Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Marriage Battle! (マリッジ・バトル!)

December 10th, 2013

Hatsuka has a problem many people fantasize about – she has two cute girls who are in love with her.

Living with Hatsuka is Inaba, a de facto wife. Inaba cooks, cleans, and would, if Hatsuka let her, enjoy marital relations with her. Hatsuka does not let her, but will occasionally succumb to kisses. Inaba awaits the moment that they can marry, as Hatsuka has promised (although Hatsuka does not admit to having made this promise.) Into this convivial household comes Koruri, who remembers a promise made to her by Hatsuka-oneesan when she was very little, that they would marry. Hatsuka doesn’t remember this promise, either.

mb_3waWhat ensues is a love comedy in which the love is real, if a little on the hectic side and the comedy is a little on the funny shoes and clown horn side.

To this reader, there is no “Marriage Battle” – Inaba and Hatsuka are a couple. Koruri would make a perfectly fine daughter, honestly, but her feelings for Hatsuka get in the way of any of them forming more healthy relationships  In fact, the best relationship in the book is Inaba and Koruri, who get along pretty well, considering.

Despite extremely moe art that made it hard to identify ages, Hatsuka is an adult with an office job. As she explains her current living arrangements to a coworker, he surprised me by calmly pointing out that she was clearly in love with both of her “roommates.” And he wasn’t weird about it, either. He just pointed it out and we moved on.

mb_8waThis volume ends with a frenetic trip to the beach, in which Koruri’s schemes to be alone with Hatsuka repeatedly fail, while making it clear that Hatsuka and Inaba are the real couple (to the regret of Inaba’s friend, Amoi-chan, who clearly very much wishes Inaba would look at her instead, but who is being a very good friend.)

As Inaba and Hatsuka finally have a moment alone (unaware that Koruri is outside, listening) they come very close to having what is the first honest moment between them, but as the pressure mounts for Hatsuka to commit, she breaks away under the pretext of going to the bathroom. When she returns, she find Koruri in front of her room asking for a kiss.

mb_6waThere were some elements that were good and others that were bad. It was hard to like anyone, but it was hard to dislike anyone, as well. Hatsuka isn’t a klutz or a doofus, but she’s not willing to really see the situation. Inaba would be terrific, but her hyperactive speech would wear on anyone. Koruri was annoying, period. She’s childish and it makes no sense that she just shows up with a crush and this promise and won’t understand that she’s not in the running, really. The three or so panels in which we finally learn her real relationship to Hatsuka were  rendered in such a silly fashion, that they were hard to take seriously. In short, Koruri is Hatsuka’s niece, whom Hatsuka was holding for her sister on the beach. Her sister then went out into the water and drowned. This flashback was not presented to explain Koruri’s emotions, but as the rationale for why Hatsuka never goes the beach.

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The one genuinely problematic issue with this series is…well…take a look at the pages above. Do you see the problem? If not, let me point out the GIANT FACES. This is not a tactic used for emphasis…it was like this on nearly every page, sometimes every panel of a 3-panel page. In fact, the wife and I referred to this book as “The Book of Giant Heads” for the days it took me to finish it. About page 30 pages in, I held up a 2-spread page and said, “What do you notice?” She flinched and said, “Those are some giant faces” or something similar. It was beyond distracting. Also, the faces look 6 years old, as they are wont to in this style of art. Hatsuka is, at minimum, 20 (we know this, because she drinks beer and no one comments that she shouldn’t.)

If you like moe art, or you like the idea of having two cute girls battling for the affection of a third cute girl, well, then this love comedy will probably work well for you. I didn’t hate it, but I’m on the fence about getting Volume 2, if and when it is published.

Ratings:

Art – For me, 3. The giant floating faces were intolerably distracting
Story – 5 (It was 6 until the drowning episode, which was presented so bizarrely)
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8
Service – 4

Overall – 6

I picked this up in Japan during my last trip on a lark. I wasn’t going to get it, but it was there and I was there and here we are. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Koi ha Hisokani Minorumono (恋は秘かに実らせるもの)

December 5th, 2013

Asagi Ryuu’s Koi ha Hisokani Minorumono (恋は秘かに実らせるもの)  was, for me, a look back at a previous age of Yuri, without a sense of any particular nostalgia.

Each story in this collection is a “Plot, What Plot?” set up, accompanied by unusual proportions shoved into unrealistically and uncomfortably tight clothing, followed by unnatural body positions,that lead to bodily-fluid-y sex. When I first started collecting Yuri, this was what most of what was available looked like.

On the positive side, all of the characters have genuine affection and desire for one another. This is always and forever a plus to me. There’s something supremely unsatisfying about characters who don’t care much about one another.

On the negative side, well, there’s the unrealistically uncomfortably tight clothing, unnatural body positions, unusual proportions and bodily fluids,. And also an odd tendency for each story to read exactly like a synopsis of itself. For instance. In the first story, there is a character who works for a writer she has the hots for. One day after drinking with the staff, Momoko carries Sensei on her back (Why? No, really…why? Taxis exist, but Momoko says no, she’ll handle it,) telling an apparently unconscious Sensei that she likes her and wants to live with her. Sensei is not unconscious and admits that she like Momoko, too. They have messy sex and move in together. The end.

The thing is, the story reads *exactly like that.* Not a panel’s worth more information is given to you, just the barest outline of  plot idea, then sex, then a happy ending, the end. It’s a…unique…approach to story telling.

I should probably mention “the lesbian.” In one chapter, a girl travels by train and meets an older woman who basically invites herself along for the trip. That night in the ryoukan, the younger woman outs herself as a lesbian, by, erm, flashing the other woman. The other woman apologizes and they go to sleep without  sex. The next day, the older woman then outs herself as a cosplayer, and they both dress up and have messy sex. I have no idea at all why a lesbian might show her genitalia as she comes out. I guess it was meant as an invitation to oral sex? In any case, it was awkward and totally wtf. ^_^?

Ratings:

Art – 8, good drafting skills, but porn sexy, rather than pretty
Character – 5 They are basically non-entities for the duration
Story – 3 See above
Yuri – 9
Service – 10

Overall – 5

Koi ha Hisokani Minorumono isn’t bad, it’s not my cup of tea. The poorly fitting underwear distresses me.





Yuri Manga: Sakura Trick, Volume 1 (桜トリック)

December 1st, 2013

Sakura Trick (桜トリック) is not a new Yuri manga. It’s been around for quite a while, in fact. Last year I even picked up a copy of the magazine in which it runs, MangaTime Kirara Miracle, just to take a look at the series in situ. I found exactly what I expected.

Sakura Trick, Volume 1 is a 4-koma school life gag comic about Haruka and Yu, two newly minted high school students. They have been friends for a while and have become very close. But, when classmates develop a skinship with Yu, Haruka surprises herself by suddenly becoming insanely jealous. She runs away in a panic. Yu and she have a conversation about it and they realize that they both want more than just friendship. They kiss.

Amazingly, this is not the end of the story, just the first 20 pages or so. The rest of the story follows Haruka and Yu and their classmates – another couple Shizuku and Kotone and a not-quite couple Yuzu and Kaede. These last two are more like comedy routine than a couple and my favorite characters so far.

Complications are few in Volume 1. Yu’s older sister, Mitsuki, is the Student Council president, has terrible eyesight and falls for Haruka without realizing it, even though she knows her sister and Haruka have an intimate relationship. Haruka gets jealous when she comes into the classroom to find Yu sitting on Kotone’s lap.

Yu is narcoleptic. Kotone is gregarious, Shizuku is tsundere, but cutely so. Kaede and Yuzu amuse themselves by filling in internal monologue as they spy on Haruka, or pride themselves on guessing Mitsuki’s favorite drink.

On the minus side, Sakura Trick has very little of anything approaching a plot. But, that is typical and expected in a school-life gag comic.

On the plus side, the couples are couple-y and all quite different. The characters are slightly less “type” and slightly more “character” than usual, with the exception of Shizuku (who, in this volume at least, is no more than a twin-tailed tsundere.)

I’ll give it at least through Volume 2 to develop a personality.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 3 There is none, so far.
Characters – 7 Better than I expected, not yet fully developed
Yuri – 9
Service – 4

Overall – 7

Sakura Trick is too dramatic a story to be funny, and too romance-y to be a drama. But it is a comfortably low-stress way to pass the time. Whether it will bear up to the pacing of an anime remains to be seen.





Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 8 (青い花)

October 29th, 2013

And here we are, at the final volume of Aoi Hana (青い花). Wow, have we come a long way.

High school graduation approaches, but before it arrives, the girls of Fujigaya head to London for a class trip. Unbeknownst to Fumi, Akira and Kyouko catch up with Sugimoto-sempai who now lives there with Kawasaki-sempai.

Then graduation comes, and Fumi and Akira are forced to have the conversation that has been building between them for some time. Is there, in fact, a “them” to discuss?

In the meantime, Yamashina-sensei finds that a confidence shared off the record has become general knowledge. The students learn that her lover is female after all.  And in the end, nothing changes. But, it seems likely that she’ll feel less inclined to be honest with the next student who asks. And you just know the rumors will continue.

Graduation passes, and so does time. Everyone is drawn together once again, this time by a happy occasion – Kyoko’s and Kou’s wedding. Time moves on, as Ya-san notes, for all of us.

Yamashina and her lover, Haruka’s sister,  consider holding a wedding ceremony themselves, a scene that made me inexpressibly happy. ^_^

Without spoilers, I will assure you that you the ending does not bring closure. It has the one thing I had hoped for – ambiguity.

Ratings:

Story – 10
Characters – 10
Art – 10
Lesbian Life – 10
Service – 3

Overall – 10

The story began on a day that led to many other days, full of joy, sadness, loneliness, friendship and love. Aoi Hana ends on a day that will lead to more of the same.

Happily Ever After is, as we well know, a process, not a destination. And for Fumi and Akira life is, as well.

This is the third manga series I like that has come to an end in 2013 and for the third time, I find myself left feeling happy, rather than sad. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 11 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)

October 27th, 2013

With the demise of Tsubomi magazine, Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) has really stepped up its game. Volume 11 feels awfully like an actual Yuri manga magazine in a way that earlier volumes just had not done. And I cannot help but notice the author line-up is looking mighty strong these days.

Starting off with one of my favorite series in the anthology, “Sunahama to Kase-san” by Takashima Hiromi follows Yamada and Kase-san on their school trip. A minor misunderstanding turns into a chance to become closer and desire becomes more of a factor than has been previously. Yamada still has some major self-worth issues, and Japanese mangaka still think sports bras are a kind of hammerspace. ^_^

In Morishima Akiko’s “Seijun Shoujo Paradigm” Aoi is finding her feelings towards Riri shifting, and is only marginally distracted by the relationship between Reika and Yuki.

“Ohime-sama no Uso” by Morinaga Milk continues with Fujiwara-sempai joining Miu on a “date” but as the day goes on, Miu is more and more aware that they are not a couple, but just pretending to be one. To make matters worse, Kaori specifically tells Miu that her feelings for Fujiwara are real, unlike Miu’s. If Fujiwara is a prince, Miu is now well aware that she is no princess. I am enjoying the slightly atypical art in the story. Morinaga-sensei doesn’t often draw the otokoyaku type of girl.

Kumijou’s “Out of the Blue” is a sweet love story between a transfer student and a troublemaker. This story left me with a big ole grin on my face as I finished it.

Amakure Gido’s “Shuuden ni ha Kaeshimasu” draws to a close as the punk girls gets the girl.

“Soshite Watashitachi ha” is a nice little bit of paranormal in an otherwise typical first love story.

Kita Konno’s “Kirari” is a slice of life as two girls spend a quiet interlude at the sea.

Hakamada Mera’s “Hikari no Niwa” is a pleasant resolution to an “opposites attract” story.

“Under One Roof” by Fujio continues at the snail’s pace it has established, as roommates become more aware of one another with each chapter.

Maybe it’s that I’m in a good mood, maybe it’s something else, but I even liked Auri Hirao’s “anokono -shitekurenakkata – koto” about two roommates dealing with being left behind by a third.

Amame Osawa’s “Houkago no Mahoutsukai” was an absolutely adorable little paranormal bit about wanting to feel needed.

And “Koi suru Poccyari” by Kiyota Tomo is a story about being needed.

There were other stories, most of which I found less compelling, but this volume was  – by far and away – one of the best of Hirari to date.

Ratings:

Overall – 8