Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Becoming a Princess Knight and Working at a Yuri Brothel, Volume 2

February 5th, 2025

A buxom blonde girl smiles vapidly at us as she dances in lavender lingerie.by Paul S. Enns, Guest Reviewer

Becoming a Princess Knight and Working at a Yuri Brothel, Volume 2, by Hinaki, is a silly story, told with lots of sex, and not as good as the first volume, which I reviewed here last month It’s still a mashup of isekai , yuri, and gender bender. Naruse Soushi has been placed in the body of Princess Reina (queen) and is trying to survive as a prostitute named Lillion (lily) in a yuri brothel.

I will again provide translations from Latin into English in parentheses after the first use of the character’s name (like Princess Reina and Lillion above).

Helping Lillion out are her friends Precarie (precariously—she’s the one who did the soul swap), Alsea (sea—assigned to humiliate Lillion, she strongly supports Lillion now), and Lapis Rufus (red stone, or ruby—Lillion’s first regular client). Lillion now faces the challenge of Iris (rainbow), the High-Class Prostitute to which Lillion has been assigned to serve.

Iris’s other attendant is Alga (algae), who comes into conflict with Lillion over Iris’s demands.

The politics of Lillion’s situation and her (the pronoun I use to refer to Soushi-in-Reina’s body) efforts to navigate them are interesting, but I find the path she follows in this book to be absurd. The solution to everything that happens is sex. It’s a let down compared to the first volume.

Being punished by Iris? Sex. Fulfilling Iris’s demands? Sex. Helping Alga? Sex. Lillion trying to master her fire skill? Sex. Confronting the Lady of the Moon (who still should have been named Domina Lunae)? Sex.

Lillion still provides most of the humor. The sketches she makes for Iris’s dress are straight out of standard yuri tropes, but brand new to this world. I also laughed at Lillion’s attempts to activate her fire skill. I have a feeling the pose she makes is a reference to something, but I don’t know what it is.

 

The finale of this volume has Lillion facing the Lady of the Moon again, complicated by Alga’s interest in the Lady of the Moon. Alga seeks the redemption of her sister, Oleia (olive tree).

There isn’t as much world building in this one. Mostly the politics of being a prostitute. Madam Acanthus (genus acanthus is a family of plants with spiked or thorny leaves) is much nicer to Lillion in this book, probably because Lillion is now a full Soror (sister) in the brothel. Nothing provides any answers for why Precarie took Reina’s soul or what Precarie did with it. When will this be addressed?

I do want to give praise to the art. This volume, it’s the best part of the book. All the characters can be recognized and the backgrounds are well done. I’ve seen many a manga where the background was plain to nonexistent on most pages. The background really helps the setting here.

Translation is, once again, well done. Use of Latin for the proper nouns is still fun.

Ratings:

Art — 8 The best part of this volume.
Story — 3 I can accept sex in stories, but not if it’s 90% of the plot.
Characters — 5 They’ve improved, but I still want to know what’s up with Precarie and Princess Reina’s soul.
Service — 9 for how explicit it is, 10 for how much there is.
Yuri — 9 We’re reminded every chapter that it’s a guy inside Lillion.

Overall — 5

A disappointment over the previous volume. I’ll still check out Volume 3  and Volume 4 after it releases March 4, 2025.





Comic Yuri Hime February 2025 (コミック百合姫2025年2月号)

January 31st, 2025

Two little girls playing on monkey bars in the snow.

Comic Yuri Hime February 2025 (コミック百合姫2025年2月号) begins with another cover “photo” by Hechima, this one labeled “Hey Let’s Make A Snowman if it snows!” Monday, January 2016 GMT +0900 /10 years old.

In Torii Shizuku’s “Yume to Koi de ha Tsuriawanai” the protagonist is convinced that she cannot fall in love and do well in school…and maybe she’s right, but he love interest thinks she can do both.

 “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou,”  Rei and Claire fight over marriage expectations. For Claire, marriage is a contract that is not bout love, for Rae, her modern perspective is completely different.

“Muryoku Seijo to Munou Oujo ~ Maryoku Zero de Shoukansareta Seijo no Isekai Kyuukoku-ki ~” Nana and the Princess are committed to saving the village. As they begin tracking down the source of the miasma and seem to get close get close…they disappear.

“Muryoku Seijo to Munou Oujo ~ Maryoku Zero de Shoukansareta Seijo no Isekai Kyuukoku-ki ~” A villainess character has entered our world, but doesn’t seem to care about Machino….why is why is she here and where will she go?

Minato and Koharu go to a friend’s wedding and go all out in style “Koharu to Minato”. They are adorably excited to see each other dressed up.

In Utatane Yuu’s “Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru” – Kiki and Michiru go for their hatsumode, make wishes, and they clear the air between them. Kiki is committed to their partnership at last.

SheepD’s “Kanaria ha Kiraboshi no Yume wo Miru”  takes a short, but grim look at Tsubaki’s life as a prostitute and presents the shock that her clients are, right from the get-go, women.

“Gakeppuchi Reijou ha Kuro Kishi-sama o Horesasetai!”  – while a war of words rages inside between Clarice and the representative of a merchant clan that wants her to owe them, an actual demonic fight rages outside between their guardians.

Ciel outs herself to save her brother in “Kiraware Majyo Reijō to Dansou Ouji no Kon’yaku.”

I’ve been reading “Gan no Hime”  since it launched and I have to dmit that, while I love the post-apocalypse scif fantasy, I just do not love the art. It’s a great story, though, traveling through the still-living relics of a cultural collapse.

I’m not reading about a third of the magazine, and there are always stories I read, but do not mention. 2/3rd of the magazine being interesting enough to read is a bleeding triumph.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The March issue is already on shelves and I am ready to read it!





Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, Season 1 Blu-Ray Steelbook, Disc 1

January 30th, 2025

I managed to get through two of the 6 episodes on this disk without being enraged. Good for me!

In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Season 1, Blu-ray Steelbook, Disc 1, Suletta Mercury comes from provincial Mercury to Asticassia School of Technology. Suletta is sincere, a lot nervous and excited about this new experience and the people she will meet, but of course she has stepped into the middle of a class war. She is immediately sucked into duels for the hand of a girl who very much has no interest in being anyone’s prize. The mobile suit she pilots with skill is branded illegal and, of course, she is treated with disdain by both the elite Spacians and the downtrodden Earthians.

This story begins as many anime do – a young person wholly unsuited to a elite and codified environment shows up and sets everyone’s teeth on edge, upends the school rules and becomes the new punching bag of everyone who has an agenda…which is everyone. In this anime, all of that is accompanied by corporate misbehavior and intrigue, so that the duels fought by the children are a reflection of the machinations of the parents. Abusive parents creating unkind children who will forced to battle for no good reason whatsoever, at the risk of their mental and physical health sounds like more than one anime…but it is still absolutely enraging. Nonetheless, we cannot stop ourselves from rooting for Suletta and by extension, Miorine because that is how these things work.

The nods to Revolutionary Girl Utena are very loud here at the beginning of the series. The opening credits borrow at least two visuals from the opening of Utena – The scene where Suletta and Miorine walk in opposite directions closely mirrors the same cuts in the Utena OP, the two protagonists spinning in the show logo – and the duels to become the fiance’ to a girl with no agency who grows things in a greenhouse loom rather large. Know your meme has a few related items, as well.  And Chuchu, of course. Chuchu is the wind beneath our wings. Chuchu’s rage is our rage and when she snaps, it’s the best moment on the whole disk. I was able to breathe again for a few minutes and stopped ranting at the absolutely shitty people around Suletta Mercury, who only wanted to make friends at school.

And finally, read your Shakespeare for other key references you don’t want to miss. The Tempest has it’s fingerprints all over this series. Suletta’s mother is Prospera, her Gundam is Ariel,  Gundam pilots get wrecked in a “data storm.” It is not subtle, but it doesn’t have to be. Prospero’s story isn’t his own, either.

The art of G-Witch is how these wildly different elements, all the back-and-forthing of every Gundam “the ruling body changes constantly and so do the rules and allegiances,” Utena and The Tempest are brought together. The series may not make sense, per se,  but it at least has us caring enough about the characters to keep us coming back. Even though we know that pain and suffering is the main plot point.

The steelbook itself is nice enough, but wow am I annoyed that we’re back to 5 episodes per disk, two discs per set and two sets for a season. I remember clearly when DVDs were sold as being able to hold way more than a measly few episodes. Capitalism, yay! We’re paying for the packaging here – there are no extras, either physical or digital.

But there is Yuri, even if it is borrowed whole from Utena at this point. Miorine Rembran is an angry Bride, but so was Anthy, who had has ages to learn to hide her rage behind a smile. As the Holder, Suletta is the worthiest of fiancés, but it will take them both time to figure that out.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – grumblegrowlgrrrr
Characters  –  Deep breath….8
Service – The service here is largely the Gundamy stuff. The different build, the launch sequences, all the mecha stuff being mecha stuff. For that audience – 10
Yuri – 2
Rage – 10

Overall – 8

More than a year has gone by since I watched this series and I’d forgotten how angry the child soldier hurtfest of Gundam is NOT FOR ME (TM). But I’m going to stick it out to see what is the closest thing to a happy ending that I can remember in a Gundam series.

 





Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing, Volume 4

January 29th, 2025

A wolf girl in a trenchcoat, laden with packages, smiles as she is pulled along down a street by a sheep girl in a cute denim jacket and fluffy pink skirt.In volume 3, we saw Aki confess both her feelings and her concerns about their ability to make a relationship work to Momo, and Momo saying it was her problem to deal with convincing her family and the world. So they are now officially in a relationship! Even if no one can know… but those close to them can probably guess.

In Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing, volume 4, we have Momo sneaking in affection for Aki in every spare moment, and a bit more on Aki’s back story. Kiku overhears Sakaki discussing their past, and that Sakaki might like her? Momo and Aki go to a book signing of Momo’s favourite author, who looks a bit familiar? Finally, a new recruit making friends with Aki sparks jealousy in Momo.

We finally get a bit more on Aki’s past, although it’s still somewhat vague – she ‘lost everything’, but we don’t really learn much more than that. We also see her first romance, and how it failed because Aki couldn’t communicate her feelings well. I actually appreciate that both of the leads have experienced love and loss of that love before, though in different ways, which informs their current attitudes towards their relationship. Ruminating on how her passiveness and inactivity ruined her previous relationship, it spurs Aki on to be more proactive in this one, albeit you can still tell it’s difficult for her. That said, she’s still not good with saying her feelings directly – something that will be addressed next volume, given the ending.

The foray into Sakaki and Kiku’s back story was nice to have, and honestly fits them both pretty well. It was actually interesting to see the difference between the rural discrimination versus the non-issue her white fur (possibly albino) is in the capital, where there are all sorts of animals and it doesn’t stand out. It felt a little simplistic that one person’s acceptance means more acceptance in a small community, but maybe it can be that simple? I don’t know, honestly.

I’m not a fan of jealousy plotlines, but I guess they had to have some sort of cliffhanger (more of a mild bump in the road really, this will have nothing but a happy ending and possibly something like a wedding judging by the Volume 5 cover). It’ll be solved with a conversation I’m sure, which will be in the next one: the fifth volume will be the last one, and it’s coming out in a month or so, so not long to wait. Then fluff. All the fluff. Possibly some fluffy sex.

Ratings:

Art: 8 – fluffy as always!
Story: 5 – plot? What plot? All fluff.
Service: 1
Yuri: 10 – yuritopia ahoy

Overall: 7

As usual, enjoyable, pleasant, pretty unremarkable. Given the start of the series and Momo’s comments, I’m guessing the service quotient on Volume 5 may way go up.





Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 9 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし)

January 23rd, 2025

A girl in a green blouse with puffy sleeves and a high-waist olive green skirt looks over shoulder with distaste at a younger girl with blonde hair in pigtails, a beige sweater and blue plaid school uniform skirt.When we left our principals in Volume 8, Miko had been maliciously outed to Hinako as a human-eating kitsune by Tsubaki.  In Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 9 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし), Tsubaki is appalled to learn that Hinako already knows her friend’s inhuman nature. Miko retaliates by unmasking Tsubaki as a tanuki, and suddenly, the girl’s anger makes sense. Her anger is a relic of the millennia-long war between the kitsune and the tanuki. She lashes out at Miko, forcing her to confront the monster she is, whereupon this confrontation becomes a story about misunderstandings and change and redemption.

Once Tsubaki’s threat is past, Hinako, Miko and Shiori go out on a shopping day, Miko leads the way, and tells Shiori to watch Hinako, the anniversary of her family’s death is approaching. At the cemetery, Shiori, dressed in mourning, finds Hinako, who is able to express some of her deepest feelings for the very first time.

Fans of yokai lore will love this volume, as it gets pretty deeply into both the larger story of tanuki vs kitsune, but also develops personal stories for two more of our resident yokai. With every chapter, Miko is able to leave part of her painful past behind because Hinako accepts her for who she is. Shiori is still a veiled threat, but the veil is starting to fray.

9 volumes into this story, the art is simply stunning. There is a scene in which Hinako stands before the altar in her home. The light shines through the window lighting up the wall, but where it is dark, you can see the ocean moving in. Just…wow.  I have no idea where the story might go, what lore we’ll be delving into, but I am here for whatever Naekawa-sensei offers up. This is a fantastic series full of chills, thrills and emo. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – Not really, unless yokai lore is your jam
Yuri – Hard to define, let’s say “yes, but”

Overall – 9

This Monster Wants To Eat Me, Volumes 1-3 are available now from Yen Press, Volume 4 will be out this spring.

The Watashi o Tabetai Hito de Nashi anime is scheduled for sometime this year and the trailer on Youtube leans heavily into the art for what I hope will be a magnificent animated work from Pony Canyon and STUDIO LINGS.