Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: GUNJO (羣青), continued

October 24th, 2011

It’s been a while since I talked about GUNJO (羣青), hasn’t it? The first volume was brutal and awful and wonderful and the second volume was, as I keep saying, like eating the most delicious razor blades ever.

And now, as the story approaches an end, I want to talk about it once more. Now, while it’s still in that Schroedinger’s Cat phase of not being over, but already ended. (It has to be ended, or nearly so, just because of the publishing schedule of magazines.)

As I read each new chapter, I find myself scanning the faces of the woman who was abused and despised by everyone ever who was supposed to have loved and cared for her and the only person who ever actually did,  wondering how this series could end without them both dead, wondering if they will ever be free, wondering if they will ever smile again, wondering if I’m as or more pathetic than they to even think that they might.

Look at the scan above. (I left in all the ghost images from the pages in front and behind this tableau, because this is what the pages look like when I read the chapters in the magazine.)

“Hey!” says the brunette, who Japanese fans call Megane-san because she wore glasses.

“…Mm?” says the blonde, called “Sensei” by Japanese fans because she was a vet, before she became a criminal.

There they are, facing each other down, having survived so much together and yet not together at all. The brunette gets angriest when the blonde shows her any kindness, the blonde gets angriest when the brunette becomes self-deprecating. Neither can let each other go….neither wants to be left alone….neither wants to be with the other. They are suspended in a relationship so intimate that they loathe each other for it, but when they think about it a little, they don’t dislike each other at all.

Where can this series go? I have absolutely no idea. I sit around sometimes and try to predict the end. Will Megane-san give herself up, and let Sensei return to what’s left of her life? Or maybe they will die in a freak accident, solving the entire problem? Or maybe they will be free, after all, the police haven’t caught up to them yet….maybe they can escape…and then I slap myself for being a fool.

You don’t know what the brunette says next. I don’t know what will happen next. Like every chapter of GUNJO, this one keeps us suspended on a knife bridge, spikes on one side, swords on the other. This moment is not a breath of fresh air – it’s the moment before the breath is punched out of us.

GUNJO has been the hardest thing I have ever read in my life. I love it to the point of incoherence.  It’s long moved past being about a lesbian, and I don’t even know what it’s about anymore…other than life and death.

However it ends, no matter how much it hurts (and it will, of that I have no doubt,) I’ll still consider this one of the greatest stories I have ever read in any language. Thank you Nakamura-sensei. Thank you for GUNJO.

要約:これまで読んできたあらゆる言語の作品の中で、最も優れた物語のひとつ (要約/翻訳 |小松さん)





Yuri Manga: Girls Love – strawberry milkshake

October 21st, 2011

In the beginning there was Yuri Hime and from Yuri Hime came Yuri Hime Wildrose, a series of “ecchi” (by which we mean “porn”) Yuri manga by artists that contributed to Yuri Hime or their cell-phone manga. Yuri Hime Wildrose was rendered into two “best of” collection called Remix disk A and disk B. (My review of the remix issues has links to all the original Wildrose volumes,as well.)

Now the series has been rebranded, again, as Girls Love. (Volume 1 review from March)

For readers, there isn’t a really significant difference between the Wildrose volumes and Girls Love – creators and content remain roughly the same. In this volume, Girls Love -strawberry milkshake- , we’re getting some of the best of the creators, including Nanzaki Iku’s ShizNat clones, (here called Youko and Hitomi), Amano Syuninta, Mikuni Hachime and others, each with a relatively “Plot, What Plot” one-shot that starts with attraction, moves to sex and ends with love.

It is this last that sets these stories apart from poorly concocted “PWP” stories. There’s nothing at all wrong with a story in which the story is merely the frame for the sex, but it’s infinitely more appealing (to me, at least) when actual caring and affection accompany desire.

I didn’t love every story in this collection, but I liked at least half, which is a pretty big leap from the distate with which I regarded most of the Wildrose volumes. In short – there were more adults, less school settings, more genuine affection and even a serious couple (thank you, Nanzaki Iku.)

Ratings:

Art – Variable, but let’s give it an 8 because most of these creators are good at what they do
Characters – same, 8
Story – N/A
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 8

If you’re in the habit of looking for “ecchi” Yuri – i.e., you’re looking for lesbian porn, but don’t like saying it that way – I can actually recommend this volume. Far fewer distressingly drawn breasts than usual and some couples that I actually wanted to see together.

小松さんの要約: 大人の話が増え、好きな作品が半分になっただけでも、Wildroseよりは向上。





Yuri Manga: Mizu-Iro Ether (水色エーテル)

October 21st, 2011

Mizu-Iro Ether (水色エーテル), by Kurokiri Misao, is a rather typical set of “Story A”-type Yuri stories that trace schoolgirls’ loves.

There are two stories that have some unique qualities, although one, in which a girl falls in love with a mermaid, was a tad too Disney princess for my taste.

The second story in the collection, “Kono Mune no Hana” starts with the story of Yuka and her friend Sayo who are (obviously, to our eyes) in a relationship. We’re not the only ones to whom it is obvious; Yuka’s grandmother also can see what’s going on and, in a very unsubtle way, is trying to explain to the girls that this is not forever. We learn that Grandma once has a school love of her own, Yukue and, although they genuinely loved one another, when they graduated, they went their separate ways, married, had children and even now have not spoken to one another again since. Reading this story, I was strongly tempted to scream at Grandma, and tell her things were different now, but alas I remained three-dimensional. The story left me feeling more bitter than sweet, but it made me think once more how much things have changed – and how much they have not. Luckily for us, and for Yuka and Sayo, Grandma ends the story thinking much the same thing.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 7

The collection as a whole is not significant. The territory in most stories is well-trodden, the conclusions all have been come to before. With the exception of Grandma’s past (and, mind you, Grandma maybe goes back to mid- 20th century Japan, now, not early 20th) and the mermaid, nothing was unique. If what you like best is that schoolgirl setting and lives and loves of teens, this will make good reading. If you’re looking for something significant, give this one a pass.

要約: 典型的な10代の少女達の関係を描く平凡な内容、という評価ですね。(要約/翻訳 |小松さん)





Yuri Manga: Oshioki! (おしおきっ!)

October 13th, 2011

Oshioki! (おしおきっ!) is a 4-koma manga that starts somewhere and ends up somewhere and in between goes totally off track three or four times.

Minato is an utterly average person. She gets average grades, comes up right in the middle of the pack in footraces and has not a single distinguishing characteristic. So when she sees smart, athletically inclined Student Council President Shion, she’s impressed, kinda crushy and a little jealous. Circumstances bring her into Shion’s acquaintance where she learns that Shion, when she wears her glasses, is a studious and polite young lady, but when she takes them off, becomes a schoolmarm sadist. To “punish” Minato for some small, meaningless infraction, Shion commands that Minato will be her dog. At which point Minato learns a life-changing lesson about herself…she is a masochist.

Oh, they never use that word, but we get it. ^_^

So Minato hangs around the Student Council, trying to stay close to Shion and trying, from time to time, to be punished. Hence the title.

Most of the strips are about average school-life details, but Minato has clearly begun to fall in love with Shion, and Shion’s obviously interested in Minato…but it takes a lot of stories about stolen puddings, and the school festival and the like to get through before suddenly, Council member Momoka pushes Shion to admit she has feelings for Minato and Minato to return the feelings…and they kiss…and the book ends.

Shion’s sadistic behavior is implied, not shown, Minato’s submissive tendencies are kept relatively socially acceptable and her humilation only shows up in dream sequences and once or twice as a gag. So it’s not like this is a high school BDSM fest or anything. Momoka and the other student council member Chitose fulfill specific roles and are not unlikable – and they genuinely like Minato and become her friend early on.

The best moment, IMHO, was towards the end, when Shion thanks Minato for all her help over the last few months, and asks her to officially join the Student Council. Minato is overjoyed, because she wants to be close to Shion, but also because she is no longer average. That was a sweet scene and pretty much the turning point of the book from silly gags to “getting Shion and Minato together.” The handwave kiss and happily-ever-after was a nice addition to the “Good” column.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Loser FanBeing – 5

Overall – 7

Although the book wasn’t bad, I don’t know if I recommend it. Whether you will like it will greatly depend on how you feel about S&M and 4-koma as a comedic mix. I didn’t hate it.





Yuri Manga: KuroYome (くろよめ)

October 10th, 2011

It is said that behind every successful man is a woman. The saying represents the sacrifices women have made to support their husbands in their work – sometimes curtailing their own careers, or putting in long hours of caretaking, for no money and no credit.

Kuroyome (くろよめ) by Kazuto Izumi proposes the idea that for women to truly be successful, they too need a helpmeet and caretaker…in other words, a wife.

On the one hand this idea makes my teeth grind, and on the other it makes my teeth grind.

The stories in this volume are mean to be cute and sweet, about a high-powered business woman who finds comfort and care in the capable hands of an adorable and adoring wife for rent…and then treats them like crap and drives them out until they realize that they are helpless when it comes to doing the least little thing to take care of themselves and run back to their “wife,” beg forgiveness and ask to be taken back.  *If* these high-powered women were high-powered men, there’s a good chance we’d say, “Don’t do it! He’s a selfish asshole!” But because they are women, we’re supposed to smile and nod and be happy for them.

Yome, Komomo – Don’t do it, run, she’s an asshole!

The stories are not stabbingly awful, but as each hinges on a crisis created because the high-powered businesswoman is an asshole to the wife I just can’t like it. Yome and Komomo are competent women and I want them to find someone who appreciates them, not just for the dinners they make.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 6 (I imagine this appealed greatly to the otaku crowd, see below)
Characters – were 4 and were 8 and sometimes both at the same time
Yuri – 7
Service – 10 – Otaku have very conservative ideas about gender roles and marriage. It would make sense to most of them that a “wife” is, because *she is a wife,* submissive and supportive. Clearly, these gentlemen did not grow up in my household.

Overall – 6

Real feminists train their sons to make their own goddamn beds. Just sayin’