Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Philia to Eros no Aida, Volume 1 (ピリアーとエロスのあいだ)

March 8th, 2019

Welcome to the end of “vaguely dissatisfying week” here on Okazu. ^_^ Today we’re wrapping up the week by taking a look at a manga by an artist I like, for a magazine I like,with a series I just have not been able to like.

Philia to Eros no Aida, Volume 1 (ピリアーとエロスのあいだ) by Yorita Miyuki, runs in Galette (ガレット) magazine. This volume is one of the second round of Galette Works collected releases, following Kurumi and Nikaido, a couple that I wish I could be rooting for.

When we meet them, Kurumi still has an interest in a guy, Mishima, but Nikaido is there for her. And Nikaido’s emotional support helps Kurumi  good about herself, which becomes affection towards Nikaido, even though she’s still kind of interested in the guy. Nikaido doesn’t seem to mind, even if her other friends do. Her gentle, persistent “being there” for Kurumi is their bond and Kurumi convinces herself, at least a bit, that she likes Nikaido back.

I don’t see this relationship ending well. If it does, it’ll just be annoying. I’m with Hibiki, Nikaido’s friend who is incensed over this relationship, going so far as to punch Kurumi for having the nerve to pretend to care for Nikaido while pining over Mishima.

Ratings:

Art – nice
Story – argh
Characters – ergh
Yuri – ugh
Service – nah

Overall – 6, but I really wish it was higher.

I’ve enjoyed Yorita’s doujinshi over the years, but like Hibiki, this relationship makes my teeth grind.





Yuri Manga: Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 4 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる )

March 6th, 2019

From the beginning, this series has moved slowly, and almost haphazardly, like the tropical fish of the title, lazily moving between plot points. As Nettaigyo ha Yuki ni Kogareru, Volume 4 (熱帯魚は雪に焦がれる ) begins, we pick up with Koyuki sick in bed, and emotionally wracked because she couldn’t be there for Konatsu during the summer festival. When Konatsu’s fish show goes well, Koyuki become emotionally wracked over that, too. Konatsu doesn’t need her, what does that mean for them?

And for an entire volume, a mostly non-verbal Koyuki finds it impossible to express her feelings to Konatsu. Finally, after they reprise the show (having fish jumping through hoops) at the aquarium, Koyuki *finally* finds the words she needs to express how frustrated she is with herself: She thought she was changing and becoming her real self, but she just has no idea who that self is.

Konatsu assures her that whoever she is, it’s the same sempai she cares about. They embrace as the volume comes to a close. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 1 on principle only, there really isn’t any
Yuri – 4

Overall – 7

This series has always been, in large part, about Koyuki’s journey to find herself. It would be nice if she finds some self-confidence and we can see their relationship develop from here.





Yuri Manga: Ame to Kimi no Mukou (雨と君の向こう)

March 4th, 2019

Since yesterday we started off the week by discussing a manipulative twin sister plot, let’s talk problematic narratives again today!. Momono Moto and Sakuraya Yukino’s Ame to Kimi no Mukou (雨と君の向こう) is a good choice for oh so many reasons.

Kanou Yuka is a middle school home room teacher. She has no boyfriend and is feeling the pressure of being 27 unattached.  Medarame Aki is a student in her classroom whose dead eyes and romantic overtures to her teacher scream “sexually abused” to this reader. 

Yuka and Aki’s relationship is not a healthy one, not from the very beginning. Aki is manipulative and uses things like Yuka’s virginity as a weapon against her, which is just gross. Yuka tries going out with a guy and just finds herself going back to seek Aki’s company. When she and we see that our guess that Aki has been abused is correct, it still doesn’t make anything that’s happened okay. 

Possibly worse, the two are given a happy end in which we see Aki older, them living together and presumably happy, but I think I broke a tooth grinding my teeth. Of course I understand that fiction is not reality, and I have even been able to enjoy a problematic teacher/ student narrative before, but there were just so many things wrong here. Yuka’s abject misery at being not desirable, Aki’s obvious struggle with physical, probably sexual abuse, their age differential. It was not okay, even when I saw that the story was meant to be tied up in a ribbon of okay.

I love Momono Moto’s work, but she may well be one of the most problematic artists I like. I nonetheless like her art, and damn, if she didn’t capture Aki’s dead eyes far too well for me to ever feel comfortable with her as a romantic anything.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 3
Characters – 5 No one would get a lunch invitation. Well, maybe the guy who goes out with Yuka, he seemed okay.
Yuri – 8
Service – No visual service, but the whole concept of an adult being attracted to a sexually abused child is a level of creepy I am unwilling to accept as anything other than criminal. 

Overall – 5

I didn’t enjoy this book, but then I didn’t expect to. Now I’m putting it out of my mind and waiting for Liberty (リバティ) to come out next month. ^_^;





Yuri Manga: Shiori o Sagasu Page-tachi, Volume 2 (しおりを探すページたち)

March 3rd, 2019

In Volume 1, we met Chitose, a nice girl who has fallen for upperclassman Touka and who suffers when the girl she likes suddenly turns cruel towards her. The reason for the change is a shock….Touka has died and the person Chitose is speaking to is Touka’s twin sister, Ayaka.

In Shiori o Sagasu Page-tachi, Volume 2 (しおりを探すページたち), what might have been a good psychological horror story, becomes a bland story of romance and redemption for Ayaka. An epilogue leads us to believe that this relationship, built upon deception, is stable and lasting. Ptui is all I have to say to that.

I wish the push to create a happy romance all the time in Yuri wasn’t so obvious. It hurts when a nuanced and terrible character is cleaned up just to provide a happily-ever-after end for a story that really didn’t need it. How much better this story might have been if Ayaka’s pain didn’t just clear up like a bad case of strep? What if Chitose’s reaction to the lie was stronger, more extreme, less forgiving? How much bullshit would Rikako have put up with before she saw Ayaka’s toxicity change her friend? Or would she have been able to step in and save Chitose from herself? 

It’s true that maybe this ending was what was always intended for this manga, but after the first volume’s end, it feels wholly like a bunch of lost opportunities. Even as I read it playing out in Comic Yuri Hime, I couldn’t see that the ending was going to make sense for the beginning.

Art -8
Characters – 6 Rikako ftw.
Story – 5 
Service  – Not really
Yuri – 5 

Overall – 5

A disappointing end to something with such a compelling first half.





Yuri Manga: Galette Meets, Issue 2 (ガレットMeets)

March 1st, 2019

One of the ways artists in Japan build up their professional chops is through doujinshi. Because these self-published or small press books must be completed to deadline and have print runs and sales that can be measured, the comic markets at which they are sold make a very useful proving ground for amateur creators – and a healthy space for self-expression for professionals whose creations must conform to editorial guidance, house style and magazine popularity.

It makes a lot of sense, then that Galette magazine encourages submission of Yuri doujinshi artists for both the quarterly magazine and it’s own doujinshi publication Galette Meets. Galette Meets, Issue 2 (ガレットMeets) is, like Issue 1, all one-shot stories that the editors think are “Just a tad sexy and a little more sweet.”

In my opinion, Issue 2 is much stronger on both art and story than Issue 1. My personal favorite is by Miura Kozumi, a story about a work romance in which the cool, cosmpolitan and apparently worldly sempai who likes women has….no experience with women and is a complete uke in bed, in “Takamine-sempai and Nonchan.” Workplace romance is a popular theme, and so is casual acquaintance, which feels comfortable for this short.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I like the idea of a Galette having a small proving ground, so to speak, providing other artists a venue for a publication credit.

Galette Meets, Issue 2 is no longer available in print outside Japan, but you can still get it digitally on JP Kindle, US Kindle (in Japanese) and Bookwalker (also in Japanese.)