389I’d like to give a copy of Takasaki Hiromi’s Shortcake to Kase-san. ( ショートケーキと加瀬さん。) to every Yuri fan in the world as an example of schoolgirl Yuri that presses all the buttons and almost completely manages to not be a skankfest of creepy.

Kase-san and Yamada-san, (who we met in Asagao to Kase-san and have followed through Obentou to Kase-san) enter their final summer of high school and together they enjoy the living fuck out of it. Pool, cake and a little heavy petting is pretty much the standard menu for every senior high school experience.

Of course, weighing on Yamada’s mind is their inevitable upcoming split as Kase-san will head off to Tokyo. Yamada has no particular plans, but was vaguely thinking about sticking around and going to the local university. In an emotional, yet strangely silly ending, they resolve this big problem and, we assume, live happily ever after.

There are a few panels that I, as an editor, would have redrawn, but it is apparent to me that there is no manga being published completely free of the burden of serving the imagination of the imagination-less. But with those few exceptions, this is a sweet, silly, and realistic look at young love.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Character – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 8
For my first review of 2016, I wanted something pretty damn good. This, as schoolgirl Yuri goes, is pretty damn good. ^_^





Hayate x Blade 2 (Nyan), Volume 3 Manga (はやて×ブレード2 3)

December 16th, 2015

HxB23-275x394Since 2004, I have been raving about this series and since about 2007 or so, I have taken to commenting that, statistically speaking, we are overdue for a less awesome volume. So far, statistics have been on our side, as Hayate x Blade 2 (Nyan), Volume 3 (はやて×ブレード2 3) is just as ridiculous and magnificent as every other volume of this series to date.

Histugi’s Summer Festival is in full swing, and her unique ideas for an obstacle course are…unique. Regular students take up the sword to defeat Heaven fighters, all interestingly restrained, while their Earth partners make their way through the sports clubs as obstacles to find the buzzers that release the restraints.

In the middle of the chaos Hayate and Nagi face off. But this, we can see, is not the final chapter in this tale. Nagi is the stronger…but she shouldn’t be.  What is really eating at Nagi and why Hayate can no longer stand toe to toe with her twin remains to be explored. And we have to wonder if it’s tied into the reason that their adoptive mother Nagare takes off after their adoptive father, Taiyou, with a knife when she sees him. ^_^

School is back in session and we all know what that means! The Hoshitori is about to commence. New rules, new matchups and more sword-fighting madness is on the horizon. I can’t wait!

The extra chapter was so funny that my wife commented that even not being able to read the Japanese, she laughed at it. You remember back at the winter semester break, Otoha found herself joining a Native American tribe on a buffalo hunt, and meeting a doppelganger for Hitsugi? No? How on earth could you forget that? I mean, it was a buffalo hunt. Anyway, the doppelganger’s name was Sanba, she told Kiji to call her “Sunny.” In the extra chapter here in Volume 3, Sunny and Hitsugi meet and, as you might expect, something amazing happens. In this case, they take off like a rocket ship and fly away together, returning three days later after having raided Tokyo Disneyland, Otome Road and Skytree.

Ratings:

Art – 10 There are more then 40 main characters and I can tell them apart.
Story – 10 Sublime, especially when Hitsugi and Shizuku are going to be shot out of barrels.
Characters – 10 Did I mention that Hitsugi and Shizuku are going to be shot out of barrels?
Yuri – 1 for Jun on principle
Service – 1 for Jun on principle

Overall – 10

Always, always, always Hayate x Blade is a ridiculously silly, ridiculously violent, and ridiculously satisfying read.

 





Sailor Moon Anime, Season 2 Part 1 Disk 3 (English)

December 9th, 2015

SMR21It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! For the first time ever in the US on legal media, Sailor Moon Season 2 Part 1 Disk 3 brings us the two most amazing episodes of Sailor Moon R, in which Chibi-Usa is saved by dinosaurs and in which Chibi-USA wets the bed.

Oh, and the plot officially starts in the last episode of the disk, too.

I wish I was kidding, but I’m not.

What is there to say about this disk? We spend a lot of time feeling bad for Chibi-Usa, but she’s really hard to feel bad for. It’s obvious she’s terrified, lonely and miserable, but she compensates for it by being a jerk – which is totally human, but no less annoying when she does it than when anyone else does. Like Mamoru, who is also being a jerk for the same reasons. It is at least a little more understandable when a 5 year old is a jerk because she’s scared than when the jerk is an adult. It’s still not all that fun.

Technically, any previous issues with the BD/DVD appear to have been resolved, and although the translation sometimes slips into odd slang – “you must find her, stat” (who knew Luna was on a doctor drama!)  – it’s all pretty smooth sailing technically.

The original animation has sunk low again, compensating for poor art with hypersaturated colors. And poor Mamoru continues to have appalling taste in workout gear.

But…as I sat working to the sounds of Ai no Senshi playing too loudly from the TV in the climactic fight of the series while eating Sicilian lemon pocky (it’s pronounced poe-kee, not pah-kee, btw,) I enjoyed a moment of pure, heavenly otaku nerdliness…and all was right in the world. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4, until the last episode
Characters – 6, because it is mostly Chibi-Usa
Yuri – 0
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 6, until the last episode, then 8

Thanks again to Viz Media for a review copy and a chance to remember how annoying Chibi-Usa is…even though I know I’m going to cry at the and of this season. (T_T)





Sailor Stars to debut in North America on December 14

December 4th, 2015

Sailor-Moon-Viz-MediaThere will be no YNN report this weekend, as I will be busy with, among other things, visiting Derpycon, a little local general con and seeing what they’ve got going on. Instead, I’m rounding out this week with some major news from Viz Media:

SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL has captivated anime fans and the series continues this month with the English dubbed premiere of Episodes 4-7 of the Dark Kingdom Arc with one new episode added every Friday. New dubbed episodes from the classic SAILOR MOON anime series will continue to debut every Monday throughout December. The classic anime also continues with SAILOR MOON SUPER S (Season 4) Episodes 164-166 set to premiere ahead of the start of the streaming premiere of the never before seen in North America SAILOR MOON SAILOR STARS (Season 5) on Monday, December 14th with Episode 167.

Something to look forward to!