Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S, Volume 5 (Part 2)

August 8th, 2008

Moving right along into the second half of Volume 5 of Yuri Hime S, we find ourselves wondering what on *earth* is going on in “Minus Literacy,” now that Miharu has left her mistress Yasumi and has wandered off to go into the wide world. Yasumi, Iinchou and the kid dressed like a miko track her down, only to learn that she’s become the “private secretary” for some Yakuza dude. Even as Miharu rebuffs her, Yasumi swears to never give up. You know, for a crappy story, it’s at least a little original. lol

Speaking of crap, Anna has decided that she REALLY likes Elza-oneesama in “Casseopeia Dolce,” but other than in her dreams, she manages to kiss just about everyone else but. She can’t even manage an indirect kiss when the situation offers itself, so we know she’s serious.

In “Sempai ha tokubestu desu” Yuki-chan is so happy that Haruka-sempai will go out with her, but starts to have second thoughts about it when Haruka says that she’s been researching her and knows her favorite foods and where she lives. Yuki starts to avoid Haruka, until her friend stomps on her for only wanting the image of Haruka she has in her head and not the real person. After all, Haruka liked her enough to find out all about her, and what does she know about Haruka? Yuki runs after Haruka to find her crying and apologizes. They walk home together, hand in hand.

“Nanami to Isuzu” is next.

“Present” is my favorite story of the issue. Keiko had been made fun of as a child, so she grew up into the class “bad” girl as a way of acting out. One day by accident, she comes across Haruka, who is blind. As they spend time together, Keiko discovers both her love of potpourri – and Haruka. When she finds out that Haruka is undergoing surgery but only has a 30% chance of recovering her sight, for the first time ever, Keiko prays with sincerity and fervor. She’s there when the bandages come off, but as soon as she knows that Haruka can see, she runs off without a word. Shortly thereafter Haruka tranfers in to Keiko’s school – into her class, in fact – and confronts Keiko, then hugs her and confesses her feelings. She frees Keiko to be herself, so Keiko shares both her true feelings, and her love of potpourri with the rest of the class – to everyone’s delight. It’s a truly lovely story.

Yuu’s inability to control her power has instigated a little test that involves her, Maria and Nagi, in “Otome Kikan Gretel,” but the real story is that Yuu is making pudding for everyone in the dorm. Nagi still has big breasts, there’s lots of tongue in the kissing and the first page is amusingly crammed with egregious double entendres – so much so that I feel like I was watching an episode of Three’s Company. Despite myself, I like this manga. lol

In “Kaichou to Fukukaichou” the Vice President inadvertently makes the President cry when she criticizes her horrible looking lunch. While reading out loud in language class, the Vice President begins to cry at a poignant passage, then runs off to the Infirmary, claiming a stomach ache – even though she knows that everyone will know what the real problem is. The President comes to visit her, and uses the opportunity to tell her a little bit about her home life and herself. As the sun sets outside, the two find themselves growing a little closer for real.

And finally, in “Blue Line” a ghost keeps meeting a girl who seems to know all about her. Little by little she remembers that the girl is her sister and lover, and the two of them were in a plane that crashed. In a coma, Yui, the younger sister, is watched over by Yuria in the hospital and then, every day, she goes to the beach to commune with her spirit. As the story draws to a close, Yui opens her eyes and the sisters are reunited once again.

So, okay, I really thought that this volume really was really catering to bottom feeders with that second story, but along with the usual artists that I enjoy reading, “Present” left me with such a good feeling that it carried right through to my overall impression of this volume. :-) Which makes this the best volume of the series so far.

Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime S, Volume 5 (Part 1)

August 7th, 2008

There’s definitely some good and some bad in Volume 5 of Yuri Hime S. The good gets pretty good, and the bad is – in *my* opinion – quite bad, but for some reason this volume left me feeling like it was the best so far of this Yuri fanboy-focused magazine.

The first story brings us full circle in Kurogane Kenn’s “Konohana Link,” dropping us into the story as transfer student Chieri tries to not be noticed just outside the window as two girls make out inside a classroom. She’s saved by Saori, who is ditching pre-school festival duties to feed a stray dog that comes by the school. In many of the most recent chapters of this story, I kept wondering where the Yuri is. It returns for a brief glimpse here, but I do hope we’re setting up a real story somewhere in all these random vignettes of nothing.

I found the next story, “Love Cubic,” to be tedious at best and replusive at worst and refuse to talk about it.

Yoshitomi Akihito’s distinctive style is a refreshing change from the previous story, and his “Natsu no Ari,” while a little distressing unless you *really* like ants, is not a bad story at all. ^_^;

For the first time, “Flower Flower” didn’t entirely consist of Nina abusing Shu. In fact, they seem to be getting along quite nicely, so Shu’s older sister feels as if she needs to break the accord between them. Nice. Despite that, the biggest challenge Shu faces is how to tell Nina that she is actually female – a concern that comes to a crisis when they suddenly find themselves in the bath room at the same time. Oh Noes!

“Yuru Yuri” is a gag-oriented comic about three friends, two of whom are older than the third, so it’s a moment of great rejoicing when she finally joins them at this school. Yay! The gags are mildly amusing, but there’s no sign of Yuri in any of the first two chapters here, at least. Just three friends.

“Ichiba Chikakute, Toi Futari,” is about a pair of sisters, one of whom is a student, one is a teacher. The teacher is sleeping with other students and her little sister is jealous. But don’t worry, they’ll be together forever.

Hiyori Otsu’s story-telling style suits the next story, “Katakoihime” perfectly. In this story, Ooishi is asked out by a guy, but turns him down by lying and saying there’s someone she likes. She heads out into the rainy season downpour to find Mizuno lying in the rain. Mizuno, who loves the rain because it cheers her up, is in love and Ooishi can tell, because she practically shines. Ooishi finds herself watching Mizuno all the time, so when she puts two and two together she asks Mizuno if the person she loves isn’t their female teacher. Mizuno is embarrassed, but admits that it is. When the news reaches Ooishi that their teacher is getting married, she runs off to find Mizuno. On this bright sunny day, Mizuno starts to cry, so Ooishi runs of to fill a bucket with water, pours it over Mizuno’s head and asks her to cheer up. A great, quirky story about first love.

You may remember that at the end of the last chapter, Arisa had Hinako pinned down to her bed, and had just confessed in “Otome-iro Stay Tuned.” Back at her apartment, Manager Matsurika plays video games and laughs when she receives Tomoe’s email about Arisa and Hinako. But, her attention is turned away when her own lover, VP of Production, Rui comes home. Arisa and Hinako manage to get a little “chuu”ing in, before the alcohol catches up to Arisa and she falls asleep. The next day Hina arrives to fined Tomoe, Arisa and Masturika calmly discussing *her* love life. The story ends as she screams about privacy, dammit.

And “Honey Crush” continues to weave its way through the story of boring ole Madoka and the girl, Kyouko, and the ghost that love her. Kyoko’s ability to see and talk to ghosts is debated in school, with Madoka coming to her rescue, which drives Kyouko to confess her feelings – again. The ghost objects and Kyoko’s battle with unseen forces to an obvious bwah-wah-wahhh~ ends the story.

Pretty chunky volume this time, so I’ll do this in two part, then wrap up a few comments for the overall. So, to be continued in Part 2. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 2 (百合姫 Wildrose)

July 29th, 2008

Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 2, (百合姫 Wildrose) is the second collection of slightly more explicit short stories by authors from Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S. Most of the stories are one-shots, but there is at least one continuation from the previous volume.

In most cases, the stories are set at schools or involve schoolgirls, although there is an ocassional adult to break up the monotony and add a little illegality to the proceedings. lol Mostly the stories are sex as affirmation of yes, we really love each other, which is a nice step forward from sex as experiment into what do girls do together? (I am always honestly boggled at this question. I’ve gotten it – quite earnestly – from both men and woman from a number of nations, and I still don’t have a good answer, because it seems so obvious to me. I guess not though, if one’s idea of sex is limited to one action only. But I digress.)

Since incest, or something close to it, is all the rage right now, there are a number of sisters/onee-sama-imouto/cousins-who-are-close-like-sisters to chose from. (This trend continues into both Yuri Hime and Yuri Hime S, btw. So once again, the LCD wins and I wait through yet another cycle of fetishes that aren’t my thing, until the tide turns and possibly my thing will become more popular. Although…probably not. lol) Chi-Ran’s story refreshingly remains about sex between two people who know nothing whatsoever about one another. Not even each other’s names. ^_^

And Natsuki x Shizuru fans will appreciate that the blatant parody this time is not Marimite, but a faux Shiznat thing that was actually quite nice. If you can imagine Natsuki as the older student, closing in on graduation and Shizuru as her lover/kouhai and add sex, you’ll have a close enough idea about the goings on.

Of course I did not like each story equally, but overall I think I liked this volume more than the previous one. I can’t think of any story that was standout wow, but nothing that made me cry, either. ^_^

Ratings (variable, so everything is averaged):

Art – 6
Stories – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 9
Service – 7

Overall – 7

This book is sort of the middle step between soft Yuri and porn, so if you’ve bemoaned the fact that there’s little in that middle space before it becomes full-blown fluid-spewing hentai, then you’ll probably like this book a lot.





Yuri Manga: Gunjou, Chapter 7

June 27th, 2008

While everyone else in the mangaverse is talking about the July issue of Morning 2 magazine because of the wonderful new manga series by American artist Felipe Smith, *I* want to talk to you about Morning 2 because of the story that’s the main contender for best Yuri Manga of 2008, Gunjou.

This manga is so awesomely dysfunctional that it makes me want to dance around in joy every time I get a new chapter. :-D Chapter 7 was complete and total win. Here’s the quick background: A brunette, who is a straight, married woman – whom I refer to as BN – asks her close friend, a blonde lesbian (BL,) who is in love with her to murder her husband. BL does the murder, and BL and BN are now on the run from the police together. Before you read today’s review, go read my review of Chapter 6, so you can catch up on where we are.

BN is in her room, thinking miserably about how BL wishes she had killed her, rather than her husband. She is clearly missing BL, although she can’t admit that. There is a knock at the door. BN answers it to find BL telling her how lonely she is, and drawing her in for a kiss. They fall to the floor. BN apologizes, saying that she’s got her period, so BL says fine, we’ll do it in the bathroom.

They have raw, totally unsexy, yet completely sexy, sex. It’s nasty, emotionally and physically. It was awesome.

But never once does the emotional brutality these two inflict on one another let up. There is a fabulous scene where, after they had have sex, the blonde pulls out a towel and snaps it, then reaches out to put it around BN’s neck. She, not at all surprisingly, reacts like she’s about to be strangled. But, in one of those random moments of tenderness, BL just makes a big fluffy bow out of the towel. It was so incongruous and out of place, yet strangely fitting and sweet.

In the course of conversation, BN asks what BL looked like when she was killing her husband – what was the look on her face.

They go to bed and sleep a little, but BL gets up and pulls a razor out of BN’s handbag. BN wakes up and they decide to take a bath. BL comments on BN’s bruises. As BN replies, we see the bath from outside the curtain, and hear the scream.

In the final pages, we see the blood running down BN’s arm from the hand that stops the razor blade from cutting her throat. “You’re crying” she says. “Now you know,” BL says, “what I look like when I kill a person.”

Total wow. There is nothing like this manga – how I wish I could make you all read it. It is beyond wonderful. I mean, sure, its awful, but in a good way – “awe full” if you take my meaning.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 3

Overall – 10

So, let other have their “Saint Oniisan” and “Peepo Choo” – I’m the number one fan of Gunjou, and proud of it! This is the perfect Evil Psycho Lesbian story. Best evar, IMHO.





Yuri Manga: Kannazuki no Miko, Volume 1 (English)

June 25th, 2008

Just for fun, you might want to compare my review of the Japanese edition of Kannazuki no Miko from three years ago to this one. I bet at least some things have changed.

Today’s review is brought to you by Ted the Awesome and the word amai. :-)

Amai is an interesting word. It means “sweet” and is used, as one would expect, about pastries and other sweet things. In the same way that we describe someone as “sweet,” in Japanese a “sweet girl” will be amai just like a pastry might be. But amai has other meanings in Japanese as well. Where we would say “you’re too soft on her” or “you spoil him,” the word amai might be used. And there’s amai as in “naive,” which you find used in fight scenes in which the hero is confident about his/her giant robot piloting skills and the bad guy screams “Amai!” as they launch an underhanded, treacherous attack which inevitably fails to win.

So amai is more than just “sweet” as we understand it in English. It implies a kind of naivete which, in a mild case is simply indulging (another person) too much, and in its extremity is a sort of dangerous cluelessness.

This is all to preface this next sentence: In the first volume of Kannazuki no Miko, Himeko is amai.

She is sweet in the conventional sense, and kind and good – but she’s also dangerously naive and dotes on the people around her, giving into their whims without question, to the detriment of their well-being – and her own. As a result, she is forced into the role of victim by both the people she trusts.

Why, one has to ask, if both Souma and Chikane love Himeko so much, do they allow her to be bullied, outcast and victimized instead of stepping up and claiming their friendship publicly? Setting aside for the moment the fact that Kaishaku’s writing skills are total ass, lol, let’s look at this objectively.

If either Chikane or Souma *had* stepped forward and said – get your hands off her, she’s my important friend, okay, maybe the talking behind her back and bullying might not have disappeared, it would have at least been notched down. If BOTH of them had said “Get your hands off my Betty!” the rest of the school would have backed off, and watched the drama play out with immense satisfaction and titillation. But neither does. Although both Souma and Chikane profess to love Himeko, they let her dangle, unprotected, on the edge of a precipice every day – only showing their “true” emotions when they are alone with her.

It seems particularly nasty behavior in the light of their professed desire to “protect” Himeko…when they are the reason she needs protecting in the first place, right?

Basically, both Souma and Chikane are fail. ^_^;

Souma’s fail is slightly more forgivable, because he’s the basic stuttering non-verbal manga boy. Chikane’s fail is quite literally epic, because she *knows* the whole story and isn’t giving Himeko a single piece of information. Ultimately she brutalizes her physically and emotionally, because in her warped view, it’s to “protect” Himeko from knowledge of the situation.

Himeko’s fail is that she is completely, totally amai. She allows the whims of others to take control of her life, she indulges them by not having an opinion of her own, she naively forgives even the basest behavior, and she never once takes an interest in the truth of what is going on. Not really.

The truth is that the the myth cycle the Orochi and the Priestesses are playing out, is quite thin. The story, really, revolves around the love triangle and Himeko’s victimization by herself and the people who profess to love her.

Tokyopop’s team did as good a job with the material as they could. It’s not a good story, nor is it well-drawn, but they made it make as much sense as possible. I applaud them for that. It’s not as easy as they made it look. The original was actually quite nonsensical. ^_^

Whether you like Kannazuki no Miko will depend on a lot of factors, but if you are the kind of person who goes by the equation zOMG Yuri!=Good!, you’ll probably like it lots.  ^_^

Ratings:

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

Overall – 7

Of course, we’re all interested in finding out the fate of the second volume, which is slated for release in about a week or so. I expect that as it’s one of the licensed titles, it’ll see the light of day eventually, if not actually next week. Sadly, some members of the team who made soup out of this stone are no longer with the company, which is a genuine loss.