Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Catch These Hands, Volume 4

May 7th, 2023

Two women picnicking in a park, one of them tries to keep food away from a jumping dog.Decades ago, I was doing a number of community-centered activities, and I noticed that people who came into community spaces often had no idea how to act. In some cases, they were ND, but in many cases, it was people who came to that community with a focus that was important to them and no real interest in other people. For instance, we had a number of events where people with food limitations would walk into the space and before saying “Hello,” they would look around, ready to be angry and say, “Is there anything I can eat here?” I really sympathized with that, having grown up with food (and other) allergies that other people ignored. So, I took it upon myself to greet people at events and point out amenities, facilities, food options and restinq/quiet places. Which everyone who knew me, found hilarious, as there are few people who care less about other people than myself. ^_^

All this is to say that there are a lot of people who are faking their way through social interactions – including me. ^_^ I ask myself what the extroverts around me might do, if I want to social, or I huddle in a corner, if I don’t.

Takebe and Soramori have both hit a wall on how to social. As young people, their interactions were competitive and physically violent. Now that they like one another…they have no idea how to act.

In Catch These Hands, Volume 4, they have hit the limit of faking it, and have to overcome the final hurdle between them – actually having a conversation. It’s fraught. Even between pointless interruptions and  Rube Goldberg complications, they manage to learn a little bit about each other and finally have that last battle between them where they are honest with one another. It’s awkward and lovely and I wanted to grab them both and give them hugs for doing it.

The lesson of this volume is – what you are thinking people think about you is probably completely untrue. Stop assuming. When Soramori and Takebe stop assuming, the world suddenly becomes a brighter place for them.

Amanda Haley’s translation and Bianca Pistillo’s lettering, were fantastic. It’s clean, easy to read and gets the gruffness and awkwardness across beautifully. I can also thank Jacquelyn Li and Carl Li for their editorial work, and Wendy Chan for the design. Gimme those credits, Yen! Everyone deserves a credit. Nice job by the Yen team. So glad we got this fun little manga series.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

Murata-sensei really sticks the landing here.

This series was goofy and relatable (despite the fact that I was never a gang girl. Well…once, for a day, but that’s a silly story) and I recommend it for being something you can just relax and enjoy.





Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 4 ( 雨夜の月)

May 7th, 2023

Two young women appear to be wrestling and laughing on a sofa in a room with sound-proofing, a piano, and boxes of books.Well, wow. A whole lot of story happened in this volume. First, Saki finds Kanon’s former best friend – the one Kanon feel betrayed her – and learns the whole story.  It was pretty heart-rending, with a strong element of children being forced to take on adult responsibilities without money, time or ability. Saki’s reaction may change a lot of things, because she sees both sides and really understands what happened in a way that Kanon could not. She then assures the other girl that she was really trying to be a good person – something she had never considered and with no one to tell her, she believed she was the bad guy.

Saki and Kanon’s days change rapidly as the school festival becomes the talk of the class. Kanon is encouraged to write a story for the upcoming short story contest and Saki is tasked with creating an arrangement of music for the chorus. The song she picks is surprisingly profound. But in doing so, the classmate she was paired with – who seems to carry some kind of grudge again Kanon  – stops coming to school completely. I feel another systemic failure by adults coming on.

But last and not at all least, Kanon decides that she’d actually like to sing with her class, rather than just lip sync and enlists her mother to at least give a fair review. She’ll need work.

The story here is that both Saki and Kanon are allowing new things into their lives and they have each other to thank. Kanon, especially, is taking Saki’s advice and pulling down the walls around her, learning to take risks, and in doing so…has come to realize how important Saki is to her.

At this point, whether Saki and Kanon become a couple is entirely irrelevant to me. What I keep coming back for is a story of two girls forming a friendship that makes space for other people and new challenges and support for each other.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 4

Overall – 9

The first volume of The Moon On A Rainy Night will release in English on my and Guest Reviewer Matt’s  birthday, so I am declaring it an official Okazu event! Grab your copy, read it and come by here on or around Sept. 5, when I do a review and drop your review of that fantastic first volume in the comments! Depending on how I feel, there may be prizes. I’m super excited than Kuzushiro-sensei is getting a print series here in English at last and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.





Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 4, Guest Review by Sandy F

May 3rd, 2023

Two women face us: One with medium brown hair and heterochromia hold a rifle, the other with long blonde hair holds a semi-transparent left hand out towards us.It’s Guest Review Wednesday and today we welcome back Sandy Ferguson with his enthusiastic continuing look at the Otherside Picnic manga series. Share your kind words in the comments and let’s snuggle in for some Yuri weirdnesses. ^_^

The manga edition of Otherside Picnic, Volume 4 consists mainly of the conclusion of the Time, Space, Man story with an introduction to The Kisaragi Station Marines Rescue Operation Story. There is also a bonus short story where we listen to Kozakura as she deals with being involved in the dumpster fire that is Sorawo and Toriko trying to figure out what is going on between them.

For the most part the action centres around the misadventures of Sorawo and Kozakura as they search for Toriko in the Otherside.  Though on the surface it may seem like a buddy comedy, we are shown Kozakura’s anger of being dragged into this situation.

There is lot to explore in this volume.  We are given quite a bit of background information about Sorawo and Toriko.  We are given some background about Satsuki and her involvement with Toriko and Kozakura.  And there are the complexities of the various relationships between all of people.

And then to complicate matters more, there are the musings on the Otherside itself and the functions of the various entities that exist within the Otherside and in between.  We are invited to explore the possibility that the Otherside is trying to establish a mode of contact with our world, if so, what does that look like?

And we are reminded of how the Otherside can pull people into its reality, illustrated when Sorawo finally reaches Toriko, as scene that gives me the chills when I reflect on it.

One of the reasons I enjoy Otherside Picnic so much is its exploration of trauma and its consequences.  In this volume we are introduced to the traumas that shaped the lives of both Sorawo and Toriko, the traumas that as Sorawo says have put holes in both her and Toriko.  And how these traumas shape the nature of the relationship that Sorawo and Toriko have with one another, with Sorawo struggling to make sense of what is happening to her through allowing Toriko to become part of her life.

Sorawo’s own tale of trauma is particularly harrowing.  In a series that explores the otherworldly horrors of the Otherside vividly, here we also encounter the horrors of our own world as Sorawo shares with Kozakura the events of her life, describing an account of the terrible abuse she endured.  Yet Sorawo does so in such a way that it sounds like she is describing a trip to the shops, “not really much of a story” much to Kozakura’s shock.

The artwork as always does a wonderful job of evoking the wonders and terrors of the Otherside, with a gorgeous front cover and some good colour images inside. One thing about the manga’s art I appreciated is how it sticks to the tone of the novels as opposed to the anime.  One scene comes to mind where in the manga Toriko is depicted in regular expedition gear as opposed to the anime where she is depicted in a Halloween version of a bride of Christ outfit.

All in all, a great read, sometimes a bit exhausting with the odd moment of whiplash as we go from one intense subject to something quite different, which I think helps to give us a sense of the disorientating nature of the Otherside!

Ratings:

Story: 9
Character: 9
Service: 3
Yuri: 6, we are getting there!

Overall: 9

Erica here: I agree that the manga art really “gets” the LNs. I’ve begun thinking of the anime as the Woody Allen Casino Royale, as compared with the manga’s Daniel Craig version. ^_^; Thanks so much for the review!

Volume 5 will be hitting shelves in June.





My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 6 Guest Review by Luce

April 18th, 2023

Welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu. Today’s review is by veteran guest reviewer Luce!

In this sixth volume of My Idol Sits The Next Desk Over, Sakiko finds out the results of her photo competition and reveals the motivations for wanting to be an official photographer of Spring Shine to Chihiro. Chihiro and Maaya (the latter somewhat begrudgingly) make a surprise cake for Sakiko. Sakiko comes up with an idea for the school festival – an idol cafe! Complete with pretend groups. Maaya makes a friend – sort of… Finally, after a shake up with Spring Shine, Chihiro is troubled, Maaya comes clean, and Sakiko feels like she can’t say the things she ought to as a friend while also being a fan, upsetting Chihiro in the process.

These volumes always feel like there is a lot going on, but they’re not particularly longer than other manga; they just seem to have a succinct story-telling style which keeps the pace of the story fluid. This volume stretches over several months, and yet I don’t feel like it’s unduly skipping sections or skimping on the emotion. It doesn’t dwell on anything too long, but not in an erratic way.

The idol cafe was a genius idea, and although I’m sure it’s not completely new, really made the school festival arc memorable. I’m glad the mangaka decided to change up the usual ‘haunted house/maid cafe’ tropes we usually get – it’s even cuter to see Chihiro teaching them the routine. I’m sure that some classes are probably putting this into action in Japan! Plus, when one of Sakiko’s group (the Masked Group, since they’re quite shy) feels ill on the day, Chihiro steps in to cover. It’s adorable. Also the face Maaya makes when she realises that Sakiko is getting idol lessons off their idol is hilarious.

Maaya’s new ‘friend’ – in so much as Motoyama befriends an apathetic Maaya – seems a little thrown in there initially, but I like her, her bluntness is quite refreshing. She likes Maaya for just putting up with her, even getting disappointed when she realises that Maaya puts a front on for Chihiro, and it helps that her bluntness isn’t mean, like Maaya’s can be – as she says, she just has no filter. She also helps serve a role – an impartial person, not blinded by love for Chihiro as an idol, able to make comments without being pulled either way like Sakiko and Maaya.

The end of the volume comes with two big emotional hits: Maaya coming clean about her long history as a fan prior to meeting Chihiro at school, and Sakiko feeling guilty about keeping Maaya’s secrets from Chihiro. I’m not quite sure it’s a love confession when Maaya tells Chihiro, but it sure feels like one in some ways. She’s come a long way from the start of the series, even admitting that she’s done wrong by other fans and Sakiko. The volume finishes on a whole page panel of Chihiro that stuck in my mind such that I went back to look at it. The art is perfect for an idol manga, but it can sure hit the emotional sections too.

In a volume that goes from cute to funny, adorable to heartwarming, it finishes on very much an emotional cliffhanger. I’m very eager to see where they go from here – Maaya can’t avoid Chihiro forever, Sakiko’s despondency has seriously hurt Chihiro in her hour of need, and the future of Spring Shine seems uncertain.

Story – 9
Art – 9
Yuri – 7? It seems fairly certain that Maaya likes Chihiro a lot, although whether that’s as a fan or a person seems muddled, likely on purpose. I doubt even Maaya knows.
Service – 0
Overall – I personally really enjoyed this volume, so 10.

I feel like this is an idol manga that doesn’t idolise idols, and I’m really enjoying it. I only wish they were releasing it in physical, as I love the art and story. Kodansha’s store says Volume 7 (potentially the last) is coming out in May!

Erica here: Thank you so much for keeping us up to date on this series, Luce. I look forward to reading (about) the climax. ^_^





She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2

April 13th, 2023

Hi all, I am back with my first review since falling ill and I hope you’ll all keep supporting me and Okazu, as I have a LOT of new stuff to talk about this month. I’ll do my best to develop some kind of a schedule again, as I have the energy!

To get back into the swing of things, I really wanted to talk about She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2 by Sakaomi Yuzaki. I’ve been singing the praises of this series since I first read it last year. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “Nomoto and Kasuga playing house is my new hygge.” And that’s pretty much the point of this story. These two women free each other up to find a life for themselves that suit them in a way that nothing they’d been offered by family or society ever had.

This really comes home as Nomoto once again falls ill and is pummeled with feelings of failure and being a disappointment to her family. Once again, Kasuga comes to the rescue, but this time, Nomoto allows herself permission to “like” the other woman, a huge step forward. And she learns just enough about Kasuga to understand her appetite is it’s own story. Each woman begins to carve out a place for the other in a wholesome and supportive way. It’s inspiring and adorable…and I cannot get enough of it.

Caleb Cook’s translation  is outstanding. Sensitive, where it needs to be, light-hearted where it can be, it allows us to really feel a full range of adult emotional experiences.

In between emotional revelations, this volume is laugh-out-loud funny, as they Netzflitz and chill. They make classic home recipes and share special holiday treats. All I can say is that this is a manga I needed in my life. I’m sure I am preaching to the choir here, but if you have not picked this series up – do! Thanks Yen for giving us a fantastic rendition of this fantastic manga!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Still saying that the food here are the money shots
Yuri – Let’s edge it up to 4, now that we know Nomoto is in like.
Food – 9 It all look so good. What the what, I could make a fruit sandwich!

Overall – 9

I cannot be the only person who checks out the color images of what they shopped for, surely? I know I’m not the only person who loves visiting food stores in other countries. ^_^