Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Hana ni Arashi, Volume 9 (はなにあらし)

April 4th, 2022

We have watched Nanoha and Chidori since they began dating. For a very long time, it was under the radar, but as they look towards a wider future together, they’ve been less concerned if their friends know.

Hana ni Arashi, Volume 9 (はなにあらし) is a festival of festivals. Christmas and New Year’s and Valentines Day and all the attendant joys of finding time together, giving each other gifts and spending time with friends.

There is no new ground here; this has been a slow, incredibly gentle first love story. But for all that it’s been fun. And, almost incredibly, it has provided Chidori and Nanoha with people they don’t have to hide in front of. I would not have expected that. But, there they are making chocolate with Mai for Valentine’s Day so she can give it to her new crush….her basketball team sempai. She’s got a much better chance with sempai than she did with Nanoha.

In it’s attempt to not stress anyone out, this narrative is falling a little into the Yuritopia rut – every relationship is romantic, every friendship is pairing up. But you know what? Fine. Let all the kiddies have girlfriends. It won’t hurt them or me. ^_^ Chidori and Nanoha are feeling freer to show physical affection to one another, which also kind of nice.

This is still straight-up girl-meets-girl kind of “Story A.” It remains unlikely to contain a radical coming out scene, or anything other than sweet, cute scenes of first love, coupled with occasional ugh-making bath and locker room scenes. Chidori and Nanoha are adorable and it’s okay for us to just want them and their friends to be happy.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7
Service – 3 Why? Fucking creepers.

Overall – 7

I am endlessly surprised that this has not been licensed yet.





Comic Yuri Hime, April 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年4月号)

April 3rd, 2022

Comic Yuri Hime, April 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年4月号) starts off with an evocative cover image. I very much continue to enjoy this year’s cover design, with it’s patchwork of color and texture. Great design work there! It’s always nice when Comic Yuri Hime chooses creative design for their annual theme.

The first story of interest to me this issue is inori-sensei’s “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” We’ve come to the climax of the commoner movement arc, which means we’re almost at the end of the first novel. I hope you’re all filling out the monthly questionnaire and letting them know you want more of this series! I can say that, for this series, an international audience is recognized. Let Ichijinsha know that we want Drama CDs and anime and all the things. ^_^

In “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” Kanako is in crisis. So much of her identity has been wrapped up in Hime that now that Hime and Yano are reconciled, Kanako is floundering. What direction will this desire for Hime head in? It could get ugly, but by now I completely trust Miman-sensei to take care of these characters. (Although I’ve got my eye on Nene…she’d better be okay, is all I’m saying. (-_-)

Kashikaze’s “Lonely Girl ni Sakeraenai” was absolutely adorbs this month. Ayaka finds her path in life, she and Sora eat cookies. I’m going to jump here and also mention, Inui Ayu’s and Ohi Pikachi’s comic essays on life with their girlfriends. After decades of high and low dramas, I like having an iyashikei manga or three to read and just be happy. More wholesome Yuri please!

Life as a married couple is going well for Kurumi and Ruriko in “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita.”

“Kimi to Shiranai Natsu ni Naru” continues to be one of my faves, as Haru and Hinoto craft a homemade marriage certificate and decide to get jobs to keep up this beach house lifestyle. With this, they have fully thrown away the business suit lifestyle and they are positively glowing.

I have to tell you that “Odoriba Skirt ga Naru” just NAILS the landing here. 10/10 Michiru and Kiki are always so tenuous and now they might be on the edge of a breakup, but they talk…and then they dance. The three page set where their counting slowly comes together and eventually shows them in perfect synch was an outstanding use of word balloons. You could practically hear the music swell behind Uttane-sensei’s art.

Taguchi Shouichi’s “Futari Escape” is so goofy that I can’t possibly dislike it. In this chapter, they create a fictitious cat for themselves and really lean into the fiction hard.

In honor of the re-release of Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu and Love Gene Double XX by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki, the first chapter of each is included this month. These manga originally ran back in the late 2000s, early 2010’s in Yuri Hime. I’ve reviewed them all here on Okazu (Love Gene Double XX Volume 1 | Volume 2  and Haru, Natsu, Aki, Fuyu)…they were both problematic. I still don’t know if the problems stemmed from primarily BL creators creating Yuri, but it sure seemed that way at the time. I’m not sure they’ve worn well, but YMMV.

Inui Ayu and Kon-san discuss negative things about each other, to temper all the lovey-dovey in her essay comic so far and Ohi Pikachi let’s us in on when she and Fuuka spent the night together for the first time.

As always, there are stories I read and have not mentioned and stories I do not read. (Like, there was a manga that ended this issue with both characters dead and my thought was, “that’s okay.” It’s not worth it to me to mention some of these.) But for the things I am reading, there’s more to like than ever before, overall, a fantastic issue of Comic Yuri Hime!

Ratings:

Overall – 9 (“Odoriba” put it over the line. ^_^)

The May issue is already in my greedy little hands, and it’s so good. ^_^

 





Onnadakara, to Paati o Tsuihousaretanode Densetsu no Majyo to Saikyou Taggu o Kumimashita, Volume 1 (女だから、とパーティを追放されたので伝説の魔女と最強タッグを組みました)

March 31st, 2022

It seems like a lifetime ago that the male leaders of Tokyo Medical University were slightly abashed for 5 seconds about their unfair treatment of women in scoring. It was merely 4 years ago when that scandal motivated Ameco Kaeruda to write a withering castigation of that school and all men who game the system so that women are held back from their full potential, in the form of a brilliant isekai novel. Sexiled, Volume 1 and Volume 2 both made it to English a year later, offering so many of us a revenge fantasy in which women helped each other, no one was hurt and a new future was conceived.

In 2021, a manga version of this series was launched online on Sunday Webry, where it is still available, with current chapters free to read for a limited time, as many online platforms are doing. A collected Volume 2 has not yet been announced, but I kind of guess it’ll be after the most recent chapter’s time has elapsed.

The setup of the first volume of Onnadakara, to Paati o Tsuihousaretanode Densetsu no Majyo to Saikyou Taggu o Kumimashita, Volume 1 (女だから、とパーティを追放されたので伝説の魔女と最強タッグを組みました) is just as frustrating as it was the first time. ^_^ Why? Because even after MeToo and KuToo it often feels like very little has changed.

So watching Tanya blow the hell out of the landscape so she doesn’t just level the town feels slightly less cathartic. About now, I’m ready to see some town leveling.

The art manages to be intelligent about the intended service of women’s clothes in a way that shows that – even when an outfit is intended to be pointlessly “sexy” and insulting – it doesn’t have to actively insult women’s intelligence. But it’s no less uplifting when Laplace offers Tanya armor and a sword worthy of her status as a knight mage. And, it is equally as uplifting to watch Laplace and Tanya mentor Nadine and the girls in town and give them the confidence to strive. And for that, this story will always be worth reading.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 7 Thoughtfully rendered.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 10

According to the Japanese Ministry of Education, who has required more transparency in statistics since the TMU scandal, in 2021, more women than men were accepted to Japan’s medical schools. I like to think that Tanya’s seeing more girl adventurers and mages now, as well.





MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17

March 28th, 2022

It has been 2 years since I last reviewed a volume of this manga. Not for any particular reason, just that these two years have been full to the brim of incredible, groundbreaking Yuri and I just sort of forgot to keep reading this series. ^_^ But here we are once again, as I play catch up with the volumes I read in Japanese, and get ready to switch over to the series in English, since it has caught up to where I was when I left off.

As I pointed out in my review of this volume in Japanese, this series does not hesitate to make us feel deeply uncomfortable about our reading habits. MURCIÉLAGO, Volume 17 does something unusual in this regard. This volume introduces a new horrible human being as the bad guy, Sendou, and we are shown quite clearly his being sexually excited by his acts of violence. It is, frankly, quite unusual to be so blunt in this message, precisely because the audience is expected to be men who are sexually excited by the violence in this series. Straight men are generally very oversensitive about looking at male genitalia, as if the admission that they too are turned on by this is too much to handle. But, having been required to be audience to some extremely explicit and unrealistic lesbian sex, I think this is a good thing for the remainder of the audience. Now we can all trade stories about how this series made us feel uncomfortable. ^_^ That said, the one place in the world I’m not interested in staring is some guy’s crotch. (-_-);

On the Yuri side, there is a surprising leap in Chiyoko’s admission that Kuroko is 1) her girlfriend and 2) important to her. Who would have imagined that an actual relationship is forming the maelstrom of monstrous killers in this series? And that Chiyo-chan and Kuroko enjoy a healthy sexual relationship? Certainly, not I.  And yet, there we are. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Because it’s gotten better, it’s actually messier than usual. More detail, means more gore.
Story – Uh….
Characters – Senpachi’s cool, emotionless old Yakuza guys are boring. Chiyo’s actually kinda cute for once?
Service – We are literally staring at this guy’s crotch constantly and it’s not serving me, I’ll tell you that. (-_ -)
Yuri – Not-ugly lesbian sex, so that’s a win.

Overall – ?

What do ratings even mean when it comes to this series? My commendation to Christine Dashielle on translating and Alexis Eckerman on lettering this weird, violent, lesbian grandchild of  HP Lovecraft fanfic. ^_^

Now that Yen Press has caught up on MURCIÉLAGO, I’ll picking these up digitally…they long ago chewed up too much space on the shelf. Volume 18 has already been released and has been added to the Yuricon Store.





Catch These Hands, Volume 1

March 25th, 2022

Takebe used to be the toughest girl in school, but all her old friends have moved on, are getting married, having babies. She can’t even keep a real job. She’s stuck in her delinquent lifestyle and doesn’t know how to get out, in Catch These Hands!, Volume 1, by murata. While shopping for an outfit for a school friend’s wedding, she meets the one person she could never beat, her old rival the ridiculously-named Soramori Kirara.

Soramori also recognizes Takebe and asks her for a strange favor. Will Takebe go out with her? Taking this as a some kind of back-handed challenge, Takebe does. It immediately becomes apparent that neither them have much in the way of humaning skills. Takebe choses dates as a form of hazing, Soramori chooses things that are supposed to be fun, but she doesn’t understand why. ^_^ The chapter of the two of them snapping photos for Onstegram had me giggling out loud.

They are awkward and charming as heck and immediately, you want it all to work out, somehow. As I said in my review of this volume in Japanese, “I don’t know that we’ll ever see the scowl leave Takebe’s face or the two of them get any less awkward with each other, nonetheless, this series tickled my funny bone.”

The art is simplistic, which works fine here, as the awkwardness and the resulting gags are the entirety of the plot. ^_^

Amanda Haley’s translation is wonderful, giving Takebe a rough edge, without making her vulgar, and allowing Soramori to be over-formal and extremely awkward at the same time. Bianca Pistillo does a good job on lettering, establishing tone where she can. Yen’s policy of not doing full lettering of s/fx is kind of noticeable here where there is a lot of free space. It would have been a nice touch that would have added just one more ounce of immersion. Nonetheless, an excellent job all around for the Yen team.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 Although I agree with Soramori, and do think Takebe looks good in that leather jacket
Comedy – 10 Gags that work in translation are precious and rare and should be treasured
Yuri – Yes? I mean they are going out. So, yes.

Overall – 8

One of the too-many projects I’m working on right now is a video of girl gang anime and manga as an intro for this series. I hope to get that up on Yuri Studio soon!