Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Steady Beat, Volume 1

January 11th, 2006

As I mentioned on the Yuricon Mailing List, I’d been meaning to mention Steady Beat for a while, but just kept forgetting. In fact, I’d stare at my “to review” list and say, “Gee, wasn’t there something I wanted to add to this?” But thanks to Erin, and her review on her LJ, I am not only motivated, but have remembered long enough to mention it, at last. Thank you, Erin!

First off, this is the first “American manga” I’ve purchased (if you don’t count publishing Yuri Monogatari that is.) I bought my copy at Onna!, and didn’t get to read it for several months afterwards. The art is, IMHO, typical of American-style manga art, with more rounded everything, less clean lines, and an uneven grasp of panel structure. But it’s not unpleasant to look at.

The plot, such as it is, involves Leah, a slightly underachieving (compared with her perfect older sister, anyway) high school student finding a love letter addressed to her sister Sarai. The letter is signed “Love, Jessica” and it’s not a confession letter so much as a “let’s meet again in the usual place” letter. The first volume is built around Leah attempting to figure out what the deal with her sister is, while not getting in trouble with her over-protective and over-critical mother. Somewhere in the middle of this Leah ends up meeting a guy, which is assumably our eventual love interest. The volume ends with a dramatic confession by Sarai to us, out of Leah’s hearing that the answer to Leah’s question is “yes.” Said darkly and with great big sad eyes.

The book is not bad, really. It’s supposed to be a bit “wacky hijinks” and goofy, and there were definite funny moments. The complication of the perfect sister with the unforgivable flaw is a bit melodramatic, and 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. :-) It’s hard to say whether plot and characters are developed – or even developable – as the first volume is short and no new volumes have been released as yet.

All that having been said, it’s a nice story, and I’m all for manga fans expanding their horizons and supporting non-Japanese artists…especially as this sort of thing is clearly the wave of the next decade.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 2

Overall – 6

If you’re looking for manga in English with Yuri themes, you could definitely do worse than this. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Negima! Volume 8

January 6th, 2006

Once again, I am pleased to present a guest review by Sean Gaffney, in order to save myself any but the most minimal effort today. It’s been a loooong week. :-)

This is a fairly sedate, but good, volume of Negima!. We get a mix of plot, sex comedy (mostly nudity…) and fighting. In fact, the one drawback is that the fight takes up the entire second half of the book. Good if you like seeing fights drawn out, I guess.

Every volume we seem to examine one or two new girls in the class of 31. This time it’s Chizuru Naba, who’s similar to Mutsumi from Love Hina but less airheaded. She’s very motherly (and yes, has the biggest breasts in the class – 94 cm), and takes to Kotarou (the dog boy who makes a return here and is pretty much a semi-regular after this arc) like a duck to water.

For fans of Mai-HiME CG art, she, like Shizuru, likes to practice the art of sticking leeks up people’s butts to cure what ails them. And, like Shizuru, she gets a bit carried away doing this.

The other student we meet is Chizuru and Ayaka’s roomie, Natsumi Murakami. She’s rather plain and has freckles, and thus feels inadequate most of the time, especially since she’s rooming with two big-busted beauties. She mostly exists as a straight woman in this volume… hopefully she’ll get more to do later.

Meanwhile, Negi is training with Evangeline in a special time-controlled environment… which Asuna and a bunch of others promptly break into. But that’s OK, as it leads into Negi finally telling Asuna about his tragic past. It is indeed rather sad, epecially the guilt he’s carrying around from it. We also see the entourage starting to try to learn magic, though they’re all bad at it with the exception of the experienced Setsuna.

After this we get the meat of the plot, as the demon from Negi’s past (gosh, he shows up right after Negi revealed it) shows up, kidnaps the girls, and challenges Negi to a duel. Kotarou joins in, and the duel is, as I said, about 65 pages long. Negi loses and everyone dies. Wait, no. Negi wins. Sorry, got confused.

There’s no yuri (OK, a villain zaps Setsuna by disguising herself as a naked Konoka, but frankly, Setsuna doesn’t have much time to get aroused before she’s knocked out). Nevertheless, I’d say it’s a solid volume. Still more interesting than Love Hina.

Thank you Sean for another review! While there is no “new” Yuri, it does look like the resident cute Yuri couple have some staying power. We can all hope for one decent fanfic and a few cute pictures repeatedly endlessly on the Yuri picture boards. :-)

 





Yuri Manga: Eve’s Apple/Eve no Ringo, Volume 4

January 4th, 2006

We ended the year with a discussion of the best, so it seems fitting and balanced somehow to start the year off with, if not exactly the worst, then certainly one of the lowest. Eve’s Apple is waaaay down there.

If you haven’t already, you might want to catch up to us by reading my reviews of Eve Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3. Okay, now you’re ready to jump into Volume 4 of Eve no Ringo.

The manga begins with a very typical color-page type layout of Kirika in leather embracing a naked Mio. The next page is the two of them leaping out of the position and yelling at Miyamae sensei for getting them into that position in the first place. It’s actually quite funny. ^_^

The first chapter consists of the antics of one of Kirika’s school friends, who first makes a few quick bucks by flashing the boys in class, then drags Matsuda-kun to “help” her shop for a bathing suit. She encourages him to pursue his dream of being a mangaka, to be honest with Kirika, then kisses him to let him know that she has feeling for him. She runs off with a happy wave.

Kirika is sitting with Yurika, when the grumpy editor walks by. Kirika blushes and excuses herself, but once in the ladies’ room, she finds herself confronted by Miyamae-sensei. Miyamae tells her that what the editor meant by she doesn’t need him, is that she’s got a good story sense. Kirika admits that after the mad dash to get the new magazine off the ground, she’s hit a slump. To get Kirika back in touch with her S&M sense, Miyamae takes her to the landing of the fire stairs. There, she proceeds to defrock Kirika, stressing that the shock and embarassment that she’s feeling is part of the excitement. Kirika denies this, but the older woman uses her own body as evidence against her. This round goes to Miyamae, as she puts them in the path of any of the Blue Velvet editors who might happen to slip out for a smoke. Kirika admits that the fear contributes to the thrill, as well. As a “reward” Miyamae tells her that *this* is what he meant by her not needing him. Kirika, left once again all hot and bothered, is not amused.

Mio is still not *quite* getting the whole S&M thing, so she wanders around for a chapter trying to figure it all out. She ends up with Matsuda-kun, and gee, what a surprise they end up doing a little B&D play. Matsuda is quite surprised at how much fun being the top is and wonders if he’s got natural S&M talent. Mio corrects that assumption with a quick role reversal.

The beach episode! Bathing suits and other service. Mio almost drowns, Matsuda-kun rescues her, they have sex. It would be very boring, but when Yurika, Kirika and Miyamae find them, they basically sit around and watch and comment on Mio’s and Matsuda’s technique critically. ^_^ When Shimazu-san (Kirika’s friend from the first chapter) shows up, she’s all interested too, but they are spotted and Mio is not at all happy about it.

And in case we didn’t have enough sex and nudity, we head over to the hot spring resort after the beach. Miyamae gets in a little torture Matsuda time, and the girls all get naked and join gang girl Yano in the water for lots of breast grabbing. Then we all sit around and watch Miyamae become an angry and violent drunk. Kirika ends up outside with her evil editor, Mitsugu. He asks her for a personal favor, and gets very close, something only she can help him with. They end up in his room working on the magazine. Insert funny sound effect.

Kirika is asked to write a story that takes place in a soapland. She brings Matsuda with her to take reference sketches of the whole experience. We get walked through the bath and massage and hand job, which leads to blow job and, as Matsuda realizes he’s getting a little too close, Kirika expresses her desire to see him come – for the manga, of course. Embarrassed and feeling used, Matsuda run away. She apologizes to him, for not realizing how it made him feel, but frankly I don’t sympathize with him at all…

Kirika’s friend Mizuki calls her and asks if she’ll join her for a double date. Mizuki’s boyfriend has a friend, etc…Kirika says okay, and they go out for the day, ending in a karaoke box. When Mizuki and her boyfriend start getting it on, the friend plays up to Kirika, who’s not opposed to a little recreational fondling. Mizuki’s boyfriend starts to turn it all into an exhibition, and Kirika jumps up enraged. “THAT’S not how you do it!’ She yells and proceeds to explain what positions are the most vulnerable and appealing. By the end, she has the three of them hogtied by microphone wires and runs off home to incorporate her new ideas into a story. ^_^

The final chapter is a western, with Miyamae playing the part of the bad guy and Kirika the good guy, with a little Miyamae x Mio action in the middle.

Finally Mai, Kirika’s kouhai in the chado club, arrives for club activities. Kirika is not looking so hot (long night drawing, we’re led to believe) and she complains about Mai’s “sempai!” “sempai!” all the time. Mai thinks about it and apologizes to “Kirika-oneesama!” Next page is Mai all tied up and partially dressed and begging mercy, but rather happily. She says Kirika’s a great onee-sama and suggested they created a “sado club” instead of chado club.

Like all the other volumes of this series, this is trash. But it’s funny, light-hearted and amazingly emotionally unburdened trash. Kirika still gets off less than the rest of them, which is sort of sad, but there’s a sort of a indirect group sex thing going on among all the artists, where they all end up with one another at some point, which is kind of, I dunno…nice. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8
Service – 9
Yuri – 6

Overall – If you’re bent that way, 7. Otherwise….





Yuri Manga: YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki, Volume 27

December 22nd, 2005

Some things can just never go on long enough. YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is one of them. If it never ends I’ll be a happy fangirl.

So let’s see, where did we leave off? Who can tell?!?

Seriously – let’s see, Yukiya has been rescued, and reunited with his retinue, and Sagiri is still in the middle of the woods whining…and trying to not be too obvious about his crush on Hardy (who pins him with his hawk-like gaze and asks him about it, making Sagiri go all goopy, which is even *worse* than him whiny), and the folks at the school go running around beating each other up and the tourists comb the caves looking for buried treasure, while Julian walks around mysteriously, and whatshisface, the one who idolizes Hardy and follows Ruriko around, eh – Tamahiko, that’s it – mostly follows Ruriko around.

There’s the usual insane fighting among the apparent 7 million occupants of and visitors to this school and mostly Junko (Yaji) and Reiko (Kita) spend the volume running around like lunatics, with the occasional face-slamming interlude for fun.

Reading this manga is a bit “sound and fury signifying nothing”, but I don’t care. It’s brain candy. :-)

Let’s move away from the plot for a second – especially as it is so insanely complex that I’m not always sure I can figure out what’s going on, much less explain it simply – and move onto the service, shall we? :-)

Ruriko has been trying to get Kita back into that tux for some oh 13 years now. And in Volume 27, she succeeds! For exactly 15 panels. LOL

Here’s Ruriko’s brilliant scheme this time: She notes that Kita is being shadowed (pun intended) by the school’s female ninja (kunoichi) club. Ruriko has the club president, an adorable little blonde, kidnapped. She tells Reiko that unless she gets back in that tux, bends her knee and swears fealty to Ruriko, dire and dreadful things will occur to doll-like Kaede. Kita, not wanting to see the girl hurt, dons the garb in question – which sends Kaede into fits of love, btw – and proceeds to bend that knee. But before she can swear to anything, chaos is unleashed. Kita-san rescues Kaede, and knocks Ruriko into unconsciousness, then they bail taking Ruriko with them. Which was a relief to Kaede, as Ruriko was about to make Kita swear she’d do anything Ruriko said to do. A somewhat disturbing thought, even to me. Ruriko’s a nutter.

Kita’s back in boring old school uniform before they even leave the house. It was brief, but DAMN that tux looked good.

Kaede’s mishap only serves to strengthen her interest in “Shinokita-sama”, and Ruriko is, of course, too stupid and rich to understand “no.” I’m not a fan of sociopaths in general, but this series is filled with nothing but – including our two leads – so I’m not going to get myself worked up over it.

This is a great shoujo manga series, but not something for the faint of heart. It’s just too long, too complex and has too many characters to be an easy read. Fifteen *lead* characters at casual count.

So is tux-wearing and ninja adoration all there is for poor Kita’s ongoing girl troubles? Not *quite.* On the last page we reintroduce an exceptionally bizarre character, Himegose – an impossibly rich Empress-wannabe with a obsession with…Yaji-san. Seriously. Himegose was all OVER Junko in the original series – wanted her as her girl toy. But her two little henchchicks had a raging crush on Kita. So with Himegose’s return we can expect massive Yuri sexual harrassment for both our lovely leading ladies.

Ratings:

Art – 6 A little weak, even for this series which is wildly inconsistent
Story – 7 But it takes some work on your part
Characters – 7 The good ones are great and the rest are legion
Yuri – 7 Sociopathic service, but harmless for a change
Loser FanGirl – 10 Pretty boys, gorgeous girls, squeal!

Love it or hate it, YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki is a cultural treasure.





Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 2

December 21st, 2005

You’ll excuse me for being confused by what is really a simple storyline. When I first discovered Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, I started at the end, then read the beginning and totally missed all the middle bits. Now I’m caught up and it all makes more sense.

Hazumu was a girly boy until an accident in which a alien space ship crashed into him ended up with him turning into a girly girl. Then the girl he liked fell in love with her, and the girl he didn’t know he liked, and who didn’t realize she liked him, realizes that she loves her.

So we have your basic love triangle in which both girls – ultra-femme Yasuna and boyish Tomari – vie for the attention and affection of now-female Hazumu. Really, quite simple.

Volume 2 of the manga establishes the backstory between Hazumu and Tomari, which I was totally missing. Now I can declare Tomari’s interest legit, where before I thought it a mere annoying plot complication.

The rest of the volume is taken up with the three of them having very romantic days during summer vacation, at the beach, at the usual summer festival, etc., while Tomari and Yasuna develop a kind of détente. A date between Yasuna and Hazumu gets a little intense, as they spend a day alone and Yasuna marks her territory again with a kiss, but Hazumu responds by running off to reaffirm her need for Tomari, too.

Will anything be resolved between them? *Can* anything be resolved between them? To be honest I doubt it. But no one is really unlikeable here, so we’ll just watch them revolve around one another in an unending gavotte until the center ceases to hold and things fall apart.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

The story is not going to get better I fear (for good reason – the most recent chapter in Dengeki Daioh was mind-numbingly trite) but I’ll tag along until it gets unbearable or Hazumu turns back into a guy, whichever comes first.