Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya, Volume 3 (毎月庭つき大家つき)

May 25th, 2023

Two adult women crouch, playing with Japanese fireworks that make a golden pool of light at their feet, in a dark blue night.Bing! Bing! Bing! We have a winner of the first annual “Adults Having An Important Conversation Like Adults” Award here at Okazu.

Asako is living with her landlord, Miyako. Miyako, a retired extremely famous singer, is a bit of a layabout, but Asako, a manga editor, happily cooks and cleans, and their days pass pleasantly.

Until, in Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya, Volume 3 (毎月庭つき大家つき), Miyako comes to the conclusion that she has fallen in love with Asako. She tries, in horribly awkward and non-intuitive ways to get her interest across, but it doesn’t land. She imagines her birthday will give them an opportunity to get closer, but Asako seems lukewarm about it. Stressed, Miyako calls on her idol friend Ruri and Asako’s friend Hato-san. Sensibly they suggest, y’know, telling Asako how she feels. Hato also tells her that Asako is carrying trauma about birthdays, as it is.

So…Miyako tells Asako how she feels! It was the best adult having a conversation with another adult I have seen in years.

Then they celebrate the hell out of Miyako’s birthday. Now Asako has to figure out how she feels, so she talks to her sister-in-law Kodachi about it, who also offers perfectly sensible advice that helps Asako figure it out. Then she talks to Miyako about it.

This volume was so refreshing in every way. As silly as the initial premise is, we are rooting for Miyako and Asako to find happiness. And also for Ruri and Hato to start dating, because Hato is where all the overblown reactions live in the manga. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 Yodokawa’s faces are on point
Story – 8
Character – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 5 Yuri has arrived!

Overall – 8

I have said before that this kind of real-world slow life is my jam.  I don’t need high school drama right now (or maybe ever again,) I do need adults building relationships. Please just inject this into my veins

I’m glad you’ll be able to read this series, as Monthly in the Garden With My Landlord from Yen press in October. It’s a charming little story, with a slow-building relationship and people you wouldn’t mind knowing. ^_^





Comic Yuri Hime June 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年6月号)

May 22nd, 2023

Two girls in white Japanese school uniforms, with blue collars and skirts stand in front of a window as they discuss something. One has a satisfied smile, as the other looks at her. The text reads "At that moment, you were dazzling." Comic Yuri Hime June 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年6月号) begins with a vastly shifted cover story. What was near-monochrome and pensive looks, now has shifted to color and happy expressions of every day joy. I think Mebachi-sensei’s work here has been quite good. I expect that summer will see more bright smiles, but will autumn and winter chill them? I guess we’ll see.

The first chapter is rather emotional fallout of Shiho’s confession in Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi Wo Utau.” Now Aki has to deal with her own feelings for Yori, urgh. But the festival progresses and SS Girls have a great day. And then they get some shocking news….

This is followed by a critically important chapter of Miman’s  “Watashi no Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!” For the first time in this series, I feel like Sumika and Kanako may be all right. Phew. Kanako even smiles! She’s ready to tell Sumika her story about the time she told Hime-chan how she felt. Yikes.

I am 100% all in on slice-of-life series right now. In fact, I have an article idea floating loose in my head about them. So “Osoto Gohan,” by Haduki is right in my wheelhouse now as our protagonists head out to a campground to spend a relaxing day making a whole roast chicken on a camp stove. ^_^

It’s Shion’s turn to have a crisis of identity in Utatane Yu’s “Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru.” I would love for this series to be licensed, because the art is just lovely, but I wonder how this story of ballroom dancing and teen angst would sell?

The Euclid arc comes to a dramatic climax in “Watashi no Oshi na Akuyaku Reijou.” Claire comes closer to understanding what poverty really means to families. Next up we have the Church arc. Lily will be officially introduced.

This is followed by a short by Yudepan, in which a woman meets a high school girl when they sit near each other most days in the library. This is a rare manga that uses people wearing masks as a normal thing.

On her date with Kaori, Shizuku is set up to face the source of her own trauma, when she and Ichinose-san are sent off together to do an errand. Will they be able to heal their shared wound? Yuama’s “Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata” has got to be heading towards a climax now, surely.

“Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru” by Keyyang, has gone to a rather dismal place, but I am still hoping it will turn around.

And “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkon Shitemeta” by Usui Shi,o gets Rio all sorted in her new job.  While Kurumi is thinking more and more about how she feels about Ruriko.

As I said, last issue, I knew a stronger issue would be on the way.  ^_^ Most of the shorts this time were readable… I’m really just skipping the 18+ series as they aren’t interesting to me at all. I’m not opposed to sex in my Yuri, but when the story is “they have (the same) sex this chapter, too” I get kinda bored.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

The July issue hit shelves in Japan this week, so for one brief second, I am again caught up! Yay me. ^_^





Hoshikuzu Telepath, Volume 1 (星屑テレパス)

May 19th, 2023

Two girls in white Japanese school uniforms hold on to one another in a classroom; the night sky is visible out the windows. I have been meaning to read Hoshikuzu Telepath since 202o, but there were a lot of series to get to first. Now that we are getting an anime of this MangaTime Kirara series, I made some space (heh) in my schedule to read it. I had pretty low expectations, to be honest, since I’m familiar with MangaTime. What I found in Volume 1 surprised me, I’ll be honest.

Umika is a girl with severe social anxiety, to the point of not being able to speak to her classmates. Her one interest is space and aliens. In her heart, she fantasizes about meeting an alien and becoming friends with them. So when Yu, a girl in her class, tells her that she is an alien and has telepathy that allows her to read Umika’s mind when they touch foreheads…everything begins to change.

 The premise was not at all to my taste.  Through the first third of this volume, I was skeptical, maybe even cynical about the story. My main complaint was Umika herself. When the girl seated next to her in class said something banal and reassuring, she failed to even register that the girl was nice to her, in her panic about having to speak. I also believe there is a not-very-fine line between being interested in space and being desperate to talk to aliens. Yu just tromps all over Umika’s overactive boundaries in a way that forced her to stop thinking of only herself, but I found her story hard to credit. How would this sustain even a 13 episode anime?

Then the premise stepped aside for the actual story, and I found myself enjoying the manga much more. Yu and Umika decide to go to space together and to do so, they start gathering people around them with skills. Umika find herself being encouraged (sometimes rather assertively) to speak her mind and when she is rewarded for it, she gains confidence. By the time the volume ends, the plot hasn’t changed but the premise has, very much for the better.  Since the anime is only a few months away, I won’t spoil the big reveal, but I will say that while reading Chapter 1, I was definitely not going to read any more of this series, I may now. It’s only a three-volume series, and if it can surprise me once, it might have more surprises in store.

The art, though, is not a surprise. Like most MangaTime comics, the characters are full-on fetuses with frilly dress-type moe. There’s little regard for spacing in very crowded panels, and a frequent breaking of panel walls (which I quite like) and we’re always too close to blobby moe faces. I always want to pull the camera back. I know the anime will clean this up a little. But expect frequent shouting and “eeeehhhhhh~~~~???” ^_^;

The last question has to be “Is it Yuri?” This manga was all over the Yuri lists when it came out. It’s easy to understand why, as Yu presses her forehead to Umika, reassuring her that she’s heard and understood. It builds almost-instant intimacy and can easily feel like Yuri to people who prefer romance to any other possible relationship. And, again to be fair, I have not yet the rest of the story and maybe their intimacy does develop…but I’m not holding my breath. ^_^ In fact, I’d prefer if they were just able to develop a strong friendship. I’ve been thinking a lot about how not every character needs to be paired up in a romance and in fandoms’ desire for that, we often obscure other kinds of emotional intimacy between characters.  I’m hoping to write an essay about that one day soon. In the meantime, I think I might be looking forward to the anime now!

Ratings:

Art – 6 Moe is not for everyone
Characters – 7
Story – 7 Slow start, but gets stronger when it changes course
Service – “Sexy” pin-ups and poses but the characters are fetuses in frilly dresses, so 6 for trying to have it both ways
Yuri – Ambiguous, with possibility

Overall – 7

For a silly, unsustainable premise, Hoshikuzu Telepath turned out to be a decent story.





Sempai, Oishii desuka? Volume 2 (先輩、美味しいですか?)

May 17th, 2023

A woman with long black hair, wearing a tan blouse and red skirt hugs a woman, wearing gray slack and a white blouse, with her brown hair in a bun, from behind. Huh. It was almost exactly a year ago I reviewed Volume 1 of Mikanuji’s Yuri + food manga. At the time I said, “I can definitely recommend it with some significant reservations.” Today I am looking at Sempai, Oishii Desuka? Volume 2 (先輩、美味しいですか?) and I find that the reservations are mostly the same, and the story is not what I wanted it to be.

To begin with Miho spends the majority of the book wallowing in significant low self-esteem churning over whether Sempai reeaaalllllllllly likes being with her or not because of things other people tell her. When sempai kisses her we are treated to chapters of her worrying what sempai meant by it. Miho gets blasted drunk on non-alcoholic something, which is impossible for me accept and made the final pages of the manga unpalatable. Mori is not free of criticism, but her issue is in a post-COVID world not entirely impossible to understand.

The failure here is simply trying to insert conflict where it just didn’t need to be. It would have been lovely to just have Miho make food with Mori and them enjoy it. Turning up Miho’s “there MUST be a crisis” meter to 1000 – while relatable for those of us who overthink everything – really just drained the enjoyment of two women and food and possible romance.

Which brings me to the Yuri. I noted in Volume 1 that Mori regularly violated Miho’s boundaries. In Volume 2, she still does, and Miho has to be “drunk” to just tell Mori she’d like to kiss, in a creepy and boundary violating way. This is just so unnecessary! They are both adults with an interest in each other, they could just get together. That they don’t is fine, but the way they are portrayed is so…weird…and not healthy. Just have a conversation, ladies.

The end result is, as much as I like Mikanuji’s work, I don’t find this manga all that enjoyable and will stop reading. That said, if you like awkward boundary-pushing, but not really adult behavior in your Yuri, you might find this manga fun. And you’ll learn how to cook as a bonus.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Characters – Miho drops to a 5 here, Mori is a 6
Story – 7
Service – One too many “funny” boundary violations
Yuri – 5, but I’m not convinced they’ll be good for each other

Overall – 7  





Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 4

May 15th, 2023

Two women face us , holding hands. One with long brown hair wearing a brown skirt and white blouse, smiling brightly, shorter woman with short black hair, where pants and a white blouse, smiling gently. "Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon" is written in orange letters, with a chocolate glazed doughnut for the letter O, and a crescent moon just above and to the left of the O. Number 4 in the upper left hand of the page, a squiggle line, the Art & Story by Shio Usui.When Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) landed in summer 2022, I said this about it, “…this was the perfect, most exactly correct ending to this series that we could have hoped for.” Now, in 2023, as I read Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 4, I would not change a word of that. This was the perfect ending for this series. We could not have asked for better.

Hinako is every person who has been measuring themselves against a set of criteria that do not fit at all. Asahi is everyone who is spending their energy on someone else so they don’t have to think about themselves. When they meet each other, their ill-fitting facades begin to crack. Neither of them have ever had the leisure to develop any adult relationships. Asahi, because of her parents death, has kept her one old friend, but been unable (unwilling?) to make others. Hinako’s friendships are – she believes – based upon the construct she had created to pass in society, while she blames her failures to build romantic connections on herself.

This is a lovely, gentle story of lonely people breaking out of the habit of loneliness that they built up as the cornerstones of their lives.

This manga checks off so many of the things that makes  a good manga for me – adult women building different kinds of relationships with the women around them, emotional intimacy of differing kinds with those women and adult women breaking free of the constraints put upon them by society, family and themselves. Joyfully, this manga is also full of adult friends who continue to be friends when their friend basically stops pretending to be someone they cannot be.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 10
Service – 0
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

Asexuals are getting their time in the manga limelight right now, as well – if you were looking for a book about adults understanding themselves better, this should definitely be on your list.

I was *sure* that Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon was a shoo-in for a best Yuri manga of the year when Volume 4 hit, but it has to compete with Birdie Wing and She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat, both of which are so outstanding. That said, this is an excellent manga and you should not miss it!