Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Comic Yuri Hime, August 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年8月号)

August 12th, 2020

I just want to take a moment before I even begin this review and offer a tip of my hat to cover artist Rolua, who in a few cover pieces told a decent short science fiction story. ^_^

There are a couple of new series starting in Comic Yuri Hime, August 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年8月号). Yuri Light Novel Kundan Folklore is being serialized by creative team SukeraSparo. We’ll get to that in a second. Because, the magazine opens up with a huge spread for “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou,” the light novel series which has been licensed by Seven Seas as I’m in Love With the Villainess. I didn’t hate it, but it sure veers close to fetishtry that does not overlap my own. ^_^

Rei, a miserable worker at a black company, wakes up one day in the otome game she had been playing, “Revolution.” although the game was specifically designed to partner the lead with one of the princes at the school, Rei had fallen in love with the obnoxious bully and rival for your choice’s attention… Claire. The harder Claire tries to bully Rei, the more Rei likes it. ^_^; This series is funny and just a tad creepy and I’ll be interested to see where it goes.

In Miman’s “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu!” Kanako finally says some things Hime needs to hear, and Hime agrees to attend Kanako’s birthday event at the cafe. It feels very much as if we heading for a climax in this series…but we’ve got a few more bumps to deal with before we get there.

Something completely unexpected has happened in “Hello Melancholic” by Ohsawa Yayoi and I find that I really, honestly care about Minato now and desperately want her to be happy. ^_

“Kundan Folklore” looks…pretty interesting! Better thn that visual novel and let me  assure you that I’m surprised to say that. It’s front-loaded to be a scary family legend story, but it’s also a story about mismatched friends and protagonist who works hard to be where she is. I hope I like it.

Kodama Naoko’s “Umineko Bessou days” is also heading towards an ending, Sadly the complications are scraped from the back of the plot complication closet and just completely failed to keep this reader engaged. I don’t dislike this story, but it could have been so good. It was instead very average.

I adore the color washes give to Kon-chan’s dialogue in Inui Ayu’s autobiographical manga. Whatever the color of the “Hime Cafe” section of the magazine, is the color of Con-chan’s key lines. It’s adorable and I hope they keep it for any collected volume, should we get one.

Ratings:

Overall  – 8

As always, there are other stories I read and enjoyed and others I read and did not and a few I don’t read. A pretty even bell curve of interest and something for mostly any Yuri fan. The September issue is already out and has an amazing cover! I do like a woman with tattoos.





Bloom Into You, Volume 8

August 11th, 2020

As we pick up Bloom Into You, Volume 8 by Nakatani Nio, out now from Seven Seas, it’s almost inevitable that the unctious strains of “My Way” come floating into our minds. ^_^

Yuu and Touko at last find each other and, more importantly, find themselves. They let go of the bonds they had imposed upon themselves, and in that, find freedom to be themselves, together. It is a fitting ending to a series that had such a tenuous beginning that I could not see them together without them losing parts of what made them, them. I wasn’t wrong, but Nakatani-sensei did it all her way…and, it worked.

When you’ve waited 7 volumes for a narrative climax, it’s often easy to feel vaguely let down by the end. For Bloom Into You, it’s very much the opposite. I originally expected a train wreck at the end, but the story and characters were given the time they needed to develop. I’m confident that Yuu and Touko can be happy together, maybe even moreso because they took the long way around.

An epilogue is always appealing to me. This volume’s epilogue is filled to the brim with catching us up on everyone and everything. If there is a flaw to this volume, its that everyone has done too well, and is too happy. ^_^ But I’m not complaining, as that is still rare and precious enough to just be enjoyed.

More importantly, we have a tantalizing glimpse into Sayaka’s future….a story that is currently playing out in Bloom Into You Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 1, Volume 2 which is out now in paperback and digital and Volume 3, which will be available later this year. I happily recommend all 3 volumes.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – There is a sex scene. Whether you consider that service or not is entirely up to you.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

Several of the after-series publications mentioned in the afterword have come to pass already. I’m currently reading the short story collection of Nakatani-sensei’s work from the Éclair anthology series, Sayonara Alter (仲谷鳰短編集 さよならオルタ). I have not yet obtained the artbook, Astrolabe, (アストロラーベ). If someone has it and would like to review it, drop me an email!





Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 1 (ヒトゴトですから!)

August 7th, 2020

Hitogoto Desukara, Volume 1 (ヒトゴトですから!) , by Yuni is a very funny, outrageous and ever-so-slightly enraging workplace comedy manga.

Komori Mio is a self-proclaimed sales ace. She’s got skills closing contracts, especially with beautiful female clients. Komori hopes – and expects – to be rewarded for those skills…and is quite put out when the next transfers are announced and instead of a high-flying position overseas, shes transferred into HR. In HR she is assigned to very plain Yamanobe Kyouko to learn the ins and outs of helping employees with their problems.

Let me stop here and unpack this situation, (and my feelings about it.) I don’t know the specifics of how internal company transfers work in Japanese companies, beyond that annual transfers happen regularly between departments and locations but, based on 4 decades of working with larger corporations I have some thoughts:  1) This is enraging. We know no top male sales employee would be be transferred into a support position. 2) This is ridiculous. A top sales person in any industry is usually moved up into management where those same skills that are great for sales are toxic for managing people.  3) This is parody. Every company I have ever met has HR for one purpose – to protect the company from the humans they employ. This is not to say that all HR everywhere is terrible, it’s just that I have never met, or heard of any, that isn’t. ^_^;

One night Yamanobe and Komori end up running into each other as they, separately,  bring a date – female in both cases – to a hotel. They suddenly realize that, for the first time ever, they have a true peer in the company and agree to support one another in their womanizing. And so Komori learns that the skills she used closing contracts and getting women into bed, work for reassuring coworkers. And, separately, getting women into bed.

4) This is a comic. Let’s just agree that we should accept that absolutely nothing we’ve seen or are about to see can be used to be angry about this enraging, outrageous, ridiculous manga, shall we? If we don’t agree on that, we’re just going to spend 174 pages being angry. ^_^

Despite this appalling premise, Komori and Yamanobe are serious about their job.  After a young employee fails to return to the office, they visit her, only to find that she really hated everything about the job. “Kids today,” Komori says, and Yamanobe who, like Komori is not old at all, says “Do not go there.”

Under Yamanobe’s guidance, Komori begins to really get the hang of HR and helping people find solutions to their problems. Komori’s a little intrigued by Yamanobes refusal to take on a lover, but we can guess that powerful, beautiful, annoying as fuck, Kujou Natsu might be at the root of that.

Komori’s passion for HR comes to a screaming halt at the end of the volume, when Yamanobe declares her disqualified to be an interviewer. Why? Tune into Volume 2 to find out!

I love Yuni’s stylish art, I think the characters are a riot and the premise is so awful that I enjoyed it immensely. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – I won’t. I can’t.
Service – 1? Even in bed, everyone is covered up
Yuri – 9 Between the two of them, we see them with at least half dozen women

Overall – 8

I’ll be definitely getting the next volume. This is not so much a Yuri story in the office, as an office sitcom about 2 lesbians.





Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 2 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~)

August 4th, 2020

What if you entered a school that had a fabled old tradition and it sounded so beautiful and romantic that you couldn’t wait to be part of it…but once you did you found the system was broken and toxic?

Nao has been partnered with Asagiri Ibuki and she find that she’s genuinely falling in love with her sempai. Ibuki is kind and thoughtful and it definitely seems like the feeling is returned.

Kairo has been partnered with Abiko Yuuka, but while Yuuka and she have become lovers, Kairo is sure she’s being used. Abiko-sempai is emotionally manipulation and occasionally abusive and even when she is being kind, it hurts.

Both Nao and Kairo can see that Ibuki and Yuuka have a past. Ibuki lies about it to Nao, but Yuuka tells Kairo the truth.

Kairo is also going through a little crisis about herself. She refers to herself as “boku” and it’s pretty obvious that she’d like to be more princely. I think she’d specifically like to be Nao’s prince.

Yamada from the newspaper club says it first…the Aikata System is not working. People are being hurt. It’s broken and it needs to be broken up.

Aikata System ~ Gakuen ga Eranda Unmei no Onna no ko~, Volume 2 (相方システム~学園が選んだ運命の女の子~) did not go *anywhere* I thought it would and wow, am I impressed. Creator Hakamada Mera is showing us a version of Marimite‘s souer system that is a poisoned well, and I find that, as difficult as this book is to read or enjoy, it’s a compelling story.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 3 Partial nudity, sexual situations.
Yuri – 6

Overall – 8

Although I was deeply distressed by Abiko-sempai’s treatment of Kairo, I was relieved that by the end of this volume, Kairo, Yamada and Nao are all aware that this system is not working. I think it would be interesting to see the first-years band together and take down the system, although that might be asking too much of this series. ^_^





Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – August 1, 2020

August 1st, 2020

Yuri Anime

RetroCrushTV is adding more new titles that were fundamental back in developing Yuri fandom a few decades ago. They have Key The Metal Idol, Vampire Princess Miyu, Devil Lady.

Alex Mateo reports on ANN, at the end of August, RetroCrushTV will be adding Riyoko Ikeda’s shoujo classic Dear Bother. This series is pure shoujo, no magical girls, no aliens, with high melodrama and it really holds up as some of the director Dezai Osamu’s, best work. If you have never had a chance to see Dear Brother this is a great opportunity to watch it legally, free, ad-supported.

RetroCrushTV has also launched an ad-supported linear streaming network available on Roku and other smart TV platforms.

Sentai Filmworks has pulled their entire catalog from Crunchyroll, doubling down on their investment in HIDIVE. Miles Thomas on Crunchyroll has the list of titles that are leaving. Sentai also announced a dub cast for Fragtime. Joseph Luster  has the report for Crunchyroll News.

Not Yuri that I know of, but I just wanted to make a rude noise about the title of the Cartoon Network/Crunchyroll collaboration anime title, Fena: Pirate Princess. Seriously? Xena: Warrior Princess might have something to say about that title. Adria Hazra at ANN has the details about the series.

Quinta Brunson on Twitter announced that she’s playing Alex on SYFY’s upcoming Magical Girl Friendship Squad, a magical adult women, no BS comedy. Click the link for the profanity-laden teaser. ^_^

 

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Yuri Manga

Via Senior Corespondent Louise P, Yuri manga creator mk has a lovely little series call Osananajimi no Yuri Fu~fu Seikatsu (おさななじみの百合夫婦生活) that you can purchase for digital download or physical copy with worldwide shipping on the creator’s Booth.pm page. The story is about two old friends who are now a couple. ^_^

ANN’s Alex Mateo once again has news, this time that Square Enix has licensed Otherside Picnic manga and Okura’s manga I Think Our Son Is Gay.

Yen Press on Twitter has revealed the cover to Éclair Rouge: A Girls’ Love Anthology That Resonates in Your Heart, the fourth entry in the Éclair anthology series.

 

Other News

Yoshiya Nobuko’s story from Hana Monogatari, Tsuriganesou was made into a movie…twice. The 1935 original and a 1940 remake. Here’s a YouTube clip from the 1940 version of Tsuriganesou (釣鐘草).

Via Grace Ting, I want to share this beautiful short story, Patient. Written by Wong Yi, translated by Jennifer Feeley for Asymptote‘s “In This Together: Writers from Around The World Respond To The COVID-19 Outbreak” series. This story is part of Wong Yi’s “Ways to Love a Crowded City.”

In case you missed it, I did a review of the two sites bringing us legally licensed translated Yuri doujinshi, Lilyka and Irodori Sakura.

One last item from Alex Mateo on ANN is the news that Niantic has committed money from the last Pokemon GO event to organizations that support Black game developers, Black trans folks, and Black Lives Matter groups.

Which brings me to this week’s editorial. Comments on this will be heavily moderated.

In case I have not made it clear, the Okazu family and I believe Black Lives and Trans Lives Matter. I regularly donate to a local BLM group, support queers creators of color with our Okazu Microgoals on Patreon. There is nothing capricious about the way I choose the people we support.

When comics, and anime, and gaming keep saying “We have a problem,” and the problem never seems to go away, there is not just one problem. Comic and Gamer gates are groups dedicated to the harassment of women, queer folks and people of color. This is not “a problem.” They are *the* problem – that there really honestly are, at all levels of all industries, men who think their skin color and the fact that they have a penis makes them better at all the things.  This specific belief kills people every day.  This belief is destroying our planet.

Anyone arguing that “politics” needs to be kept out of art is a not arguing from a strong position. Art is political. Business is political. People’s lives are inherently political. You’re being political when you choose to back companies and individuals who rage against empathy and diversity or who pretend to support it, then make it somehow impossible for non white, non-male  employees to move up in the ranks. You’re being political when you choose to support marginalized creators. The Hugo Awards last night showed that the Worldcon membership was ready for and welcoming of a diverse future…and leadership chose a rambling old man whose derivative book series remains unfinished, who spent most of his time praising a fascist while host and presenters mispronounced people’s names *and* their winning titles. The problem is that no one in Worldcon leadership thought to make sure this didn’t happen….again. For the umpteenth year in a row. During segments that were pre-recorded, for fuck’s sake.

Be political. Give your money and time and attention to creators and companies who foster environments where everyone’s work is valued, where people are treated like people, not like replaceable resources. 

One last thing, for readers in the US, please make sure you are registered to vote and do vote. If we do not, this may be the last election we’ll see in our lifetime. Not hyperbole. We are on the very brink of not being a democracy. The President has told us that he will do everything to make sure this election is declared invalid. He has told us and shown us. This must be a landslide. Be political.

Become a YNN Correspondent by reporting any Yuri-related news with your name and an email I can reply to – thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network! Special thanks to Okazu Patrons for being an important part of the Okazu family. I couldn’t do it without you!