Our Wonderful Days, Volume 1

March 20th, 2020

Koharu has finally made it to high school and she’s really happy about it. She’ll be back in school with her old friends Nanaya and Minori, and they are super happy to see a friend who knows them, as they live way outside town in a remote area. But the icing on the cake for Koharu is the return of her childhood friend Mafuyu, who has returned from Tokyo after many years.  Koharu learns that Minori and Nana live together and Mafuyu shames Nana into doing some of the chores.

In Kei Hamuro’s Our Wonderful Days, Volume 1 the four will get caught in the rain and enjoy ice cream and three of them will harass Minori at her club, the way friends do, and hang out, spending time doing nothing and everything.  As we spend time with them, we can’t help but notice that Nana’s got a crush on on the female gym teacher. More importantly, that Mafuyu has feelings beyond friendship for Koharu. And, maybe, Koharu has some feelings of her own.

There is no story here, it is a tale of lives being lived. The pace is slow, the drama is minimal, the lives are full of small joys, like visiting a convenience store or sharing snacks after school.  This is not a series if you’re looking for action or high emotion.

Ratings:

Art – 7 A lot of talking heads, so the simplicity of the art doesn’t affect the story
Story- 7 Same as above
Characters – 8 All likeable
Yuri – 6 Simple and sweet and given a lot of time to develop
Service – 0

Overall – 8

This manga is a pleasant read about nothing in particular.

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Tsuki to Suppin Volume 1 (月とすっぴん)

March 19th, 2020

Akegata Yuu’s Tsuki to Suppin, Volume 1 (月とすっぴん) is an absolutely delightful odd couple romance story. Shiho is a quiet, reserved photographer for bands, with a fondness for quirkily awful band t-shirts, Akari is fashionable and outgoing. Although they couldn’t be  less similar, they are very sweet together and it’s a pleasure to be able to meet them and learn their history.

We see how they met, we watch them eat ice cream and spend time at a festival. We see Shiho make rings for them, and Akari takes her lover home to visit her parents. But then, we understand the signs of nervousness in the normally strong, silent Shiho.

The art is simple, with the kind of uncomplicated backgrounds that I’m used to from Feel Comics. It feels comfortable and easy and the characters really help that feeling along.

This story walks a path that is familiar to us from other Jousei Yuri, but it’s not tiring or boring. It’s a genuine joy to see a story about two people who are just together and know each other so well, that Shiho naturally orders an ice cream double so Akari can try both flavors. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 10
Service – . 5 A very little dress-up with Shiho

You can read a sample chapter of Tsuki to Suppin in Japanese on Shodensha’s  Manga Jam website. Yay for pleasant Jousei Yuri!

Posted in Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology (レズ風俗アンソロジー)

March 16th, 2020

Sex work is not legal in Japan, however, “fuuzoku” which is translated as “health delivery,” is not considered prostitution.   It’s inevitable that after the massive success of My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, (the Japanese title of which, you may remember, Sabishi-sugi Rezu Fuuzoku ni Ikimashita Report ,) )a pile of books about lesbian “health delivery” have appeared. BariKyari to Shinsou was an exemplar of a fiction that springboarded from the idea and moved into being an overall great story.

Ichijinsha’s Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology (レズ風俗アンソロジー) is somewhat less good than either of the above titles, but it’s not terrible, either. What we have here is a series of fantasies involving health delivery providers that are surprisingly vanilla.

For instance, in the first story by Homu Subaru, a super shy uptight woman hires health delivery for her first time and is so miraculously good the escort gives her her personal contact information. That’s the typical dream every John or Jane is supposed to have, isn’t it? That they are genuinely the best and the professional will want them to be their special someone.

This collection includes shorts by Comic Yuri Hime faves Ohsawa Yayoi, Kodama Naoko, Nanatsufuji, and Kataoka Ako. Hachisujou Hani offers up an “Edo-period fantasy” story. There are a few new names in the ToC, as well.

The story I felt best about as I read it was  – surprise! – reminiscent of an old Mist Magazine series, by Iwami Kayoko, whose art in this made me nostalgic for Wako’s stylish lesbian prostitutes in Kiseki Goten. In this story, an escort is falling the stable’s rankings, so the top ranked woman takes her as her lover. As she is mentored in how to sex and romance other women, she rises in the rankings, until she is number 1 and her lover can retire.

As a collection of 18+ stories, it wasn’t terrible thematically. Everything is consensual, the emphasis is on making customer and professional safe and happy. The sex scenes themselves are not always what I’d consider attractive, but that’s always subject to the most personal of interpretations.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

I had stopped reviewing adult Yuri manga because they had just gotten so gross, but this isn’t bad at all. And, should you like it, there’s a sequel, Lesbian Fuuzoku Anthology Repeater (レズ風俗アンソロジーリピーター).

 

Posted in Yuri Manga | 5 Comments »


Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey

March 15th, 2020

Yesterday, I mentioned that there is so much queer fic right now that it’s absolutely overwhelming – in a good way. So today I wanted to tell you about a fun novella I just read. And when I do, you are free to laugh at me. ^_^

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey tells the story of runaway Esther. Set in a post apocalyptic Southwestern United States, where machinery and communications still exists, but on a limited basis, and life looks awfully a lot like it did in the 19th century, Esther runs away from her overbearing father, when he has her best friend and lover hung for the crime of possessing Unapproved Materials.

Esther runs from Beatrice’s corpse to find the Librarians, the women who travel from town to town distributing Approved Materials. The advertisement says “Upright Women Wanted” and Esther wants desperately to leave the woman-loving-woman she is behind. Maybe the Librarians can help her.

Only, when Esther is found by the Librarians, it turns out that they aren’t at all what they seem! Subversive, sapphic, gender non-conforming, with no fucks to give, but plenty of Unapproved Materials in their pouches, they travel the land sowing discord and resistance to The State.

Yes, this is a book about queer librarians. On horseback. Who fuck asshole men up. So, naturally, I really enjoyed it. ^_^

Being a novella , this is a quick read, and a pretty fun one. I wasn’t invested enough to ever really worry about anyone specific, but Esther’s eventual love interest, nonbinary Cye, the Head Librarian and her lover, Bet and Leda, and the women they “deliver” to freedom, are all people I want out there on the open road, making sure young folks get the queer fiction they need to thrive.

If the future looks like it does in this novel, I will volunteer myself to this cause. I’m a librarian too, after all. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 9
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 10

Overall – 9

Apropos of nothing this is the third book I have read recently (including the one I’m reading now) that features someone named Esther.

Posted in Queer Fiction | 2 Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – March 14, 2020

March 14th, 2020

Yuri Events

As you might have guessed, all the spring and many of the summer events have been – or ought to be – canceled. My appearances are officially postponed until further notice. My apologies if you had made plans to see me at Anime Boston or elsewhere. Hopefully we’ll make it happen next year.

The Yuriten Yuri Fair has been postponed also until further notice. I’ll hope this means I’m more likely to be able to make it there once again.

A series of YuruYuri collaboration with Princess Cafes in Japan have been announced. They seem to be still happening at this time, but check the website for details.

To salve our unhappiness, Takashima Hiromi-sensei has posted this adorable picture of Yamada and Kase-san celebrating White Day on Twitter.

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Yuri Visual Novels

Noodletub Games wants you to know about it’s Kickstarter for LOVE BAKUDAN, an 18+ Yuri Visual Novel where you run an erotic bookstore. Cleverly, you’ll be able to read some of the actual books within the game. The Kickstarter has already hit it’s goal, and the first stretch, but could use help reaching the later stretch goals with about a week to go. I love reporting on successful, still-running Kickstarters. You know you’ll get what you’re backing and you can feel extra good about pushing it forward!

YuriMother has some very cool news about A Summer’s End – Hong Kong 1986 being released on PC, Mac and Linux. This Yuri Visual novel is rooted in LGBTQ history of Hong Kong in the 1980s, which I think makes it especially interesting. Check out the link above for YuriMother’s post with screencaps and details.

 

Yuri Anime

Mamoru Oshi’s Vlad Love trailer is a 4-minute long music video with theme by BlooDye. Don’t worry, I’m already working on the limerick. ^_^ Crystalyn Hodgkins has the full details and visuals over at ANN.

 

Queer Film

One more Kickstarter today because this looks so amazing I can’t not tell you about it:  AND THEN, a “short film about two women who meet and grow closer to each other through insomnia, exploring a new city, and art.” This short blew threw its initial goal on the first day and 4 of its stretch goals already! I’m kinda hoping we can push this baby through the final stretch goal to give the crew a chance to film scenes that had to be cut for budget’s sake. 

 

Queer Novels

My gods, there are so many novels with sexual and gender minorities right now, I’m inundated! Tor.com contributes more to the piles with Joel Cunningham’s look  at Six Recent SFF Novels That Give No Effs About Genre Distinctions and Lee Mandelo’s Ten Years of Queering SFF: Five Series From the Last Decade That Can’t Be Missed.

I’ll have a review of one of my recent good reads for you tomorrow. ^_^

 

Other News

YuriMother has this terrific interview with Shilin Huang, creator of Amongst Us and Carciphona on her site.

We’re going to be inside for a while and, although I imagine most of us have our anime streaming and manga ebook accounts all ready to go, one of the things I’m always hoping is to encourage you to listen and read and enjoy art widely. To that end, here are three ways to enjoy fine art and music during the current plague year:

The Metropolitan Opera is streaming a free Opera every night during its closure. The opening choices are the Opera Pops, with Carmen, Il Tavatori, La Boheme, La Traviata and other instantly recognizable shows.

The Berlin Philharmonic is opening its  Digital Concert Hall for free to anyone who wants to enjoy it. That’s more than 600 concerts for you to enjoy from this world-class orchestra.

And last for this week, Travel and Leisure lists 12 Museums from around the world that you can tour for free online.

These are trying times, but what an opportunity to catch up on all this reading and watching and VNs and concerts and more. ^_^

 

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