Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Volume 2

February 21st, 2024

A pretty girl with long black hair and gray eyes, reaches toward us with lightly lavender-tinted fingernails, blushing and smiling at us.by Luce, Staff Writer

Welcome back to the rollercoaster Yuri harem series, I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Volume 2.  In Volume 1, our protagonist is Mei Soraike, a girl who fell in love with a female friend at high school, and upon getting her heart broken, swears that she will reinvent herself and get a girlfriend in college! Within a few days of starting, she ends up with five candidates, all of whom are vying for her attention. At the end of volume one, Karin said they should just go out, and then Riri arrived…?

Within ten pages of starting, Mei finds herself between Karin and Riri while they’re asking who she wants to sleep with. Indecisive… and experiencing ‘too gay to function’ (Mei often experiences this), she elects to sleep on the floor instead. She ends up in a charged lecture with Prof Maria, and later, she finds herself in a three person play with Karin and Minato (somewhat for their own ulterior motives), joins Riri on a photoshoot to try and improve her acting, goes out to see a play with Minato to try and get her voice right, and ends up practicing with Kaori… and when the script says french kiss, she does! 

DareKoi remains an enjoyable rollercoaster, never lingering long on any one moment, although it doesn’t quite feel like it is rushing either. It knows what the reader wants – girls flirting and kissing, and by jove, you get that. Sprinkled on the top are some of the love interests wondering if they love Mei, too. What I like is that the harem have positive interactions with each other – while they are kind of fighting over Mei, they are also their own people. Minato and Karin knew each other before they knew Mei, and they remain friends, and Riri and Karin also seem to know each other. 

Honestly, I’d be quite happy with a polyamorous ending – it would be fun if the answer to Mei’s question of ‘which is love?’ is ‘all of them’, as I like to think love can take many different forms. It likely won’t, but the playing field is pretty even for the time being. Karin has asked Mei out, but Mei doesn’t feel like she’s ‘near her level’ – but that she’ll try! What I like about Mei is that although she’s generally passive in so much as everything seems to happen around her, she is trying. She only has one frame of reference for love, being her old friend, so her inexperience makes sense. Speaking of that old friend, her face hasn’t been shown as yet – I’m not sure we even have a name – but I can only assume that she is going to pop back up at some point. I hope Mei does okay when that happens. She’ll probably be either on a date or in a compromising position, knowing this series, but it does it with such heart that I’m looking forward to it.

Ratings:

Story: 7
Art: 8
Characters: 7
Service: 5
Yuri: too Yuri to function

Overall: 8

I Don’t Know Which Is Love, Volume 2 is available now in print and digital from Yen Press!





Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月)

February 20th, 2024

Two girls wearing Japanese yukata for a summer festival, look at each other with intensity as fireworks explode above them.Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The story followed an introverted girl, Mari, who becomes friendly with an extroverted girl, Akiko. Akiko is Mari’s first real girl friend. And, then, they start to fall in love with one another.  I bring this up because a number of Yuri series begin in a similar emotional space – someone has not previously had a close friend and then their feelings begin to change. Saki and Kanon have both had a close friend before. They both know how friendship feels. They both know how it feels to feel betrayed, or lost when that friendship cracks.

In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月) a whole lot of things happen that remind us that this story is absolutely not handwaving *anything.* This is a remarkably profound story that is not at all taking shortcuts, even when we might expect it to.

First, in the wake of telling Kanon how she feels,  Saki has decided that it’s time to speak to Akira, the hair stylist whose “friend’s” story of first love with another girl seemed awfully personal. It’s an important conversation for Saki, because she starts to accept her feelings for Kanon. She has no clue where she is going with them yet, but she she’s starting to understand that this is who she is. Secondly, Kanon is also wondering what to do with her emotions. She’s got no name for this maelstrom she’s feeling ask Saki asks her a favor under the bright lights of a fireworks display.

Whether or not they become a couple is entirely irrelevant to me. Watching them work through complicated feelings about other people and with other people to talk to, is very much the crux of the matter. But, this volume isn’t leaning back on just this one piece of the story, either. Saki meets up with Ayano and once again offers comfort and a way to move forward for the other girl and Tomita comes back to school, openly admitting her disability, and apologizing to her ignored friends in a touching scene.

Yeas ago, I was reading a comic that cleared the low bar of the Bechdel-Wallace Test but inspired me to create the Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel-Wallace Test, which includes these three criteria:

Does female character have agency?
Does she have society?
Does she have personality?

In Amayo no Tsuki, Saki has society. Her friendship has helped Kanon to build the same for herself… and that is what makes this volume so amazing. If these two fall in love, it won’t be because they are sheltered in a world of two, blocked from the rest of society. It will be because they want to face that world together.  In the meantime, Kanon is not only finding her own ways to make friends and be part of her class’ activities, she’s also finding her own individual voice as a writer.

The final story follow Kanon’s sister Rinne and how she learns to be braver about openly displaying empathy for others with help from her sister’s experience.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service –  Saki and Kanon in yukata is also a form of service ^_^
Yuri – 5

Overall – 10

This was a fabulous volume of a series that is already carved out a permanent place in my heart.  I recently did an interview with a media platform in which I was asked where I saw the future of Yuri. The answer is – this. This intersectionality with disability, gender, race, mental health – these crossroads where we explore with it is to be a human with a body and mind that is not always under our control or are othered by people who are not us. This is where I see Yuri going right now and I really like it.

This series is available in English, as The Moon On A Rainy Night from Kodansha,  Volumes 1-3 are out and I have, of course, reviewed them here on Okazu. ^_^

 





I Don’t Need A Happy Ending, Guest Review by Eleanor Walker

February 14th, 2024

A woman and her maid embrace gently, on a bed surrounded by draped cloth.Hello, it’s 3 opossums in a trenchcoat disguised as a person back for another review. You can find me dotted around the Internet as @st_owly. Today I’m reviewing I Don’t Need  A Happy Ending, a collection of short stories,  by Mikanuji, the creator of Assorted Entanglements. I liked that series well enough to go in blind on this one when I saw it in the bookstore so here we go.

I’ve always had a soft spot for short stories. Telling a complete tale in a limited amount of pages is a skill unto itself, and a good short story anthology should have something for everyone. With that in mind, I cannot recommend the first story in this book, “I’ll Never Fall In Love With You”. It’s rapey, creepy and everything I dislike about yuri manga written for the male gaze all rolled into 36 convenient pages. 

Happily, the second story in the book is much more pleasant. This is the titular story “I Don’t Need A Happy Ending” and features a historical forbidden love story between a mistress and her maid. Unlike in the first story, the characters actually feel like people rather than sex objects, and without giving too much away, they do get their happy ending. I will freely admit I’m a sucker for historical romance and as someone who adores Victorian Romance Emma, by Kaoru Mori, this scratched the same itch. 

Back to the present day for “I Don’t Know What Love Is,” which features a nihilistic college student and her adoring kouhai. I didn’t particularly care for this chapter either, but it did at least have more plot than the first one and the characters are adults this time. The author also really likes drawing people having sex in (semi) public places.

4th in the collection is “A Day off from Work” in which two childhood friends finally realise their long held feelings for each other. Short and sweet, it’s always nice when two people find each other.

The penultimate story in this volume also appeared in “Whenever Our Eyes Meet: A Women’s Love Anthology” which is also available in English from Yen Press. Another office romance, this time the new temp at the company is the main lead’s fling from the night before, and she’s not out at work. More semi public sex and everyone is happy.

Finally, we finish with a sequel to “I Don’t Need a Happy Ending,” which begins with a timeskip of several years, and that is merely a convenient plot device for more illicit sex. It takes 3 pages before they’re at it.  

Overall, your mileage may vary. as to be expected with an anthology. The author definitely has certain tastes which are reflected in this collection, and if her tastes don’t align with yours you might leave disappointed. For me “I Don’t Need a Happy Ending” and sequel were by far and away the standout of the book, with the others ranging from “get me the brain bleach right now” to “ok that was cute but utterly forgettable.”

Ratings:

Art – 8. The sex scenes are well done and the boobs don’t look like balloons. 
Story – Anywhere from 3 to 7
Characters – Anywhere from 3 to 7
Service – 10. This one is rated M and shrink wrapped for a reason
Yuri – 7. It got better as it went on. 

Overall – 6.5

 





The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 3

February 13th, 2024

Two girls in bed, bathed in a golden glow. A girl with light-colored hair girl watches a dark-haired girl intensely as she sleeps.I’ve been filled with joy reading this series since my first glimpse at it almost two years ago. In my review of Volume 3 of Amayo no Tsuki, (雨夜の月) I said, “we get the last piece that would make this series perfect, IMHO. Whatever happens now, I am in the front row, rooting for everyone.”

Representation is a complex matter. It’s incredibly powerful just to see or read about someone who is like ourselves. In this way, this series has been fantastic, in providing excellent representation of disability and the way accommodation can function when people understand what it is intended to do. But in both narrative and real life the best representation is to actually meet someone like yourself and understand how their lives play out. In The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 3, Saki meets two critically important people.

First, she randomly meets a hair stylist in training who, quite disconcertingly, “sees” Saki, in a way that she is not yet ready to see herself. Akira’s gaydar absolutely pins Saki, and the younger woman is on the receiving end of a cautionary tale about first loves which makes her more self-conscious about the skinship between Kanon and herself. This becomes a bit of a crisis, as Kanon’s sister asks Saki to keep Kanon company one night. Kanon sleeps over and Saki is ecstatic and panicking all night long.

And then, Saki meets Kanon’s former friend, Ayano, who warns her about the price one pays as a caretaker. We can see right away that Ayano’s situation was different, and tragic on several levels –  but the warning Saki receives is, once again, reasonable. In both cases, she is seen and understood, and yet, not understood. Representation is complicated. Saki is going to have to figure this one out for herself…but not on her own, one hopes. Kuzushiro is pulling out all the stops here.

While translation, lettering and editing are all fantastic, technically, this book is a bit problematic. On the Okazu Discord, we recently had a discussion about the indifferent quality of recent print books from Yen and Kodansha. This book arrived with the cover cut too short for the pages. I might have assumed that was a fluke, but a second copy – from a different company – was the same. My last few volume of books from Yen have likewise been not-great quality. She Loves To Cook, She Loves To Eat had pages cut unevenly, and both publishers have had low-ink faded pages in recent volumes. As I type this, I notice the spine is not lined up correctly in one of the two copies I have. These are production issues that need to be addressed. I hope they’ll both improve their QA a bit this year.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Really not
Yuri – 4, LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

Volume 3 put this series on my top ten lists for last year (and Volume 4 and Volume 5!) It’s a tremendously good series, with a LOT to say about life. If you’re not reading it yet, I really think you should.

Volume 6 of Amayo no Tsuki is out in Japanese and Volume 4 of The Moon on A Rainy Night, will be headed our way in April.

 





Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜)

February 8th, 2024

Girls in Edo-period haori over school uniforms wield swordsWhile shopping in random bookstores in Japan at the end of last year I kept seeing books with girls in school uniforms wielding swords. I did that thing where I pick a thing up, then put it down, then pick it up at the next store…. ^_^; Eventually I found a copy of Volume 2 signed by the creator, so I nabbed both volumes there….neither of which were Volume 1. So please forgive me if I get some of this wrong. I am coming in to this story in the middle.

So, let’s start from the beginning. Oni to Yoake is a web series by Ikuta Hana, about the members of a school kendo club who have the reborn souls of important swordsmen of the Bakumatsu, which was the end of the Edo period. Bakumatsu Joshi Kousei Oni to Yoake, Volume 1 (幕末女子高生 鬼と夜明け) begins the story with two high school girls who have the reborn souls of Sakamoto Ryouma and Toshizo Hijikata. Sakamoto transfers to Koharu High School, where the spirits of late Edo period warriors attend school, and falls in love at first sight with Hijikata, a member of the public morals committee. However, love is strictly prohibited by school rules. Got that? Good…because that is not what I am reviewing today. I haven’t read that. ^_^ That series has a Volume 2 and a Volume 3 thus far. I picked up Volume 2 because it was signed. But based on how confused I was reading this volume, I guess I had better start with Volume 1. ^_^

Oh wait, but it gets better. The book we’re looking at today isn’t the main story…it’s a sequel!  Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け　夕月夜) follows girls from a different school who also have the souls of Bakamatsu Shinsengumi swordsmen (or the infamous Hitokiri, which we’ll get to in a bit.)

Todo Yoshino, who has the soul of Toudo Heisuke, and Okita Sou, who hold the soul of  Okita Souji,  are having problems in their already established relationship. And there is something disturbing going on at their high school.  The Shinsengumi vs. the Hitokiri is about to begin. 

You may be familiar with the Four Killers of the Bakamatsu, called the Hitokiri from Ruroni Kenshin. Kenshin is supposed to be a former Hitokiri, on the run from the Shinsengumi.

Also, I know next to nothing about the Bakumatsu period! So there’s that complication as well. Ask me how lost I was? I was “stay up hours reading Wikipedia entries on the Shinsegumi and the people in this book” lost. LOL But I think I have the gist now.

This volume depicts the problems between Yoshino and Sou, and a historical intermission in which their souls’ previous bearers met, along with the  the purge of deserters, and, according to the books synopsis, “the events leading up to the Ikedaya Incident.” This is followed by a  “BL edition of the story with further new-souls of long-dead people being paired, along with school festivals, Valentine’s Day, and events at the high school of Izumi Kazusa and Tsuji Kaneshige,” who are dating.

You can tell this is an online comic, as it is in full-color. The art is good enough and dynamic when it needs to be. I’m interested enough to go back to Volume 1 and see where this started  – and to have stayed up late reading articles on the Bakumatsu and Shinsengumi, because why not?*  The real-life people seem pretty awful, though, for all the reasons you might expect.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – The boys do a cross-dress cafe, if that’s for you. I preferred the girls in Edo period men’s clothes, in the flashback
Yuri – I have *no* idea. 6?

Overall – 8

There is also a second stand-alone volume,  Oni to Yoake  Zenya (鬼と夜明け前夜 )

Girls with swords and karma. Totally in my wheelhouse.

*But! When I came across the Neale Incident I was amazed to find that I knew about that from, of all places, the Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月 ) series! Who says that vampires aren’t good for anything? (Well, me, obviously.)