Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


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!





Okazu Top Yuri of 2019

December 31st, 2019

As we wrap up this year, the 100th anniversary of the Yuri genre, I like to imagine what Yoshiya Nobuko might think, if she were to spring to life and see Yuri anime, manga, novels, games…stories of women in love with women, in both fantasy and “real world” settings and bookstores around the world with Yuri titles and manga stores with dedicated Yuribu.  I’d like to think that once she got past the confusion of it all, she’d be pretty pleased about it. ^_^

For the 15th year in a row, I’m wrapping all the best Yuri people, companies, trends and titles up in one big old package and presenting it to you as the Okazu Top Yuri of 2019. ^_^ Please note there are no numbers, as this is not a countdown. Everything here is equally notable.

We’ll start with some well-deserved kudos to the pieces of the industry that set the places at which we sit and lay the feasts we enjoy.

 

Yuri Publishers & Yuribu
In this 100th anniversary of the genre, something almost miraculous occurred. Manga, anime and light novel publishers in the US and many of the major Japanese publishers are now investing in Yuri as Yuri.

My sincere thanks to everyone at Yen Press, VIZ Media, Seven Seas Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, J-Novel Club, UDON Entertainment, Kodansha Comics, Denpa, Lilyka Manga and in Japan, Ichijinsha, Futabasha, Shueisha, East Press, Seidosha, Hayakawa Shobo, Kadokawa Shoten, Akita Shoten and, at long last, Shogakukan.

Additionally, Japanese manga and bookstores have finally recognized that Yuri is a genre that does bring in business and have developed Yuri Clubs to help funnel money their way. ^_^ So thanks to Animate, Shosen, Gamers and Futabasha (again.) Toranoana has no Yuribu, but their Yuri Corner in the flagship store in Akihabara is worth noting, as well.

All these companies have recognized the potential of the growing LGBTQ and Yuri markets and responded to it with money and promotion (and in the case of US companies, care and attention,) which gives us hope for even more and even better Yuri in the year to come!

 

Yuri Webcomics
Webcomics have been an important arm of indie comics since the early 2000s and the last few years has really seen the growth in online platforms for comic artists.

Pixiv has quite literally changed the game for indie artists in Japan like Nagata Kabi, and Webtoons and Lezhin have been among newer platforms that opened up a whole new audience to the joy of Yuri manga and comics.

Artists like Ratiana Satis (Pulse) and Kuru of Color_LES (Mage and Demon Queen) have changed the landscape for how – and where and by whom – people are able to find Yuri.

I think this kind of work is very exciting and very entertaining and always look forward to more new independent artists breaking out!

 

Yuri Visual Novels/Games
I’m not going to lie, the visual novel landscape has a lot of problems, Steam’s inconsistent and obscure rule changes looming large among them.  But the industry is full of energy and creativity that is worth talking about.

In 2019, Studio Élan created a whole new game engine for putting out innovative, unique, and original work. What I have seen has impressed me so very deeply. Indie creators gather annually for the Yuri Game Jam which gives space for smaller creative teams and individual devs to work on their idea and for you to try them out. Itch.io has quietly become a significant independent resource for game and VN developers and players.

Even if I will never be the audience for them, there are some really excellent VNs and games being made and I think they absolutely deserve a place on this list this year.

 

Yuri Creators
There are so many creators of Yuri these days that it almost seems insulting to highlight a few names, but this year there has been some outstanding work by a few individuals, that I really believe it’s worth highlighting and celebrating them.

These are creators whose work has created change in the Yuri landscape: Yoshiya Nobuko (Yaneura no Nishojo) for setting in motion the creation of an entire genre by living her life and writing the stories she wrote;  Riyoko Ikeda (Rose of Versailles), for having conversation about gender presentation and sexuality 40 years before anyone else had words for them;  Takeuchi Naoko (Sailor Moon) who twenty-five years ago created characters so timeless, that we’re only now realizing just how important they are; Kabi Nagata (My Solo Exchange Diary), for her heart-breaking honesty – I know many of us want her to be healthy and happy; Takashima Hiromi (Kase-san and Yamada) for breaking Yuri romance out of high school where it had been locked for so long; Go Nagai (Devil Lady), for being a pioneer of queer women in his Devilman sagas;  Takemiya Jin (Itoshi Koishi) for walking us along the path with a young woman who wants to be out and open with her friends; Ameco Kaeruda (Sexiled), for writing a feminist power fantasy that is empowering, delightful and funny; Morishima Akiko (Conditions of Paradise) who at long last in 2020 will get the English-language recognition as a Yuri manga artist that she deserves.

Breakthroughs often pass unnoticed until long afterwards. I will note that 2020 will mark the end of one the most important decades in history for our genre, as well as the end of the first century for the genre. Some of these names created a solid foundation for us to build upon and some are among the leading lights as we head into a new decade. They most assuredly deserve our thanks and a place on this list.

 

Okazu Readers and Patrons
You, my Okazu readers, are critically important to our mission here. It is a testament to your engagement that so many of you have become writers for Okazu and a testament to your personalities that so many of you have become my friends. ^_^ My very sincere thanks to every one of you who reads and comments on and shares our content.

My very special thanks to Okazu Patrons for making it possible for me to celebrate this year with reviews and lectures and panels and events. Your financial and social support helps us pay for guest writers and reviewers. Every year you make this list, and once again this year I can say with all honesty, I could not have done it without you.

 

Light Novels & Novels
This year saw a veritable explosion of Light Novels and Novels in both digital and print. While as a genre LNs can be inconsistent, Yuri fans have been horribly spoiled by the high quality Light Novels we’ve seen.

J-Novel Club opened up their Yuri line with a salvo of truly excellent Yuri titles, including Last and First Idol,and Side-by-Side Dreamers. Seven Seas picked up what are extraordinarily good series-extension Bloom Into You, Regarding Saeki Sayaka. But the Light Novel that really blew my hair back was the totally-on-point brilliantly topical and deeply satisfying Sexiled series by Kaeruda Ameco. Those books scratched itches I didn’t know I had. If you haven’t read these, you should. Just go read them.

Will Yuri fans continue to be spoiled with top quality fantasy and science fiction Light Novels while everyone else has to deal with “the protagonist has no pants, hurh hurh” as a main plot point? I sure hope so.  ^_^

 

Now as we enter the final few of of our end-of-year roundup, I want to take a moment to note a few series that just deserve a moment of reverence and thanks for all they’ve done and all they will continue to do.

 

Our Dreams at Dusk Shimanami Tasogare
As I have repeatedly noted, this series is not Yuri. Instead, there is very real-world queer identity here; real problems faced by real people in the real world, which makes this series, if not unique, then at least extraordinary.

This story about self and community and creating a space in a world that isn’t welcoming…and then taking up that space and owning it, is a lot to ask of a work of fiction. Heck, it’s a lot to ask of life! Not only does Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare succeed at that, it does it beautifully.

This is the kind of LGBTQ work I hope we’ll see more and more of from increasingly open queer manga artists.

 

 

Sailor Moon Stars
Every year I joke that if there is a Sailor Moon out that year, it will find a way on to this list.  ^_^ Well this year a Sailor Moon that has never had an official English-language release is out and it so very, deeply, queer that it seems almost fantastic. Sailor Moon Stars is the final piece of the original series, and we’re looking forward to the Sailor Moon Crystal 4th season movies in the years to come.

Let me offer a toast to Sailor Moon Stars and to the permanent – and official –  partnership of Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru – and welcome to the the next iteration of Sailor Moon fandom. Here’s to cafes and night drive parfaits and anniversary albums. May we all be together once again for the 50th anniversary.

 

 

Rose of Versailles
The wait has not been in vain. It *just* squeaked onto this year’s list by having a limited release in December. Don’t be surprised to see it back again in 2020. It’s almost 50 years old but we have an official English language release of The Rose of Versailles at last and it is a truly magnificent thing. UDON has really gone above and beyond for this release.

Oscar’s struggle with gender and class expectations, with the pressures of a society in which she may not be the person she wants to be, takes us through love and loss and the overturning of an ancien regime in a story that is terrifyingly timely.

This story of the French Revolution seen through the eyes of Oscar François de Jarjayes is so very, very extra.

A classic manga just in time for our 100th anniversary. What a year we’ve had. Our Yuri shelves are already full to bursting, with even more amazing stuff to come in 2020!

 

 

Kase-san and Bloom Into You
Both the Kase-san series and Yagate Kimi ni Naru/Bloom Into You were relatively typical high school Yuri series. Both series managed to take the typical tropes of their origins and turn them into something interesting, unusual and ultimately,  original. Both had animation that went above and beyond the manga and both had a global impact.

Once upon a time, all we wanted was a genuinely happy ending for a Yuri love story, an ending that showed our characters moving into the future together. This year, we got two. Moreover, neither series is riding its fame into the sunset, yet. Takashima-sensei’s Kase-san is ongoing and we’re getting some post-series work from Nakatani-sensei in anthologies and artbooks and I desperately hope to see signs of a third Sayaka novel soon.

These series have made it onto both of the other lists and it seems only reasonable to just say this plainly – both these series were tops for 2019.

 

I’ve mentioned this repeatedly during these lists (and have to tell you, we’re not done yet…) but this year was an amazing one, for me, for the Yuri genre, for all of us. Which brings me to the very best Yuri thing this year.

 

100 Years of Yuri

Yuri Events were through the roof this year. It began with the an amazing time at TCAF and took me along, one fun Yuri-filled event to another. We did Yuri-focused Yurithon. We held the 100th Anniversary of Yuri Tour with a few like-minded friends, during which we spent time with the Sailor Senshi, and ate lunch with Fumi, flipped 500 yen coins at a shrine with Kuraku Asuka, bought Yuri goods and Yuri doujinshi and Yuri manga and glutted ourselves on food and threw money at Yuri artists at Girls Love Fest.

This celebration of Yuri’s 100th anniversary has been exhausting and amazing. I’ve met so many folks, got to meet new Yuri manga artists and see old friends and done so many presentations and had so very much fun.

The number one top Yuri thing of the year was…the year.

It’s been 100 Years since Yaneura no Nishojo (屋根裏の二) codified how we think and talk about Yuri. Thanks to Yoshiya Nobuko and thanks to all the people and companies on these lists. Thanks to all of you, my readers and commenters and my patrons.

Here’s looking forward to 2CYE (Common Yuri Era) in which the the fun is not over, as we extend the celebration into 2020 for the final 100th anniversary project here on Okazu. ^_^ Tune in tomorrow! And here’s to the next 100 Years!

 





Okazu Top Yuri Manga of 2019

December 29th, 2019

Annually, I say to you that this is the easiest of the lists to write. In previous years this was completely true. This year however, we hit a tipping point with Yuri manga: No sooner do I discover a series’ existence, than it’s scooped up for license, sometimes before I have a chance to read it in Japanese. Last year I called it an embarrassment of riches. This year, I’m calling it too much to reasonably list! ^_^

As a result of the absolutely massive amounts of Yuri manga being put out in Japanese and English, this list begins with groups of works, rather than individual titles. When I mention a title that is currently available in Japanese and English, I’m using the English language title. ^_^ As always, please feel free to chime in with your favorites in the comments!

 

Yuri Anthologies
White Lilies, Whenever Our Eyes Meet (from Yen Pess,) Yuritora Jump (ユリトラジャンプ), Syrup (to be released in 2020 by Seven Seas,) Éclair (out from Yen Press,) Yuri + Kanojo (百合+カノジョ), there have been – and are – so very many of these anthologies this year! I’ve written about their importance in the history of Yuri manga, and I’m genuinely thrilled that they are experiencing a resurgence in this new age of Yuri.

Anthologies provide a home for established creators to publish their original work, and a place for new, up-and-coming creators to experience publishing with a company. Fans get to see glimpses of new concepts, new art, new ideas and find new artists to care about. Almost all of my favorite artists were (and often still are) avid anthology contributors. I unabashedly love anthologies, with my endless hope for really good short stories.

As a result of this new wave, Yuri anthologies make this year’s list!

 

Shakaijin Yuri
Stories about life after high school, where love between adult women can(!) exist. Nikurashii Hodo Aishiteru (to-be-released by Yen Press as I Hate You So Much, I Love You), Still Sick (out from Tokyopop,) BariKyari to Shinsou (バリキャリと新卒), Yuri Life (out from Yen,) Fuzoroi no Renri (不揃いの連理), Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana (to-be-released by Viz Media as How Do We Relationship?) and so many more that I have read and reviewed in the past year, tell stories that until recently could not have been told. Lesbians are still few and far between but we sometimes even get a rare glimpse of one in these adult life tales. ^_^

A decade ago, Yuri was firmly embedded in school life stories, and we were still being informed that girls wear bloomers (they didn’t) and were definitely being married off after graduation (they weren’t) and were never going to be able to see each other again (they could…and there are phones). A person becoming a Yuri fan today would have a chance to see relationships between adult women functioning in the real world in a way we could never have imagined. Western companies are on board with this, bringing out more and more of the adult life Yuri manga. That’s pretty damned awesome.

 

Comic Yuri Hime/ Galette

Manga magazines have such an important position in manga culture. For most creators, seeing their work serialized is pretty much the epitome of where a title can go. And for Yuri manga, it provides the closest thing to normalization that the industry has. Where anime tends to favor the lowest common denominators (or lower, depending on how uncommon a fetish might actually be,) the constant, slow, repeated application of seeing women together as couples in manga can change the world.

For that reason, I want to once again call out the two Yuri manga magazines that exist right now. I don’t like everything in them, but for their efforts in normalizing Yuri (and, I will project a bit,) relationships between women, monthly Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫) and quarterly Galette (ガレット) hold a special place in my heart.

 

Now we’re going to take a step away from the general towards specific series that, in my honest opinion, really stood out this year and did something important.

 

Goodbye Dystopia
It was easy to overlook Hisona’s 3-volume manga series from Comic Yuri Hime, Goodbye Dystopia (グッバイ・ディストピア). It’s not flashy, there was no sex, no histrionics, no drama. Instead, it opened up a whole new field for Yuri creators…one that we hadn’t seen before; two women traveling not to get somewhere, but to leave something behind. We took the time to see old and decrepit things, and most of that time was spent in silence. I would have read a dozen more volumes of that, a Yuri story in which nothing at all was important. I was able to enjoy the feeling of wandering in an almost-empty post-apocalyptic landscape set in the middle of the modern world.

As we head into what is very likely to be the twilight of the human species, we can remember that everything comes to an end and still look forward to tomorrow.

 

Bloom Into You
I had a lot of reservations about Bloom Into You from the beginning. I’m still not quite sure why it became as popular as it did. Perhaps a mix of zeitgeist and TV animation, but more probably because of the marketing powerhouse Kadokawa/ASCII Mediaworks. No joke – if you want your series to be popular, get Kadokawa to market it. It can be purest distilled crap and they’ll polish it up and sell it for luxe prices. ^_^

The main love story was nice enough, but where this series shone, where it gleams like a beacon of frickin’ hope is in its treatment of Saeki Sayaka, a serious-minded young lesbian who meets two adult women in a relationship and finds herself. I delighted in every moment we spent with Sayaka, with her time talking to Miyako about her true self and getting to know her even better in the light novels.

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that this series made this year’s list because of Sayaka. ^_^

 

My Solo Exchange Diary
I very much hope one day soon to write an article about how creator Nagata Kabi absolutely threw the doors wide open for graphic medicine in Japan. It’s not that comic essays were unheard of, but before Nagata-sensei’s brutal self-evaluation and honest autobiographical essays about the mental and physical constraints of her existence, Josei manga artists frequently entertained readers with comic essays about life as a mother or living with cats. Nagata-sensei’s work was vastly different. Casting herself as a one-woman show on a stage of her own making, she touched the hearts of millions of people worldwide, a Raina Telgemeier of Japanese mental health, covering depression, eating disorder (and alcohol-induced pancreatitis in her newest book.) In years to come, it is my belief that we will see Nagata-sensei listed as a genuine pioneer whose work changed lives and the manga industry, much as we see the Magnificent 49ers now.

It’s not an easy read, but if I taught a course on manga, My Solo Exchange Diary would be a fixture on the curriculum.

 

Kase-san and Yamada
I’ve said it a thousand times, lesbian don’t just disappear after high school. I say this because until recently, they kind of did. ^_^; From the beginning, the Kase-san series was never groundbreaking. It trod over well-worn paths, but it stopped a little more often to notice the flowers that lined those paths. In Volume 6 released this year, Kase-san and Yamada took their first step off that path onto new territory.

When Kase-san and Yamada left high school, readers might have assumed that the series would wrap up. Instead they moved to the big city to go to college and we went along with them to see how they handled a new environment and new challenges. It’s a pleasure to spend time with these women and a pleasure to see where their experiences will take them as they enter the adult world.

Yamada and Kase-san are no strangers to this list, having made it on several times since their debut in 2011. We welcome them back once again for this year.

You’ll have noticed that my primary motivation for inclusion this year, as it has been for many years is stories with a sense of reality; stories of couples who exist in a semblance of the world as you and I might hope to experience it. With that in mind, I give you the Okazu Top 3 Yuri manga of 2019.

 

Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru
Hayama Asuka and Terano Saki are teachers at a school who have, to their surprise, fallen in love. Everyone knows they are going out and everyone, from students to administration think they could not be more adorable if they tried. This is the major handwave of this series and I, for one, think it wholly acceptable. Instead of dealing with bullying by colleagues or angry parents, we get to enjoy Saki and Asuka loving their time with one another.

Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている) is an adult story that includes sex, but is not porn. It focuses on the the sheer joy these two women find in one another. Yes, it’s a fantasy, but it’s a fantasy I wholeheartedly endorse. This manga makes me smile. Every time. Next year you’ll be able to enjoy it as Our Teachers Are Dating! from Seven Seas.

 

I’ve never hidden my desire to see more overtly lesbian themes in my Yuri. This year, we were able to enjoy manga series that were explicitly about queer people, by queer creators, that told various stories of different gender and sexual minorities. My top two series this year are effectively tied for the position because they both are by us, and tell our stories.

 

Our Dreams at Dusk Shimanami Tasogare
2019 was the year we were able to read a LGBTQ manga that pulled no punches. Yuhki Kamatani’s breathtakingly beautiful and moving Our Dreams at Dusk Shimanami Tasogare is a love letter to Shimanami and a supportive hand being held out to LGBTQ youth at the same time. Each character’s story is unique and individual, there is no pretense to telling all queer stories ever. Every character is shown as three-dimensional, working on understanding themselves and their place in a world that won’t make a place for them.

It ends with a wedding ceremony for the lesbian characters; a symbol of change and acceptance.  The first time my wife and I had a ceremony, we never expected to be able to marry legally. And here we are with that right. Saki and Haruko’s wedding might not be legal, but their families being there for them is an important step forward. This is not “Yuri” but it is one of the most overtly queer manga I have ever seen. Like a symbolic wedding, I honestly think that is worth celebrating. It’s a step forward. I’ll hope that this holds the door open to more overtly queer stories, more stories of lesbian couples who don’t face “death or marriage” as the only possible outcomes. And maybe, just maybe, assist in changing the way people think, an important bit of groundwork for a new legal landscape for queer couples in Japan.

 

In the middle of the many Yuri tropes that exist, there is one trope that is so very common in western literature and yet is almost completely missing in Yuri – the coming out narrative. There is a series that I have believed since the very beginning would be the series to address this. I was not wrong. This series is my top Yuri manga pick of the year.


Itoshi Koishi
Hina, a senior in high school is going out with Yayoi, an older woman. Yayoi is very aware of the age difference and is waiting for Hina to move beyond school into adult life. They are good for each other, and take care of each other and their friends are supportive. Yayoi is a lesbian and has friends who are, as well.  Hina has friends who adore her and whom she adores, and she has slowly and surely been moving towards telling them the one thing she’s been keeping from them. My Christmas present arrived with the January edition of Comic Yuri Hime in the form of Itoshi Koishi‘s protagonist Hina, coming out to her friends and her friends responding with love and acceptance. Hina takes on a few old lingering stereotypes of gay couples (left over from Japanese TV shows purporting to show “real” gay people whose lives were miserable) and clears them away with a smile.

Takemiya-sensei has been leading up to this slowly, carefully and ever so gently. Itoshi Koishi (いとしこいし) is not a series of high melodrama, it is a series about two people who love and are loved in return. It shows that “coming out” may never be easy, but it does not have to be traumatic. I love this story with all my love.

This series, by this author, who combines Yuri and lesbian themes sweetly, without fantasy handwaves, is my number one Yuri manga of the year.

 

The next list will be an accounting of all the companies, the people, the places and things that have made 2019 an amazing anniversary year for Yuri!