Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても)

December 8th, 2022

In Shimura Takako’s Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても) a lot happens.

We left Akari and Ayano having been carefully not seeing one another for some time, as Ayano’s divorce proceeds. When they meet again, they mutually decide to begin over, but the rumor that Ayano is having an affair begins to spread.  In school, Ichika’s life has become more complicated as she’s refusing to return to class. I’m honestly way more invested in the well-being of the children than I want to be. ^_^;
Eri and Wataru are reeling as their relationships fail. Neither the adults nor the children are particularly alright.

But Akari and Ayano are doing a pilgrimage to Akari’s hometown, visiting her childhood haunts. They are taking time to talk through their lives – something they have never had a chance to do. It’s good for them. There is a particularly charming moment, when they fantasize about having gone to school together…who would they have been and how would they have related to one another? The art is especially cute as they (as adults) imagine each other as children.

When they return, they find that the rumors are picking up steam. But they have made a decision. They tell Akari’s family that she is moving out…and moving in with Ayano.

Shimura-sensei’s art is not refined in these chapters, but there’s a sense of motion, and emotion, that is subtle and intense.  When she’s good, she’s really good. This story is one of the adultest mange I have ever read. I cannot imagine being a teenager and giving a hoot about anyone in this manga for any reason. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 I don’t think I dislike anyone…. there’s no bad guys here
Service – 0
LGBTQ+ – 6, maybe? Lives are changing while we watch

Overall – 8

Little girls and and friendship and school, adults and marriage and divorce and choices with consequences. This series would make a pretty solid live-action drama.
 





Catch These Hands, Volume 3

December 5th, 2022

It was in March 2020 when I reviewed Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, Volume 3 ( 私の拳をうけとめて). Re-reading that review, honestly, I can add little to it for this review, so I will quote myself liberally. ^_^ My apologies in advance. 

In Volume 2, Takebe has hit the end of her rope in trying to be a new person. She’s not feeling the support from Soramori she thought she’d get. For her part, Kirara is half jealous and half frustrated by Takebe’s search to become someone else. They stop speaking, both confused as how to move forward.

As I said in my review of the Japanese Volume 3: The problem is not that they aren’t enjoying each other’s company…Takebe starts to really understand what Soramori means to her when they aren’t hanging out. And it’s not that they are rivals, Soramori, realizes as days go by when they aren’t speaking. But something is off and they both know it. In Catch These Hands, Volume 3, Takebe reaches back into her past to try and create a new future…in the wrongest way possible, by assuming that she can’t move forward until she’s settled the past with KiraraAfter taking to Maria (and training for the confrontation that’s coming,) Takebe calls Soramori to the park to have it out the old-fashioned way. The way they know, the way they met each other. She challenges her former gang-member rival girlfriend to a fight. And fight they do.

And, at last, Soramori understands. THIS is the woman she fell in love with. This is the self she wants to be. And when she beats Takebe into the ground with one final punch, she finds that the two of them really enjoyed beating the heck out of each other.  

As the volume comes to a close, they have – as far as they are able – to communicate that they want to continue dating. And now, maybe they can stop worrying about being something they are not.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 5

The team at Yen Press did a great job. Amanda Hadley’s translation of the gang patois works for Takebe. This story is a lot of fun, again. ^_^

Volume 4 is headed our way next spring!





 Comic Yuri Hime December 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年12月号)

December 4th, 2022

And so we come to the end of another year. Comic Yuri Hime, December 2022 is, like so many of the Decembers before it, not a finale at all, but a transition to the the new year. Our cover trip around Japan comes to an end, however. We’ll be getting a completely different look and feel for 2023.

For me, this volume was all about the climax of the Scales of Love arc in “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou Desu.” It was exactly as epic as I could have hoped. Now the story is going to become a bit more serious, then deadly serious. I can’t wait!

In “Odoriba Skirt ni Naru,” Michiru and Kiki are trying to find the balance they need to be a good dancing pair. Neither really understands what being “like lovers” means, and they both end up unpacking a bit of Michiru’s feelings about being called “kawaii,” until Kiki realizes that she just thinks Michiru is really kawaii and Michiru learns to accept it. They find the place they can be together and head back from dance camp ready to be a pair.

“Lonely Girl ni Sakarenai” comes to end on the right note. Ayaka is finally able to pass the exam, and she and Sora embaak upon a life together. A particularly fantastic note is when they talk to their friends and decide, that even though they may not be together every day, they can still at least stay in touch. We all know that our friendships change with circumstances, but at least they don’t opt for “we’ll never see each other again!” refrain.

Shiho is given an entire chapter to reconcile herself to the (obvious to us) idea that she likes Aki, in “Sasayakoyouni Koi wo Utau,” and now I can safely say, I am done with Shiho. Her love of drama has worn out my interest in her. I’m hoping this month’s issue is back to the battle of the bands.

“Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru” took a surprisingly realistic turn and I’m a bit on eggshells as to what might happen. Has Hi-chan given up in deciding to go back to school?

A number of series are winding down, “Natsu to Lemon to Overlay” has hit an impasse. If Yunimaru-san won’t ask what is going on, well, then, we’ll never know. In “Futari Escape,” we go to a fossil museum, which was fun.

In “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita” Rio has now decided that Kurumi and Ruriko are a more fun family than her parents.

“Kimi to Tsuzuru Utakata” is running out of somewhere to go, as well, but finally has pushed Shizuku out of her self-imposed paralysis, even if it took a shock to do it.

As always there a lot of other stories, some of which I read and others I did not. This was a sold year. I’ll be sad to see some some series go and curious to see if some of the new ones fill their space.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

January 2023 is already out and the new year already has a different tone. We’ll have to see whether it will hit the right notes for me.  ^_^





Umibe no Cain (海辺のカイン)

December 1st, 2022

For those of us interested in Yuri, the name Kimura Minori might not be the first one of the Magnificent 49ers who comes to mind, but like so many of her peers, she did contribute to genre. Umibe no Cain (海辺のカイン) was written in 1980-81 and it feels very much like a look from outside at a queer life, but woo was this a bitter cup of manga to drink.

The story follows Mori Nobuko, a gender non-conforming afab person and Sano, a woman she meets in the park. Sano invites Mori to stop in for some tea and cake and the two strike up a friendship. Sano is a designer of children’s clothes. Mori can tell she really likes children and wants girls to have clothes that make them happy. This triggers a series of painful memories for Mori. We learn about her mother who has treated Mori less well than her other, more conventionally feminine child. Mori has a lifetime of gender dysphoria  and loathing of dresses and skirts, all of which is incredibly painful for her to recount.

Sano and she get together regularly, Mori even moves to the same town – she was actually there looking for a place to live when they met. Sano invites her to a show of her designs, Mori invites Sano to see her perform at the bar she sings at. All the while, Mori’s struggle with her gender presentation comes out as they talk over late nights and a lot of cake.

Mori finally goes to see her family, dressed in a fashionable suit with a skirt and in doing so, says goodbye to the person her mother wanted her to become and gets the rid of the guilt she feels. She goes back to Sano’s and tearfully recalls how awful and small a person her mother was. Sano’s response is to note that Mori’s mother did not sound adult at all.  The two of them go out for a drink and Mori gets quite drunk and admits that she is in love with Sano. They go back to Sano’s place and make love, but Sano quickly distances herself from Mori.

Mori finally drops by Sano’s and is not let into the house. Sano begs her to say that that night was just because they were drunk and it was curiosity, but having been freed of her self-loathing by Sano, Mori cannot do that. In tears, but smiling sadly, she walks away…and leaves that town forever.

So, yeah, this was  a pretty painful read on a bunch of levels. It hit all sorts of clothing dysphoria buttons I have and the ending was sad and bitter and angry-making. It was 1980, for fuck’s sake, not 1950. I was happy that Sano cared enough about Mori to help her dismantle her own forest of thorns, but frustrated that she wasn’t willing to be honest with herself.

As the anime gives us The Rose of Versailles‘ Oscar, we also have Umibe no Cain‘s Mori. These will be later joined by Maria-sama ga Miteru‘s Satou Sei and all of those sexual and gender minorities out there who have to carve our way out of our own forests of thorns.  ^_^;

As I read this volume, I found myself mentally bargaining for it – maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. If this had been written pre-1970, I would have accepted it at face value, but in 1980, I just found it a distasteful narrative. Mori deserved better. I want her to find a nice gal who likes her for who she is. ^_^;

Obviously there’s no way I can call this queer representation, but it seems like a solid piece of queer perception and I can’t help but think of media like this poisoning people’s minds, so that the kids who grew up with this, would hit the 90s writing those stories of death or marriage that fill my shelves. What might the world have looked like if Mori and Sano had been allowed to be happy? Whatever it is – that’s the world I want to see in my manga. I don’t miss 1980 and I don’t miss manga like this being the only queer thing on the shelves.  That said, I did appreciate the honest discussions of what now call gender dysphoria. In the end, I only wish we had had an equally honest discussion of sexuality.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – Like sticking pins under your nails
Characters – 9 So fully fleshed out, it actually hurt more
Service – mmmmm….a very little bit of nudity. Mom was kinda creepy. Let’s go with 3
Yuri – 6 Emotional intimacy and sex

Overall – I am very glad I read it, but I resented it a lot. It left a very bitter aftertaste.

You can find this from 3rd party sellers and used manga stores, OR you can read it digitally on ebook Japan!

Thanks to Rachel Thorn for giving me the impetus to get a copy of this manga!





SAL: Stories About Love

November 30th, 2022

Sal Jiang made quite a splash last year with both Black & White (白と黒~Black & White~) and Ayaka-chan ha Hiroko-sempai ni Koishiteru (彩香ちゃんは弘子先輩に恋してる) being picked up by publishers in Japan, and Black & White: Tough Love at the Office making it’s debut in English.

Today we’re looking at SAL Stories About Love, a collection of shorts by Jiang-sensei, put out as doujinshi or in collections, extra chapters online and the like.

The first story is a short romance, followed by a two-chapter series about a woman and the gender-noncomforming person she falls for.

Following this is a story that amused me no end, as two women in an office fight over the same umbrella, not realizing a coworker has taken one of their umbrellas. The escalation of their war is petty and amusing and their reconciliation is also kind of fun.

This is followed by a romance between a newbie at a food hall and the employee who trains her, a large woman, who the other employees, all college women, assume is interested in the guy who comes by to talk to her all the time. When he finally confesses, she rejects him and the newb and she walk off arms around one another.

This followed by some bonus chapters from Ayaka-chan ha Hiroko-sempai ni Koishiteru. The volume is completed with a delightfully smarmy holiday season story called “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

It’s a great volume to get a look at how Jiang-sensei’s art and story telling has evolved. If you like either of her serials, this is a nice pickup, as well.

Ratings:

Art – Some of these are early enough that we can see the development in her art
Story – Variable, but I think the stories work best when petty rivalry is the plot. ^_^
Characters – Mostly all likable and sweet
Service – There is some nudity and sexual situations
Yuri – 10

Overall –  8 A solid collection