Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Comic Yuri Hime, May 2014 (コミック百合姫)

May 22nd, 2014

Welcome to the May 2014 issue of Comic Yuri Hime, where the cover seems to be permanently suspended in a just ever-so-slightly skeazy Valentine’s Day scenario. The magazine opens with a feature on the Nekoyama-san to Inukami-san anime , which I really need to watch soon. ^_^;

The first really interesting story was by a newcomer, Aoto Hibiki, in which “Alice” keeps flashing back and forth between two worlds; one in which she’s a regular high schooler with classmates Shiroyuki (Snow White) and Akaukin-chan (Little Red Riding Hood) and a Wonderland environment. Alice isn’t sure which world is real, and she’s equally at a loss in both, but when Shiroyuki introduces a younger boy (that I’m betting is actually a girl) who was born a Prince, to their groups, you can kind of see where this is going. I just hope it’s fun.

Ohsawa Yayoi’s “Sensei Sotsugyou” continues the tale set up in the previous issue, in which a student learns more about her teacher than she bargained for, and finds inspiration in her.

In Amano Shuninta’s new series “Ayame 14”, Ayame fights with new feelings she’s never had to deal with, and one of their friends admits to her full mied-race name.

Okita Hiroko’s “Vespa” forces Kaoizuka to confront her commanding officer’s unrequited feelings and her feelings for her cruel Princess.

Takemiya Jin starts a new story, with a girl’s best friend making her see where her interest lies, in “Chouchou Nanan.”

Bosou Girlsteki  Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Project follows a date gone terribly wrong in a story that has no idea where it’s going yet.

And “Rock It, Girl!” by Tanaka Minoru comes to a rousing finale that still managed to be freakishly weird. The girl gets the girl in the weirdest way possible. I really enjoyed this story, it basically followed none of the rules, ever. ^_^

As always there are many other popular series, 4-koma strips and the like for your entertainment. Comic Yuri Hime seems to have settled into a general level of just better than average quality for one solid issue after another.

Ratings:

Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Love Gene Double X, Volume 2 (恋愛遺伝子XX )

May 9th, 2014

Years after all the men on Earth died suddenly, women developed a method of reproducing without them and then, inexplicably, enforced a 2-“gender” society on themselves. Survivors are split into Adams and Eves, and Eves are, predictably, given lesser status. Oh yes, let’s please bake internalized misogyny into this man-less world, that’s a great idea. Grrrr.

In Volume 1, Koshiro Aoi has come to the toppest of all the top schools to take her revenge on the Kokonoe family for the insult done to her mother, but instead falls in love with a scion of the Kokonoe family, Sakura. Both Aoi and Sakura are Adams so their love is forbidden. Grrrr. What will happen, since the two of them are ridiculously obvious? Well, in Volume 2 of Love Gene Double X (恋愛遺伝子XX ) , they continue to be ridiculously obvious to pretty much everyone. Erika-sama, the Top Eve at school hatches a plan to separate them permanently, but the plot fails and instead they are discovered together after having been intimate. Erika-sama becomes sympathetic to us when we learn she became an Eve for Sakura (she had been an Adam to that point) and she ultimately is nice to her pawn, Momiji.

The Toppest Top Star evar, Sakura’s sister shows up (in a Helicopter!!!), whisks them away, provides helpful expository about the grievous insult done to Aoi’s mother (she lost her rank as Adam to be with a Kokonoe, who left her for another dve…which really is a shitty thing to have happen,) why there’s an Adam and Eve system at all (when the men died, there weren’t many lesbians and the survivors were assholes about it,) and how she has every intention of changing society when she’s in charge.

Any lingering positive feeling about the ending is crushed in an epilogue that made me want to spit. Erika returns to being an Adam and gets Momiji, Sakura becomes an Eve so she and Aoi can be together and the general frisson of heteronormativity just exhausted me.

The only positive moment is when Sumire basically points out the utter stupidity of heteronormative laws, both now and in her time. Other than that, the story was a rubber band ball of disappointment. Every layer of disappointment one peeled away left one disappointed all over again in a brand new way.

Everything about this manga has rubbed me the wrong way since I read the very first chapter. Now that it’s over I cannot honestly say I hated it, nor can I say I liked it. My first and most consistent reaction to it is to bare my teeth and growl. Grrrr. It could have been a terrific Yuri fantasy story. Instead it started off as fake BL, then shifted towards what looked like it might actually address an issue, then veered away into sex scenes (both “bent” by the rules of this world, as one is two Eves and the other two Adams) then sort of nodded in the direction of dealing with the problem, then threw that out with the bathwater. The end.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 5 I think about it, and sigh heavily
Characters – The characters are still the best part. By the end I actually almost liked a few of them
Yuri – 9
Service – 5 Mostly breasts, some full, generic nudity

Overall – 6

In a perfect world, I would have been the editor for this series and it would have been a grillion times better. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.





Yuri Manga: Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san Volume 2 (犬神さんと猫山さん)

May 8th, 2014

Volume 1 of Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, (犬神さんと猫山さん) introduced us to the animal-themed cast of a “typical” Japanese high school. Inugami Hachiyo who likes cats and Nekoyama-san and Nekoyama Suzu, who likes dogs, but maybe not Inugami-san, their classmates Ushiwaka (“ushi” means cow, so she is big-breasted, har har), teeny little Nezu Mikine (“nezumi” means mouse) and their zookeeper, Inugami’s friend Aki (whose name means “autumn” and is wholly unrelated to animals.)

In Volume 2, we add a monkey and a bird to the menagerie. The bird is sickly, ghostly, flightly Torikai Hibari, the monkey is class rep Sarutobi Sora. It is with perpetually irritable Sarutobi (who does not get along with Inugami-san, despite her most puppy-like attempts at friendship) that we encounter the one genuinely laugh-out-loud gag of the book.

Sarutobi really cannot stand when people ascribe the characteristics of her animal name to herself. So she says, quite seriously to our resident mouse (who is, apparently, the most worldly of the bunch and the most likely to use sex appeal to get her way.) Quite seriously, Sarutobi explains that their names are just their names and really, people should stop saying she’s like a monkey, she insists as she picks up her schoolbag and pulls out a banana. I laughed as Nezu-san calmly pointed out that that would have been a lot more more convincing without the banana.

I’m struck again at how bananas are intrinsically the funniest of fruits.

Anyway, we do get a shocking amount of Yuri in between the excruciating gags and Kuzushiro’s typical fake-y Yuri. Nekoyama hallucinates (she thinks, she hopes) that Inugami-san kisses her while feverish and we’re told that Nezu and Ushiwaka are an item. And, as unsubtle as Inugami-san is, she’s going to have to be less subtle than this to get her actual interest across.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6 Slice of life
Character – 6
FanService – 6
Yuri – 7 Slightly more  in the real world-ish

Overall – 7

The Sarutobi gag all by itself notched this up a point.

Tl;dr:





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

April 23rd, 2014

CYHM14Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫), having been split into 2 magazines, reattached and made bimonthly, has now regained the bulk it previously had as a quarterly. At about 640 pages, surely there will be something for most Yuri fans at this point.

The March 2014 issue begins with Amano Shuninta’s new series, “Ayame 14” – a classic “coming of age” story. After many moths of dealing with college students, I wonder if this return to middle school life is a relief or a burden for her?

This issue is a veritable treasure box of tropes: sisters (real and half); dojikko; tsundere; and poor communicators of a dozen kinds, 4-koma, etc. Checklisters and moe-fans will be happy. For the rest of us there’s still some very interesting features.

Minamoto Hisanari has a story, and what a story. It could have been the most fabulous story ever, but fell short of the mark to make a point that didn’t need to be made.  “Sekai ha Yuri de Ochite iru” begins with “Yuri” marriage being made legal in Japan. Not “lesbian” marriage, not “same-sex”, not “gay”. “Yuri” marriage. In a cute scene, the newscaster immediately proposes to the weatherwoman (who says yes.) As women all over Japan are getting married, protagonist Aki proposes to her lover Shuko….who says no.

The point Shuko makes is that, of course she wants to get married to Aki, but not now that it is a fad. She wants to wait until Japanese collective faddishness passes and it’s just for people who really mean it.  Well, okay, but you broke Aki’s heart when you said no, and was making a point really more important than marrying your wife?

The final chapter of “game” by Takemiya Jin (collected volume is out next month) finds Morico unhappy at being forced to play pretend for Becky. Until, somewhat predictably, Becky realizes that it’s Morico she’s in love with after all. An end that, for all its predictability, left me feeling better than Minamoto’s story.

I am SOOOOOO conflicted about “Bousou Girlsteki Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Projec,t” but I console myself that Beniko feels the same way about being trapped in a story that appears to be trying to be all the stories ever all at once and is managing to handle them all unconvincingly. The best moment is Beniko breaking down over giving a hoot about Aoi and Aoi responding calmly – “I’m your partner, aren’t I?” with “aite” as partner, which means, like, the person one is best suited to be matched with. Aoi is right, Beniko and she are indeed suited to one another.

Morishima Akiko’s “Yurrip-chu” comes in with a second vignette about a girl who wants to be one thing and is required to be another. This time we follow the tall, “princely” group member, Sayaka. I’m not sure if their producer is a genius or an idiot, making everyone be something they’re not.

Tanaka Minoru’s “Rock It Girl” is quirky as always, but for a brief chapter, everyone is in a good mental place, well, except terminally low self-esteem Kaname, but Seira’s right on that, yelling at her ’til she snaps out of it.

Something weird happened in “Yuri Danshi.” Hanadera stopped being the lead for a bit. Fujigaya heads to a book shop and is imbued with Hanadera’s Yuri power when trying to convince the bookstore to create a dedicated Yuri section. For once, I actually liked the chapter. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 7

There were, as always, many other stories, some good, some bad, some…um, unmemorable. ^_^ But overall a decent volume with some conversation-starters, at the very least.

The May Volume is already on sale, so get your copy today!





CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges , and Best Practices

April 21st, 2014

Quickie personal note – I haven’t had a lot of free reading time in the last few weeks, so my apologies for the slowdown in reviews. Next couple of months ought to speed up as I spend less time with actual people. ^_^.

In 2011, I was approached by Charles Brownstein, Exec. Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which was handling more and more legal challenges to manga in schools and libraries,  to edit a book for them on the topic of manga. I was working with JManga at the time and had my hands full, so I regretfully said no, but suggested the amazing Melinda Beasi, Editor-in-chief of Manga Bookshelf instead. Thankfully, Melinda said yes, and as the next few months played out, she and Charles pulled together an amazing team of manga journalists and reviewers to create CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges , and Best Practices. I’m immensely honored to have been a part of this project and I wanted to take a moment to talk about it with you.

The book begins with a solid, short overview of Manga, Anime, OEL/Global Manga, Manwha and Manhua by “Manga Critic,” Kate Dacey. This is followed by an extremely informative discussion on Shounen Manga written very entertainingly by Shaenon Garrity. I’ve been steeped in manga history, but both these chapters had something to teach me – a strong opening from this book.

Sean Gaffney of A Case Suitable for Treatment, also on Manga Bookshelf, handles the chapter on Shoujo manga with solid scholarship and his usual sense of the big picture, while Ed Chavez of Vertical Press brings his encyclopedic knowledge to the incredibly broad topic of Seinen Manga. Shaenon then deals with the least-familiar genre here in the West, Josei and later Boy’s Love. I was able to contribute chapters on Yuri and Doujinshi/Scanlations.  The book wraps up with a detailed discussion of challenges both librarians and teachers might face in regards to manga, penned by Robin Brenner of No Flying, No Tights and Shaenon Garrity, as well as a comprehensive list of resources for defending against challenges to manga in classroom or library.

The stand-out quality of this book is that it is clearly and simply written. Anyone without the slightest background with comics or manga will be able to understand the admittedly foreign concepts presented. For readers with a familiarity with manga, there is a tremendous amount of information you may not have seen or heard before.  As well-read as I am about manga, I learned quite a bit reading this book – and I really enjoyed myself reading each chapter. The slight differences in tone and handling of the material felt more like a panel at a con, than being lectured to. It’s all very approachable and personable, as are the people who contributed.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This book is an important defensive weapon in the toolbelt of educators and free speech advocates. In addition, it’s a good read and solid source of history and info about manga for fans everywhere. We did good. ^_^ Purchase of this book does raise money for CBLDF to assist them with free-speech issues  and defense of comics and manga, so get two copies – one for you and one for your local library!