Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


I’m In Love With The Villainess Manga, Volume 4

February 16th, 2023

On a background of yellow lilies, A girl with long, blonde hair with a big red bow, looks up and away from the center, a girl in a maid's outfit, clutched a plate looking down and away in the opposite direction. Black letters read "art by Aonishimo, story by Inori., character design by Hanagata." "Manga 4" is set inside a solid pink compass-rose shaped sigil. It’s already been 5 months since I read the fourth manga volume of Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou. This volume is as I said in that review, “highly emotional and action-packed.” And now we are able to read I’m In Love With The Villainess, Volume 4  of the manga in English and the volume packs the same gut punches over again.

In this volume, the Commoner Movement arc comes to an end with a betrayal. And a redemption. And seeds of more betrayal and further redemption. At the risk of lazy writing, I want to quote myself from my review of the Japanese volume:

This is the volume where everything, all of the goofy light-hearted comedic moment fall away and what remains is social justice withheld, love perverted into betrayal and a new, unpredictable, danger. We finally meet Salas, the King’s right-hand man, a key player in the oncoming storm. I mention him because it is often stated how attractive he is in the novels – in fact, without him being attractive, his character fails to make sense…so I was really interested in seeing how he was portrayed. Not at all coincidentally, we also meet Lily, the nun, who also become a major player in the narrative, for the first time. I believe now all the primary pieces are on the board. The game begins with a huge loss. If you’ve read the novels, you know how huge a blow it will be for Claire, and as the end of the volume comes with a letter from Susse, what that means to Rae having to battle for her.

In this volume we learn how much Claire has lost, and how often her loss has come back to haunt her. For one brief flash, Claire will rely on Rae. Again, it sets seeds for the next arc, which will irrevocably change their relationship

Again and again, I am blown away by Aonoshimo-sensei’s art for this series. A turn of the eyebrow makes all the difference here. When we get Rae and Claire dressed up to speak to the King, phew! Those clothing choices slay. I appreciate an artist who can draw great clothing. Joshua Hardy’s translation has given us a solid “voice” for our characters, a voice I know we’re all looking forward to seeing be reproduced in animated form. Courtney Willams gives us solid lettering that really conveys the tone and depth of these emotional scenes.  Another fine volume from the team at Seven Seas.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 6, since it’s not the focus. But it soon will be.
Service – Rae in that outfit at the end is definitely service. Hope we get a standee of those looks.

Overall – 9

As I move back and forth between the Japanese manga, the print volumes of the novels, the spin-off series and the English editions, I have to tell you that this series doesn’t not lose it’s power with re-reading. It might even be more impactful every time, as I have the chance to catch one more thing than I did the last.





Haru Tsudzuru, Sakurasaku Kono Heya de, Volume 2 (春綴る、桜咲くこの部屋で)

February 9th, 2023

In Volume 1, we met Haruki, a woman suffering from intense, debilitating grief from the loss of her lover, even after 5 years. She finds Sakura’s 10-year diary and decides to finish it, in an attempt to understand those things about Sakura she did not know. She is accompanied by an apparition, or perhaps hallucination, of Sakura.

In Volume 2 of Haru Tsudzuru, Sakurasaku Kono Heya de (春綴る、桜咲くこの部屋で) Tokuwotsumu’s exploration of love and grief was absolutely gripping. I had to stop myself from reading too much at a time, at least partially because of the the deep emotion it brought up in me with every page…especially as the story progresses and we learn the story behind Sakura’s death.

Of note there was one scene early on that stood out. Haruki visits a woman whose daughter is known to see ghosts and spirits. When Haru asks her if she can see Sakura, the girl says she sees nothing. At that moment, Haruki understands that the Sakura she sees is the memory of her lover; a presence who is gone from any plane of existence.

Haruki meets Sakura’s coworker who idolized her, Sakura’s boss, revists Sakura’s family. Kaede, the coworker and Haruki become friendly over their mutual bonds with Sakura, then friends on their own. In the end, Haruki is able to move forward with her own life, even while recognizing that she would not be who she is if it hadn’t been for Sakura’s love.

I wouldn’t say that this is an easy read, but there is a freedom in the journey from darkness to light. Tokuwotsumu is an artist whose style appeals to me greatly and I think it does a good job of capturing the emotions here really well.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 10
LGBTQ+ – Yes

Overall – 9

This was a manga that took some fortitude to finish. I’m glad I read it though and will possibly come back to it one day if I need the lessons it teaches again.





How Do We Relationship, Volume 8 Guest Review by Matt Marcus

February 8th, 2023

In a watercolor-style image, a woman with short, black hair, in a brown shell with a light gray plaid short over it. She wears a guitar case over her left shoulder. Her eyes are closed, but she's smiling broadly, with her left hand half lifted, as is she's about to reach out or wave. White letters read "How Do We Relationship?" in black letters, "art and story by Tamifull." A black number 8 is in white word balloon, as if the woman is thinking it.Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu. Matt Marcus is back again to cover Tamifull’s continuing series of young adult life that has a lot of layers to parse. Please welcome Matt back and give him your attention. Matt, the mic is yours…!

Matt Marcus is a cohost of various projects on the Pitch Drop Podcast Network, such as the JRPG games club podcast Lightning Strikes Thrice, which is currently covering Final Fantasy VIII.

In Volume 8 of How Do We Relationship While Still Being Friends With Our Exes, we follow Miwa and Saeko as they try to learn….well you get the idea.

Saeko and Yuria are still enjoying each other’s company, but their mutual dislike of being touched has put their sex life in suspended animation. Miwa, who accidentally baited Tamaki into a confession using her cat (so this time the cat outed the girl from…the bag…hmm), is nevertheless trying to maintain the status quo with her kohai in fear that her crush will lead to another debilitating heartbreak.

During the Band Club summer retreat, Tamaki starts flirtatiously teasing Miwa, or as one chapter aptly calls it, “Messing With You, To Great Satisfaction.” Miwa continues to hesitate, but Tamaki’s escalating pursuit–and a small push from Saeko–leads her to open up about her feelings. The two begin dating, which raises the dual thorny issues of Tamaki’s plan to transfer to another school and how to handle introducing their relationship to Tamaki’s friends.

I have a confession to make: I did not like Tamaki when she first showed up. But credit where credit’s due, Tamaki steals the show here. After a volume and half of getting closer, then backing off, only to get closer again, the way in which she pushes forward towards Miwa here is a very refreshing change. Something I noticed as well is that there are moments where the art shows her in a much more attractive light, particularly when she is acting confident. Compared to previous volumes, it’s one hell of a glow-up. Plus, she gets to show some developing maturity during her date with Miwa as they discuss their potential future.  I knew that the story would pair her up with Miwa, but what I was not prepared for was coming away from this volume thoroughly convinced that Tamaki is worth rooting for.

What makes Tamaki more than just a new love interest is how she poses as a foil to Saeko. Both are quite blunt and have a tendency to drop a biting line here and there towards Miwa. In a way, Tamaki’s harsher comments resemble some of Saeko’s in the first three volumes, such as when she calls Miwa a “bit of a wimp.” However, Tamaki’s are more on the line of teasing instead of insecure lashing out. Also, as time has gone on it’s become more clear that Saeko’s “toughness” that Miwa so idolized was a falsity; for Tamaki, her “difficult personality” is just who she is, and it’s that fortitude that pushes her through the various homophobic reactions of her friends when she comes out about her relationship with Miwa. It made me think back to Volume 6 where Saeko says that Miwa’s next girlfriend would need to be mentally tough to weather the challenges of being queer in a society that is openly hostile to it. It’s as if Tamaki read the job requirements before applying, but not in a “too convenient to be believable” way. 

Just to camp out on the coming out scene a bit more, the economy of storytelling Tamifull employs is worth highlighting. There’s a denial (“No way!”), a joke (“you’re just playing at dating, right?”), a somewhat condescending acceptance (“oh that’s very trendy of you!”), AND a flat-out rejection (“I don’t like people like that, it’s gross.”), all in the span of a few pages. It’s pretty impressive stuff, plus it gets those issues out of the way so the story can focus on the relationship itself going forward.

All of that said, there are still other developments going on. The most important one is how Miwa and Saeko’s friendship has continued to change. Miwa is trying to stay close, thinking of Saeko as her best friend, while Saeko is trying to pull back because, despite what she thinks, she’s still not completely over Miwa. The asymmetry of their feelings and how they process them internally is nuanced in a very compelling way. It is also fairly evident that the next volume will put Saeko more in the spotlight, since we did not see much progress about her body issues in this volume–not that she doesn’t play a big role in these chapters, but the Miwa/Tamaki story definitely took top billing.

The last plot thread I think is worth mentioning is the entanglement of Rika and Mikkun. It’s a case of the unstoppable force of casual sex meeting the immovable serial-dating object. I’ve mentioned being curious about Rika’s role in this story in past reviews, so perhaps we may see some progress here. Or it can just be a vehicle for jokes at Mikkun’s expense. I give it 70/30 towards the latter.

There are countless little positives I’d like to call out, like Yuria’s realistic body shape, the callbacks to the first band retreat, Saeko’s many new hairstyles that have clearly been done by Yuria. I’ve found the more time I spend revisiting previous chapters, the more I find moments where these later volumes carry echoes of the earlier ones in a way that I find very satisfying.

I think this is a fantastic volume, with deliciously playful tension and gentle but meaningful character development. Also, if you’ve been waiting for Good Things to happen for Miwa, you’re gonna love how this goes.

Art – 9 Fantastic paneling, great use of light and shadow, strong perspective choices–I’d say it’s the best looking volume so far
Story – 9 There are some predictable beats here, but the timbre continues to impress
Characters – 9 Tamaki won me over this volume
Service – 4 There’s a lot of non-sexual intimacy while nude, which is a form of service
Yuri – 9 / LGBTQ – 9 Got a complicated friendship between exes AND two couples to boot

Overall – 9 Band camp continues to deliver fireworks (just not literally this time)

Can I admit that I’m a mark for POV shots that take into account height differences? I mean, I just did, but we can be cool about it, right? Right.

Erica here: Totally cool. ^_^  Thanks very much, Matt for this insightful review. You’ve clarified some of my thoughts on this series, as well. It continues to feel more “real” than just almost anything else I’m reading these days for better and ill. ^_^





Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 3

February 6th, 2023

Three women stand in a green grassy field, with a building in the background. One woman with long, blonde hair looks faces the side, looking down. One woman with shortish dark hair and one blue, one brown eye, faces us, holding a cell phone, An apparently small child with long light-colored hair faces us, wearing a long shirt and holding a rifle. "Other" in black letter, "Side" in green letters, below them "Picnic" in white letters on graduate green to black banner. On black banners in white lettering, "story by Iori Miyazawa, art by Mizuno Eita, character design shirakaba." The number 03 in green letter in the top right corner.Jealousy is a really weird emotion – it’s being hurt and being hurtful at the same time. And jealousy can sneak up on us, especially as an adult. We’re going along, doing what we do and suddenly, we find ourselves resentful about something that isn’t under our control. Someone else’s attention is not only not under our control but it’s not ours to give or take and why the heck are we so sulky about it?

In Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 3, Sorawo is becoming jealous of the mysterious Satsuki and doesn’t have the vaguest clue why. Of course, we are outside her mind and know perfectly well why, but even if someone told her right now, she’s not a person who could hear it. Sorawo, a young woman from a horrifically traumatic background and who has been unable to develop connections with other humans until now because of it, is going to take a long journey into herself before she’s ready to hear it. Glimpses of how she thinks about Toriko and Satsuki occasionally flash by her…they don’t help much. When she encounters strange photos sent to her by herself, with disturbing images of herself, they are another thing she needs to push aside in order to function.

But first, Sorawo and Toriko take on the increasingly unstable situation at Station February. That is so action-packed that the slow creep of the Space-Time Man story feels like nothing much is happened. Until you come to the end of the volume, breathless and with renewed purpose, as Kozakura and Sorawo head back the Otherside to find a missing Toriko.

Once again, I recommend the manga for the art. I feel like Mizuno Eita understands the story and the elements that make it hard to hold in our minds, which led themselves to feeling scary. I’m also pleased that the truly grotesque moments are left to our imagination, which in many ways is far more powerful than showing us.

Ratings:

Story – 8
Artwork  – 8
Character – 8
Service – 1 on principle
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

Obviously, I would not recommend this manga to someone who dislikes horror, but I count myself among those and I honestly enjoy this story. The fear is primarily psychological, and threats to the characters are impersonal, alien and not prioritized in the narrative. As a paranormal, horror-action series, I find Otherside Picnic to be an excellent read as a novel and the manga is an excellent adaptation.

Luckily, we don’t have long to wait for Volume 4, which is coming out on our side of the ocean in April!





My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over 5, Guest Review by Luce

February 1st, 2023

On a white background, two girls stand arm-9in-arm, making "peace sign" gestures near their eyes as if for a photo op. One girl has light brown hair in two pigtails and wears a yellow sweater vest. The other has red-brown hair worn loose, no vest over her white blouse. Both wear red bows and teal skirts. In black letters, the titles reads, "My Idol Sits The Next Desk Over" - they word Idol is highlighted with larger letters and yellow glow. In red, letters "Story By" and "Art by" then, in black letter, "Tetsu Tsitsui" Koyubi Sugawara" respectively. A black number 5 is backed by a white square surrounded by a re flower design Welcome once again to Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! I’m very pleased to welcome back Guest Reviewer Luce with another fun review. Please give Luce your kind attention and good will. That said, take it away, Luce!

It’s been a while! I’m Luce, occasional guest reviewer and long-time manga reader, with more books than I know what to do with. In any case, a review of a book I can’t get in physical form (yet, I did ask Kodansha though. They said no), My Idol Sits the Next Desk Over, Volume 5!

 
We’ve gotten to know Sakiko, Maaya and Chihiro, watching them grow into themselves, change to lesser or greater degrees, and get closer as friends. We’ve seen Spring Sunshine become more popular, such that Chihiro landed an acting role, and in practicing acting with Maaya, things get a little bit yuri… maybe?
 
The first part to this is the cliffhanger to the acting practice episode. I genuinely wasn’t sure how they were going to finish this, but while (spoiler!) Maaya and Chihiro don’t kiss, Sakiko is left with the idea that Maaya is in love with Chihiro – honestly, she’s not wrong, really, but she’s more confused about her own feelings. The drama Chihiro was practicing for goes on air, and is quite weird, to the confusion of everyone. But it gains a fan following – meaning Chihiro gets some solo work on various talk shows, including one that a fellow SpringShine member, Asuka, has always wanted to be on. In discussing her concerns with Sakiko, they get closer. Sakiko and Maaya go on a school trip to Kamakura, and end up doing a pilgrimage around some sights included in a Spring Shine video. Finally, the three of them have an overnight trip.
 
This felt like a volume where they really started to think about how they all feel about each other. I’ve no idea what the endgame pairing is, or if there even is one, really – I could actually see it being any combination of the three – but Sakiko thinks about the fact that Maaya is “in love with” Chihiro, and at one point tries to ascertain what her own feelings are in comparison. Maaya, on the other hand, comes up against her original lie – that she wasn’t already a huge fan of Spring Shine and Chihiro before meeting her – and finds herself battling to try and tell her.
 
Maaya does something in this volume that Sakiko gets rightly mad at her for, and I’m all for it. It’s an invasion of Sakiko’s and Chihiro’s privacy, and I’m really glad that she gets angry. She still stands by Maaya in many ways, but it also shows how far she’s come – I’m not sure she would have been able to do this a few volumes ago. I feel like these two definitely got on a more level footing, which is nice. Maaya, for her due, seems less certain about her actions – she’s not as gung ho and self-assured all the time. I’m hoping for more development next volume, although sadly, volume 5 had been out for a while, and Kodansha hasn’t updated the website to state when volume 6 might be coming out. Might be in for a wait. I’m intrigued to see where this leads, whenever we get it!
 
 
Story: 8
Yuri: 6, definitely getting there
Art: 9, props for actually having a difference between a character wearing make-up, minimal make-up, and no make-up
Service: 1? There is a bath scene, but not really any service
Overall: 8

I’m hoping volume 6 isn’t too far away. In the meantime, I’ll be watching MagiRevo!

Erica here: Thank you so much Luce for keeping up with this series for us! I’m glad it’s “getting there”!