Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Mayu, Matou, Volume 5 ( 繭、纏う)

July 12th, 2023

A girl with long hair wearing a dark-colored old-fashioned Japanese school uniform reaches out into a dark void, with a desperate look on her face. Three is a very fine balance in a story that has to be maintained. We have to care about the characters we’ve been asked to care about…we have to be invested in the ending. When a story adds characters, they have to maintain that balance or they distract.

Mayu, Matou, Volume 5 ( 繭、纏う) is so carefully riding that line here in the penultimate volume.

What appeared to be a love triangle in which one side had no idea she was involved, has become more complicated. Kujou is vying with the unknowing/absent Hoshimiya for Saeki Hana’s heart. But Kujou does not know that Yokozawa is also in the ring.

Kujou, trying her best to entwine Saeki, asks her to the dance…and makes it almost impossible to refuse. Saeki, who has no interest in being the school prince, acquiesces. But when the dance starts…Hoshimiya arrives…!

This whole manga is a fairytale in which the princess is absent, the prince is emotionally tortured by the witch and the heroine is ignored by nearly everyone in the story. I don’t even want Kujou to come to a bad end, I just want Saeki out of there and away from this mishegas of hair uniforms and creepy ritual. Frankly, the best thing any of these girls can do is to get the heck out of that school. 

Volume 5 and and Volume 6 came out at the same time in Japan, which I think was a very good idea – even moreso now that I’ve read Volume 5. I definitely felt the urge to speed into reading the final volume, in hopes that Yokozawa would free Hana from, not a cocoon, but a web,  built from her own desires and self-loathing. Instead I sat with it, and how deeply uncomfortable it made me. The cover, when unfolded, shows Saeki Hana reach desperately into a black void, only trailing hair visible, as whomever passes beyond the border.  Hara Yuriko-sensei’s art is quite outstanding.

Ratings:

Art – 9 It’s beautiful and repulsive
Characters – 8
Story – 9
Service – 5 As in Volume 4 this is dark, creepy, sexy in ways that are uncomfortable
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

Volume 6, when it gets there, will change that narrative completely.

I hope.

(Spoiler alert for clicking the link and seeing the cover.)

 

 





白と黒~Black & White~, Volume 3

July 10th, 2023

In Volume 1 we met Shirakawa, top of her department in her office and Kuroda, a promising up-and-comer who threatens to take everything Shirakawa has built. They briefly team up, but in Volume 2, Kuroda makes a mistake that sets her back. Luckily for her, she’s got a mentor who pulls her out of the jam.

In 白と黒~Black & White~, Volume 3 Shirakawa is done playing nicely. She doesn’t care what she has to do, who she has to use or who gets hurt…she’s going to destroy Kuroda. With her own powerful patron within the company, she will ruin careers, physically and emotionally use and abuse others and she will get her way. There is no doubt that Shirakawa wins the battle…

…but does she win the war?

This was not the ending I wanted for this series, I’ll be honest. As I have long said, I like equals who go toe to toe. Choices are made here that are not fighting with a respected rival. As Shirakawa rises, I lost respect for her. Her decisions get ugly and the collateral damage grows. Now, the thing is…in the same position, would Kuroda have been any different? Without spoiling why, Kuroda has an outside chance to fight back…but doesn’t take it. In the end she walks away from the fight.

Having seen so many power struggles in the office  – this is not inaccurate. One cannot lose in a political struggle and still remain on top. So, while not what I wanted, this manga remains a kind-of-accurate version of a intra-office battle for power. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 7 A lot of sex and violence, including rape
Yuri – 7 Above, and now, jealousy!

Overall – 10

I had called this series the Best manga since GUNJO for best worst couple, but Shirakawa lost me in this volume.





Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 7 (ささやくように恋を唄う)

July 5th, 2023

We join Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau, Volume 7 (ささやくように恋を唄う), our resident adorable high school love story as Himari and Yori-sempai share their first real kiss.

This leads to them spending the night together after a sudden passing trope leaves them soaked. Yori stresses over the intimacy that sharing a bed brings, while Himari falls asleep.

Shiho decides to tell Himari the whole story about why she left SS Girls and it’s about what one might expect; a pile of mutually exclusive needs and desires that are compounded by strong emotional circumstances. Himari takes it all in so Shiho can get it all out, then politely asks Shiho to deal with the one things she hasn’t ever admitted – her feelings for Aki-sempai.

This series is moe in the most specific sense of the word – one wants very much to treasure these young ladies and protect them from harm. But also one wishes to celebrate them and that is what Kodansha did this weekend at Anime Expo! Head over to the Ichijinsha twitter account and take a look at the photos of their display. Revel in the Yuri-ness of it all. Yuri Is My Job!, I’m In Love With The Villainess and Whisper Me A Love Song all got space and time at the booth. Happy sigh.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 9
Service – .0001
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

So darn cute.

Volume 6 of Whisper Me A Love Song is out now from Kodansha!





Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

June 22nd, 2023

A girl with medium-length brown hair in a maid's outfit, lifts a blonde with big banana curls wearing an orange dress, in her arms. Green flowers blooms, a bird flies overhead, a water-blob creature wear scuba mask on the brown-haired girl's head. Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou., Volume 6 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) manga covers a pivotal moment. Yes, Claire and Rae are on vacation and yes, Claire is finally getting a literal taste of commoner life and finding it, unsurprisingly, unpalatable. She meets Rae’s family, and some folks who knew her back in the day…and the mystery of Rae Taylor is no less mysterious for all that.

But then the story takes a a turn. A ship of the Undead has arrived, which is bad enough, but there is something much more malevolent at work here. One of Rae’s old acquaintances turns against them – an act of desperation, but also with a clear mission of stopping Rae Taylor and Claire François. Who is pulling the strings?

Rae and Claire prevail, but the truth of Lui’s decision further radicalizes Claire to hate income inequality. A hero has begun to be born, only she doesn’t know it yet. And we are looking at the beginning of a revolution. There are still some arcs to go, yet, however. Next up, we will meet Lily and the Church will become a piece on the board. The volume ends with a few short scenes, and a short story from Misha’s point of view.

inori-sensei’s story gets better every time I read it. I’m free to pay attention to smaller and smaller details each time. And Aonoshimo-sensei has shown themselves to as deft with big action scenes as they are scenes of domestic joy – i.e., Claire finally getting food she can eat – or beach pinups.  Always, this series is a delight. We’ll be getting Volume 5 in English from Seven Seas in October, so look forward to that.

Ratings:

Art – 9 The fight scenes are quite excellent
Story – 9 It’s starting to get serious
Characters – 9
Yuri – 5
Service – Bathing and bathing suits

I had a thought today – this mostly medieval society has bikinis. Huh.





Soulmate, Volume 3, Review by Laurent Lignon

June 21st, 2023
It is time for us to go back to the story of Qi, a Chinese lesbian teacher whose mind has been switched in time with her past teenage self. Will she then be able to save the woman she loves from the disease that is slowly killing her? This review contains some spoilers for Volume 3 of Soulmate written by Wenzhili and illustrated by Keranbing.
 
“Soulmate” has been released as a webtoon in Mandarin Chinese by Kuaikan Manhua and in English by Tapas/Comic Panda, while the printed version has been published in French by Nazca Éditions.

IN THE PRESENT : Teenage Qi is finally reintegrated in her job as a teacher, a remark from her director pushes her to question the reasons that had led her to practice this profession in the first place. An incident allows her to discover who was the anonymous slanderer who outted her on the school social network, while at the same time discovering why she became a teacher and what price she had to pay for it : in order to have a regular income to help pay for Yuanzi’s medical expenses, she refused a contract to publish her first short story. Finally confronting the slanderer in person helps Teenage Qi realize the extant of her love for Yuanzi and decide to fulfill her dream of becoming a full-time writer with her help

IN THE PAST : Something is wrong. Adult Qi has told Teenage Yuanzi that she was in love with her, yet Yuanzi does not react accordingly to the news. Is something missing, maybe Yuanzi hasn’t fallen in love with her yet? Or perhaps it has something to do with the play their friend Keke is about to produce, a play that Adult Qi knows fully well that Keke’s father didn’t came to watch in her original timeline. To be sure that her own future will change and that she’ll be able to save the life of her loved one, Adult Qi decides to ensure that Keke’s father will be there to see his daughter ‘s first success as a play director.

Well, a lot of things happen during those 326 pages ! The stakes keeps getting higher and it is funny to see Adult Qi acting like an adult while in a teenage body (like when she literally break some would-be intrusive flirting boys in a single sentence). The chapter dedicated to the theatre play is perfectly drawn, showcasing some interesting part of the Chinese culture (the play is an adaptation of the classic tale “Tang Buo and Chow Heung”, which was adapted as movies in 1969 and 1993) and allowing Adult Qi to finally understand what is missing for her to fix everything and go back in her own timeline. When that event finally happen, it is in the most romantic way possible.

As for Teenage Qi, it’s a pleasure to see her mature this way and finally accept who she will become. This is to the point where she thinks she will never go back in the past and decide to carve her own path for the future, reciprocating Yuanzi’s feelings for her and accepting that their love will be short, for Yuanzi cannot be saved now. Unless…

Really, too bad that the gorgeous cover art is spoiling the ending ^-^

The secondary characters are what makes this volume so good, each one getting one or more chapters dedicated to how their own issues impact Qi in both timelines. Perhaps the most interesting one is Xinjue, Teenage Qi’s student who outed her anonymously : we finally learn why she did it, as well as the troubles she has in accepting her own closeted homosexuality. While she ends getting a well-deserved backlash for her actions, I still believe it is perhaps too much a strong one… Yet, this allows the story to be more realistic as this is probably what would befall Xinjue if she had done such acts in the ‘real life’. And I can’t help but to feel some pity for a girl who acted on impulse in trying to get herself loved and ended in losing everything she had.

Luckily, not all is dark and there is also a lot of humor, which helps to de-dramatize the most serious moments (my fave ? The reactions of Adult Yuanzi, desperately wanting to have some love action with Teenage Qi… But unable to pass the block of knowing that, even if stuck in an adult body, it’s a teenage girl completely unexperienced in sexual matters that lives with her)

As said before, you’ll know the end just by looking at the cover and it’s as romantic as you could expect (if not more). Those ladies deserved their happy ending, and it’s all wrapped up simply and with cuddly feelings oozing from every case.

ART : 7 – Lizi WENHZI knows how to draw good looking characters, I’m less of a fan of her super-deformed faces for comic relief but that is never a problem. The background are well drawn, and the colors aren’t too artificial looking despite being computer made.

STORY : 8 – Too bad for the cover art spoiling everything, but all the threads are wrapped up nicely until the end. The bonus chapter doesn’t bring anything new or useful, but is still a nice touch showcasing more how Qi and Yuanzi couple works as adults.

CHARACTER : 9 – Every character is relatable to, even the bastard ones like Keke’s father : we all know people like this, whether they’re good or bad persons. They may be just imaginary characters, yet we all know people who are like them. And we love them more for being that way.

SERVICE : 0 – Even with the few sexual innuendos of Yuanzi really turned on by accidentally seeing the naked body of her lover (barely shown on page).

YURI : 10 – As per the two previous volumes, of course.

OVERALL : I’m a sucker for well written love stories that end well and for well written science-fiction/fantasy : having both in the same manhua is a delight and, while Soulmate doesn’t break new grounds as a general rule, it is well worth your time.

I wish the World could be filled with more people like Qi, Yuanzi and all their accepting friends and families : it would surely be a better place.

In tens of thousands of spaces and times, I will always love you.