Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Mayu, Matou Volume 1 (繭、纏う)

January 23rd, 2019

Well.

That was not a fetish I had ever thought about before.

Okay, then.

Ahead of Yen Press’ release of Comic Beam‘s  Cocoon, Entwined by Hara Yuriko, I picked up the Japanese edition of Mayu, Matou Volume 1 (繭、纏う). And found myself with a faceful of…hair. 

Hair is the predominant symbol in the this volume and takes up a lot of space, both physical and emotional, at Hoshimiya Gakuen, where the students grow their hair very long.  

This volume follows Yokozawa and Saeki, students at this high end and very rule-bound school. But it is, much more than a story of two students and their classmates, a story of their hair. 

I’m not even joking about this – their hair is the main character and the people attached to that hair are merely abstractions. If you don’t like hair, this manga is going to skeeve you right out the door. The hair in this book represents freedom and being bound and hope and loss and everything else. 

Art in this volume is good although, as you can see by the cover, hair tends to chew up the scenery. The stories mostly center on hair but by the end, the characters get a chance to be seen a little past the curtain of hair. I really don’t even know how else to convey to you that this book is absolutely, totally, about hair, first and last, with a story peeking between strands.

 

Ratings:

Art – Hair
Story – Hair
Characters & their Hair
Service for Hair enthusiasts
Yuri – 3, plus Hair

Overall – Hair

I can only imagine that cleaning duty in this place is a nightmare.





Yuri Manga: Hungry for You: Endo Yasuko Stalks the Night, Volume 2 (English)

January 17th, 2019

Volume 2 of Endo Yasuko Stalks The Night
Is what I think is “all right.”
Vampires they may be
None of them look like a baby
Go ahead and say “Okay, I’ll bite.”

Volume 2 resolves all the wrong bits of the story, opens up gigantic new holes that will never be resolved and is ridiculous in every possible way.

You should totally read it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Even more absurd 8
Characters – 9
Service – 5 with a bump for the principal
Yuri – 2, maybe, but you can make it work if you want.

Overall – Still entertaining, trashy fun 8





Yuri Manga: Galette Meets, Issue 1 (ガレットMeets)

January 14th, 2019

Crowd-funded, creator-owned Yuri manga magazine Galette is another success story of the last few years. It comes out quarterly, with work by some of the leading names in Yuri manga. Heading into it’s third year of existence – which is always a test of resilience – Galette has already spawned a doujinshi of its very own.

Galette Meets (ガレット Meets) is a periodic, well, periodical, from the team that puts out Galette. It collects doujinshi one-shots from Yuri creators with the imprimatur of “Just a tad sexy and a little more sweet.” 

Volume 1 is a little more sexy than stories that run in Galette and in this volume, a little more bitter, rather than sweet. With 6 shorts, three by names we know already, Galette Meets is a nice way to get more Yuri doujinshi into your life. 

Ratings:

Overall  – 7

Available on Amazon JP in Print, on JP Kindle, Bookwalker, and US Kindle (in Japanese) Galette Meets is worth adding to your Yuri collection!





Yuri Manga: Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteru, Volume 1 (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている )

January 11th, 2019

Ohi Pikachi’s Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteru, Volume 1 (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている ) is one of the best manga of 2019. ^_^ I’m only half joking, because, really, this is a wonderful manga and there is a very high likelihood that you’ll be seeing me talking about it as often as I can all year long.

Hayama Asuka is a high school teacher. She’s athletic, casual and easily embarrassed. Terano Saki is her co-worker. As the story begins, one of the other teachers they work with pegs immediately that they have begun going out. Everyone thinks its cute and we’re all rooting for them, from the Principal all the way down. In a ridiculous and amusing chapter, Hayama-sensei’s students “help” her become confident enough to tell Terano-sensei that she loves her.

This manga is just lovely. Two women who have never before been in love, fall so sweetly in love with one another and we can only just sigh at how darling it all is. I mean that, too. It’s not cloying, or creepy, their problems are small and resolved quickly and their love for one another is just so damn adorable.

Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei work through minor misunderstandings together and when they finally spend a night together we get to enjoy their joy in each other. Even the morning after scene was delightful, as they are amazed and awed and goofy and happy.

I have no complaints about this manga, except that one day it will end and on that day I will be very sad. But until then, I will enjoy every single second with Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei. ^_^ I want them to be happy forever.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 10
Story – 9
Service – 3 There is nudity, but IMHO, it’s not salacious.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

This manga reminded me that sweet and sexy can live in harmony, that it all can be adult and fun and joyful all at the same time. 





Yuri Anthology: Yuri + Kanojo – Tomodachi ha Kinou Made – (百合+カノジョ-友達は昨日まで-)

January 9th, 2019

The Yuri + Kanojo anthologies from Fusion Comics has been a fascinating mashup of first-person visual story telling and ultra-short narrative creation that has, in general, piqued my interest.

If you recall from previous volumes, the premise is a series of two or three short 4-6 page stories that follow a character through their relationships with us, from a first person perspective. A First Person Yuri, if you will. We don’t get spoken lines usually, but we are allowed to see our hands, some of our body, have the occasional goofy face indicating mood in a thought bubble and sundry noises or other means of expression. I’ve especially enjoyed when the stories leave school behind and cover adults and even (gasp!) older women.

Yuri + Kanojo – Tomodachi ha Kinou Made – (百合+カノジョ-友達は昨日まで-) takes a even more radical approach, with stories of senior relationships. But, before that, it brushes upon the weird and wacky, with a section devoted to unusual stories – gentlewoman thief, mermaid, witch and the like. The second section returns to “Episode of Usual” with characters in school, but even here these characters are characters. I particular liked bodybuilder Jinguji Reika. Put a pin in that name, she’ll be back. (No spoilers, readers, just wait for it.) And of course I liked Kagami Yukina, whose only desire in life was to be our butler. The third section is titled “Global” with equally as rare characters from far off exotic places like Brazil, China, England, Korea. The final section is the After Forty section, this time with relationships that last a lifetime. Particularly charming were the three-parters that covered decades of a couple’s life together.

Of the several Yuri + Kanojo volumes so far, I enjoyed this one most, clearly because of the whimsicality and also the lack of children. Really, after all these years and so many, many, many school romances, I just really don’t much care for stories about middle-schoolers. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art, story, characters are all variable, since it is an anthology.

Overall – 9

If you’re on the fence about the Yuri + Kanojo series, I’d definitely recommend this one, at the very least.