Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Anthology: Gokigenyou

March 15th, 2007

After all that nastiness in my ears yesterday, I decided to cleanse my soul with a little Maria-sama ga Miteru today. It’s especially fitting as, after all, Strawberry Panic is not much more than a trashy parody of Marimite.

You may remember that I picked up an inordinate amount of Marimite doujinshi anthologies while in Tokyo this past January (and if you didn’t remember, now you know.) Today’s reviewee, Gokigenyou, Volume 1, is one of those many. I previously reviewed another anthology, Maria’s Wink, Volume 2. which I liked very much. If anything, Gokigenyou is better.

The first several dozen pages of Gokigenyou are 4-koma, four panel comics, each focusing on one of the Rose families of the Lillian Student Council, the Yamayurikai.  Each of the comics are printed on paper that corresponds in color to the Rose in question: i.e., The Chinensis family comics are on red paper, Foetida on yellow and Gigantea on white. It’s a cute touch.

The stories that follow are a wild mish-mosh of gag and romantic stories, leaning towards the gag side. There’s a series of stories about Eriko’s taste in comics which is very amusing, and a howlingly funny and deeply disturbing series of stories in which Noriko is portrayed as the Ichimatsu doll she’s usually described as looking like in the novels. These last are so creepy and so *funny* that opening the book and looking at one panel starts me laughing all over again. Probably my favorite gag in that whole series comes after Yoshino and Yumi have grown a little used to Noriko’s monotone speech and creepy doll face that never moves (except to spin all the way around.) As they walk along with Shimako, Yumi comments pleasantly that Noriko sure looks like an Ichimatsu doll, doesn’t she? Shimako smiles blandly and replies, “Ah, you mean her hair?” It’s quite brilliant and awful. As is the moment that Yumi comes up from behind Noriko and slaps her smartly on the back to say hi, only to have Noriko’s head fall off.  Touko’s only comment, “Be careful, Noriko”, while Yumi disappears to a corner to shiver.

Following these are a series of stories by a circle called Bonnie Bonny that I like very much. They do cute and sweet in a way that doesn’t make me feel icky. (Kinder, gentler moe.) The first of the Bonnie Bonnie stories is one of my personal favorites, Yoshino and Rei and Sachiko and Yumi out on a double date. There’s a bit of out-of-character stuff, but it’s harmless and the story is really very nice, with a high Yuri rating. It also contains an incredibly unusual and interesting moment between Yoshino and Sachiko, who find themselves alone for a bit.

For that story alone, the collection would be worth it, but there’s plenty more than just that. There’s lots of quality time with Sei and her women: Shimako, Youko and Shizuka – and an emotional Shiori retrospective. And there’s another Rei and Yoshino story in which Yoshino wishes that they could become lovers; it ends with them on a date to the beach in winter, and Yoshino thinking that the way they are is fine.

The last story is Yumi thinking about saying goodbye to the former Rosas, and how hard it will be for her to say goodbye to Sachiko when she graduates.

So, again, not heavy duty with the Yuri romance, but what there is is excellent and the gag comics are actually really funny, which is kind of unusual. And the one Bonnie Bonny story more than makes up for the lack of romance, as it’s just chockful of Yuri love-love.

Ratings:

Art – Variable 5-7
Story – Variable – 6-8
Characters – well, duh. 10
Yuri – 6 (with a boost to 8 for the one story)
Service – 2

Overall – 8

What makes it better than Maria’s Wink is just how funny the funny stuff is. Another great way to enjoy a variety of Marimite doujinshi without the time and expense of digging out individual circles and books.





Yuri Manga: Shoujo Bigaku

March 12th, 2007

Sometimes, when I type “Yuri Anime” or “Yuri Manga” in the title of a review, I know I’m being disingenuous. It may be there there is a little Yuri in the series or, that there is none but Yuri fandom insists on seeing some anyway, as we are wont to do. But in the case of Shoujo Bigaku by Chi-Ran, I have no guilt, as it is another 100% yuri collection of stories that ran in Yuri Shimai and Comic Yuri Hime.

Unlike some of the earlier collections, Shoujo Bigaku (which would translate to something like Girls Aesthetic) is a series of mostly unconnected one-shot stories. In each story, the aesthetic, as the title points out, is that of a girls’ world. Most of the stories take place in, or involve, girls at all-girl’s schools. The bulk of the stories involve akogare/idolization that becomes something more, and in two of the stories, one of the principal characters is an actual idol. The aesthetics of being a woman’s woman is actually touched upon in some of these stories, so the title is not out of place. (Also of note, many of the main characters in these stories are women-identified…they do not “hate men” or even dislike them, they are simply much more interested in women.)

The stories are not particularly deep, they all involve bed scenes and some slightly explicit sex. (Can explicit be qualified by “slightly?” I think so, yes. There’s explicit…and then there’s *explicit.* This is the former, not the latter.) Included in this volume are the color pages that ran in the both Yuri magazines – including the adult supplement (what fanfic writers call a “PWP”, a “Plot? What plot?” where the two characters fall into having sex without any context or buildup) which ran in Yuri Shimai.

The stories in this volume are primarily girl-has-already-met-girl-and-has-fallen-in-love, with complicating emotions because of their shared gender. As teen idol Matsuri puts it though, what’s the difference – if you love someone, you love someone. This is the same message we are given when, in a later story, Natsuki is revealed to be a girl after having deceived her girlfriend as to her gender. Only one of the stories contains characters that are a priori self-identified as “lesbian.”

The “mostly” in the “mostly unconnected” above comes from the final few pages, which contain an original piece for the collection. This story involves a girl who embarks upon “Lily’s” bus tour, after having broken up with her girlfriend. To her horror, she is surrounded by nothing by happy girl x girl couples…in fact, they are all the couples from the stories in the book. They cheer her up and cheer her on and in the end, she gets her girl back. Thus making a sort-of connection between the stories…but not really. ^_^

And then we all live happily ever after in this girls’ world, with shoujo bubbles and flowers and candy and stuffed toys and lots of Yuri sex. The End.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 6
Story – Variable, from 5-7
Yuri – 10
Service – 5 (the aesthetic may be for girls, but this is kind of unavoidable when you’re talking about naked chicks in bed…)

Overall – Not world shaking, but enjoyable at 7

There’s nothing challenging here – the art is pleasant, the characters not much more than names, the endings happy.





Yuricon News, Yuri Manga News

March 6th, 2007

I was so ready to be clever and funny today, but it’s just not happening. Instead, here’s two pieces of important news:

The Yuricon/ALC Publishing website is currently down. This is not a crisis (yet.) Due to Philip Mak’s sudden death, we’re moving servers. There’s a lot I have to do and I’m not entirely sure how to do it all, since Philip setup the whole thing for me originally. I hope to be up and running *soon*.

This does not affect Okazu, of course, except as it sucks away my will to live and leaves me with no energy to write… ;-)

It also does not effect Registration for Yuricon 2007, which is open. Register today for the only 100% yuri of 2007!

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Also in today’s news, Infinity Studios now has a page up for their translation of Iono-sama Fanatics. It looks like they are reproducing the dust jacket, the 4-panel comics on the inner jacket and full-color pages. Happy day!

We heard about this months ago, but how nice to see that they’ll be reproducing the actual thing, instead of a close imitation.

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That’s it for today folks. Tomorrow, if all goes just lovely, I will write a lovely review of the lovely Simoun Drama CD “Ah, Lovely Office Lady Temps”. (No, seriously…that’s the title.)





Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 2 (English)

February 27th, 2007

I originally reviewed the Japanese edition of Read or Dream, Volume 2 in 2004 and found it, like all of the Read or Dream series, amusing, but not deep. This is rather meaningful, because the TV series had been so very deep, and the manga will, in future volumes, head in that direction as well.

But in the meantime, this volume remains fun, slightly silly, comedy action fare with a little dash of romance.

The stories are, of course, the same as they were in the Japanese volume, so none of my comments on those are any different. Please read the 2004 review (linked above) if you want a synopsis of the stories.

The reproduction quality is quite high, sans the color mini-poster included with the Japanese volume. The honorifics have not been added in, as I had hoped they might be, since the current trend in translated manga seems to be more on the side of keeping them.

Like the ROD The TV Anime, the heroine is Anita, a character who annoys me a lot less now than she did at the very beginning of both anime and manga. Since the character has not changed, it must be me. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

For overall goofy fun, this is not the best of the Read or Dream/ROD series, but it’s still an afternoon’s solid entertainment.





Yuri Manga: Steady Beat 2

February 12th, 2007

Steady Beat, Volume 2, is a continuation of the story from Steady Beat, Volume 1 (well, duh…). At the end of my review of the first volume, I wrote, “…I think it might be worth emailing the author Rivkah and asking her to make sure the girl gets the girl, as a preventative measure.”^_^

Well, after reading Volume 2, I went ahead and emailed the author. And here is why.

Volume 2 continues to be “wackiness ensues” as Leah tries to learn the gasp-making truth about her “perfect” sister, Sarai. (I will return to this in a second.)

During the course of this wackiness, we follow Leah as she becomes closer to a possible new love interest, Eli. Who would be extremely fine as a love interest if he weren’t seventy different minorities all rolled into one. That is to say, he *is* a fine love interest and kind of cute, if he shut up once in a while. But, I found it a tad exhausting that he’s a half-Jewish, half-black son of a gay Dad. The only thing he’s missing is being wheelchair bound. And part Native American. It was a just a bit of too much.

Which is pretty much the major weakness of the entire series so far – Rivkah is working so hard at making it celebration of diversity and love, that it comes off as trying a *wee* too hard throughout.

But let us return to the plot – the great mystery of whether Sarai is gay or not.

(Wait a second, something just occurred to me. Isn’t Sarai the Student Council president? Somehow I remember that she is. Score another for the stereotype! Boo-yah! )

…Anyway, when Leah finally catches up to Sarai, the truth appears to be exactly what she thought/feared – her perfect, flawless, overacheiving older sister is in fact…gay! Shock! This wouldn’t be much of a plot if Leah and Sarai didn’t belong to a strict Christian family in the middle of Texas. Except that, as we’re given a travelogue of Austin, we learn that it’s really pretty collegiate and liberal for a Texas city. So we’re back to it not being much of a plot complication…unless it *isn’t* the plot complication. So by the time I finshed the book, because I have a chronic case of “advanced student syndrome” and can’t take things at face value, I broke down and wrote the author.

I can’t tell you what she told me without spoilers. ^_^ Which is it? Do you want to know what she said? Or not? Write in – the majority vote wins.

The series is not bad, really. The art, while manga-informed, has as much in common with Archie as it does with manga. The characters are likeable, if a teeny bit preachy. The tone lacks condescension, but has a bit of that “Look, this is a teen book, for teens, starring a teen!” feel that occasionally inhabits teen lit. But I also think that the tone is a fairly natural one for the author, who seems like a genuinely happy sort of person.  Maybe it’s just that I’m naturally more, erm, pragmatic…or east coastern, or just plain jaded. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 1

Overall – 6

If I did have a teen who was in a situation regarding the question of alternative sexuality, I would have no trouble suggesting this book. That having been said, if I was a teen in that situation, I might find the book a bit silly. As I neither have a teen, nor am a teen, it’s a cute enough read for a cold winter’s curl up.