Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 2 (English)

February 27th, 2007

I originally reviewed the Japanese edition of Read or Dream, Volume 2 in 2004 and found it, like all of the Read or Dream series, amusing, but not deep. This is rather meaningful, because the TV series had been so very deep, and the manga will, in future volumes, head in that direction as well.

But in the meantime, this volume remains fun, slightly silly, comedy action fare with a little dash of romance.

The stories are, of course, the same as they were in the Japanese volume, so none of my comments on those are any different. Please read the 2004 review (linked above) if you want a synopsis of the stories.

The reproduction quality is quite high, sans the color mini-poster included with the Japanese volume. The honorifics have not been added in, as I had hoped they might be, since the current trend in translated manga seems to be more on the side of keeping them.

Like the ROD The TV Anime, the heroine is Anita, a character who annoys me a lot less now than she did at the very beginning of both anime and manga. Since the character has not changed, it must be me. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

For overall goofy fun, this is not the best of the Read or Dream/ROD series, but it’s still an afternoon’s solid entertainment.





Yuri Manga: Steady Beat 2

February 12th, 2007

Steady Beat, Volume 2, is a continuation of the story from Steady Beat, Volume 1 (well, duh…). At the end of my review of the first volume, I wrote, “…I think it might be worth emailing the author Rivkah and asking her to make sure the girl gets the girl, as a preventative measure.”^_^

Well, after reading Volume 2, I went ahead and emailed the author. And here is why.

Volume 2 continues to be “wackiness ensues” as Leah tries to learn the gasp-making truth about her “perfect” sister, Sarai. (I will return to this in a second.)

During the course of this wackiness, we follow Leah as she becomes closer to a possible new love interest, Eli. Who would be extremely fine as a love interest if he weren’t seventy different minorities all rolled into one. That is to say, he *is* a fine love interest and kind of cute, if he shut up once in a while. But, I found it a tad exhausting that he’s a half-Jewish, half-black son of a gay Dad. The only thing he’s missing is being wheelchair bound. And part Native American. It was a just a bit of too much.

Which is pretty much the major weakness of the entire series so far – Rivkah is working so hard at making it celebration of diversity and love, that it comes off as trying a *wee* too hard throughout.

But let us return to the plot – the great mystery of whether Sarai is gay or not.

(Wait a second, something just occurred to me. Isn’t Sarai the Student Council president? Somehow I remember that she is. Score another for the stereotype! Boo-yah! )

…Anyway, when Leah finally catches up to Sarai, the truth appears to be exactly what she thought/feared – her perfect, flawless, overacheiving older sister is in fact…gay! Shock! This wouldn’t be much of a plot if Leah and Sarai didn’t belong to a strict Christian family in the middle of Texas. Except that, as we’re given a travelogue of Austin, we learn that it’s really pretty collegiate and liberal for a Texas city. So we’re back to it not being much of a plot complication…unless it *isn’t* the plot complication. So by the time I finshed the book, because I have a chronic case of “advanced student syndrome” and can’t take things at face value, I broke down and wrote the author.

I can’t tell you what she told me without spoilers. ^_^ Which is it? Do you want to know what she said? Or not? Write in – the majority vote wins.

The series is not bad, really. The art, while manga-informed, has as much in common with Archie as it does with manga. The characters are likeable, if a teeny bit preachy. The tone lacks condescension, but has a bit of that “Look, this is a teen book, for teens, starring a teen!” feel that occasionally inhabits teen lit. But I also think that the tone is a fairly natural one for the author, who seems like a genuinely happy sort of person.  Maybe it’s just that I’m naturally more, erm, pragmatic…or east coastern, or just plain jaded. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 6

If I did have a teen who was in a situation regarding the question of alternative sexuality, I would have no trouble suggesting this book. That having been said, if I was a teen in that situation, I might find the book a bit silly. As I neither have a teen, nor am a teen, it’s a cute enough read for a cold winter’s curl up.





Yuri Anthology: Maria’s Wink, Volume 2

February 7th, 2007

One of the more unique things about Japanese copyright laws is the ability for “parody” works to be made with little to no legal consequence. (Of course, that may change in the future, and a recent article about an exceedingly popular Doreamon doujinshi has an interesting example of what can easily be cited as an abuse of the privilege.)

Maria’s Wink 2, is one of a seemingly endless supply of Yuri doujinshi anthologies in existence for Maria-sama ga Miteru. It is available through Amazon JP (click the cover picture or the title link) and/or various manga and used manga stores.

The advantage to a doujinshi anthology is obvious – it’s a collection of many different stories by many different circles. Like ALC’s Yuri Monogatari series, that means that you’ll get a wide variety of art, story and tone. The other advantage is that an anthology will cost a lot less in time and effort than trying to track down all of the original doujinshi individually.

There are some adult anthologies, but most of the ones I picked up in Tokyo this time were “gag” anthologies. Maria’s Wink has a definite Yuri strain running through the stories, but little more than a kiss here and there. Nonetheless, no Yuri goggles are needed to see that the couples are, indeed, couples.

This particular anthology has selections by some circles I quite like including K-Do, and about three whose names are too long and difficult for me to translate, but whose work I have in doujinshi form and really like. (Nice and specific, there, I know. Very helpful….)

What makes Maria’s Wink a good place to start in terms of Marimite anthologies is that there is really something for everyone. Pretty much every popular pairing has at least one story. The obvious soeur couples, and the most popular non-soeur, like Youko x Sei, Sei x Yumi, Yumi x Touko, all are represented. There’s even a Kanako x Touko story. Kei makes an appearance in a few stories (that’s for you, Sean), as does Yuuki, and even Kashiwagi gets a naked cameo. So, really, there’s something for everyone.

In particular Rei x Yoshino fans will like a few of the stories, which really focus on the explodingly cute aspect of their relationship. There’s also a fairly well-known Rei x Yoshino story called “Treasure” that portrays them both as pirates. It’s based on a single line from one of the novels where Rei thinks that Yoshino’s surgery scar makes her look like a pirate. :-) (I find this story appealing because I too wrote [an incredibly silly] story in which the Yamayurikai and friends are pirates.  ^_^) So, as anthologies go, there’s quite a bit to like about Maria’s Wink.

Ratings are variable, but I don’t think there was a story I disliked or art that skeeved me.

Overall – 8

If you’ve always wanted to dip a toe into the vast pool of Marimite doujinshi, an anthology is a nice way to start in general, and this volume of Maria’s Wink in particular. :-)





Yuri Manga: Simoun, Megami magazine version

February 5th, 2007

I must have been prophetic last week. I said, “no more reviews for a while,” went home and promptly became incredibly ill. I did make it to Jennifer’s great lecture, and I’ll talk about the book sometime in the future, but basically, I’ve been in bed since Saturday afternoon.

I’m doing a review today so you don’t all forget me, but because I’m exhausted, it’s going to be quick. So. I thought I’d review a manga that is *so* thin that I ought to be able to review it in a single sentence:

“What if the characters from Simoun were in a world that looked and functioned suspiciously like Garderobe from Mai Otome?”

And that’s the entire “story.” It’s much more like a parody doujinshi than any kind of “real” version of Simoun.

The Simoun Sybillae are in training at Arcus Prima Academy, in bouts that look suspiciously like those held at Garderobe Academy for potential Otome. They win fame, fortune, money and status, meow, meow, in these battles.

As you can see in the cover picture from chapter 2, the kisses remain, and so do the remersions, although these become attacks used in the 2-on-2 hand-to-hand battles. And Amuria is not dead, she’s just punch-drunk on remersions.

The big on-going gag (and I use that term liberally) is Aeru’s negative reaction to the whole “kissing another girl” thing, as you can see in the above picture. She is so put off by the kiss, that she kisses one of Lodreamon’s ugly dolls instead. The resulting remersion surprises the heck out of the rest of the Sybillae.

I find that I don’t have the first chapter of the five that comprised this story…I’m not sure I care.  ^_^

This is a goofy, service-laden, Lowest Common Denominator parody of Simoun. Like the Drama CD (review of which is forthcoming) if you actually *liked* the depth of the anime, you should ignore this version of the manga with all your might and stick to the Yuri Hime edition of the Simoun manga.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 2
Characters – 5 (What’s left when you take deep characters and render them into their one or two most superficial traits?)
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 5.

It’s crap. But it still made me laugh once or twice. If it had been a doujinshi, instead of an official story, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. As it is, it reads like a ritual diminutizing of the Simoun Sybillae. “Well, we can’t have you gals thinking you’re all that. So, some mostly naked posters and a crappy story’ll put you in yer place. Ay-yup.”





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 7 Part 2

January 29th, 2007

Don’t forget to read the review of Part 1 of Yuri Hime, Volume 7, before you read this review, or you’ll be all confused. ;-)

Part 2 begins with a story by Hakamada Mera (of Saigo no Seifuku fame), a story called “A Giraffe’s Neck is Too Long.” Himeko tells Miki that she likes her over some cake, which gets Miki all flustered. They go to the zoo where Miki is uncommonly critical of the animals, hence the title. Quite suddenly for both Miki and myself, Himeko asks if they can have sex. Miki is stunned into silence. They go home, without Miki answering. Himeko suggests that first, maybe, they ought to kiss. Perplexlingly, the story ends there…. Typically of a Hakamada story, the characters look ten – and like they are wearing carnival heads. I’m just never gonna like the style…

Next up is the most weird chapter of “Tokimieki Mononoke Gakuen” to date. And that’s saying something, as this story has been one weirdness after another. Arare and Pero are on the run from their exceedingly angry classmates, who had all been punished severely by grump ole Rokurokubi-sensei, for their make-up skills – or more properly, Arera’s lack of them. This chapter is not for the faint of heart – if you’re squeamish or easily squicked, you might really want to skip this paragraph. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…! Arera and Pero run off and hide in a beat-up old shack, only to find a cow-girl-demon there, with exceedingly large breasts. Arare and Pero discuss how nice it would be to have really large breasts. They ask the cow-girl what she eats. She tells them that her name is Harami and she eats grass. They try this, but bleah. Harami says that what she really needs is to be milked, and asks Arare to do the honors. And, yes, she does. It’s a scene that is so awful that it’s wonderful, without being good. lol Arare is pretty squicked, but she does the deed, while Pero, not wanting to waste the milk, drinks some. At which her breasts grow enormous. Whee! Arare licks her fingers and voila! She too has gigantic boobs! The two capture some of the milk for their classmates and take their leave of a much relieved Harami. When poor Rokrokubi-sensei comes into class, she comments, and I quote, “It’s a village of breasts.” So awful… ^_^

“Spicy Sweets” was a really nice -and different – story. Yuu and Aki live together. Aki is a high school student who wants to be a baker, and Yuu…well, she has money, that’s for sure, but where does it all come from? Aki heads off for school, while Yuu lazes around, until the phone rings and she freaks. She rushes off to Aki’s school to get her, driving a high-end sports car and once Aki’s inside, she screams off, talking craziness about how they have to leave Japan – NOW. Aki, unsurprisingly, is confused. She convinces Yuu to take her home, where the source of Yuu’s anxiety is revealed as…her mother. It becomes instantly obvious that Yuu is, in fact the daughter of an old, powerful Yakuza family, and they’ve had enough of her nonsense. Aki stands up for Yuu, and we get a flashback of how they met when Yuu had originally run away from home. Yuu stands up for herself and her mother backs down. We leave the two of them to some private love-love and cake. For not being another “two schoolgirls decide they love one another” story, it’s worth it – but the art is interesting, too and the non-linear structure of the story works really well with the art. I hope we’ll see more of Neko Natsu in future issues.

More color pages reviewing a yuri-flavored game I’ll never play. lol “Katahane” art has been popping up for a few weeks on yuri image boards. This was followed by a “other yuri stuff” page with a quickie mention of, among other things, the movie Love My Life which I reviewed last week.

The Yurim fairy tale is “Little Red Riding Hood” this time with a sexy grandmother, sexy wolf and sexy hunter. No way to lose, is there?

The next, and final chapter of the second arc of “Hatsukoi Shimai” just about made the whole magazine for me. As I’ve mentioned several times, this arc has differed considerably from the original “Touko-sensei appears” version in the second Koi Shimai Drama CD. In particular, the end of that CD made me nuts, as Haruna and Chika lay in bed together (I grit my teeth as I type this) holding hands. UGH. Ughughugh.

This time, Chika runs out, not into the dark night as in the Drama CD, but into the rain, to look for the beaded ring that Haruna gave her. In this version Touko-sensei saves the day by returning it to Haruna, who slips it onto Chika’s left-hand ring finger – and don’t think for a second that they don’t notice. Chika practically explodes on contact. Haruna also confesses that the reason she was so standoffish to Chika, was that when she was a first year, she had a sempai that she liked, who was always lovey-dovey in private, but very cold in public. She saw herself in Chika and automatically tried to push her away. Meanwhile, Touko gets Akiho to admit how jealous she was of Chika and Haruna. Akiho ends up crying in Touko’s arms, not that Touko seems to mind, mind you. Touko does tell Akiho of her experience in school, with a girl she loved but never told, and Akiho still thinks she’s full of it. They do not, however, get together…yet. Back in Chika-Haruna world, they have arrived at Haruna’s secret place behind the school. The rain has stopped, the sun is coming out. Chika pulls out the ring she made and puts it on Haruna’s left-hand ring finger. And…they…kiss! Can you believe it? I was so happy. Then, just to make my joy almost complete (Touko not get Akiho, Erica still not 100% happy) Haruna FINALLY tells Chika she loves her. Finally. It’s been what, three years since that first Drama CD??? Grrr. But as an end to that arc – thumbs up. And more to come for the next issue, so there is still hope for Touko and Akiho. ^_^

Mori Natsuko has solid advice for the same three problems in her “Yuri Doujo” column.

Chi-Ran has two women who have sex! I know, you’re shocked. This time it’s a cute, little girl alien who has adopted a cute, not-so-little human. When her pet human shows some natural reluctance at sexing up a child, alien girl gets all grown up, special. The next morning she’s back to being little and, assumably, cute.

Last up is a gorgeous piece by Morishima Akiko called “Sakura-hime Hana Fubuki,” which, if you read “Ichigo-hime” in Yuri Monogatari 4, will be quite familiar. Unlike dashing and daring Ichigo-hime, who protects commoner Sakura, in this case Sakura-hime is in love with her protector Fubuki, but ultimately Fubuki returns to the flower petals that she is, while Sakura sits under the tree she’s named after and let’s the flower petals fall (Hana Fubuki). It’s a bittersweet story, beautifully drawn, as always.

Doujinshi reviews, fan letters and the usual bundle of ads brings us to the final get on this issue of Yuri Hime. A page of Yuri Hime stickers! Yes, you’re very own stickers of Ran and Julia, Ryou and Saeki, Chika, Haruna, Akiho, Letty Tsumugi, Chi-Ran characters and bunch more. I love stickers. :-D How much more do I love rare(ish) stickers of Ran and Julia….heh heh heh. I’m almost thinking of buying a few more copies of the magazine, just to have extra stickers. ^_^

So, there you have it. Yuri Hime 7, some of the best, some of the weirdest, some new, some old, and something for everyone.