Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Aoi Hana, Volume 5

April 22nd, 2010

You know the 5 Stages of Death? Well, Coming Out also has certain stages. 1) First, you have to admit to yourself you are /fillintheblank/. 2) Then you admit it to someone close to you. Just one person, because your sure it’s going to turn them against you. 3) Then you admit it to someone else – sometimes a perfect stranger, because that’s safer than family or friends. 4) The biggest hurdle is vocalizing it to your family. If that stage is not horrible (and for many people it is,) you start becoming more comfortable with the whole thing, until the final stage 5) Acceptance. For that to happen you have to accept yourself. It’s a bonus if the people around you accept you too, but it’s most important that you accept yourself.

In Aoi Hana Volume 5, Fumi has made it past the third stage. And really, she’s not sure how she got there. But it’s okay, because she’s well on her way to accepting herself. And she’s also already incredibly strong, although she doesn’t yet realize it.

It’s once again time for the Drama Club to put on their play and emotions are running very high. Despite themselves, last year’s first-years are turning into rather mature second-years that are admired by the new students. Kyouko stuns people with her performance in Mishima Yukio’s Rokumeikan. (The link is to the collection of plays in which Rokumeikan is included.) Even Akira, who comes down with sudden nerves, finds herself caught up in the moment and shines on stage.

Haruka learns that Fumi, too, is a lover of women, and we follow a flashback when she learned of her sister and Hinako’s relationship. When Fumi meets Haruka’s sister, she is keenly aware – and a little jealous – of their comfort level with each other.

Even Mogi’s clandestine relationship with Akira’s brother is noted.

Everyone is growing up.

I only wish I had “met” Fumi when I was young. I could have used a media representation like her.

With vacation planned and old flames coming back into the story, Volume 6 promises to be full of fireworks – can’t wait!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Does *anyone* like Chizu? The more we see of her, the less I like her.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S, Volume 12

April 20th, 2010

I will continue to do what I started with last issue, and only address the stories I felt were worth reading. The rest do not appeal to me for one reason or another and I don’t want to waste my time even so much as synopsizing them.

So, for me, the first story in Yuri Hime S, Volume 12, is “Fufu.” Let me be very clear – this story is *important.* Some people, after having read my glowing review of this story from the last volume were disappointed because nothing happens. The first chapter is just about two women who sit around talking. This is followed by this volume’s chapter in which they go out shopping for a bed. That’s it. But that’s precisely why it’s important. This story is about the little moments of domestic bliss that are the majority of time spent in a marriage. On 2chan, the response was, “why should I care?” and a lot of derision about lesbians and why they don’t want lesbians in their Yuri. That’s why this story is important. Because, no, Yuri fandom, especially the male half, are not more open-minded and accepting. If anything they are usually less – sexually immature sometimes, sexually conservative frequently. Otaku in Japan are rarely socially liberal. Social and political equality for gay couples is not even in the playbook, much less a priority.

So when “Fufu” covers this territory, gently, adorably forcing this audience to repeatedly confront the fact that lesbian couples are happy without a man, and would like to have words and laws that protect their status absolutely – it is important. I remain thrilled with Ichijinsha’s decision to run this series in Yuri Hime S.

Above all…c’mon…the story is about getting a big pluffy bed! As a proud owner of one of those, I say without reservation that this is the greatest story ever! lol

In “Okkake x girls” Amami-sempai and Koyanagi-sempai had a smoking hot kiss in the last scene of the school play and it’s inspired some of the other students to try it out. This series gets points for having Amami accepted into the “Sakarazuka” school where she’ll become a real prince.

In “Kaichou to Fukukaichou” the Vice President is starting to come to terms with what she feels is a hopeless love for the President, only to encounter the President in tears over a difficult family situation. She offers comfort in the form on an embrace and lets the girl she loves cry in her arms.

“Marriage Black” tells the tale of two daughters of opposing crime families, mixed in with a little “The Graduate” and a little murder. I kind of wonder where this one is going.

Hiyori Otsu’s “Orange and Yellow” covers the well-worn territory of a girl and the moron she loves. ^_^

“Shinagami Alice” avoids explaining anything by adding a sadistic Loli who kidnaps the lead, so we don’t notice there’s no plot.

The plot takes a turn for the irrelevant when the male lead of the play disappears just before the school festival in “Konohana Link.” I’m once again of the mind that this will all make more sense once I get all the chapters together, because right now, it’s too scattered for me to follow.

The memes are flying thick and fast with no sign of an actual story in “Zettai Shoujo Astoria” No one’s gonna complain that this story moves slow – it’s on a treadmill to nowhere at full speed right now. Even the characters run around the campus a lot.

Anna’s doll talks and she’s still in love with Elza. Elza asks her to be her disciple, and kind of misses the fact that she’s in love with Anna, too. It’s okay, it’s not like we expected genius from “Cassiopeia Dolce.”

And while that’s only about half the volume – that’s the half I read. There’s other stuff, both adequate and bad, and I’m sure some of you will like it very much, so let me remind you that only buy *buying* Yuri can you support it. Otherwise, you’re just stealing from the artists and the publishers. If you follow a series regularly, consider purchasing the magazine to pay the bills of the hard-working men and women who create these stories for you!

Ratings:

Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Comic Lily, Volume 3

April 14th, 2010

In Have His Carcass, Dorothy L. Sayers has Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane discussing Harriet’s popular mystery series. She’s come to realize that there’s a point at which even the most superficial character has to either develop some depth or go away. The crisis was that, as a writer of popular novels, it was tempting to just let her character string along 2-dimensionally until everyone got tired of him. But if you’re any kind of real writer, you know that that’s just not really sustainable for either you – or the character.

It’s easy to write a “Story A” – girl meets girl, they fall in love, the end. Or Girl Confesses to Girl. Or something equally thin and non-committal. But now you’re trying to tell that same story for the third time and frankly, it’s getting harder. You either add some character to your characters and succeed…or you don’t and you fail hard. This is what I’m seeing in Volume 3 of Comic Lily (Comic リリィ). Creators are pushing a bit and making it work – or they are so not.

As with previous volumes, the first story is the strongest. Arare used to really admire Tsubasa – for her feminine figure, long hair, popularity – but these days, she thinks Tsubasa’s become a total dork. After she confessed to Arare and was rejected, Tsubasa cut her hair, started taking shop in high school and generally isn’t the woman Arare admired. But she’s still there all the time by Arare’s side and it’s pissing Arare off. When Arare’s birthday comes around, Tsubasa begins to avoid her, and Arare starts to realize what Tsubasa really means to her. When it turns out that Tsubasa was making her a ring in shop, Arare says she’ll think about accepting Tsubasa’s feelings at last.

The continuing series are starting to develop some personality (with the exception of the story that obsesses about bloomers. That one’s just bad from beginning to end) and I find myself actually wondering if/when/what something might happen.

Again, as with the rest of these volumes – and indeed with most anthologies – there is a wide range of art and story-telling skill, but for whatever reason, Volume 3 felt stronger than the previous two to me. So, not quite as forgettable as the first two volumes, with a moment or two of something approaching quite decent. Not world shaking, no, but I don’t feel bad about getting the next one.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Unlike Tsubomi, which got progressively less good as I read it, I will happily give this series another volume or two, because it’s starting to grow on me.





Yuri Manga: Comic Lily, Volume 2

April 12th, 2010

I’ve mentioned in the past that my brain has a neat little habit of wiping out anything that I read that is either excessively boring or emotionally harmful. (For instance, I remember that I once read a book that I afterwards described as making me feel as if I had been outside on the street when a bank robbery was in process – not actually involved, but still traumatized. I can no longer remember what the book was or what made me feel that way and for that, I am extremely grateful.)

The downside to that is that every time I read something like Comic Lily, Volume 2 (comicリリィ) I completely forget all of the contents almost immediately . Even after reading it twice, it’s all I can do to remember that the first story was okay and there was one or two other stories that were bearable and the rest is a complete blank.

The first story is a rather typical story about Tamaki who is angry at Mitsuki for being herself, which is to say, a bit of a doofus and prone to falling in love with guys. Tamaki is herself pissy-faced and annoyed because she is actually jealous of those guys and in love with Mitsuki. There is some drama, but the ending is happy.

There’s a few continuing series that aren’t too bad – and are better when you read them in sequence so they provide their own context.

Most of the rest of the stories are angry confessions or sad confessions or bittersweet confessions or frustrated confessions with the occasional kiss.

Anyway.

If the moment of confession is the thing you like, then Comic Lily is a good bet for you. If you, like me, are looking more for the bits after “happily-ever-after” then it’s safe to pass on this anthology.

Ratings:

Overall – 6

This is not an anthology that is pushing any boundaries or changing the world. It is an anthology that scratches an itch that has been scratched many times before and by – in many cases – people with longer nails. (Wow, did that analogy get weird fast. lol)





Yuri Manga: GUNJO, Volume 1

April 9th, 2010

(Note to people looking for scanlations of this book. The author does not work herself to the bone and pay money out of her pocket so you can steal her work. Scans are not cool – they are theft. You want the book, click the picture and go buy it. Otherwise, you’re devaluing her time and effort and there is no justification for it, other than you are selfish.) 

“Is it settled?”

“It’s settled.”

With these few words begins one of the most profound, most emotionally engaging manga I’ve ever read.

Gunjo, Volume 1 (羣青 上)by Nakamura Ching is a journey from madness to madness, from profound misery to profound misery and from derision and fear into depths of despair where there is respect and even love.

It begins in the moments after a horrible crime has been committed. A woman has asked someone to kill her husband for her. She has asked someone she knows she can use – another woman, a lesbian, who has been in love with her since high school. The woman who requested the death is abusive, derisive. The woman who committed the crime is passive, almost apathetic. She flinches in the face of the other’s harsh words, but doesn’t fight back.

In between incredible, sudden violence, at moments when their existence is most tenuous, there is tenderness. No, it’s more like that there is only tenderness in the moments when they are most fragile.

We only learn later that the one woman has been serially abused by her husband, after a life with an abusive father. And we only learn later that the other woman walked away from a relationship and a life to commit this act of violence for her.

There is no real moral ambiguity here – these two women are violent and broken. They are insanely bad for one another and have together done something unspeakable. And yet, in the darkest moments, they realize they want to live and try to create something like a life out of the chaos they’ve created.

Nakamura-sensei’s art is detailed and realistic – and in those moments of terrifying violence it reaches the level of sublime. Her writing is subtle – and painful and hurtful – and breathtakingly beautiful especially when the situation is uncertain. There is a mastery of tension of just about every kind in every word and line of this story.

Moving, brutal, sublimely gorgeous and profoundly disturbing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say this – Gunjo is the best manga I have read to date.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 10

I would love to hear from those of you who bought Volume 1 of Gunjo – what did you think of it, now that you’ve had a chance to see it for yourself?