I love Goodbye Dystopia (グッバイ・ディストピア) by Hisona. Lovelovelove. Of the manga running in Comic Yuri Hime magazine that I adore, this is by far and away one of the best. 

It begins with a girl waking up after having fallen asleep on a train. She finds her head in the lap of completely strange woman. The girl and the woman get off the train and start to walk together. Where? Why? Who are they?

The girl has left home, because home has left her. The other woman is a wanderer, hunting down mysteries. They walk through abandoned landscapes, find empty homes filled with other people’s possessions, and they speak of very little of importance. After they have traveled together, the wanderer tells the girl that they haven’t shared their names. She, the girl is told, looks like a “Mizuki.” And she can call the other woman “Asami.”

And, so, Mizuki and Asami travel together. They find places to sleep and eat, they take the train and shop at malls, they talk on the phone, and are completely alone with the landscape more often than not, even when there are people around them.

By the end of volume 1 we know almost nothing of substance about either of them. Except, though, that both of them have memories of women in their lives who have, we assume, broken their hearts. Mizuki seems to be running from a failed love, perhaps Asami is running from a loss. We don’t know anything beyond what we see.

Hisona’s art is the exact kind of loose sketchiness I like best, with a heavy focus on plants and overgrown roads and rails as a constant companion to the two women. 

I love that we know so little of them and that they still know so little of one another. I love that, in current chapters, Mizuki is trying to fill in the missing spaces in Asami’s story, and Asami is doing the same about Mizuki, without asking anything, without prying – without ruining what they have right now. 

And I love that, because of the title of the story and the two women’s reliance on themselves, it came as a blow to the head when we saw that phones work and net cafes exist and the mall sold fashionable shoes. Suddenly dystopia looked just like anywhere with (perhaps) more abandoned houses. 

Ratings:

Art – 9 YMMV, but this is right in my wheelhouse 
Story – 10 There is none. I love it.
Characters – 8 
Service – 0 
Yuri – 2 At the moment, it’s in flashback and memory only

Overall – 9

On shelves that are dripping with stories that look and sound eerily similar, this book stands out as truly unique. I will be content to travel with these two as long as they are on the road.

Model-chan to Jimi Mane-san, Volume 1(モデルちゃんと地味マネさん) by Taneko, is a collected volume from Comic Yuri Hime‘s Pixiv site. The story is a simple one – top fashion model Yuria has a reputation for being aloof. When young manager Okabe Ayumi is assigned to her due to the previous manager being injured, she can barely get the model to acknowledge her, much less anyone else.

But Okabe is kind and persistent and, without warning, one day find Yuria listening to her, asking her for compliments and even pats on the head!  A pat on the keppi is my family’s highest accolade, so I was able to empathize with Yuria even when she seemed extraordinarily flakey. ^_^ Yuria is flakey, too. Okabe has to remind her to greet people on the photo shoot when they arrive or leave. But under her guidance, Yuria is softening up.

When the agency president takes Okabe off of Yuria’s roster, returning her to the care of her former manager, Yuria reverts to her previous self. It’s only when the former manager has to take leave once more and Yuria gets reassigned Okabe that she realizes the change in her is directly due to her manager.

The final chapter is a surprising look at Yuria’s life. The half-Japanese daughter of a top-model and fashion designer, she was all but fated to be a top model herself. Life has been kind to her in terms of fame and finances, but her relationships with people are tenuous. Her parents mean a lot to her and, now, she finds that Okabe Ayumi does, too.

Taneko’s art is good, with one striking exception….Yuria is drawn rather more bland and slack-faced than I’d like to see for a character meant to be a stunning beauty. It’s supposed to be representative of her cold exterior, but she just looks kind of dull.

The story is continuing on Pixiv – you can read current chapters (in Japanese) I’m really glad about that! With the absence of gratuitous sex every chapter, it feels like an old MIST comic, where the aloof idol’s cool exterior is worn down by the enthusiastic genuineness of the young manager.  I am 100% okay with this. ^_^ Yuria’s not likable per se, but as we get to know her, she’s sympathetic. We want Okabe to warm the cockles of that cold heart. ^_^

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3 No more then blushing and a little charming codependency as of yet
Service – 1 if you count “Yuria in pretty clothes” asservice

Overall- a solid 7

All that said, I’m actually rooting for Yuria to make Okabe notice her for real. ^_^

This week, I posted a discussion on the Okazu YNN Podcast about “problematic” themes in Yuri. ^_^ Topping that list was stories in which teachers and students become a couple. Two series I noted as examples in which we were presumed to – and want to – root for the couple, were Hanjuku Joshi (半熟女子) by Morishima Akiko  and Junsui Adolescence (純水アドレッセンス) by Kazuma Kowo. As I say in the podcast, “In series like Hanjuku Joshi and Junsui Adolescence we’re put in the position of rooting for the couple and, realistically how awkward is *that*?” ^_^;

In honor of this theme, I couldn’t think of a better manga to review than Kazuma Kowo’s newest volume, Junsui Luminescence (純水ルミネッセンス).

In Junsui Adolescence we met Nanao, a high school student who falls hard in love for the school doctor, Matsumoto. Nanao is very determined about her interest and her desire and Matsumoto just cannot not be swept off her feet.  They get together by the end of the first story, but what happened to them had to wait ten years to be told in the Perfect Volume, (the review of which is linked to above.)

But first, in Junsui Luminescence we are treated to “Rakuen made, ato…” a series of in-jokes in the form of short-shorts about Nonko, a doujinshi artist and her #1 fan, and lover. Nonko draws BL doujinshi of Rakuen-kun and other male characters from Rakuen Le Paradis magazine. Non-chan and her lover (whose name, I believe, is never given) are super dedicated to getting her work out to events, and equally as committed to testing out plot ideas. They are, overall, a very cute couple, but the story is clearly written for fans of her work from Rakuen Le Paradis. The doujinshi bits are a bit funnier if you know that Rakuen-kun is Nakamura Asumiko’s titular character for an ongoing series in the magazine and that Kazuki and Nagai are from Mizutani Fuka’s Love at Fourteen. 

In “Junsui Adolescence,” the final chapters of the series, (which was originated in Yuri Hime magazine 10 years ago,) Nanao is a senior, and she and Matsumoto are lovers. But. Matsumoto can’t keep her hands off Nanao in school and even though she is well aware that she’ll destroy her life if they are discovered, she doesn’t stop. And so, they are discovered. But the teacher who discovers them is Matsumoto’s friend and promises to not tell.

Whew…talk about problematic! Our skin rightfully would crawl if this was a real story, but here, we’re supposed to be happy about it! Ouch.

So Nanao enforces an embargo until she graduates – no anythinging until that’s over. Immediately Nanao becomes depressed, and avoids Matsumoto, because she hates seen the doctor being cheerful with the other students. Nanao’s friends can see that something’s up. She finally admits that she’s keeping a secret from them but doesn’t say what. In the meantime, her friends are fantasizing about wedding dresses and the future. Nanao decides she wants to marry Matsumoto, but gets a very tepid response to the idea. 

Nanao’s down in the dumps, but as she passes the doctor’s office one day, Matsumoto drags her in and starts to kiss her. Nanao points out that Matsumoto is the one risking everything here, and the doctor agrees, but say she’s been so lonely…. Nanao is actually kind of happy to know she’s not been alone in being miserable. 

Nanao makes herself plain – yes, she wants to marry Matsumoto. She wants plans a trip during spring break to be their honeymoon, before she graduates.

In the end of the volume, we see them for a few pages as Nanao’s grown up. The Perfect Volume ended with the image of the two of them in wedding dresses, which we see here, as well. We then get two new chapters. One, in which Nanao finally confesses her secret relationship to her 4 friends, only to learn that two of them guessed and the two of them were a couple all along (which I guessed). And the two that guessed had all the makings of a couple themselves.

Just to make sure this book is theme appropriate, the final pages show us Nanao and Matsumoto once more, this time in bed. The school doctor has her calendar marked for that trip, and we see Nanao, looking more mature than we’ve ever seen her, thinking, “I want to become an adult.” Well…..okay, thanks for that one last kick in the pants. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 9 -Kazuma-sensei’s art has improved so much in a decade
Story – “Rakuen made” is a silly 7 and “Junsui” is a fine, but problematic 8
Characters – 9 Although I sometimes really find Matsumoto vexing
Yuri – 9
Service – Um…yes. The whole premise is creepy service. 

Overall – 9

So yeah, this series is problematic up the wazoo, but I still like it anyway and I’m glad Matsumoto and Nanao get together. So there.