Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Aria , Volume 9

October 12th, 2006

Aria is one of those series that, despite logic and the evidence of our eyes, there’s a general sense of “Yuri” about it. Of course the fact that the main characters are all women helps, and the fact that Yuri fans often wear finely honed Yuri goggles set on high adds something to the mix. The inability of the average fan to see two or more women together and not assume a lesbian pile-up pretty much guarantees this series is a fixture on Yuri lists…even when there’s no actual “proof.” (By which I mean Alicia never reaches over and say, kisses Akira, much as I’d like to see that.)

Nevertheless, I, like so many other loser fans, read this series as totally Yuri. ^_^ Volume 9 kicks that teeny little niggling sense of Yuri-ness into what, for this series, is high gear.

For readers unfamiliar with Aria, the story follows three gondoliers-in-training on a terraformed Mars, now known as Aqua, in a recreated New Venice. (Unlike the real Venice in which only men can become gondoliers, in this Neo Venezia, the large majority are women.) Aria follows, in particular, Mizunashi Akari who is an immigrant from Earth, as she trains to become a skilled “undine.” If you dig around here on Okazu, you’ll turn up reviews of both seasons of the Aria anime, and several reviews of earlier volumes of the manga.

Volume 9 has had several chapters turned into anime for the second series, Aria the Natural. They are as cute, delightful, fun, etc, etc, as the manga, only I always prefer the manga. Why is that, I wonder?

Because the chapters in Volume 9 are one-shot stories, not part of a continuous narrative, I’ll focus on the two that are more Yuri.

The second chapter features popular couple Alice and her doofy sempai Athena (Pronounced Ah-teh-na). Alice, who is still in middle school and therefore quite young to be a undine-in-training, is walking home from school in a manner popular with children throughout history- she’s keeping to shadows only. ^_^  She almost blows it, only to be saved timely from falling out of the safety of a shadow by Athena-sempai. Alice reacts with her natural cute tsundere grumpiness, but when faced with an extremely long stretch of sun, gives in and uses Athena’s shadow to continue the game. This brings their faces very close. Alice reacts to this, and Athena’s affirmation that she is Alice’s ally with embarrassment.

Now, this may not seem like much, but the desperate Alice x Athena fans will point to this scene and with shrill voice say, “See? See?” Others, less obsessed with the need to pair them up will simply shrug and say “cute.” You decide which it is for yourself.

More interesting to me was the revelation that Akira *does* have an inner butch, something we Yuri fans (particularly those of us who are butches) knew right off. In the very next chapter we (and Akari) learn that Akira, Alicia, Al, Akatsuki and Woody have known each other since childhood. In the course of a flashback that shows us that none of them have changed much at all since then, we get to see little Akira in shorts, boy’s shirt and the obligatory sideways baseball cap, accompanied by uber-femme Alicia. Encouraged by Alicia, Akira out-boys the boys, but is a gracious victor. Do they look like a typical little kid babydyke couple? Yes, yes they do. And we know that Akira’s still a favorite with the ladies, so apparently, you can’t take the butch out of the girl, no matter how long she grows her hair.

While we’re dealing with sempai/kouhai relationships, there’s also a really nice chapter where Aika has to deal with the fact that someone in their company is trash-talking about Akira. As one of the three most popular and famous undine, Akira explains, it’s something that she just has to deal with. But it was awfully sweet of Aika to get so upset – and a nice view of Aika and Akari’s relationship when they aren’t banging heads.

Also notable, although not at all Yuri, we learn how Alicia met the cat that became Aria-shachou and how she joined Aria.

As is usual in Aria, the stories are slice-of-life moments, no earth-shattering drama, but quiet sweet moments to be savored slowly and in a relaxed manner…much like the espresso on San Marco plaza. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Despite the fact that Alicia will never lean over and kiss Akira, Aria remains a genuine pleasure. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Hayate x Blade, Volume 5

October 2nd, 2006

For those readers with short attention spans, or whose reading comprehension has been affected by too many hours on irc here is a short review of Hayate x Blade (aka Hayate Cross Blade) Volume 5:

Hitsugi x Shizuku = win.

Now, for the rest of you, here’s the long version. ^_^

We left off in Volume 4 just at the beginning of the ultimate hoshitori battle – Student Council members Minori and Kureha have challenged School Chairman Hitsugi and her partner Shizuku. The winners to become (or remain) the President of the Student Council and the losers to drop an entire rank and lose their place on the council altogether. Minori and Kureha have been working on what they believe are the keys to defeating Hitsugi.

What they don’t count on is that for every measure of insane cool Hitsugi brings to any situation, she brings three measures of cheesy and effed up. Shizuku and Hitsugi stolidly defend against the oncoming attacks until they have the measure of their opponents, and Hitsugi cues up some cheeseball BGM – the boy band Hikari GENJI (光GENJI) singing Glass no Juudai (ガラスの十代) while on rollerskates – and they’re off! Hitsugi dances with her opponent; not because she can’t defeat her instantly, but because she’s a FREAK and wants to wait to the climax of the music. ^_^ At the right moment, Hitsugi and Shizuku make their moves.

Kureha and Minori are surprised to note that their stars didn’t make any noise when hit, and are even more surprised to find that their white uniforms have now turned black, signalling their defeat and loss of rank. (Hitsugi fan and hanger-on Tatewaki explains that material in their uniforms were made by the Amachi Corp., Histugi’s family’s company. They are made with built-in nanotechnology that responds to the loss with this significant and symbolic change of color.)

They take their loss gracefully, but not so the penalty game Hitsugi enforces – running 30 laps of a four kilometer course. Kureha, as the challenger, is ready to do it alone, but Minori insists on sharing the pain. As shinyuu they draw closer together, everyone says “awwww”, but they still have to finish the laps. 

Meanwhile Hayate continues to train extra hard so as to be able to rank up with Ayana. They discuss how, eventually, they’re going to have to fight Yukari, Ayana’s former shinyuu. In a rare moment of emotional vulnerability, Ayana confesses that she feels alot of guilt about that relationship. In her last fight with Yukari as her partner, she went berserk. Although she doesn’t remember doing it, she injured Yukari quite badly. The reason, we learn, that Yukari wears her hair over her left eye is to conceal a scar that runs down from the forehead to cheek, assumably caused by Ayana’s sword. Hayate tells Ayana that she doesn’t want to know about the things that make Ayana sad – she wants to know about the things that makes Ayana happy.

The school festival approaches, Hitsugi tells the student body – although she herself had forgotten until just yesterday. She arbitrarily decides that all events must be done in maid costumes. Jun has been tasked with making the costumes for her class, so you can bet that Ayana’s costume is wildly inappropriate for anyone to wear in public. ^_^ Jun gets a lot of mileage and physical abuse this volume, because the whole maid costume thing is entirely too appealing for her to behave.

The book ends with two omake stories – one, the backstory for the Hayate x Blade Drama CD. That is, Hitsugi was bored one day and came up with the idea. Wackiness ensues as Jun tries her best to encourage Ayana’s innate sexiness with wildly inappropriate script suggestions.

…thinking about it, Jun loses a lot of blood this volume. ^_^

The second backstory is a gag about the school suggestion box. Since so many of the complaints are regarding Jun’s perviness, Ayana’s loud and violent expressions of anger and Hayate’s habit of talking while she eats and spewing food around, the next day finds *four* suggestion boxes, three of them labeled “Kuga” (Jun), “Mudou” (Ayana) and “Kurogane eating” (Hayate.)

Next volume the school festival begins and chaos ensues!! With maid costumes!

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 7 (Jun’s a lousy role model, but undeniably lesbian. Hitsugi x Shizuku as I said, equals win. They get winner with each volume.)
Service – 3

Overall – 9

 





Yuri Manga:Yokohama Shopping Log Volume 14

September 21st, 2006

It is not without some melancholy that I write this entry. By doing so I am writing the obituary of one of the finest manga series I’ve ever read – in a sense, acknowledging the passing of an old friend.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Yokohama Shopping Log to English-speaking fans) is over. I know quite a few people who got all teary-eyed as they read the final chapter. I have no intention of telling you whether I am one of them or not. ^_^

For those of you unfamiliar with Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (you poor, bereft creatures you), here is the basic idea of the story. In a near future, global weather patterns have shifted slightly, and time and tide have altered the shape of the map. In a far off-section of Musashino, an android named Alpha is left behind by her owner, to make her own life. She runs a small coffee shop off the beaten track to nowhere. In the course of the next 14 volumes, Alpha meets and befriends all sorts of people, and a few other androids, as she experiences life’s many moments of joy and sadness.

As I mentioned in my overview of the series, and in my review of Volume 12, this is not a story with loads of action or loads of…well, anything really. It’s a quiet, simple, sweet, slice-of-life series about a gun totin’ lesbian android. ^_^

Of the people and androids Alpha meets, two are rather key to this above statement. In the very beginning of the series, we and Alpha meet Kokone, who works for a messenger service. Alpha and Kokone become very close and it becomes quite obvious to everyone – even Kokone’s human coworkers – that Kokone has fallen for Alpha. It is also apparent to Maruko, another android who has a thing for Kokone. Maruko loses, because Kokone’s heart is Alpha’s.

This final volume of the manga is full of good-byes. Time is spent with old friends; Maki and Takahiro are adults and out in the world, but not gone from Alpha’s life. Relaxing days are filled with doing nothing particular, and a few key special moments. Time is the only pressure we feel, as the world keeps slowing down, the shifting sands continue to obscure the roads, fewer people populate the towns, and more and more the only “people” to enjoy the world are the androids humans created to keep them company.

It is a twilight world, a world growing increasing silent and slow, but no less beautiful.

Alpha moves through life with joy, doing the things she has done since the very beginning of the series – visiting Yokohama to buy supplies for the shop, swimming, riding on her scooter. Although she cannot age, there is no doubt at all that she has changed from the first few volumes, when her owner was still a presence in her life, and a person for whose return she waited. She may not have aged, but she has most definitely matured.

Which brings me to what I think was the hardest chapter of the entire series to read. Alpha meets up with the doctor, an older woman who had originally met Alpha after she had been hit by lightning. Alpha and the sensei had become quite close through the series. In this volume they meet for what may well be the last time. The chapter, to me, expresses everything beautiful and sorrowful about the series as a whole. No matter how much we may wish to, we simply can’t stay in the same place forever.

The last chapter was, for most of the yuri fans of this series, crucial. We waited, quite breathlessly (apart from the sobs and sniffs) to see if it would end as we hoped, as we dreamed. It is my pleasure to report that…it does.

Do not expect high drama. Expect a quiet, soft moment that says everything.

And expect Kokone and Alpha to move forward into the future, together.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 9





Yuri Manga: Voiceful

September 13th, 2006

I really, really like Voiceful by nawoko.

This was not originally so, when the first nawoko stories ran in the then Yuri Shimai magazine. I found them a little too vaguely Yuri-ish, and had to turn the Yuri googles up and stare hard to really get any vibe from them. I didn’t object to the art – or the stories, really – but the fact that they fed in, IMHO, to the idea that any story with two women standing next to one another must therefore be Yuri.

But my opinion changed when nawoko’s story “Voice” ran in Yuri Hime. When it became a series, “Voiceful”, I liked it even better. And now, I’m thrilled to have it, and the other nawoko stories as a collected volume. Together, they all work much better than they do as stand-alones.

One of the common threads in nawoko’s work is music. It is music that ties these stories together, even more than intense emotional connections between women – which also stand out more in the collected volume, than they did as separate pieces.

“Voiceful,” the title series, is the story of shut-in Kanae (right on the cover above) and her transformation as she accidentally runs into, and subsequently befriends, her “goddess,” an independent singer who releases her music on the internet, Hina (left on the cover above). This story of two emotionally damaged women who find strength to make each other strong – and thus become strong for themseleves – is really, really nice.

The other stories in the collection also show people from the point of view of their weaknesses, but not in any gruesomely obnoxious way. Most of the stories are quiet, little slice-of-life pieces in which fear and hope and music intertwine to make a melody of life…and sometimes love.

Ratings:

Art – a loose, scratchy sort of nice – 6
Story – stronger as a sum of their parts, but nothing objectionable in any case – 7
Characters – ranging from an annoying 4 to a lovely 8 depending
Yuri – 6
Service – an underwear shot for the very, VERY desperate – 2

Overall – a pleasant, not earthshaking 6

Another solidly put together volume from Ichijinsha, with extra color page not included with any of the original stories.





Yuri Manga:Ameriro Koucha Kandan stories

September 5th, 2006

I’m cheating today. This is not a collection of manga I’m writing about, it’s two different stories in four different places, and two are cameos, which all happen to star the same characters. Because it *will* be a new series starting in the next Comic Yuri Hime magazine  I thought it would be fun to tell you the story as it exists currently.

The story in question tells of the women of the Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan (飴色紅茶館歓談). It begins in the book pictured above, [es] Eternal Sisters 2 anthology. On the cover are the two principles of the story, Seriho (left) and Sarasa (right.) In the ES collection, we meet Seriho who is the owner of the Ameiro Kouchakan, (loosely, the Amber Tea Pavilion.) Sarasa is a local high school student who spends an inordinate amount of time at the cafe, and asks, quite cutely if she can just work there. But Sarasa’s motive is not money – she’s in love with Seriho. Seriho reciprocates the emotion, and Sarasa comes to work at the cafe. In this story we also meet regular customers Haru – who runs some kind of freaky fortune website, and her friend/partner in mischief Hinoko. Hinoko is the obligatory goth-loli girl that one always finds in Fujieda Miyabi’s work.

The second “chapter” of this story takes was published in the extra comic inserted in the August 2006 volume of Yuri Hime. In this little omake, we are given character profiles in which we learn that Seriho, despite her youthful looks is 25, and Sarasa is 17. Huh. How ’bout that.

Tanabata is fast approaching and Seriho wants to something extra special for the cafe. They come up with a special blend of tea that they pour in a long stream (evocative of the milky way, which features in the Tanabata story.) Haru and Hinoko join the staff for the day and the four women have a successful and lively day full of customers. To thank them for their assistance Seriho offer to treate everyone for dinner. Haru and Hinoko leave first, while the others remain. Seriho tells Sarasa that, long before today, she had planned to close the cafe. Sarasa reacts strongly, protesting that people – she – loves the cafe. Seriho and Sarasa have an emotional scene, but Sarasa is successful and the cafe remains open. Phew.

The third appearance of the ladies of the Ameiro Kouchakan is Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodma no Majyo to manga. In this volume, Letty, having newly freed Tsumugi from her confinement in the shrine, takes the miko to her favorite watering hole. The big scandal here was when Tsumugi – assumably unfamiliar with ways of the outside world – expresses her love for Letty firmly and loudly. Poor Seriho almost dies of embarrassment…

And the fourth, but not at all final, appearance of the Ameriro Kouchakan is the MikoMajyo Drama CD (the one packaged with the manga in the deluxe set), in which Letty and Tsumugi once again visit, this time accompanied by the errant mountain god who has run away. Shrine guardian Isuzu is forced to drag the wayward deity back to her shrine bodily. Tsumugi’s request for Letty to open up and say “ahhh” forces Letty to confront her inner femme, and inspires Hinoko to fluster cool Haru by doing the same.

Now, to be honest – these four appearances are the ones I have, or have noticed. I have no doubt that somewhere along the line there’s some crossover with Fujieda’s other series, especially the ones I’m less familar with.

But what does exist is cute enough that I though it warranted a mention. And I bet that, once the story begins running in Yuri Hime we’ll get a collection that includes both of the first two chapters.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

No ratings, since it’s not *yet* a collection, but overall – even more adorable Yuri from Fujieda Miyabi!

BTW – Happy Birthday me. Older, as my mother says, but not at all wiser. If you’re moved to send a present, buy a book from ALC Publishing or t-shirt or mug or something from the Yuricon Shop. That’s all the present I need. ^_^