Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart

April 27th, 2020

Today we celebrate the fact that today the Okazu Patreon has once again passed the $500/month mark – which means we’ll be expanding our support of queer creators on Patreon once again with our Microgoal program and we hope to be revising our payments for Guest Reviewers upwards, as well. It has long been our goal to be able to pay sustainable and reasonable rates for our writers and artists. Today we’ve taken another step forward. There’s never a bad time to become an Okazu Patron. Every cent makes a big difference – and gets recycled back into the great Yuri global network by buying media, crowdfunding projects, and supporting creators and events. So thank you Okazu Patrons new and old! You are all an important part of the Okazu family.

To celebrate, we’ve got an exciting review and a giveaway at the end!

When Yen Press picked up the first Éclair anthology, I noted to them that it was (by then) actually a series, which they did not know at that time. I was exceedingly pleased to see that they did get the series and have followed Éclair with Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart. In addition, Éclair Bleue is on the way later this year.

So why am I so happy about this? You may remember from my review of the first volume, that Éclair was the very first Yuri anthology to be translated into English. I’ve written about the importance of anthologies to Yuri as a whole in the past – and I have 3 essays dedicated to magazines and anthologies in the Big Book o’Yuri! That’s how important they are. So, to get this series is big news. For fans of Canno and Nakatani Nio, here’s some new original work for you to enjoy. I’m best pleased because you get to enjoy work by Fly, Shuninta Amano, Kabocha and Taki Kitao, all of whose work I adore. ^_^ I want to call out Canno’s entry, because I *just* finished Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー) and it officially is an ongoing series, (hint, hint, Christian.)

My favorite story was probably Uta Isaki’s “Sewing Machine.” I’ve always like the concept of tsukumogami; the idea that inanimate objects develop a spirit with use and time. We have all made the joke “my car has gone this way so many times, it could drive this route itself.” Well…what if it could? I also enjoyed the aesthetic of the art.

Ratings:

It’s an anthology, so everything is variable, but this has something for most Yuri fans.

Overall – 9

Blanche is a pretty solid entry into the Éclair series. It’s a terrific way to enjoy short-form work by artists you know and like and learn about new artists. And to celebrate this delightful selection, I am giving away a copy of Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart to folks in the contiguous 48 of the  USA. (I know this isn’t fair, but I can’t put postage on an overseas package right now. I’ll do my level best to do a global contest once the pandemic is well and truly over.)

To enter, all you need to do is share something WHITE with us in the comments. It can be a link to an image, or a short story, a song lyric, anything you like*. To make it easy to contact you, please have an email you check as part of your WP profile. I will pick a winner and contact them over the weekend. So share your lovely thoughts of Blanche and enjoy some Yuri manga. ^_^

*except cats.

Many thanks to Yen Press for both the review copy and the giveaway!





Koisuru Meiga (恋する名画)

April 16th, 2020

Yuri reviews, news and interviews are the primary function here at Okazu. Over the years, I’ve also sneakily (sometimes not very sneakily) found a way to include art, music, dance, photography, literature and the like into my reviews in hope that I can encourage you to experience things outside manga and anime…and because Okazu readers are often seeking those things out themselves, we’ve had a lot of great art conversations here. Like Bruce’s discussion of Maurice Prendergast, or the time we looked at Yuru Yuri because of a riff on Velasquez’s Las Meninas. Today we’re going to look at a manga that overtly marries Yuri and fine art, Koisuru Meiga (恋する名画) by Mimoto.

Each chapter in this book, subtitled in English, “The masterpiece I love,” presents a Yuri vignette, tied to a piece of famous art. The first chapter follow a young girl who looks through a window to see a beautiful woman posing, in a way that recalls DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. A few of the paintings were instantly recognizable to me, Munch’s Madonna, (a painting I quite like) Millais’ Ophelia,;but many of the paintings, if not the painters were new to me.  To be honest, paintings are a weak spot in my overall education, so I was delighted to learn about Okamoto Taro’s Itamashiki Ude and a number of the others. We laughed when we got to Fragonard’s The Swing, because it was very Fragornard-y. 

My favorite chapter followed an artist who is once again able to paint her favorite model, in a reproduction of Ingres’ (in)famous Grande Odalisque.

The final story is a Maria-sama ga Miteru-esque piano interlude with a girl and her beloved onee-sama, which was meant to reproduce Renoir’s Girls at the Piano. It made a lovely, classic ending to a veritable gallery of delights. 

Ratings:

Art – 7 Good, but it suffered in comparison to looking up masterpieces. ^_^;
Story – Variable, but none were horrid, let’s say 7 average
Characters – Widely variable from creepy awful twins to adorable lovers
Service – 5 Some nudity. Duh, also some other pointless service
Yuri – 7 

Overall – 8 Should be a 7, but I give it an extra point for general effect. I enjoyed the heck out of it.

I’ve never not hated a Renoir before. It feels weird. ^_^;





Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 2 (不揃いの連理)

April 14th, 2020

In Volume 1, we met Tanaka Iori, a careerwoman with a job that she does not love, and a former juvenile delinquent girlfriend, Minami, whom she does. Ultimately, we also meet Iori’s obsessive little sister, and Shizuku, who was Minami’s closest friend in juvie.

In Fuzoroi no Renri, Volume 2 (不揃いの連理),  a continuation of the Pixiv comic by Mikan Uji, Minami and Iori, and the almost-relationship between Saori and Shizuku, are joined in shenanigans by a third couple. This couple consists of manga artist Heke and her editor, Shinohara, whom Heke has no idea is also her partner Lala in an online RPG game.

And shenanigans is what volume 2 brings us. This volume is less coherent narrative and more short gag scenarios, than volume 1. Some short flashbacks into Minami and Shizuku’s time in reform school are joined by Heke avoiding work and declaring her love for Lala, without putting two and two together when she’s with her editor. Iori’s complaints about work take a back seat to her relationship with Minami. No one gets a narrative arc; it’s all small, sometimes, goofy moments. And, in the odd moment, there is very sweet romance.

Mikan Uji-sensei’s art is solid, the vignettes are amusing, sometimes sweet, and I am really enjoying this series. I feel like we’re getting a glimpse of people we might not normally see, behaviors not normally looked at and very little fetishizing of any of it.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 3 Some light nudity, nothing salacious
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

This is a fun manga and I’m glad we’re getting more of it.





Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 1 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)

April 13th, 2020

Uuno Hinako always looks good. Her dress and makeup are always spot on, her hair is always done. She’s always got a smile on her face at work, just the thing to attract a nice man. She goes out to lunch she can’t afford to be with friends, rather than eat alone. That’s what’s expected of her. That’s what is “normal.” So why is she so miserable? In Usui Shio’s Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 1 (欠けた月とドーナッツ), she’s about to figure out why.

Satou Asahi doesn’t seem to care for any of these things. She eats lunch by herself, speaks up when she’s offended and doesn’t seem to care what people think. Hinako is fascinated in a way she can’t express. When Satou comes to her rescue with a cute, animal shaped donut, they begins a friendship that confuses Hinako. Why does she find Asahi’s lifestyle so empowering?

Asahi is encouraged by her younger sister Subaru to become closer to Hinako, as she can see that they need each other. As the volume comes to a close, Hinako takes a step to reject what is seen as “normal” and move towards a path she might actually want to go down.

Although Hinako’s clinging to what is expected of her is, predictably, a little annoying, and she is a mope throughout much of the volume, it’s easy to see that this is not a short journey for her, but a long, arduous one. And we can’t but help root for her. Subaru egging Asahi to push past her own guard is very cute. Not at all despite myself, I find this series to be exactly the kind of Jousei Yuri I want more of from Comic Yuri Hime magazine!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 0 Not so much as a bath scene. What a pleasure

Overall – 8

While it is true that what society and family “expects”is still a struggle, I rejoice in the fact that for so many of us, life is more about enjoying the moon and donuts. I look forward to Hinako being one of us.





Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 5 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる)

April 9th, 2020

Here we are at Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 5 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる) and Honami Koyuki is putting the brakes on her almost-not-even moving-life. Why would she do that? Well.

Koyuki has always been a model student, and the teachers have relied on her to do the right thing. But that was also used as a bludgeon by the teachers, who compared the other students to her, which meant that the other kids pulled away, even though they didn’t mean to.
The end result is that Honami Koyuki is horribly lonely – lonely enough that she finds it inconceivable to not be lonely. While Koyuki was stranded in this Saragossa Sea of emotion, Konatsu came into her life. And she’s still not entirely sure what to do about it. Especially as she’s planning on going to school very far away, in Tokyo.

Oddly, the person who breaks her free is not Konatsu, but Konatsu’s friend Kaede who can see the (kind of obvious) truth. Kaede has no skin in the game beyond seeing her friend happy, so she’s free to force Koyuki into admitting the burden she carries. Even as we’re finally thinking something might break for the better, Konatsu sees Kaede and Koyuki walking together… and, naturally(????) fears the worst.

This volume was pretty annoying, I’m not going to lie.I get that Koyuki is not a happy character and this is a very slow-moving romance, but holy heck, what was that last bit about? Folks. Let me assure you your lover smiling while being next to someone else does not mean automatically mean anything bad. Sheesh. Nonetheless, I feel like something has got to happen now, surely. ^_^ (No, I kid, nothing is going to happen now.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 2

Overall – 7

I hope Volume 6 will move forward, but not moving forward is kind of this series’ thing.^_^; In the meantime Volume 3 in English is headed our way in May (with possible delays because of the pandemic.)