Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


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 anime and manga 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





I Can’t Believe I Slept With You!, Volume 3

November 28th, 2022

In Volume 1 we met hapless Koduka, an adult chronologically, but so at loose ends that she is unable to function, really, as an adult and her hopeless landlady who, under the guise of a terrible contract, is actually making Koduka’s life better.  In Volume 2, Koduka comes to realize that she’s falling for her landlady, and start to make steps to put her life in some kind of order.

In I Can’t Believe I Slept With You!, Volume 3, Koduka has finally understood what she wants out of her life…and that includes being with the landlady as lovers. Only, the landlady, who is carrying a ton of emotional baggage is making it harder than it should be. We have hit “two people who like each other and should be together, but are not, for reasons” territory. This might be very irritating, except that Koduka is working so hard at adulting and being a good, kind, and thoughtful, person, that neither we, nor the landlady can resist.

Christmas brings a happy ending for our couple and we’d be perfectly within our rights to take that at face value. In fact, we have to,  because while Koduka has worked on herself and realized who she wants to be, the landlady’s story is left for us to imagine and is not so much as touched upon. The creator mentions this regretfully in her afterword and I am torn about it. On the one hand, the story feels unbalanced by it’s absence, but on the other, it was probably pretty obvious and banal (landlady falls for tenant, is rejected, things go badly.) In any case, we are meant to be satisfied with Koduka’s redemption, as she was the protagonist. It was a pretty good redemption, too – Koduka gets a job that suits her and that she likes, she starts to talk to people, she and the landlady become friends with another not-a-lesbian who moves in. Koduka’s extra lovey-dovey Xmas Eve plans are likely to melt most cold hearts.

Art – 8
Story – I don’t want to be the movie scrooge, I’ll call it an 8 out of holiday generosity
Characters – 8, same. The landlady even gets a first name
Service – 5 some sexual situations
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

As a three-volume short series, Miyako Miyahara’s I Can’t Believe I Slept With You is not ground-breaking, but it’s an easy, fun, dare I say, heartwarming series. A veritable Hallmark movie of a Yuri manga.

Now I’ll go settle in to my seasonal holiday grumpiness. ^_^





Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya, Volume 2 (毎月庭つき大家つき)

November 24th, 2022

In Volume 1, we met Suga Asako, who was starting a new life after her relationship ended, and her new landlady, former idol Miyako, who lives in her loft.

Ayako and the landlady are becoming family and in Volume 2 of Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya (毎月庭つき大家つき), they have begun to realize it. It’s not giant drama here, it’s the slow life version of coming to care for a person with whom you buy new coffee mugs and make dinner and who is there for you when you need help.

Suddenly, the landlady’s old idol group is in the news – they have a new lead and are going back on stage! The news programs talk about the rift between Miyako and the others and how she left the group. But the landlady says that is all fake news. She left because thy wanted her to be Miyako all the time and she wanted to be her. The group encouraged her to leave and she’s happy for them. When Elm’s #1 fan, i.e., Asako’s best friend whom they call Hato-san, says she will try to get tickets, there is a chance that the landlady will get to see her group on stage.

And so she does. She wears a wig, so no one will recognize her, but that does not go to plan. First, new group leader Ruri tells the audience that they loved Miyako and wish her well and the news made all their supposed fight up. Then landlady and Hato-san are cornered by a limo on the way out.

Suga gets a emergency text to meet them…at a karaoke booth, where they are hanging with the Elm members, eating and singing. Hato-san is dying, of course. But all is well, they get to tell each other face to face their encouraging words. Ruri notes that Miyako seems to really like Ayako, and she agrees happily…and Ayako returns the feeling.

The manga ends with a day in the life of these two who have become, rather casually, a partnership. Whether this is love or “love,” I don’t really care. What it is, definitely is family. I love found family stories, as so many of us queer folks have spent a lifetime building those for ourselves.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Generally good, with occasional “what?”s
Story – 8 This kind of real-world slow life is my jam
Character – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 2? Plenty of potential, but romance is quite aside the point.

Overall – 8

On this day which is meant to celebrate community here in the USA, I wish you all a happy friendsgiving and a wonderful day of community and found family.





How Do We Relationship, Volume 7, Guest Review by Matt Marcus

November 23rd, 2022

Welcome once again to a Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu! Today we once again are pleased to host Matt Marcus, with his continuing coverage of one of our favorite messy couples. ^_^

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.

We’re back on campus for How Do We Relationship, Volume 7. In the previous volume, we left off with Saeko growing into a more emotionally mindful partner with Yuria while Miwa has taken interest in Tamaki, a gruff freshman who resembles Shiho.

We are fully into the new normal established midway through Volume 6. It’s odd to say it this far in, but this volume is the easiest, least angsty stretch in the series so far. Not that there isn’t some tension to keep things interesting, but any conflict feels extremely low-stakes compared to the dizzying anxiety of the first six volumes. What we get instead is payoff in the form of emotional growth.

To start with Miwa, she has taken a mentor’s role to Tamaki (despite her growing crush on her). She calmly listens to Tamaki’s break-up story and is forgiving when she is hit with redirected frustration. She bears a bit of her wounds giving honest advice to Tsuruta, who is Too Nice™ to ask out a freshman girl who is clearly into him. Despite her nerves, she pursues and has a good time on a date with a woman she connected with on an app. At last, we are seeing real growth in her character, and it’s fantastic.

In contrast to Miwa, what struck me in this volume is how well Tamifull depicted Tamaki as immature. After hearing a little about Miwa’s messy relationship she suddenly becomes very vested in knowing things about Miwa that no one else does. Why? Because it makes her feel superior. She wants to dominate access to Miwa’s secrets, and not specifically out of jealousy or antagonism towards Saeko. It’s recognizable teenage behavior which puts Miwa off balance. Still, she has added an interesting wrinkle to the tapestry of characters. To be honest, I can’t help shake the feeling that we are meant to see her in a less alluring light than Miwa does and I find that fascinating.

Not to be outdone, Saeko also gets to demonstrate growth. For one, she helps out Miwa by scouting out her date. She’s been reading signals from Yuria that she interprets as lack of comfort with sex, but instead of letting things fester, Saeko decides to–gasp!–talk it out with Yuria. It turns out that she was wrong! You can really feel her relief…until the rug gets pulled under her with a familiar request. I hope the next volume finally addresses the Elephant In the Room that is Saeko’s past. I think Yuria (who continues to be a delight) might be able to break through Saeko’s emotional defenses.

I do want to take a moment to praise the art. Over the past couple of volumes, I’ve noticed more use of large panels, often filled with tons of lived-in detail. Tamifull specifically called out his excitement in drawing Saeko’s and Miwa’s rooms in the author’s comic and it’s noticeable. Also, I want to give kudos about the new students actually looking younger than the second years. Tamifull has managed to capture that sense of looking back a grade or two and realizing just how young they were only a year ago–and also how small they must have looked to their senpais. That level of verisimilitude feels rare in my (admittedly narrow) experience reading manga.

One thing I have not mentioned recently is the localization done by Kelleth Jackson, who took over for Abby Lehrke starting with Volume 6. This particular volume doesn’t have as many colorful language choices as we’ve seen before, but it remains generally strong in my opinion. That said, there is always one blatant typo or missing word in each volume.

So, something that I have been avoiding is talking about the “commentary track” comics that sit at the end of each volume. They depict Miwa and Saeko lounging around together, looking back on scenes from the chapters, heavily implying that they have gotten back together. I still think it’s an open question whether or not these scenes are diegetic, but it’s becoming more and more distracting.

To sum things up, this volume is a quiet reward for readers who stuck through all of the toxic relationship dynamics and heartbreak. What I lament is the feeling that this is one of the best currently running yuri manga that many may start, but few will finish. This volume is the first step towards justifying the drama.

Art – 9 The art has become more confident as the series progresses
Story – 9 Most of the work is character-forward and it’s great.
Characters – 9 Finally, some serious growth for Saeko and some forward momentum for Miwa
Service – 2 There’s some light canoodling
Yuri – 8 / LGBTQ – 8 Miwa uses a lesbian dating app, so up we go

Overall – 9

I do want to find out who gave Kan that shiner. He probably deserved it.

Erica here: Absolutely all of this. This is easily one of the most realistic manga I have ever ready, which can make it massively frustrating, but also incredibly rewarding as our protagonist are definitely maturing.  Thanks once again for a terrific review.

Oh, and let me assure everyone – typos happen. ^_^ No matter how many eyes go over a book, typos happen. ^_^;