Obscure Yuri Manga
Part 3

One more really obscure Yuri manga you’ve never seen or heard of before. ^_^

Utahime Fight is a collection of short stories drawn and written by Kakunouchi Narumi, creator of Vampire Princess Miyu and Juline (and many, many others…). Her oeuvre is shoujo manga fantasy and martial arts, frequently at the same time.

Utahime Fight includes three stories, all of which are about magical, mysteriously attractive girls and they effect they have on the people around them. In the first story, a girl and her two friends (one male, one female) are really magical fighters for something – probably love and justice. The third story is about a magical creature that enchants a young man and brings love into his life.

But the story that concerns us is the second in the collection, entitled “Keep Trust.” It’s a fairly trite set-up, standoffish cool girl rebuffs cute passionate girl’s overtures of friendship at school. They find themselves locked in the library one night and poof! they find themselves in the plot of a movie, in which a prince strives to save his mother and his land. (The movie had been the topic of much discussion at school, and the heroine, whose name escapes me at the moment, is totally agog over the idol who stars as the prince.)

Our cute, blonde “warm” heroine becomes the Prince’s confidant and encourages him to persevere, while the “cool” brunette falls in love with her from a distance. To make matters worse, as they say, warm girl likes to touch cool girl, snuggle with her in bed and, worst of all, cry in her arms. Cool girl is quietly dying inside the entire time until something happens to threaten their lives, and she admits, finally, that she loves warm girl.

At which they wake up in the library in school. They have a final scene in which they admit that they love each other and story ends.

Not groundbreaking, but quietly sweet. Drawn in Kakunouchi’s usual sweeping, loose-lined art, it’s a little hard to follow any action, but that’s her signature style and it doesn’t bother me.

Ratings:

Art -8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7

Overall – 7

For yet another random find in a used manga store, this little collection was quite enjoyable.

When I say I have *a lot* of Yuri manga, I mean, I have so much, I’ve forgotten half of what I own. So this weekend I was crawling through some of the older, obscurer of my collection and thought I’d write a few reviews, because how else will you learn about these gems…and the not-so-gem-like, too.

Cleaning Out The Obscure Yuri Manga Closet
Part 1

Today, we’ll start with Vaelber Saga, a story that I believe richly derserves its obscurity. I have volumes 1 and 2 and have never been motivated to get 3. If anything good happens in 3, someone tell me and I’ll go get it. ^_^

The world of Vaelber Saga is an over-drawn monster-infested post-apocalyptic Earth. The action is full of movement and violence that one can barely make out past all the heavy black ink lines…I’m sure you know the sort.

Our heroine Jum has a talking cat/fox kind of animal, really long hair and a mission that has something to do with the “Vaelber,” the nature of which I never really figured out. She wears an outfit that I can only describe as “a really dumb choice for an post-apocalyptic world” and swings an overlong sword without cutting her overlong hair.

Can you tell I love this story?

Jum discovers and, after a really prolonged battle with one of those monster guys that never dies no matter how many body parts you remove, she saves our damsel-in-distress, Mina. Their eyes lock and their hearts pound, and…yeah, so that’s about it for them. Later, Jum watches Mina bathe, contemplating why her heart is beating so loudly and, after saving Mina from one of those monster guys that never dies no matter how many body parts you remove, they find themselves naked and well within touching distance. The look into each others’ eyes and move closer and then pull away, beet red and as horny as hell. But of course, nothing happens.

Thank GOD for the reigning Evil Queen-type character, Maria. At least she just goes ahead and sleeps with her chief henchchick, Freya. I quite like both of them – too bad they will be defeated. Why is that? Maria looks completely competent to rule this dismal little planet…and we’re supposed to be happy that Jum will eventually defeat her and replace her with a blushing, simpering child? Ugh. No thanks, count me in on the side of the baddies here, kids. For one thing – they have much nicer clothes.

There’s also a questionably uber-butch character, Giselle, who is a friend of Jum’s from waaaay back who will invariably betray her. If only it leads to her finding solace in Mina’s arms, it might be worth it. Wanna take bets?

So, yeah, this series has genuine Yuri, of two kinds – the “why do I feel this way around you?” kind and the “get over here wench” kind. And yet, it’s a boring, boring manga.

If you like post-apocalyptic demonfests with unrealistically drawn swords and a strong D&D feel, you might like Vaelber Saga more than I do. Or not. Whatever.