Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Saki, Volume 3

May 31st, 2010

In Saki, Volume 3, the curtain has already opened on the High School, Regional Mah Jong championships. The Kiyosumi team is meeting, some for the first time, their rivals from the other schools in the area.

Don’t click around looking for reviews of Volume 1 or Volume 2, btw. I haven’t read or reviewed them. On purpose. For me, Saki truly begins to be interesting at the regionals. And from here on in, it gets more interesting.

If you’ve seen the anime, the manga will be entirely familiar, as the women of Kiyosumi meet their rivals from Ryuumonbuchi, Kazekoshi and Tsuruga High schools. And, as we meet the various competitors, we learn their back stories which are almost universally Yuri-ish enough in nature to satisfy almost every craving.

In Volume 3, Yuuki suffers her devastating loss due to lack of Tacos, followed by a frustrating loss by Mako. When the third match begins, it’s up to team Captain Takei Hisa to make a splash – and so she does. Kazekoshi’s captain remembers her, and is distressed that she can’t warn her teammate about Hisa’s crazy play style.

Meanwhile, while Nodoka and Saki snuggle in the resting room, two creeps steal Nodoka’s stuffed penguin. It’s recaptured by none other than the infamous Ryuumonbuchi player, childish Koromo, who delights in being able to return it to Nodoka and make a new friend.

For me, this is where the series actually began. Everything up to this point was no more than a prologue, and an introduction to the main players. They are all here now, and the game is heating up.

What amazed me about the series at this point is that all the characters were likable. There were no evil rivals, only worthy adversaries, with their own passionate reasons to win – and that reason was often another member of their team. Interpersonal loyalties ride right on the edge of love and desire and in some cases, step well past that line.

This is not really a “Yuri” manga, of course. It’s a sports/game manga in which nearly everyone is a member of the Order of the Lily. Which just makes it double the fun for us. Especially as mahjong bores me to tears and I need something to pay attention to because I couldn’t care less what the game play is. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 5 They have no noses! How are they supposed to breathe? Moe art really distresses me….
Story – 8 Other than the fact that it’s about mah jong, it’s *great*
Characters – 8
Yuri – Tons. Everywhere you look. In fact, it almost seems hard to find a character not locked in a passionately emotional relationship in this manga
Service – 7 One more view of a thigh at the edge of a girl’s skirt and I was going to scream.

Overall – 7

I will happily pick up the remaining volumes to watch the manga move past the regionals and head to that mythical place Saki and Nodoka  yearn for – the National Championships. /fanfare/





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 20, Part 2

May 27th, 2010

The second half of our overview begins with Takemiya Jin’s “Kirakira,” in which Saya befriends Mari, the plain sister of magazine model Ria in order to get closer to the famous sister, only to find that her interest no longer lies with Ria at all.

With the kind of synchronicity I’ve come to expect from her, Miura Shion’s Yuri essay discusses Ohana Holoholo.

The “Para Yuri Hime Ten” strip is about a girl who discovers Girls Love manga and life in elementary school.

Meiko is 28, and she’s having an affair with Yukari, a girl years younger than she in “Lunch Box.” She feels a little guilty, then a little jealous and then mightily annoyed, when Yukari tells a friend that she’s not seeing anyone. It was just a case of miscommunication, though.

“Mizu-iro Cinema” comes to a close with Tae leaving Yui to allow her to get back together with Akane, without asking Yui if that’s what she wants. She doesn’t and they end up together. Phew.

In “Moso Honey,” Nonoka’s Student Council tenure seems to involve her being depantsed/deskirted rather more often than you’d expect. Nozomi-sempai is cool, because we’re told she is.

Fans of service will enjoy the color pages, wherein the Sono Hanabira, Ikkitousen XX, Shin Koihime Musou Otome Tairan and other anime and movies are discussed.

Mist-a-like, “My Unique Day” brings star actress/dancer Miki into the orbit of her admirer Sorako, and their brief mis-start before they both find the right method to fit their relationship.

Hayase-sempai rises to the occasion with an impassioned, if fictitious, defense of Mashiro when they are both dressed down by a teacher for having a relationship out in public where peeping toms and jealous classmates can tattle about it. Hayase says that she coerced the younger woman. When Hayase returns to argue their case, since it was in fact the jealous classmate who tattled, the teacher shuts her down. Crisis looks like it might actually loom in “Sayonara Folklore.”

And at last, a story I skipped. I’m finding the bittersweet not-quites of the Black Cat Mansion series to be pretty dull.

“DNA Double XX” returns with a chapter that has a lot of potential and fails almost utterly to maximize any of it, cashing it all in for a pile of cliches. Aoi cleans up nice for the dance with the Eves, to learn that the Adam’s plumage is not the only thing they do to attract mates in this society of peacocks. There will be duels, we are told, so it’s no surprise when, after Aoi disses Erika for her unkindness to a clumsy, sincere, bespectacled girl who wears underwear which we are forced to look at repeatedly, Sakura appears to defend the Eve-in-chief. Duel? Do ya think?

Skip the next, as “Hime Koi” has roundly failed to capture my interest.

And lastly Hakamada Mera’s “Kimi ni Naru” goes where we hoped it would go, as Amane spills to You just what her history with Yuki was. It turns out to be slightly more seedy than expected, as Yuki became pregnant by her tutor. You offers herself to Amane as a stand-in for her lost love but, after a rather hot kiss, Amane reels herself in. She pours cold water on both of them by telling You that she can stay the night but after this, she doesn’t want to see her ever again. Understandably, I think, since it would take a seriously strong person to avoid that particularly slippery slope. I want to categorically say that between this story and “Kaichou to Fukukaichou” in Yuri Hime S, I’ve come around to Hakamada. Her characters still have giant heads, though.

The ad for the next issue offers a 5th anniversary special “surprise.” Along with all the usual fun, there’ll be a pin-up by and interview with Aoi Hana‘s Shimura Takako. And, most importantly, from this issue forward, Yuri Hime is moving from a quarterly to a once-every-other-month format, so 6 times a year from the current 4. I hope you’re as excited about that as I am.

Overall – 9.5

So, 5 years into this experiment, we have a solid handful of some really decent art, storytelling and by god, adult women in relationships. Now we just need to get it over here legitimately and we’ll have arrived.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 20 Part 1

May 26th, 2010

If there was ever a volume of Yuri Hime magazine worth buying, Volume 20 is that volume. It was the most stellar issue to date. I’ve mentioned that I have now taken to skipping any stories that simply don’t interest me – out of 18 stories, I skipped only 2 and liked or loved all of the ones I read. This was a great volume from beginning to end.

It begins with cover art by Fujieda Miyabi of Sarasa and Seriho from Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan, and moves right into a pin-up by Morinaga Milk on one side and Dite on the other.

The first story, “Tsuki to Drop” is a variation on the group date gone wrong plot, when Nobara gets jealous of the guys paying attention to Tsuki at the gokon.

In “Mukou no Budou”, Itsuwa is regretting not taking the chance to reach her hand out towards Mitsue, when she had it back in high school. Seeing Mitsue with a lover now hurts more than she was prepared for.

Miwa-san is a typical OL, whose life changes when she quite accidentally meets actress Nagae-san. Suddenly, her life is filled with new people – and new feelings. These last two stories are both stories about adult women, so of course they made me happy.

And, although “Yomijinrazuno Tsukari Desu” is back in a school setting, there was something so refreshingly goofy and fun about it that I liked it anyway. When Tsukasa gets a love letter from “S”, she thinks it’s from Sumika, and goes the old-fashioned route by befriending her to get closer to her. However, she completely misses the fact that the writer of the love letter shares the same initial with her best friend, Sakurako.

Morishima Akiko’s series about grown-ups, “Renai Joshika,” brings two of the couples together in a business overnight in a cheap hotel in Hokkaido. This story has a number of things I’ve never seen in a Yuri Hime manga before, including some very clever fourth wall breaks and femme drag for the two butches, Mitsuki and Saki. And it looks like Mitsuki and Kaori are reigniting their old relationship. It’s been 15 years since they were lovers – I’ll be interested to see how their adult relationship works out.

“Yr Yr” covers that awkward space between a confession and a response.

And we’re going to end with an utterly squee-worthy chapter of “Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan” about which I can say very little without spoiling it. Sarasa and Seriho go out on a second date. To say that Seriho brings a U-haul would not be that far off. lol Seriously – this chapter is worth the price of the magazine. (I’m a little shy of halfway, but pressed for time today.)

Speaking of the price of the magazine. I know that many of you would purchase it if it were cheaper to get but sadly, the reality is that unless you live in Japan, it has to be shipped, until they – and we – have a model that works for legit digital reproduction (something I am working on, because it’s time to stop discussing the problem and start talking about the solution.) The magazine is about $9 USD and the shipping can be twice that easily. As you know, I always link to the Amazon JP entry for the magazine, because I have an affiliate account. I know it’s pretty steep shipping from there, but that cost per item goes down when you buy many items at once. A 20-item order can have a cost per item of about $4 USD, depending on what you get. Here are some other options:

BK1 books has more shipping options, so you can go a slower/cheaper route. You do need to know some Japanese to use their site, where on Amazon JP you can check out in English.

Also, if you live in a major city, a large bookstore can potentially get a subscription for you. And, if there is a Japanese bookstore anywhere in or near your town, they probably won’t have any difficulty getting it for you. Asahiya, Kinokuniya and Sanseido all have overseas stores and all are glad to provide subscription services. It helps to show up with a cover, or a printout of the title and/or the ISSN for them. We speak with an accent. :-)

There are also an online subscription services available from Sasuga Books and CD Japan, although neither have Yuri Hime listed, I’m sure they will be glad to assist you.

J-List does have Yuri Hime listed in their magazine section, and a subscription is available through them.

And Anonymous tells us that HMV JP also has an English-language interface, with a caveat that HMV’s overseas shipping is EMS only, no SAL. Thanks Anon, much obliged.

So, there really are a lot of options for you to buy Yuri Hime, and make the point that there is a legitimate overseas market. The more we buy, the more our voice is heard. In the near future I’ll expand about how this can change things for all our benefit – and talk about the solution I mentioned above. :-)

Part 2 tomorrow!





Yuri Manga: Gunsmith Cats Burst, Volume 5 (English)

May 17th, 2010

Gunsmith Cats: Burst Volume 5Last year, I was so very pleased to review the final volume of Gunsmith Cats Burst. Now, just a little bit over a year later, it’s my double pleasure to read and review the final volume of Gunsmith Cats Burst in English!

My belief that this was the end that GSC deserved has not changed. The story has a little bit of everything that made GSC a classic series – one that actually stood the test of a few decades of time. Guns, car chases, sexy women…none of this goes out of style.

For this English-language version, Dark Horse provides the kind of work we expect from them – great reproduction, good quality pages, solid translation.

So what is there to say about the English edition that I did not about the Japanese? This. Sean Gaffney asked me to talk about the drug Goldie is selling. It enhances people’s susceptibility to “persuasion.” It’s not a brainwashing drug, just one that makes it easy to convince people to see your point of view, especially when it fits their already preconceived beliefs.

Some of you may not know this but I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I thought I’d tell you that there is *already* a pill like this. In fact, I smiled through the entire book knowing *exactly* what Goldie is pushing. You know what it’s called? It’s called…a placebo. No, seriously. If I give you a pill and tell you that it’s going to make you relaxed (or tense or hot or full or whatever) chances are, your brain (which is no doubt a finely honed instrument, capable of great feats of imagination) will immediately set you to feeling just that way.

Don’t believe me? Let’s do a little experiment.

Imagine that you are outside in the cold. It’s cold and dry and you enter your home and are greeted with a blast of cinnamon-flavored warmth. Someone is baking in the kitchen. Perhaps it’s cinnamon bread or muffins. You walk into the kitchen where the air is redolent with the smell. You open the oven door and a puff of warm air hits you in the face, and the room is once again filled with the scent of cinnamon.

Now…notice that you are salivating. You are, more than usual just sitting here. (Except for those of you who HATE cinnamon, hah on me.) I know you are, because your mind was imagining eating delicious cinnamon bread and when you do that, you start to salivate.

So, the power to persuade? Give a person a pill or a shot and tell them that it’s going to help them be convinced of your point of view and most people will be *thrilled* to give up their responsibility and let you make the choice for them.

In any case, with May married and in the role of a new mommy, Misty assuaging her desire for Rally with Goldie and Roy moving out to the suburbs, it’s no real shock that Rally decides it’s time to move on.

And now, so can we. With no lingering regrets, the book finally closes on a series that was one of the first to really make an impact here on Western shores.

Farewell Gunsmith Cats – it was loads of fun.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 9

Today’s review was sponsored by the kindness and generosity of new Okazu Hero Ariella M! Thank you and welcome to the team, Ariella – email me to receive your Okazu Hero badge for proud display on websites and social media profiles. ^_^





Ohana Hololo, Volume 1 (オハナホロホロ)

May 7th, 2010

Some years ago, Maya and Michiru were lovers. They lived together for about 5 years until one day, Maya woke up to a note from Michiru saying that she was leaving.

Years passed and the next time they met, Michiru was pregnant. After the baby’s father died, Maya moved in with Michiru to take care of Yuuta – under the strict rule that there would be nothing between them except friendship. Michiru, her son Yuuta who appears to be about 2 or 3, and Maya live in apartment together. It’s probably not terribly surprising that Maya is the more responsible of the two. Almost right away, when Michiru is feeling sulky and lonely, she asks for a kiss, violating her own rule.

Acting as a surrogate father figure is the guy who lives below them, Niko. He’s a goof, but he truly adores Yuuta and the two women trust him. At one point he’s heading off on a trip and encounters Maya and Yuuta on the street. He takes Yuuta, puts him on top of his luggage and starts to wheel him away. After about three steps, he whirls on Maya yelling at her to stop him already! He’s cute.

And then there’s Yuuta. let’s say 2 1/2, he’s a kid. That means sniveling, snotty noses, tears when a favorite cup breaks, etc. But he’s a good kid, smart for his age and he tries hard to be strong for his mother. He loves pudding, and he likes shiny stones which he collects and keeps in a box.

This is Ohana Holoholo（オハナホロホロ）.

In the most touching and best-written chapter, Niko and Yuuta are out shopping. Niko tells Yuuta to never let go of his hand. But when Yuuta sees a shiny gold-paper filled box of candy, it’s Niko that lets go to pay for it. Yuuta and he are separated. Niko is devastated. He calls Maya and they talk to the department store staff. When they can’t find Yuuta, Niko breaks down in tears. Maya knew that Niko and Yuuta’s father had been friends – he tells her that, in fact, they had been lovers. He’s treasured the memory of his dead lover through his son. At which an announcement over the PA tells them that Yuuta’s been found – asleep in a bed in the bedding department. They all go home, where Maya asks if Michiru knew that Niko and Yuuta’s father had been together.Michiru replies that she knew he had a lover, and when she met Niko she wondered if he might be the one. At home Yuuta recived the shiny candy box with joy, then hands out all the candy in it to the three adults, and carefully displays his rock collection in the pretty gold paper, his face glowing with utter contentment. (^_^)

After that, you’d be a right bastard if you didn’t like the kid.

The real problem in the series is Michiru. She’s childish, selfish, and annoying. She left Maya once and really hurt her. We can see that Maya still has abandonment issues.

When Maya encounters an old school friend who does a kindness for Yuuta, Michiru sees them hugging, gets jealous and runs back to her mother’s house with Yuuta. Yes, she does it *again*. Maya is devastated.

When Niko arrives home that night, there’s Yuuta and Michiru in his apartment. Michiru admits that when she arrived at her mother’s place, she finally realized it was probably a hug between friends, but now she’s frightened of going back upstairs, because Maya will be angry. The problem is solved when Maya comes down with pudding to share with Niko and Yuuta tackles her. Maya mildly welcomes Michiru home. In the next chapter, they have it out. Michiru admits she was afraid she’d be thrown away for the guy and Maya sensibly points out that leaving people is Michiru’s behavior, not hers. Michiru apologizes and is forgiven.

The last chapter is about pudding.

This series ran in Feel Comics and I wish I had known about it when it was running. (Update: It’s still running – I just got the most recent issue of Feel Young and there it is!) Shodensha is quietly pretty LGBT friendly. They run Yamaji Ebine works and although those are less and less LGBT-themed, any lesbian or gay characters tend to be very sympathetic, competent and likable. I find I’m a big fan of alternative family stories, although I have no idea why. It’s just nice to see that it can all work.

Maya’s serious, but not a prig, Niko’s a goof, but not an ass, Michiru’s a jerk, but not to the point of endangering Yuuta and Yuuta’s a good kid. The story is touching in places, but not soppy.

It all works.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – Nothing in the story proper, but it is part of the history – let’s call it a 4
Service – A resounding 0

Overall – 8

I am so in the mood for pudding now….