Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Sweet Blue Flowers, Volume 2 (English)

January 8th, 2018

A good translation of a manga can be a little bit like magic. You pick up a book and without effort you are able to read this story created in a different country, in a different time or place. It’s an extraordinary feeling. The Viz Media edition of Takako Shimura’s Sweet Blue Flowers is a little bit like magic.

In Volume 1, we met Manjoume Fumi and Okudaira Akira, two childhood friends reunited as teens, and their school friends. 

In Volume 2, Fumi is coming off a relationship with Sugimoto, an older girl who hadn’t been honest with her and she’s feeling a bit bitter about it. Even worse, Sugimoto keeps trying to salvage it, but is doing a crappy job of it. Fumi’s had it with her ex, and lets her know that in no uncertain terms. 

Akira is surrounded by people who are falling in love and isn’t sure at all how she feels about it. When she asks Fumi, Fumi admits that Akira was her first love and again Akira has no idea what to do with the information. It’s almost as vexing as one of her friends going out with her annoying older brother. And when she overhears something she didn’t want to know about her friend Kyoko’s family, she has no idea what to do with that, either.

Back at school, the girls are all second-years now, with new students coming in. We meet Ryoko Ueda who kind of reminds Akira of Fumi and Haruka Ono, who is clearly (to us) bearing the burden of a (to us) fairly obvious secret of her own. Side stories indicate that there’s more complexity to relationships than just what we see here in the main story.

This volume moves quickly and slowly at the same time. Scenes are slow and leisurely – drama club practice, sleeping over a friend’s house – but time is whizzing by. One second Mogi sort of likes Akira’s brother, then next they are dating and we never actually saw them together much at all. Good translation can be magic, but it can’t fill holes left by a serialized manga schedule. ^_^;  Shimura’s super strong on developing characters, but putting in all the details of the story has never been her best skill.

This volume comprises Volume 3 and Volume 4 of the original Japanese edition. This is an excellent English release and I think we can expect it to maintain this high quality.

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 7
Lesbian – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Volume 3 of the English edition will be available in March, so you have plenty of time to pre-order. ^_^ If you haven’t already picked up this “new classic” of Yuri, I definitely recommend it, for having a depth of early 20th century  literary history and still being grounded in the present.

 

 





Yuri Manga: Kamitsuki Gakuen, Volume 1 (かみつき学園)

January 7th, 2018

Well, Kamitsuki Gakuen, Volume 1 (かみつき学園) was a thing I read. And while I read it, I had feelings. Primarily confusion and bewilderment, but hey, those are feelings, too. ^_^;

You might reasonably wonder, looking at the cover of Kamitsuki Gakuen, Volume 1 why I would have picked it up in the first place. I can see you looking at the cover, then turning to me and gently saying, “Erica, this is *clearly* a vampire story. You don’t like vampire stories. I remember you saying you don’t like vampire stories many times over the years.” And you’d be right.

I will, equally as gently insist that I knew perfectly well that it was a vampire story when I picked it up and no, I didn’t expect to like it, but there were extenuating circumstances. Because I didn’t just pick it up any old where, I picked this (and another quite-probably-vampire-Yuri story, along with at least two other that look horrible and a thing I have never heard of before) at the Yurimate display on the ground floor of the Ikebukuro Animate. It was my last morning in Tokyo and I decided to buy all the stuff I hadn’t yet bought, regardless if looked good or not. And that is how I ended up with Kamitsuki Gakuen, Volume 1 .

Shizuka is a “Epicurean” which is to say she is a vampire. (The kanji for vampire is clearly written, 吸血鬼, with furigana that read “Epicurean.” In case, inexplicably from just looking at the cover, you might not understand that this is a vampire story.) Shizuka is the little girl on the right of the cover. As she comes to Kamitsuki Gakuen for her first day in high school, we are told by almost everyone she encounters that she looks much younger. The tall girl on the left is Shizuka’s roommate and meal plan. She doesn’t have a name, just “Number 1,” Ichi-gou.

The story is Shizuka’s awakening to life as a vampire, while she befriends classmates and fellow Epicureans, and tries to befriend Ichi-gou. Shizuka, on account of never feeding directly from a person is runty, and her bat wings are little, but with help she learns to find the idea of sucking Ichi-gou’s blood alluring. And, after she enjoys the taste of Ichi-gou after she had eaten a strawberry parfait, Shizuka renames Ichi-gou….

Go ahead, guess what name she gives her. Think really hard. Strawberry. Ichi-gou. Why, yes, Shizuka does name her meal plan Ichigo. Amazingly clever, what?

Anyway, about then, I stopped reading and just stared at the last few pages. I’m sure a cliffhangery thing happened and who knows, maybe there will be a next volume.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 4 Shizuka’s awakening failed to be compelling
Characters – 4
Yuri – Vampires
Service – Vampires

Overall – 4

Hunger/lust/friendship is magic!

If this is a thing that you too would like to have read, you can take a look at the sample chapter (in Japanese) on the Shonen Sirius‘s website.





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime January 2018 (コミック百合姫2018年1月号)

January 5th, 2018

Comic Yuri Hime, January 2018 (コミック百合姫2018年1月号) is off to a strong start with series new and continuing, from folks we know we like, folks we know we don’t like and folks we don’t know at all.

We have Miman’s “Watashi no Shigoto ha Yuri Desu” in which our eyes are in fact turned toward Nanako and Tachibana and I find the idea that they will have a storyline unto themselves far, far more interesting than anything involving Hime.

And Ohsawa Yayoi’s “2DK, GPen Mezamshitokei” turns towards a new and exciting digression…one that makes me all kinds of uncomfortable, as Nanami heads to Kyoto to attend Aoi’s wedding, while Kaede remains home to hit a tight deadline. This is a recipe for all kinds of disaster. I can’t wait. ^_^

Taneko’s “Model-san and Ichimi Mane-san” isn’t “Liberty, but I like it anyway.  Katakura Ako’s art and storytelling remain messy in ”Hirusagari ni, mata”.

And of course, all the series I don’t follow that the editors love. ^_^;

Ratings: 

Overall – 8

Exactly where I like this magazine to be – a nice bell curve of Yuri. Comic Yuri Hime is also available digitally on Japanese-region Kindle and globally on Bookwalker. The February issue is also on shelves now.





Yuri Manga: Hana & Hina After School, Volume 3 (English)

January 4th, 2018

In Volume 3 of Hana & Hina After School, Hana and Hina face a growing distance between them manufactured out of their mutual desire to avoid their feelings for one another. Nonetheless, we’re probably not all that concerned about it, and the story just sort of coasts along from small crisis to confrontation to confession and finally conclusion.

Because we’re not really concerned at whether the principals will get together – it’s pretty much assumed that they will – it’s more or less how they’ll get there that is what we’re reading.

In my review of the Japanese volume, I noted that it’s extraordinary for a Morinaga Milk Yuri manga story to address any real-life issues. I wrote:

“In Kisses, Sighs and Cherry Blossoms Pink, Hitomi merely fantasizes about a future in which she and Nana are adults and can be together. In GIRL FRIENDS (Volume 1 and Volume 2) Morinaga-sensei took a step outside the isolation of a “couple in love” and gave Akiko and Mari friends…friends who accepted them and their relationship. In the very end, Mari even gave some thought to the issues of coming out to parents and what school and work might think…in the future.”

And that’s about all we get. In this volume we touch briefly on the concept of same-sex marriage at the very end and, in a roundabout way we see the possible awakening of same-sex interest in classmate Takagi, although it’s somewhat disappeared by the translation. My memory of the original has her saying something like, “I think I’m like that, too…” rather than “I want to do that, too.” Of course I could be wrong – and I could have been wrong originally, as well. I’m not motivated to go find Volume 3 to find out. ^_^ The rest of the technicals are top notch, as always. I just remember this particular scene as bing a “whoa!”moment for Hina’s classmate.

So brief touches on the realities of a life after getting together is all we’ve gotten and all we’re likely to get, but I still hope that one day, Morinaga-sensei writes something that goes beyond Story A. (Wouldn’t it be nice if in a future girl-meets-girl manga, we see a grown up Nana and Hitomi (or Hina and Hana they are mostly interchangable, so it hardly matters) who are there to help the main characters through their first-love-crisis-du-jour? I kinda think it might. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 6 
Yuri – 8 

Overall – 8 

3 volumes was just the right length for this series. I think Morinaga-sensei is at her best when she has time to work through the “zOMG we’re in love” crisis, without having to rush it or drag it out. 





Yuri Manga: 2DK, G Pen, Mezamshitokei, Volume 6 (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。6)

January 2nd, 2018

In Ohsawa Yayoi’s 2DK, G Pen, Mezamshitokei, Volume 6 (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。6), we get something we haven’t seen before – Kaede’s perspective.

Nanami, having come to a conclusion for herself, confessed her feelings to Kaede at the end of Volume 5. At the beginning of Volume 6, we see, in a single panel, Kaede’s true feelings. Overwhelmed, unsure and a little horrified at the idea that both the important women in her life have confessed to liking her, we see Kaede with an expression we’ve never seen before. It’s a great expression.

And then, Kaede gets back to work. Koyuki comes over to help and takes the opportunity to berate Nanami for being clueless about her feelings for Kaede, only to find out that Nanami’s also confessed. They have a tremendously satisfying scene where they argue about each other’s relative importance to Kaede and self-deprecatingly agree to keep taking care of Kaede.

When Koyuki isn’t available to help Kaede, Nanami finds herself intruding on the other woman’s bailiwick. Unsure of herself, Nanami asks Kaede about her history with Aoi. And, finally, we get a story from Kaede’s point of view.  (I still don’t like Aoi, but it’s nice to spend a moment inside Kaede’s head for a second, even if it’s just to find out that she really is a golden retriever puppy of a human.)

The volume wraps up with a look at Nanami from her coworkers’ perspectives and an invitation in the mail. The extra chapter is a silly “what if Nanami was a hard drinking pachinko playing layabout and Kaede was the responsible one”?  

This volume is everything I like about this series. It’s not rushing to pair the principals up. It’s taking it’s time with the main conflict of most Yuri manga – what the heck to do with all these feels.

The main “conflict” of Yuri manga is not the relationship itself, but where to put the feelings the characters feel. Most of us grow up surrounded by hetersexual expectations, role models, media, and discussions. From birth we’re handed a box labeled “Love” that’s filled to the brim with gender-associated behaviors and reactions and includes, at the bottom, an assumption of an opposite-sex partner. 

Those of us who, actively or passively, reject that box, are required to build a new box, often with scraps of media and fantasies. For those people who never wanted to or cared about rejecting that box, building the new one is even weirder. For Nanami, who came into this story with a fiancé and a presumption that the initial box was sufficient, this entire series has been about her recognizing that she may need to make a new box ,after all. And now, here at the end of Volume 6, she may just start to be able to think about doing that.

As I say this story is not rushing. And with this major step ahead in the main plot, it’s time for a digression. It’s the 5th digression so far, and at this point, I’m all curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine, ready to digress. Ohsawa-sensei, take me away!

Ratings: 

Art – 9 That one panel of Kaede was sublime.
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 3

Overall – 9

The first volume of this series started with the message that life was messy, and it hasn’t changed a bit. I love it. Last review of 2017 and first of 2018! Bring it on!