Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


SHWD (シュード), Volume 1

September 16th, 2021

Kouga is a woman who wants to make a difference. She wants to be part of the elite Special Hazardous Waste Disposal team – the team that fights the Dynamis, an inhuman form of mental and physical pollution.  Kouga joins Sawada, a tough as nails supervisor and eventually, they are joined by their American counterpart, Leone, Leo to her friends. Kouga is likable, Sawada’s the jaded veteran, Leo is a study in contrasts.

In Volume 1 of SHWD, by sono.N, the monsters are huge, but the women are large, strong and up to the task.

The details of what, specifically, the Dynamis are, is wholly unimportant to me at this point. If they become more interesting, along the order of Silent Mobius‘s Lucifer Hawks, that’s fine, but right now they are those inhuman baddies that poison human minds.

This is a series that gives us something we rarely see, even in action series – beefy, large, muscular women. When we meet Sawada, she’s doing one-armed pushups on a dumbbell. Kouga out-masses her by a lot. She, Leo and Sawada are large-bodied, large-chested, large-muscled women who fight to save people from an enemy that drives them mad. In this volume, we get a single page back story on Kouga, and instantly understand her issue with the Dynamis is personal. And we do see Kouga take her enemy head on – along with Sawada’s knife skills and Leo’s marksmanship – with a giant fucking ax. ^_^ 

There’s a fair dollop of love for the women’s bodies in this series, and a bathing scene, so we can appreciate them up close and personal. None of this is done coyly – this series is a love letter to huge, muscular woman. I really enjoy the heck out of it, from the very first time I encountered it at Comitia as doujinshi series, to this collected volume.

Clearly we’re going to get more of Sawada’s story and Kouga’s experiences. There’s no Yuri here in Volume 1, but I can see Sawada and Kouga going there eventually… .I peeked at the next chapter last night and yep. Kouga’s really cute about it, too. ^_^ Here in V1, the extended backstory we get is Leo’s.

Where this book is likely to go, I’m not sure, but I hope it takes us somewhere fun. In the meantime, you can read the original doujinshi this series is from in English from Lilyka! So if you’re looking for women with shoulders big enough to handle the burden of the task ahead of them, talk a look at the first 5 doujinshi, the 1st year anniversary and the Sports Day Edition of SHWD on Lilyka or, if you want to check it out in Japanese, take a look at the Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin site where new chapters can be sampled.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Honestly great, despite kind of being exaggerated in a bunch of different ways.
Story – 7 Solid action story storytelling
Characters – 8 Also exaggerated, but fun.
Service – 5 Yep No nipples or genitalia, but lots of nekkid women with massive shoulders.
Yuri – Not yet, but shortly.

Overall – 8

I picked this and a few other Yuri series from up Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin when they ran what they labeled their Heterdox Yuri Festival, including Sal Jiang’s Black & White, which I adored. This promotional name has absolutely delighted me, so I kept all of the inserts in all the books, just because they make me smile. ^_^ Yay for Yuri that bucks the trends and gives us strong women who look like they can lift you with one hand.

Bet on Sawada’s backstory being that her partner/lover was polluted by the Dynamis and attacked Sawada, so she had to kill her?  ^_^





Kimi ni Tsumugu Boukaku, Volume 1 ( 君に紡ぐ傍白)

September 14th, 2021

Nao saw a stage performance when she was in middle school and she was simply blown away by it. Now, a first-year in college, she very much wants to be an actress. Haruka, a second-year college student has just decided to quit acting. Unbeknownst to both, their lives will be bound together in Kimi ni Tsumugu Boukaku, Volume 1 ( 君に紡ぐ傍白).

This full-color manga by Yasaka Syu is a surprisingly gentle meeting of two people going in opposite directions past the same goal. It will probably not surprise anyone when it turns out that Haruka was the performer who so influenced Nao, but it did surprise me that their differences are not particularly a source of conflict. Haruka supports Nao’s choices and is happy for her when she gets the role. Nao is sad she won’t see Haruka perform again, but understands how that goes. And all of that is secondary to the relationship, the friendship into more, that is building between them.

Because there is so little conflict, I’d recommend this series for a nice girl-meets-girl story, but for one thing. The art is much too moe for my taste, the character look that timelessly infantile that simplified art style favors. I’d vastly prefer this story if it were graced with an art style that captured the actual ages of the characters as we are told them. If you like the uncomplicated facial features (and accompanying lack of facial gesture and expression of the oeuvre,) then you will probably enjoy this. I felt that it robs the concept of “acting” right out of the middle of the story, to be honest. They can’t “act”…they have only simplified faces.

What did honestly surprise me was that the series is not a one-and-done; this volume pretty much ends when it ends. I’m not put off by it, but I have to imagine that the story must shift away from meet cute /mate cute to something more substantial in Volume 2, which has been out since March, and Volume 3 which will be out next month.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Adequate, but not a style I feel suits the story
Story – 7 Pleasant girl meets girl
Characters – 7 Earnest
Service – 1? Bathing, some mild, partial nudity
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

You will be able to tell me what you think in February 2022, when this series comes out in English from Seven Seas as Monologue Woven For You, Volume 1! (I’m still waiting on links from Bookwalker and RightStuf and will add them as they become available, but pre-order is up on Amazon.)





Otherside Picnic Manga, Volume 1, Guest Review by Sandy F.

September 8th, 2021

Happy day! Not only is it  Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu, we have a brand new reviewer! Today  we welcome Sandy, who is taking a look at Otherside Picnic, Volume 1 manga, out now from Square Enix! I know you’ll give him a warm welcome. Take it away, Sandy!

I am a huge fan of Iori Miyazawa’s Otherside Picnic series of novels. I enjoy following the adventures of Kamikoshi Sorawo and Nishina Toriko as together they explore the wonders and terrors of the Otherside. And at the same time, they also explore the wonders and terrors of human connection with one another.

When I heard that the novels were bring adapted into a manga, I was so excited that even though I can’t read Japanese, I bought the Japanese editions hoping that at least I would enjoy the artwork…which I did. When I finally got my hands on the English translation, it was worth the wait.

Like the novels, Sorawo is our guide to the Otherside. We are given glimpses of her story as text and artwork combine to introduce us to Sorawo’s first journeys into the Otherside where she will encounter the enthralling Toriko. This will lead into their shared experiences of the Otherside; experiences that will change them both.

For example, I particularly appreciated the depiction of the Wriggler also known as the Kune-kune. Not just the Wriggler itself, but how it acts as the path that will draw Sorawo’s deeper into the world of the Otherside and how this impacts her and Toriko. With this artwork I certainly feel that I am being given a glimpse of the Otherside and its mysteries, but not in such a way where I understand everything.

Overall, the artwork and the dialogue between the characters complimented my vision of these people and the Otherside that Iori Miyazawa had created so vividly in the novels. There are moments of the terror that creeps up on you from the Wriggler and the Eight-Foot-Tall Lady. And then there is the wary banter between Sorawo and Toriko as they take their first steps in learning about one another and helping us to understand what brings them into this world.

As well as the banter, through Sorawo’s internal monologue we are introduced to Sorawo’s emerging and complicated feelings about Toriko. Feelings shaped by Sorawo’s response to the nature of Toriko’s quest to find the mysterious Uruma Satsuki, as Sorawo wonders, what are Toriko’s expectations of her?

There are a couple of minor issues, such as the artwork was sometimes a bit cutesy for my taste. I appreciated the work of the translator, though I did miss some of the colourful British words and phrases used in the novel. There is also a bonus original story that gives us some interesting insights into Kozakura and the nature of her relationship with Uruma Satsuki and Toriko.

Ratings
Story – 9
Character – 7
Service – 4
Yuri – 5
Overall – 9

All in all, I thoroughly recommend reading this manga, but don’t forget the novel!

Erica here: Thank you Sandy! I’ve got this on my to-read list and am looking forward to it even more, now. ^_^ Thanks for whetting out taste for more Otherside Picnic.





The Whole of Humanity Has Gone Yuri Except for Me

September 7th, 2021

Marika idolizes a “normal” life. Meet a guy, get married, have children…the usual. So when she wakes up to find that she is suddenly in a world in which there are no men, and all the people around her normalize relationships between women, she..freaks out. One classmate, Lily, says she believes her, and offers to pretend to be Marika’s beard as she figures out what happens. The Whole of Humanity Has Gone Yuri Except for Me by Hiroki Haruse is half science fiction and half shoujo-ish romance.

The main thing about this series is that it has actually got some great moments, but almost every one of them is sandwiched between thick layers of “D…d…d…date!?” and surprise kiss and rain fevers and, and, and. As I read, I remembered why I had read the Japanese chapters online and just never managed to pick up the series, Watashi Igai Jinrui Zennin Yuri (私以外人類全員百合) in Japanese. It wasn’t bad, but it just never quite managed to be great.

The science fiction just happens to be exactly the same plot as something else I’m reading, which is not surprising as humanity is pretty obviously an extinction event on this planet; but, the flight of fancy for this protecting earth somehow is lost in the physical gags. The romance here is inevitable and the story takes no chances with the ending. I mean, obviously I probably would have enjoyed a more explorative approach to an all-female planet, but this story is not that. It’s a rom-com wearing a lab coat.

Before you think I hated this, (I did not) let me talk about the thing it did get right. Marika’s perspective of “normal” is put into stark light at the beginning of the book, as she is thrust into a world where “normal” is just not within her operating parameters. But that is not what makes her question her own interpretation, nor is it really her relationship with Lily that changes her perspective. Simply by seeing, and living in, a society that has different norms opens her to the idea that her own idea of “normal” is a construct. And that, in a nutshell, is a message I can get behind. Seeing how other people live changes you. Our “normal” is not universal.

I would say that I enjoyed and eyerolled this self-contained 2-in-1 volume in equal measure. I’m ready for “being shocked at the concept of going out on a date” to drop out of manga for anyone over 12 or so, and, as this manga ran on Kadokawa’s Shounen Ace plus service, I’m willing to let it go here, (that also explains the “wow what big boobs!” that happens every other chapter,) but still done with it, as a whole. It’s a date, not a commitment; you’re getting a bubble tea, not a wedding ring. 

Both art and writing were loose and flexible, with occasional flashes of something great. Eleanor Summers had to make sense of a lot of vaguely-formulated theoretical concepts, so props for the translator. Lettering by Erin Hickman was quite good, with a lot of translucent word balloons which allow us to see the background, but also be able to read the text clearly.  Fine job from the team at Yen Press.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 4 Mostly comments about Marika’s chest. But a fair amount of that.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

For a no-stress science fiction about love and the end of the world as we know it, check out The Whole of Humanity Has Gone Yuri Except for Me by Hiroki Haruse. Out now as a 2-in-1 omnibus from Yen Press. 

Thanks very much to Yen Press for the review copy!





Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ)

September 2nd, 2021

In Amano Shuninta’s Aisarete mo Iindayo, Volume 1 ( 愛されてもいいんだよ) we meet Kimura Rin, an office worker who is being sexually harassed by a superior at work. She has no allies among the women in the office, and the harassment is exactly on the line that some men think is being friendly, but is not that, at all.  As she cries alone in the bathroom of the restaurant where her group is having their after-work drinks, Rin encounter Ryou, who thinks she needs to fight back. Ryou tells Rin that she is a lesbian sex worker for ‘Yuritopia’ and tells her how much it costs. Rin takes her up on it, and that experience changes everything.

Rin quits her job and decides to become a sex worker. There’s a lot to learn and of course that learning curve is the story. She sleeps with a Yuritopia sempai and it just serves to highlight how out of her depth she is. Even Ryou turns out to be not what she seems, as the cast at Yuritopia seem kind of cliqueish and not at all kind. Which, I will admit, bothered me quite a bit (and  didn’t make the Yuritopia manager look good. She was nice, but if her employees are jerks, then, uh…something’s not okay.)

Eventually, she gets her first date, a repeat customer of the company who likes to go out with the new girls. The situation is confusing, until she figures out what that customer is looking for and she gets her first high rating. She’s on her way in her new life!

My absolute favorite scene was probably the most ridiculous one, where Rin chooses her working name. She’s stressed out and unsure. The manager gives her a cup of hot chocolate to soothe her nerves (hey, here’s some caffeine and sugar, that’ll relax you!). Rin takes a sip and as the sweet, warm flavor fills her, she decides her name will be Cocoa. It was very her. ^_^

Amano-sensei’s art is really interesting in this series. It’s well-drawn, but she’s focused on partial views, shadows and  skewed perspectives which really works well to communicate Rin’s feelings. As the story ends, the panels become straighter, the backgrounds a little more detailed, giving us a much more grounded feeling.

This volume ends with an interview with Obou, a straight male representative of a lesbian sex work organization, Club Tiara. the same organization made “famous” by Nagata Kabi-sensei in My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness.  I knew it was a guy who ran that, but it still makes me feel icky that it’s not a woman in charge, so I declined to read the interview, but the questions seemed to focus on the technical details. What are the various courses, how are cast chosen, that kind of thing.  I checked out Club Tiara’s site and found that they offer options for women, men and couples, which makes perfect sense. They have specific infor for lesbian customers, a phone service, naturally, and a guide to using their service. I didn’t  check to see if they do streams or sexts. As websites go, it’s got a welcoming, not an exploitative “Hot girls live! XXX!!” feel, which is reassuring. If anything, their site felt a bit like a josei manga magazine. I don’t know if this is something I want for myself, but am glad that it exists in the world.

They also are promoting a number of manga on the Club Tiara site, including Nagata-sensei’s and Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology from Ichijinsha that I reviewed here on Okazu, along with the sequel.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8 Rin really grew on me
Service – Not really? It’s about sex, and isn’t coy or creepy; the art is artsy, rather than explicit. So sex, but no fanservice.
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

Volume 2 is out now in Japan and I imagine I’ll read it, (probably on Bookwalker, since I’m out of space..again. ^_^