Archive for the Comic Yuri Hime Category


Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime , (コミック百合姫) January 2011

January 12th, 2011

And thus, the fourth era of Yuri has begun.

Ichijinsha has re-launched Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫), with an entirely new look, a slightly new feel and a new bimonthly publishing schedule.

Gone is the sweet snuggliness of Fujieda Miyabi or Hibiki Reine, gone is the stoic Eiki/Taishi look, gone is the moe-moe of Tsubaki Asu. Comic Yuri Hime Rebirth is heralded with violence and darkness…

…there is something so very, very wrong about this that I immediately loved it. ^_^

The whole experience begins immediately on the cover where, buried in the art, begins a short story by Fukami Makoto (writer of Vertigo, which I reviewed a few months ago), illustrated with slightly more blood than, maybe, strictly necessary, by Kazuaki – a tale of girls shooting each other with guns in sexy and pointless ways. It was great, but then, you know I love stories about homicidally violent women.

I laughed like a loon at the first page after the color art page, in which we are trained in the proper application of “Yuri Brain,” similar to our “Yuri Goggles.” Here we are taught how Yuri Brain shifts things to being Yuri, even when they are not, really. The example given is hilariously funny: In the real world, Junsui Adolescence *is* Yuri, and K-ON! and Grappler Baki are *not* Yuri. With Yuri brain, only Grappler Baki remains on the “not Yuri” side of the equation. With that kind of sense of humor upfront on this magazine – and the girls with gun fetishes wtf-ness in the cover story – I was primed and ready to read the new Comic Yuri Hime and hopeful that we can leave some, if not all, of the moe blob blandness behind us.

The volume gets off to a good start with Takemiya Jin’s story of two sisters who have a radically different approach to love. Takemiya does great short series, and has really leveled up in the past year or two of working professionally.

Techno Samata’s story of cool girl/uncool girl left me feeling lukewarm, but only because I’ve seen it done a lot recently and I clearly need a few chapters to warm up to any story.

Way back in the 90s, Mist magazine used to label all their stories – “Coming Out,” “Second Love,” etc, so you kind of knew what categories a story might fall into. Sakamoto Mano’s “Pie wo Agemasho, anata ni pie o ne” is handily labeled “90% Bitter and about the same Sweet, Love.” Even more interestingly, this label is in a creole of Japanese and English that totally works in either language. For the label alone I would have liked this story, but in addition, the story fascinated me right away as it took two typical characters, subverted the way they were handled, then threw them into the Yuri blender to see what happens. What happens is a very unlikely love.

Also new for the Rebirth, btw, there is contact info for all the creators – snail mail only, which I thought was kind of cute and old-school. Of course so many of them are on Twitter, it’s easy enough to reach them. (Start by following my Yuri Artists and Writers list to get a head start on it.)

“Fu~Fu” takes Kina-chan and Su-chan on a whirlwind tour of their own feelings about their relationship when another female couple moves in next door. When Komugi and Hayase are so upfront about their relationship, it inspires Kina to level up the love-love talk as well. This series is a like a refreshing drink of water, even as it wallows in its own silliness. We need about a dozen more series like this.

Tanaka Minoru takes a few well-covered tropes – two women meeting at a group date, cell phone madness and emotional awkwardness and sews them together for “Mettesarete Kya-”

Uso Kurata takes a look at a different story in the RPG world of “Sore demo Yappari Koi o Suru.” A young girl befriends a good looking guy in virtual reality, but is able to see right past superficial appearances to the jaded woman behind the character.

Takahashi Mako returns with a less drippy, and slightly less dark story in “Kobako no Tegami.” This is followed by only about 30 pages of “Yuru Yuri” which contained one amusing gag relating to the use of color in some of the pages. At 30 pages, it was totally tolerable. Perhaps the cancer is at last in remission.

I have not had a chance to read the short story by Morita Kisetsu that follows, but the illustrations do not give me much hope. This is followed up with a chapter of “Para Yuri Hime,” and an essay by Miura Shion on the volleyball manga Shoujo Fight, which I also have not had time to do more than just scan. I hope to have some time in the near future to actually read these….

“Yuki no Yosei” was another cool girl/uncool girl story. I feel like I’ve read too many of this in the recent past to really like them, but this one was sweet enough.

I’m sorry, I can’t even remember “Lost Girl,” the story that follows. Looking at it now, I don’t remember a single thing about it.

Yeah, I’m still skipping “Mugen no Minami” and I don’t expect that to change, ever.

Love on the school rooftop in “Twinkle Little Secret” was cute, but also kind of retread. “Onna no Karada” by Konno Kita was almost Mist-like in content, but much gentler in art style. This was a nice exploration of the mental hurdles of getting to “couplehood” for two women.

I would like to apologize sincerely to Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki for my presumption. They are doing *exactly* what I thought they were going to do, but they are totally not doing it the way I expected and, as a result, “Love DNA Double XX” is not nearly as excruciating as I had feared. Carry on ladies. I’ll trust you to know what you’re doing.

Morishima Akiko-sensei and her editor Poin have a chance to meander through a number of topics – some sillier than others – in a short column called “himecafe.” This is followed by messages from the contributors to the magazine and some suggestions for good reads and watches from the editors of the magazine.

Another thrilling chapter of “Black Cat Mansion” brings two girls together and gives us a hint that the mistress of the mansion has a story of her own.

You know what? Hiyori Otsu could draw a story about absolutely nothing and I’d love it. Thank god she draws Yuri.

“Musou Honey” basically is much like everything Mikuni Hachime writes, with lots of flailing and hurty faces. This chapter has slightly less depantsing than usual, so I guess that’s a win.

“Renai Joshika” turns back to the very first couple, Arisu and Saki, as they take their first steps together as a couple. Immediately an ex pops up to plague them, but it’s not really a crisis at all. Ow, ow, my cheeks hurt from smiling. Ow.

Are we ready? I know I am. I know I am VERY, VERY ready for this chapter of “Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan,” in which Seriho makes it VERY, VERY plain what the ring she gave to Sarasa means and what it means for Sarasa to accept it. Squeee! Ow, ow, my heart. Ow!

Which just about wraps up this exceedingly chock-filled to the brim with a bunch of different kinds of Yuri issue…but, wait, there’s more! Just before we close the final pages, there’s “Kimono Nadesico,” a little 4-panel strip full of lovely classic cosplay, in the sense of kimono and archery uniforms and the like.

So – overall, there is something here for just about everybody. Action, romance, guns, girls, women, realism and fantasy. If you can’t find something you like in the new Comic Yuri Hime – seriously, it’s you.

Ratings –

Overall – 9

Great start to the new era. Let’s go Yuri!





Yuri Manga: Sayonara Folklore

January 6th, 2011

You know how it is – you join a club, start a new hobby or take lessons in something, and find that there’s a whole freaking mythology attached to it. Rituals, jargon of course, and all these unwritten rules that no one tells you, but you gotta know.

In Sayonara Folklore, (さよならフォークロア) Hayase has gone to this school for years, so she knows that you do *not* touch anyone on Monday, and if you do, there’s a little incantation that must be recited. But Mashiro has just transferred in, and does not know these things. Hayase explains –  we do not touch on Monday, because not too long ago two girls did – and they fell in love, became lovers and tried to die together. Therefore, if you don’t recite the charm, you might fall in love with whomever touched you…and that would be bad. Of course Hayase explains this after Mashiro has touched her…on a Monday.

At first Mashiro is amused, then annoyed and finally, frightened by this stupid ritual that forces Hayase to continually reject her touch.

By the time the rumors have traveled through the school and the teachers find out, it’s too late for Hayase and Mashiro – they have indeed fallen in love. The “Monday curse” has come to pass. When Hayase refuses to deny the relationship, they are separated. Hayase is left in an attic room to reflect on her behavior. In that room, she find letters from one girl to another…  Mashiro, never one to play by the rules, climbs to the dormer room to be reunited with Hayase, who has now learned the truth about the two girls who originated the Monday curse.

This story and a short omake about a woman and her animal-eared maid, are by Kowo Kazuma, one of my current favorite artists. Kowo-sensei just manages to reach into my chest and squeeze my heart. I never really understand why, but her work always touches  me. Something about the art makes me *care* about the characters in a way that few other artist’s work does, and this feeling extends to her non-Yuri work, as well. I love Kowo-sensei’s story in Rakuen le Paradis, “Dear Tear”.

More objectively, this is a nice little Story A with a silly setup that manages to remain sustainable through the volume (unlike, say, Zettai Shoujo Astoria, in which the zOMG thing just gets left behind, then picked up again later and explained away badly.) This is not a major work of literature, but it is a good solid read, especially if you like stories of schoolgirls in love, with a teeny “human tribes create ritual and taboo” driver.

Ratings:

Art – 7, but I like it 9
Story – 7
Characters – 7, but I like them 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 9 for me, but your mileage may vary, depending on how you feel about Kowo’s work.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S (コミック百合姫) Volume 14

November 22nd, 2010

Yuri Hime S, Volume 14 is the final volume of Yuri Hime S (百合姫 S). Around for almost 4 full years, it has now been merged into Comic Yuri Hime. A listing of the stories that will be carried over from both magazines can be found on the Comic Yuri Hime website, along with the new works debuting.

This final volume doesn’t particularly feel final, though. Most of the stories continue on just as they always have. It starts off with “Shinagami Alice,” a story that has always felt to me as if it’s limping along waiting to develop a plot or be killed. Having survived a first collected volume, it appears to be trying to develop a plot. The introduction of a new character, Masaki’s relative, brings a teeny little thread of normality into what has been a free-floating “where? when? what?” kind of story. Then the Goth-Loli bad Shinigami comes back and that’s all completely blown.

Color news pages cover mobile visual novels and games that are pure Fanboy material, a “Girls Festival” hosted by Animate and Tamayura which I have been watching and still don’t see anything even remotely, slightly, sort of  Girls’ Love-ish about. It’s sweet. I like it. But Girls’ Love? Not so far.

Naoe Marimo’s “Hime to Mahou-tsukai” is a cute little confection about a Princess and a Witch, obviously.

“My Steady” by Yamura Marika follows a young woman and the older woman she loves.

Then comes “Fu~Fu” by Minamoto Hisanari. I was thinking about the spelling of “Fu-Fu” the other day. Although the first chapter discusses the etymology of the  kanji for the phrase “fu~fu,” (which is to say, the character for “wife” twice) the title itself is spelled using Hiragana. ふ~ふ. And I wondered about that, because the blowing of wind is rendered that way. You may recall my review of the first Strawberry Panic Light Novel in Japanese, in which I commented on the excessive winds at Miator. (fuu~ fuu~) So, it occurred to me that, perhaps, we were meant to be reminded of the sound of wind blowing with the name rendered in Hiragana as it is. It certainly has become a breath of fresh air blowing through Yuri Hime S for many of us.

This chapter follows Kina and Su-chan on a trip (designed by Kana, Kina’s older sister) that is their de facto honeymoon. Meanwhile, we see a new couple moving in next door and learn that they too are a “Yuri couple!” I predict “noises heard through the walls” jokes in future chapters.

Skipping “Mugen no Minamo” as I always do, which leads to “Marriage Black” which continues to be fraught, violent and full of unresolved tension of about twenty kinds. Lu-Chie becomes Lilicia’s guardian angel by swearing that she, and none other, shall be the one to take Lilicia’s life.

In “Flower Flower” Shuu *finally* makes it plain that when she says she likes Nina, she means in a “want to kiss you” way.

I skip a second chapter of “Mugen no Minamo” and move on to the next chapter of “Cassiopeia Dolce” in which Ana goes through crisis number 870 in between getting dressed and undressed. I did very much like the handful of eyeballs, though.

“Zettai Shoujo Astoria” comes to an end with one of the very lamest endings I’ve ever read. It really made all the screaming and running around seem pretty silly and pointless. But that’s over, so we can move on to…

“Okkake Girls” has developed a sort of plot, as Marin has decided to devote herself to becoming an Otokoyaku.

And finally, *100* pages of Namori’s “Yuru Yuri,” which I have felt is utterly without interest since the very beginning. It’s obvious that the editors at Ichijinsha love this series, since the page count has been steadily growing every volume, but 100 pages????? That’s a whole 25% of the book! Can you say the word “excessive?” And worse, it’s going to be in the new magazine. I can’t wait until the day all the other stories are just jettisoned for 400 pages of this totally nothing story with barely any Yuri. BLEAH. Two thumbs down for this waste of ink.

And so, Yuri Hime S comes to a close with a really big yawn. Which it totally did not have to do.

Ratings:

Overall – 7, with two points off for 100 pages of zzzz, I mean “Yuru Yuri.”





Yuri Manga: Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen, Volume 2

November 21st, 2010

Ah, young love. It’s all drama all the time. Especially when you’re a human who has accidentally found their way to the youkai world and fallen in love with a two-tailed cat-girl spirit.

Tokimeki Mononoke Gakuen, Volume 2 picks up just at the end of Volume 1. Arare and Kiri are in love, that much is obvious, but they’ve got something important standing between them and consummation of that love – the fact that if they have sex Arare will cease to be human and will become a youkai herself! Her situation isn’t made easier when she meets Akina, a youkai who tells her that she herself made that choice.

As much as they desire one another, this simple fact keeps them apart. And, it is this simple fact that causes them to fight and causes Arare to run off, unaware that Pero has followed her. When Arare ends up back in the human world Pero is somehow dragged along. Awkward, but not unbearable…until the human world starts to make Pero sick. Now Arare has a more pressing problem – if she doesn’t get back to the world of the youkai, Pero may die!

I have had a strong belief that I knew what the end of this series was going to be from waayyyyy back in the story. As soon as we heard, in fact, that Arare would become a youkai if she made love to a youkai, I pretty much assumed I knew what the ending was going to be. It seemed so *obvious!* I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I will say this – I could not have been wronger. ^_^;

The ending was cute, the ending was happy…it just didn’t do anything like I expected it to. So kudos to creator Nangoku Banana for finding a unique, creative way out of that well. (That phrase has a story behind it. My Dad was telling me a story of a serial he read when he was a kid – one of those adventure things, you know. The hero was bound, at the bottom of a well, no one around for miles, no tools to rescue himself with, etc, etc. End of chapter. Next chapter began, “Once out of the well…” We use that phrase around my house to signify cheating your way out of corners you’ve written yourself into.)

No doubt Kiri and Arare will live happily ever after.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 8

This series is still not for the prudish. It’s more serious than Volume 1, and slightly less outrageous, but still pretty over-the-top.

On another note, if you are interested in the youkai portrayed in this story and don’t want to wade through a lot of tedious academic research or historical stuff, I recommend Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt’s Yokai Attack!, a fun “field guide” to youkai you might encounter and how to deal with them if you do.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6 (百合姫 Wildrose)

October 17th, 2010

I know, I know. I said I was done with this series. I say that sometimes. But then I need another item or two to make an order on Amazon JP worth it, so…

Anyway, here we are in Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6 (百合姫 Wildrose) and while I am not dancing a joyful “this is it!” dance, I’m not gritting my teeth or anything, either. And perhaps the folks at Yuri Hime are getting comments that echo my own, because in it’s own PWP way, this volume of Wildrose steps up its game by a notch.

This is most apparent in the first story of the volume, “Yume no Hanashi,” in which Naho is moved to tears when she realizes that she is not alone in her school as a girl who loves other girls. Given that recently the US is dealing with reports of young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth struggling against  prejudice and abuse from not just the people around them but from the leaders of their communities, who don’t seem to care that their casual homophobia is inciting acts of hate and intolerance…this message is an incredibly powerful one. And, given that Wildrose does tend to be rather more superficial than sensitive, and almost all Yuri avoids complications of awareness and identity, this simple acknowledgement of how alone a LGBTQ young person can feel and how important just knowing that you are not alone, is an amazingly powerful statement. It was a strong opening for the volume.

Again, in “Moment Like Fireworks,” the continuation of Nanzaki Iku’s ShizNat-esque couple, Sayo and Ritsuko’s story, Sayo first introduces Ri-chan as a friend to an old classmate , then corrects it to a “good friend,” and then backtracks, explaining that she and her girlfriend would like some alone time to engage in some love talk. Sayo later apologizes for not making the point right away, but Ritsuko expresses understanding and gratitude.

There were a few stories where younger women had to work a little harder at getting their point across to their older lover, and one story in which a Devil tries to ruin an Angel, only to be thwarted by her purity and love (a very cute story, I thought. It seems obvious to me that the real danger is that the Devil will start to feel “Love” and go good.)

There are a few stories which are not “good” in the big picture – one in which a not-very-veiled threat of suicide brings two lovers back together did not, to me, seem to be a good ending to a relationship that just needed to end. Relationships do that sometimes.  But then there’s something like “Houkago Berry Girl” which was just…silly. It made no statements, had nothing deep to impart, but was cute.

My major complaints about the Wildrose stories are that they have basically been retreads of “Story A” and left me feeling empty at best and quite often icky. This time I felt like they had actually stepped up their game, with more established couples and even some “lesbian identity” in a few of those stories.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m back on the wagon for Wildrose 7.