The third volume of the manga Vampeerz (ヴァンピアーズ)
Is chock-full of fetishes and fears.
Vampires in school, but really,
It’s all what you’d expect from Akili,,
Gravitas Twilight has smeared.
That’s it. That’s the review. ^_^
Archive for the Yuri Manga Category
Vampeerz, Volume 3 (ヴァンピアーズ)
Nakatani Nio Short Story Collection Sayonara Alter ( 仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ)
Nakatani Nio Short Story Collection Sayonara Alter ( 仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ) is the collected volume of short stories by the Yagate Kimi ni Naru /Bloom Into You creator. The stories in this collection come from Nakatani-sensei’s work in Dengeki Daioh, the Éclair anthology series, doujinshi and an original work for the collection. There’s a kind horror-esque feel about some of the stories that make me feel super creeped out. ^_^;
In the titular story two girls aren’t twins so much as two halves of the same person, and when one dies, the other is there to continue being her. This was followed by a fantasy story about a young man, and a grim little story about a girl who eats a giant snail, which skeeved me in evrry possible direction.
A pianist’s hand is broken and her friend has to be there for her. A friend falls in love her friend’s passion for an idol group. A girl finds herself interested in a wolf girl who transfers into her class. A woman who designs androids has a multilayered relationship with her first triumph. Two women decide to buy a double bed, and admit that their relationship had changed. The original story for this collection tells about a complicated relationship between a a boy and a girl in high school.
If you’re a huge fan of her work, or you like short manga stories with slightly uncomfortable edges, you’ll want to get this collection. It definitely is an excellent overview of her art changing over the last decade or so. changes, as it evolves quite considerably from beginning to end in a way that would not be obvious if you didn’t see the stories laid out one after the other.
Ratings:
Overall – 7
An eclectic volume by an artist who is now known for one kind of story, it’s also a good reminder that Nakatani’s work is not just Bloom Into You.
Galette, No. 14 (ガレット)
Galette, No. 14 (ガレット) marks a shift in my collection and starts with a multi-layered tale of woe. ^_^
Due to the pandemic, this issue was offered in limited amount to backers as a physical publication, and eventually, it was offered to overseas backers but, for a number of reasons, I was unable to purchase the physical copy. Mostly, it was timing.
Jumping forward, Volume 15 is also being made available to backers but due to chicanery and corruption on both sides, packages sent by Japan Post to the USPS are now being held up for a minimum of 8 weeks on the Japan side, and who know what will happen on the US side. This is not hyperbole. When I shipped a package from Japan in July, I had the choice of around $200 by DHL (around, but I was completely unable to get an actual estimate off the DHL site, because the English-language page wouldn’t accept the Japanese address and vice versa, of course. Apparently Tenso will only tell me what it actually costs after I commit to DHL shipping. So I chose JP Post to USPS – this was before the current administration’s open interference with the US Post Office – and was told right up front that it would take 8-12 weeks to ship. I have a package sitting in a warehouse in Kawasaki since July for, as far as I can tell, no reason whatsoever, except to make using a public service unappealing and shifting us to much more expensive shipping by private company, making what was already a huge barrier to overseas purchases practically insurmountable for normal humans.
As a result of this utterly malicious fuckery on both sides of the Pacific, I find myself unable to purchase the physical copies of Galette magazine. I’m saddened, but I upped my backer level, so I get a PDF copy of each volume when it’s released. Yay digital!
So here we are at No. 14, my first digital-only copy. I’ve linked to the Global Bookwalker version, which I also bought, because I wanted to see how it read. Honestly…I love it on Bookwalker. I use Bookwalker on a tablet, and it’s almost the same size as the magazine. I love being able to read the page on a large screen and page through it as I might in a physical copy. When I get the PDF, it reads on a browser as vertical, but I’m going to see if the Bookwalker reader will handle the PDF. It ought to. For those of you in Japan, it is also available on JP Kindle.
All the continuing stories are still continuing, which means ongoing works by Morinaga Milk, Morishima Akiko, Hakamada Mera, Hamano Ringo, Yatosaki Haru, Uno Jinia and Kitto Izumi and Momono Moto; some of which are doing surprising and sometimes really interesting things. Morinaga Milk’s characters Rena and Yuna have moved into a larger home and are about to embark upon building a life together. This isn’t just “let’s live together,” this is “we’re a couple and this is us figuring out our lives together.” Kitto and Monomo’s “Liberty” has taken a dark turn and I really don’t know at all where it’s going.
But the winner this issue was definitely Hakamada Mera’s “Sekai ga Owarau sono mae ni.” It was just a really good chapter, probably some of the best work I’ve ever seen from her.
There was a fun take on Cinderella by Ei Imura, and the usual compliment of photography and art. All of which make Galette a satisfying read, that I look forward to every issue.
Ratings:
Overall – 9
Volume 15 is available as PDF and physically by mail to backers on Fantia at Gold level or higher, on Amazon JP Kindle and, kind of weirdly, in Japanese on US Kindle, but not yet on Bookwalker.
Anata to Watashi no Shuuhassuu (あなたと私の周波数)
Readers of Comic Yuri Hime monthly, might remember most of the stories in this volume, Anata to Watashi no Shuuhassuu (あなたと私の周波数) by Kuwabara Tamostsu. Each short takes a look at a frustration in life and finds a unique way of addressing it.
In the titular short, a woman who is unsatisfied with her life and her job, admires a colleague’s positive outlook. When she finds an old walkie-talkie in a storeroom, she’s shocked to hear that colleague engaged in a rant on the bandwdth. Unaware that her colleague is listening, Arata-san keeps her cool by letting off steam into this partnerless – she thinks – walkie-talkie.
A woman asks her ex-lover to help bury the corpse of her former life.
A track star finds her love of running renewed when a transfer student is so effortlessly better than she is.
A young woman find love, lunch and family at the same shop, when her lately deceased father turns out to have an another family she had no idea about.
Going out drinking and sharing confidences with your peers is all fun and games until one of turns out to be in love with you, too.
I genuinely enjoyed Kuwabara’s art. The characters feel mostly real emotionally, as well.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – Variable, averaging 8
Characters – Same
Yuri – 6 The stories are less about relationships than communication
Service – 1 on principle
Overall – 8
Overall, a satisfying collection of one-shots. I’ll hope to read more by this artist.
Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた)
Suzuki Yufuko’s Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた) was not at all what I expected it to be. No, scratch that. It was exactly everything I expected it to be…only it turned out to be kind of charming. ^_^
Takimoto Mako is a senior in high school. He mother is an actress and often away, or hungover, and her father is a famous manga artist and is also often away. Mako is…average. She knows it, in fact she clings to her identity as an average girl with surprising fierceness.
One day at a cafe, the rumors of the “goddess” of the cafe, swirl around and a beautiful woman enters. Everyone is watching the goddess, but only Mako sees that she has her phone recording Mako and her friends’ conversation. Mako confronts her and suddenly finds herself outside on the street, where the goddess is offering her money.
Sonoda Aino is a young adult who is longing a bit for her school years. The people in her company are nice, but she find them crushingly dull and longs for the free chatter of high school girls. It’s a little creepy, but harmless and she begs Mako to not tell anyone. She’ll do anything, if Mako won’t get her in trouble.
Mako does have a problem that Aino can solve…so Aino stands in for absent parents at a meeting with Mako’s teacher. It all goes well and they both relax a bit. Mako is adamant that Aino shouldn’t record conversations, (’cause that’s bad, duh) but the two of them become friends.
It’s kind of accidental that Mako starts to think of Aino differently, but her friends notice, and not all of them are happy for her. When her best friend’s jealousy causes Mako to doubt Aino’s affection, she breaks up with the older woman. It takes a confession by that same best friend to inspire Mako to make it right…and a confession from a completely different party to give her the whole picture. Mako and Aino make up.
The epilogue is wholesome. Four years later, Mako is graduating college, Aino is celebrating her last year in her 20s and they will, we can expect, live happily every after.
So yeah, it’s exactly what the cover looks like. And with that the premise, it really could have been horribly creepy. That was certainly what I expected yet, somehow, it just…wasn’t. It was instead kind of sweet. This was a Wings comics, and perhaps Wings Yuri has now developed a house style – sweet Yuri with just a little real-world, but not too much. Real without being gritty. In any case, the art is very teen-magazine-ish. I kinda liked it for this story.
Ratings:
Art – 8 Pretty things are pretty, cute things are cute
Story – 8 Better than the sum of its parts, for sure
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only
Yuri – 8
Overall – 8
I’d like more “real without being gritty” Yuri in my life, please, thank you.
