Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Itazura Choucho, Volume 2 (悪戯ちょうちょ)

April 26th, 2013

In Volume 1 of Itazura Choucho,  (悪戯ちょうちょ) we were introduced to Sakura and Nanoha, two students at a highly competitive performing arts school. Bucking the weight of tradition and propriety, they have been accepted into the end-of-year competition, despite the fact that they are merely first-years.

Sakura is intense and yet, unfocused, so the mangaka provides her with a focus for her rage. As  with all good “talented performer is talented” manga, she is assigned coach who is awful to her, someone she can rail against, hate virulently and generally get better because of. Meanwhile Nanoha is having issues of her own. Most of Volume 2 is spent with Sakura and her oni-coach.

Both girls, lost in their own training, are hiding their concerns from the other, but friendship and love bring it all out into the open. In a final climax, Sakura breaks her own walls and admits her feelings for Nanoha are more than friendship. Whether Nanoha returns the same level of emotion remains to be seen.

The art style is very girls’ manga, classically shoujo visual setups, but this manga is another Comic High series. And, like several other Yuri series that have run in that magazine, it continues to surprise me at every turn. The  general heightened emotion of training for the competition reminds me of Ace wo Nerae. Unlike most sports manga, the relationship between Sakura and Nanoha is not a distraction from the competition, but a respite for both of them. And, in between both storylines, we see them hanging with friends and doing typical school activities, which is just about unheard of in hobby/sport-focused series.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Not sure if it’s cleaner, or I just like it more now
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

I really had no expectations for either of the first two volumes, but now I can’t *wait* until Volume 3. Ayase Mana has made a fan out of me. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Yuri Anthology Dolce Due (百合アンソロジー dolce due)

April 15th, 2013

Almost a year ago, I noted that the Yuri anthology field in Japan was holding steady – and indeed, showing a little growth. Comic Yuri Hime and Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari are still in print, Tsubomi is still updating regularly as a digital comic and Enterbrain’s Yuri Anthology Dolce  must have done well enough, because they released a second volume, Yuri Anthology Dolce Due (百合アンソロジー dolce due).

Like its predecessor, the stories in here are more for the Yuru Yuri crowd, than the Collectors crowd. We have stories about schoolgirls in school clubs, schoolgirls who fall for their best friends, schoolgirls and teachers, schoolgirls, schoolgirls and more schoolgirls…and one random drunken OL story which really stands out because it is the only story in which both characters are not in a school uniform.

The cover art was a “really?” moment for me, as my first thought was, “They got Hibiki Reine to illustrate the cover? No way! …Yes way. The dustjacket and actual book front cover are full color Hibiki Reine works. You remember, she was the original cover illustrator for Yuri Hime, right?  Aside from being the artist for the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels, she set the artistic pace for many of the early Yuri Hime artists. Here, she’s done a sweet duet of a girl and her loving maid and I wish that sentence didn’t make me sad. (-_-); But it does.

Dolce due does not suck, but it’s twenty steps back into the bad old days of Yuri anthologies about girls vaguely kinda liking other girls. It’s so 2003, it’s almost nostalgic. But not in a good way.

Ratings:

Overall – 6

Come on, Enterbrain. You can do better than this.

 





Yuri Manga: Gakuen Polizi (学園ポリーチェ)

April 4th, 2013

Gakuen Polizi (学園ポリーチェ) is Morinaga Milk’s newest series…and I think I like it. A lot. The more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure she’s using her magic powers for good.

Aoba has always wanted to be an ally of Justice and now, as she tranfsers into Hanagaki Girl’s School, she has her chance – she is an official unofficial School Policewoman in training. She’s going to bring justice to this unruly school! Unfortunately for her, the school’s denizens are rather nice young girls and not prone to getting into trouble, but that’s not going to stop Aoba from making a difference.

When a classmate recruits her to investigate the school’s seven mysteries, the girls discover someone lurking in the library – is it a criminal?!? – Aoba pounces, only to discover a classmate, quiet, unobtrusive Midori. To Aoba’s shock she learns that Midori is also assigned to this school as police. Midori admits her father, Chief of Police, has buried her here in this quiet, peaceful school.

Undeterred, Aoba drags Midori into a multitude of small disagreements and personal issues. Midori, who also draws manga, cannot understand Aoba’s enthsiasm and insists she wants to be left alone.  When a dog attacks Midori, Aoba shouts at the animal, insisting Midori is her “Important Partner!” Since no one is supposed to know they are police, the school paper presumes that means they are “Yuri.”

After all this silliness is laid out, somewhat surprisingly, a real story begins. The girls catch a groper on the morning train and in an emotional episode, track down a guy that was stalking a classmate’s sister. In this chapter we are plainly told that the police basically didn’t give a crap about the girl and let the guy off with a fine, but the sister is still terrified of leaving the house. Which is just about when I thought…holy crow, I think I know what Morinaga-sensei is doing here….

Remember that this series is running in Comic High, so the audience is pretty typical otaku guys. The kind of guys who might think staring a a girl’s chest is a compliment or who think girls wearing skirts is an implicit permission for them to take upskirt pictures. (You know, pretty much any guy who doesn’t hold himself to a standard of not being an animal.)

These crimes are real crimes that happen to real girls and women every day. And, every day, the police are not helpful – and often extremely dismissive – of these kinds of complaints. As I read the chapter about the stalker, I remembered a number of news stories from Japan, in which the police have actually been perfectly horrible to the women who came to them for help. Here’s what I think. I think  Morinaga-sensei is doing political and social commentary, in a moe Yuri manga, without shaming, blaming or pointing fingers. The more I read this volume, the more convinced I was that she’s using her magic powers for good. I approve.

The art is exactly what one expects from Morinaga-sensei, with slightly more serious faces than usual. Aoba is a happy, energetic, extrovert type and Midori – who has a former partner and a backstory that will, I’m sure make up the bulk of Volume 2 – is quiet, serious and introverted. Because there was actual story in Volume 1, rather than the more usual character development, we have yet to see Aoba’s backstory, but you know – that’s okay by me.

***

Subcribe with Patreon Enjoy today’s post? Subscribe to Okazu with Patreon!

***

Volume 1 is an intriguing open to a new student police saga, wholly unlike Sukeban Deka or YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki. There might no be drug lords in Aoba’s future, but the bullies,  the mean girls, the nasty teachers and all the other rotten, horrible people that make high school life such a chore, should watch out – this school’s protected by the police.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 7
Yuri – hints, teases and misunderstandings. “Important partner” and Midori’s backstory
Service – Not as much as you might expect, but still – 3

Overall – 8

The synopsis says this is a Yuri love comedy. I’m willing to wait. ^_^

Oh, btw. The title should be “Gakuen Police” but the Japanese transliterates to gakuen polichi and I chose “polizi” over “polici” for no reason at all, except I thought it looked more stylish.





Yuri Manga: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san (犬神さんと猫山さん)

March 20th, 2013

Kuzushiro’s  Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san (犬神さんと猫山さん) is a very silly premise, charted out in a series of very silly 4-koma strips.

Inugami-san is very dog-like, but likes cats and Nekoyama-san is very cat-like, but likes dogs.  They are made for each other and they might be perfect together but this is a comedy, not a drama. There is no destination to this journey. Dagwood will never quit his job, Nekoyama-san and Inugami-san will never be a “couple”. Like most comic strip characters, they are gags on the hoof. (Pun intended.)

Speaking of hooves, the menagarie is not complete until we mention mouse-like Nezu Mikine and cow-like Ushiwaka-san, who add to the Yuri yucks, the moe quotient and the ensuing wackiness.  This zoo even has a keeper – Aki-san who, by being Inugami-san’s  childhood friend, can’t escape the role.

If you’re familiar with Kuzushiro’s work from Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, nothing here will surprise you. The humor is mostly puns based around the character’s personalities and proclivities. Yuri in the series is madcap hijinks, some thinly veiled real lust and service. Which doesn’t mean that Ushiwaka and Nezu don’t belong together or Inugami and Nekoyama wouldn’t be perfect for one another. It’s just that that is completely beside the point. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 Some strange inconsistencies and their heights – which are put under repeated scrutiny – seem to fluctate as the scene requires
Story – 6 There isn’t one, but that’s okay
Character – 6
FanService – 6 Mostly lustful fantasies
Yuri – 6 Mostly lustful fantasies

Overall – 6

As gag manga goes, this wasn’t too bad. I chuckled here and there, might have even laughed out loud once or twice.





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, March 2013 (コミック百合姫)

March 13th, 2013

Comic Yuri Hime, March 2013 (コミック百合姫) has so much going on that upon first glance, my thought was, “The most recent issue of Comic Yuri Hime feels like the end times. There’s a wedding, gay pride and an older couple. Whoah.”

Well, upon reading it all the way through, I would like to revise that to “The most recent issue of Comic Yuri Hime feels like the end times. There’s a wedding, gay pride, an older couple and a HELICOPTER! Whoah!”

But I get ahead of myself. ^_^

There is a wedding. Minamoto Hisanari’s “Fu~Fu” comes to a close in the goopiest, most smile-making way possible, as Kina and Sumi make vows that have meaning to them.

There is gay pride, as Takemiya Jin’s story of Satomi’s discovery of herself as a young lesbian comes to an end with Satomi telling Asuna off for her LGBTQ-loathing vision of what life should be like and standing up for her own normal. The end of this series echoes what I have so often longed for in others – take the lesbian out of the dysfunctional relationship and plop her down in a functional one.

There are older characters. I’m afraid I’ll never like Takahashi Mako’s idea of “romantic” but they do indeed grow old together in “Yuki Bara, Akai Bara.”

There is a breakup in “Watashi no Sekai o Kousei Suru Chiri no You na Nanika” that looks like a real breakup. The first that I have ever seen in manga. No histrionics, just two people who have irreconcilable differences. Darn you, Amano-sensei. I really wanted them to work it out.

There is good and bad and schoolgirls and adults in this issue of Comic Yuri Hime.

But more importantly than all of this.

There is a helicopter. ^_^ (As Mathilde says, “Let’s face it: it wouldn’t be proper Yuri without the helicopters.”)

In “Love Gene Double XX.” But  I’m not going to tell you why. In any case, it’s utterly beside the point. The point is, despite all logic, the newest, strangest, most delightful Yuri trope – forget butches on motorcycles – is helicopters. Hee hee hee! ^_^

 

Ratings:

Overall – 9

Not just because of the helicopter, but it helped. ^_^ Do you think I ought to add “Helicopter” as a Category, I wonder?