Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Whisper Me A Love Song, Volume 6

January 23rd, 2023

On a white cover, two girls in grey Japanese school uniforms. The taller of the two with wild, long black hair, embraces the shorter, with light brown hair from behind. In black and orange lettering, Whisper Me A Love Song, a white number 6 in a guitar pick shaped lozenge, Eku Takeshima in orange letters. Reddish orange cosmos bloom in the background.In most high school manga, summer is a time for our protagonists to go to the beach or pool, and make beautiful memories. For Himari, this summer will be the busiest of her life. Somehow she has become the manager of Lorelei, the greatest rivals Yori-sempai’s band, SS Girls, has.

Luckily, Himari is not as much in a pickle as that sounds, since the members of Lorelei are not only treating her well, but teaching her useful skills. Himari is able to offer some promotional suggestions, as well. Honestly…she’s thriving.

Himari finally asks Shiho what the deal with her leaving SS Girls is, and she is invited on an outing as a response. What could the big secret be? It’s not so much a secret, as a teenage unused to processing complicated feelings of /spoilers/.

There’s only one problem. Himari’s time with Yori-sempai has been slashed to pieces and she’s worried that too much distance between Yori and she might hurt their relationship. Yori is putting a brave and generous face on, but it’s killing her with jealousy. Yori admits that, and they affirm their feelings for one another. Yori’s plans for a first kiss don’t pan out, but at a summer festival, they finally get the time to just talk and be together and have the romantic kiss they deserve on a giant two-page spread. Yay for beautiful summer memories!

When they are caught in a sudden summer deluge, they end up at Yori’s house. As the volume ends, Yori contemplates what it will mean to having her girlfriend overnight. I admit, watch Yori stress about being attracted to Himari is a kinda cute. I think I get why Aki teases her all the time. ^_^

I know I keep saying this, but I really do love this manga. It’s sweet and genuine and has feels without manipulation or creeping. I love Takeshima-sensei’s art, and the “timing” of her page layouts. The characters are universally likable (even Shiho, sometimes.) I cannot wait for this anime and just really hope the animation team does it right. _^ Certainly, I can say with enthusiasm, that Kodansha handles this manga beautifully. Kebin Steinbach gives all the characters their own voice…you can really hear Himari and Yori and Shiho….beautiful lettering from Jennifer Skarupa, Tiff Joshua TJ Ferrentini’s editing gives it that final polish and once again Matthew Akuginow’s cover is just a lovely thing, with a great contrast between the smooth gloss and textured finish. All around, a fantastic edition.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

Volume 7 will bring the great reveal of Shiho’s dark secret, out in English this June from Kodansha!





The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 2

January 16th, 2023

Snowy, bare white scene, with a few trees and a building in the background. Two woman stand. One wears a mid-thigh length green hooded winter coat, she looks at the other woman, who wear a pink hoodie, brown shorts with black leggings underneath, and is reaching down towards us presumably to grab some snow. Black and red letters read, "The Two Of Them Are pretty Much Like This", In black a large 2 is in the bottom right corner, and in the bottom left, in black, "story and art by Takashi Ikeda."In Volume 1, we met Ellie a scriptwriter and her lover Wako, and aspiring voice actress. In The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This, Volume 2, Wako’s career gets a big bump with a role in an upcoming anime. What will that mean for Ellie? Well, it won’t mean that Wako’s paying the rent just yet. ^_^

In this volume we meet an editor friend of Ellie’s, the kind-of-hapless Ataru. and Wako’s fellow voice actors. There are moments of intimacy, and hard work, and mistakes and embarrassing moments with neighbors. Just every day life things. This is a low drama, low comedy, and low low-key slice-of-life comedy. that’s a fun read, without asking much of us. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese,  the only problem I had with it was the “birthday gag” in the final chapter, a gag that I strongly dislike. You know the one – “Oh, no, everyone has forgotten my birthday.” UGH.

Ellie and Wako are in love, they are adorable together and we (well, maybe not Ataru) are rooting for them all the way.  I didn’t know how much I needed another Yuri manga from Ikeda Takashi until I read this the first time., but yeah, I really did. His art is outstanding, the tone is goofy without being exhausting for a beautifully balanced story. 

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 8 1 point off for the surprise party
Service – 5 Nudity and acknowledgement of sex, but not more. It’s more just like, knowing an adult couple as friends.
Lesbian – 10 and then sure, Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

As I said the first time, “Fun, relatable and way better than I anticipated, but that one point off for that goddamned awful surprise birthday party plot.” I very much enjoy the recurring Wako-as-an-idol gag. ^_^

Volume 3 will be hitting shelves in English in June!

 





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. ^_^