Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Risou to Koi (理想と恋)

August 20th, 2019

We are interrupting today’s planned programming to review a manga volume that has hit two benchmarks in Okazu’s history. Both good. ^_^

Risou to Koi (理想と恋) by Hino Youhe is a collection of several stories of adult life manga – of which I liked every single story. I do not believe this has ever happened before.

The entire concept of the volume is lovely, in fact. “My Ideal, My Love” is the English subtitle and that is pretty much what it’s about. A woman falls for someone who is her perfect ideal, and find herself learning about the person behind that ideal…and then falling in love with the person. In every case, the journey is mutual.

In one story, a woman who works for a delivery company realizes that’s she’s delivering packages to her favorite pop idol. The idol realizes that’s she fallen for the delivery person when an injury forces the company to send someone else. They bridge the distance when they recognize their feelings are mutual.

And every story is pretty much like that. A baker is attracted to a clothing designer, who is forced to admit that she’s a starving artist and cannot go clothes shopping. The two start going out, but stick to things that one can do for free, like picnics.

The final story is multi-chapter, taking up the second half of the book. A woman attends a local theater production and become smitten with the lead actress.  She joins the theater group, where she has to really think about her life and what she wants out of it. This story has the second benchmark moment – an actual coming out scene. The troupe leader mentions that he’s gay, to which Mayuko grudgingly admits that she is not interested in men. But later as she speaks with the lead, Ruri, who is pressing her on what her ideal is, Mayuko says that she is gay…and that she wants to be ordinary. Immediately after which, Ruri continues to encourage Mayuko to see her own talent and the walls she’s built around herself. Ultimately, Mayuko confesses her feelings and is feeling all lost in self-loathing, but Ruri is there to catch her and support her and we suspect that Ruri is a very good thing for Mayuko and vice versa.

This was a really nice book to read. Every story left me feeling hopeful. The obi reads “Rave review from Morishima Akiko-shi!” and to that, they could, if they want, add “rave review from Erica Friedman!” because there was nothing about this volume I didn’t like. Art was adult and cute and clean, the stories were solid, all the characters were likable and the conflicts were real-world issues, that were handled with kindness.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
LGBTQ – 8
Service – 1 on principal only

Overall – 9

A very strong volume by an author from whom I hope to see more.

 





Yuri Manga: Killing Me!, Volume 1 (English)

August 16th, 2019

Volume 1 of Akiyama’s Killing Me!
was not exactly thrilling me
Carmilla’s invoked
As a kind of  joke
And that’s about as good as you can expect from this series.

Saki is a vampire who was apparently turned at about age 13 and she is love with fam-trad Vampire Hunter Miyoko who, frankly, sucks at her job. Saki’s in love with Miyoko, who is obviously in love back, but that is not the point of this manga. The point is that Miyoko sucks at killing Saki, who professes her love, which Miyoko passive-aggressively ignores. Haha!

This kind of story is not really violent, although guns appear, and not really a love story, although little hearts decorate Saki’s words.

Akiyama describes the story in the author’s note as “kind of like a Hamburg-steak rice-omellete covered in curry” with which I agree with 100%. It is a pile of glop that you may or may not find to be delicious.

 

Image from Sukaza City Pinterest

Ratings:

Art – moe
Story – One line
Characters – One joke per
Service  – Blood sucking children…so, yes
Yuri – That too

Overall – Go For It

Akiyama also describes this series as “kill-or-be-killed comedy.” We clearly have different ideas about the word “kill.”

And “comedy.”





Yuri Manga: Yamada to Kase-san (山田と加瀬さん)

August 14th, 2019

Yamada and Kase-san have officially begun their lives as college students in the big city. It’s a life full of challenges; getting around, meeting people, balancing their relationship and the physical distance separating them against the rest of their lives.

Yamada makes a friend, Hana, a girl whose family runs a flower store. Hana is very similar to Yamada and feels equally as in love with the school program, as she is overwhelmed by city life. To help Hana, Yamada agrees to go to a meet-and-greet event. Kase-san forcefully asks her to decline, but Yamada wants to live her own life, as well as be with her lover.

The defining challenge of Yamada to Kase-san (山田と加瀬さん) is jealousy. Both Yamada and Kase-san are threading thin needles, keeping up with their work, forming peer groups and trying to fit each other into these new lives. When Kase-san shows up to the meet-and-greet, Yamada knows that Kase-san wasn’t wrong, but stands firm on her own motivations. Kase-san backs down – probably the single most important moment of the book. And of course, Hana, innocent that she is, is appalled at the party becoming a drinking party and bails. ^_^

All is well, as they get together with Mikawacchi and Yamada is recruited to a job at a Garden Center – where she is greeted as a savior. Then it his her turn to face down jealousy, as it suddenly dawns on Yamada that Kase-san is sharing her dorm room, with a woman who will know more about the day-to-day life of her lover than she does. Kase-san’s birthday forces her to confront her jealousy.

There’s another conflict brewing in the background, too, but that is saved for another time.

This was an exceptionally strong volume of this series. The translation of Kase-san and Yamada from provincial high school into a more adult world is not without its sacrifices….sometimes the humor comes of as a bit facile, but, more often its a welcome relief to an otherwise difficult emotional situation. It is delightful to have kept Mikawacchi’s chaotic influence in the story and a triumph to see Yamada with a peer of her own.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Service – Does Kase-san in a suit count? Yes? 7
Yuri – 9 With the slightest frisson of the real world edging in

Overall – 9

Ultimately, my desire to see them happy continues unabated.

The English-language volume, Kase-san and Yamada, is slated for winter 2020 release.





Yuri Manga: Macaron Idol Yuri Anthology (マカロン アイドル百合アンソロジー)

August 11th, 2019

I’m not going to lie – I was not looking forward to reading Macaron Idol Yuri Anthology (マカロン アイドル百合アンソロジー). But my wife said to me, “You never know, you might enjoy it.” I believe I made a rude noise in reply.

My wife was right. I enjoyed this anthology, despite myself. The stories were, I suppose, predictable for an idol anthology, but more importantly, they were pretty sincere.

The first story by Sakagi, “Ponytail and Aoi Uso”  was a moving little story of an idol “graduating”  – that is to say, being forcibly retired by management – but leaving a deep impression on the kouhai who loves her.

Also entertaining, was a trio of idols who were being sold as a “Yuri” concept group, but in real life, are an actual threesome, story by Tsuji Yuzuna.

There are stories of fans and idols, idols and their idol partners, even an “evil” idol group recruiting a “innocent” idol,  and a surprising (to me) number of stories about the people behind the idols. Perhaps that should not have surprised me, but my impression of the idol industry is that they carefully do not want us, the audience, to ever think of the idols as humans, with lives and thoughts beyond just entertainment. I think that is a brutal and inhuman way to treat people. and I’m kind of glad to know that the creators in this anthology, at least, are willing to look past the curtain a little and explore the inner and off-stage lives of the entertainers.

Ratings:

All ratings are variable, but all were good to excellent.

Overall – 8

It’s not world-changing, but I was both surprised and pleased by this anthology.

 





Yuri Manga: Shigoto no Ato ha Koishiyou (仕事の後は恋しよう)

August 6th, 2019

When you think about it, there are only a few office romance scenarios possible. Coworker x coworker, boss x employee or two people who don’t work together. Because the power differential is so one-sided when it comes to boss x employee, there’s a lot of potential for abusive relationships. And yet, Yuri tends to kind of not go there. (Of course exceptions exist.)

Recently I was discussing how tachi and neko don’t line up with seme and uke (something I have written about before.)  In particular, butch characters are often portrayed as reticent in lesbian media, afraid of abusing any physical or social power; simply unwilling or uncomfortable being aggressors. While this is not always true in Yuri, those series that have featured an uneven power dynamic come across as trying to replicate BL tropes – unsuccessfully, overall. (A new generation of adult Yuri manga has had to find other tropes to… use *.  As I’ve noted in the past, Yuri readers tend to be invested in the couple being happy with each other, rather than a sexual act as payoff. It was, therefore, with some interest, that I read Shigoto no ato ha Koishiyou (仕事の後は恋しよう) by Iwashita Kei, which falls into this familiar-to-western-readers pattern.

Kurashita appears to be a very typical clumsy, uninspired, unispiring career woman. She works under Suzuya Asahi, who is everything Kurashita is not – cool, classically attractive, an exceedingly  competent worker and a leader. Kurashita find herself being helped by Suzuya and…oddly, finds herself living up to the level of Suzuya’s example. She’s also finding herself attracted to the other woman, but unwilling to even address that in her own thoughts.

Here’s where it all goes Xena.. Suzuya is torturing herself. She’s fallen for Kurashita, but there are so many things that make their relationship unequal, she just cannot bring herself to be honest. Even as the company president is encouraging – even manipulating – them to work together, Suzuya’s in the middle of the kind of mental torture any number of women who have found themselves in love with women they think they cannot have would be familiar with. A happy accident ends up forcing them both to deal with their feelings, but a lot of stuff has happen before they can get there.

The climax of the story has absolutely nothing to do with their relationship, and I thought it absolutely delightful. This manga also addresses some real-world issues in the office, casual sexism, systemic sexism, and what it means to be good at your job. Again, the climax is more about work, than love, which was outstanding.

Kurashita and Suzuya are adorably awkward (especially Suzuya, as she should be) and they deserve every page of their happy ending.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story  – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 9
Service – Not really

Overall – A very strong 8.

But here’s the point I want to make about this – the dynamic in this volume reads “lesbian” to me, rather than Yuri, even though nothing else about this volume has any lesbian identity, because of the qualities I spoke of above.  It is, in this western lesbian’s experience and experience with media, that the butch is almost never really the seme. Except accidentally. ^_^ This manga is an East Press publication and to be honest, that’s another reason I read Iwashita Kei’s Yuri manga debut tankoubon as “lesbian.”

* YOU try and finish this sentence without finding yourself in the middle of a metaphor for sex.