Sex Education 120%, Volume 2

November 28th, 2021

Last summer, I reviewed Sex Ed. 120%, Volume 1 by Kikiki Tataki. I summed it up as “The characters were likable, the lesbian couple is cute and Tsuji’s enthusiasm is just exactly ridiculous enough to keep you rooting for her and this was an incredibly fast and fun read.” Today I wanted to talk about Sex Education 120%, Volume 2, and again, not for the sex ed itself. ^_^

I actually do recommend this series if you have a tween or teen who is into manga and you want to have a lead-in to the various “your body is changing” talks. The information on sexual education is pretty solid, if unevenly presented. More importantly, this series discusses things that would be really cool to have discussed in sex ed, that weren’t in my day, like sexual harassment and the toxicity of pick-up artist culture. Safe sex is always the message and so is understanding your body. This volume has a chapter on menstruation with a focus on menstrual cups.

But why I wanted to review his today was not just the lesbian couple’s origin story, (which we also get – with different perspectives,)  but the end of the book, where one of the lesbian couple is freaked out by her lover’s interest in BL. In the years I have been reading and viewing Yuri, of course I have met many lesbians who like BL. I was very interested in how the book was going to discuss this issue, as the character most interested in BL is largely incoherent about why. Not everyone can explain things. But as with every discussion in this book, it took a turn into a pretty brilliant scene. The lesbian couple and the BL fan visit a BL comic event. The BL doujinshi creator whose booth they are arguing in front of. turns out to be in a relationship with a woman, and she ends up going out with the students to talk with them openly about what does and does not work for them in regards to BL. I found the whole scene really impressive. I know that BL will never be for me, because I’m simply more interested in women than I am in men, but I really liked how the conversation made some interesting points.

Yen does a fine job with the content in this book. The characters have their own voices and stories throughout. I can completely recommend Volume 2, not just for the sex ed, but for the stories of the teachers and students as well.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Service – Almost never except to make a point
Queer – 10

Overall – 9

Volume 2 is available now on Amazon, Bookwalker Global and RightStuf. Volume 3 will ship in February (RightStuf  and Amazon.)

Posted in English Manga, LGBTQ | 1 Comment »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 27, 2021

November 27th, 2021

Yuri Goods

The Gee! Store, with locations in Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai, Kokura and Nagoya, is running a series of Comic Yuri Hime pop up shops. You can buy goods from a number of popular series that run in Comic Yuri Hime.

Unsolicited plug: I use Tenso as a shipping service. They are very nice. Tenso is free to make an account with and only charges when they actually ship. Overseas shipping is and always will be expensive, but that’s not Tenso’s fault.

 

I’m In Love With the Villainess News

One of the items from the pop-up is a very fetching I’m in Love With the Villianess acrylic standee, that I have ordered. ^_^ Why am I telling you that? Because…….if you order the  Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou, manga Volume 3 on Melonbooks, you get this fetching acrylic standee! So, yeah, I ordered that, too. Because it won’t ship to me, until the stand is available, I might not get this volume for months, so…I’ll have to get it on Global Bookwalker, too.

Which leads me to another issue, you may notice that very little is going up on the Yuricon Store these das. This is because I cannot get appropriate links (or even cover art!)  for many of the items I want to put there.  I can find an Amazon link OR a Bookwalker link OR a RightStuf OR a CD Japan, but can’t get all the links for all the items. It’s becoming increasingly awkward and I have piles of titles that I want to put up, but really can’t. (Also, I have no time, but that’s a different issue.) This is, again, due to problems in publishing. I’ll spend some time this next couple of weeks catching up as best I can for holiday shopping.

To that end, if you’d like Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou, manga, Volume 3, here are affiliate links for pre-order on Amazon JP, and CD Japan, but I don’t have it yet on Bookwalker.

Also available on Amazon JP for pre-order, but not the other platforms, yet, is Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou – Revolution-, Volume 1, the newest novelization in the series. (私の推しは悪役令嬢。-Revolution-). 

One more series announcement, via YNN Correspondent Sean G, the light novel I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 4 will be released in February, from Seven Seas. This link is to Amazon, or you can pre-order on RightStuf. (Nothing yet on Bookwalker.) You are *totally* going to want to get Volume 4 and 5. Trust me on this. ^_^

Nope, one more (!), from Inori-sensei herself, the series is now available in Vietnamese. Tôi Yêu Nữ Phản Diện will be out from Amak Books.

 

Yuri Manga

Last weekend at Anime NYC, Kodansha announced a license for Battan’s Run Away With Me Girl. ANN’s Adrian Hazra has details.

Here’s a title that actually made it onto the Yuricon Store with all links: Yuriko Hara’s Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 4, in which both hair and plot thicken.

Global Bookwalker is doing all sorts of Coin Up and discounts. It’s worth it to take a look at their scrolling bar, for massive sales and their continuing commitment to carrying books Amazon has dropped. Their Black Friday deals are 80% coin back on eligible Volume 1s, and 40% on the next couple of volumes. Use the coins you get to try out a new title! (I checked out Laid-Back Camp and liked it a lot, last time I had a free volume coming.)

Ichijinsha has carefully crafted another anthology designed to keep me away, with the Nakigao Yuri Anthology (泣き顔百合アンソロジー) for those readers who like women to look absolutely miserable when they have sex, presumably. ^_^;

 

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Yuri Anime

Via YNN Corespondent Evren, Canaan is being released on Blu-Ray in the New Year from Sentai Filmworks.

The chances of this being Yuri are decreasingly likely, but Crystalyn Hodgkins has the news about the Shin Ikkitousen anime.

I mentioned this last week, but the trailer for the Executioner and Her Way of Life anime is up on Youtube. It is my honest opinion that this trailer has significantly better animation than the world-building in the novels deserve. ^_^

 

Yuri Visual Novels

Via YuriMother, I Became Gay From Translating My New Roommate’s Short Story is “the first major project by the Prof. Lily visual novel collective, who aim to tell stories that face our harsh subcultural reality head-on.”

Studio Élan is holding all sorts of sales on their Yuri VNs, from 30% off Heart of the Woods on Nintendo Switch, to significant discounts on Steam.

 

Yuri Doujinshi

Lilyka is holding a Black Friday deal for Yuri doujinshi , use checkout code BK21 for a discount and a video, and BK500 for significantly higher discount and a “video worth $500.” I have no idea what that means, so if you get it, let us know. ^_^

 

LGBTQ Graphic Novel

Our friend Niki Smith has a new work out, The Golden Hour, they say, “is about being young and gay and anxious in the midwest… and it’s about ptsd, and vulnerability, and taking one day at a time. And beyond all that, it’s about three close friends and one tiny baby cow.”

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 4 Comments »


Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 3

November 26th, 2021

I’ve said this repeatedly, but it bears repeating once again. When I began reading Eku Takeshima’s school romance Whisper Me a Love Song, I was fully prepared to not like it, because really do we need another school life romance? The answer to that question is…YES, yes, we need this school life romance. We need it like we need air and water. Our lives would be less fun and colorful and shiny without it. ^_^

Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 3 is effervescent with joy and friendship and sympathy and love.  The air sparkles around it, while guitar riffs of catchy pop tunes play in the background. Everything about this series is so honest, it ought to hurt, but instead it’s just darling beyond my ability to describe.

In Volume 3, Himari is faced with a decision. On her own, she thought she might just one day realize she was in love with Yori-sempai, but that doesn’t seen to be happening. When Aki tells Himari about her feelings for her best friend, Himari realizes that she’s using up Yori’s precious time. Then Momoka-sempai shakes up Himari’s world by explaining that people’s shapes of love aren’t always the same.

And then Yori gets on stage and sings a love song she wrote for Himari…and Himari realizes what she feels, that thing she couldn’t define, looks awfully like love after all. I mean…who wouldn’t fall for an incandescently cool sempai singling a love song that she wrote special for you?

Once again, I think the translation by Kevin Steinbach is outstanding. Characters sound like people the age they are supposed to be (with exceptions, Kaori is just kinda weird. Her cute thing is not going to age well…and Shiho. What the heck are we going to do with this cartoon villain of a character? Make her sound like a cartoon villain!) Kudos to Kevin and TJ, Jennifer and the entire Kodansha team.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8 Two girls who are having a great time as they learn to love one another
Characters – 9
Service – 10000 where the “service” is two girls who are having a great time as they learn to love one another
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

This volume is 100% pure, unadulterated squee. Any other series might end here, but…no, the story develops a plot and it’s just as wonderful as when it really didn’t have one. ^_^

Tune in for Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 4, out now from Kodansha!

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 1 Comment »


Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 2 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし)

November 25th, 2021

Surrounded by the dark, with only festival lights strung above them, a girl with light hair wearing a long-sleeved dress over a white blouse, turns to look at us over her shoulder, while a girl with long black hair and barrettes, in a pale shirtwaist frock looks at us directly, as they hold hands.Watashi o Tabetai, Hito de Nashi, Volume 2 (私を喰べたい、ひとでなし) is a freakin’ brillant volume of a manga and I really hope someone (cough/Yen Press/cough) licenses it so you can read it. ^_^

In Volume 1, we met Hinako, a young woman crushed by PTSD from losing her family in a horrific car accident at a young age. Hinako meets, and is saved from a sea monster, by Shiori. Shiori, who is definitely not human, claims to be a mermaid and is here to eat Hinako when she, Hinako, matures.

In Volume 2, we learn that Hinako has one close friend who is always there for her, Miko. Miko appears to be jealous of Shiori, and in turn, Shiori appears to sense something from Miko. They warn each other away from Hinako, but a fight is brewing.

When the fight comes, it’s nothing we could have expected. Everything Hinako believes is thrown into question and the truth is far more complicated that she could have possibly imagined. What she will do with that truth is subject for the next volume.

The execution on this volume is outstanding. Timing, art, narrative, tension building…it all works to make one of the best final chapters in a single volume that I have read in years. We’ve all seen so many new friend/old friend jealousy scenarios in manga – and, probably, life – that it was easy to dismiss this as a slightly darker Usagi leaves Naru behind to hang with the Senshi, but….it it wasn’t. And what it was took me so completely by surprise that I had to back up and re-read the volume, to make sure I wasn’t missing any of the interactions.

Hinako now sees at least a part of the world around her much more clearly. What she will do with this knowledge compels me to get Volume 3, which hits shelves in Japan this weekend! The cover is giving nothing away. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8 Ominous and compelling
Characters – 8 The more we know, the less we know
Service – Blood. Violence. Monsters From the Deep. Secrets. More Monsters.
Yuri – Hinako’s BFF is possessive, Shiori is infatuating

Overall – 8

I cannot wait to read the next volume.

 

Posted in Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Double Your Pleasure Yuri Anthology, Guest Review by Luce

November 24th, 2021

A cropped header of the cover of Double Your Pleasure Yuri Anthology. (I have used the cropped one as the full image whilst not explicit, is not really safe for work)

I’m Luce and often my curiosity gets the better of me. See also: I read and reviewed it so you don’t have to! Gave Erica a break, anyhow. You can find me on the Okazu discord as farfetched, and on tumblr as silverliningslurk. Onward, at your own peril.

Double Your Pleasure is an erotic yuri anthology based around twins, from authors such as Naoko Kodama who has done Days of Love at Seagull Villa. I think this is what they call ‘Dead Dove content’, also known as ‘does what it says on the tin’. I don’t know if I was expecting anything different from what I got, to be honest.

This review could be as short as: a series of twins having sex in various places. That’s pretty much all this is. If that’s your thing, then it’s great. I do find twins interesting… but not so much in this context. As far as I’m aware, sibling relationships are much more common in Japanese media than they are in English media, as are teacher-student relationships. I don’t know why – someone more versed in Japanese culture might be able to comment more thoroughly on it – but for some reason, they seem to go down a treat, at least with enough people to get published. I somehow can’t imagine something like this being published in the western world, but this made it here, so presumably there is some demand. I could possibly guess the type.

To be honest, where a third party was included it was a bit more interesting to me, but the focus on twins being so obsessed with their differences felt quite odd. Maybe it was low-hanging fruit, but nearly all of the stories featured twins either trying to be exactly the same, or very focused on the few things that they matched in. I’m not a twin, so I can only imagine that it probably is something they are concerned about to a degree, but I feel like most twins (I happen to know two separate triplets, too) I know don’t like being compared, and are no more interested in their siblings than non-twin siblings.

Basically, this is a fetish-catering manga. There is a lot of focus on nipples, and the sex is shown. The preview on Bookwalker has one full short story, and it’s about the same from there. One of the ones that particularly irked me was a story where two twins are very different… but their weights are the same. Why? Because the one tries to match her intake and output to the other. Loosely linked to binary stars?

Basically, if you’re into it, you’re into it, and it does what it says on the tin, and does that pretty well. If you’re not, you’re probably reading this with a sense of horror. If you’re curious, read the preview on Global Bookwalker, (with an 18+ warning to click through) and if you hate that, it only gets better in the sense that the rest of the book isn’t quite as non-consensual. Oh, did I mention that? In the first story, the twins get annoyed that someone can tell them apart and force themselves on her as punishment. It’s my least favourite… not that I had any favourites. I won’t be reading this again.

Ratings:

Art – 7 – mixture of artists, all fairly decent.
Story – 1: twins have sex, sometimes someone else is included, in one it was a dream. I think.
Characters – 2 – few characters have any depth beyond ‘I’m obsessed with my twin and this correlates to sexual activity with them’.
Service (level of salaciousness) – 10. Lots of sex. Every story. Dead dove content, if you will.
Yuri –  10, I mean. They’re all explicit yuri, so…
Overall – 4.

Thank you to Seven Seas for the review copy. I’m off to read something a little more wholesome.

Erica here: Thank you Luce, for once again stepping in to give us a solid review of this jiggly collection.

For my part, I was merely sad that none of the creators tried to do something interesting with the premise. Like, an astronaut returns fall in love with another astronaut of a space station and they find they were separated at birth…or something. But as you say, this is “a series of twins having sex” so, if that’s a reader’s thing, then that reader ought to like it.  ^_^

Posted in Digital Manga, Hentai, Luce, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | No Comments »