Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: World Canvas (Tagalog)

February 26th, 2015

world-canvasToday’s review is truly, “Now for Something Completely Different”. World Canvas by Godley Malabanan is the first commercially published Yuri comic in Tagalog!

We live in amazing (wonderful/awful) times. Even a few years ago, I would have only been able to look at the pictures, but Google Translate now includes “Filipino” and so, I was able to actually read this book by typing in the words. Machine translation is not perfect, but it’s plenty good enough for manga. ^_^

The story follows Sera, who is the younger sister of a museum curator and in art school herself. She’s got heterochromia, and her left eye bestows  a power and a burden – if she sees something a person has written, she can “read” their life story in it. Needless to say, this has kept her alienated from people. Through trope-y circumstance, she encounters a younger woman, Rhiannon, and gets sucked into her life.

The story, while is enjoyable, is chock-full of tropes, even aside from the magic heterochromia (which is merely a backdrop to the story and Sera’s life.) Rhiannon is passive-aggressive, saved from harassment by street toughs, abusive adults, and a parental abuse back story.

Additionally, although Sera is stated to be 21 and Rhiannon 14 (which is problematic in itself) Sera is drawn more like the eternal 15 of manga and Rhia more like 9.  While I did not love the character designs, the art as a whole was superb.

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In terms of characterization, Sera is really well developed, especially for a short single-volume like this. I really grew to respect her through the course of the story. Since the story is essentially the rescue of Rhiannon from her awful real life, hidden behind the veil of a glamorous life, she’s much less developed. As with so many stories, I wish we could check back with them in a couple of years and see who they have become.

And I look forward to more work by Godley Malabanan, now that’s she’s hopefully worked through all the tropes.

The book is published by Black Ink Comics and is available at National Book Store and Precious Pages stores. I know we have a lot of Filipino readers – here is your chance to support you very own home-grown Yuri! How exciting is that?

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – A solid 7

Today’s review was sponsored by Okazu Superhero and friend, James W. who spotted this book in Manila and nabbed it for me. And congratulations and good luck to Ms. Malabanan!





Yuri Manga Anthology: Yu-Ribon (ユリボン)

February 24th, 2015

yu-ribonBirz magazine has been rarely mentioned over the years here on Okazu. Not because I don’t like it, it just hasn’t been relevant to our topics. But with the inclusion of the Yuri Kuma Arashi manga, and this new Yuri Anthology, Yu-Ribon, it’s time to have that conversation.

Even in families full of oddballs, there are good crazies and bad crazies. ^_^ Comic Birz is one of the, if not always bad crazy, then always just plain crazy. Birz reminds me of a specific person I used to know  – every conversation with her was conducted in a bizarro world of her own making. Even when the conversations were not awful, they were just strange.

So, the idea of a Yuri anthology from this comic was a challenging concept. Would it be knives in the head, tentacles or schoolgirls?

Tl;dr – It was schoolgirls.

Except for the story with the knives in the head.

A number of the creators names will be familiar to us here, Kanojo no Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu creator Tsukiko, Manga no Tsukurikata‘s Hirao Auri, Takahashi Mako.  Others will be less well-known, perhaps, but no less capable.

The stories are lodged firmly in the “eternal school” of Yuri relationships and a number of them are notably more about friends than lovers.

And so the volume goes. I was three stories from the end and thought, “wow, not one weird story yet!” I was wrong, as usual. ^_^”Heru” by Tsubana is not really Yuri in any sense, but there sure were a lot of knives involved. No violence, no blood, Just knives. It was classic Birz.  Upon my wife’s request, here is an example.

Birz

My favorite story of the collection came immediately afterward. “Eye Contact Visitor Game” about a famous softball player and her friend that went so far as to include the word “like” and everything! (“How progressive,” says the wife.”)

If I had to choose, I’d pick this kind of bland not-lesbians, not-love “Yuri” over breast squeezing and bodily fluids, but, just.

Ratings:

Although the ratings are variable, the art is pretty good throughout.

Overall – 7

Not bad, not great. And knives in the head, so your mileage might vary on that.





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime January 2015 (コミック百合姫)

February 17th, 2015

CYH0115To say that the January 2015 cover of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) alarmed me is not an understatement. Since the repatriation of Yuri Hime S content into Comic Yuri Hime, I have had the nagging sense than the editor is trying again to shift the content away from “stories women – perhaps even lesbians – like,” to “stuff that appeals to fanboys.” When the magazine originally relauched, it had become less “typical fetish”y, slightly more adult, more lesbian and a teeny bit darker. In recent issues, it’s ended the lesbian series and strongly ramped up the Yuri fetishtry.

The cover has a purely moe piece of art, accompanied by the decision that alarmed me. Instead of the usual Kanji 百合姫, the magazine title is written in hirigana as ゆりひめ. Why would that matter, you may ask? Moe is not just the cutifying of characters, or the simplification of the art, it is also very much about keeping female characters infantile. It’s about obsessing about their “innocence” “awakening” and “budding”  and other euphemisms for puberty. In Eureka’s Yuri Culture issue, Rica Takashima wrote an essay on the relationship between “Yuri” and this tendency to never move lesbian love or life beyond high school or enter the real world. It keeps the idea of “Yuri” firmly locked in that not-real-life space of school life. Lesbians die after leaving high school in this version of Yuri. Or, more appealing to ultra-conservative male otaku, they get married, leave their careers, have babies and remember that one affair fondly. The end.

Rica makes a pretty good case. Women’s progress in Japan is stagnant. You’ll notice that, for all that both BL and Yuri have grown in popularity, there has been an almost complete lack of movement on LGBTQ rights in Japan. I say almost, because a few years ago, it was reported that Japan would recognize Same-sex marriages of Japanese citizens done outside the country, but has yet to actually do so. This week Shibuya Ward announced that they would discuss the idea of issuing SSM certificates. Unfortunately Western media reported it as if they were definitely going to, but it is not a certainty. We’ll find out next month when (if) the vote is actually held….

And here we are, looking at the last of the Yuri magazines and watching it shove “Yuri” back into the school life closet where lesbians just disappear after high school and Yuri is no longer even allowed it’s kanji, but has to use more childish hiragana.

There is a textured little sticker image on the cover that says “The contents are the regular Comic Yuri Hime.” I am neither reassured, nor pleased. The situation is getting worse, if the March issue is any indication. As bad as the Yuri Hime S cover art was, it was never this horrible. To be honest, I can’t even credit this as “art” in any meaningful sense. Two blobby heads with few features, no discernible setting. This is not what I am looking for in Yuri.

It’s 2015, and my choice once again appears to be creepy tit-squeezing and bodily fluids-soaked porn and infantile love stories. Yuri has been almost completely disappeared back to 2000s level. I am sure it’s just a dip before the next peak, but UGH. Like women’s rights in the political sphere, it seems that every decade female Yuri fans  are forced to remind the powers that be that we’re still here and this stuff stuff skeeves us.

That all said, the stuff I still like in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime remains stuff I like. I even found myself not disliking this issue of “Yuri Danshi,” as the Yuri Joshi contingent joins the crew of delusionals.

Of all the stories I am reading, the one I flat out enjoy the most is “Love Desu,” by Kuzushiro. It’s horribly violent, not at all cute, and I gasp with relief when I get to it. In this issue, the one character shot a bobby pin into the other character’s eye. Thank the gods for this story. Thank Kuzushiro-sensei too. One more blobby face with a blank expression and I was going to gouge my own eye out with a bobby pin.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m asking nicely – can’t someone please write a decent pro sport Yuri series? Please? I am so so so so so so done with school drama.

The May issue of Comic Yuri Hime is also available for pre-order.





Yuri Manga: Hakugin Gymnasium, Volume 2 (白銀ギムナジウム 下)

February 10th, 2015

HgGn2When we left off at the end of the first volume of Hiruno Tsukiko’s  Hakugin Gymnasium (白銀ギムナジウム 下), Eimi and Fiona are both gone, and Toutou and Eris acknowledged their feelings for one another.

Volume 2  begins with Chloe and Athena who, separately, come to realize that they mean a lot to one another. In the course of this arc, we also learn that the Gynasium – which has been home to so many girls – is going to be closed.

Toutou and Eris, who are now the age Fiona and Eimi were when they left, find Fiona. Living alone, outside town, making a living as a piano teacher, Fiona is fine…she says. But we can see that while she is “fine” she’s not happy.

Toutou and Eris reveal that the Gymnasium is going to close and ask Fiona to participate in the closing ceremony. She agrees. Secrets come to light that night that heal some old wounds and open others.

The day of the closing ceremony comes and Eimi also comes to say goodbye to her true home. And, finally, Fiona and Eimi have it out, laying bare their feelings and what went wrong.

The Gymnasium closes,  but as we follow Fiona returning to her home from town, and finding Eimi there waiting for her, we have to hope the the other stories have as happy an end, and that Miss Maria was completely, totally wrong.

Like the first volume, the art is old-school (an old-school story about an old school) and the ending is, as well. As much remains opaque as is settled. Will Toutou and Eris be able to be together as Fiona and Eimi are? Has Eimi renounced her family in order to remain with Fiona? How about Chloe and Athena…are they a first love that is untenable, or do they go somewhere together? And what about all the children who were at the Gymnasium because their families didn’t want them?

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Questions remain unanswered, but hey, at least Fiona and Eimi are together.

Ratings:





Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 2 (English)

February 8th, 2015

ww21Whispered Words, Volume 2  (Amazon / RightStuf) is the English-language edition of Sasamekikoto, Volume 4, Volume 5 and Volume 6.

And, as I said in my reviews to those volumes, when this much pressure has been built up…something’s gotta give.

The series started as a mostly-comedic “best friend with a crush” plot, expanding out to almost all the possible Yuri tropes that we were familiar with. For that alone, this was a pretty terrific series. But then the veil of comedy became thinner and thinner and we started to see a serious drama beginning to unfold…and more importantly, the abyss of possible tragedy. In a fascinating sort of reverse meta, the characters are painfully aware of the impending calamity.

Sumika and Ushio are speaking to one another, but nothing is being said. Everyone around them can see what lays between them. Even when they know what it is, they can’t just say it. The logjam becomes untenable. Thankfully, the tragedy that breaks it up is laughably mundane. Phew.

This volume has some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in schoolgirl Yuri manga. No complicated school rituals, no gender switched plays…no tortured metaphors. Just two people you can imagine knowing, in a situation you can imagine happening, and the manga is still funny and ridiculous and painful in places…just like life.

Technically, Volume 2 is a notable improvement over the first printing of Volume 1. I know just how difficult it is to publish a 100% error-free book, and it amazes me how jarring even a single typo is. Generally speaking, I think 1 error per 100 pages is acceptable. This book has fewer than that. Nice work by One Peace.

Volume 2 includes a sweet little short about a schoolmate of  Ushio and Sumi’s with powers of divination who can’t see her own future. It has a very “awww” ending.

The best part of this review? Volume 3 is already shipping. If you gave up on this series, for whatever reason, I ask you right now, as a personal favor – give Volume 3 a chance. It’s worth it. I promise.  ^_^

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Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Many, many thanks to One Peace for the review copy.  Volume 2 was as emotionally wrecking as I suspected, and I’m very glad it’s in English for us all to be brutalized. ^_^ Volume 3 ahoy!