The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 1

June 10th, 2022

Last autumn I took a look at Tensei Oujo to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei (転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命) manga. I found it to be fine, but much too shouty for my taste. Then I followed that up with the Light Novel, The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 1 in April of this year. That was altogether better as the screaming took up much less space on the page, forewent the utterly pointless service and gave Euphyllia some personality. That said, what it added to the story, it took away from the art.

Now I am revisiting the manga in English. Out from Yen Press as The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, Volume 1, I find I appreciate the art even more and both the service and the shouting even less. 

Princess Anisphia has memories of a life before her current one – memories of scientific wonders. But in this world, where magic is the defining power, Anisphia has none. Nonetheless, her obsession with using magic has lead her to be seen as an eccentric inventor. Euphyllia’s world has come crashing down upon her, when she is unjustly accused of bullying another girl, causing the Prince to end his engagement with her. Bereft of a purpose, now that she cannot be Queen, Euphyllia acquiesces when Anisphia asks for her to become her assistant.  She insists it’s professional, but Anis is pretty open about being into women, and thinking Euphie is cute, so the groundwork is laid out for a decent Yuri story.

Knowing the remainder of the story in the first LN, I am much more motivated to read the next volume of the manga. I honestly *want* to like Anisphia and Euphyllia and for them to be happy together. But boy is there a lot of shouting in this manga. And, Alcard’s break-up was so…vulgar, I can’t imagine that it’s not really addressed at all, except in asides. BUT, the art. Harutsugu Nadaka’s art is up to the task the story gives – this time I have no complaints about the sword Anisphia gives to Euphyllia…in fact, I’m looking forward to seeing her use it.

So, while, the story in the light novel made the LN worth reading, it’s the art here that makes this a perfectly fine read, if people shouting a lot doesn’t bother you and gobsmackingly gross service. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7 The art is better than the LN by a lot, the sword was an 8
Story – 6 A rocky start
Characters – 8 Annisphia carries the lot of them in this volume
Service – 7 Absolutely grotesque. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Yuri – 1 Clearly we are going to head there

Overall – It was hard to like initially, with all the screaming, but the end pulled it up to a 6.

Knowing what I know, I’m probably in for the long haul on this series, but the manga has a super creepy service problem. We’ll see if it or the good stuff wins.

Thanks to Yen Press for the review copy and to the entire Yen Press team for their fine work on this volume.

 

Posted in English Manga, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


Comic Yuri Hime June 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年6月号)

June 9th, 2022

The June issue of Comic Yuri Hime magazine is an issue of transition. Old series are wrapping up, or moving to new arcs and new series are beginning.

Firstly, we have another fantastic, textured cover with ambiguous scene, this time a rainy city night, in a city where the lights never go out.

Then we move to a fabulous new series, “Natsu to Lemon to Overlay,” by Ru, which is, right out of the gate, intriguing and strange and I love it. An aspiring seiyuu is hired to read a last message at a woman’s funeral. What the woman’s story is, she isn’t told, but she takes this strange job.

“Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.” wraps up the fisrt volume of the Light Novel and as we turn away from one arc, we’re about to head into the main part of the story.

“Kimi to Shiranai Natsu to Naru” settles down a bit from the scattered wackiness of running away from society to take a job at a local seaside place. The pace has slowed, but it remains charming.

Color pages for “Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru” my new favorite ballroom dance manga, by Utatane Yuu. This chapter moves the healing of past traumas forward. Kiki and Michiru had found their place and for a moment, everything is good.

The second half of this volume contained a number of one-shots one of which was outstanding – “Tsuihou wo Tsukamu” by nanimowakaran. This mermaid story was the first and only one of it’s kind that I have ever really liked. A woman is visited by a half-woman, half-sea creature from her past who has loved her for hundreds of years. This manga was beautiful and haunting and will stick with me for a while.

As always there are many other stories, some of which I read and enjoyed and others I did not, or did not read, which means it’s a decent selection all the way around. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Looking forward / not looking forward to the already-out  July issue, which will contain the final chapter of Usui Shio’s “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts.” Yay, boo. ^_^;

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines | 2 Comments »


Author Talk Tonight on Zoom!

June 8th, 2022
Don’t miss my virtual author talk for Under the Umbrella bookstore Wednesday, tonight from 8-9PM Eastern time!
 
RSVP with Under the Umbrella or  register directly on Zoom!

Bring questions and I’ll see you tonight!

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By Your Side Digital Bookplate Giveaway for June!

June 7th, 2022

June always presents a host of conundrums, among them how best to mark Pride month – this year I’m going with the historical precedent of rioting against cops as our spiritual ancestors did –  and, for the first time, how best to celebrate my own achievement of writing a book on the history of the Yuri genre, as well. ^_^

For the remainder of this month, I am giving a signed digital bookplate away to anyone who has purchased a digital copy of By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Aime and Manga in a digital format! (Click the link for all the online sites I have links for and for Bookshop.org if you want to support a local bookstore. Any legitimate digital format is allowable, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or directly from the publisher.

All you need to do is send me a copy of your receipt for the e-pub, Kindle, etc, to [email protected] and I’ll send you back a signed digital bookplate with original art by Rica Takashima, especially for By Your Side!

 

Posted in History of Yuri, Yuricon | 2 Comments »


Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith

June 6th, 2022

Rarely have I read a more captivating biography and rarely have I read so beautiful a comic. Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer is  a magnificent work about a deeply flawed and complex person….a person who would likely have loathed this book about herself.

Patricia Highsmith is a name well-known in older lesbian circles as the real name of Claire Morgan, the author of the first lesbian novel with a happy ending published in the United States. That novel, The Price of Salt, was one of my foundational novels as a young lesbian, as it has been for many others. It was made into the fabulously well-done movie Carol, which I have reviewed here. But to the rest of the world she is far, far more famous as the author of suspense novels, the first of which, Strangers on a Train, was made into a rather famous movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

That said, Patricia Highsmith is not the hero we need. Even if we take away the obvious stress of being a lesbian in a time where that was understood to be a form of mental illness, Highsmith was an unpleasant person; anti-Semitic, racist, and often extremely nasty to the few people around her she could call friends. Ellis addresses this in the foreword, but the script isn’t nearly vulgar enough to have any impact. One can see that they were juggling the idea of making her a bigoted harridan and a semi-sympathetic protagonist, but failed. There’s really no way to sugar-coat hatred and give it any impact, sadly. 

What did have impact was Templer’s art. Templer portrayed Highsmith’s life in three different templates, using one style for the day-to-day experiences, a second for the comic book scenarios Highsmith was cooking up for her job with Timely Comics, while struggling with her sexuality and her writing career. Her suspense novels are given a third style, and they and comics alternately fill Highsmith’s head as she balances all of these things with an increasingly difficult life as a lesbian.

Ellis and Templer’s portrayal of Highsmith is, simply, outstanding. We are left with a very heartfelt portrait of a miserable person who did little to many anyone else happier than she. Highsmith would have hated this book, which is why I love it to much. It’s more sympathetic to her than she ever was to anyone, including herself.

Ratings: 

Art – 10
Story – 10
Writing – 9 Balancing the shittiness of a shitty person with making a books people want to read is hard. 
LGBTQ+  – 9 Highsmith might have been happier if she was alive now…or she might not

Overall – 10

If you’re looking for an excellent Pride month read in comic form, I’m going to strongly recommend you reach for this comic. It’s only weakness is that it is just slightly too kind for the real Patricia Highsmith, which works just fine.

Posted in LGBTQ, Western Comic/Comix | No Comments »