Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 3 ( 山田と加瀬さん。)

September 1st, 2022

Kase-san and Yamada moved to Tokyo last spring. Now winter is ahead of them and they are settling in, mostly.

As Yamada to Kase-san, Volume 3 ( 山田と加瀬さん。) begins, Yamada has taken massive strides towards building a new life. It’s true that, as a first-year, she lacks some confidence, but her bouts of low self-esteem are much rarer than before. She’s learning a lot, working hard at her job and making friends. And this year, as the school festival approaches, she’s honored to take part in a special edition of one of her favorite gardening shows. The gardening club is working with their favorite teacher to do a live performance, with a special guest – a famous voice actor.

Kase-san’s school festival is on the same exact day. How they balance the schedule, Kase-san dealing with one last (and for once, rather amusing,) round of jealousy and what becomes of them when the voice actor turns out to be a good gardener, a decent person and an adult who provides good advice, is the bulk of this volume.

The other half of the story is the inevitability of a coming crisis with Kase-san’s roommate. Kase-san’s old rival from high school confides that she knows Kase-san has a lover. Fukami is trying very hard to not care, but…she cares. It is becoming harder to ignore that her feelings for Kase-san are not roommate-y. What will happen with them? We don’t know and it may be moot – because Yamada and Kase-san start talking about the next year and maybe living together.

I like that this manga is moving at a pace that is slow, but somehow feels real-ish.  That is to say, we’re not hitting multiple festivals per volume, which means that we have time to look at both Yamada and Kase-san and see how far they’ve come. Even the art invites us to see both of them as more adult. Yamada, especially. They have distinct personalities, and styles. It’s been half a year, Kase-san is finally dealing with the jealousy thing, Yamada’s low-self-esteem has really changed from her days in high school. Our little girls are growing up and it’s…nice. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – Not really, this volume.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

There’s no date yet for Volume 3 in English, but I bet it’ll be out in 2023!





Yuri is My Job!, Volume 9

August 26th, 2022

Before we get to the meat that is Yuri is My Job!, Volume 9, let’s step back for a second and look back at a story that has traversed a whole lot of ground, while never moving. ^_^

The situation comedy that starred a young woman more concerned with how she appeared to others than anything else, became an emotionally fraught tale of two childhood friends whose idea of what they wanted from their friendship was irreparably different. Nonetheless, Yano and Hime are, at the moment, relatively functional as a pair of “schwestern.”  Now, we’re looking at the remain cast at this Yuri concept cafe and finding that again, things are wildly out of balance.

Kanako was and is, obsessively focused on Hime. To the point where she really hates even thinking about sharing her with Yano in any but the most superficial way during work hours. This is, of course, not healthy. Sumika, as Kanako’s older sister offers to help her navigate this, but she’s finding that all this Yuri around her…and her own history…has gotten into her head. She’s having decidedly unsisterly feelings about Kanako.

I like Sumika and this arc is killing me.  For oh so many reasons. Mostly because she’s a big assholey clueless straight girl in a very gay Yuri cafe and is an utter dumbass about everything possible. ^_^ Kanako’s obsession makes her almost impossible to like, but you have to sympathize with big ole dumbass Sumika, until….

As Sumika’s brain plays gay games with her, bad news arrives at Liebe and the next few volumes will be a 4-way train wreck between Sumika, Kanako, Sumika’s former little sister, Nene and the woman who broke it all, the woman who destroyed Sumika’s happy days at the cafe the first time and is looking like it’s her plan to to do that again, Gouto (cafe name Goeido) Yoko.

You know I love me my evil lesbians, but in this arc, my hat is thrown into the ring for Nene and her “fuck you, straight girl” faces, which I might need to make into a meme.

Miman has take us so far from the opening salvo and I’m still hooked on every chapter, wanting to know where and what and who and why. The art is orders better from early chapters as well. Facial expressions are outstanding this volume. Since the story is focusing on conversations over cafe scenes, faces and body language really have to carry the visual weight. They do that successfully.

This volume has a short extra story of unrequited love, “I am Your Destiny,” Miman-sensei’s author’s notes which are always interesting and another page of the Cafe’s “Operating Manual,” for fun.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 4
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8.

As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “A fantastically unpredictable volume from a series that never stops surprising me.”

Top notch translation from Diana Taylor, solid lettering by Jennifer Skarupa and editing by Haruko Hashimoto makes this an easy reading, set-up for next volume’s gut punches.  Get yourself ready… Volume 10 will be here in November.





She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons, Volume 1

August 25th, 2022

Ten years ago, I stated to review a series called Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu, (彼女とカメラと彼女の季節). It was a complex love triangle that spent 5 full volumes at increasing levels of intensity, and yet…

And now, we have She, Her Camera, and Her Seasons, Volume 1 by Tsukiko, out from Kodansha. It’s going to be a very interesting ride to see how this story holds up after a decade.

Akari is a girl who feels that she has no particular value in her life. Her family is poor, her house shabby, her mother work nights as a hostess and she works at a convenience store. She has no hobbies or interests, and the chatter of the girls around her does not interest her much, although she’s able to fake interest. When a classmate takes a candid photo of her with an old camera, Akari’s life will change.

She becomes closer to Yuki, a classmate who has a passion of photography, and Rintarou, a guy on the school baseball team. Their lives become entwined and intimate almost immediately, in ways that alienate Akari from her previous superficial friendships. Right from the beginning there is a lot of tension in this triangle. Akari is falling for Yuki, who seems to have a thing for Rin, who is interested in Akari. This triangle will grow tighter and more taught over the next volumes in a way that I found very hard to look away from. ^_^

Translator Nate Derr did a great job of showing us Akari’s life cracking and reforming in a way that she would not be able to predict. Character voices come through well: Akari’s startled objections, Rin’s doofy charm and Yuki’s coolness and sudden passionate discussion of cameras. Lettering is the standard English near the Japanese – I am *always* going to wish that companies gave letterer Salud Campos Blasco time and money to do retouch. In a story like this where Tsukiko’s art provides the whitespace needed and in a story where composition is a very real matter of both text and visuals, it would have been nice.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – 3

Overall – 8

At the moment, this release is digital only through Kindle & Comixology and Bookwalker. It’s a good choice for this tense and compelling tale.

Thanks very much to Kodansha for a review copy for this volume!





Liberty, Volume 2 (リバティ)

August 19th, 2022

In Volume 1  Liz, the emotionally fragile singer for a band Liberty. And we met Maki, who is  is managing  the Liberty account for her company. Liz is a real handful, too, as she tends to use sex as a weapon.  Despite that, Maki has fallen for Liz. And sometimes, she thinks Liz returns the feeling. However, every time they get a little closer, something sets Liz off again, leaving Maki unsure of what she is to the singer.

Liberty, Volume 2 (リバティ) begins with another of the things that sets Liz off. Only this time it wasn’t a thing, it was a person. The very fashionable and sexy Sumire who works for Liberty’s newest sponsor. It’s immediately obvious to us, the reader, that there is some history between Liz and Sumire.  Unable to say no to Sumire, Liz finds herself seduced, possibly coerced…and more possibly that this is how they always have been since they met in school. Liz is ashamed of herself and unwilling to talk to Maki, who is feeling left out. All of this brings up an unwelcome memory for Maki as well.

We have hit pure Jondalar Syndrome* here, my friends. One honest conversation would end this manga. So, of course, that ain’t gonna happen.

*Jondalar Syndrome is named after one of the characters from The Mammoth Hunters (one of the Clan of the Cave Bear series.) Had he and Ayla ever just discussed anything at all, the book would have ended instantly. It was a nightmare for me, a Virgo (which has a lot of mythological tie-ins to communication), with a fetish for good communication practices between people. Made me so angry I named a bad plot device after it, for when two people just do not have the conversation they need to have as a plot driver.

Since this manga is about the drama – and about giving Liz makeovers – and it is drawn by queen of manipulative drama and mopey leads Momono Moto, I’m cool with it. But, I follow the author, Kitta Izumi on Twitter and she’s vehement about being one’s authentic self in public, so I’m hoping that we’ll get to a better place for both Maki and Liz.

I love the art in this manga, I think this is Momono-sensei’s best work to date. It’s super stylish, which suits the world in which it is set. And I love that Maki has a good friend who will realtalk her when everyone else around is either ignoring her or…what? I’m sure Maki doesn’t yet know what her role is in this story, but by the end of the volume, she may be getting there. I’ll wait on tenterhooks to see how things develops.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7 we’re in a bit of a holding pattern in this volume
Characters – In the real world, we’d all gently suggest Liz speak to a therapist. For the story, she’s a walking plot complication
Service – Not really. Both the sex appeal and the sex are adult and mature.
Yuri – 10 Yuri all the way down

Overall – 8

While I wait, I have Volume 22 of Galette magazine to read, and Volume 23 will be debuting at Comitia next month!





Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 4

August 12th, 2022

In Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit, Volume 4 this goofy story starts to do something it has not previously done.

First, a disclaimer! My last review was for Volume 2 of this series. It’s not that I disliked Volume 3, it just did nothing new and it locked itself into a space I don’t much care for, with Hayate and Honey unable to tell each other their feelings for reasons. The one good thing about Volume 3 is a spoiler, so I’ll avoid it, because in this volume, it becomes even more of a giant question mark over everyone’s heads.

So here in Volume 4 of this transforming suit hero style series, (a la Kamen Rider) several things shift. The Antinoid leaders are showing some humanity here and it’s out of place in this style of story. This feels like one of two things are happening – either this story is going to wrap up soon or it will have to take another tack. As I haven’t kept up with the Japanese edition, I can’t say for sure which way the story is going. Either way works equally as well for me.

What I can say is that the problem I had with Volume 3 is resolved here in a grand gesture at the end of a series chock-full of grand gestures.  Where will the story take our plucky heroines? We’ll have to check back in Volume 5 and see!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 1 Pretty low here, comparatively
Yuri – 6

Overall – 7

I’m kind of interested to see how this wraps up, honestly.

Will we actually get an explanation of the antinoids? Will it matter? Tune in next episode…erm, volume! ^_^

Also the bad guys have an alternate family. That was interesting.