Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Failed Princesses, Volume 1

September 8th, 2020

Circumstances brings two completely opposite girls together, where they find they have some surprising qualities in common, in Ajiichi’s Failed Princesses, Volume 1,

In Spring 2019, I took a look at Ajiichi’s Dekisokonai Hime-tachi, Volume 1 and found it to be a reliable school Yuri formula of opposites attracting. Kurokawa Kaede and Fujishiro Nanaki do not run in the same circles. Otaku Kurokawa doesn’t care about popular, fashionable Nanaki, nor does she want to. But circumstances bring them into contact and each is surprised to find that the other is not a bad person at all. However, their budding friendship comes at cost, as former friends pull away from them. And then there’s the other problem, when Nanaki discovers that Kaede is actually very cute!

With art and story is reminiscent of Morinaga Milk’s GIRL FRIENDS (Volume 1 and Volume 2), initially, it seems like it is headed in a similar direction, but neither Kaede nor Nanaki turn out to be cut-out characters. I particularly liked Kaede’s impassioned plea for Nanaki to not become her friend, as she could guess at the likely consequences. I did not like that she continues to hide that she is an otaku from Nanaki. Nanaki starts off insensitive…and, indeed, her assumption that Kaede wants to be more fashionable is tiring, but she’ll turn out to be less superficial than she seems. As the end of the volume draws close, there’s one more problem…Nanaki’s reaction to her creation of a new, “improved” Kaede, is a mix of pride, jealousy and something else that will take some time for Nanaki to figure out. Not us, though. This is a Yuri series, after all. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 2 A teen little bit
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

This series has a pretty standard beginning, but it definitely picks up steam as it moves along. Give it a try and unless you are completely uninterested in school stories, I think Volume 2 will surprise you pleasantly. I’ve got Volume 3 in Japanese on order now and Volume 4 just hit Japanese bookshelves recently (and I love how the cover tone shifts slightly with each volume.).

Fans of school drama Yuri and Morinaga Milk will be rewarded by these characters who exceed their stereotypical origins.





I Love You So Much, I Hate You

September 4th, 2020

Writing is hard. Creating plots are hard. So, it’s not surprising that old plots are suddenly new again, as Yuri moves out of school scenarios, into adult life.  When I reviewed Yuni’s office life drama, Nikurashi Hodo Aishiteru, I wrote “The initial premise, which is not yet all that common in Yuri manga, is the same plot as a zillion lesbian romances of the 1990s. ^_^ As a result, it felt both fresh and incredibly comfortable at the same time.”

Upcoming star in the planning department, Fujimura, and her competent and supportive boss Asano…are having an affair. It’s pretty much a crass office affair, as Asano is married and pretending that she’s happy, and Fujimura is lying when she says that this is all she wants from their relationship. When rumor of an affair between a manager and their subordinate spreads around the company, it puts a damper on their own affair. But Asano isn’t happy in her marriage and Fujimura does want more.

I Love You So Much, I Hate You, from Yen Press, is a very decent guilty pleasure read. In real life, Fujimura and Asano and their hidden-in-plain-sight affair, would probably be absolutely intolerable separately and together, but as a fiction, it all feels, well, kind of sweet…and, with an epilogue that ties the story up, satisfying. Yuni’s art is stylish and adult. The characters feel like real adult women in a real world, caring about their clothes and their professional success. This book also had the added benefit of someone, somewhere actually having talked to a woman who has had lesbian sex. I will leave it to you to discover what I mean, but those of you who know what I mean probably smiled, as I did. The sex itself is tasteful and evocative, rather than pornishly explicit.

Yen only credits the translator and letterer, so let me say that both translation by Eleanor Ruth Summers and lettering by Erin Hickman contribute greatly to an authentic reading experience, of a very likable, yet slightly guilty, new-old adult life  lesbian romance.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – 3 Nudity, but mostly tastefully done.

Overall – A strong 8

I’m a big fan of Yuni’s work and hope that you too, will enjoy this translation of some fun, tawdry Shakaijin Yuri.





Comic Yuri Hime, September 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年9月号)

August 27th, 2020

This cover wins. It is, in a lifetime of reading comics and decades of reading Yuri manga, my favorite cover of any Yuri manga ever. The foldout cover, with art by Rolua, is the wholly goth image of an angel with a drippy gold halo and black feathered wings, holding a woman to her chest, the credits and title of the magazine visualized as tattoos across her arms and back. Two thumbs up from me. Animate apparently included a postcard of the full picture with purchase of this issue.

Comic Yuri Hime September 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年9月号) is a very good issue for me. Individual stories were good, and overall it’s a pretty solid volume. But I really wanted to review it this week, because Seven Seas re-announced the Light Novel for I’m in Love with the Villainess and since the manga is running in this magazine, I felt extra motivated. ^_^

This volume starts off with the once-again popular “lesbian sex worker helps a woman get over her nervousness about sex, “with the addition of secondary plot about Asumi’s first love clearly being a sex worker as well. Gosh, I wonder how that will work out?

Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakouyouni Koi wo Utau” was adorable for what it didn’t do as much as what it did. Yori looks up what to do on a date and, for once, we are not obliged to presume that what she found was nothing but porn. Phew! Her choices of behaviors, the ratings for them, and her honesty with her new girlfriend, was fun and refreshing,

“Watashi no Oshi ha Akujaku Reijou,” which is headed our way, as per the Seven Seas announcement above, remains goofy with the second “high class manners” contest I have now encountered in a GL Bunko. ^_^ Protagonist Oohashi Rei, having woken up in the world of her favorite otome game, finds herself challenged by her love interest, the game villainess, Claire-sama. But. Rei is familiar with the world from having played the game so long and is able to best her challenger in a series of contests that included schoolwork, magical skill and a test of refined manners at the table.

I don’t know where “Kudan Folklore” is likely to take me, but so far, I’m kind of into this apparently dark, but so far mostly unformed urban folklore kind of gothy ghost thing with a reasonably smart and confident lead. More importantly, it was the first time I’ve seen the phrase “mochi ha mochiya” and had just read a great thread on it on translator Jocelyne Allen’s Twitter (which was mostly around how Google will not take the place of a real translator any time soon.) It means, something like if you want mochi, you go to a mochi shop…in other words, go to the right place/people for the right thing.

I will now formally admit that I adore Osawa Yayoi’s  “Hello, Melancholic!” and while Minato faces her own fears, I’m all for her and Hibiki figuring out what they mean to each other.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” is clearly winding down. The staff of Liebe cafe ask Hime and Mitsuki to sit down and have it out between them, but the conclusion isn’t conclusive.

It was lovely that Saki’s sister was all for Saki and Asuka being happy together, rather than a tired jealous-little-sister stereotype in “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsuskiatteiru.” This made the third or fourth story where a tedious stereotype was just left behind and it strongly affected my overall feeling about this issue.

mintaro’s “Pochi Climb” limps to an end and I feel nothing. It never really seemed to know who it was for. It wasn’t a sport manga, it wasn’t a romance, it was just an idea that never gelled.

I know it’ll end eventually, but I’d be thrilled if “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” by Usui Shio just went on forever. It doesn’t even have to have conflicts, just let’s sit back and watch people figure out stuff in a gentle Jousei manga style.

Inui Ayu’s autobiographical work just slides along one cute interaction at a time. Along with Usui’s story, these are the best way for me to end this issue. ^_^

As always there are other stories I did read and others I did not in this issue and hopefully, you’ll find something to enjoy yourself. You can buy this in print from Amazon JP, or digitally on JP Kindle and Global Bookwalker.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

What pushed this volume up in rating was a refreshing lack of tiresome, old-fashioned tropes just not being used. It’s super past time we have non-bratty little sisters and protagonists who are smart and athletic actually being confident, instead of emotionally tortured wrecks, and supportive friends and lovers, instead of pointless miscommunication. What a relief!





Vampeerz, Volume 3 (ヴァンピアーズ)

August 25th, 2020

 

The third volume of the manga Vampeerz (ヴァンピアーズ)
Is chock-full of fetishes and fears.
Vampires in school, but really,
It’s all what you’d expect from Akili,,
Gravitas Twilight has smeared.

That’s it. That’s the review. ^_^





Nakatani Nio Short Story Collection Sayonara Alter ( 仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ)

August 24th, 2020

Nakatani Nio Short Story Collection Sayonara Alter ( 仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ) is the collected volume of short stories by the Yagate Kimi ni Naru /Bloom Into You creator. The stories in this collection come from Nakatani-sensei’s work in  Dengeki Daioh, the Éclair anthology series, doujinshi and an original work for the collection. There’s a kind horror-esque feel about some of the stories that make me feel super creeped out. ^_^;

In the titular story two girls aren’t twins so much as two halves of the same person, and when one dies, the other is there to continue being her. This was followed by a fantasy story about a young man, and a grim little story about a girl who eats a giant snail, which skeeved me in evrry possible direction.

A pianist’s hand is broken and her friend has to be there for her. A friend falls in love her friend’s passion for an idol group. A girl finds herself interested in a wolf girl who transfers into her class. A woman who designs androids has a multilayered relationship with her first triumph.  Two women decide to buy a double bed, and admit that their relationship had changed. The original story for this collection tells about a complicated relationship between a a boy and a girl in high school.

If you’re a huge fan of her work, or you like short manga stories with slightly uncomfortable edges, you’ll want to get this collection. It definitely is an excellent overview of her art changing over the last decade or so. changes, as it evolves quite considerably from beginning to end in a way that would not be obvious if you didn’t see the stories laid out one after the other.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

An eclectic volume by an artist who is now known for one kind of story, it’s also a good reminder that Nakatani’s work is not just Bloom Into You.