Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteru, Volume 1 (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている )

January 11th, 2019

Ohi Pikachi’s Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteru, Volume 1 (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている ) is one of the best manga of 2019. ^_^ I’m only half joking, because, really, this is a wonderful manga and there is a very high likelihood that you’ll be seeing me talking about it as often as I can all year long.

Hayama Asuka is a high school teacher. She’s athletic, casual and easily embarrassed. Terano Saki is her co-worker. As the story begins, one of the other teachers they work with pegs immediately that they have begun going out. Everyone thinks its cute and we’re all rooting for them, from the Principal all the way down. In a ridiculous and amusing chapter, Hayama-sensei’s students “help” her become confident enough to tell Terano-sensei that she loves her.

This manga is just lovely. Two women who have never before been in love, fall so sweetly in love with one another and we can only just sigh at how darling it all is. I mean that, too. It’s not cloying, or creepy, their problems are small and resolved quickly and their love for one another is just so damn adorable.

Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei work through minor misunderstandings together and when they finally spend a night together we get to enjoy their joy in each other. Even the morning after scene was delightful, as they are amazed and awed and goofy and happy.

I have no complaints about this manga, except that one day it will end and on that day I will be very sad. But until then, I will enjoy every single second with Hayama-sensei and Terano-sensei. ^_^ I want them to be happy forever.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 10
Story – 9
Service – 3 There is nudity, but IMHO, it’s not salacious.
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

This manga reminded me that sweet and sexy can live in harmony, that it all can be adult and fun and joyful all at the same time. 





Yuri Anthology: Yuri + Kanojo – Tomodachi ha Kinou Made – (百合+カノジョ-友達は昨日まで-)

January 9th, 2019

The Yuri + Kanojo anthologies from Fusion Comics has been a fascinating mashup of first-person visual story telling and ultra-short narrative creation that has, in general, piqued my interest.

If you recall from previous volumes, the premise is a series of two or three short 4-6 page stories that follow a character through their relationships with us, from a first person perspective. A First Person Yuri, if you will. We don’t get spoken lines usually, but we are allowed to see our hands, some of our body, have the occasional goofy face indicating mood in a thought bubble and sundry noises or other means of expression. I’ve especially enjoyed when the stories leave school behind and cover adults and even (gasp!) older women.

Yuri + Kanojo – Tomodachi ha Kinou Made – (百合+カノジョ-友達は昨日まで-) takes a even more radical approach, with stories of senior relationships. But, before that, it brushes upon the weird and wacky, with a section devoted to unusual stories – gentlewoman thief, mermaid, witch and the like. The second section returns to “Episode of Usual” with characters in school, but even here these characters are characters. I particular liked bodybuilder Jinguji Reika. Put a pin in that name, she’ll be back. (No spoilers, readers, just wait for it.) And of course I liked Kagami Yukina, whose only desire in life was to be our butler. The third section is titled “Global” with equally as rare characters from far off exotic places like Brazil, China, England, Korea. The final section is the After Forty section, this time with relationships that last a lifetime. Particularly charming were the three-parters that covered decades of a couple’s life together.

Of the several Yuri + Kanojo volumes so far, I enjoyed this one most, clearly because of the whimsicality and also the lack of children. Really, after all these years and so many, many, many school romances, I just really don’t much care for stories about middle-schoolers. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art, story, characters are all variable, since it is an anthology.

Overall – 9

If you’re on the fence about the Yuri + Kanojo series, I’d definitely recommend this one, at the very least.





Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, January 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年1月号)

January 7th, 2019

Comic Yuri Hime, January 2019 (コミック百合姫2019年1月号)  magazine has a new cover artist for the year. I like it. The new story begins with a girl catching a glimpse of another girl at the station, as she waits for her train. I like the color palette quite a bit, in fact. I’m sure the story will be “Story A” and will end with them together. ^_^

A couple of notable moments in this first issue of the year that I want to comment on. 

“Luminous Blue” by Iwami Kyoko is a story that started off lightly and has rather quickly turned thoughtful and highly dramatic. 

Oono Nachi’s “Kimi ga Shinu made Koi wo Shitai” is…weird and violent and creepy. ^_^ I have no idea if I like it or not, yet, despite being several chapters in. Also, that title.

“Twenty Syndrome” by Kabayama felt and looked just like a MIST magazine story, without the sex.

Hisakawa Haru’s “Yurikon” is definitely stretching, but this chapter of a crepe seller who has been watching a girl’s life through the window of her truck for years is both touching and not. ^_^

In “Goodbye Dystopia” by hisona, Misaki learns how little she knows about Asami.

“Hayama-sensei to Terano-sensei ha Tsukiatteiru” continues to be adorable in what is clearly the end of their first volume together, as they visit an onsen on holiday. ^_^

An excellent and varied first issue of the new year!

Ratings: 

Overall – 8

The February issue is already out and yep, I’m totally falling behind. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Jyoryusakka to Yuki, Volume 1 (女流作家とユキ)

January 6th, 2019

When considering just which of the gigantic piles of things I have her that I want to write for my first review of 2019, I was faced with a question of intent. Did I want to cover a classic manga so you all might be moved to (re)discover it? Did I want to cover something broad, like an anthology full of names you didn’t yet know, or a magazine that is like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates? Do other reviewers even have this sort of dilemma? ^_^

After some serious consideration, I have decided to begin with something neither borrowed, nor old, nor blue. I will begin 2019 looking forward by choosing something wholly new, something that could not have existed even a few years ago: A manga that began its life on Twitter  and Pixiv.

Nagori Yuu’s Jyoryusakka to Yuki , Volume 1 (女流作家とユキ) hits all the right marks for me. Set in the Taisho period, this pleasant little story was both an easy and fun read. 

To begin with, ignore the cover art. It does not serve the story well. Yuki is a young waitress at a nice little coffee shop where an alluring and fashionable female novelist spend her time writing and drinking coffee. Yuki is infatuated with Sensei and is, in turn, is the object of admiration by the writer who is gently seductive with the young lady. It’s not gross in any way. Sensei seems to actually enjoy Yuki’s company (and of course her admiration) but as I read it, Sensei also just likes Yuki. 

The story follows Yuki about whom we know very little. She has a room of her own in a thriving and bustling city, and appears to work at this job because she wants to, not because she’s compelled to. Whether she lives with family or on her own is left undiscovered. She’s young, but not a child. She’s from a working class, we can tell, when she visits a new, glamorous coffee shop by request of her employer. She feels out of place among the rich women who are entering. And, when she sees Sensei there, Yuki quietly freaks out – is Sensei as intimate with the waitresses there? It really distresses her to think that she’s not the only one.

Sensei returns to Yuki’s coffee shop and explains that she had a meeting there. Yuki is, of course, relieved, but is still so lost in her feelings for Sensei that she finds herself in an unknown part of her city.  Sensei comes to her rescue. 

As the volume comes to an end, Yuki finds herself retracing her steps to Sensei’s door, where Sensei finds her playing with the neighborhood cat and torturing herself. 

The setting of this small city is constantly filled with people coming and going, shopping and selling. There’s no sense of isolation for either Yuki or Sensei, so it’s just that much more telling when Yuki gets so lost in the labyrinths of her thoughts that she gets lost for real. 

I wish I knew more about Yuki and Sensei, but enjoyed this volume immensely. Its a nice reminder that Taisho Japan was a time of great cultural creativity, a time where western and Japanese fashion and technology were merging. And, incidentally, when Yuri was born.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Girl meets author and is swept off her feet. Okay by me. 7
Character – 8
Service – Does Yuki with her hair down count? 1
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

As I stand at the edge of looking back on 100 years of Yuri, I cannot imagine a better story to start the year off with – a historical Yuri romance set when Yuri itself was on the cusp of being born, created on 21st century technology. 





Top Ten Yuri Manga of 2018

December 28th, 2018

Well, my friends, that time of year has come upon us once again. 2018 is coming to a close and I have never before had so many riches to work with. This has been the most remarkable year for Yuri I have ever seen in 20 years of obsessing about it. ^_^

I say almost every year, “may our tribe increase” and this year our tribe has surely increased by many fold. My Top Ten list will be as personal, capricious and enraging as always – I will forget things and not mention stuff you liked, some of which will have been there and been taken away multiple times  and some of which wouldn’t have been put there at all – so I welcome you all to add your thoughts in the comments! Which Yuri manga do you consider your top Yuri manga of the year? 

Note on titles: If a series has been released in English, the English title is being used. If not, the Japanese title is the one you see.

 

Sweet Blue Flowers/ Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl

Sweet Blue Flowers, this new classic of Yuri, wrapped up in 2018 and was already kind of dated a mere 14 years after it premiered in Japan. ^_^;  But this year we saw the completion of a definitive edition by Viz Media. This edition had solid translation and well-researched notes that enriched readers’ understanding of the context; which is just exceptionally important in this series, with its many literary homages and references. Now that we have this in one lovely, complete and exceedingly well-done collection, we can set it firmly on the  “Yuri Classic” shelf where it belongs and move forward into a new age of Yuri.

Kiss & White Lily For My Dearest Girl is the exact opposite story – taking all the classic tropes, creating a few new ones and carefully crafting a story about people we care about out of them. It will end shortly in Japan, but we’ll have it here in the west for some time to come, so settle in and wait to see how it all pans out for Ayaka, Yurine and their friends and peers .

 

Yuri Anthologies (Éclair, Yuri +Kanojo, OL Yuri)

I’ve talked a lot this year about the important place Yuri anthologies had in the development of the genre. I quite like anthologies for the same reason most people dislike them: Anthologies give you a small taste of many different stories, art styles and concepts. The downside is when you really like a creator and the story ends, but the upside is you have someone new to follow! And these, days, with social media, you can literally follow them and see what they are working on right now.

I want to especially call out the new trend of grown-up Yuri anthologies; collections focusing on relationships between adult women. Yes, please!

 

After Hours

I adored this story when I read it in Japanese and am just that happy with it now that it is in English. It’s not something we see much – a whimsical and fun romance story about two women who live on the fringes of normal life without being outcast, or broken or weird. They just live their own lives. This story is overtly about building something together – a life, a rave, it’s all the same when you think of it, and you know I believe that with my whole heart.

 

My Solo Exchange Diary

I’ve never cared so much about a complete stranger as I do Nagata Kabi. I want to support her in her ongoing struggle to live a life with the very real problems she has has freed so many people, both in Japan and in the west, to speak more openly about. Graphic Medicine is, in actual fact, one of the fastest-growing genres in comics and manga. I think it’s important for a lot of reasons, the most important of which is (like coming out of any kind) to let people know they are not alone. Narratives like this remind me how lucky I am every day that I can wake up, work, play online, and write for Okazu. I’m literally one myelin sheath away from having all of that taken from me every day. 

For being one of the manga that has helped define a space where we can be more than one thing at once and still be seen as human, and also for making me hope that Nagata-sensei gets to live her life, My Solo Exchange Diary makes this list easily. 

 

2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei (2DK、Gペン、目覚まし時計。) 

By now, you’ve probably realized that this list is going to have more adults on it than it ever has since I began doing this in 2004. 

2DK, G Pen, Mezamashitokei told a slow-developing romance story, abut two adult women living realistic adult lives in a real world. We saw Nanami pull long hours at the office and Kaede burning herself out building a career in manga, as well as quiet moments of eating food and seeing friends. There was enough fiction to make the real stuff work and enough real stuff to make the fiction fun. I am so happy that we have 8 volumes of this manga, making it the longest-running manga about adult women from Comic Yuri Hime. There was never any doubt in my mind that it would be on this year’s list. ^_^ 

 

Terano-sensei to Hayama-sensei  ha Tsukiatteiru (羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている)/ Goodbye Dystopia (グッバイ・ディストピア)

I’m gonna keep talking about these two titles in the coming year, so get used to hearing about them. ^_^

Goodbye Dystopia is an apparently aimless wander through somewhere by two people for some reasons, very little of which has been explicated after two volumes. I love the art, the timelessness and placelessness of the story and would like it to never end. Imagine Thelma and Louise at walking pace, without any end in sight. Awesome.

Terano and Hayama are just the absolutely cutest things in the world. Two teachers at a girls school are dating and the girls think it’s cute, the administrator thinks it cute and I think it’s cute! I want them to be happy together forever.

 

Galette (ガレット)

If you’re a regular reader of Okazu, this cannot possibly be too much of a surprise. This crowdfunded, creator-owned collaborative effort by so may excellent Yuri artists is always exciting to read, to see what has been done and by whom. As it wraps up its second year of existence, it’s giving space to great established artists and finding space for new pros and I cannot wait to see what it will do in the future.

 

Enjoy the Okazu Top Ten Lists?

I always pause here, because as capricious as I am for my likes and dislikes, the top three always are put here for a reason – they are special. This year’s top three positively encapsulate Yuri for 2018 with their breadth of storytelling, style and intent.

 

Bloom Into You

Sometimes a series just hits the right note. For better or worse, this is Bloom Into You‘s time. With an anime that has done the spirit of the manga a good turn, a novel (which I am reading and it is nailing Sayaka’s inner tone, so that’s good) and an ongoing manga which is shaping up to be much better than I could have ever expected, really, it deserves our attention.

It’s time for me to give Nakatani Nio the credit she deserves. Bloom Into You is my #3 manga for 2018.

 

 

 

 

Kase-san Series

I always refer to this series as the “little series that could” because of it’s irregular past, but it has become something much bigger than itself with the jump to animation. The manga continues, and it continues to grow, to change, to lead by example. It’s done so many important things including moving people to see it as more than a “love story between girls.”

This series has and is still dealing with things like body issues and self-esteem and friendship. Kase and Yamada are facing the adult world together which is both terrifying and remarkable in a Yuri manga.

Reading the Kase-san series has very much been like watching real people grow up. Yamada’s journey from being someone who did not believe in her own future and whom the people round her thought of as plain old Yamada, has been so much like watching a flower bloom that the analogy becomes a “duh” moment. The series is called “Kase-san” but we – and Kase-san – are always watching Yamada. And it’s been very rewarding watching her grow.

In other years, the Kase-san series has been number 1, but this year comes in second to…

 

Shimanami Tasogare (しまなみ誰そ彼 ))

So, yeah, I’m spoiling the heck out of this series for you, but I want you to understand just what we’re in for. ^_^

This is not a Yuri manga. It is an LGBTQ manga. It is fully, wholly, 100% grounded in the real world in which kids who even slightly kind of think they (or, who other people think) are not cisgender and heterosexual, deal with very real consequences. This is a manga in which people spew harmful stereotypes and have to be educated over and over and over again, until they, maybe, get it, a little. It is a manga of confrontation, of accepting one’s self even when others don’t. It’s a manga with adult role models, some of whom will never be able to get a happy ending – and how important it is, for those of us that do get that, to share it and let the seeds of it grow.

I am so excited that you’ll all be able to read this in English next year, which is why Kamatani Yuhki’s Shimanami Tasogare is my top Yuri manga of 2018!