Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: White Lilies in Love Watashi ga Yoishireru no ha, Natsu no Hizashi to Anata Dake. Shakaijin Yuri Anthology (White Lilies in Love 私が酔いしれるのは、夏の陽射しと貴方だけ。 社会人百合アンソロジー)

February 12th, 2020

Kadokawa’s “White Lilies” series of anthologies have been good and goofy and fun and sad. White Lilies in Love Watashi ga Yoishireru no ha, Natsu no Hizashi to Anata Dake. Shakaijin Yuri Anthology (White Lilies in Love 私が酔いしれるのは、夏の陽射しと貴方だけ。 社会人百合アンソロジー) is more of the same and happens to also include some of the top adult life Yuri creators in the biz right now, which makes for a really pleasant read. This member of the series of vaguely seasonalish collections is subtitled in English “Drunk Only To The Summer Sunshine And You.” Prepositions and particles are complicated and we understand the sentiment, so that’s fine.

Inui Ayu starts the collection off with a sweet (pun intended) story about women who bond over shaved ice. It was, frankly, adorable. Women meet on vacation and at work, they meet after long separations, and fall for each other after being together day and after day. The collection includes work by Suzuki-sempai, Seta Seta, Hazuki Ruri and Kurukuruhime, all names we’ve become familiar with here on Okazu.

Without a doubt the final story was my favorite. Called “Blue Well he Youkoso” by Yuki Yukiko, it is a by-the-shore love story that has a surprising ending. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

A strong collection in terms of story and art. This would make a great collection for Yen to put out if they wanted more adult-life stories. It’s one of those anthologies that makes you really enjoy anthologies. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kanade Aoharu Band Yuri Anthology (青春バンド百合アンソロジー)

February 10th, 2020

Well, so, Kanade  Aoharu Band Yuri Anthology (青春バンド百合アンソロジー) is definitely a Yuri anthology in which characters are near musical instruments and occasionally even play them. Which is not at all the same as being about people in bands. A couple of the included stories even go so far as to show members of a band. One especially derivative story is about two girls who play euphonium in a school whose uniforms look super familiar, but are not entirely the same, so it could not possibly be a rip-off. The Takeshima Eku story and a couple of others seems a little too like unused plot concepts from already existing Comic Yuri Hime story.

As you may be able to tell, I was a little disappointed with this collection. I had hoped it would be full of passionate relationships between girls in bands, but instead it read like rehashing of other series that we’re already watching or reading.

If you want to read stories that feel like other stories, so backpack on emotions you have from other stories, this a pretty gentle, safe way to do it. Nothing here is offensive. It’s just not what I had hoped from this collection. I have a lot of good and bad memories from my time in band and I could easily see so many of those situations leading to love. But sure, let’s just use the two or three scenarios we’re already familiar with. That’s okay, too.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

The art is good, the storytelling is fine, I can’t remember a single story seconds after I finish it.

I will share this with you. Via YNN Correspondent Verso S., here is a completely-worth-your-time video analysis of some of the music from Liza and the Blue Bird, which was vastly superior to every story in this collection. It got to me to sit still for 20+ minutes and listen and that’s saying something. Enjoy An Overlooked Track from Liz and the Blue Bird.

Did you know that a Flugelhorn is really a soprano tuba with its highly conical bore shape and a Euphonium is 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor instrument which is not related to tuba, but is closer to other conical-bore instruments like flugelhorn, trumpet or cornet. I just thought you might want to know.





Yuri Anthology: LiLium Yuri Anthology, Vol. 1 / リリウム 百合アンソロジー

February 7th, 2020

Comic Zin is the bomb. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but it’s a teeny little cave crammed full of treasures. Across the street and down a block or so from Toranoana in Akihabara, there’s a big sign that reads “ZIN” You go up narrow steep stairs (my wife calls the “harrowing,”) to one room, so chock-full of randomness that you instant think, “I am doing doujinshi storage all wrong: and “Ooohhh…train tables in manga form!” Well, you you may think that, if you can get past the first three sets of shelves on which are a surprisingly decent collection of Yuri doujinshi that you totally need.  Or, you can use a buying service and visit their website. But that’s not nearly as much fun.

Which is where I finally found a doujinshi put out by LiLium Plan, a Twitter account I’d been following for ages. LiLium Yuri Anthology, Vol. 1 (リリウム 百合アンソロジー) is described on it’s Amazon page as “8 stories of cute, beautiful, precious love to happy sexual relationships, between young couples and adult women in society. Packed full of moe situations.”

Most of the names here are new to me, with one exception. Takashima Hiromi, creator of the Kase-san series, has a short story in this collection about two girls who meet on the train. Quite possibly the story I liked the most – and brace yourselves, because I have never said this before – was about a maid and her mistress, a girl who uses a wheelchair, by Edoya Petit, “La Fleur Artificielle.” It turned really dark and creepy at the end and I’m not sure why, but I think I liked it anyway? It’s hard to tell if I liked it, or just couldn’t look away. ^_^ 

The art is decent throughout and while the collection does nothing new, it’s also doesn’t suck while handling anything old. And now I have new names to watch for. Volume 2 will be released at Comitia (tomorrow in Japan,) so if doujinshi anthologies are your boom and you’re at Big Site, go to U06ab and grab a copy!

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This is it, I think…the last thing I picked up as part of the 100 Years of Yuri Tour that I am going to review. Unless it isn’t. ^_^ Onward into a new century!





Yuri Manga: Galette, No. 12 (ガレット )

February 5th, 2020

Reading Galette is one of my very sincerest joys these days. When Galette, No. 12  (ガレット ) arrived, I just kind of sat on it, deferring that joy, just to make it last. ^_^

There is so much wonderful work here that I hardly know where to begin! Instead of listing everything, I just want to touch on two stories for which I have a lot of interest – and hope.

Hakamada Mera is a creator that has been the target of a lot of criticism from me in the past decade. Not because she’s not good…because she is good and I have felt for more than ten years that she could be better. I feel like something in her work has shifted recently and she is – at last – doing the work I expected of her or more probably she’s doing the work that she wants to do. I liked her previous series a lot. Even though it was set in a high school, t never felt threadbare. And her new story, “Sekai ga Owareru Sono Mae ni” is the best I have ever seen from her. I cannot quite put my finger on what is different, but it contains a feeling of honesty and real-ness that I felt had been lacking in her early work. (I liken it to the sensation I always has reading Melissa Scott’s novels in the 1990s – there was just something that she wasn’t putting into her wok and its absence was notable. I am delighted to be reading Hakamada-sensei’s work right now.

The second story I want to talk about is “Liberty” by Kitto Izumi and Momono Moto. This, too, has been skirting something important and, while I have liked it anyway I am absolutely here for this story now, as we learn a little bit about Liz. More importantly, we can see the abuse and manipulation Liz was subjected to by her former manager. This issue’s chapter was terrifying and hard to read..while being completely “normal” on the surface. So much was revealed in this chapter, it sets us up for a completely different story now. I cannot wait to see where it goes. This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping we’d get in Galette.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Both these are are just two stories among several along with some primary Yuri research and columns. The time it takes me to read Galette is always time well-spent and I look forward very much to Galette No. 13 which is available on Amazon JP – which marks the start of Year 4 – in a few days. 

Galette No. 12 is digitally available on Amazon.com.  Up to Volume 11 is available on Global Bookwalker as well.

 





Yuri Manga: Sore ha, Haru no Arashi no You ni, Volume 1 (それは、春の嵐のように)

January 31st, 2020

Aoi is an office lady who dreams of a “normal life.” She tells her her friend that she wants to get married. Chi-chan appears to accept it. Aoi, on the other hand is massively conflicted, and as she walks down the aisle is fairly certain that she has made the wrong decision.

Luckily for Aoi, Chiho has no intention of standing aside, and arrives at the church in time to speak now. Standing in front of the dearly beloved who had been gathered today, resplendent in a white tux, Chi-chan offers Aoi her hand. Aoi takes it and they run away together….

Sore ha, Haru no Arashi no You ni, Volume 1 (それは、春の嵐のように) by kurukuruhime is about learning to love what you  have and being grateful for what you love.The rest of the book is primarily watching Aoi doing this very thing. From making love with Chiho, to enjoying shopping together, Aoi learns to appreciate what she has…all those little moments that make up a life together, that my wife and I call “playing house.”

When Aoi returns to work, she finds the strength to apologize to her former fiance who is very decent about it. But, Aoi, says to Chiho, as the volume comes to a close, she still wants to get married…to Chi-chan.

kurukurhime, creator of Yuri Life, does adult Yuri stories that one can slide into like a pair of comfortable slippers. They aren’t high drama, but they are filled with emotions that are wholly relatable. And, in this case, a real-life Princess who sweeps up to save the Princess from her own terrible decision. I’m okay with that. ^_^

The book ends with “to be continued” and I hope that that is true. I see no serialization for it, but that could be anything. Fingers crossed.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Starts off a little annoying, gets better as it goes. Average 7, ends at 8
Characters – 8, despite difficulties
Service – 4 nudity, sex, nothing explicit
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8

My copy was picked up at Animate (it says so, that helps,) so it came with a lovely color illustration card of Chiho in her glasses. Thumbs up from me! I think girls who wear glasses look great. ^_^