Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Assorted Entanglements, Volume 5

July 19th, 2024

Two young women wearing jerseys sit back to back. One with the side of her head braided, smokes a cigarette, the other with multiple ear piercings. They both look off to the right.by Matt Marcus, Staff Writer

Have you ever been on a bad first date? Like, a really bad one? Maybe you neglected to vet the content of the movie you bought tickets for (“I’ve heard good things about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!”). Perhaps you chose a restaurant that doesn’t take reservations and you arrive to find a two hour wait for the next table (“Who knew this place was this popular?”). Or you somehow left your driver’s license at home so you cannot order any adult beverages (“Curse this babyface of mine!”). Maybe you let it slip that you did a hair too much “research” on your date’s social media profiles. Or what if…the two of you just don’t have any chemistry. Worse, what if that were true and—*gasp*—they were also your boss?

OK, so things don’t get that dire in Assorted Entanglements, Volume 5, but it isn’t far off.

Last time on Assorted Entanglements, we got some real, true character growth from the majority of our Sapphic menagerie. Iori and Minami are still as committed to each other as  ever, Shizuku and Saori are bonding, Heke-sensei and her editor Shinohara are very close to admitting their mutual interest, and Kujou’s obliviousness continues to helpfully shield her from making a serious mistake with her student Sugimoto, for now. Progress!

The large majority of the page-time in this volume, as it were, is dedicated to Best Not-Yet-Couple Heke-sensei and Shinohara-san. Editor-san, hearing Iori’s warning of missed opportunities ringing repeatedly in her ears, invites Heke-sensei to a meatspace date during one of their online meetups. Even though the event on paper was a slam dunk (a live gaming exhibition), the experience is horribly awkward. Heke-sensei was too nervous to speak to her gaming “idol”…but after the two get home and hop onto another gaming session, she admits that she was such a fan of Lala’s that she figured out Shinohara’s day job and intentionally submitted her manga at her company in order to meet her. Instead of a restraining order, Shinohara instead offers that they date—if Heke-sensei can get on her gaming level.

There are more extended chapters of the two awkwardly navigating this “not yet dating” situation, but now that their feelings are out in the open the gags have shifted from Shinohara deflecting her feelings (to Heke-sensei’s chagrin) to the mangaka being an awkward nerd with bizarre priorities that mildly exasperates her cantankerous would-be paramour. It’s an improvement from the “Oh thank god I hid my true feelings at the last second” tropes we’ve seen so far. There is also a nice moment where Iori invites Shinohara over for dinner, with Minami of course doing the cooking. It’s the longest stretch that the manga has gone without a sour note.

The bulk of the remainder are expanded backstories: one about Minami and Shizuku’s time in the childhood delinquent facility and one fleshing out Kujou’s college best friend/crush Akemi. Both are well told and add nuance to the stories we’ve heard the characters tell each other. I found Akemi’s ambiguous feelings toward Kujou to be a tasty morsel of melancholy that was more emotionally nourishing than I typically expect from this series. I half-expect her to reappear near the climax of the Kujou/Sugimoto arc, but I actually wish Mikanuji-sensei shows restraint and leaves her in the past.

The volume wraps with a summer vacation bonus story that reiterates that Iori and Minami are happy together, and that Saori and Shizuku are both miserable about it. Same as it ever was.

All and all, this volume breezes by and avoids nearly all of the pitfalls from the previous volumes. Somehow, online gaming has led to less toxicity; I guess that’s why this is fiction.

Art – 7 At least this time there are no new characters
Story – 8 There’s some actual, non-gratuitous pathos here
Characters – 8 The character-based humor between Shinohara and Heke-sensei earns an extra point
Service – 2 For a drunken college hookup
Yuri – 8 / LGBTQ – 8 Iori effectively comes out to Shinohara

Overall – 8 Feels like the story has moved up in the rankings

Volume 6 of this ensemble story of Sapphic misfits is coming our way in October.

Matt Marcus is a serial enthusiast whose range of appreciations include guitars, watches, and a particular genre of Japanese popular media named after a flower. Outside of writing for Okazu, he cohosts various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, where he frequently bloviates about video games, anime, and manga. He also hosts a blog Oh My God, They Were Bandmates analyzing How Do We Relationship in greater depth.





Kiss the Scars of the Girls, Volume 2

July 18th, 2024

A cute, short-haired blonde girl and a taller long haired girl with black hair, in dark blue old-fashioned Japan school uniforms hold hands as they smile gently at one another.by Christian Le Blanc, Staff Writer

Feet are not something to lance,
And the soft palate’s no place for hands.
Though we’ve been through school combat,
We should leave it at comrade;
You and me could write a stab romance.

As a quick refresher: Kiss the Scars of the Girls is a futuristic vampire Yuri manga from Aya Haruhana and Yen Press where vampires hardly have any powers or protections, and Class S dominates how vampire girls are educated at their vampire boarding schools which are located next to medieval-looking cities full of prey (and vampire hunters). Emille Florence is our bright, cheerful blonde, while Eve, with her long black hair and unapproachable manner, is her older ‘sister’ designated to show her the ropes and watch out for her.   

When I reviewed Volume 1, I felt a bit let down by how dull everything felt, and lamented the absence of vampiral shenanigans, including violence. Reader, you can well imagine my surprise and delight when Kiss the Scars of the Girls, Volume 2 treated me to a flashback of a primary school knife fight where plucky and sunny-dispositioned Emille gets Stabbitha Christie’d by the awkward girl who likes her, Yucca Lotus. 

I will admit, where this story features Class S prim and proper vampire ladies, I was rather surprised at how nonchalantly the narrator of the flashback says this all went down “on an otherwise unremarkable day” where they “were doing mock close-quarters combat training.” 

What surprised me even more was how OMG WTF shocked her classmates are, and how their teacher is furious at Yucca for going all Stabbicus Finch on someone, but, really, when you arm schoolchildren with knives and tell them to fight each other, I don’t know how you can expect anything other than a Black Stabbath concert to break out. 

As it turns out, vampires heal quickly and easily and Emille just waves it off and asks everyone to forgive her assailant, who then sticks with Emille from that point on to avoid getting bullied…I’d say the other students’ fear of ending up as a letter to Dear Stabby is really what keeps them from picking on her, but it’s hard to say with these vampire kids. 

Yucca ends up having one of those friendships with Emille that you only read about in the occasional Yuri compilation of short stories, where that one short makes you feel all squicky because the creepy character loves seeing her girlfriend upset, so she keeps tormenting her in little ways. It’s off-putting, and Emille’s big sister Eve eventually has to step in and resolve things. Yucca leaves a letter saying she has to go now, her planet needs her, and a big part of me hopes that Eve herself wrote it to cover up any extracurricular “murdering Yucca” activities she felt she needed to do as Emille’s senpai. 

Moving on, we start getting into the reason why the vampires in this book seem so human and normal, with the introduction of Colette, a clumsy human girl who Emille befriends in town. Can Emille and Colette forge a friendship, in spite of the fact that all vampires hate humans and all humans hate vampires? Lucce, Emille’s friend who works at the school library, seems to think so. When we learn that Lucce’s parents are a vampire and a human, and combine that with Lucce’s darker skin tones, we are definitely meant to realize that the vampires in this book are a metaphor for discussing prejudice and race, in much the same way that Yurikuma Arashi used bears as a metaphor for discussing prejudice and homophobia (just without any wild Ikuhara symbolism in Scars, unfortunately). 

Ratings:

Characters – 5 (a slight bump up from last volume thanks to Lucce)
Story – 6 (no huge stakes, but I’m mildly curious to see what’s next)
Service – 1 (5 if you’re into seeing tonsils get fingered)
Yuri – 5

Overall – 6

When I read the first volume, I was puzzled over how similar humans and vampires seemed, and I now understand that this is being used to tackle racial prejudice (and for the shock humour value when we see things like combat training). This has made me enjoy this series a little more, and I’m curious as to whether Aya Haruhana will do anything more with the conceit, or if this is simply the current storyline before it gets abandoned for the inevitable return of Stabby McStabface. 

Erica here: Volume 3, The Stabbening, is out at the end the month from Yen Press.





Comic Yuri Hime, July 2024 (コミック百合姫2024年7月号)

July 14th, 2024

Two girls frolic in a forested creek, a girl with short blonde hair sits on a mossy rock, her feet in the creek, looking up at a girls with a brown ponytail who holds her skirts above the water she stands in.Comic Yuri Hime, July 2024 (コミック百合姫2024年7月号) is 800+ pages of Yuri. I am still boggling at the size of this thing. If they used paper the same thickness as they used to, this volumewould be absolutely massive. Even with the laser-thin paper used now, it’s a pretty hefty tome. And, for once, this volume is less about the upcoming and ongoing anime and more about just…the manga. There is so much manga in this volume.

The opening story is a new one by Tamasaki Tama “Muryoku Seijo to Munou Oujo ~ Maryoku Zero de Shoukansareta Seijo no Isekai Kyuukoku-ki ~” another new fantasy isekai. It is…not terrible at all, even though it starts kind of rough. Nana has not managed to make anything of her life and is feeling quite depressed when she is brought to another world along with another woman to save a kingdom as Saints…only she has no power here, either. Until she meets Princess Lilium who has power but cannot use it. Together they are able to manifest the Princess’ power in explosive combination. And hopefully, they’ll save the kingdom.

In “Sasayakuyou ni Koi wo Utua,” by Takeshima Eku, having resolved all the complicated relationships among SSGirls and Laureley, where can the story turn to next for cute reactions to love? How about Miki, Himari’s bestie? Turns out her band (instrumental, not light rock,) senpai is in love with her.

Clarice is turning out to be a smart and capable Marquess in “Gakeppuchi Reijou ha Kuro Kishi-sama o Horesasetai!” In this chapter she learns that her the whole staff left aT Black Knight Frost’s mansion are four maids. Everyone else has been driven off by the threat of monsters and the threat of their monster employer. Clarice, who is determined to save her family, explores ways to Frost-sama’s heart, but is not successful…when news arrives that monsters are attacking a merchant carriage that is headed their way. (I ask myself, though, why is a merchant coming to this monster-infested place with one carriage and no entourage of guards? What could he be selling that would make that journey worth it? …anyway…)

“Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” has added a short interlude, as Rae is accompanied by Lily on what the Cardinal thinks is a date and Rae understands as part of the investigation of noble corruption. I have no doubt that this side quest is so we can see Lily in “cute” clothes. ^_^

“Salvia no Bouquet” takes a moment to explore Ellen’s feelings about Riza, as she faces down the loss of her mentor.

Shigizawa and Gotou have it out at last in “Utsotsuki Hanayome to Dousei Kekkon-ron” and Shigizawa loses to herself.

I haven’t talked about “Koharu to Minato” much, but his love-love comic essay has moved from the end  page into the magazine proper and continues to be a sweet, idealized day in the life of a couple. I’ve just finished Volume 1 of this series and will be reviewing it shorty. It is very cute.

“Kiraware Majoureijou to Dansou Ouji no Kon’yaku” has added new characters and a mystery – which is more interesting than the unsurprising romance between Ciel and Eve. Who is Eve’s mother and how is Eve able to do dark magic?

Oh yay, an historical Yuri set in the Taisho period about clothing. I am 100% excited for this new title by Sheep D, “Kanaria ha Kiraboshi no Yume wo Miru.” A girl with a dream, and a mother determined to crush it, and a beautiful Occidental girl will shake up the fashion world in Taisho Japan.

I was going to wine about the length of the titles, but I have decided that I actually prefer these longer, more descriptive titles over, like, “Fashion” or something like that. Still a pain to transcribe, though ^_^;

As always, of course, there are other stories I read, but have not mentioned and others I did not – indeed, there are several series I have never read more than one chapter. The offerings are leaning heavily towards fantasy right now…but let’s be honest, isekai is hot. There’s still a bunch of great work about adult lives and competent women in our reality and another world in this issue.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

With 800 pages, there is definitely something for just about everyone! The August issue is out, and I started reading it this week. There’s great stuff in there and I can’t wit to tell you about it.





The Moon on A Rainy Night, Volume 5

July 12th, 2024

Two girls ride a bus, one with short orange hair, the other withe long black hair. They are conversing on their phones in text, smiling and laughing together.In Volume 4, a number of loose ends are suddenly untangled. Kanon decides to participate in her school festival fully, and Saki helps Ayano see that her behavior was not as awful as she had told herself it was. Now, in The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 5, the stage is set…mostly…for Kanon to release herself from the chrysalis she had built around herself as a protective measure.

Kanon hasn’t had a fun summer since she became hard of hearing, finding herself equally isolated in crowds and by herself. Having decided to participate in both the class’s school festival events, Kanon finds herself shocked that she hasn’t had time to feel isolated this summer – and of course…there’s Saki. Saki always holds a hand out so they can do things together. As a result, Kanon is feeling more confident and less afraid to try new things. It’s a whole new world. Literally, as Tanabe-san introduces them to cosplay for their class maid cafe.

This volume also takes time to give us Kanon’s mother’s perspective, and a foil in their teacher, who brings his daughter over to ask about piano lessons. These pages are an emotional reminder that the family of a person with a disability, or that has suffered the loss of a family member, also have their own stories and burdens. I’ll spoil a little here – this does come back again in later volumes, because every character is given some time to grow. Including Tomita, the girl I referred to as a bully in early volumes. It turns out that Tomita has a story of her own, as well. And her situation offers Kanon another chance to grow.

And then there is Saki,who has complicated feelings that have been seen and recognized by an adult,  and has been an incredible friend but doesn’t ask much for herself, except to be able to spend time with Kanon. What is Kanon to her? That will definitely need to be addressed.

Twice now this story has provided an antagonist with…not redemption, so much as humanity. That is just one of the many wonderful things about this series. Characters learning to rely on each other, working within their limitations but learning to expand those limits, friends supporting each other, and reaching past misunderstandings. What an extraordinary series. I feel like I’m learning when I read it not just about accommodations for the people around me – and myself – but also how to just provide useful support, rather than prioritizing what I think they need.

This is absolutely a masterwork by Kuzushiro-sensei, and a must-read manga for everyone.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9 (But wait…there’s more!)
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 4

Overall – 9

 I’ve started to need a wheelchair at times and I’m so thankful for them when I do, but it is always apparent to me, even when I am fully mobile, how many barriers there are in public places. So – especially when I am fully mobile – I will comment to event runners about the inequities they allow in their set-up. It’s important for able and healthy people to advocate for people who need accommodation, because, in the best of scenarios, we will all become old and need accommodations ourselves.

 





Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 6

June 26th, 2024

Two girls with long, flowing hair in white, flowing dresses run offscreen, clasping hands and looking at one another.Guest Review by Patricia Baxter.

As the curtain closed on Yuriko Hara’s Cocoon, Entwined series, I knew that a truly remarkable story had ended.  There have been times when I’ve experienced narratives, manga or otherwise, with strong writing in their characters and world-building, only for the ending to stumble, negatively altering my perception of the entire work.  Thankfully, Cocoon Entwined did not falter but instead ended in a tremendously fulfilling way, both in terms of its numerous visual book ends and how each principal character emerged from their metaphorical cocoons.

As the Christmas dance reaches its climax, the cycle of Hoshimiya Girls’ Academy is finally disrupted in a dramatic and unsalvageable way.  Even more shocking is that this disorder isn’t caused by Youko, the main protagonist, with her verbal plea for change, but by Hoshimiya-san whose actions speak the loudest without saying a single word.  Some readers may be put out by Youko not having the big dramatic “win” during the dance, but I felt Hoshimiya-san being the one to unravel this unchanging cycle made the most sense.  Between her familial connection to the school, her dramatic exit setting the stage for the whole narrative, and the way she has been constantly idolized and objectified by other characters, it is only fitting that Hoshimiya-san finally reasserts her agency by ending the system.

Thankfully, Youko has her moment of personal triumph when she meets up with Hana in the dressmaking room for the last time.  Youko shows just how much she has grown since the beginning of the series, and Hana is finally taking the initiative to step away from her role as the “prince”.  Their dance might be one of my favourite sequences in this series, showcasing just how much these two girls have changed themselves, and each other, for the better, genuinely making me misty-eyed as I read it.

The rest of the cast is also given their chance to change and move forward, though Ayane and Haruka’s story felt a bit rushed in comparison to the rest of the cast.  I honestly wish we would have had more time to explore their relationship, especially considering how much Haruka has been impacted by Ayane’s actions, but the resolution we do see is still satisfying.

As always, Yuriko Hara’s art is some of the most gorgeous art you can ever read in comic form, with extremely striking visuals that stay with you even after you have closed the book.  It is clear to me that she is an astounding talent in the medium of comics, who continues to develop and hone her skills, and I look forward to seeing what projects she tackles next.  I also sincerely hope that we can get her two manga collections, Out of the Cocoon (アウト・オブ・ザ・コクーン) and Atami no Uchujin (熱海の宇宙人), in English someday soon, since her talents in writing and art also excel in one-shots, as showcased in the Éclair and Bloom Into You anthologies.

Cocoon, Entwined was a delight for me to read, both as a yuri manga for its depiction of sapphic relationships and as a manga for showcasing the power of storytelling that only comics can achieve.  Even if I can’t see more of Youko and Hana’s story, I know that they are walking together, moving forward and always remaining open to changing themselves for the better.

 

Art: 10

Story: 10

Characters: 10

Service: 2 (for Youko and Hana wearing slips on the cover and during the dance sequence)

Yuri: 10

Overall: 10