Archive for the Yuri Anthology Category


Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart

April 27th, 2020

Today we celebrate the fact that today the Okazu Patreon has once again passed the $500/month mark – which means we’ll be expanding our support of queer creators on Patreon once again with our Microgoal program and we hope to be revising our payments for Guest Reviewers upwards, as well. It has long been our goal to be able to pay sustainable and reasonable rates for our writers and artists. Today we’ve taken another step forward. There’s never a bad time to become an Okazu Patron. Every cent makes a big difference – and gets recycled back into the great Yuri global network by buying media, crowdfunding projects, and supporting creators and events. So thank you Okazu Patrons new and old! You are all an important part of the Okazu family.

To celebrate, we’ve got an exciting review and a giveaway at the end!

When Yen Press picked up the first Éclair anthology, I noted to them that it was (by then) actually a series, which they did not know at that time. I was exceedingly pleased to see that they did get the series and have followed Éclair with Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart. In addition, Éclair Bleue is on the way later this year.

So why am I so happy about this? You may remember from my review of the first volume, that Éclair was the very first Yuri anthology to be translated into English. I’ve written about the importance of anthologies to Yuri as a whole in the past – and I have 3 essays dedicated to magazines and anthologies in the Big Book o’Yuri! That’s how important they are. So, to get this series is big news. For fans of Canno and Nakatani Nio, here’s some new original work for you to enjoy. I’m best pleased because you get to enjoy work by Fly, Shuninta Amano, Kabocha and Taki Kitao, all of whose work I adore. ^_^ I want to call out Canno’s entry, because I *just* finished Éclair orange – Anata ni Hibiku Yuri Anthology (エクレア orange あなたに響く百合アンソロジー) and it officially is an ongoing series, (hint, hint, Christian.)

My favorite story was probably Uta Isaki’s “Sewing Machine.” I’ve always like the concept of tsukumogami; the idea that inanimate objects develop a spirit with use and time. We have all made the joke “my car has gone this way so many times, it could drive this route itself.” Well…what if it could? I also enjoyed the aesthetic of the art.

Ratings:

It’s an anthology, so everything is variable, but this has something for most Yuri fans.

Overall – 9

Blanche is a pretty solid entry into the Éclair series. It’s a terrific way to enjoy short-form work by artists you know and like and learn about new artists. And to celebrate this delightful selection, I am giving away a copy of Éclair Blanche: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart to folks in the contiguous 48 of the  USA. (I know this isn’t fair, but I can’t put postage on an overseas package right now. I’ll do my level best to do a global contest once the pandemic is well and truly over.)

To enter, all you need to do is share something WHITE with us in the comments. It can be a link to an image, or a short story, a song lyric, anything you like*. To make it easy to contact you, please have an email you check as part of your WP profile. I will pick a winner and contact them over the weekend. So share your lovely thoughts of Blanche and enjoy some Yuri manga. ^_^

*except cats.

Many thanks to Yen Press for both the review copy and the giveaway!





Rezu Fuuzoku Anthology Repeater (レズ風俗アンソロジー リピーター)

March 25th, 2020

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that we live in interesting times, but there we are. And in times of stress we need to acknowledge our bodies and minds need to be taken care of. PornHub is making their Premium service free worldwide for the next month…in case you were feeling of residual guilt, they are donating 85% of their video sales to performers who have had to stop working due to the pandemic. There’s something reassuring to me that the porn industry leader is showing generosity in these difficult times.

If live-action porn isn’t your shtick, there’s always manga. Last week, we looked at Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology (レズ風俗アンソロジー), an anthology about lesbian health delivery from Ichijinsha. It was successful enough that a few months later they released a sequel, Rezu Fuuzoku Anthology Repeater (レズ風俗アンソロジー リピーター).

While fewer of the stories stuck out for me, the overall sense was stories about women wanting to fix something in themselves with the help of  professional. Once again the best in collection from me goes to Iwami Kyouko, whose “My Sugar Cat” hit that note between whimsy and life that makes a throwaway porn piece fun to read.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

These two Rezu Fuuzoku collections were not terrible. They lack the dazzling charm of the old Mist ladies comics, but they start from a place of slightly less delusion, presenting this as the job it is, so I’ll call it a draw. ^_^





Yuri Manga: White Lilies in Love Watashi ga Yoishireru no ha, Natsu no Hizashi to Anata Dake. Shakaijin Yuri Anthology (White Lilies in Love 私が酔いしれるのは、夏の陽射しと貴方だけ。 社会人百合アンソロジー)

February 12th, 2020

Kadokawa’s “White Lilies” series of anthologies have been good and goofy and fun and sad. White Lilies in Love Watashi ga Yoishireru no ha, Natsu no Hizashi to Anata Dake. Shakaijin Yuri Anthology (White Lilies in Love 私が酔いしれるのは、夏の陽射しと貴方だけ。 社会人百合アンソロジー) is more of the same and happens to also include some of the top adult life Yuri creators in the biz right now, which makes for a really pleasant read. This member of the series of vaguely seasonalish collections is subtitled in English “Drunk Only To The Summer Sunshine And You.” Prepositions and particles are complicated and we understand the sentiment, so that’s fine.

Inui Ayu starts the collection off with a sweet (pun intended) story about women who bond over shaved ice. It was, frankly, adorable. Women meet on vacation and at work, they meet after long separations, and fall for each other after being together day and after day. The collection includes work by Suzuki-sempai, Seta Seta, Hazuki Ruri and Kurukuruhime, all names we’ve become familiar with here on Okazu.

Without a doubt the final story was my favorite. Called “Blue Well he Youkoso” by Yuki Yukiko, it is a by-the-shore love story that has a surprising ending. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

A strong collection in terms of story and art. This would make a great collection for Yen to put out if they wanted more adult-life stories. It’s one of those anthologies that makes you really enjoy anthologies. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Kanade Aoharu Band Yuri Anthology (青春バンド百合アンソロジー)

February 10th, 2020

Well, so, Kanade  Aoharu Band Yuri Anthology (青春バンド百合アンソロジー) is definitely a Yuri anthology in which characters are near musical instruments and occasionally even play them. Which is not at all the same as being about people in bands. A couple of the included stories even go so far as to show members of a band. One especially derivative story is about two girls who play euphonium in a school whose uniforms look super familiar, but are not entirely the same, so it could not possibly be a rip-off. The Takeshima Eku story and a couple of others seems a little too like unused plot concepts from already existing Comic Yuri Hime story.

As you may be able to tell, I was a little disappointed with this collection. I had hoped it would be full of passionate relationships between girls in bands, but instead it read like rehashing of other series that we’re already watching or reading.

If you want to read stories that feel like other stories, so backpack on emotions you have from other stories, this a pretty gentle, safe way to do it. Nothing here is offensive. It’s just not what I had hoped from this collection. I have a lot of good and bad memories from my time in band and I could easily see so many of those situations leading to love. But sure, let’s just use the two or three scenarios we’re already familiar with. That’s okay, too.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

The art is good, the storytelling is fine, I can’t remember a single story seconds after I finish it.

I will share this with you. Via YNN Correspondent Verso S., here is a completely-worth-your-time video analysis of some of the music from Liza and the Blue Bird, which was vastly superior to every story in this collection. It got to me to sit still for 20+ minutes and listen and that’s saying something. Enjoy An Overlooked Track from Liz and the Blue Bird.

Did you know that a Flugelhorn is really a soprano tuba with its highly conical bore shape and a Euphonium is 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor instrument which is not related to tuba, but is closer to other conical-bore instruments like flugelhorn, trumpet or cornet. I just thought you might want to know.





Yuri Anthology: LiLium Yuri Anthology, Vol. 1 / リリウム 百合アンソロジー

February 7th, 2020

Comic Zin is the bomb. I’ve probably mentioned it before, but it’s a teeny little cave crammed full of treasures. Across the street and down a block or so from Toranoana in Akihabara, there’s a big sign that reads “ZIN” You go up narrow steep stairs (my wife calls the “harrowing,”) to one room, so chock-full of randomness that you instant think, “I am doing doujinshi storage all wrong: and “Ooohhh…train tables in manga form!” Well, you you may think that, if you can get past the first three sets of shelves on which are a surprisingly decent collection of Yuri doujinshi that you totally need.  Or, you can use a buying service and visit their website. But that’s not nearly as much fun.

Which is where I finally found a doujinshi put out by LiLium Plan, a Twitter account I’d been following for ages. LiLium Yuri Anthology, Vol. 1 (リリウム 百合アンソロジー) is described on it’s Amazon page as “8 stories of cute, beautiful, precious love to happy sexual relationships, between young couples and adult women in society. Packed full of moe situations.”

Most of the names here are new to me, with one exception. Takashima Hiromi, creator of the Kase-san series, has a short story in this collection about two girls who meet on the train. Quite possibly the story I liked the most – and brace yourselves, because I have never said this before – was about a maid and her mistress, a girl who uses a wheelchair, by Edoya Petit, “La Fleur Artificielle.” It turned really dark and creepy at the end and I’m not sure why, but I think I liked it anyway? It’s hard to tell if I liked it, or just couldn’t look away. ^_^ 

The art is decent throughout and while the collection does nothing new, it’s also doesn’t suck while handling anything old. And now I have new names to watch for. Volume 2 will be released at Comitia (tomorrow in Japan,) so if doujinshi anthologies are your boom and you’re at Big Site, go to U06ab and grab a copy!

Ratings:

Overall – 8

This is it, I think…the last thing I picked up as part of the 100 Years of Yuri Tour that I am going to review. Unless it isn’t. ^_^ Onward into a new century!