Hey everyone, you may have noticed that reviews have slowed down a bit. I’ve been struggling with my health this month and don’t have the energy to read, much less write or edit. I hope to feel better soon, but in the meantime, please help yourself to 22+ years of reviews to fill up your Yuri needs. ^_^
Acro Trip, Streaming on Crunchyroll
Date Chizuko has been moved around a lot in her young life. When he finds herself living with her grandfather in his typical little town, Chizuko is convinced she won’t find anything interesting here…until she sees a magical girl, Berry Blossom, defeat a bad guy. Completely besotted by Berry Blossom and her skills, Chizuko thinks that maybe there’s a reason to stay here, after all, in Acro Trip, streaming on Crunchyroll.
The bad guy, Chrome of the Fossa Magna (not quite as hilarious as Kekko Kamen’s foe, Toenail of Satan, but another amusing use of anatomy) happens to live with Chizuko’s grandpa too. And so, Chrome uses his one real skill – manipulative sales – to convince Chizuko to sign on with him, so she can fight Berry Blossom herself! Yeah, this is like less skeezy Gushing Over Magical Girls…which is fine with me. I don’t need skeezy in my stupid.
The animation is very shoujo magical girl. Chrome, whose hair seems ripped from the page of Yu-Gi-Oh, is a bad guy full of pathos and incompetence. The story isn’t about to take itself seriously…except for Chizuko’s obsession with Berry Blossom, which is overplayed with an obsessive seriousness that kills the otherwise goofy vibe for me. When Berry Blossom is recovering from an injury at her house, Chizuko manages to be creepy, weird and kinda of dumb all at the same time. And, yes, I did say “at her house” because despite the fact that this is a sizable town, every one seems to end up at Chizuko’s grandpa’s house somehow. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.
Anyway, “creepy obsession portrayed to look kind of cute and harmless” is not my favorite iteration of Yuri, but I won’t pretend it doesn’t fall under the big Umbrella o’Yuri for many.
Magical girls are all the rage this season as Bands were last. Get those boots and gloves on, put the ribbons in your hair and get ready to use magic, because we got a LOT of magical girls to talk about. And what the heck, why not?
Ratings:
Art – 5 Nothing amazing, but fine
Story – 6 Not sure if it’s going to something eventually or nothing forever. Either way is fine.
Characters – Silly and lazily developed
Service – 5 Chizuko’s crush is definitely on the servicey side
Yuri – 3 See above
Overall – 6, I guess.
A friend said that after one episode it was their favorite series of the season and I’m going to agree to disagree, but you might as well give it a watch.
A Magical Girl Retires, by Park Seolyeon, translated by Anton Hur
Every once in a while, I choose a book by it’s cover. ^_^ In the case of A Magical Girl Retires, by Park Seolyeon the title and synopsis piqued my interest, but it was the cover, by Kim Sanho, who also did the cover art for the entertaining An Error Occurred, which I reviewed this past summer. The art style is very appealing and I love the palette, so as soon as I knew I was taking a vacation, I grabbed this book, which had been translated into English by Anton Hur, to read.
It was short, bitter, dark and really pretty damn good.
Our protagonist has hit a dead end in her life. In debt, with no job, not opportunities and no support system, she’s let her small dream disappear into the tide of society when she is approached by a “guardian angel,” Ah Roa who tells her that she is a magical girl. At 29 years old this sounds less great than it does at 14. But she has no other options and is unable to end things, so she reluctantly becomes a magical girl. The job does have some benefits – there’s is a union, but the unnamed protag cannot access her powers, even though she is assured that she is a magical girl. And magical girls are needed to fight climate change. And an even greater threat that comes from within their own ranks.
This is a fabulous story about being exhausted and facing consequences of one’s actions. It has a realistic approach to the idea of “what would magical girls be like in our reality?” Although the narrative is rooted deeply in the worst ways in which women are denied opportunities to thrive, it finds a very non-magical way through that back to a reality that has hope it in once more. And yes, there is Yuri, which is both important to the story and also shoehorned in in a way that it didn’t need to be, so I was very glad for it. The translation of this story was easy to read. The whole thing zipped along and I finished it up before I realized.
This novella was, well, not fun, but very entertaining and I would read another book by the same author.
Ratings:
Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – October 12, 2024
Yuri Manga
Sal Jiang has announced a new series, Wicked Spot (ウィキッドスポット), as part of the Candle A imprint from Kadokawa. “Sada is a modern-day witch who is tired of living quietly in the mountains and wants to get more attention. Why shouldn’t human beings know about witches? A story of modern-day “witches” who break the curse and live freely!” It’s a departure from her last few series, and looks very fun. Candle-A is also launching with Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna/She Loves To Cook She Loves to Eat, and Hime Miko to Hime Kishi (姫巫子と姫騎士), an isekai about two female friends transported to another world in which one is a powerful princess and the other a powerful knight (Okay, I’m in. Thank you, yes.)
Hayashiya Shizuru has a short 18+ comic and promo images from her raunchy series, ULTIMATE-MAMA available on her Booth.pm. Grab a copy of ULTIMATE MAMA EX today!
This news post gives me a chance to show off the newly framed art I have in my office. Hayashiya-sensei was clearing out her original Hayate x Blade manuscript pages and had the brilliant idea of cutting them into clips and selling them to obsessive fans like me. She included a few sketches and I had them all framed. They now hang in my office where I can see them at my desk. Here is an not-quite adequate picture. The framer did a fantastic job.
I am very pleased to announce that the first collected volume of Heimin No Watashi Desu Ga Kōshaku Reijō-sama Wo Taburakashite Ikite Imasu, (平民の私ですが公爵令嬢様をたぶらかして生きています) by Kitao Taki is now available in print. This is a story of a commoner who is sold to a duke’s daughter who was actually her friend when they were younger. She takes on the role of bodyguard – and seducer – to the duke’s daughter. I am a long-time fan of Kitao-sensei’s work, and very glad to see this in print!
Tsukiko, creator of Futaribeya, has drawn a Yuri vampire story for Comic Boost, Hakutae-sama, Himitsu Desu yo (白妙様、秘密ですよ). “Shio Hananoi is a high school girl who attends a vampire school. In fact, Shio hides the fact that she is human, but one day she happens to meet Hakutae, the founder of vampires, and her true identity is revealed. In a world where humans are food, Shio and Shiratae are mysteriously growing closer…? “
Via Comic Natalie, three middle school students, Koto, Aya, and Eirika, are secretly in love with each other. Koto’s feelings become clear to Aya and the two begin dating, but soon after that, Aya disappears as if she had been spirited away. Seven years later, Aya, who had been missing, appears before Koto and Eirika, who are now university students, in Sankakkei no Kowashi-kata, Volume 1 (三角形の壊し方).
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Yuri Anime
Bandai is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the My-HiME franchise with new videos and illustrations. 20 years? Wow. I have “Shining Days” on my mp3 player, so was just listening to it the other day. Joana Cayanan has the details at ANN.
Look Back anime movie premiered in the US – ANN’s Anita Tai tells us it made almost $700,000 in it’s opening weekend in theaters. The ANN Aftershow warns you – as I have, every time I mention this story – you will cry. You should see this. You should read the manga. It will make you cry.
The Rose of Versailles anime movie has announced a January 31 opening. Joana Cayanan once again has the news and key visuals on ANN.
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Crystalynn Hodgkins has the news that Netflix will be removing Glitter Force and Glitter Force Doki Doki on November 9. I hope this will free Crunchyroll to pick up the original Doki Doki PreCure and add it to their roster.In my opinion, this is the last relic of media companies taking a shoujo anime, carving it it up, gluing it back together and pretending it’s not an anime. Hopefully, we’ve seen the end of that.
While I’m on my PreCure bullshit, I need to tell you that current season Wonderful PreCure! is actually really not-terrible. ^_^ When I read the synopsis, I gave myself 3 weeks, but here I am still watching. The main couple is straight, but I wouldn’t fight you if you ‘shipped Yuki and Mayu. ^_^
Other News
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Spoil Me Plzzz Hinamori-san, Volume 1
I’m Luce, one of the staff writers here at Okazu! I hope you enjoy my review of this new Yuri manga!
Yaya Suo is the darling of the school: admitted by everyone, she is academic, athletic, and kind, to boot! Ichigo Hinamori is one of her admirers, even though they’ve never spoken, and Suo doesn’t know she exists. However, later on, Ichigo hears some pathetic crying coming from the nurse’s office – on investigation, she finds Suo, desperate for some relief from being the model student! Turns out, she’s actually quite needy in private, and wants someone to dote on her. Now the secret’s out to Ichigo, the illusion of the perfect Suo is broken… But Suo won’t leave her alone!
Spoil Me Plzzz, Hinamori-san, Volume 1 is undoubtably a gag manga about the gap between the public and private personas, the joke being the especially wide gap in this case. However you could argue that it’s also a very real thing that the pressures of society can be suffocating. Why Suo is putting herself under such pressure to be perfect at school isn’t explored in this volume, but clearly she’s attached her self-worth to being liked, and to her, that means being perfect.
Surprisingly, her behaviour doesn’t annoy me. Maybe it’s just so over the top, or that each individual episode of it only usually lasts a few panels… or maybe it’s just that, imperfect as I am, I can sympathise with the weight of expectation and societal norms being too much. It’s also quite funny seeing how quick Ichigo, faced with a pretty girl in tears, will do as she asks.
Ichigo doesn’t say the word ‘lesbian’, but she states on the page that she’s ‘into girls’, and was turned down by her senpai in middle school because she was too immature, essentially. This has stuck with her – the reason she admired Suo was that she appeared mature, and she wanted to be like that. Safe to say, that quickly changes, but even by the end of this volume, she’s catching feelings…
I was expecting to dislike this, but I actually really enjoyed it. The only gag that didn’t quite land for me was the love letter, but only because I didn’t quite get the issue. I think the point was it wasn’t on the right kind of paper, rather than the text itself – I think the flower with a spiral in it is a symbol used for ‘well done’, so considering it’s a rejection, possibly not great – I would have liked a translation note on that, but there are none at all, so.
Speaking of which, I wanted to call attention to the translation, lettering and such, as it’s not a ‘straight’ translation, but it really works (ie, having a girl says ‘oklie doklie’ really amused me). They’ve also gone to the effort of having different handwriting for the two girls, as it’s a gag, which must have been some effort for the retouching and lettering teams. I don’t normally notice this kind of thing unless it’s done badly, but I wanted to praise them!
Ratings:
Art – 7 (it’s the right level of exaggerated and comic for this kind of manga)
Yuri – 8 (it’s established in the first chapter that not only is Ichigo attracted to girls, but even confessed to one)
Translation, Retouch, Lettering etc – 9
Service – 3 (the only thing I can think of is Ichigo licking Suo’s finger, and it’s more cute than salacious)
Overall – 9
This is not a manga that is taking itself too seriously, and I mean that as a sincere compliment. It’s because of this that I can recommend it – even on second viewing, I laughed at some of the panels. If you enjoy a silly Yuri, this is definitely worth checking out!
