Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Shigoto no Nochi Dakishimete (仕事の後は抱きしめて)

January 22nd, 2024

On a cover of scattered flowers, woman with collar-length blue hair and a blonde with long hair lay head to head, not looking at one another.Aota Yui is a young woman with a dream – she wants to be a chef. To get there, she needs to be accepted by the restaurant’s Taisho. She’s working really hard to make food that people love. One day Yui runs into the beautiful businesswoman Houjo Eriko. Eriko wishes someone might cook for her….so Yui volunteers. She’s already half in love when she comes to the door, but after a night spent with the other woman, she’s a goner. Eriko, though, has no dreams left. She thinks life is pretty boring. Men desire her, women want to be her. She thinks Yui is cute and distracting, like a puppy, but is sure that there’s nothing left of life for her. Yui will, of course, change that.

In Shigoto no Nochi Dakishimete (仕事の後は抱きしめて), subtitled in English “Hold Me Tight After Work,” on the cover,  Yui’s earnestness and Eriko’s quiet despair will battle and love will win.

This was one of the books I picked up in Japan because I had never heard of it and there it was, with these words on the obi – “Spun with delicate brushtrokes – Shakaijin Yuri love story.” It was predictable and fun and kind of sweet, bolstered mostly by Yui’s energy and sincerity.

Apparently it wasn’t enough to have Eriko be jaded and full of ennui, though, because midway a plot complication is inserted that, honestly, did not work for the narrative. Yui assists a young woman in kimono from being harassed (a scene that was smile-inducing as every guy in the town shows up to back Yui up, since everyone lieks her) and in her desire to thank Yui, the young woman decides to destroy her life. ?!?!?

Koyoi Mikazuki has a run-down restaurant left to her by her parents. When they died all the employees just left, leaving her without anyone to help her run the place. She decides Yui should be her chef. Yui, who *just* got the approval from the restaurant’s Taisho is not willing to leave. Mikazuki embraces Yui, just in time for Eriko to show up. And Eriko, of course, gets the wrong idea. UGH, come on.

And then it gets weird – Mikazuki tracks Eriko down to taunt her, manipulates Yui into helping her rebuild the restaurant and generally is unpleasant and creepy. Yui and Eriko do not speak about this and they begin to pull further apart. Finally Yui puts her foot down. She helps Mikazuki get new staff…which are the old staff who left her, because when her parents died they all just could not cope. Once Mikazuki is doing okay again, Yui finds Eriko, then refuses to let her just walk away.

They make up in the time honored fashion and, we are led to believe, live happily ever after.

I’m left thinking that the plot complication with Mikazuki could have been handled with more nuance than “tragic backstory,” and Eriko’s issue are deeper than just “life is boring,” and would have liked to see some self-refection from these two, but manga tropes it is. Other than this slight imperfection, this is a fun little adult Yuri from Iwashita Kei and published by our old friends East Press. It’s nice to see them still putting out the occasional Yuri.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7 This story is carried by Yui, no question
Service – Some adult sex scenes, but drawn for subtlety, not stimulation
Yuri – 9

Overall – 7

You might give it a higher score if “not talking about it” bothers you less than it does me. It bothers me a whole point’s worth here.





Private ha Honnin-tachi ni Makasete Orimasu (プライベートは本人たちに任せております)

January 11th, 2024

A pop idol with flowing blonde hair and a pink frilly costume embraces a girl in black, with dark hair and glasses. The air around them shimmers with sparkles and confetti.I picked up a copy of Private Ha Honnin-tachi Ni Makasete Orimasu (プライベートは本人たちに任せております) (translated in English on the frontispiece as Private Life Is Left To Them, Yuri Talext x Yuri Anthology) on a whim while at Gamers, I think, in Tokyo.

Once more, there are shelves and shelves of Yuri anthologies, many of them generated by publishing companies like Kadokawa and Ichijinsha to harness the creators who contribute to contests, or are recruited at events, or send in work for publication, much like a farm league for manga. Many manga publishers are now also having editors for web editions and anthology collections appear at events like Comitia for portfolio review. Of course, sometimes one still comes across a smaller publisher or circle creating an anthology. Galette magazine, for instance, is still out there doing a fantastic quarterly Yuri manga magazine that I am horribly behind on reviewing.

As I have said, I didn’t go to Japan with a long list of books to get this last time. It’s much easier to get books shipped or digitally distributed nowadays. So I only picked up things I hadn’t seen before or that looked really interesting. This book falls into the former category. Pop idols who are queer does interest me, as I have a 2 (soon to be the 3) novella series on the topic. This collection includes stories by creators Kashikaze (I Can’t Say No To The Lonely Girl, coming in April from Seven Seas), Yukiko (Cats and Sugar Bowls, also from Seven Seas)and Mikanuji (Assorted Entanglements and other works, out from Yen Press.)

As with most manga anthologies, the contributions here are more extended scenarios, rather than complete stories. These scenarios focus on the private lives of queer pop idols. Whether their admirers or partners are a staff member, or fan or member of the same group, these stories are all designed to end with the two partners happy in each others’ company.

The first story does have some problematic content, so be warned about creepy, stalkery behavior from a person who ins position of power who abuse that powers in a way that didn’t sit right with me. But most of the stories are harmless to cute.

Now that there is some distance between when I read it and reviewing it now, the one story that stood out the most was by Kaibashira, about a pair of idols who are at odds in all their media appearances. One is, apparently a doofus, the other absolutely disgusted with her easy-going partner. They are constantly bickering on-camera. In real life, they are actually deeply in love and still basically a doofus and a bitch.  On a day off, they are mobbed by fans. The bitch character puts the fans off by saying there’s no way they could possibly be friends. But when alone again, she breaks down, upset that she denied their relationship. So the next time it happens, the doofus says proudly that they are dating! And they live happily ever after, one supposes.

A lot of the endings are “one supposes.” We’re not getting epilogues here, so we might as well suppose. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 7

As a fun and harmless exploration of how things might be being a queer idol, this is an interesting prompt for an anthology.





Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 7 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし)

January 5th, 2024

A girl with long black hair leans over the shoulder of a girl with medium brown hair, grabbing the smaller girl’s wrists as they look into her palms. They both wear Japanese sailor-style school uniforms, with white blouses and dark skirts. In a moment of extraordinary timing, Yen Press has just announced that they have licensed this series as This Monster Wants To Eat Me, with Volume 1 headed our way in June. I can’t wait for you all to read it! Thank you Yen Press, I’m so pleased. I reviewed Volume 1 in Japanese in 2021 here on Okazu in which I made an entirely inappropriate fish pun, if you want to cringe. ^_^

But today we gather together to look at Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 7 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし). We thought all the secrets were out, surely, by now…but nope. Shiori is worried about Hinako, who still has the scent of death upon her.Hinako is…well, she is trying, but she really does not find life all that appealing and the guilt of surviving her family’s deaths is not getting easier. Every day is a burden for her. Miko and Shiori take Hinako on a trip to try and distract her. We learn more about how Miko navigates the world, once again.

Eventually, everything that is not being said between Shiori and Hinako comes out (again.) And now Hinako has to decide if she can trust Shiori (again.) Miko tries to pick up the pieces (again), but as the volume comes to a close, a mysterious little girl pegs Miko instantly for what she really is.

Naekawa Sai’s art has evolved so much since the first volume of this series. I will give this praise to Kadokawa, their editors really know how to help their artists level up. Every image is tight, the closeups of Hinako’s dead eyes are heartbreaking, Shiori having emotions she’s not used to is fascinating. I really like angry Miko…the human. You can just get a glimpse of the creature she is when she gets angry.

In another series I might wish it wrapped up about now, with – apparently – nothing left to say between Shiori and Hinako, but I know better with this story. Hinako’s grief is as deep as the ocean…and there’s still a lot of it to dive into.

Ratings:

Art – 9 really, really good
Story – 8 An unquiet interlude
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – One kiss that is more a promise than a romantic gesture

Overall – 8

I’m really just so pleased Yen picked this up. If you like psychological horror, youkai, stories of grief and/or schoolgirl Yuri, you’ll like this. This series really does everything right.





I Married My Female Friend, Volume 1

December 26th, 2023

A woman with long, dark hair in a green dress and a woman with collar-length light hair wearing pink overalls and a beige shirt, share the handles of a plastic bag as they walk and talk.Kurumi and Ruriko are friends. They have decided to be married even though neither of them feel romantically inclined toward one another. They come up with rules to follow to preserve their relationship and immediately those rules feel strained in I Married My Female Friend, Volume 1.

“Or so they think…” weighs heavily in every scene in which they monologue about their feelings of friendship for one another. Kurumi is a free spirit, but on a solo trip she keeps thinking about Ruriko. Ruriko is glad to let her wife roam, but her mind is always on what would make her happy.

They negotiate boundaries. When Kurumi messes up the garbage Ruriko redistributes the labor more sensibly. When Ruriko doesn’t tell Kurumi about how sick she is feeling, until she has to be rushed to the hospital, they find themselves discussing what will make “them” work. For that…and for the moment, Kurumi comes running into the hospital asking to see her wife, left me feeling happy, with a coda of “been there.” Very happy, because it’s still new and exciting to see women identifying themselves as wives, and I don’t see it becoming less wonderful as time goes on.

The one thing that feels different from Usui-sensei’s other “couple figures it out” series, Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, is that from the beginning, there’s a very distinct sense that, while Ruriko says she’s only gto feelings of friendship for Kurumi and Kurumi does not seem to have any romantic feelings for Ruriko, there’s an overwhelming sense that that is where we’re heading.

I have been thinking a lot about platonic intimacy between women…and I have always been an advocate for a legal partnership that is not meant as an indication of a romantic pairing. Why shouldn’t friends just be able to designate one another as “family?” Of course, with same-sex marriage in some countries, we’re a little closer to that, but I cannot designate my dear friends who are married to each other, as members of my family, in case of emergency or need. That has never made sense to me. Why shouldn’t people who live together and share household requirements just be able to be seen as a “family” legally? This first volume skirts this issue, as Kurumi and Ruriko balance what their friendship means to them and what their marriage means. 

This series is less of a personal journey into sexuality and identity than Doughnuts, but is, perhaps, more of a journey into social identity. It’s also quite goofy at times, which is fun.

The folks at Seven Seas brought us a wonderfully clean adaptation, with retouched sound effects (yay! whoo! It looks great! Thank you Aly Villanueva and Seven Seas for allowing Aly to do that.) Avery Hurtley’s translation does a great job of giving Kurumi and Ruriko their own voices. I care deeply about that kind of thing, especially for a manga in which these two voices are most of what carries the story. The cover, which is a straight-up gloss looks great, thanks cover designer M.A. Lewife.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8, with loads of potential

This is not the deepest book about queer identity (the issue of same-sex marriage is handwaved away as “it’s legal now”) we’ve seen in 2023, but it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes, all we need is a gag about a roaside radish.

Thanks very much to Seven Seas for the review copy…I had bought myself the print volume first, but I appreciate the thought!





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. Volume 7 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

December 21st, 2023

A nun with silver hair and red eyes stands in the center of the cover, flanked by Rae and Claire. Lilies bloom and ice shards fly around her.In Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 7 ( 私の推しは悪役令嬢。) a new characters is introduced that will (arguably, has) changed the course of the narrative. Cardinal Lily Lilium, daughter of Prime Minister Sala Lilium enters the story proper and chaos ensues.

Claire has been brought face to face with the plight of poverty and Rae has incited her to learn more and find solutions to the issue of poverty in Bauer. At Prince Yu’s suggestion, Claire and Rae head to the Spiritual Church, a Catholic-ish organization that runs the hospitals and orphanages, feeds the poor, and tends to the spiritual needs of the populace.

Right away, Lily is a strange character. Stuttering and shy, she blurts out rude comments from time to time. Her own nuns do not respect her and although she seems sincere, there’s something off about her.  She takes a liking to Rae, when Rae defends homosexuality and becomes a cast regular almost immediately. Claire and Lily push Rae into a story about her first love, from her previous life. This segment is both frustrating and poignant as a character who we later learn was struggling take their misery out on other people. I cannot accept that, even if we are told that everyone made up later. 

Then Lily drives us full-tilt into the next arc which will refer back to Rae’s story…

…but first! A game of dodgeball.

As one does.

This becomes a bridge to the next major arc, which will again, throw things into chaos. In a huge way. In fact, as I look over my reviews for the novels, “chaos” seems to be the defining characteristic. Reading reviews of the anime, again chaos seems to be the main takeaway, as most of the things seeded by the time the anime ends, won’t become apparent until a second anime season. In the meantime, we have the manga with Aonoshimo’s amazing drawings to fill in those gaps.

I’ve said it before but, really, the manga in many ways improves upon the Light Novels, as Aonoshimo’s art is so very good and doesn’t have the LN habit of being mere portraiture. And the anime, while being absolutely excellent in terms of characterization, did have pretty basic animation. For folks looking for a satisfying visual version of this story, the manga is highly recommended. Volume 5 is out now, in English, which takes you to the same point the anime ended.

Ironically, I was listening to Volume 2 of the Audiobook this week and ended up on the same exact place that Volume 7 ends. So now I’m primed to move forward into the last major arc before the chaos becomes a revolution.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8, although I find Rae’s backstory tough going
Characters  – 8 Lily is not my favorite character, but she is crucial from here on
Service – Not much, maybe a panel here or there
Yuri – 8
LGBTQ+ – 9

Overall – 9

I had purchased this volume at Kinokuniya here in the US, but it came with no extras, so while in Tokyo, I bought a second copy to get the extra “Claire in Wonderland” comic from Gamers. It’s a cute little “weird dream” comic that includes series characters dressing up as western and eastern iconic fictitious characters exactly as one might expect. Very cute!