Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Junsui Adolescence, Volume 1

March 19th, 2009

In Kowo Kazuma’s Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス,) Volume 1, we meet Nanao, a high school student. She doesn’t seem to be particularly special in any way. Decent student, head of the club that assists with the Infimary. But secretly, she’s fallen in love with the school doctor, Matsumoto. In traditional tsundere fashion, she responds to these confusing feelings by being mean to Matsumoto.

Soon her feelings overflow her ability to hide them, and Nanao and Matsumoto find themselves in a relationship that must be hidden, even if they do a darn bad job of it.

The handling of this student/teacher relationship is a little pat. Of course. We don’t want our love story being interrupted by charges of statutory rape or professionally unethical behavior or other annoying real-life complications. No, we really don’t. We *know* it’s a bad idea for a student and the school doctor to fall in love. They know it too. That’s the whole point.

So, Matsumoto, despite every logical thought she has, find herself involved with a student. And Nanao flounders while trying to establish a real and lasting place in her lover’s life. It’s a harder journey than either expect. And to be honest, I didn’t see a happy ending at the end of this story. But luckily for all of us, I was wrong. :-)

Because this is a story of internal battles and small victories, I really don’t want to spoil too much. Let me leave it this way – if you don’t mind the problematic nature of the relationship, then you are likely to find yourself *dying* to see what the future holds for these two at the end of this book. (Sadly, I don’t think we get past the “happily ever after” but hey, at least we get “happily ever after.”)

Ratings:

Art – 6, but it grew on me
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 8

This was a series that I kept forgetting was a series while it ran in Yuri Hime and when I finally clued in was thrilled that it was ongoing. As a collection it’s just that much better.





Yuri Manga: Burst Angel, Volme 2 (English)

March 18th, 2009

Burst Angel, Volume 2 is a classic case of “be careful what you wish for.”

When I first read this volume in Japanese, I was touched by the tender and genuine relationship between Jo and Meg, and enjoyed Meg’s obvious desire for Jo – something the anime had set aside in favor of extended giant robot fight scenes.

And then Tokyopop licensed the series. I was very excited, because I knew who was working on it, and was reasonably assured it would not suck. Then reality hit. Take a look at the long list of people who worked on this book on the front page and you will see a story of lay-offs and process malfesance. And, in the end, the best volume of the Bakuretsu Tenshi manga has become the not-terribly great second volume of Burst Angel. It’s not crisis-level “OMG, this sucks massively!”, but I’m not singing paeans of joy accompanied by heavenly choir, either.

The good news is that the manga itself is nice. Sweet, a little funny, with a light-hearted beginning that darkens as the series goes on to a more ominous tone. Much like the anime. The Yuri-est bits are not handled well. The translation is a bit silly – in one key moment, completely utterly incorrect and it has the overall effect of diminishing the reason I am reading this otherwise merely okay series.

But what really pushes this particular volume into “fail” territory for me is the craptastic reproduction. Tokyopop is, hands down, the most inconsistent of the large manga publishers. One series will be handled beautifully, the next like they did it on their lunch break. I realize that a lot of that has to do with timing, staff and money resources, etc. What you see with this volume is what happens when a book is rushed through as the staff is being fired from underneath it. The lettering is unacceptably bad in several spots – clearly no one was left to check it. I am *very* tolerant of margin and lettering errors, because I know just how hard it is to get that kind of thing right. But this is really abysmal.

The reproduction of the art (which was terrible in Volume 1) is much improved here. And to be fair, the art is not clean, draftsman-quality lines. (This was the artist’s first professional manga.) If the translation and lettering were at least at the level of the reproduction, the book would be perfectly fine.

All that having been said, if you are a Burst Angel fan, a fan of Jo and Meg, or just like a little light-hearted Yuri and can look past the technical issues, this volume is still worth getting.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 7

It is once again my pleasure to thank Okazu Superhero Eric P. for being the sponsor of today’s review!





Yuri: Manga: Tsubomi, Volume 1

March 2nd, 2009

YNN Correspondent Erin S. and I began to chat about Tsubomi (つぼみ), Volume 1. I was going to review it anyway. Here’s what we said.

pkChinensis> I read Tsubomi. It was better than I expected.
Rosa_Foetida> Hi Youko.
Rosa_Foetida> It wasn’t bad.
Rosa_Foetida> My only real takeaway was that there was little that stood out.
pkChinensis> Yeah.
Rosa_Foetida> I have to re-read it to review it, but I can only remember two stories off the top of my head.
Rosa_Foetida> But it is only a first issue and as it goes on, it will probably develop more of a personality.
pkChinensis> There was one artist whose style reminded me a bit of Shimura Takako’s.
pkChinensis> Yeah.
pkChinensis> Which two stories?
Rosa_Foetida> Yes – I thought that too, and double-checked the name. :)
pkChinensis> :)
(Answered later, but placed here for continuity) Oh – which two stories? Morinaga Milk and the office non-romance with art that made everyone look puffy, like they were all on steroids.
pkChinensis> I liked the art style of the ghost story, too.
pkChinensis> Though that one wasn’t very yuri.
Rosa_Foetida> I found it very wood-cut like, but it really wasn’t very Yuri.
Rosa_Foetida> Not something I’d put in the second position for the book, myself.
pkChinensis> Yes.
pkChinensis> Well, maybe the second part will be… not holding my breath, though.
Rosa_Foetida> Me too.
Rosa_Foetida> I felt that a lot of the stories were retreading the same old safe territory, crush/love/unrequited/kataomoi
pkChinensis> Yeah.
Rosa_Foetida> Nothing was really – “we’re a couple, now here’s the story.”
pkChinensis> Right. Well, that’s fairly rare to begin with.
Rosa_Foetida> I know. I was just hoping that this was not going to reinvent the same wheels.
pkChinensis> Oh, Erica, you and your foolish hopes. lol
Rosa_Foetida> I know, I’m a romantic at heart.
pkChinensis> (I’m sure you’re not alone.)
Rosa_Foetida> But with a name like Tsubomi, I really didn’t expect much.
pkChinensis> Right, and from Manga Time Kirara.
pkChinensis> It was actually better than I expected, so… :)
Rosa_Foetida> Exactly.
Rosa_Foetida> Agreed.
Rosa_Foetida> Every story could be called “You’re always on my mind”
pkChinensis> lol.
pkChinensis> Maybe not EVERY story.
Rosa_Foetida> Maybe. But an awful lot.
pkChinensis> Right.
Rosa_Foetida> In my mind, the color of Tsubomi is gray. I felt like I was watching a Black and White TV, because the stories had little depth or contour or color.
pkChinensis> Hmm.
Also from later, but added in now for continuity
pkChinensis> Some of the stories were just plain stupid–like the one about the girl who’s really the spirit of the flowers the other girl gave her crush.
Rosa_Foetida> Absolutely.
Rosa_Foetida> The last one, by whathisface waren’t all that anything, either
Rosa_Foetida> just girls sitting around talking, really
Rosa_Foetida> I [need to write] an emphatic note of reality to all the delusional fans who think that the Morinaga story is somehow going to be Nana and Hitomi.
Rosa_Foetida> I find it hard to believe that so few people understand that Morinaga does not own that story.
pkChinensis> Well, Morinaga keeps talking about it on her blog.
pkChinensis> So she must think she has some chance of drawing it somewhere else.
pkChinensis> Yoshitomi Akihito? Yeah, that story didn’t grab me either… just “Ha ha, two sets of sisters in love with each other.” (In other words, the one girl’s love is the other girl’s sister.)
Rosa_Foetida> yeah
Rosa_Foetida> whee
Rosa_Foetida> I don’t think she’s going to be able to with the same names.
pkChinensis> Well, she can always just use the same basic character designs and change the names… again. lol
pkChinensis> I don’t think it’s necessarily the specific characters people are attached to as the stage in their relationship the later stories are about.
Rosa_Foetida> I agree – what they want to see is “the next step”
Rosa_Foetida> But the sisters thing didn’t strike me as “love” so much as “moe”. “Oh you’re so cute, like a little doll I just want to eat you up” kind of thing and crushiness
pkChinensis> I didn’t read it that carefully, so it probably was.
* Rosa_Foetida admits she didn’t read it that carefully, either
pkChinensis> lol
pkChinensis> Some of his Yuri Hime S stuff was interesting, but this… wasn’t.
Rosa_Foetida> Yes.
Rosa_Foetida> Hey, Youko?
Rosa_Foetida> Can I ask a favor?
pkChinensis> Sure.
Rosa_Foetida> Can I just use this conversation between us as the review?
pkChinensis> lol
pkChinensis> If you like.
Rosa_Foetida> Because, it’s pretty great, looking back at it.
pkChinensis> Haha.
Rosa_Foetida> I was going to cut and paste comments from it, but the whole conversation thing works.
pkChinensis> Cool.
Rosa_Foetida> You’re officially a guest reviewer on Okazu now. :-)
pkChinensis> :)
pkChinensis> Do I get a cookie?
* Rosa_Foetida gives Youko a cookie.
pkChinensis> Yay.
pkChinensis> Thank you.
Rosa_Foetida> You’re welcome.
Rosa_Foetida> And there you have it.

Ratings:

Me – 6

Erin – 5

Here’s hoping it grows up fast.

One last note. No, The Morinaga Milk story is not the continuation of Nana and Hitomi’s story.





Yuri Manga: Papaya Gundan, Volume 2

February 20th, 2009

Honestly, I was going to review Tsubomi today, but I wiping the floor with myself after this week, so here’s something much less like work.

Last November, I reviewed Volume 1 of Payapa Gundan (パパイヤ軍団★), a fun and adult look at the manager of a hostess bar and the women who work for him.

Volume 2 of the story picks up with Miyabi, the other guy in a black suit. He’s the early shift manager and, it turns out, an unforgettable lover. He also turns out to be a lot younger than anyone assumed. His story revolves around his gorgeous, young-looking mother leaving to get remarried and forcing him to take care of himself, and a lover that can’t stand to lose him.

Once Miyabi’s life is resolved, we turn to look at Kyouko, who comes out as an otaku, but not as a writer of BL stories, to Hajime. He’s cool with it until she takes off for a week to write her latest novel. Hajime, worried about Kyouko, drops by and ends up cleaning the apartment, cooking for Kyouko and eventually asking her to move in with him. She ain’t no dummy, so she says, yes – only to learn that she’s sharing the apartment with Hajime and his sister and her lover. But it’s all good, because when they have a kid, she’s got free babysitting. ^_^

Hajime is worried that a rival club is scouting Miyabi, but it turns out that his great-grandmother is the club owner and she buys Club Papaya too, so Hajime will never have to worry about closing. Kyouko watches Hajime stress over Miyabi and considers (not for the first time) pairing them up in a story. ^_^

In the meantime, Hajime’s sister Mika and her bi lover Chieri have hit an impasse. Chieri is still seeing and sleeping with the male customers. Mika doesn’t like it at all. Chieri says that she can’t understand – Mika’s young and she’s 26 already. She wants to settle down and get married, maybe have children – and this customer is planning on marrying her and taking her to America with him when he goes. Mika’s shocked – she didn’t know that Chieri wanted that kind of life…and she didn’t know Chieri was that old. Her club profile says she’s 22. lol Chieri accuses Mika of wanting to live in Neverland, two women together, pfft.

Mika asks to be put on the early shift and Chieri runs off to Miyabi to get some advice from the youngest – but wisest – person at the club. It’s not until she realizes that her fiancee is a terrible lover and that as long as she’s seme, she really, really likes making love to Mika, that she regrets her decision.

When at last Chieri and Mika are once again face to face, Mika holds out an amazingly expensive diamond ring that Chieri had admired and asks her to marry her. “Come live with me in Neverland,” Mika says. Chieri agrees happily. It turns out that Mika was working two jobs to save up for the ring. Chieri admits that she also was saving up to give Mika a present, as she hands her what looks to be a pack of postcards or stationary. “It ain’t much!” Mika says.

The epilogue shows this crazy extended family, very happily ever after. Miyabi, ever with an eye for the business, takes Kyouko’s and Hajime’s baby to the college he’s attending, to attract young women whom he recruits for the club. Kyouko’s left the club and become a BL novelist, Mika is a professional dance teacher, and Hajime is overstressed about everything, as usual.

I can’t tell you how refreshing this series is. It puts a smile on my face every time I read it. The girl gets the girl, the boy gets the girl, the girl gets the boy and Kyouko writes stories where the boy gets the boy, too. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 4

Overall – 9





Yuri Anime Manga: Cream Lemon Escalation, Volume 2

January 29th, 2009

A few weeks ago, I regaled you with the tale of my visit to the Media Blasters store. While there, I was given this precious tome, the second volume of the anime manga of Cream Lemon Escalation (くりぃむレモン　エスカレション).

This volume is quite literally stills from the third episode of Escalation, wherein our heroine Rie, having lost Naomi-oneesama to graduation, takes out her needs on new arrival Arisa. Rie’s roommate Mari chases Arisa out, only to declare her happiness at their friendship to Rie, followed by declarations of love, of desire and, after they make love, the fact that she’s leaving Japan in the morning.

Rie receives an invitation to Naomi’s mansion, where she has Arisa for appetizers and Naomi for the main course, after which Naomi declares she’ll be leaving Japan in the morning.

…

I never really noticed that before. Maybe it’s Rie’s love-making skills, driving women away in droves. lol

In any case, we see Rie graduate, leave Arisa her picture and driving off happily to be Naomi’s love slave. Presumably.

The book flips, and becomes the first Black Cat Mansion episode about a guy, some maids and a housefire.

This little treasure of a book is something that I’ll happily add to the collection here at Yuri Central. But I think that if I want to relive this forerunner of so much Catholic schoolgirl Yuri, I’ll stick with the novel, which was howlingly funny.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 4
Characters – 6 Rie really grew on me, although I have no idea why.
Yuri – 9
Service – 9

Overall – 6

A brother-not-in-law saw it on the review pile and picked it up, blushed, then put it down. “Well…,” he said. “That’s pretty explicit.”