Well, when I read Mebae, Volume 1, I had some hope. Then I read Mebae, Volume 2 (メバエ).
Wow, did this volume stink…
…must have been all those bodily fluids. ^_^;
Ratings:
Overall – 1
I feel transported back to the bad old days of Yuri when “bodily fluids” was the plot. Whee.
I’m going to give in to an uncharacteristic fit of pique in today’s review. The next few sentences should be read as if I am metaphorically gripping this manga around the throat and shaking it comically.
Dear, Bousou Girlsteki Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Project, Volume 2 (ボウソウガールズテキモウソウレンアイテキステキプロジェクト(B・G・M・R・S・P)),
You are supposed to be a harem battle, why are there so few harems and no battling? Arrrgggghhh!
I was so excited at the idea of two competing top stars, each with their own harem, but instead you give me a passive-aggressive love triangle story with the whiniest and least interesting character as the lead? Pfui. Bleah.
***
Okay, got that out of my system.
In Volume 1 of Bousou Girlsteki Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Project, we are introduced to perfect ojousama type Beniko and dashing otokyaku type Aoi and we were promised a “harem battle.” Instead, we have Beniko being basically the only person in the school unable to see that she and Aoi like each other. Well, Beniko and one of her admirers…who is heading for a rude and unhealthy crash.
Beniko’s attempts to be pissed off at Aoi (who really spends a lot of time being annoying) comes to a halt when the Student Council President recruits/blackmails Beniko into joining her “Black Lily” harem. Beniko can tolerate that, but when the President attempts to seduce Aoi into her harem, Beniko loses her mind. Aoi, on the other hand, just says “No thanks.” From that point on, we’re just watching Beniko scream until she catches up with the rest of us and realizes she likes Aoi.
The book that comes closest in “loudness” to this book is Zombie-Loan. Everyone screams, there’s a lot of noise, but not much actually happens. In fact, the plot isn’t so much “things happen” as “a thing is attempted, then wackiness ensues and it doesn’t happen.” Just like Zombie Loan.
I admit it…I’m disappointed. I had hoped for an honest-to-goodness two equal top stars battle it out with their harems for supremacy comedy and instead, I get a manga that is full of tears and screams and severely lacking in humor other than obligatory punchline “Ehhhhhh~~~~?!?!?!?”. Pfui.
Ratings:
Art – 5
Story – 3
Characters – 3
Yuri – 7
Service – 1
Overall – 3
I’m sorry to say, I think I’m done here. Call me when you get a real harem battle together. I like Kawai Roh-sensei’s stand-alones much better.
Volume 2 is also available to Japan-based buyers on Kindle.
Lepakkoluola is a Finnish Yuri anthology created by a circle called Team Pärvelö.
I was originally made aware of the collection last June when I was contacted by a Team member, Hanna-pirita, to let me know about the Kickstarter for the anthology. Crowdfunding was successful and it was my very sincere pleasure to receive a copy! Really, all I can say about the anthology is – wow.
The story content and variety were exceptionally strong. A female Prussian officer and a woman of the nobility, young black singers in early 20th century Harlem, witches during the Inquisition, Eve and Lilith, a samurai’s wife and a Buddhist nun…the variety of time and place was mind-boggling.
While the text in the body of the comics is in Finnish, pages are subtitled in English. It made reading the book an adventure, as I’d read the English, then spend time just looking at the page and enjoying the art and the flow of the story.
Artists did not attempt to imitate any style, what we have here are young artists letting themselves draw what they wanted, the way they wanted. And I have to say – a lot of the art was really, incredibly good. Each story is so utterly unique that they all stood out in their own way.
My personal favorites were an Annie Oakley x Calamity Jane fanfic I had no idea I needed, but apparently, I did; A story about Sappho and her super #1 Fan harpy and a lovely, lovely little story about a “crazy” woman and the troll who loves her.
Every single story was good. I ended each and every one with an “Aw,” or a “Cute!” or “Squee.”
You can order a copy (priced in Euros) from the circle directly on their website.
And, if you should one day run across this unique and lovely anthology, do scoop it right up. It’s a delight.
Ratings:
Ratings are all variable of course, but…
Overall – 9
This was an excellent read and will be an excellent re-read . Thank you Hanna-pirita and the other members of Team Pärvelö! Lepakkoluola is a delight.
The subject of today’s review is not the manga itself so much, as how and why I bought it. ^_^
Those of you following me on Twitter and Facebook, saw a series of pictures I stealth shot while in the Toranoana and Comic Zin stores in Akihabara. They had something I had never ever seen before in Japan and I wanted to share it with you all.
For the first time ever, Toranoana in Akihabara had a real, multi-publisher “Yuri” section! Here are my crappy cell phone shots of this phenomenon.
I’m not sure if you can really see what’s going on in these shots unless you are familiar with Japanese bookstores and the way they shelve books. Books are basically split by whether they are targeted to men or women, then by publisher and imprint. So if I’m looking for a Kodansha book, I look at the spine to see if it’s KDX, KC, or another imprint. You have to look at for the Rakuen Le Paradis comics in one place, the MangaTime KR comics in another, Comic Yuri Hime in a third, etc. Sometimes those aren’t even shelved in the same section of the store. Comic Yuri Hime might be in the women’s comics, they might be in the men’s. You don’t really know for sure until you look. I’ve seen them in both.
What you are seeing here is practically a miracle…books from different publishers, different imprints nestled side by side in a kind of “Yuri’ section I’d only ever dreamed of. Dengeki side by side with Comic Yuri, next to Hakusensha’s Rakuen comics. I was so busy trying to snap a few shots, I barely even looked at the shelves. ^_^
Later, we walked over to the Comic Zin store back up the street, and found that they also had a smaller, but also multi-publisher Yuri section, and a number of Yuri doujinshi. (I knew about the doujinshi, that was why I wanted to go to the store, but the books were a surprise.)
The thing I thought, and shared on Twitter, was this – it was really nice to see them all together in one place. In Toranoana, it took up two or three shelf-widths, and the counter in front of them, so it felt substantial. In Zin it was one shelf width, but hey, it was there!
So, the point here is, because the Yuri books were shelved together, I was able to find a few things I’d never even heard of, from imprints I was unfamiliar with, or hadn’t seen any Yuri from before – which is the whole point of having Genre sections in a book store in the first place! ^_^
I picked up the subject of today’s review because I’d never heard of the series or seen that imprint in the Yuri section before. Mamiya-san to Issho (間宮さんといっしょ) begins with a girl, Sasara, being asked out by a boy in her school. She says, sure, she’d go out with him, if he died for her. Not surprisingly, he bails instantly.
Her friends are jealous, because she receives so much attention, but Sasara is unimpressed. Until she is asked up to the roof by the mysterious Mamiya Ryou, a beautiful female upperclassman. When Sasara states her requirements for love, Ryou agrees and leaves.
Sasara asks her classmates about this Mamiya Ryou, and is told that Mamiya Ryou is whereabouts unknown and presumed dead. Ryou confirms that dead it is, and asks Sasara if she’ll go out with her now? Sasara agrees.
The book immediately falls into a kind of talky chaos, that indicates to this reader that nothing had been sketched out beyond the premise. A classmate of Ryou’s who has some impulse-control issues first attacks Sasara for having the nerve to even ask about Ryou, but then becomes convinced that Sasara knows where Ryou is. She brings in her younger sister, who can see ghosts, to meet Sasara (and Ryou,) but Ryou convinces her not to say anything. And then the book, um, ends.
The relationship pretty much goes nowhere, because Ryou is dead and so is the plot. ^_^;
Ratings:
Art – 6 Trying to be better than it was, but not bad
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 4
Service – 2
Overall – 6
SO, while it was really super cool to get a Yuri manga from Shounen Sunday, it wasn’t a terribly compelling one, beyond the plot idea. ^_^
But yay for Yuri sections!
After having been a contributor to several volumes of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, and the second Yuri Shoujo Anthology, Miman-sensei now has landed with Comic Yuri Hime, with this collection of shorts, Kimiiro Shoujo (キミイロ少女) (also available on Kindle for JP customers).
The title piece, “Kore ha Nisemono,” sets the tone of the collection – it’s going to be all schoolgirls, most Story A. Nothing objectionable, nothing outstanding. A sempai and kouhai in photography club pretend to be a couple, to protect themselves from being upset when they have to part. Not surprisingly, that bit doesn’t work out, so they don’t part.
My favorite story of the collection is the second. This time we’re focusing on track, where a girl finds herself moved and ultimately motivated by her crush’s focus on running.
A girl can’t figure out why a classmate is so damn nice all the time, and another girl struggles to make her feelings plain to a friend. A girl enjoys every single moment with a friend while they can be together.
And, finally, as the sempai and kouhai from the first story face spending a night together, they both come to terms of the not-at-all-fakeness of their feelings.
The stories broke no new ground, but were a pleasant enough read. The one truly notable thing about the book was the author’s note, in which Hirari and Yuri Hime are anthropormophized and Hirari leaving is portrayed as a sudden breakup. Having been cast away by Hirari, the author’s tough love friend Yuri Hime-san complains about Miman-sensei’s moping about not being able to have a tankoubon. “Tankoubon, tankoubon, that’s all you ever go on about. Fine, I’ll get you into a tankoubon already.” “Yuri Hime-saan~~!” The author’s note concludes with the most romantic, sunset bedecked, dramatic embrace of the whole collection. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 6 Probably the weakest link. No one has any depth. They are their one-line description
Yuri – 8
Service – 1
Overall – 7 A solid, stolid Yuri collection.
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