Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Comic Lily, Volume 3

April 14th, 2010

In Have His Carcass, Dorothy L. Sayers has Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane discussing Harriet’s popular mystery series. She’s come to realize that there’s a point at which even the most superficial character has to either develop some depth or go away. The crisis was that, as a writer of popular novels, it was tempting to just let her character string along 2-dimensionally until everyone got tired of him. But if you’re any kind of real writer, you know that that’s just not really sustainable for either you – or the character.

It’s easy to write a “Story A” – girl meets girl, they fall in love, the end. Or Girl Confesses to Girl. Or something equally thin and non-committal. But now you’re trying to tell that same story for the third time and frankly, it’s getting harder. You either add some character to your characters and succeed…or you don’t and you fail hard. This is what I’m seeing in Volume 3 of Comic Lily (Comic リリィ). Creators are pushing a bit and making it work – or they are so not.

As with previous volumes, the first story is the strongest. Arare used to really admire Tsubasa – for her feminine figure, long hair, popularity – but these days, she thinks Tsubasa’s become a total dork. After she confessed to Arare and was rejected, Tsubasa cut her hair, started taking shop in high school and generally isn’t the woman Arare admired. But she’s still there all the time by Arare’s side and it’s pissing Arare off. When Arare’s birthday comes around, Tsubasa begins to avoid her, and Arare starts to realize what Tsubasa really means to her. When it turns out that Tsubasa was making her a ring in shop, Arare says she’ll think about accepting Tsubasa’s feelings at last.

The continuing series are starting to develop some personality (with the exception of the story that obsesses about bloomers. That one’s just bad from beginning to end) and I find myself actually wondering if/when/what something might happen.

Again, as with the rest of these volumes – and indeed with most anthologies – there is a wide range of art and story-telling skill, but for whatever reason, Volume 3 felt stronger than the previous two to me. So, not quite as forgettable as the first two volumes, with a moment or two of something approaching quite decent. Not world shaking, no, but I don’t feel bad about getting the next one.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Unlike Tsubomi, which got progressively less good as I read it, I will happily give this series another volume or two, because it’s starting to grow on me.





Yuri Manga: Comic Lily, Volume 2

April 12th, 2010

I’ve mentioned in the past that my brain has a neat little habit of wiping out anything that I read that is either excessively boring or emotionally harmful. (For instance, I remember that I once read a book that I afterwards described as making me feel as if I had been outside on the street when a bank robbery was in process – not actually involved, but still traumatized. I can no longer remember what the book was or what made me feel that way and for that, I am extremely grateful.)

The downside to that is that every time I read something like Comic Lily, Volume 2 (comicリリィ) I completely forget all of the contents almost immediately . Even after reading it twice, it’s all I can do to remember that the first story was okay and there was one or two other stories that were bearable and the rest is a complete blank.

The first story is a rather typical story about Tamaki who is angry at Mitsuki for being herself, which is to say, a bit of a doofus and prone to falling in love with guys. Tamaki is herself pissy-faced and annoyed because she is actually jealous of those guys and in love with Mitsuki. There is some drama, but the ending is happy.

There’s a few continuing series that aren’t too bad – and are better when you read them in sequence so they provide their own context.

Most of the rest of the stories are angry confessions or sad confessions or bittersweet confessions or frustrated confessions with the occasional kiss.

Anyway.

If the moment of confession is the thing you like, then Comic Lily is a good bet for you. If you, like me, are looking more for the bits after “happily-ever-after” then it’s safe to pass on this anthology.

Ratings:

Overall – 6

This is not an anthology that is pushing any boundaries or changing the world. It is an anthology that scratches an itch that has been scratched many times before and by – in many cases – people with longer nails. (Wow, did that analogy get weird fast. lol)





Yuri Manga: GUNJO, Volume 1

April 9th, 2010

(Note to people looking for scanlations of this book. The author does not work herself to the bone and pay money out of her pocket so you can steal her work. Scans are not cool – they are theft. You want the book, click the picture and go buy it. Otherwise, you’re devaluing her time and effort and there is no justification for it, other than you are selfish.) 

“Is it settled?”

“It’s settled.”

With these few words begins one of the most profound, most emotionally engaging manga I’ve ever read.

Gunjo, Volume 1 (羣青 上)by Nakamura Ching is a journey from madness to madness, from profound misery to profound misery and from derision and fear into depths of despair where there is respect and even love.

It begins in the moments after a horrible crime has been committed. A woman has asked someone to kill her husband for her. She has asked someone she knows she can use – another woman, a lesbian, who has been in love with her since high school. The woman who requested the death is abusive, derisive. The woman who committed the crime is passive, almost apathetic. She flinches in the face of the other’s harsh words, but doesn’t fight back.

In between incredible, sudden violence, at moments when their existence is most tenuous, there is tenderness. No, it’s more like that there is only tenderness in the moments when they are most fragile.

We only learn later that the one woman has been serially abused by her husband, after a life with an abusive father. And we only learn later that the other woman walked away from a relationship and a life to commit this act of violence for her.

There is no real moral ambiguity here – these two women are violent and broken. They are insanely bad for one another and have together done something unspeakable. And yet, in the darkest moments, they realize they want to live and try to create something like a life out of the chaos they’ve created.

Nakamura-sensei’s art is detailed and realistic – and in those moments of terrifying violence it reaches the level of sublime. Her writing is subtle – and painful and hurtful – and breathtakingly beautiful especially when the situation is uncertain. There is a mastery of tension of just about every kind in every word and line of this story.

Moving, brutal, sublimely gorgeous and profoundly disturbing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say this – Gunjo is the best manga I have read to date.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 7
Service – 1

Overall – 10

I would love to hear from those of you who bought Volume 1 of Gunjo – what did you think of it, now that you’ve had a chance to see it for yourself?





Yuri Manga: Love Flag★Girls!! (ラブフラッグ★Girls!! )

April 5th, 2010

Every once in a while, it’s nice to take your brain out of your head and give it a rest. If you don’t have the leisure of doing that, a really goofy, predictable manga will have about the same effect. And who among us hasn’t watched pirate movies and thought, “This would be so much better if the Pirate King was a Pirate Queen and she and the damsel in distress were getting it on”?

Clearly Takahashi Itsumi thought that and created Love Flag ★ Girls!! (ラブフラッグ★Girls!!) in which the Pirate Queen’s Daughter and the Princess find a kind of happily ever after sailing the oceans. But not right away. First there’s *drama!*

Queen Beatrice never stops crying about the loss of a cross she once owned. She blames the Pirate Queen Maria for its loss. Princess Lucia heads out to infiltrate Maria’s crew and retrieve the cross, but finds herself adopted as the playmate and pet of the Pirate Queen’s daughter, Eleana.

Lucia has a hard time adapting to pirate life, but the fact that Eleana’s a goofball and the crew seems to be easygoing helps. Isabella, Maria’s former second in command is less thrilled, but she’s busy pining away for Maria and doesn’t have the oomph to make Lucia’s life miserable.

Lucia finds herself fighting against the navy with her crewmates and decides that this whole going after pirates thing is dumb in the first place – and is pretty sure that what her mother is suffering is heartbreak. She goes home, where she is rejected and told that ONLY the return of the cross can abate the Queen’s never ending tears. By this time, Lucia’s pretty much had it with Mom (I had had it with Beatrice about two pages in) and tells Beatrice that she’s just heartbroken and horny….and ends up in jail for her pains.

Eleana and the crew break Lucia out and they return to the high seas only to be pursued by the navy – lead by an extra bitchy Queen Beatrice.

Lucia and Eleana are saved by the most obvious plot complication ever, but it’s okay – everyone lives happily ever after.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 8, except for Beatrice who is a jerk
Yuri – 9
Goofy – 9
Service – 5

Overall – 8

My brain feels better already.





Yuri Manga: Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 2

April 4th, 2010

Volume 1 of Rakuen Le Paradis was hardly perfect. But I liked how it bucked convention and did whatever it pleased. Volume 2 is no less unconventional and sometimes, as a result, it’s downright disturbing. But even with a few stories I didn’t care for, I found this volume intriguing.

Because this is a Yuri blog, I’m going to focus on the Yuri stories, but the magazine has much the same lineup as last time, so if you like any of those artists, it’s worth a look. And at least two of the straight stories were very good, IMHO.

The most important story is the second chapter of “Collectors” by Nishi UKO. If you’ve been following Okazu for any length of time, you’ll know that she is one of my favorite artists – I love her clean lines and the unabashedly adult sensibility with which she imbues her stories. Nishi Uko-sensei often writes stories in what I am calling (as of this week) the Yuri Gap.

The Yuri Gap is that space after “zOMG! We’re in love!” and even after the obligatory first sexual encounter, but before “we’re an established couple.”

As I posted recently on the Yuricon Mailing List:

1) There’s Yuri in which a character is perceived to have a one-sided crush. (There’s TONS of “Yuri” in which there is no one-sided crush, but fans decide there is and interpret everything to fit their idée fixe.)

2) There’s first love Yuri in which two girls/women realize – to their shock – that they love one another.

3) There’s PWP Yuri in which two girls/women, for virtually no reason whatsoever, suddenly have a physical relationship.

4) And there’s relationship Yuri in which two women are a priori living together as a couple.

There are *of course* exceptions to these. But in my opinion, there’s a distinct gap here. The gap is that bit that interests me most, to be honest.

It’s obviously easy to sell 1) one-sided and crushy Yuri – no commitment is needed from the reader to make the relationship work. And it’s pretty easy to sell 4) a pre-existing relationship to a reader because, duh, it’s pre-existing so you either accept it or you don’t read the manga.

Most of “Yuri” fits neatly in 2) and 3). First love stories are titillating in an emotional way, and sex in a physical way and sometimes either kind of story can be titillating in either, or both ways.

And yet…I can’t help but notice a gap.

The gap is that bit after “we’re together as a couple” and before “we living together.”

This is the kind of story I covered in “Playing House” in Yuri Monogatari 4 and what “Fufu” is doing in Yuri Hime S. This space when two women are past building a physical relationship out of an emotional one and trying to translate that into real life. Moving in, getting furniture – dealing with bills and budgets and family and food and…stuff.

In “Collectors,” the couple isn’t living together, but they are together. But the stories are about the little things. The very little things. Sharing space and sharing clothes and little pieces that finish off the big life puzzle. And for that reason I like that story more than I can convey simply. And this chapter was funny, too.

Takemiya Jin covers the newest most popular Yuri couple with the high school girl and the college student tutor that fall for each other in “Omoi no kakera (2 piece).” It’s kind of safe territory, but the author gets to play around with the kind of character she does best – apparently amoral, but actually very nice character.

And in “Parfum” Nishi Uko once again deals with one of the important little pieces – when a couple fights for no goddamn good reason at all.

In “Sukina Hito” a sister’s nighttime affection for her older sister is starting to put some cracks in her relationship with her boyfriend.

There’s also at least two stories that cover “Girl’s Talk” episodes, and which are true enough to life that most folks will automatically write the relationships in as having some physical component when it really doesn’t, because clearly when women are complaining about their boyfriends, the only logical conclusion is for them to have sex together. It’s not really there, but I know my audience. :-)

My only disappointment with volume two is that this time there wasn’t any BL included. I very much liked that the last volume had some (even if I didn’t actually like the story itself.) Based on the kinds of stories being included in this volume, the readership is skewing strongly female, so I’m really hoping to see some more variety in the next volume.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Like all anthology magazines, I don’t expect to like all – r even most – of the stories in this magazine, but I seems to be enjoying about half the work in this magazine. That’s a pretty high “like” ratio. :-)