Archive for the Yuri Anthology Category


Yuri Manga: Yuri Koi☆Girls Love Story, Volume 3 (百合☆恋)

March 28th, 2014

In February, I hit a wall on the Yuri manga anthology, Yuri Koi☆Girls Love Story (百合☆恋). The one story I was interested in had gone quickly from interesting to excruciating and I wasn’t sure whether I’d get Volume 3.

An Okazu reader by the name of Tim assured me that the story got better. Tim lied. Okay, okay, he probably didn’t lie, and he was looking into much later chapters, but…. ^_^

So, in Volume 1, in the lead story “Yuri no Tanpopo”, we meet Mizuho and her lover Ena through the eyes of Mizuho’s younger sister. In Volume 2, Mizuho is a jerk to Ena. In Volume 3, We see Mizuho through the eyes of Ena and even accounting for Ena being biased, Mizuho is a much, much worse jerk than we guessed.

In fact, this story so depressed me, I have been unable to bring myself to read the rest of the stories in this book. The bland moe stories don’t interest me, but a few of them don’t look so bad…but I can’t do it.

Ratings: Mizuho, you jerk. You’re ruining  it for all of us.

 





Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 13 (楽園 Le Paradis)

March 17th, 2014

Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 13 (楽園 Le Paradis) is more of the very pleasing same.

We get the usual adorable stuff from Mizutani Fuuka and Kowo Kazuma, and the usual creeptastic stuff.

We get a deeper look at the mismatch that is Takako and Shinobu in “Collectors.”  Each has such a unique perspective on life that they can’t even give directions that make sense to the other.

In “Kakera no Omoi,” we have indeed turned our attention from Mayu and Mika, to the eternally suffering best friend with an unrequited love, Saki. Unfortunately for Saki, her conversation with Mika about Mayu is overheard…by Mayu. Now Saki’s worst fear has come true – Mayu knows her feelings. What will Mayu’s reaction be? Tune in and find out. What would yours be if you found out that your best friend was in love with you?

And in “Au,” Nishi Uko tells the story of an entire relationship from meeting to breakup and makeup in art and words in the “-au” verb form.

And filling out the Yuri in the lineup is Harumi Chihiro’s “Hankagoto” in which school girls learn they are on the same page after all.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I love this magazine. It hurts, it’s weird, it’s wacky, it’s adorable and it’s lovely in equal measure.

 





Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 12 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)

March 9th, 2014

I am formally letting go of the now-outdated idea in my head that Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari  (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) is the “also ran” Yuri anthology. That is empirically not true. At this point, it is a strong equivalent contender with Comic Yuri Hime, with solid artists and series.

In Volume 12, Isoya Yuki starts the book off with a heartbreakingly sweet “love at first sight” story, “Shoujo no Mateki,” in which a high school girl falls for the older woman she sees crying and how – despite everything – they find themselves drawn together. I really hope this series continues.

“Ajisai to Kase-san” continues the excruciatingly adorable relationship between Yamada and Kase. Once more Yamada fears to infringe on Kase’s privilege, only to have Kase reassure her with a kiss.

Morishima Akiko’s “Shoujo Paradigm” takes a bit of a serious turn, as we look at the actual relationship behind the Takarazuka couple, school stars Reika and Yuki….what brought them together and what keeps them apart. Lily forces them to address the gap between them and it turns out to be more of a practical matter.

In “Under One Roof” Fuuka finds herself in the rather awkward predicament of protecting Miho from awareness of the LGBTQ community of which she is a part. Yuri crushes are one thing…”being gay” is another.  Miho and Fuuka are on a collision course that only readers can see.

“Tsubakuma” was 50% perfect, and 50% awful and the whole was wholly impractical. A former soldier (with and eyepatch!) is looking for work and gets the job of being nanny to a willful child. Since the idea that Yuri will somehow be a thing between an adult and a child of 4 or 5 makes me very unhappy, the + of former soldier with an eyepatch merely goes to waste. Blergh.

I love “Nigetai Shoujo”. Two stereotypes as a couple, tough girl who always gets in fights and moody nerd. Swoon. That this is a series just boosts my love 10x. ^_^

Two more stereotypes: Demon girl and hikkikomori perv…not so much. It’s full of sex, but has no soul. Well, duh, I guess.

And that’s just first half of the book.  The second has a lot more typical school life stuff and another demon girl story, and is variably good, depending on what you like.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

An extremely strong volume from Hirari…and I get the feeling that more strong volumes are on the way.





Yuri Manga: Ashita Mata Kimi no Uchi e (明日また君の家へ)

January 27th, 2014

The obi of Ashita Mata Kimi no Uchi e (明日また君の家へ), tells you in English and Japanese that the stories inside are about childhood friends, a student and teacher, sisters, and classmates, all neatly pre-packaged in pairs for your non-thinking pleasure.

What the obi doesn’t indicate that the art will make it awkward to tell which character is which and that all of them look like the prototypical blobby-headed moe face that looks vaguely 4-year oldish on account of having no facial features.  The combined affect of phoned-in story telling and art left me with the impression that I had just read a volume of “blow-up doll theater.” (Which, now that I think about it, could be a very funny idea, but even if someone did it, it probably wouldn’t be all that funny, really.)

I remember vaguely not minding the classmates story, trying to read the teacher/student thing, but not finishing it,  and finally giving up and paging through the interminably long sisters story. By the time we got to the childhood friends, I was unable to identify which character was which and decided to read the next volume of Drops of God (神の雫), in which the adult cast look and act like an adults, and the lead female is smart, not at all blobby-headed and much more my idea of attractive manga art. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 3 at best
Characters – None, all characters were “types”
Story – None, it’s a PWP anthology
Yuri – I didn’t get the sense anyone like each other much, but, 9
Service – 10

Overall – N/A

This book had all the appeal of an actuarial audit. ^_^;

Thank you to the man who reminds me to sink to the depths in order to rise to the heights, Okazu Superheo Dan P. for his brave sponsorship of today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Yuri☆Koi Girls Love Story, Volume 2 (百合☆恋)

January 24th, 2014

A few weeks ago, I reviewed  Yuri☆Koi Girls Love Story, Volume 1 , a Yuri anthology in which I found basically one good story. Today, we take a look at Yuri☆Koi Girls Love Story, Volume 2 (百合☆恋), in which there is only one good story….and it becomes substantially less good.

In the second chapter of “Yuri ni Tanpopo” we learn more about Mizuho – how she’s a good girl, honor student, reliable and all those other horribly burdensome qualities that society praises, but does not reward. We also learn that Mizuho and Ena have been going out since Ena confessed her feelings. Inexplicably, this becomes a crisis. Kanae reacts as if Mizuho had said they were going out since Ena killed Mizuho’s dog or something. Mizuho acts like it’s a shameful secret and Ena overhears this conversation. It’s all awkward tension that night between the three of them and the next morning, Ena’s gone. I’m left with a story revolving around a plot complication that seems of no importance to me whatsoever and I have no idea why. Everyone’s unhappy, me and the characters…

There were, surprisingly, a few other readable stories, most of which stayed in that “discovering love” phase so beloved of doujinshi artists and fanfic writers.

The rest of the stories were the more typical unrealistic fetishtry one excepts from a Yuri anthology.

Now I’m in a quandry. Do I get get Volume 3, knowing that 1) I am only getting it for one story that 2) will probably suck, or do I give up on the series completely? I guess I’ll just punt like I did on the last two volumes and stick it on my Yuri Wish List on Amazon JP and feel like  failure for not being able to just stop.  ^_^;

Ratings:

Overall –  Frustrating, with moments of okay.

My very sincere thank to Okazu Superhero Dan P. for facilitating my passive-aggressive relationship with this series by sponsoring today’s review!