Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 1 (ハロー、メランコリック! )

January 9th, 2020

Today I wanted to review something that made me happy. And, for several reasons, this book was just the ticket. Ohsawa Yayoi’s Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 1 (ハロー、メランコリック! ) is an emotional rollercoaster with a sound track. ^_^

Asano Minato is hiding in plain sight. She’s tall, but she’s very quiet, and very withdrawn. She keeps her hair over her face and her head down. It’s not hard to see that she’s avoiding being seen. While eating lunch alone in her secret spot, she hears what is obviously an instrument. She immediately wonders why, since this high school doesn’t have a band. She knows that…because that’s why she transferred here.

Despite every attempt to hide, Minato is spotted by an upperclassman who begins to dog her. Hibiki-sempai, it turns out, can tell that Minato is a good musician…and she wants her for her band. It’s not an official school band, just for fun. Minato says no, but ends up in the clubroom anyway, where one of the other students makes a joke about her not coming to practice with her instrument. “Read the atmosphere,” she says and Minato panics and runs away.

Hibiki follows and learns why Minato is at this school. A talented and enthusiastic trombone player, Minato was chosen for the competition band in middle school over an upperclassman….and was ostracized by the other band members for it. “Read the atmosphere” was the flail they used to torture her until she just gave up music and, apparently, life.  She explains all this to Hibiki who is very kind, but tells her to bring her instrument and come back to the room tomorrow, anyway. They’ll play, just the two of them.

Despite the stares as she carries her trombone around, Minato does come back and the two of them play a free form duet. Hibiki is once again very kind and notes that Minato isn’t just good, she’s got an exceptional ear. And once again, Minato runs away, this time because it’s too much, it feels too good.

But there she is again, the next time and she meets the rest of the band, Sakiko on flulte and Chika on guitar and Emma, a half-Russian student who can play everything. With Hibiki on drums, they’d like to perform in a local festival; Hibiki is determined to get Minato in their group. Minato concedes and her life changes radically with her new group of friends and Hibiki-sempai who makes her experience and feel all sorts of things she had given up on.

When Minato realizes that Hibiki-sempai’s hand is injured, it’s her turn to be strong enough to make demands. And she demands Hibiki care about her own body. Will they be able to play in the festival? Where is the Yuri in this Yuri manga? Tune into Volume 2 to find out! (If you’ve read ahead, please do not feel the need to spoil. I get the magazine too. This is a review of Volume 1. Thanks for understanding how this works. ^_^)

Hello, Melancholic! is a story of a life redeemed from the darkness. It’s a joy to experience sneaking out and jammimg with Minato and a delight to see her lifted by Hibiki and given space and imprimatur to spread her wings and fly.

But, even more of a delight, in the author’s note, Ohsawa-sensei commented that the first chapter has been released as a voiced manga promotional video on Youtube by Ichijinsha, who calls it a “PP” for “power push.” I immediately ran over to catch it and found myself tearing up as I watched. It was quite wonderful. The art was given color washes that were very impactful and as Hibiki and Minato play, the frames go from B&W to a kind of rainbow ink for a fantastic visual parallel to Minato’s emotional state. And they even wrote actual music for us to listen to for the jam session. It was a lovely touch for a manga so wrapped up in the idea of music. Top marks all around. Take a look and enjoy!

 

 

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 2 A bit, but Hibiki’s doing it on purpose
Yuri – 1

Overall – 8 because it’ll get better and needs room to go up. ^_^

This was definitely the manga I needed today. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Galette No. 11 (ガレット)

January 8th, 2020

It’s funny how fashion works in things you wouldn’t imagine. You might read a magazine and note that it has a story about, say, a runaway. Then you notice that a new runaway story just started elsewhere. The next thing you know, it’s runaways all over the place. True, some of that is confirmation bias, but sometimes, something just rides the zeitgeist. Last autumn there were a handful of AI Yuri stories that all kind of hit at once. One of them just happens to have been Uno Zinnia’s “Katachi ga Onajinara” in Galette, No. 11 (ガレット). I’m kind of a sucker for android/AI Yuri. ^_^

Amano Shuninta’s “Toma-kun” has ended and, while I’m not sad for the same reasons the characters are, I’m still sad it’s over. ALSO, put a pin in this, because “fashion.”

I find Hamano Ringo’s work to be very…relaxing. There’s so little stress here, “Sora-iro Melancholic” was perfect wind-down reading.

“Esthetician Amagai ha Akiremenai” by Isoya Yuki, a new name to me, had an old MIST magazine feel, but I had to love it when the final pose was the most inappropriate pieta ever. ^_^ I think I loved it.

Hakamada Mera’s “Sekai Owaru Sono Maeni” is…good. And possibly unpredictable, based on future chapters… I’m looking forward to reading this story of an adult couple. Honestly, it’s my sincere opinion that Galette has been really good for Hakamada-sensei. I feel like she’s finally hit her stride here.

A new character has made quite the impression in Kitta Izumi and Momono Moto’s “Liberty.” I can feel it going way darker and wondering where it’s going to go. I’m still all in for the ride, though.

Morinaga Milk’s “Watashi no Kawaii Nekochan” is also getting a little serious, but not in a bad way! Yuna and Rena and, of course, their cat, have moved into a bigger place and their lives together have really begun.

Aoto Hibiki’s “Girl Meets Bunny Girl” feels like the PG cut of a R-rated movie. ^_^ Fun, but is that really what it was supposed to be?

As always, there are other stories that I didn’t call out that were perfectly entertaining.

Ratings:

Overall – 9 I get a lot of entertainment out of each volume. ^_^

You can subscribe to Galette on Bookwalker Global or get it on Amazon Kindle (in Japanese) or get print or JP Kindle from Amazon JP. You can also support the creators directly and help the magazine get made through the crowdfunding site, Fantia. Gold level will provide you with PDF copies of Galette Meets and back issues of the magazine. I see a bunch of familiar names on the “thanks” pages every month. Why not join us this year?

Volume 12 is already out (and I’m reading it now~~~)





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime January 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年1月号)

January 7th, 2020

It’s a new year and a new look for Comic Yuri Hime January 2020 (コミック百合姫2020年1月号)! I love how they are shifting up the look every year now, with a new cover artist and a whole new feel. I’m not sure if I actually like the cover art itself. I like the color scheme, but it’s hard to tell where arms and legs actually are and the proportions were odd. But the women seem happy, so that’s all to the good. ^_^

The opening story is one that ought to have been excellent. Ogino Jun’s “semelparous” is…not excellent. The setup is blatantly derivative of Attack on Titan, but even that would have been perfectly fine. Bug-eyed monsters are subject to fashion too. ^_^ The problem is the outrageously awful anatomy. Women’s breasts do no look like that, they do not act in those ways, nothing about them is based on any sort of reality. It’s some of the laziest, least competent anatomy I have ever seen in a published manga.  Which is a shame, because an action story about women fighting unreasonably large monsters for some reason or other is just fine by me, (heck, I love SHWD,) I’m deeply repulsed by giant overstuffed water balloons passing for breasts. Because I like real women, I also enjoy women’s actual bodies, not tiresome fetishist fantasies of women’s bodies created by men who don’t actually like women. It’s just such a disappointment to me that the editor doesn’t look at this and says, “Great story, how about you draw those tits a little more natural, after all the majority of our audience is women.”

Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” takes an odd turn, but one I imagine was chosen so there is “a conflict,” so there may later be a “reconciliation.” Not sure we actually needed that, but hey, I’m not the editor. (Wish I was, though. There’d be zero water balloons breasts or lolicon creepiness. I just don’t think those yen are worth getting.)

No idea where “Pocha Climb” is going….probably nowhere. Club + Yuri is an easy story. It will go a volume or two and be soon forgotten. (Tune in later this month for my review of Koisuru Asteroid, an anime choosing the same route. That’s a climbing joke.)

“Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” is…kinda nice. ^_^ I like Usui Shio’s art and while Hinako has to keep being reminded to not be mopey, she’s kind of coming around to being cheerful.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” by Miman is a bit of a clip episode from Mitsuki’s point of view. We already know her story, but as she prepares to, well…let’s be honest, we can see she’s heading for a harsh, but she’s still young…she’s gearing up to try and love again. Gosh I hope I’m wrong, but Hime hasn’t dealt with herself at all yet. I don’t see things going well. yet. YET. I have high hopes for this series! ^_^

Ohsawa Yayoi’s “Hello Melancholic” was so very good, I kind of forgot everything else. ^_^ The festival arrives and the band has to find a way around Hibiki-sempai’s injury, which they do. A horrible thing is averted and the band has a triumphant performance in which Minato blasts through her fear of people and is magnificent. After the performance, Minato stumbles on Chika and Sakiko in an intimate moment and has her mind blown.

And…and…and…! Takemiya Jin’s “Itoshi Koishi” takes the plunge! After exams have been taken and passed, Hina faces her friends and tells them there’s something she wants to tell them….she’s been seeing an older person, a woman. One friend who clearly knew jumps right in to say that she’s happy for Hina, which prompts the rest of them to follow along. Micchan drags up the old TV show”true tales” of gay people living alone and miserable, but Hina – with a smile – assures Michhan she is very happy indeed. The only shock comes when Hinako mentions that they’ve already met her girlfriend. We cut to Yayoi discussing work with her friend, noting that Hina’s coming out had gone well

I want to unpack this all a little. It’s not often we get coming out scenes in Yuri. But I’ve had my finger crossed for this one in particular. Not just because I like the story, but because Takemiya-sensei does something important here.  The reaction Hina gets is positive, supportive, accepting and loving. We kind of knew that was going to be the response….but the response is not the point of coming out. The point of coming out is that a person, who has never previously stated something out loud says that something out loud. Hina’s friends love her, that is no surprise, but it still takes effort to come out. It’s still stressful. It’s important.It’s an ongoing process. If Hina and Yayoi stay together, Hina will quite probably have to replay this scene over and over. Because people still think that being gay is a lonely existence, because once upon a time on TV there was a documentary about that. It’s ridiculous, but that’s how people really think. Being gay was taken out of the DSM in the 1970s and there are still people who talk about it as an illness. People in countries that have legal gay marriage but who simply will not wrap their heads around the last 50 years of history having happened. So what we here get is the most modern possible coming out – showing that it’s still not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard.

I hope that kids all over Japan read this issue and came out to their friends. ^_^

This is followed by yet another joy-filled issue of Saki and Asuka being cute as can be together in Ohi Pikachi’s “Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru.”

CW reminds me to mention that there is a new autobiographical series by Inui Ayu about living with her girlfriend. (I wasn’t kidding about forgetting everything! ^_^) Thanks for the reminder.

As always there were any number of stories read, but not mentioned and others not read, because this is a magazine full of ll sorts of stories! Overall, a great start to a new year!

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The February issue is on shelves now. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Mejirobana no Saku (メジロバナの咲く)

January 6th, 2020

This year we are starting off 101 CYE and I wanted to pick something really special to begin with. It was a difficult decision, let me tell you! ^_^ To try and capture the oldness, the newness, the everythingness about this new age, I chose something that is both old and new, Nakamura Asumiko’s Mejirobana no Saku (メジロバナの咲く).

Ruby Canossa is a student at an exclusive school for wealthy girls. She’s got friends and is neither the worst student, nor the best. As the holidays approach, she learns she will be left behind at the school; her parents have been having problems, so they’ve decided to take a cruise…without her. Ruby also learns that she won’t be alone at the school. Star of the school, the cold beauty known as “Steel” Steph is going to be remaining behind for the holiday break, as well. Steph has no apparent interest in Ruby, but Ruby finds herself interested in the other girl. Their relationship is fraught and, as Ruby’s life begins to collapse around her, Steph never provides any comfort, but may be the strength Ruby needs to find her way.

This volume is full of tension, from both Ruby’s home life and the tension between her and Steph, but Ruby is never afraid to say what she thinks or hold back for decorum’s sake, which makes this story the opposite of the kind of tension we find in Mayu, Matou.

Nakamura-sensei is probably best known in the west as the creator of Classmates, (which is available in English from Seven Seas) and is generally known as a BL artist, but this isn’t the first thing she’s drawn with Yuri. You may remember she had a Yuri story in Denpa’s Maiden Railways.  That story was quite modern. This story, set in the most classic of Yuri tropes – the vaguely European, vaguely Christianish private school for daughters of the elite, is the Yuri manga equivalent of Nakamura-sensei stomping her foot down in the girls love ring. ^_^ She has arrived, and she has brought along many of the old familiar genre tropes, taking a look at them with a fresh perspective. Our long-haired beauty is Hungarian and blonde this time, but its instantly apparent that still waters run deep here. Dark-haired Ruby is the hot-headed emotional character, but instantly likeable for having agency and being willing to use it.

There are kisses…but whether there is, or will be, affection, is up for debate. There’s no way to guess which direction this story is going from this volume. (If you have read ahead, please do not share. I also read the magazine. I’m reviewing this volume. Thanks for understanding how reviews work.)

Nakamura’s art is quirky. It will be entirely personal taste whether you like it or not. As I mentioned in my review of Maiden Railways, “stunned into silence” is the primary reaction of characters in Nakamura’s work, so watching her reach into Ruby and finding volatile emotion is really appealing to me. I also definitely enjoyed the cover design with all the tropes laid out plainly and the title rendered in metallic silver as if to indicate that this book is, as one might expect, a high class product.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9 These are really strong characters. Some of the best she’s done
Service – 2 because of a thing
Yuri – 6

Overall – I was going to say 8, but on re-read, 9.

We’re never going to shed the tropes of Yuri, but revisiting them with talented creators doing something unique and unpredictable with them is always a great way to begin the new year!





100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project, by Erica Friedman

January 5th, 2020

Welcome to the final post of the 100 Years of Yuri 2020 Project! With this post, the first centennial anniversary of the Yuri genre is complete. We can walk forward into a new century, assured in the knowledge that we have absolutely no idea at all what will happen. ^_^

One of the most often-asked questions I get is “where do I start?” when it comes to reading and watching Yuri. My criteria for this list was simple: Answer that question using primarily English-language releases (as the readership for Okazu is primarily, although not exclusively, English readers.) This list is an attempt to trace the evolution of the Yuri genre over 100 years. These choices will help you understand where the tropes of our genre came from and how they developed. The series mentioned here had massive influence on our perception of Yuri. There are still a few critical pieces that are not yet available in English – I hope that one day I’ll be able to say they are. In the meantime, I’ve added them in in Japanese, for those of you who are dedicated to learning more about the origins of the genre.

I’m presenting these choices in chronological order, from earliest to most recent. Here are my recommendations to understand 100 years of of the Yuri genre.

Titles have been edited so series available in English use official English-language titles, and Japanese-only titles are in Romaji (with Kanji in parentheses).

 

Yaneura no Nishojo (屋根裏の二処女) by Yoshiya Nobuko
Yoshiya Nobuko’s story about two girls living in the attic room of a foreign-run mission school is the origin for so many of the tropes we have come to expect from Yuri – from the tower room itself, to an intimate piano duet.

Akiko, who take three pages to open a door when we meet her, does not hesitate to take Akitsu’s hand and go to the outside world, together, a choice echoed by two women who lived in a tower almost a century later in Revolutionary Girl Utena.

We would not speak of or think of Yuri in the way we do now, if it weren’t for this foundational work, Yaneura no Nishojo.

 

 

Yellow Rose by Yoshiya Nobuko
In the first part of the 20th century, as the “S” aesthetic was sweeping Japan and creating a culture for girls, Yoshiya Nobuko’s serialized short stories of the lives of young women were wildly popular. Hana Monogatari represented girls’ lives as they moved out of school into adult life. The protagonists of these stories often embraced new technologies so instead of marrying, they lived independent lives as working women.

Yellow Rose is the only one of these stories available in English. Translated by Dr. Sarah Frederick, published digitally by Expanded Editions, this short, but intense, story captures the feel of classic Japanese literature and the sense of the dawning of a completely modern age. Trains and typewriters loom as large as Sappho and her poetry in this fascinating, darkly emotional tale about unexpected feelings of attraction and loss. This is an excellent place to start with in your English-language journey through Yuri.

 

 

Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka
The Yuri trope of the Girl Prince has roots going back to the Heian period, but as far as manga is concerned, this is where it began. Tezuka, known as the “god of manga.” captured the glamour of the all-woman musical revue named for the town he lived in, Takarazuka, added a bit of Disney flair, spiced it up with a little gender-bending to create Ribon no Kishi, Princess Knight (Volume 1 |  Volume 2) available from Vertical Publishing. This book is technically out of print. Consult your local library to get it by Interlibrary Loan.

Sapphire is born to be the Prince of her country except that, as a girl, she can’t rule. But because she has the heart of a man and a woman, and to stave off the evil Duke, Sapphire grows up acting as the Prince. Her boy heart give her athletic and ruling abilities, but her girl heart makes her yearn for love and beautiful gowns.  This story relies on mid-century gender stereotypes, but it is the origin of a theme we will see over and over again in Yuri; the blending of male and female in a noble Girl Prince.

 

 

Shiroi Heya no Futari (白い部屋のふたり) by Yamagishi Ryoko
There’s always controversy around the “first” anything, but if there is a single manga that has claim to being the first truly “Yuri” manga, Yamagishi Ryoko’s Shiroi Heya no Futari is the leading candidate. It codified Yuri tropes visually, in the same way Yoshiya’s novel Yaneura no Nishojo did thematically.

Emotionally high-strung traditional Japanese beauty Simone and cheerful and European doll-like Resine meet in a foreign mission school. Both of them outsiders to the school, they share an attic room where they fall in love. But there can be no happy ending for them, so Simone runs off to die a tragic death (one that immediately recalls American lesbian pulp novels of the time) to “free” Resine to marry.

Almost 50 years later, we still see the ripples of Simone and Resine in other popular Yuri series about a romance between an emotionally unbalanced dark-haired beauty and a cheerful girl, most recently saburouta’s Citrus. Shiroi Heya no Futari is long out of print and not available in English, but I hope one day to be able say that this classic Yuri manga is heading our way, if only to share the “original” Yuri manga with you.

 

 

The Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikeda
Sometimes it is easy to look back and see why a thing sparked the zeitgeist. Timeless tales told with high drama, history as seen through a modern lens; the human drama of human drama is always popular.

The French Revolution is so enormous that it may be best told as one person’s story. Whether we follow Jean Valjean or Oscar François de Jarjayes, seeing the events from one perspective gives us a place to start as the grand and ghastly true tale unfolds. With such epic historical content, Riyoko Ikeda still manages to make The Rose of Versailles relatable.  Oscar stands atop the pinnacle of the Girl Prince trope and we, the readers, understand perfectly why the men and women who knew her, loved her. Tezuka may have created the Girl Prince, but Ikeda perfected her.

Now that there is a definitive English edition of The Rose of Versailles manga from UDON Entertainment, we can one day hope for a definitive edition of another of Ikeda’s masterworks, Dear Brother (Oniisama e).

 

 

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
In any modern series we’d be happy to see a lesbian couple form an alternative family with three mothers and a daughter. In any current series, we’d be delighted to see a team of women willing to die to save one another. More than 25 years ago we got all that, and more. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon as a series includes multiple instances of sexual and gender minority characters. In a series ostensibly for children. Not all of them are dead at the end of the series. For a 25-year old series, that seems a miracle.

Miracle or not, it is one more reason to continue to love a magical girl series that has inspired-and still inspires – a quarter of century of creativity, of social expression and a ridiculous number of Yuri artists and writers. With both anime from Viz Media and manga from Kodansha Comics available in English, it’s time to fall in love with the Senshi – and watch Haruka and Michiru, the queens of Yuri, fall in love with each other – all over again.

 

 

Revolutionary Girl Utena by BePapas
On the cusp of a new millennium, a group of extraordinarily talented anime and manga creators teamed up. They took Yuri tropes, magical girl tropes, festooned them with dueling and overtly meaningless symbols that were left to grow in a fertile petrie dish of adolescent awakening until they developed meaning. They covered it with the musical equivalent of a magical cookbook full of spells and paid homage to dozens of Yuri predecessors in the anime, movie and manga series that followed. Revolutionary Girl Utena was indeed revolutionary to the fans who watched wide-eyed as Utena unsheathed Dios’ sword from Anthy’s chest and were lead into the birth of a whole new genre.

Revolutionary Girl Utena gave us Utena and Anthy, but it also gave us Juri, the lesbian whose heart is locked up in her love for a manipulative (and, depending upon who you ask, unworthy) Shiori. It gave us a whole new set of Yuri archetypes, explored all the old archetypes with fresh eyes and ushered in a massive wave of fans, ready for a new genre. In many ways, Yuri could not have been born without the magical unrealism of Utena. Both anime, movie from RightStuf and manga and movie manga from Viz Media have received definitive releases in English, so it’s worth taking a look at all four of the stories to see all of the alternative versions of this important series.

 

 

Maria Watches Over Us by Oyuki Konno
At the same time Utena was redefining and reimagining magical girl Yuri, another series was doing the same with the early 20th century “S” aesthetic. Maria-sama ga Miteru was developed by Konno Oyuki as a 39-novel series (plus 9 other related novels) over 15 years. It was adapted into 4 seasons of anime, an 8-voume manga series, and at least 26 different Drama CDs.

Fukuzawa Yumi is honest and goodhearted, but not, apparently, special. We watch this “average” girl become involved with – but not overwhelmed by – the elites of the school, the Student Council and most especially, with the object of her own admiration, Ogasawara Sachiko. The focus of the series is on the big sister/little sister relationship trope that was so deeply embedded in Yuri and so well-known to Japanese fans, but mostly unknown to western audiences, as none of the early sources had been (and many remain) untranslated. When Maria Watches Over Us, available in English from Sentai, debuted as an anime, an entire generation of global Yuri fans learned about the specific and sisterly bonds between girls that had been encouraged since Akiko and Akitsu shared that tower room in the early part of the 20th century.

 

 

ALC Publishing
In  2003, ALC Publishing published the very first “Yuri manga” in English, Rica ‘tte Kanji!?, which went for 3 printings. Further chapters were serialized in in ALC’s Yuri Monogatari anthology until it was collected and reprinted digitally in 2012 as Tokyo Love – Rica ‘tte Kanji! Digital Collection. Rica was followed by Tadeno Eriko’s doujinshi collection WORKS, which is still in print and the Yuri Monogatari series, of which Volume 4 and Volume 6 are still in print.

The Yuri Monogatari anthology series (named in homage to Yoshiya Nobuko’s Hana Monogatari,) brought together Yuri artists from around the world in the very first English-language Yuri anthology. The goal was to present English-language readers with a wide variety of story and art and encourage them to look beyond girl-meets-girl.

ALC Publishing laid the English language foundation for the western Yuri market, with a strong emphasis on stories of adult lesbian life, rather than the still more common first-love school scenarios.

 

 

Cutey Honey & Devilman Lady by Go Nagai
If Osamu Tezuka is the “God of Manga” then Go Nagai is manga’s brilliant, but creepy uncle. Every genre that Tezuka established, Nagai did too, weirder and, arguably, better. Nagai is known in the west primarily for his Devilman and Mazinger franchises. In Cute Honey, Nagai created a magical female warrior who did not need men to help her (and often had to save them from harm) and a lesbian love story that has evolved and survived over decades. The Cutey Honey Classic Collection manga from Seven Seas and Cutey Honey Universe anime from Sentai Filmworks are exceptional versions of this timeless, yet pervy, story.

But where Nagai really excels is in the horror genre. He was born to create and explore the dark underbelly of demonic existence. The 2018 Netflix release of Devilman Crybaby was deeply queer and absolutely worth watching as a horror series. As far as Yuri goes, the series we should all know is Devilman Lady, released in the 2000s by ADV (now, by Section 23) as Devil Lady. Hopefully we’ll see a 20th anniversary release of one of the objectively best Yuri anime ever made just as lesbian horror is undergoing a long-awaited renaissance.

 

 

Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫)
The story of Comic Yuri Hime is the story of Yuri at the turn of the 21st century. This magazine burst forth in 2003 as Yuri Shimai and the last 2 decades have seen repeated renewals and rebirths as the market shifts and changes.

Beginning life as a quarterly magazine, Comic Yuri Hime is now monthly and has been home to the growth of many of the top name sellers in Yuri manga, from Morinaga Milk to Kodama Naoko. Along with the careers of their creators, these pages have seen so many of the newest iterations of old Yuri standards and, with folks like Ohi Pikachi and Takemiya Jin, its even broken some new ground.

While there is no English-language version, you can subscribe to it digitally in Japanese on Bookwalker Global.

 

 

Galette (ガレット)
I think of Comic Yuri Hime as a pathway that has been paved and widened over time and is now a highway for Yuri artists to take from their own work to published status. Using that metaphor, Galette magazine is an upgrade to the old road that parallels the new expressway. It’s still a smaller road, but there are a lot of things to look at, and accommodations are often more interesting/quirky than they are on the highway. 

This crowd-funded, creator owned quarterly Yuri manga magazine is giving complete freedom to Yuri creators. We have no idea what we’ll see along the way, but it will surely be interesting!

Galette is also available for Japanese-language subscription through Bookwalker Global.

 

 

Kase-san Series by Hiromi Takashima
Hiromi Takashima’s Kase-san series is a story of survival and tenacity. It was born in a brief period of prosperity during a Yuri boom in 2011. When the magazine it ran in went belly up, it would have been reasonable to assume we’d never see more of it after the third volume was published. But the creator didn’t agree and took her work online and continued the story. Without a magazine for an anchor, its amazing that this series was given a fourth volume, then a fifth. And then an actual miracle occurred. Because while the Kase-san series was continuing, peripatetic although it was, the Yuri market had blossomed since 2014. In 2017, the world was ready for Kase-san and Yamada to leave school and not live happily ever after, but continue on dealing with things like jealousy and separation and two lives moving in different directions as adults.

The manga series is available from Seven Seas and the beautifully animated OVA is available from Sentai Filmworks. The Kase-san series both embodies common Yuri tropes and exceeds them, which makes it an important stepping stone to understanding Yuri.

 

 

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata
One day, there will be articles and research about the impact this book, its sequels and its creator had on manga. Japanese manga has already seen an uptick in manga about mental and physical health. I don’t think I can overstate how important this book will be as we move forward in the 2020s.

Autobiographical comics are not uncommon in the west or Japan. When we look back at some of the greatest western comic artists, their stories about their own lives have resonated deeply with millions of readers. For a Japanese manga to join the ranks of Harvey Pekar, Alison Bechdel and Raina Telgemeier among our comics awards, is notable. In the sense that this is not “Yuri” at all, but is by and about life of a queer person, it threw doors wide open.

Kabi Nagata has already been recognized for her work with a Harvey Award. The creator being open about being gay, without any sense that story this is – or ever can be – a romance story, has already had a massive impact and I expect we will see ripples for years to come.

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available in English from Seven Seas.

 

 

Yuri Life by Kurukuruhime
The last few years has seen the creation of a brand new subgenre of Yuri. Known in Japanese as Shakaijin Yuri (社会人百合), these stories follow adult women in society. Often written as office romances, they allow for exploration of life as an adult woman in the working world, a place that is often a hostile environment for women.

Kurukuruhime’s Yuri Life avoids the problems and instead focuses on pairs of adult women making their lives together.

Adult life Yuri is not new – ALC Publishing’s WORKS addresses many of the same issues we see addressed in stories like Still Sick from Viz Media but Yuri Life and Whenever Our Eyes Meet, both from Yen Press are the first two adult life Yuri to make it into English and are notable for being the opening adult women needed to be part of the Yuri landscape.

 

 

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! by Ameco Kaeruda
The end of our first Yuri century just about exploded with whole new sections of the Yuri genre. Visual novels, office life Yuri, and Light Novels all carpet bombed Yuri fandom. I waffled heavily trying to pick just one truly representative Light Novel. Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka from Seven Seas was certainly representative of the older schoolgirl romance tropes and it was still a very good light novel, but the example I chose for this list was the one that broke new ground.

We might have expected it from a office romance, (and, admittedly, we see examples of the frustration with systemic misogyny in almost every example of that subgenre) but for pure, unadulterated exhaustion with misogyny, with a sense of being so far over it, that it’s unbelievable it still exists at all and with the kind of empowerment women can give one another when they work together in a Yuri story, I had to go with Ameco Kaeruda’s RPG Fantasy Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! Volume1 and Volume 2 are available digitally and Volume 1 will be released in print in 2020 from J-Novel Club.

 

 

Our Dreams at Dusk Shimanami Tasogare
Following on the heels of openly queer creators whose work is breaking sales records and breaking new ground at the same time, Kamatani Yuhki-sensei took the next step forward with a manga about sexual and gender minorities and the community they create for themselves. Like Rica ‘tte Kanji?!, Our Dreams at Dusk Shimanami Tasogare from Seven Seas uses the life of one young person, still questioning themselves to learn about the ups and downs of other people’s lives – all with eye to creating empathy and acceptance.

At the end of a century of Yuri, we are finally seeing what I always hoped we’d see – lesbian stories, stories of lives led, and loves found and lost. Yuri is still undergoing a massive change as more stories of adult life move into the Yuri genre. Eventually, as Yuri creators age, I have no doubt we’ll see senior years romance and life. ^_^

And here you have – it a primer for 100 Years of Yuri. With these titles, you will encounter all of the traditional Yuri tropes, where they came from and be able to see where they creators are taking them.

 

2020 is going to bring us absolute riches of both classic and new Yuri. With all these riches, I want to point out – again – that I’m still not seeing a few things that I want to see. So as we move into 2CYE (Common Yuri Era), here is my wish list for Yuri:

  • Sports Yuri manga series
  • “Ladies” Motorcycle gang Yuri series
  • High-powered Court Yuri Lawyer drama
  • Mystery-solving Lesbian Detective series
  • Space Marine Yuri Science Fiction
  • Senior Yuri Romance

…and, borrowed whole from petrarchian on Twitter:

  • A mezzo and a soprano who fall in love during a run of Der Rosenkavalier Opera Yuri ^_^

There’s my wish list – have at it, Yuri creators!

Thank you all for reading our lists, contributing your thoughts and here’s to a brilliant decade for Yuri!