Archive for the Comic Yuri Hime Category


Yuri Manga: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, Volume 3 (犬神さんと猫山さん)

December 19th, 2014

istns3Here we are at Volume 3 of Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san (犬神さんと猫山さん) and…I’m not tired of it yet. Why? I don’t know, but I’m not! There’s something about Kuzushiro’s characters that make them completely not-boring to me. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a gag comic this much since…well, ever really.

So here we are and Nekoyama is fully invested in being too interested in Inugami, with no real way to express herself, while Inugami wears her heart on her sleeve.  We follow Aki for a good portion of the book and get a new seasonal addition with her Kendo sempai Touko (whose name is written with the character for “winter.”) Most of the other animals take a back seat to  to Ryuuzaki and Torao. And we see that indeed, they are the couple they appear to be. In addition to Otome and Mari, we get to see Nekoyama’s older sister, Tamaki with her girlfriend. So the Yuri level is significantly higher than previous volumes.

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For the rest, it’s basically a balanced mix of genuine emotion and excruciating jokes that I nonetheless laugh out loud at.

What is it about this comic that I like so much? It’s taken me a while to nail it down, but I think I’ve figured it out. Kuzushiro-sensei likes these character and as a result, so do I. ^_^  Despite the animal puns, there’s a sense of depth to all the characters (except Torikai). While we’re mostly seeing the silly side, every once in a while we see that depth – just a glimpse – and it convinces us that time spent in this boisterous crowd is time well spent.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Character – 7
FanService – 6
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

Apparently the key to a good gag comic is not one loud joke-cracking annoying character, but about half a dozen of them all at once. ^_^

This volume is also available on Kindle for folks with Japanese IP addresses.

 





Yuri Manga: Pastel Days (ぱすてるディズ)

December 16th, 2014

pasteldaysYou cannot judge Yui Hinako’s Pastel Days (ぱすてるディズ)  by its cover. Like Fujisawa Makoto’s Himitsu no Kakera from last week, I found it to be a surprisingly satisfying read.

The first story is roughly drawn, and is a pretty basic “Story A” set in a typical school setting.

The second story, although the art is still very moe, follows the meeting of two adult friends and how they both come to realize their relationship is more than just friends.

The third story goes back to the rough style and is again a old friends story with some passive-aggressive hijinks for spice.

It’s the fourth story, “Ai no Tane” which elevated this book for me. Set in an office, Oono is really irritated by Sasaki-san. She’s just so damn cheerful all the time and hangs around with suspicious men and…she’s just annoying, right?

Sasaki immediately recognizes this for what it is and asks “Do you like me?” Oono denies it, but it’s only a matter of time before Sasaki pushes away the lame excuses Oono has for not admitting what is obvious to all of us.  What really makes the story work is the third co-worker, who also sees what’s going on but is completely taken aback when, the day after Oono left alone and fuming, she and Sasaki come in the next day, all smiles. The art by now has tightened up considerably, as well, with better production and finishing.

In the fifth story Haru and Hana are roommates, but when Hana mentions that she’s got a marriage offer, everything changes between them.

The final story follows two sisters who go away for an onsen holiday so they can have alone time.

Interestingly, all these stories were originally doujinshi. This is an original collection by Yuri Hime Comics, nothing that has run in the pages of the magazine. Its not going to be a go-to book, but I definitely smiled more than I frowned. While I did not love every story, I found myself enjoying most of them.

 

Ratings:

Art – Variable, her art improved vastly between 2012 and 2014
Stories – Average 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 3 1 on principle, +2 for the infantalizing of adults

Overall – Let’s call it an 8

 

This was a nice before-bed read. Nothing harsh on the sensibilities and “Ai no Tane” had a punchline that actually made me laugh out loud. For that, it was totally worth my time.

The book is also available on Kindle for those with  JP IP address.





Yuri Manga: Philosophia

December 11th, 2014

philosophiaAmano Shuninta’s Philosophia began its life as a series of doujinshi. I was fortunate enough to get some, but not all, of them, when I attended the 2011 Girls Love Fest event. I was never able to get the entire run so of course was thrilled that Yuri Hime Comics had collected the whole set for me and published it as a single volume.

The story is told from the perspective of a young college student, Ai-chan, who meets and bonds with college sempai  Shi over smoking and coffee. Shi is hard to understand or get to know, and Ai resistant to the idea that she might be “interested” in her. But after Shi falls ill, and it’s Ai who gets her to the hospital, it’s impossible for Ai to ignore her feelings, as confused and confounded by Shi as she is.

Shi, who has been very aware of Ai’s interest has made it all but impossible for Ai to get to know anything about her life. In the middle of the series, we learn why. In part it has to do with a complicated love-hate relationship with her family and especially her young stepmother, with whom her relationship is exceptionally complicated.

We also look back at Ai’s relationships and her inability to really understand like or love. She’s mortified at herself for liking, perhaps, loving Shi, when the other woman clearly prefers to remain at an emotional distance.

Shi contacts Ai once more to let her know that she’s going out of the country. Ai finds out when her plane leaves and meets her at the airport. Shi kisses Ai, but it’s clearly because this is “Goodbye.” Shi will never return home.

Ai goes on to become a teacher, but in a new epilogue, she meets a half-sister Shi does not know she has who is a dead ringer for Shi.

To say that this is a series for adults is not an understatement. The feelings here are complex, nuanced, complicated and fundamentally not “happy” or “sad.” Barring the epilogue, this is a story that might very well take place in the real world and, as such, does not have an impetus to end, much less happily ever after. As I say, it’s a book for adult tastes.

The epilogue, which was drawn especially for this volume, posed a unique problem for me. I, not having a twin, but being a common “type” am frequently mistaken for other people. Nonetheless, I’d like to think that I, as a human, have an individual “me”-ness that precludes someone who found me interesting being able to simply transfer those feelings to a simulacrum, which is kind of the set up here. Ai will now have a “new” Shi to get to know, hopefully one unburdened by the complicated life of the other. But…really? Because although this person looks like Shi, what is the likelihood that she is like Shi, but without the baggage? And worse, they meet because they are teacher and student, which ideally puts another layer of  emotional distance between them. So, while the meeting is presented as a reboot of a sort, I feel that if Ai and Shi were real people, then it would not make Ai happy to have this Shi-alike in her class, particularly. ^_^;

Shuninta-sensei’s art is already pretty strong in this series, with her characteristic style almost fully developed. And to my recollection, I hadn’t seen any recent Yuri manga in which cigarettes and coffee were such important plot devices, so it was both nostalgic and modern at the same time.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – Complex, real, not tidy at all 10
Story – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 8

I very much liked that the characters’ names were incorporated into the title. Ai (Love) + Shi (Wisdom) = Philo + Sophia

An adult read, which went down smoothly and left a strong aftertaste. A refreshing change of pace from featureless characters in Yuri pantomimes.





Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Kakera (秘密のカケラ)

December 5th, 2014

himitsunokakeraFujisawa Makoto’s Himitsu no Kakera (秘密のカケラ) is the pleasantest thing I have read all week. ^_^

The cover story “Sore wo Omoi no Kakera” features to goat-horned school girls. When one hands over what is clearly a love letter, her love interest eats it. Yuki tries to explain that Yoru’s feelings tasted delicious, but it’s not until Yoru gives her Yuki gives a love letter in return and is immediately driven to eat it that she understands.

This is followed by two very short, average stories. I was getting a bit worried that this would be just another Yuri manga, when we hit “Hontou to Uso to Himitsu.”

The bulk of the book is taken up with this truly delightful story about a witch with a secret identity and the girl she meets one night while out riding her broom. This story was adorable and fun in every way and it made me feel good while reading it.  Even the set up turned out better than I thought it might – at first Sakurako seems like she’s going to be following a step along, but once she and Misors (the witch) meet at school, the story flips the script and she’s  an active participant in their tale. Even Bianca’s apparent tsundere behavior sort of wanders off, so by the end of the story, there isn’t anybody left to not like and one is rooted hard for the protagonists. As I said, a real delight.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Very Comic Yuri Hime house style, not overly infantilized, but still moe.
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7 Like, mostly
Service – 3

Overall – 9

Good, good, good all around. Buy it – read it, look at the pretty pictures, whatever, but do get Himitsu no Kakera!





Yuri Manga: Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (明日の君に花束を)

December 4th, 2014

AshitanokiminiKatakura Ako’s Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (明日の君に花束を) is a collection of shorts from Comic Yuri Hime and while there are a number of reasonably typical setups – sempai and kouhai with varying levels of complexity – but there is one story that really stood out.

“Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” – which supplies the cover image is a multichapter piece about a girl who falls for her friend’s mother…and another chapter about the friend’s feeling about this. It’s hard to feel completely comfortable with the story, though, as the mother is married and the father is alive and well. This story fills most of the middle of this volume. It both likable and unlikable in mesure – and often for the same reasons. For the feeling of being made uncomfortable by a story one is actually enjoying, this is worth reading. It’s good leavening.

All the stories get one-page epilogues in the final section of the book, and to be honest the epilogue for “Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” is no less unsettling.

Katakura-sensei’s art is pretty solid, vaguely reminiscent of Konno Kita, without the air of refinement.

Ratings:

Art – 8 YMMV, but I like it
Story – 6
Characters – 6 We have no time with anyone, except Yukuko, through whose eyes we see the relationship between her mother and friend
Yuri – 7
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I probably would not suggest this book to a Yuri beginner, but it’s a decent enough collection.