Again, I intended to talk about something else today, specifically, Sailor Moon Eternal, but I have a fever and I have Mechademia at barely awake o’clock tomorrow, so I’m taking another day off.
Meet James Welker, Verena Maser and myself online at Mechademia for Transporting Yuri Across Borders June 5 21:00 JST (8 AM US EST, 1PM BST). I’d love to see familiar faces in the virtual audience!
I said in yesterday’s review that today’s would be intense, but I lied. Today, I am reading I’m in Love With the Villainess, Volume 3, which is out in digital for at last! Yay! Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments! All praise for Dorothea will be welcomed.
And, of course I will be watching Sailor Moon Eternal on Netflix tonight. My least favorite arc of the entire story, but if I get a couple of good Haruka x Michiru moments, (and I think I might) it will have been worth it. ^_^
See you tomorrow. I got Yuri to do. ^_^
When we last saw them, Minato had just blurted out that she liked Hibiki. As we begin Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 3 (ハロー、メランコリック!) everything between them is so normal it’s making them both uncomfortable. The pressure is going to build and the rest of the band is just waiting for it to blow. In the mean time, new first-years have joined and Minato is now a sempai
But, we’re not done yet, because Hibiki’s online posts opens an opportunity for Minato that she is absolutely not at all ready to take. A local band of adults – one that has a reputation for a high level of musical proficiency – has invited Minato to try out for a position as backup, a high honor. Minato’s good enough, but she is emotionally still so scarred from her previous experience in trying out for a band position that she rejects the chance. Even when Hibiki helps her to confront her fears, Minato continues to retreat into herself, eventually lashing out at Hibiki.
This too comes to a head, after Minato asks the only other second year in the group for advice. Luckily for her, Emma is a good advice giver and in a moment of clarity, Minato realizes that she’s never had a friend to ask advice from – and it takes her breath away. Finally everything comes down to a confrontation, and as the rest of the band eavesdrop outside the door, Hibiki and Minato say some things that they need to say. Minato works through last lingering doubts about Hibiki going off to college with help from the ever-chill Sachiko and Chika. The book ends with Minato (sporting a new look) and Hibiki meeting up again on a spring day a year later.
The extra chapter delves into Emma’s secret life with an older woman.
Okay, you’re probably looking at this and wondering why I picked *this* story for day two of Pride Month, since I’m usually so intentional about my choices? (I hope you notice that I’m intentional.) Well for a couple of reasons – things that happen in this series that I think are very relevant to right now.
One – this is a story about a kid who had been bullied and it is not a miraculous story of redemption or perseverance. Minato slowly, carefully sheds some of the baggage she was burdened with, but it’s not without risk to her and to survive it, she just grows. The whole school isn’t applauding her, she isn’t made prom queen, this isn’t a Hollywood story. Minato finds some people who help her grow up and grow beyond the damage – I honestly wish this was a narrative that we got more often. Most of us who were bullied don’t get a reckoning, we just get old and the things that weighed us down, don’t anymore. I was in college when one of the kids who had bullied me as as a tween was sitting in a class I walked into. She saw me and said something rude and I just…laughed at her. I mean, really? Was I supposed to care what she thought? It was too ridiculous to imagine.
Two – and this made me cheer out loud. Minato, all upset at losing Hibiki to college, assumes Chika and Sachiko will be going to school together. As it turns out, Chika’s going to trade school to be a dental hygenist, Sachiko’s going on to a private school. Minato, shocked, asked if they aren’t upset at never seeing each other and they stare at her like she’s turned purple. Why? Because they have cell phones, for pity’s sake. Cell phones and days off and maybe they’ll move in together, but really – there is no reason that high school is the end of it allTM. Why wouldn’t they keep seeing each other?
Three – yesterday was pretty heavy going with The Rose of Versailles and tomorrow is pretty heavy going and I wanted something light and fun and a story about a girl meeting and falling in love with her sempai in band is about as close to an autobiography as I’ll ever get in a manga. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 9
Story – 9 More conflict in this volume is a good thing, as Minato becomes less passive
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 9
Overall – 9
Thank you Ohsawa-sensei for this utterly delightful story.
What better way is there to start off Pride Month than to begin with revolution, with a fight against the status quo and respectability? What better thing can we do in 2021 than to remember why we celebrate this month, than to tear down systemic oppression and fight for our freedoms?
Sit yourself down, make yourself some tea, maybe a crepe, and buckle in, because we’re about to get historical. The Rose of Versailles, Volume 4 will cover the last days of the French Revolution, and of Oscar François de Jarjeyes’ life in noble service to the undeserving ancien régime of France. The parallels to right now are once again uncanny and distressing.
As the book opens, Oscar and Andre’ finally confront the one thing they have never discussed in a lifetime of friendship – their feelings for one another. They consummate what little of their marriage they will ever have.
The next morning, committed to the cause of the people, Oscar leads her troops to one of the most resonant moments of the Revolution – the day the canons of the Bastille were turned, not upon the prison, but upon the town. This scene makes me tremble, to be honest. In recent years, in cities all over the US, the canons were indeed turned upon the people…and it has come very close to making a difference, but never quite close enough. Even in 18th century France, the Revolution, while it ushered in new ideals, failed to bring the kind of change the commoners were fighting for – food, justice, the right to live without harassment.
We are asked to watch as the characters we learned about face the guillotine, the mob, or are cut down in battle. It’s never an easy story, but one we need to be able to get to the end of. With Fersen’s death, which was slightly more complicated than the narration makes it seem, the story as such, is over.
We take a deep breath, because the neither the series nor the story is truly over. Instead we are plunged from the real horrors of history into a gothic horror, complete with a virgin-killing, blood-bathing protagonist, a murderous creepy doll, and Oscar’s niece Lulu. Get used to Lulu, she’ll be back. This final story gives us some predatory lesbian behavior from the Marquise de Montclair, which I find somehow refreshing, after the guillotine and the spectre of an uncaring elite staring at children dying without interest.
And so, the main narrative of The Rose of Versailles comes to an end, as the République Française begins. But wait! There’s more! More evil women, more mysterious disappearances, more predatory lesbians and more Lulu on the way in The Rose of Versailles, Volume 5! (Which is the part I worked on first, oddly, with translator Mari Morimoto.)
Ratings:
Art – 9 Honestly fantastic
Story – 9 A lot happens, good and bad
Characters – 9 We’re going to do some rethinking about people here
Service – Not visually, but there is some in Montclair’s behavior
Yuri – Same as above
Overall – 9
My hat is off to Jocelyne for the fine translation and Jeannie Lee for the great lettering. Andy Tsang’s cover design is amazing. Again, my thanks to the UDON team for making this a pleasure to work on. Gonna say…I’m still blown away that I was able to help out.
All I have to say this pride month is Vive la Révolution! There’s still so much yet to fight for. Let’s get out there and fight for every last queer kid, so in 30 years they can be clueless gobs about us on the neural network. ^_^
Watashi ha Ongaku de Naguritai: Band Yuri Novel (わたしは音楽で殴りたい: バンド百合小説) by Yuruico Vraisravana is the very last item I picked up in February 2019 when I was in Japan for Comitia that was left unread. And now, more than 2 years later – it has been read!
Novels are slow going for me, simply as a matter of circumstance. I do my reading at night before bed and my eyes are already tired from the day. A few pages at a time is about all I can manage. And this novel is nearly 400 pages long. At least it wasn’t in a teeny-tiny font. ^_^
The story follows Nagi, a young woman who is at loose ends. She’s graduated high school and is in university, but is sort of floating aimlessly with no particular desire. Her lover is a teacher with whom she has had a relationship since middle school and if that wasn’t enough to make you hate Sensei, they are also a complete jerk to Nagi as a matter of course.
One day, Nagi meets Mare, an old schoolmate. Mare is on the way to a live show and invites Nagi along…and Nagi’s life is completely changed. Although she doesn’t “understand” rock and roll, she’s rendered helpless as Chimera sings from the stage about how life has no meaning. At the end of the show, Mare finds Nagi on the floor, her eyes filled with tears. Mare takes Nagi to a karaoke room and there, discovers Nagi has a great voice. Once again Mare invites Nagi out – this time to audition with her band, Asiatic Hybrid (which, by the way, is the name of a lily.)
The bulk of the story involves Nagi and the band adjusting to one another. Nagi is sleeping with Yomi, the drummer and band leader, but she’s running after the girl with black hair, Chimera. The band struggles to find their sound. Toa, on bass, seems detached a lot of the time, Mare is starting to sound jealous of Nagi’s increasing influence and Yomi and Nagi are maybe more serious than they are admitting. When Nagi asks to write the lyrics to their next song, things come to a head with Mare. Mare and Nagi spend an all-nighter confiding secrets and working on their song – together.
Nagi tries to find her sound and to understand rock and roll. As the big contest is upon them Chimera dissolves her band. When Nagi tracks them down and demands to know why, they say that it’s just time. She’ll have one chance and one chance only to beat Chimera. Chi, the girl with black hair, signals her support and Nagi and the band go out and kill it.
The book wraps up with Nagi and Yomi rededicating themselves to studies, the band continuing to play and Yomi and Nagi admitting that they love one another.
When I got the book, I also had received a mini disk with the band’s song. I had very clear idea of what I thought the band members looked like as I read this book, and when I finally watched the music video for their single…this was not it. ^_^ But it was fun to see this and now you too can see Asiatic Hybrid and listen to their single, Recollection:
I was surprised that Nagi was a soprano. I don’t know why, really. There’s also a lovely little voiced promo which nails what I imagined as Yomi’s voice.
Ratings:
Art – Not in the book, but the videos, and while nice, not the image I had at all.
Story – Not bad.
Characters – Totally worked, no one that felt out of place
Service – Gonna call Sensei on this. Yuck
Yuri – Yomi and Nagi were a boot I was waiting to see drop. It never did, for which I was glad
Overall – Solid 7
Honestly, it wasn’t a bad novel at all, just needed a bit of editing in places. As a purchase at Comitia, two thumbs up from me and I’ll borrow a thumb for giving out the companion CD as well. Yuri girls band story with a happy ending, plus media mix for the win. This novel is available on JP Kindle, or from Melonbooks, and you can download the song, Recollection for free from Booth.pm. Melonbooks also has a some of Yuruico’s other publications, or you can check them out on Pixiv.
This is kind of a long review for a doujinshi novel…but it took me 2 years to read it, I’m gonna talk about it a bit.
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