Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 13 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)

July 16th, 2014


 The cover of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 13 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) is a bit of a tease, as it shows the characters from Amakure Gido’s Shuden ni ha Kaeshimasu, which is over and done with. :-( But it’s still a cute picture.

The lead story by Itou Hachi, “Haru no  Minuet” is a lovely story about a girl who becomes close with a hearing-impaired classmate. I’d love to see more Yuri stories that include issues of ability (and, gosh, folks, if you’re drawing/writing Yuri or lesbian-themed work, let’s get some diversity in there!)

In “Taiyou to Kaze-san,” Yamada and Kaze get to spend the day together in the pool. This series is so sweet it hurts.

I adored Shimano Yae’s “Makoto Gohan” for many reasons, none of which will be surprising. An adult woman, in a long term relationship with another women who communicates her love through food. This is my life and it made me extra happy to see it in manga form.

In Morishima Akiko’s “Shoujo Paradigm” Masami and Midori need to work out just exactly what their relationship is, really.

Morinaga Milk’s “Ohime-sama no Himitsu” takes a turn. As Miu and Fujiwara-sempai decide to give their relationship a real go, Fujiwara’s fans desert her for another cool sempai-type, Hirozawa, since Miu has Fujiwara wrapped up. Fujiwara is clearly happy with their new course, but Miu is starting to think she’s holding everyone back from being happy….This series started out a s bit of fluff, but I think we’ll get at least one solid volume from it, and with the new chapter, I’m really hoping for  two and a decent story. It definitely has potential.

What do you do if the person you didn’t know you liked tells you she has a girlfriend? This is is what Akuta Fumie asks in “watashi no sukina anokonokoto.”

“Under One Roof” continues to roll around in the same scene over and over as Miho comes home to her landlady’s gay friends over for dinner and innuendo once more, but it works for me. ^_^

As always there are many other stories and artists of note in this issue and surely there will be something  that will appeal in this solid Yuri anthology magazine.

Ratings:

Overall – 8





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, July 2014 (コミック百合姫)

July 8th, 2014

Staring at the cover of the July issue of Comic Yuri Hime, (コミック百合姫), I was a loss for words. Apparently no one involved with this picture had ever been or knew a baton twirler. Ain’t no way I’d be that close to someone who was just learning basics…and definitely not in my uniform. ^_^; (I remember how hard those rubber ends were very well.)

And away we go into a Kuzushiro-sensei heavy issue, with several stand-alone stories and a new chapter of “Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san.” The last of the stand alone stories appealed to me greatly, as a simple meetup between two friends becomes a destructive battle in public over a momentary misunderstanding – it was very amusing. ^_^ An added bonus in this volume is a limited edition cover to Volume 3 of Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san.

Minamoto Hisanari’s contribution was absolutely wonderful, as a woman who works in costume doing tokusatsu roles is truly her lover’s hero.
“Vespa” comes to a climax that, for once, seems to actually pluck the main charcters out of their terrible situation with a big ole’ handwave. There’s a short piece by Kawai Roh that is set in the floating world of the Edo period but manages to still be healing rather than destructive.

Takemiya Jin’s “Chou Chou, Nan Nan” takes a quick turn to resolving one of the three couples, but more is to come, so we’ll see if this is where it stays. Chisako’s “Honey Switch” was a sweet little office romance.

And it looks like “Yuri Danshi” has come to the end of it’s lily path filled with passionate delusion. Gosh I hope so. I also hope they use the space it opens up for something good now. Thanks.

There are, as always, many more stories and articles, but these are the ones I found most notable in this now-nearly 700-page anthology. It’s pretty clear that moving to a bimonthly format hasn’t hurt Comic Yuri Hime at all. For which I am grateful.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The good is very good, the bad is merely okay. It’s running just over 50% good. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Dark Cherry to Shoujo A (ダークチェリーと少女A)

June 22nd, 2014

The last collection we had from Chisako-sensei was Wagamama Millefeuille (わがままミルフィーユ), in which she blew my hair back with a pleasantly original setup for a Yuri romance.

In her newest collection, Dark Cherry to Shoujo A (ダークチェリーと少女A) she tries out a few new setups. Some work better than others, but props to her for looking for new story ideas.

The opening story was the weakest of the collection. In “Candy Drop” Juri keeps insisting she likes Noa, until Noa comes around to believing she likes Juri. Romance or Stolkholm Syndrome, it’s impossible to tell.

“Hachimitsu Method” begins awkwardly with Sakura deciding that, to be a princess, she needs a prince. As no prince is presenting himself, she asks the female soccer star of the school to play prince for her. Mio is absolutely lovely, always being Top Star in every way, until Sakura can’t stand  that she’s using Mio, so she break up with her. However, as she moves on and goes out with guys, she’s constantly comparing them to Mio. She tracks the other woman down to see her once again. When Mio opens the door Sakura leans up to kiss her, admitting that she wants to know more about Mio. The story ends there, but this time, one thinks, there may be room for them in the world as a real couple.

I’m skipping the next story on principal, as it is about underwear and about as interesting as underwear.

“Naisho no Kaijuu-chan” was adorable and sweet and would have been lovely if Chisako-sensei’s art style didn’t make every character look like Precious Moments figurines. Yua is a loner at work, but Kurihara is determinedly friendly, pleasant and in love and manages to make her way past Yua’s emotional wall.

“Sakasama Blanco” had much the same problem. It was impossible for me to take the story seriously with a main character drawn to look like a kindergartner. Otherwise it wasn’t bad. A college age sempai and kouhai couple admit their interest in each other after some misunderstanding.

The art style was more mature in “Ashita kara mo nomimasen” when two old schoolmates are reunited  years later.

“Girls Bitter Ambitions” is a Yuri romance centered around make up and admitting feelings.

The final standalone story, the titular “Dark Cherry to Shoujo A” combines the dark-haired loner type with Goth Loli dress in a simple tale of jealousy.

The last chapter is an original epilogue to “Hachimitsu Method.” Mio and Sakura reunite in “Onna no ka Party” and Mio agrees to try again – as long as they are, for the first time, honest with each other.

This was followed by several one-page epilogues to other stories, with a humorous omake feel.

The one real weakness of this volume is the hyper-moe stylings of some, but not all, of the stories. It’s brutal to be asked to take a childishly looking, dressing, acting character as the 20+ year old sempai in a story. But, moe is Chisako-sensei’s style and one either likes it, gets used to it, or stops reading.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7 We only get to actually know a few of them
Story – 7 Original, if nothing else
Yuri – 5 Most stories end with a safe kiss
Service –3 The stories are mostly chaste, but not all. Underwear, very light nudity otherwise

Overall – 7

As a collection of a 10 shorts, it worked well enough, even if the emphasis was on Girl-Girl-tears-Couple. That notwithstanding, several of the stories were quite cute. I liked and disliked the stories individually in equal measure and, as a result, I am torn between knowing whether I liked this book as  a whole, or not. Yes and no. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika, Volume 3 (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か)

June 19th, 2014

The winner of my 2013 Best Yuri Manga of the year was Amano Shuninta’s Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika (私の世界を構成する塵のような何か). Volume 3 wraps up the series with drama, but without crisis, which is pretty much the reason I voted this Yuri Manga version of The “L” Word as my #1 manga of the year. In case you missed them, here are my reviews for Volume 1 and Volume 2.

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Graduation is approaching and Ruki and Sacchi are awkwardly dealing with their obvious feelings for one another and Ruki’s unsuccessful attempt to move their relationship to a new level. The awkwardness grows when they run into Sacchi’s ex by chance; it’s obvious he’s matured and moved on. Ruki worries about them getting back together and about her inability to become stronger. Meanwhile Sacchi begins to worry about Ryuu’s interest in “her friend” that day – with a final text, tells him never to contact her again.

Asuna and Sacchi begin student teaching at a  nursery school, Maasa takes control of her own company, while Meru tries to help her, Ruki starts driving lessons, as they all take steps to build adult lives.

Ruki has something else to worry about when she learns Sacchi  has spent the night with Remia and the playgirl has indeed struck again. She takes Sacchi on a drive, but ends up getting them lost and, mortified, is forced to let Sacchi rescue her. They have it out between them, finally about how they feel. Whether they will get together is left up to the future, since they don’t know where their lives will take them.

Both groups run into each other one last time at  graduation. Fueko gets one last chance to blow Asuna off,  we learn that Maasa has hired Meru as her personal assistant, thus proving that she’s been a total softy all along.  Maasa gets a personal powerup, trading in her weird shirts and cheap flipflops for a sharp haircut and suit, now that she’s a CEO. Remia is a wolf as she always is, and Sacchi and Ruki walk  off together, with all the possibilities of life swirling around them, like the dust that constitutes their world.

I am unremittingly in love with this series. The characters are imperfect, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, sometimes annoying as hell – in other words, realistic. The art is exactly the style I like best. The story-telling is quiet, understated and unpreachy. There’s no drive to pair everyone up, but the potential Maasa-Meru pair gives me hope for both of them. Maasa’s tender side is safe with Meru, and Meru’s fragility is safe with Maasa.  In any other series Fueko and Asuna would have reuninted, but not here. Like life, relationships are sometimes messy.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 4 Nudity

Overall – 9

Terrific series, executed with skill. More of this, please.





Yuri Manga: Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo, Volume 1 (あの娘にキスと白百合を)

June 12th, 2014

It was only a few weeks ago when I reported on Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo (あの娘にキスと白百合を), Volume 1 and I confessed that, almost despite myself, I was intrigued. Well, apparently, my intrigue was enough for the kind and generous Okazu Superhero Dan P. and here we are! Thanks Dan!

Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo (translated on the cover as “Kiss and white lily for my girl”) begins with a slightly irritating premise. At Shiroyuri Gakuen, one of the stars of the school is the beautiful, smart, talented and cultured Shiramine Ayaka. But, no matter how hard Ayaka tries, she cannot surpass the lazy, sluggard genius Kurozawa Yurine. It makes her crazy, especially as familial expectations for her performance come down to anything less than a perfect score and top ranking equals failure. And there’s Kurozawa, sleeping through class and acing the test. Ayaka is driven absolutely to distraction by her rival. I’m always frustrated with the “girl who works really hard just never wins against lazy genius” plot, but the story quickly moved away  from this.

As we all know from romantic fiction, rivalry leads to obsession, which leads to infatuation. Yurine is the one who leaps across the gap between them and brings them together, helped along by Ayaka’s cousin, Mizuki. Ayaka and Yurine are still obsessed about one another, in a good way.

Mizuki finds herself repaid for bringing Yurine onto the track and field team by finding herself in second place. She goes through a crisis, having lost her will to win, but Yurine fires her up and for the first time in a long time, Mizuki rediscovers her sense of competition. Mizuki’s partner in crime, Moe, is thrilled that she’s fired up once again, and they become closer than they were before. It’s not hard to imagine them as lovers.

Yurine had never managed to or cared to become friendly with her classmates, but now that she’s in love with Ayaka and on the track team, the sudden influx of other humans into her life has made her keenly aware of how lonely she is. On a day when she feels particularly not inclined to be alone –  but does not know how to approach others –  one of her classmates asks her to go shopping with her. Yurine spends a day doing incredibly normal things and find herself in tears of relief and joy at such simple pleasures. After Ai leaves her, Ayaka runs up to her, also in tears, mortified that she might have missed Yurine’s birthday. She give Yurine flowers, and they embrace, to Ayaka’s embarrassment. (A little side extra story, follows an adult female couple who sees them hugging in public and are motivated to take one another’s hand.) And, while Ayaka and Yurine are now an item, the final page lets us know that their rivalry is only going to get fiercer.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Very shoujo style art
Story – 8
Characters – 7 None of the characters are particularly realistic, but they fulfill their functions
Yuri – 8
Service – 1 on principle only

Overall – 8

For a “Story A” tale, it was pleasant reading, and we’ll see where it goes. This ran in Comic Alive, but it could have run in a girls’ magazine as is.

Thanks once again to Dan for the enjoyable read!