Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 3 (English)

March 19th, 2007

The fantastic and wacky happenings in Read or Dream, Volume 3 have not been altered from when I originally reviewed the Japanese edition, so please click that link for an overview of plot, character, and random references to Betty Davis…and now that I look at it, Kojak, as well. ^_^

So, as the story hasn’t changed, let’s focus on the reproduction to English. In this and this alone, the volume takes a pretty bad hit. The original has a dust jacket, underneath which is a short story on the cover of the book proper. As there is no dust jacket in this version, that story is reproduced in the book in black and white. Not deadly, but…the lack of color pages means, no cool Paper Sisters mini-poster page, which I very much like, and more importantly, the lovely color reproductions of the novel covers are turned into a totally skanky black and white page which is hard to see. It sort of killed the joke, too. I liked it better when we were allowed to make the connection ourselves between those shockingly shoujo novel covers and the ROD The TV anime series.

Let me try to explain why I feel so strongly about what is, in reality, one stupid color page.

In the anime, the one single thing that fills the entirely of the first 13 episodes is that Yomiko is NOT there. Her absence is a constant presence, if you will.

In the manga, in *this* volume particularly, there is also a person whose non-existence sort of fills up the empty spaces. That person is famous author Sumiregawa Nenene. In this volume, the fact that the beginning of the anime is reproduced almost exactly, but that the author is NOT Nenene pretty much shapes the whole story – and the story to come in the next volume.

So the color page with those novels by Nishizono Haruhi instantly brings to mind the fact that she was the author that debuted right after Nenene, won the same award as Nenene, and constantly pops up in the anime to be a thorn in Nenene’s grumpy side. Those covers also bring up memories of Haruhi’s irritating little sister pimping her sister’s books in Anita and Hisa’s class. In other words, those novel covers are memory markers. They provide a link to key moments and people in the anime. And those novel covers are reproduced in the *beginning* of this volume of manga, where they can ping those memories before you even start reading what will turn out to be a cool alternate universe reading of those very same situations and characters.

In the English edition, those novels are reduced to a comment that these are some novel covers drawn for the anime by the artist for this manga and placed in the back of the book. Thus losing every bit of tension, of anticipation, of memory that they stimulated.

I am just about 100% sure that no one but me cares, but I really think Viz blew it on that. That color page may not have been intended to be the stimulant it was…but I like to think that Japanese artists, writers and publishers *are* that intelligent. Sadly, Viz was not. Boo on them.

Ratings:
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 7 (lots of ass shots…what’s with *that*? Maggie in a suit.)

Overall – 7 (one point off the original score for Viz missing a great opportunity to up the quality of their reproduction and get the point of that page.)

This and Volume 4 make great reading. I really enjoyed the direction the story takes here, and I don’t think it gets weaker in the next volume. Another enjoyable afternoon read.





Yuri Manga: Scape-God

March 17th, 2007

I wasn’t going to review anything today. In fact, I was supposed to be on the way to my sister’s wedding. But the universe decided to cover my immediate area with snow and ice and instead, I am here at an ungodly early hour writing about crap.

So, first, although she will likely never see this, let me wish my sister and her husband a life of joy together. I hope they have as much fun playing house as I do with my wife.

Secondly, since I’m pretty much ready to destroy the world myself after a series of really wretched weeks, I think Scape-God suits my mood perfectly.

This “sci-fi yuri violence action divine romance” begins with two things.  An introduction to the existence of “Extraneous” beings; gods and demiurges and other creatures that inhabit the universe – and who wouldn’t mind destroying all humans, and; a confession of love from one girl to another. The recipient is very apologetic and gentle as she says that she’s honored, but has to refuse – she likes a guy. The confessor walks away from school, disappointed, and walks right into an attack by the “extraneous” god Anubis, and his hordes of vicious dogs.

The girl is knocked over in the ensuing rush and finds that she’s just too scared to move. As an ugly death becomes closer, a ram-horned girl pops up and in a stunning display of power takes out Anubis with a giant sword to the chest.

The human girl, Makihara Midori thanks the creature and, in return offers a place to stay, eat and get refreshed. The creature has no name, but Midori dubs her Hitsuji on account of the horns. Hitsuji immediately makes herself at home with Midori.

Almost immediately new extraneous beings pop up, this time bearing with them the head (sans body) of the girl Midori confessed to earlier.

Midori, who is not particularly convinced that humans *should* be saved, decides that if Hitsuji is determined to save them, they ought to make a buck doing it. So she opens the website “Hitsujiya” and offers Hitsuji’s powers for sale.

In the US, Hitsujiya piques the interest of the President and his three closest advisors. They send operative Blake Newman to gather info. What she finds, mostly, is that both Midori and Hitsuji are slobs, and crappy neighbors. On her last night in Japan, forced to listen to the two of them argue – again – about there being no food, she brings over some stew and offers to share. As it hadn’t escaped Midori’s notice that her neighbor is a hot American blonde, she decides to help herself to a little souvenir of some sex with Blake. The next day, Blake is a little regretful, but glad to be going home, when a plane comes crashing into the terminal of the airport with an “extraneous” on it. She calls Midori, and Hitsuji comes to a very public rescue.

The next two years are filled with fame and fortune for Midori and Hitsuji…and their top employee, Blake Newman. Life is a fun-filled romp of adventure and money, until one day it all comes to a crashing end. The US government took Blake’s info and has crafted a creature that looks like Hitsuji, if she looked 20, not 10, and has all the same abilities. She is the “anti-extraneous” and she takes on Hitsuji in every way, from battling extraneous deities to photo shoots and album recording.

When all the extraneous beings have been eradicated by Hitsuji and Hitsuji, the US version turns on the other, announcing that there’s only one extraneous to go. The battle is cataclysmic, but our Hitsuji prevails.

With no reason to stay, Hitsuji tells Midori that it’s been fun, and they part – but not before Hitsuji give Midori a bottle of godhead to drink, so she can have Hitsuji’s child. Hitsuji also leaves behind her big-ass sword, which Midori carts off as a memento.

Meanwhile, back in the US, the President’s advisors are all chuffed that their mission to remove all extraneous has worked and that both Hitsuji are gone. At which they reveal themselves as the deities Bastet, Nike and Valkyrie. Joke’s on the President, now, isn’t it?

The final chapter takes place 17 years later. Yo, Midori and Hitsuji’s kid (get it?) is gorgeous, princely and is ready to take on the world. And so she will. Her three closest friends reveal themselves as Bastet, Nike and Valkyrie, and Yo wakes up as the ultimate god. She brainwashes the entire plant to be her sheep (get it?) and ultimately commands all the humans to die. Which they begin to do. Until her loving mother drives her father’s big-ass sword through her chest.

They part tearfully, and the manga ends as Hitsuji returns the world to normal and joins Midori for more who-knows-what-adventure.

This is not great literature, by any count, but it’s not as trashy as it starts off. The author clearly had no idea if it was going to continue from chapter to chapter, but once the plot gets started, it was actually quite good. The end was a bit reset-y, but totally palatable.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 7 (non-consensual sex, lolicon, bathing, gratuitous breasts)
Violence – 9

Overall – 8

The violence quotient is quite high, so if large gouts of blood and beheading don’t appeal, you might want to skip it, same if bathing loli scenes, or random drunken misbehaving desperate lesbians bother you. But then, if that’s true, why are you reading Okazu? ^_^





Yuri Anthology: Gokigenyou

March 15th, 2007

After all that nastiness in my ears yesterday, I decided to cleanse my soul with a little Maria-sama ga Miteru today. It’s especially fitting as, after all, Strawberry Panic is not much more than a trashy parody of Marimite.

You may remember that I picked up an inordinate amount of Marimite doujinshi anthologies while in Tokyo this past January (and if you didn’t remember, now you know.) Today’s reviewee, Gokigenyou, Volume 1, is one of those many. I previously reviewed another anthology, Maria’s Wink, Volume 2. which I liked very much. If anything, Gokigenyou is better.

The first several dozen pages of Gokigenyou are 4-koma, four panel comics, each focusing on one of the Rose families of the Lillian Student Council, the Yamayurikai.  Each of the comics are printed on paper that corresponds in color to the Rose in question: i.e., The Chinensis family comics are on red paper, Foetida on yellow and Gigantea on white. It’s a cute touch.

The stories that follow are a wild mish-mosh of gag and romantic stories, leaning towards the gag side. There’s a series of stories about Eriko’s taste in comics which is very amusing, and a howlingly funny and deeply disturbing series of stories in which Noriko is portrayed as the Ichimatsu doll she’s usually described as looking like in the novels. These last are so creepy and so *funny* that opening the book and looking at one panel starts me laughing all over again. Probably my favorite gag in that whole series comes after Yoshino and Yumi have grown a little used to Noriko’s monotone speech and creepy doll face that never moves (except to spin all the way around.) As they walk along with Shimako, Yumi comments pleasantly that Noriko sure looks like an Ichimatsu doll, doesn’t she? Shimako smiles blandly and replies, “Ah, you mean her hair?” It’s quite brilliant and awful. As is the moment that Yumi comes up from behind Noriko and slaps her smartly on the back to say hi, only to have Noriko’s head fall off.  Touko’s only comment, “Be careful, Noriko”, while Yumi disappears to a corner to shiver.

Following these are a series of stories by a circle called Bonnie Bonny that I like very much. They do cute and sweet in a way that doesn’t make me feel icky. (Kinder, gentler moe.) The first of the Bonnie Bonnie stories is one of my personal favorites, Yoshino and Rei and Sachiko and Yumi out on a double date. There’s a bit of out-of-character stuff, but it’s harmless and the story is really very nice, with a high Yuri rating. It also contains an incredibly unusual and interesting moment between Yoshino and Sachiko, who find themselves alone for a bit.

For that story alone, the collection would be worth it, but there’s plenty more than just that. There’s lots of quality time with Sei and her women: Shimako, Youko and Shizuka – and an emotional Shiori retrospective. And there’s another Rei and Yoshino story in which Yoshino wishes that they could become lovers; it ends with them on a date to the beach in winter, and Yoshino thinking that the way they are is fine.

The last story is Yumi thinking about saying goodbye to the former Rosas, and how hard it will be for her to say goodbye to Sachiko when she graduates.

So, again, not heavy duty with the Yuri romance, but what there is is excellent and the gag comics are actually really funny, which is kind of unusual. And the one Bonnie Bonny story more than makes up for the lack of romance, as it’s just chockful of Yuri love-love.

Ratings:

Art – Variable 5-7
Story – Variable – 6-8
Characters – well, duh. 10
Yuri – 6 (with a boost to 8 for the one story)
Service – 2

Overall – 8

What makes it better than Maria’s Wink is just how funny the funny stuff is. Another great way to enjoy a variety of Marimite doujinshi without the time and expense of digging out individual circles and books.





Yuri Manga: Shoujo Bigaku

March 12th, 2007

Sometimes, when I type “Yuri Anime” or “Yuri Manga” in the title of a review, I know I’m being disingenuous. It may be there there is a little Yuri in the series or, that there is none but Yuri fandom insists on seeing some anyway, as we are wont to do. But in the case of Shoujo Bigaku by Chi-Ran, I have no guilt, as it is another 100% yuri collection of stories that ran in Yuri Shimai and Comic Yuri Hime.

Unlike some of the earlier collections, Shoujo Bigaku (which would translate to something like Girls Aesthetic) is a series of mostly unconnected one-shot stories. In each story, the aesthetic, as the title points out, is that of a girls’ world. Most of the stories take place in, or involve, girls at all-girl’s schools. The bulk of the stories involve akogare/idolization that becomes something more, and in two of the stories, one of the principal characters is an actual idol. The aesthetics of being a woman’s woman is actually touched upon in some of these stories, so the title is not out of place. (Also of note, many of the main characters in these stories are women-identified…they do not “hate men” or even dislike them, they are simply much more interested in women.)

The stories are not particularly deep, they all involve bed scenes and some slightly explicit sex. (Can explicit be qualified by “slightly?” I think so, yes. There’s explicit…and then there’s *explicit.* This is the former, not the latter.) Included in this volume are the color pages that ran in the both Yuri magazines – including the adult supplement (what fanfic writers call a “PWP”, a “Plot? What plot?” where the two characters fall into having sex without any context or buildup) which ran in Yuri Shimai.

The stories in this volume are primarily girl-has-already-met-girl-and-has-fallen-in-love, with complicating emotions because of their shared gender. As teen idol Matsuri puts it though, what’s the difference – if you love someone, you love someone. This is the same message we are given when, in a later story, Natsuki is revealed to be a girl after having deceived her girlfriend as to her gender. Only one of the stories contains characters that are a priori self-identified as “lesbian.”

The “mostly” in the “mostly unconnected” above comes from the final few pages, which contain an original piece for the collection. This story involves a girl who embarks upon “Lily’s” bus tour, after having broken up with her girlfriend. To her horror, she is surrounded by nothing by happy girl x girl couples…in fact, they are all the couples from the stories in the book. They cheer her up and cheer her on and in the end, she gets her girl back. Thus making a sort-of connection between the stories…but not really. ^_^

And then we all live happily ever after in this girls’ world, with shoujo bubbles and flowers and candy and stuffed toys and lots of Yuri sex. The End.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – Variable, from 5-7
Yuri – 10
Service – 5 (the aesthetic may be for girls, but this is kind of unavoidable when you’re talking about naked chicks in bed…)

Overall – Not world shaking, but enjoyable at 7

There’s nothing challenging here – the art is pleasant, the characters not much more than names, the endings happy.





Yuricon News, Yuri Manga News

March 6th, 2007

I was so ready to be clever and funny today, but it’s just not happening. Instead, here’s two pieces of important news:

The Yuricon/ALC Publishing website is currently down. This is not a crisis (yet.) Due to Philip Mak’s sudden death, we’re moving servers. There’s a lot I have to do and I’m not entirely sure how to do it all, since Philip setup the whole thing for me originally. I hope to be up and running *soon*.

This does not affect Okazu, of course, except as it sucks away my will to live and leaves me with no energy to write… ;-)

It also does not effect Registration for Yuricon 2007, which is open. Register today for the only 100% yuri of 2007!

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Also in today’s news, Infinity Studios now has a page up for their translation of Iono-sama Fanatics. It looks like they are reproducing the dust jacket, the 4-panel comics on the inner jacket and full-color pages. Happy day!

We heard about this months ago, but how nice to see that they’ll be reproducing the actual thing, instead of a close imitation.

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That’s it for today folks. Tomorrow, if all goes just lovely, I will write a lovely review of the lovely Simoun Drama CD “Ah, Lovely Office Lady Temps”. (No, seriously…that’s the title.)