Mejirobana Saku, Volume 2 (メジロバナの咲く)

July 22nd, 2021

Back in 2020 when I reviewed the first volume of Nakamura Asumiko’s first manga that was specifically meant to be seen as Yuri, I kept my expectations relatively low-key. I was already familiar with Nakamura-sensei’s work, I knew her art was quirky and her characters tended be off-balance, but charming. Indeed, Volume 1 was very much all of that.

Mejirobana Saku, Volume 2 (メジロバナの咲く) threw me for a complete loop. The set-up in Volume 1, which appeared to be headed towards a traditional love triangle is set aside for something far more complicated. What I thought was heading towards Yawnsville, took a sharp turn and became exactly the kind of non-conventional, dramatic and honestly compelling and delightful story I have come to expect from this author.

It was apparent from the beginning that Ruby’s parents had failed her, but when we finally meet her father, we start to understand the multiple ways in which adult selfishness can have an impact upon their children. And the thing is…by the end of the story we don’t even dislike her parents, even despite everything they put Ruby through, Steph and Liz both rise way above their initial characterizations for an series of amazing scenes…. 

The end of the story is…well, I’m not going to spoil it, because you’ll be getting A White Rose in Bloom, Volume 2 at the end of this year and I don’t want to ruin a single moment of it for you. If you haven’t read Volume 1 of that yet, definitely do, because you need to get set-up for a story that isn’t at all what you expected and is all the better for it. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9 Fabulous
Service – Kinda, but not really, let’s say 1 because
Yuri – 7

Overall – 9 Wow, that was fantastic.

In my review of Volume 1 I said of this book, “We’re never going to shed the tropes of Yuri, but revisiting them with talented creators doing something unique and unpredictable with them” and I have never been as prophetic. Nakamura-sensei takes all the old tropes and without changing a thing, gives us something wholly unique and unpredictable. An absolutely fabulous read.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。)

July 21st, 2021

Watashi no Oshi ha Akujyaku Reijou., Volume 2 (私の推しは悪役令嬢。) gets into the first of my two favorite arcs in the first WataOshi novel – Rae and Claire are recruited to the Academy Knights.  One-on-one magic battles! Whee! I absolutely love this arc and the school festival (for obvious reasons when we get there.)

The tryouts for the Academy Knights are pretty much a forgone conclusion – at least two of the three Princes are a shoo-in, Claire, Misha and Rae are competing for the other positions with, sorry to be cold, but clearly its Thane.

But first Rae finds herself examining her own sexuality for real, out loud, at lunch with Claire, Misha and Lene. And when I say “for the first time,” I mean for the first time in both lives. By her own admission, Rae had fallen in love with women, but also mostly unobtainable women, women who did not return her feelings. Rae can see that her interest in Claire is true to her usual pattern, then. Of course we know that that will change, but at the moment, Rae has no idea.

When the students help with taking out magical monsters, Thane and Claire team up to beat a massive slime, but it doesn’t boost Thane’s confidence. It does bring Relaire into our household, so we have a brand new adorable slime monster of our very own.

Then, at last, we get the beginning of the Academy Knights battles! And…the volume comes to a close. Argh! So much good stuff, but we’re still a few chapters off from Rae and Claire facing off. /pouty face/

The art in this volume has settled in nicely and Aonoshita-sesnei’s art is super on point. We already know we love the story…and this volume has the eye-opening discussion about being a sexual minority that sets a tone for the rest of the series. Rae is openly lesbian, and she will stand at the top of a veritable army of queer characters by the time this story is done.

On a different topic, I bought this book from Melonbooks online, for the single reason that if I did, I got a color insert and a bonus comic. Here’s the insert I chose, tell me if you can guess why I picked it. ^_^

Overall, a very strong volume of a series that I fully expect to have nothing but very strong volumes for the forseeable future.

I believe I did not review the Japanese edition of Volume 1 as (due to the delay of material in the Suez Canal,) my volume arrived almost simultaneously with Volume 1 in English.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Characters – 9
Story – 9
Service –  1Very little for this series
Yuri – 10

Overall – 9

I cannot wait to see the battle between Rae and Claire – and their cafe at the festival. ^_^

Posted in I'm in Love With the Villainess, inori, LGBTQ, Manga, Yuri Manga | 2 Comments »


New Video on Yuri Studio!

July 19th, 2021

We have a new video up on Yuri Studio! In this video I talk about Yuri anime that helped create Yuri fandom and, once it was created, brought new waves of people into that fandom. Yuri Studio S02 E03 – Gateway Yuri Anime Part 1: The 1990s.  The is the first part of 3, Part 2 will cover the 2000s and is in process right now. I’m working on the script for Part 3 this week.

 

 

All of this will lead into our exciting Yuricon community 20th Anniversary Event about Yuri Global Fandom. Stay tuned for news about that.

In the meantime, thank you for your support of Yuri Studio. Even if you watch all the way through here, please remember to give the video a like on Youtube, and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Subscribers, especially, make a massive difference in how Youtube treats me. ^_^

Thanks once again to my Okazu Patrons, for their help with this video and for their support! I you enjoy this video and would like to see more, please  become an Okazu Patron. Even $5/month makes a big difference and allows us to do so much more! (We’re only a few patrons away from meeting a new microgoal – supporting another queer creator and raising our rates for Guest Reviews for Okazu.

Posted in Yuri Studio | No Comments »


Comic Yuri Hime July 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年7月号)

July 18th, 2021

And here we are at Comic Yuri Hime July 2021 (コミック百合姫2021年7月号). ^_^ Let’s start with the fantastic stuff I definitely want to mention.

Usui Shio’s “Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts” comes to key moment – and so does “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita.” Both are ongoing and I find both stories absolutely delightful for different reasons. I would take a magazine full of this kind of story – adult women with more than one layer of existence or relationship. Usui-sensei’s art and story telling gets a 100% from me.

“Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” by Miman, is doing something I both wanted and kind of feared! Sumika is starting to find herself interested in Kanako…who only has eyes for Hime. Hrm…I’m super interested in where this goes.

Takashima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Uta” continues to be a pleasant read, even if the new characters feel a little tsun for the sake of having a tsun character. I hope she’s actually driven by desire to succeed and not just a type.

And, in very exciting news, Comic Yuri Hime announces that Inui Ayu’s autobiographical comic column about her life with her girlfriend is returning with more pages and will be collected into volumes! I’m absolutely thrilled at that news.

Now, if only we can get some decent sports and action series in this magazine. Which beings me to…

 

Last month I promised to ridicule semelparous, so let’s get that over with. The premise of this manga appears to be “Attack on Titan, but less fun, less coherent and make all the women’s bodies as insulting as possible.” Ogino Jun has absolutely complied with this: This art is bad.

These poses are infantile and absurd. Tits are not balloons, they don’t just flap about with no reason, even out of a bra.

Of course, when the guy shows up…he’s hardbodied and bizarrely, his dick isn’t wangling around in a loose sheath, it’s packed neatly and invisibly away behind what any sensible human might presume to be protection.

Of course he is. What man would draw a penis sock, leaving that specific body part unprotected? None. Even Dick Fight Island give the penises big masculine energy. (If you haven’t seen Dick Fight Island, you should really, it’s quite amazing for a lot of reasons. As a pure act of sexualizing men’s bodies for a female audience, it’s fantastic. I mean, it’s hilarious and wack, but so gleefully over the top that it’s not insulting, just amazing. I wish we could get something that’s fun and wack and amazing here.

 

Instead, for women, we get camel toe and…this…thing…which actually made me laugh out loud. I won’t even bother explaining why. Either you understand how impossible this is or you have never once met an actual human woman.

 

It’s not just that these pictures are terrible art, with no grasp at all of anatomy, it’s that they are illustrations for a story which has no plot other than the torture and dismemberment of women…in a Yuri manga magazine, which one might believe to be at least nominally for and about women. This story could have been a fantastic science fiction action story about women. Instead, it is quite literally the most boring thing I have seen in years. There’s no joy, no humor, no delight even in the badness – which I absolutely could have gotten behind. I LOVE things that glory in their crappiness. Give me Tit Fight Island, sure, but – and this is important – make sure that it’s fun. This isn’t fun. It’s just…ridiculous.

This is the last time I’ll be mentioning this series here. It’s been licensed by Seven Seas, and it won’t be going on the Yuricon Store, but if you like it, bless. This seems obvious to me, but I’ll say it anyway, the comments are open to cogent, intelligent disagreement, but grunting-of-animals-type comments need not apply. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

 

With only a few exceptions, an excellent volume and now I’m going to go over to the Comic Yuri Hime questionnaire and tell them to give us manga that celebrates women’s lives, achievements, emotions and bodies. And sports. ^_^

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 8 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – July 17, 2021

July 17th, 2021

Yuri Events

Anime Lockdown was a lot of fun and you can still watch my panel on Youtube (and lol at my wife’s interjection.) Yuri: How It Began, How It’s Going. ^_^ Honestly, Anime Lockdown was 9/10. I’d participate with them and Casacon again any time!

On July 26, join me at HYPER JAPAN for a “LGBT+ in Japan” panel on which I will likely to have nothing to say, as it’s about LGBTQ life in, y’know Japan. ^_^

Keep August 14th, 8AM Eastern US time clear, because I’m being joined by James Welker and Verena Maser for our Yuricon 20th anniversary event! We’ll be talking Global Yuri fandom. Registration is currently open to Okazu Patrons only, and there are limited spots, so please register asap!

August 20-26, you can watch the 2019 Nogizaka 46 Sailor Moon Musical online on Japan 2.5 Stage World. I already have my ticket, of course. Sure, let’s rehash that same story one more time from the top! ^_^

Make a note for November 2022, when German Yaoi and Yuri focused event, YaYuCo will return. With luck – and the ongoing efforts of our own Okazu Hero Karin – you’ll see some edifying Yuri content!

 

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Patrons get early access to Yuri Studio videos, event registration, articles – and help shape our future plans.

 

Yuri Manga

Bookwalker is running a 30% back coin event. Grab some of your favorite manga and light novels in English today!

We’ll start off with a pile of new titles on the Yuricon Store! We’re still working through updating everything, almost all the English translated anime and manga have been updated, with expanded purchasing links.

Hara Yukiko’s, Cocoon, Entwined, Volume 3 hits shelves later this month from the folks at Yen Press. I’ve got V4 next up in Japanese and I’m pretty sure it’s going to end just right. ^_^

Nakatani Nio’s Farewell, My Alter, also from Yen Press, is out now. This is her short story collection from the Éclair anthologies and some originals.

Kodama Naoko’s Day of Love At Seagull Villa, Volume 3, wraps up the series in early August.

 

Via Comic Natalie, Galette WORKS has released a new collection, Anoko no Hana ga Hoshi (あのこの花が欲しい), by Asuba Yui. As I mentioned yesterday, every collected volume that come out of Galette is a mark of perseverance and effort in trying times!  Galette No. 19 (ガレット No.19) in paper has gone up for order on Galette’s Fantia site.

Also from Comic Natalie an android x human story is staring up in Comic Yuri Hime, Android ha Keiken Ninzuu ni Hairimasuka?? (アンドロイドは経験人数に入りますか？？)

Wada Shinji is spinning in his grave, as Sukeban Deka is getting a spin-off manga. He killed Saki off at the end of the manga, but cannot kill off corporate greed. ^_^; Rafael Antonia Pineda at ANN gives us the news of who and what the new manga will be.

 

Yuri Webcomics  & Doujinshi

In Yuri online comic news, YNN Correspondent Evie Starcross wants you to know that “Ratana Satis’s “Soul Drifters” has only 2 chapters left & they just released info about their next upcoming webcomic titled “Beast Knights” & the 3 new main characters are Lunar (Bunny Woman), Akela (Wolf Woman), & Synne (?). ” Thanks, Evie!

Lilyka has a new Yuri doujinshi for sale, The Story of Inhuman Girls, by Siu Yosiujima. “From fairies and mermaids to witches and zombies, The Story of Inhuman Girls, is sure to have a little of something for everyone.”

 

Yuri Light Novels

Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 is headed our way next month! Since Bookwalker’s running a sale, I’ve linked to it there. ^_^

The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Volume 2 is on Global Bookwalker, with coin boost this week!

I’m reading End Blue (エンドブルー) by Iruma Hitoma with illustrations by Nakatani Nio and stumbled across this voiced ad for it on Youtube!

Inori-sensei noted in a recent Pixiv fanbox post that there are now two free indy-developed browser scenario games for I’m in Love With the Villainess:
Revolution Lily!? ~Claire-sama’s Birthday Party~  and Revolution Lily!? ~Desert Island where can’t escape without ??~.  I started the first one and was awed by it’s wholesomeness. I hope to finish it up this week. ^_^

 

Yuri Anime

While we’re talking Executioner and Her Way of Life, let’s not forget that an anime of this grim, yet interestingly built world, is headed our way in 2022. YNN’s Rafael Antonia Pineda has the details and trailer. Thanks to everyone who kept me abreast of this news! (Yeah, pun intended.)

CR New’s Paul Chapman invites us to watch the Blue Reflection Ray creditless ED for some quiet time between the characters.

Komatsu-san has a trailer for the Tropical Rouge Precure movie that brings back some old friends from Heartcatch Precure! Amazingly, I am still watching Tropical Rouge Precure…. ^_^

 

Other News

I want to shout out to Kaelan Ramos on Twitter who deftly noted that memes about Takeuchi Naoko being a starving, lonely artist when she drew Sailor Moon is incorrect, and that “celebrating” women by not actually crediting them for their and work is a bullshitty and demeaning thing to do.

And, to that end, why not listen to the recorded session for No Friend to Girls: Kawabata Yasunari, Shōjo no tomo and the Appropriation of Girls’ Culture, to see how Kawabata Yasunari took Nakazato Tsuneko’s work and put his name on it.

In happier news, Zombieland Saga Revenge is getting an exhibit (and pop-up shop, of course) in Harajuku. Choo Sum Lee has the scoop on ANN!

Last, but not least, Takarazuka’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. ^_^

 

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Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »