Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11 (私の百合はお仕事です)

January 12th, 2023

Two girls, with gold and silver hair, wearing old-fashioned green Japanese school uniforms, sit in a garden. The blonde wears glasses, leaning back on the bench, looking over her shoulder at the other girl, who leans on the bench back. White letters read, "Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11" ( in Japanese 私の百合はお仕事です, presented by miman."A whole bunch of volumes ago, when Liebe cafe was having it’s Blume competition, Sumika pulled Hime and Kanako aside and told then a story. It was a sad story, about how a conniving cast member stole her little sister away. Sumika blamed love. She dislikes romantic loev because it tears people apart. As Blume, all she wants for the cafe is that everything remains the same as it is right now. Even at the time, Nene pointed out that Sumika’s version of that story wasn’t complete.

Here in Watashi No Yuri Ha Oshigoto Desu!, Volume 11 (私の百合はお仕事です) we learn the rest of that story.

But first, we must spend time with an increasingly unstable Kanako. It’s not because she’s isolated. Hime and Sumika attempt to reach her. But she’s convinced herself that the problem is not her.  She may be partly correct, but that still leaves a lot of the problem being her.

We kow understand Nene a little better, we think. But it turns out that Nene may not have understood herself back then…and no one understood Youko. She’s not playing a manipulative character, she is manipulative because it is fun. Consider this a warning. She plays this game hard and doesn’t seem to care about casualties.

We finally get all the pieces of that above story, when Nene and Sumika finally talk it all out. This was an outstanding scene. There’s a lot of movement on the page, a lot of references to Nene’s and Sumika’s time as schwestern and some fantastic body language and expressions.

But that still leaves Kanako hanging out there, vulnerable and manipulable. And Youko is right there to pick her up.

Next volume is gonna be a thing, let me tell you. I’m reading the current chapters doing a lot of screaming at the page. ^_^

But here’s the amazing thing…this manga is getting better. It started so funny and cute and now it’s deep and darker and I feel like the goofy characters are turning into people. Miman’s art is getting better and better – how about that cover? Here we are, an unthinkable 11 volumes into this series that was a goofy comedy and we’re getting better mood and narrative than ever before.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 2 There is  bit of body staring, especially in the decolletage. It’s not appalling, but it is there.
Yuri – 10  It doesn’t get Yurier, surely
LGBTQ -10

Overall – 9

This series has been a real surprise in every way, not least because this “S” Yuri concept cafe story is actually quite queer after all. ^_^

Volume 12 is not yet out but get those vocals chords ready. It’s a screamer. ^_^





Yuri is My Job, Volume 10

January 9th, 2023

Pictured: 5 girls in an old-fashioned dark green Japanese school uniform pose in front of a large sunny window. In the front row, are three girls, one sitting to the side with pinkish hair and a bow tied in a "rabbit ear style on top of her head, a blonde in the middle, and leaning on her, a dark-haired girl, with her hair pulled up primly. In the back row are two older-looking girls. One with long-brown hair, and one with blonde hair and glasses. A white fancy bracket encloses the words in white: Yuri is My Job! In the top left corner in black, there is a 10 and the author's name: mimanI’m currently in the middle of reading Volume 11 of Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu! so what a great time to take my pent-up feelings out on Yuri Is My Job, Volume 10! ^_^ /Insert scream here/

This series, which began with a parody of ‘S’ tropes as seen through the lens of a popular light novel series, and has always always been a rom-com, unless it wasn’t, suddenly…isn’t. Not really. For one thing, it’s gotten rather queer, almost despite itself (I jest. Miman is a capable author and knows what they are doing…) and the insertion of Yoko into the story has made it feel rather grown-up and darker than it had previously been. Have a bit of pity for Kodansha, a company that licensed a goofy comedy and now has a pretty heavy story on their hands.

There’s an important little thing that happens in this arc. Originally, Sumika gave her version of what happened in the cafe to Kanako and Hime. Now we’ve encountered Yoko, and Nene has given us her version. There’s one more version to go. Wait for it. It’s important.

We now officially have an unwinnable situation. Nene is fucking done with everyone and who can blame her? Sumika is in denial, Kanako is delusional, Yoko is toxic relationships on the hoof and Hime and Mizuki are pretty much relegated to supporting cast. I wasn’t sold on Hime previously, but here she steps up and is a genuinely good friend to Kanako. Too bad it’s too late. Kanako is not okay. I wish I could feel bad for her.

The climax of this arc hasn’t yet happened and I really have no idea what will happen, but I know what I want to see. I want Sumika and Nene to team up and take Yoko down. Will I get that? Tune back in and we’ll see!

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10 Nene is now my favorite character. Sumika, you’re killin’ me.
Service – 5 Large breasts
Yuri – 9 Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Overall – 9

I summed this volume up in my review of the Japanese volume 10 as “Yikes.” But what amazingly scripted and drawn “yikes” it is.

I must mention Diana Taylor for a great translation job here – everyone has their own voice. You can practically hear Yoko ooze. Jennifer Skarupa does a fine job matching the S/fx to the Japanese’ everyone on the Kodansha team is giving us an excellent reading experience! Cannot wait to see what they do with the two-page color spread that just ran in Comic Yuri Hime. (It was a lot of Yoko’s breasts.)

Volume 11 is out now in Japanese (and on my list of things I will review shortly!), but you’ll have to wait until June to see Yuri Is My Job!, Volume 11 in English.





Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 3 (作りたい女と食べたい女)

January 8th, 2023

On a white cover, two women look at one another as they shop for groceries. The taller of the two, a large woman with black hair in a ponytail, wearing a light grey sweatshirt and a black pillow jacket, pushes a shopping cart filled with food. The shorter woman, with reddish-brown medium-length hair, wear a black tutleneck seater and print pattern skirt, with a stylish grey coat. She holds a large package of meat. Green outlined letters read "Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna" in Japanese 作りたい女と食べたい女. A large white number 3 sits in the middle of the cover. In black letters across the top it shows the creator's name, Yuzaki Sakaomi, in Japanese ゆざき さかおみ.In Volume 1, we met Nomoto Yuki, a contractor in an office. She finds society’s expectations for women confining and stress-cooks to relax. We then met Kasuga-san, her neighbor two doors over, a large woman with a physically strenuous job who eats with gusto. They bond over the making and eating of food. In Volume 2, Nomoto comes to realize that she’s probably never been interested in boys, and is definitely interested in Kasuga. They enjoy each other’s company and the food they make and share.

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna, Volume 3 (作りたい女と食べたい女) is everything I could have ever asked for. This is an excellent volume of this consistently excellent series.

To begin with, there are two Content Warnings in this volume, one for eating disorder-food phobia and one for parental verbal abuse.

Nomoto and Kasuga have an empty apartment between them. In this volume they meet and quickly adopt their new neighbor. Nagumo-san is young, very nervous and has a very fraught and uncomfortable history with food. Nomoto and Kasuga accept Nagumo immediately without demands that Nagumo conform to any behavior. When Nagumo offers up a given name, Sena, we learn that Kasuga’s given name is Totoko. Nagumo immediately refers to them as Yuki-chan and Totoko-chan, which turns them red. ^_^

Nomoto is also getting closer with an online friend, Yako. They watch a lesbian movie together online and have snacks, drinks and talk. Yako talks to Nomoto about the spectrum of sexuality – a great conversation, I thought. We learn about Nagumo’s problems with food. And then, we turn towards Kasuga when…her father calls. I don’t want to spoil this scene, not even to summarize, except to say it was magnificent. I’ll scream about it when it comes out in English. ^_^

Yako invites Nomoto, Kasuga, and Nagumo over for a meal, where they make and enjoy naan and a bunch of curies and sauces. Yako gets to see Kasuga’s eating powers for herself. Then they have a sleepover where, again, they discuss the kind of small family trauma that clogs up a childhood. We all have those stories in our hearts, where inequity forced us to accept things that denied us something truer to ourselves.

This volume came with a little extra comic about the work Nomoto puts in to her social media food posts, ^_^

Overall, this volume covers a LOT of territory and does it with skill and sensitivity. There is tremendous power in being seen. I cannot WAIT for you all to read this volume. Volume 1 is out now in English from Yen Press and Volume 2 is headed our way in March. Definitely read this series – it is an outstanding slice-of-life (and bread) story about found family, finding one’s self and sharing delicious food with friends.

Ratings:

Art – 9 Yako and Nagumo give Yuzaki-sensei a chance to ramp up expressions to 11
Story – 10
Characters – 9 (only to give them room to be even more wonderful)
Service – 0  Unless, like Nomoto, you consider watching Kasuga eat “service.”
LGBTQ+ – 10

Overall – 10

OH! And! Valentine’s Day is coming…and yes, Kasuga-san would love to make, give and get chocolates with Nomoto.  ^_^ We have that conversation.

No one:

Me: …I am 100% confident that I am not the only person who actually looked through their shopping cart on the cover, because between the inside cover and back color pages, we get an intimate look at what they bought. ^_^





Comic Yuri Hime, January 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年1月号)

January 4th, 2023

We’re still banging on about beginnings here on Okazu. ^_^ And every January issue of Comic Yuri Hime is a new beginning!

For Comic Yuri Hime January 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年1月号)  we’re getting single-panel comic by Mebachi for the cover, with a small text paragraph in the upper-right-hand corner. It is a melancholy story, of loss and longing and concern that the speaker hadn’t been a good listener. The larger letters spell “Sazanami ga, jama wo shita.” My Japanese grammar is a bit not great, so I’m not sure if the ripples were disturbed, or they were disturbing. Hopefully one of you will weigh in that.  I don’t want to get ahead of myself on feel, because next month seems awfully like it’s going somewhere else, but it feels melancholy.

This issue begins with a fantasy tale by SikuSiku, “Sekai De Ichiban Sutekina Owarikata,” a title that offers some hope.  This is followed by a number of new stories, which I will wait on to see if anything develops.

“Sasayakuyouni Koi Wo Utau” has finally gotten to the punchline of Shiho’s drama…and she’s shocked at learning the obvious truth. Now we’ll get the battle of the bands. Phew!

In “Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata” the inevitable end is approaching, but Kaori get a chance to talk about her dreams with her friend Ruri-chan. Yuama’s work has really gotten stronger, but I feel that it is time for this to wrap up…as we know it will.

“Utsotsuki Hime” is a short prose story that takes place in Europe in World War Two, about connections that can’t be.

I don’t want to be unkind, but “Natsu to Lemon To Overlay” has ended and it was, very sadly, forgettable. I loved the premise, but there was no conviction in it, and it became a story that, had it started there, I would have liked, but it had to throw away it’s whole premise to do what it did. Writing that sentence without spoiling anything was not easy, let me tell you. ^_^;

Taguchi Shouichi’s “Futari Escape,” too…what the…you don’t begin a chapter that way and expect us to laugh it off. FFS.

And now we come to the story I really want to talk about. “Watashi no Yuri ha Ohigoto Desu!” goes …I don’t even know. Dark? Like I totally trust Miman at this point and I don’t think anything bad is likely to happen, but the dark, foreboding music in the background and the two-page center color of a boudoir image of Youko has left me with shivers. You hurt Kanako (who, yes, is not okay and needs help) and I’ll murderize ya! I don’t even know how to describe this chapter beyond “ominous.”

“Usui Shio’s “Onna Tomodachi to Kekko Shitemita.” gives us a lovely, relaxing chapter in which everyone, for one moment, is quite happy. I needed that. ^_^

Last of the things I want to note, Muromaki does a comic essay in the back about German Yuri & BL and the German Yuri fandom, that I found interesting.

Again, there were a lot of other stories that I either read or didn’t, and enjoyed or didn’t. As 2023 opens, I think anyone picking this magazine up will find a reasonable balance of adult and school stories,  and relationships that run the spectrum from hand-holding to fully realized adult relationships. We’re poised to lose several stories next issue and welcome some new ones.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

The February 2023 issue is already out and has a center-color spread from “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” by Aonoshimo!





Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 3

January 3rd, 2023

Beginnings are easy. You have an idea. There’s this character and stuff happens and it affects them and they react. Why are they there, what happens, how it affects them, can all be built up over time. But beginnings, they’re easy. The hard part is what happens after you’ve explained why they are there, and why that thing that happened affected them that way. Then, you have to buckle down and show what happened after that.

In Volume 1, we met Minato, an introverted and unusually tall first-year in high school whose love of music had been ruined, when she was traumatized by bandmates in her previous school. She is recruited by Hibiki, a second-year, to join an impromptu band club. It was a beginning that hit me hard. Re-learning to enjoy music, struggling to fit in, typical school stuff. We’ve all been some part of “there.”

In Volume 2, Minato and the rest of the band gel, and they give an amazing live performance. Minato takes her first steps out of her shell and in a moment of having had too much fun, admits she likes Hibiki.

Now we are at Volume 3 of Hello, Melancholic! by Ohsawa Yayoi and all the beginning stuff has been laid out. What can possibly happen? Well..a lot.

Hibiki will be graduating. Minato’s basically in denial about that. She concerned that Hibiki (and the rest of the band) will reject her. And in the middle of this, Hibiki, ignoring everything that is laying between them, pushes Minato to take the chance of a lifetime. It doesn’t go well when they try and talk it out the first time. Minato is concerned that every joy she has is too fragile to survive the moment.

I loved this series when I reviewed it in Japanese and my fondness for it carries over into the final volume of the English language edition. Girls finding love in band…well, I’ve been there, so yeah. ^_^ Ohsawa Yayoi’s art continues to improve, her characters’ expressions of shock and pain and joy are just fantastic.

The translation by Margaret Ngo and adaptation by MaryKate Jasper was terrific. You could *hear* their voices as Hibiki and Minato have it all out. Extra props to Seven Seas for bumping up almost all the lettering to full retouch. It looks fantastic. I know it’s harder and takes longer, but thank you Mo Harrison for the effort.  Once again a top effort from the team at Seven Seas and an outstanding reading experience. Now can we get 2DK, GPen Meshamashitokei, I wonder?

Beginnings are easy, but picking the first manga I review of the year is hard.  Hello, Melancholic! wraps up something that feels like it began a long time ago, and now we’re all ready to move on into what’s ahead. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 More conflict in this volume is a good thing, as Minato becomes less passive
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

 

I’d give this adorable 3-volume series to anyone who wanted a feel-good schoolgirl Yuri story.