Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Voiceful (English)

February 27th, 2008

Books like Voiceful are exactly the reason the Yuricon definition of Yuri includes “intense emotional connections” between women. Because sometimes it’s not “love” yet, and hasn’t gotten anywhere near “desire” but it’s still some seriously intense bond that could easily become something more. (Another good example of that is Haibane Renmei, in which the circumstances preclude a love affair, but don’t stop Reki and Rakka from being intensely attracted to one another.)

Before I forget, thanks to Eric for sponsoring today’s review!

The creator, nawoko, says in her endnote that Voiceful is pretty far from Yuri. In one sense she is correct, but I think anyone who reads Kanae and Hina’s story will be able to see the Yuri, without the need for Yuri goggles.

For a summation of the content of the book, and my first impressions, please read my review of the Japanese edition. As I have been doing, today’s review will cover the adaptation by Seven Seas.

I think this is one of the best in Seven Seas’ Strawberry Line so far. The color page, the cover and the tones are clearer than usual. Towards the end of the volume, the stories get a little darker. The stories at the end of the volume are the earlier Yuri Shimai stories – I have no idea if that is related or not.

The translation is quite good. I know I wasn’t the only one who had some trouble with “Opening,” the final story (how ironic, huh?) and the translator did a very good job of making it make sense. The emotion between Kanae and Hina comes across beautifully, as well.

As always the editing and adaptation are smooth as silk and the honorifics remain in place. Nice job, everyone. ^_^

The book also contains some preview pages for First Love Sisters, as an “extra.” Since FSL is the other Ichijinsha book in the Strawberry Line so far, that seems like a natural fit. I’m interested to see if Seven Seas is able to (or wants to) pick up any further Yuri Hime comics – and which ones they might get.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 1, some slight undressedness

Overall – 7

While not the absolute best Yuri Hime collection Ichijinsha has put out, Voiceful is a nice way to ease into the genre. If you have a friend who isn’t really a big fan, or you know a young babydyke whose parents would object to Strawberry Panic (and what sane person wouldn’t? ^_^) Voiceful makes a gentle point of entry into the Yuri world.





Yuri Manga: Otome Cake

February 25th, 2008

Takahashi Mako’s Otome Cake is a very good example of the editor’s craft. Many writers and artists don’t really understand the need for an editor – their work should stand on its own merit, and who does this talentless ass think they are, anyway? ^_^; The editor for this volume was no ass, I can tell you that.

If you have been keeping up on my reviews of Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime magazines, you’ll be aware of the fact that I have not ever been a fan of Takahashi’s work. The stories are filled with too many things I don’t like, for me to be able to see past them. The characters tend to look younger than their already too-young years, they are often suffering from mental illness, overtly or implicitly, they look like abused street rats and act like kids in war zones.

In short – creepy, violent, loli, with a light dash of Yuri for flavoring. (Not at *all* to my taste. I prefer my Yuri full-bodied and mature.)

However, Otome Cake isn’t bad. Somehow, the editor for this volume pulled out the least horrible of Takahashi’s stories, connected them with the thinnest possible thread of a theme on the connecting pages, and lo and behold, you have a collection that wasn’t bad, considering.

The cover has a gaggle of girls who all look like Charles Addams’ characters wielding a knife over a poor innocent cake. The dead eyes really help. ^_^

There’s nothing deep here – Yuri tends to be “I love her” and that’s about it, with the occasional kiss. Nothing after the happily ever afters – and not always happily ever after, in fact. The stories deal with mostly failed, first or unrequited loves, with a few exceptions, but the editor has chosen wisely and well, and the overall impression of the book isn’t as heavy and dark as Takahashi’s stories sometimes feel. The final story really helps – a light, cute story about two girls, a cake and a kiss on the school roof. It leaves us, if you will, with a pleasant taste in our mouths.

Ratings:

Art – It’s not really *bad*, but it makes me feel icky – 6
Story – 6
Yuri – 5
Service – 5

Overall – 6

Honestly, the thing I liked best was the cake being eaten in the pages separating the stories. :-)





Yuri Manga: Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora, Volume 2

February 20th, 2008

Let’s play a game, shall we? I’m going to review Volume 2 of Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora as if Kaon and Himeko were the protagonists. Pretend you don’t know they are not. Read it all the way through and then *honestly* commment about the series. Because my guess is, all you Kannazuki no Miko fans would LOVE Kyoshiro, if Kaon and Himiko were the leads, regardless of how junky it is. (Of course it’s junky. Kaishaku writes junk. It’s all they have ever written.) The bottom line is that you loved KnM for the Yuri kisses, not for the story, despite how awesome you say you thought the story was because the story made little sense and rape really isn’t romantic no matter how you’ve chosen to fill in Chikane’s motivation in your head. Since the Yuri in Kyoshiro is secondary, you all *suddenly* noticed that Kaishaku suck. ^_^

Here we go.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Himiko. She was very gentle and kind, and a very talented artist. Because she was so talented, she was recruited to attend an exclusive school run by the charming, but overbearing Ayanokouji Mika. Mika-sensei ran the school like a harem, taking various students, including Himiko, as lovers. But her true interest lay with a girl named Kaon. Kaon was tall and beautiful and powerful – because she was not human. In reality, she was the human form of a powerful weapon, an Absolute Angel. Himiko and Kaon fell in love, but they could not be together, since Kaon was Mika’s possession. They stole moments together and kisses here and there, but all the time they knew that Mika owned them both.

One day Mika commanded Kaon to kidnap a girl, which she did. But she was weakened in the attempt. The girl was immediately claimed by Mika as her own, and given to Himiko to take care of. But when the girl’s previous owner sent his weapon to take the girl back, Kaon was too weak to fight. Himiko kissed Kaon to giver her “mana,” the energy she needed to fight. But it was too late. The other weapon, named Setsuna, and her owner, Kyoshirou, took the girl away. Kaon was punished by Mika for failing, and she and Himiko were once again kept apart.

The next chapters follow the girl’s adventures as she is returned to Kyoshiro, but not left at peace. She learns that she too is an Absolute Angel, something that she simply can’t handle, having thought she was human all along.

And then, Mika and Kyoshirou’s crazy older brother shows up. Everything is about to change.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Orders better than usual. I wonder what happened.
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7 Don’t forget that Mika is an EPL, too
Service – 7

Overall – 7

Admit it. If Kaon and Himiko were the protagonists, you’d love this story and wouldn’t be able to sit still waiting for Volume 3. Yuri fandom is willing, able and wanting to watch absolute crap (cognitive dissonance will assure us that it is good, as long as we liked it, anyway) as long as the lead characters are a Yuri couple.  ^_^

Kannazuki no Miko isn’t as good, and Kyoshiro isn’t as bad as you think you think. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Magie Paire, Volume 1

February 18th, 2008

If you are a fan of Kokoro Library, Pure Marionation (Volume 1 and Volume 2,) or Cassiopeia Dolce (running now in Yuri Hime S,) you’ll definitely want to take a look at Magie Paire, for yet another Takagi Noboyuki Yuri comedy with a healthy dollop of service.

Maria is starting classes at an exclusive private school, where all the other girls seem to be obsessing about becoming a “Paire” with one of the older students. Tall, classical Japanese beauty Reina-sempai seems to be the choice person to be admired. Maria states plainly that she has no interest in pairing with anyone – so of course when the chips are down and she’s threatened, who else could it be who comes to the rescue but Reina? To Maria’s surprise, Reina manifest a magic weapon. To her even more considerable shock, *she* manifests a similar weapon and they fight off the threat. But when everyone congratulates her upon becoming Reina’s “Suite” she refuses point blank.

You can guess that they do become paired, can’t you? :-) Reina is the only remaining Magie on the student council unpaired, so the other members are pleased as punch. She is the “Rayf Master,” a master of Fire. (As soon as I figure out which language these names are butchering, I’ll fix the transliterations, promise. )

The problem, Maria insists, is that she can’t DO magic. Big-ass magic sword notwithstanding.

She’s right, of course. She and Reina wander off into the practice forest to practice and are immediately attacked by a host of things. Among the things is the “cute mascot thing,” a Fukuma, which proceeds to be as “cute” as possible. You know, drools, vomits, steal panties, all the usual “cute” things that just endear us to such creatures. The Fukuma also spends a lot of its time riding on Maria’s head, so we’re never free of its presence. And Maria doesn’t seem to be able to do magic, unless the chips are, indeed, down.

There is, as I mentioned, a lot of service. Takagi’s girls spend a fair amount of time dressing and undressing, bathing, swimming, etc. This is another Gum comic, the same company that has the Wani imprint, so it comes as no real surprise. The service here is much as it is in Pure Marionation where it’s constant, but sort of the soft cute to fanboys, but not to me, kind of cute. If you know what I mean. It’s still stealing panties and bathing, cute or not. And since we’re talking Takagi here, you get blushy baby faces on over-developed bodies, as well.

Ratings:

Art – 6 (+2 if you like his style)
Story – 7, then -1 after the Fukuma shows up
Characters – 7
Yuri – 5
Service – 7

Overall – 6

The plot is fine, sort of Marimite meets Harry Potter, but I sure wouldn’t mind losing the panty shots and Fukuma vomiting bits. :-)





Yuri Manga: Parian no Sono (ぱりあんの園)

February 15th, 2008

It is completely true that this is a Yuri manga. It is also true that it is about love between two girls. However. It is *also* true that this is one of the freakiest, most diseased manga I’ve read in a while – so of course I want to tell you all about it! ^_^

I picked up Parian no Sono in the Animate in Ikebukuro. It was shelved with their slowly growing (but as-yet unlabeled) Yuri manga section. These sections, as I’ve mentioned previously, are starting to pop up here and there. They usually have the Yuri Hime collections, Iono-sama, Strawberry Panic and a few random other titles. In some stores the “other” might be slightly more adult titles, in some stores, they were slightly more “soft Yuri”. The sections, which are still relatively new, are completely in flux right now. I look forward to seeing how they grow. This store was the only one that had Parian featured in that section. Bruce and I eagerly bought it. I wonder what he thinks of it? I think it’s pathological. ^_^

In short, Parian is the story of a girl in love with her Judo team captain.

In full, it’s the story of a weirdly drawn, munchkin-like “cute” girl with enormous breasts whose existence invites stalkers, molesters and perverts of every kind, and who “forgets” to wear pants a lot, so she ends up doing a lot of half-naked Judo. Which makes this the first “Yuri” manga I can think of that explicitly adds the wrestling fetish to the more usual Catholic schoolgirl nonsense. (I know that wrestling fetish manga has long added Yuri, but this is really the other way ’round.)

So the story starts with “adorable” heroine Botan (by which I mean she’s awful and I wanted to squash her like a bug) getting on the train and immediately being groped, so she’s late for Judo practice. But the joke’s on us – she’s late because she kicked the guy’s ass and…here’s the best part…got *in trouble* for doing that. Nice.

Lots of pants-off stupidity, hugging the club president, and on and on with the “funny” hijinks. It’s established early on that Tessen-sempai does indeed love Botan, but most of the lovey-dovey is on Botan’s side. There is an actual moment or two when the couple have a quiet interlude. But not too often – and it’s usually interrupted by Botan putting Tessen into a choke hold or arm lock or something equally as romantic.

The first big crisis comes in the form of Botan’s sister, who is 1) even smaller and “cuter” than Botan; 2) goth-loli (duh!) and; 3) evil. She wants her sister to return to classical dance, because Botan had showed such talent and because she’s got a huge siscon. Through lies and manipulation, Botan is made to return to ballet, but being away from Tessen breaks her heart. Eventually the sister realizes that Judo is where Botan needs to be and releases her. The end comes as Botan runs into buchou’s arm’s….without pants. AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

There’s the teacher/nun that falls in lust with Botan, and spends much of the book peeping. And the teacher/Judo club manager who has the hots for Tessen, and colludes with the nun to keep them separated. A misunderstanding over a hot springs incident involving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation almost splits Botan and Tessen up for a moment, but not.

So, yes, Yuri. But any romance is so well cloaked behind so many layers of freakishness, that I thought it fit nicely within this week’s unintentional anti-romance theme. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 3 Augh!
Story – 3
Characters – 3
Yuri – 6
Service – 8, but it has to be a *special* kind of Fanboy to find this appealing, much less sexy

Overall – 3

Usually, I’m totally gung-ho for stories that feature girls who do martial arts (Yawara anime, out in 2008!) and I love joint locking (Ryomou is da bomb!) but this was just too much of a lot of bad things. At first glance, I thought the title was Pariah no Sono It totally should have been named that. This one’s sad, even for Wani Comics (who, incidentally, also do Ikkitousen.) ^_^