Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Sasamekikoto, Volume 7 (ささめきこと)

October 26th, 2010

Years ago, when Ranma 1/2 dominated the world of anime/manga – related fanfic, authors quickly discovered something critical about writing comedy. Writing farce was impossibly difficult, as it relied heavily on visual gags. And, if authors took the other road and went all serious with the characters, they instantly encountered roadblocks like sustainable characterization and the drama of emotions.

Everyone knows that tragedy is easy, comedy is hard. It is especially hard when the comedy morphs into a drama, and things that were funny when it was a comedy now have to be integrated into a serious plotline. Someone switching genders as a comedy might be a hoot and a half…as a serious character point…do you go all maudlin and self-retrospective with them? Or do you deal with everyone else’s reactions? Or do you delve into the emotional life of not knowing who or what you are?

All of which brings us to Sasamekikoto, Volume 7, (ささめきこと). As I mentioned in my review of Strawberry Panic!, there comes a time when, as a writer, you have to just write, dammit. Comedy, potboiler episodic standardized whatever all have to be tossed out so you can make a strong story which characters that are real…or the readers will simply stop caring. (In reality, some will stop caring when you try to make your characters real, too, because they *liked* the two-dimensionality of the characters, but if you’re a writer, those people are an acceptable loss when weighed against your sanity and pride.)

Unexpectedly, Volume 7 begins with a look at Ushio’s brother and his lack of a life – and the choices he made that put him in that position. This story sets the tone for the rest of the volume, as the underlying theme is surely “choices made have consequences.”

We also meet a new “couple” – Koi and her friend Mayu, whose story somewhat echoes Sumi and Ushio’s, with a slightly different outcome. Their story segues into the story of the big Karate match, and Ushio joining the team as manager. Victory is not ours, but that’s all right, as not winning is a far more real experience for most than winning. Another indication to me that this series has shifted focus away from fantasy-comedy.

And finally, we are allowed some time alone with Sumi and Ushio…and we can see that having finally acknowledged their feelings for one another are the same, they are not jumping into bed, but are dating. Another sign that this series is taking itself rather more seriously than it was.

And then, reality…seriousness…*drama* strikes.

Sumi has decided to run for the student council. As class representative, a good student and excellent athlete, she’s a natural – her striking figure and height only help to sway the boys to feel that she is almost one of them. Until one of her opponents takes the low road and outs her as a lesbian. She and Ushio had not been hiding their relationship…it had never occurred to them to do so. Now Ushio, who remembers what it was like to be ostracized in middle school, says she’ll back off Sumi and the rumors will stop. After all, Ushio says, Sumika is the one “normal” member of the Joshibu. Sumika doesn’t know how to respond to this, and allows the moment to pass without comment.

In a misguided attempt to promote Sumi’s heterosexuality, Akemiya-kun is chosen as a beard for Sumi. He accepts happily because, as we remember from earlier chapters, he likes Sumika.

In the wake of the deaths of LGBTQ and other youth in part due to bullying, I can’t help but feel that this will not go well…not the author’s fault, per se, but I guess anything written about anyone being bullied or mocked for a sexual or gender identity right now will push that button.

For the first time, I find myself considering the next volume with trepidation. I realize that Sasamekikoto is still largely a comedy. But the possibility for comedy (in the classic sense of living happily ever after) is significantly lower than the possibility of tragedy (in both senses.)

Would I like Sumika to stand up in front of the student body and admit to liking Ushio and tell them to vote and be damned? Yes, of course I would, but I’m not delusional and I don’t *expect* it to happen. I want to trust the author to take that rein and tell the “right” story, the story about being whoever you are is okay…I really want to trust him.

What will happen?

I don’t know.

That’s why I keep reading.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 8
Story – 9
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Thanks be to Okazu Superhero Mari K. for her generous sponsorship of today’s review!





Yuri Manga: Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 2 (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり)

October 24th, 2010

Yuri Anthology Hirari, Volume 2 has some good qualities and some less good ones.

Many of the stories don’t actually seem to be “Yuri” at all. Two girls meet and, um…they meet. But there are others that are less preliminary and a few even go so far as to lightly touch upon some semblance of emotion.

The best of the bunch, in that regard, was “Yubisaki no Koe,” by Maeda Tomo. Not because it was a good story, per se, but unlike many of the other stories in the collection, where we have to just assume that the two girls are interested in one another *because* this is a Yuri anthology, there was a palpable feeling of tension between the two characters.

Also, “Nanami-sempai to Arisa-chan,” while I didn’t like the art at all, did a shift halfway along that created some unresolved (and kind of unresolvable) sexual tension. When Arisa learns that her interest in one upperclassman is hopelessly unrequited, she simultaneously learns that what she thought was a rivalry with another upperclassman was nothing of the sort.

The most unique story, although not necessarily the most satisfying, was Minagi Asaoka’s “Anata to Ireba”‘ when a young woman accidentally encounters her namesake, who is a famous figure skater. They end up having a heart to heart talk. We get a rather sudden epilogue ten years later, when the skater asks her namesake to marry her. This story was indicative of the collection as a whole. “Here’s two girls,” we’re told as we’re handed two girls at random. “This is a Yuri anthology. Therefore they must like each other.” Even if we never actually see or feel that. Or, in something like Scarlet Beriko’s “Mine,” we’re shown a friendship that, at some barely-anything kind of provocation, suddenly is love (and desire.)

As a perfectly fitting ending, there is a short story by Sakaki Kazuki, illustrated by Hirao Auri, the creator of Manga no Tsukrikata. I haven’t read the story yet, but I felt that the choice of illustrator was somehow characteristic of the collection as a whole. Manga no Tsukurikata is also a series in which the interest and tension between the characters largely has to be assumed by the audience, because we see little actual sign of it in the story itself.

Ratings:

All things Variable. Overall – 6

It’s not that it’s a bad collection, it’s just sort of still in prep stages and not quite ready to be cooked.





Yuri Manga: Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi

October 22nd, 2010

I remember the moment I first discovered desire in shoujo manga.

I was reading Sailor Moon, raw, with very little Japanese comprehension, accompanied by a script translation created by a dedicated fan. There was Usagi, our charmingly naive and sweet heroine, in bed, wearing Mamoru’s shirt…and nothing else. It wasn’t explicit, but the art clearly indicated “nothing else.” And it was the morning after. Mamoru was likewise at least partially unclothed. It was obvious to anyone who could see, that they had spent the evening together and had slept together. Usagi was, at that point in the story, about 16. Objectively speaking this is not an inappropriate age for sex. But Sailor Moon ran in Nakayoshi, which was for girls 11-14. It kind of made my head explode a little.

Desire, as I once wrote in a story, is a terrible thing. It is *the* thing that irrevocably destroys innocence. Kissing, hand holding, riding off into the sunset – these are totally innocent expressions of love and marriage and happily-ever-after. But sexual desire – the recognition of desire – is the thing that changes one’s vision of happily ever after, forever.

We could see Usagi and Mamoru kissing – we knew what it meant. But we could retain a indirect innocence as long as we pretended that they didn’t *want* one another. In the middle of Sailor Moon Super S, we now have to admit that Usagi has become a woman not because she lost her virginity (we have no idea if this was their first time and indeed are lead to believe that it is not, as they are both quite natural about it,) but because we have to admit that she *felt sexual desire.* (The sad little eulogy for K-ON! from a 2chan fan who referenced his disappointment in Nagi from Kannagi sleeping with a man, is reacting to the same thing, although in a different way.)

Which brings me to Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi, which also runs in Nakyoshi. It begins with Hatsumi seeing Izumi and Mayu kissing in the forest. In effect, it begins with the loss of innocence, as Hatsumi is introduced to the idea of desire in herself and in others.

The first volume is not yet out and I will be reviewing it when I get it, but last night I read the most recent chapter and once again had my head explode. ^_^ Because I have been expecting this manga to stop being as Yuri as it is any second and in the most recent chapter, it actually *ups* the Yuri.

This series begins with Hatsumi being aware that two girls have desire for each other…then it morphs to her slow recognition of desire in herself for another girl. In this month’s chapter her innocence is shattered as she is forced to realize that there is someone who desires *her.* That’s the last straw in innocence, I think. When we confront the idea that we *want* someone else, it’s not really a loss of innocence, but when we look into the eyes of someone who *wants* us – it’s all over. We can never really see the world innocently again.

And let me be very clear here…I’m not discussing innocence as a quality that is to be admired or preserved, but as a stage of personal development. “Innocence,” in this case, is a way we perceive the world.

So, at the end of this chapter, when Hatsumi’s best friend forever kisses her, passionately, with obvious desperation and desire…it’s a shock to Hatsumi (not so much to me, as I had seen it in her all along.) What was a shock to me was how blatantly the mangaka exposed this as desire, and not something else – and how they did not shy from the expression of desire between two girls. That was the head exploding bit for me this time.

Nakayoshi is, as I said, a magazine for the pre-pubescent to pubescent girl audience. Again, objectively speaking, it makes a lot of sense that this audience would be fairly obsessed with the idea of desire. Objectively speaking, but in reality we all have screaming hissy fits at the idea here in the west. The awakening sexuality of young girls is sold heavily as titillation for men, but heaven help an actual young girl who is perceived to have sexual desire. We try to shove her back in the baby box as fast as we can.

Nakayoshi does not shy away from desire. It recognizes that 13-year-old girls are interested in things like, y’know, boys. There is less sex in Ribon and Ciao, but Nakayoshi skews, in my perception, just slightly older, more like Margaret. There’s a surprising amount of desire in shoujo magazines, which forces manga companies here to often rate shoujo as Older Teen.

I’ve got no conclusion to this essay (which I expect to ultimately rework into an article for Hooded Utilitarian) but I really just wanted to talk about Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi and let you know that you should definitely get Volume 1, because it is very, very Yuri.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6 (百合姫 Wildrose)

October 17th, 2010

I know, I know. I said I was done with this series. I say that sometimes. But then I need another item or two to make an order on Amazon JP worth it, so…

Anyway, here we are in Yuri Hime Wildrose, Volume 6 (百合姫 Wildrose) and while I am not dancing a joyful “this is it!” dance, I’m not gritting my teeth or anything, either. And perhaps the folks at Yuri Hime are getting comments that echo my own, because in it’s own PWP way, this volume of Wildrose steps up its game by a notch.

This is most apparent in the first story of the volume, “Yume no Hanashi,” in which Naho is moved to tears when she realizes that she is not alone in her school as a girl who loves other girls. Given that recently the US is dealing with reports of young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth struggling against  prejudice and abuse from not just the people around them but from the leaders of their communities, who don’t seem to care that their casual homophobia is inciting acts of hate and intolerance…this message is an incredibly powerful one. And, given that Wildrose does tend to be rather more superficial than sensitive, and almost all Yuri avoids complications of awareness and identity, this simple acknowledgement of how alone a LGBTQ young person can feel and how important just knowing that you are not alone, is an amazingly powerful statement. It was a strong opening for the volume.

Again, in “Moment Like Fireworks,” the continuation of Nanzaki Iku’s ShizNat-esque couple, Sayo and Ritsuko’s story, Sayo first introduces Ri-chan as a friend to an old classmate , then corrects it to a “good friend,” and then backtracks, explaining that she and her girlfriend would like some alone time to engage in some love talk. Sayo later apologizes for not making the point right away, but Ritsuko expresses understanding and gratitude.

There were a few stories where younger women had to work a little harder at getting their point across to their older lover, and one story in which a Devil tries to ruin an Angel, only to be thwarted by her purity and love (a very cute story, I thought. It seems obvious to me that the real danger is that the Devil will start to feel “Love” and go good.)

There are a few stories which are not “good” in the big picture – one in which a not-very-veiled threat of suicide brings two lovers back together did not, to me, seem to be a good ending to a relationship that just needed to end. Relationships do that sometimes.  But then there’s something like “Houkago Berry Girl” which was just…silly. It made no statements, had nothing deep to impart, but was cute.

My major complaints about the Wildrose stories are that they have basically been retreads of “Story A” and left me feeling empty at best and quite often icky. This time I felt like they had actually stepped up their game, with more established couples and even some “lesbian identity” in a few of those stories.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I’m back on the wagon for Wildrose 7.





Yuri Manga: Octave, Volume 5

October 14th, 2010

Octave, Volume 5 (オクターヴ)　is a deceptively subtle volume.

On the surface, it appears to be a similar formula to the previous 4 volumes – Yukino and Setsuko have a disagreement stemming from their disparate worldviews about their relationship and we watch Yukino assimilate, deal, integrate and grow.

Only…it’s not the same. Not this time.

In previous volumes the driver of the disagreements has always been Yukino’s lack of confidence in herself, in their relationship – even in her perception of what a future *ought* to be. And it is apparently Yukino who causes this disagreement again. But this time, it’s *not* because she lacks confidence, or trust, or anything like that. This time it’s less philosophical – she was completely blindsided.

In Volume 5, Setsuko suddenly asks Yukino to move in with her. Yukino asks for time to think about it – and Setsuko has the hissy fit. “You could have at least said, ‘Yay!’ or something.” But Setsuko has had time to think about it…and Yukino has not. I can’t tell you how I cringe when I see people propose publicly for this very reason. Dude, you’ve been thinking about this and planning it for ages…what if she says no? Ugh.

Anyway, in this case, in this volume, I am 100% behind Yukino on this. She’s *just* finally become truly independent. Give her a chance to think about it! And she still has some work to do, too. Yukino has been given yet another idol to manage – and therefore, yet another girl who wants to know more about her private life than she’s willing to share and more professional contacts who don’t know when to stop “teasing” and she has to deal with a best friend who wants to drag her back to being the person she was, instead of allowing her to be the person she’s become.

She does deal with all these things. We can see that she’s become more confident, that the little white lies don’t torture her anymore, because sheesh, it’s none of their business anyway!

The entertainment world is nice and incestuous for us, so when Setsuko gets a job writing for Yukino’s former idol groupmate, now relaunched idol, we can smile at the realization of just how much everyone knows everyone else.

At this point, I am completely, totally entranced by this series. It’s soap-opera-y in a Shoujoai ni Bouken way – totally real people doing totally real things in a just-more-than-slightly-unreal setting.

Volume 5 was *excellent.* I hope to get 5 more volumes of this, and a live-action series, and a pony named Ruffles.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 4

Overall – 9

My *only* complaint is Kamo-chan dropping the ball on being a good friend. That irks, but is not unrealistic. Here’s hoping Yukino finds a new, better, best friend. I’m going to re-read this volume tonight, because it was that good.