Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Volume 1

June 11th, 2021

Sahoko shows up at a reunion for her high school class. As she greets people she hasn’t seen in a while, she’s on the look out for someone else who is not there. and isn’t expected to attend. Adult Sahoko casts her mind back to her school days, when she was always looking out for the other girl…

In school, Sahoko is popular. She wants to be popular. It’s pretty much the most important thing to her. So her own uncomfortable obsession with Aoi Koshiba really annoys her. Koshiba’s athletic and popular, but doesn’t care at all about anything that passes for important in high school. She quits her clubs and team and heads home every day. Sahoko cannot put her finger on why it’s important to her, but suddenly becoming Aoi’s friend seems…critical. And when she learns Aoi’s secret, it’s suddenly become more important than anything, even her other friends.

Back in the present, Sahoko’s school friend Anna wistfully proposes that maybe it would be best if Aoi never comes.

So….there’s some very good things in this story and some not good things, and mostly I think the not-good things are stuff that was put in before the story kind of gelled. On the good side, I love Fly’s art generally and it was that art that got me to pick this book up in the first place, as you may remember from my review of Volume 1 in Japanese. Thumbs up to the Kodansha team for a good looking volume of manga, as well.

Sahoko awkwardly chasing after Aoi wasn’t bad, but their “accidental kiss” was inexcusably tropey. In Volume 1, it’s almost impossible for me to actually like Sahoko, or no, like isn’t the right word…sympathize, or empathize maybe is closer.  Nor are we given much to work with for Aoi, until her entire story is dumped on us in like 4 pages. So this whole volume left me a bit cold when I first read it, and I haven’t read past Volume 2 in Japanese,but…

…re-reading this made me think I want to pick up Volume 3 in Japanese now, when it comes out this summer. Seems like something to get on Bookwalker and keep in my pocket. (Although re-reading my V2 review, I know why it dropped down on my to-read list.) I keep foolishly wanting stories about high school reunions to be about the present…not the past. As Volume 2 is now out in English, you can read it for yourself, then get back to me and let me know what you think!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 2 some random underwear for no reason
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

And now I’ll just wait get V3 and see if it goes where I hope it might, or it just circles the giant drain of lost high school loves. ^_^





Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 8 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる)

June 10th, 2021

As we reach Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 8 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる), we’ve hit what I tend to call the “storm before the calm.” Summer is winding down and Koyuki and Konatsu haven’t really been able to get any time to be together. When Kaede shows up at Koyuki’s house as part of her job, a sudden opportunity appears! Konatsu’s been down, since her father left and with the prospect of losing Koyuki. Koyuki’s been breaking out of her shell, but still doesn’t quite have the confidence she needs.

After a bunch of hits and misses, Koyuki and Konatsu finally get to talk a little. They still don’t quite know what to think about each other, but it’s obvious, at last, that they understand that each of them thinks the other one is important to them. And when I say they are flailing –  the plot of the series finale is “What do I call you?”  I mean that it’s super obvious to me that they are more than mere friends, I don’t know what conclusion they plan on coming to.

As they flail a bit, we watch Fuyuki flailing himself. It’s pretty obvious to everyone that he likes Kaede, but he’s not quite there yet.

For a book in which very little happens, it seemed to all go by so quickly. It felt exactly like those final weeks of summer after camp or whatever, before school,  when you had a short time to just do kid things.

And just as suddenly as it was in real life, the world comes back, and we see Koyuki overwhelmed in the big city and at her limit. What will become of her and Konatsu, what are they to each other? Tune into Volume 9, the final volume of the series to find out when it hits Japanese bookshelves at the end of this month!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 not really
Yuri – 3

Overall – 7

Volume 7 of A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is out now and Volume 8 will head your way at the end of this year.





Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 3 (ハロー、メランコリック!)

June 2nd, 2021

When we last saw them, Minato had just blurted out that she liked Hibiki. As we begin Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 3 (ハロー、メランコリック!) everything between them is so normal it’s making them both uncomfortable. The pressure is going to build and the rest of the band is just waiting for it to blow. In the mean time, new first-years have joined and Minato is now a sempai

But, we’re not done yet, because Hibiki’s online posts opens an opportunity for Minato that she is absolutely not at all ready to take. A local band of adults – one that has a reputation for a high level of musical proficiency – has invited Minato to try out for a position as backup, a high honor. Minato’s good enough, but she is emotionally still so scarred from her previous experience in trying out for a band position that she rejects the chance. Even when Hibiki helps her to confront her fears, Minato continues to retreat into herself, eventually lashing out at Hibiki.

This too comes to a head, after Minato asks the only other second year in the group for advice. Luckily for her, Emma is a good advice giver and in a moment of clarity, Minato realizes that she’s never had a friend to ask advice from – and it takes her breath away. Finally everything comes down to a confrontation, and as the rest of the band eavesdrop outside the door, Hibiki and Minato say some things that they need to say. Minato works through last lingering doubts about Hibiki going off to college with help from the ever-chill Sachiko and Chika.  The book ends with Minato (sporting a new look) and Hibiki meeting up again on a spring day a year later.

The extra chapter delves into Emma’s secret life with an older woman.

Okay, you’re probably looking at this and wondering why I picked *this* story for day two of Pride Month, since I’m usually so intentional about my choices? (I hope you notice that I’m intentional.) Well for a couple of reasons – things that happen in this series that I think are very relevant to right now.

One – this is a story about a kid who had been bullied and it is not a miraculous story of redemption or perseverance. Minato slowly, carefully sheds some of the baggage she was burdened with, but it’s not without risk to her and to survive it, she just grows. The whole school isn’t applauding her, she isn’t made prom queen, this isn’t a Hollywood story. Minato finds some people who help her grow up and grow beyond the damage – I honestly wish this was a narrative that we got more often. Most of us who were bullied don’t get a reckoning, we just get old and the things that weighed us down, don’t anymore. I was in college when one of the kids who had bullied me as as a tween was sitting in a class I walked into. She saw me and said something rude and I just…laughed at her. I mean, really? Was I supposed to care what she thought? It was too ridiculous to imagine.

Two – and this made me cheer out loud. Minato, all upset at losing Hibiki to college, assumes Chika and Sachiko will be going to school together. As it turns out, Chika’s going to trade school to be a dental hygenist, Sachiko’s going on to a private school. Minato, shocked, asked if they aren’t upset at never seeing each other and they stare at her like she’s turned purple. Why? Because they have cell phones, for pity’s sake. Cell phones and days off and maybe they’ll move in together, but really – there is no reason that high school is the end of it allTM. Why wouldn’t they keep seeing each other?

Three – yesterday was pretty heavy going with The Rose of Versailles and tomorrow is pretty heavy going and I wanted something light and fun and a story about a girl meeting and falling in love with her sempai in band is about as close to an autobiography as I’ll ever get in a manga. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 More conflict in this volume is a good thing, as Minato becomes less passive
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Thank you Ohsawa-sensei for this utterly delightful story.





The Rose of Versailles, Volume 4

June 1st, 2021

What better way is there to start off Pride Month than to begin with revolution, with a fight against the status quo and respectability? What better thing can we do in 2021 than to remember why we celebrate this month, than to tear down systemic oppression and fight for our freedoms?

Sit yourself down, make yourself some tea, maybe a crepe, and buckle in, because we’re about to get historical. The Rose of Versailles, Volume 4 will cover the last days of the French Revolution, and of Oscar François de Jarjeyes’ life in noble service to the undeserving ancien régime of France. The parallels to right now are once again uncanny and distressing.

As the book opens, Oscar and Andre’ finally confront the one thing they have never discussed in a lifetime of friendship – their feelings for one another. They consummate what little of their marriage they will ever have.

The next morning, committed to the cause of the people, Oscar leads her troops to one of the most resonant moments of the Revolution – the day the canons of the Bastille were turned, not upon the prison, but upon the town. This scene makes me tremble, to be honest. In recent years, in cities all over the US, the canons were indeed turned upon the people…and it has come very close to making a difference, but never quite close enough. Even in 18th century France, the Revolution, while it ushered in new ideals, failed to bring the kind of change the commoners were fighting for – food, justice, the right to live without harassment.

We are asked to watch as the characters we learned about face the guillotine, the mob, or are cut down in battle. It’s never an easy story, but one we need to be able to get to the end of. With Fersen’s death, which was slightly more complicated than the narration makes it seem, the story as such, is over.

We take a deep breath, because the neither the series nor the story is truly over. Instead we are plunged from the real horrors of history into a gothic horror, complete with a virgin-killing, blood-bathing protagonist, a murderous creepy doll, and Oscar’s niece Lulu. Get used to Lulu, she’ll be back. This final story gives us some predatory lesbian behavior from the Marquise de Montclair, which I find somehow refreshing, after the guillotine and the spectre of an uncaring elite staring at children dying without interest.

And so, the main narrative of The Rose of Versailles comes to an end, as the République Française begins. But wait! There’s more! More evil women, more mysterious disappearances, more predatory lesbians and more Lulu on the way in The Rose of Versailles, Volume 5! (Which is the part I worked on first, oddly, with translator Mari Morimoto.)

Ratings:

Art – 9 Honestly fantastic
Story – 9 A lot happens, good and bad
Characters – 9 We’re going to do some rethinking about people here
Service – Not visually, but there is some in Montclair’s behavior
Yuri – Same as above

Overall – 9

My hat is off to Jocelyne for the fine translation and Jeannie Lee for the great lettering. Andy Tsang’s cover design is amazing. Again, my thanks to the UDON team for making this a pleasure to work on. Gonna say…I’m still blown away that I was able to help out.

All I have to say this pride month is Vive la Révolution! There’s still so much yet to fight for. Let’s get out there and fight for every last queer kid, so in 30 years they can be clueless gobs about us on the neural network. ^_^





Syrup, A Yuri Anthology, Volume 3

May 28th, 2021

Syrup, A Yuri Anthology, Volume 3‘s Japanese name is Syrup NIGHT Hatsuyoru Yuri Anthology, (シロップ NIGHT 初夜百合アンソロジー) and I want to make that very clear, because the title explains why I never reviewed it in Japanese. An entire anthology about women’s “first time” with each other is exactly the kind of fetish about women’s sexuality that I, personally, can live happily without. Virginity is a stupid social construct that is used to control women’s bodies and sexuality, and fetishizing it is a thing people who are not me might do.

That said, Syrup, A Yuri Anthology, Volume 3 is a collection of shorts by names you will undoubtedly recognize from other Yuri anthologies. Creators in this anthology include Itou Hachi, Iwami Kyouko, Ikeda Takashi, Sal Jiang, Canno, Morinaga Milk and a few other names that are new to me. The stories range in tone, from melancholy loss to embarrassed comedy and whether or not you find them sexy will be entirely personal. For me, the strongest stories were Iwami Kyouko’s “Spare Key,” and Canno’s “The Story of the First and Last Night,” which was also a ghost story about grief.

I found it impossible to even read Itou Hachi’s story, which was basically the same lolicon animal-eared girls story they always provide, but in this case, the age issue was impossible for me to ignore. I am telling you this not to offend those of you who enjoy Itou’s work, but to warn those of you who don’t…this one is really not a thing I want to keep in the house.

Ratings: All are variable, as it’s an anthology.

Overall – 7

If 18+ Yuri anthologies are your boom, and you like – or would like to get to know – the creators in this collection, or enjoy this particular fetish, undoubtedly, you’ll enjoy this volume. Seven Seas bringing out 18+ Yuri will certainly appeal to some folks. It wasn’t for me, and I knew that going in to it, but it may well be for you! I can’t call this hentai or porn, even, but as an 18+ anthology, it didn’t hit a single mark on my “sexy” scorecard.