Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: R.O.D. – Read or Dream, Volume 4 (Part 2)

November 10th, 2005

We left Read or Dream, Volume 4 with Anita and Hisa in a lovey-dovey moment, dancing at the folk dance.

We pick up the next chapter with Hisa, mooning over a picture of herself and Anita. Hisa’s manager arrives at the sisters’ apartment and begs them to let Hisa stay with them, as a favor. Hisa has requested this as a way of getting past the final roadblock, the last scene of her newest story. Of course, they are all thrilled to be of assistance.

Hisa moves in and is promptly fondled (in an okay way – no bad touch) by Michelle, who offers Maggie a chance. Once again, we get to see how awkward Maggie is in social situations, in contrast to Michelle’s lack of boundaries. But…really the dynamic is all about Hisa and Anita once again. Anita remembers her dream from several chapters ago, when she “met” Hisa. In the park, the two girls vow eternal friendship hold hands and otherwise exhibit all sorts of “in love” behaviors. Hisa realizes that she’s found her last scene, and leaves. Anita returns to the apartment to let the others know that Hisa’s gone, but hides her tears from them.

The manager gives them an early manuscript of the book, while far away Hisa is thinking of Anita. A paper airplane floats in with a picture and a message from Anita, saying that they’ll meet again.

This pretty much functionally ends the story of this manga series. The next chapter looks backwards at a slightly differently told version of the meeting of the three paper masters, and their rebirth as the three paper sisters.If you’ve seen ROD The TV, the beginning won’t be unfamiliar. But the end will. In this version Michelle and Maggie are given Anita to take care of. For a year they live together and learn to love another…when Dokusensha shows up to take Anita away. They remind the two older women of the agreement they made, hand them checks for tremendous amounts of money, and take Anita.

Maggie and Michelle look at the checks, think of all the books they could buy – and run off to save Anita. When they finally arrive they hold out the checks, which have been voided with the word “ANITA” across the fronts, and take their “sister” with them. Incidentally, we get to see Maggie and Michelle in full battle paper master mode for what is maybe the second or third time in this series. Once they return home, they become the Three Sisters Bibliodetective Agency and we live happily ever after.

Except that there’s one chapter left! And this chapter is the “Who’s Who” chapter, where we basically recap all the original characters from the earlier, pre-Hisa stories, in case we forgot. ^_^ Kuri and Ramu, the young man who was searching for an author, and the author he found, show up to say that they are getting married. They are all blushy and cute about it. ^_^ On the way home from the bookstore, (a trip about which she is NOT happy) Anita runs into the boy she met in the story about the Brigadoon-like library. Chi-Hon has decided to become an author – he’s on his way to drop his manuscript off. Watching this exchange from a nearby rooftop is book (and author) thief, Lilith and her jaguar, Orion. She looks on, and vows (to no one in particular) to meet her young arch-enemy again, then rides off on Orion’s back.

Anita starts the struggle home with her overlarge bag o’books, Anita collapses on a bench, where an exceptionally familiar overcoat hangs off the corner we can see. Anita addresses the “old lady” on the bench and lo and behold! It is no one but our beloved Yomiko Readman, making her only appearance in this manga. Yomiko tells Anita why she loves books so much, and then proceeds to explain to Anita that her hatred for books actually comes from her love of them. Anita thinks back to all the people she’s met, and all the adventures she’s had, because of books, and has to agree.

Yomiko comforts a young girl whose paper airplane gets crushed, and when she refolds the paper into a butterfly, Anita asks who she is. Yomiko replies she’s a lover of books. As Anita watches Yomiko walk away, she watches the paper butterfly begin to fly behind her.

Anita goes home to find that she has a package waiting. Inside is Hisa’s new book, inscribed to her. Anita announces that she’ll be the first to read it – then spends some time fighting off Michelle.  As the manga winds down, we see paper flying into the air, in which hangs a brilliant full moon, while the three sisters look on, smiling.

If you enjoy the goofy paper sisters, the ROD-verse in any permutation, get this series, asap. Same Yuri, same goofy, different stories and lots of fun.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Character – 8
Yuri – 7

Overall – 8

It reads like an alt-universe fan anthology, with better art and consistent characters. ^_^ A definite must-have for ROD fans. The only downer – no Nenene. Boo-hoo.





Yuri Manga: R.O.D. – Read or Dream, Volume 4 (Part 1)

November 9th, 2005

This last volume of Read or Dream reads like a “Who’s Who” of the R.O.D. universe…well, this version of the universe, that is. I’ll be doing this in two parts, because there’s a lot to tell, Yuri and otherwise, and because I’m pressed for time.

Because I cannot help myself, let me remind you that the various R.O.D.-verse are as follows:

1) Read or Die – Novels in which Yomiko and a youthful Nenene have adventures and Yomiko falls in love with her mentor/sempai/predecessor, Donny.

2) ROD – Read or Die – A three-episode OVA in which Yomiko meets, falls for, and loses Nancy Makuhara, aka Miss Deep. Strong Yuri component and a great soundtrack.

3) ROD – 4-volume manga set in which Yomiko meets a youthful Nenene, and embarks upon adventures mostly having to do with her quest to find Donny. These have been licensed and should be appearing sometime in 2006 in English. Unfortunately for us, they are not terribly good, or Yuri.

4) ROD the TV – A 26-episode TV series in which Yomiko, Nenene, now adult, Nancy AND three new Paper Masters all fight off evil and save the day. Last year this series made my Top Ten List because it was simply excellent. Lots of Yuri, lots of action, good music, great plot and fantastic, characters.

5) R.O.D. – Read or Dream – the most recent spin on the ROD-verse has 4 volumes. Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 have all been reviewed previously. Which brings us to the current, and final, volume.

As with the TV series, the protagonist of the Read or Die manga is Anita. In this version, there does not appear to be a Nenene, and the famous author the three sisters have been protecting is Hishiishi Hisami, aka Hisa-chan.

In the first chapter of this volume, Hisa-chan is suffering from a crisis. Her books are popular, but girls her age and older dismiss them as being for children. She desperately wants to write a more adult story, but completely jams up when she realizes that she has no idea what it is like to kiss someone. Michelle steps in by directing a scene between Anita, dressed as a schoolboy, and Hisa-chan. They get *very* close to kissing, after pages of painful Yuri service buildup, when Hisa’s manager puts a stop to it all.

Chapter 25 begins with an irate manager letting the three sisters know exactly how much she dislikes them, but as Hisa seems to like them, they’ve been brought to Japan to watch over her. But Hisa’s a little down, because she’s still blocked. Anita takes her out on a date to cheer her up: the usual amusement park and fast food later, Hisa’s feeling better. But as they pass a book store, some girls diss Hisa’s book and she gets blue all over again. Anita starts to defend Hisa, who embraces her from behind and tells Anita that it’s okay, she has to learn to make her books more real on her own. But they go off hand in hand, and we’re convinced that this Yuri feeling isn’t just service.

The next chapter starts with more Yuri silliness, as Anita learns that Hisa has received a love letter! She’s obsessed with it, and jealous, but isn’t sure how to handle it. Anita decides to find the “criminal”. After a while, Anita asks Hisa about the letter and Hisa says that it’s not good – their both girls after all and…Anita is forced to admit that she didn’t write it and she, um, didn’t mean that. Shocked, embarrassed (and a bit disappointed, we think) Hisa faints. Anita scoops her up and brings her to the doctor’s office, where she learns that some nasty guy who is always rude to everyone is the love letter writer!

Anita brings the letter to the manager’s attention in the next chapter. She proceeds to throw a fit, because the last thing in the world she wants is Hisa’s genius being upset by a guy. Manager-san calls on some thugs who intimidate the kid who sent the letter…only it wasn’t him. Of course, if you’ve watched the TV series, you know who the letter-writer is, Hisa’s friend for forever, the bratty kid whose name escapes me. But he comes up and finds Anita, leads her to the library where Hisa is sitting with an upperclassman and looking a little besotted. Both Anita and brat are bummed by this. Later walking home with Hisa, Anita learns that she’s anxious about a book signing the upperclassman wanted her to do at the school festival. They hold hands and go home together.

Next chapter, Hisa finds the fortitude to go through with the book signing at the school festival – and, it turns out that the upperclassman wasn’t hitting on Anita at all – he pretty much just wanted her to sign a book for his kid sister who admires her. Phew. But the kid who *does* like Hisa, confesses…and she tells him that she’s sorry, but… Hisa goes off to find Anita and asks her to dance at the fire.

Yay, happy Yuri ending for Hisa and Anita. ^_^ 





Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 3 available in the November Previews

November 7th, 2005

Run right over to your local comic or hobby shop and pick up the November issue of Diamons Comic’s Previews, then fill out that order form and order your copy of ALC Publishing’s 100% yuri manga anthology, Yuri Monogatari 3.

Remember, Yuri Monogatari is *still* the only all-yuri anthology in English in the world. In this issue, you’ll find stories of lesbian life and love by Hiromi Nishikawa, Beth Malone, Sergio Aviles, Akiko Morishima and Althea Keaton, as well as art by Rica Takashima and Kelli Nicely. It’s 128 pages of pure yuri. If you don’t have a local comic shop, then consider going through Comic Fusion – they take orders and have great customer service. Or, you can always order directly – and get a nice discount off retail price – on the Yuricon Shop.

To those of you who have already purchased a copy – many thanks for your support – ALC and Yuricon couldn’t do it without you!





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 2 (Part 2)

November 2nd, 2005

Yay! Another chance to gush about the wonderful Yuri anthology Yuri Hime!

We left off after the stellar chapter by Morinaga Milk. That’s a pretty hard act to follow, so as we’re sitting there, all smiley and afterglow-y from that, we jump right into the one other series that matches it punch for punch, “Strawberry Shake Sweet” the love comedy by Hayashiya Shizuru. You may remember that Julia was “forced” to stay the night with Ran, because of worries that the young idol-to-be was being stalked. This chapter opens up with Julia’s worst nightmare and greatest desire…sharing a bed with Ran. In fact, they did not start off by sharing a bed. Ran, ever the sweetie, gave Julia her bed and she took a futon on the floor. Only, late at night after a trip to the bathroom, Ran didn’t think about it and got right back into her bed. With Julia. Who hasn’t slept a wink as a result. ^_^

As they leave the apartment, they encounter the stalker – who turns out to be freelance photographer Sera Mutski, and she is very interested in Ran. Sera asks Saeki if she can photograph Ran – she’s *just* the person they were looking for. Immediately Julia is suspicious – no nude photos, she insists, even as she fantasizes about that very thing.

Saeki is excited – this is Ran’s big chance to debut and she sets up the session. Julia is, however, still very suspicious and rightly so, because there seems to be something up… In the meantime, Ran is dressed up to look either super-cool, or like a 1982 music video, whichever way you want to look at it. And she’s very lonely without Julia…. Tune in next time!

I forgot to mention – this volume also includes fanart of all the continuing series, which is really cute. ^_^

Another fantastic story from Volume 1, “Voice” is continued in “Voiceful”. Bashful Kanae is still overwhelmed every time she’s with her beloved Hina, the singing star. But Hina is a very down to earth person and just wants to have a little fun. Hina confesses that she’s only 17, but never been to school, so she’s never worn a school uniform…and Kanae looks awfully cute in her’s…hey, wait a minute! Hina drags Kanae off to the bathroom to switch clothes, but is dragged away by a call from her manager almost immediately.

Hina dutifully goes off to record, but her heart’s just not in it – she wants to be with Kanae, and runs off to tell her so. Hina asks Kanae if she likes her music – and Kanae responds that she loves it, that she loves it so much…and Hina smiles, thinking that she can go back and record now with all her heart, if Kanae likes it. This story is to be continued, which makes me extremely happy!

The fractured all-female fairytale this time is Rapunzel, in which the witch is damn sexy and the Prince/ss is kinda cute and if I were Rapunzel, I’d just choose both and alternate. ^_^

Yuri book reviews are followed by more color pages that intro a odd, but kind of fun story called “Sekai ni Itsudake no Atabana”. Honestly have no clue what it means and haven’t had time to figure it out.

Hana and Yuki are having a little light “relations” in the classroom when cute/innocent Haru walks in on them. She appears to be clueless…but isn’t. And when she walks in on Hana *again* this time with a different student, Haru comments that she wishes Hana wouldn’t do stuff like this at school – it causes rumors. ^_^

Haru, after some cute pouting gives in to Hana, but just then an alien pops in and steals Haru! No, seriously. She’s a little older looking and had mad magic usin’ skillz, which all of a sudden Hana is able to match! Lo and behold, Hana, too, is a whatever it was and she just sort of forgot. Haru forgives her and they both remember a past experience that they kind of dropped from their collective memories. In the end, they are lovey-dovey, except at school, because Haru doesn’t want any weird rumors. ^_^

Next up is this installment of “Hatsukoi Shimai” in which something actually happens! Chika, depressed about being rebuffed by Haruna has let her grades slip. Cleverly Akiho (who is the only intelligent creature in the school, as far as I can tell) sets it up that Haruna becomes Chika’s tutor. This is good for both of them – they are now spending quality time together in the library every day, laughing and studying (while poor tortured Akiho is forced to watch them be giggly at each other,) and Chika’s grades go up. They go up so much, in fact, that after the mid-terms, Chika is accused of cheating and asked to take a re-test. This is all from the original Drama CD, in case you care. However, the class president, a pinchy-faced jerk named Teshigawara is not. And SHE accuses Chika of cheating – even though she is perfectly aware that Chika has been studying every day with Haruna. It’s kind of instantly apparent that Tshigawara has some kind of problem with Haruna – either she’s jealous or doesn’t like her, but we don’t know which yet.

More interesting to me is another scene not on the CD. Akiho and Haruna are at home and Akiho mentions that recently, since she started to hang out with Chika, Haruna has been very cheerful – like she used to be. Haruna agrees, that she was a little over-serious, and thinks back to a few years earlier when she apparently have a very close relationship with a sempai…oh-ho, a new plot twist!

Anyway, we leave poor Chika being confronted by the Teshigawara gang and Akiho and Haruna wondering why she hasn’t shown up at the library. Cliffhanger! Tune in next…oh, wait. I used that one already.

Okay, you know how I harp endlessly about the “Koi Shimai” Drama CDs? And how I go on and on about how great they were, but you haven’t heard them, so nyah nyah? *Well*! The next entry in this volume made me so jealous that I was jumping up and down with jealousy. Nyah nyah, indeed.

Akiko Morishima, you may remember, drew a lovely Yuricon in Tokyo report for the last volume. In this volume, she reports on a recording session of the NEXT Drama CD, “Hatsukoi Shimai” which stars not only the sexy Romi Park as Touko-sensei, but a host of other great seiyuu from very, very Yuri series. Including Tsutako from Marimite. :-) And they’ve added Miyu and Kirika, the missing other cover girls from Yuri Shimai and Yuri Hime, so it’s a whole new story – not just a redo of the original ones. Even better, it looks like Touko-sensei and Akiho are still paired! Yay! I cannot *wait* to get a copy of this. I will move heaven and hell to get one. When it becomes available, do rush off to get it – it’s too cool not to have.

And I’m very, very jealous, Akiko-san. You got to meet the seiyuu. Argh! Jealous, jealous….

Moving on – “The unfamous country’s song of love” is a silly story of a cry-baby ninja and the princess she loves. As children, the princess could hear the ninja girl crying, even when she couldn’t see her. Now, the princess is going to get married and go to another country. The ninja has promised to be with her forever, but she is told that she cannot come. In order to keep the ninja from following, the princess fires her, but on the way to the wedding, her retinue is attacked. The ninja appears from nowhere to save the day, then disappears once again. But on the day of the wedding, everyone can hear someone crying, even though they cannot see anyone. While everyone interprets it as an unlucky sign, the princess knows that she’s very lucky indeed to have such a devoted protector.

There’s more general fanart in the back of the book – which I enjoy every time, because it’s not particularly good – just fans drawing Yuri couples. It all makes me happy.

And that brings us to the end of this truly excellent Yuri anthology. With maybe one or two stories that would score 6 or so, I think the rest of the book is easily an 8 and in some cases 9.

Overall, if you like Yuri manga, a copy of Yuri Hime, Volume 2 is a must-have. You can click the picture above to order it on Amazon JP – it’s linked.





Yuri Manga: Yuri Hime, Volume 2 (Part 1)

November 1st, 2005

What is there to be said about Comic Yuri Hime, Volume 2 except “Yuri, Yuri and more Yuri!” ^_^ In fact, there’s *so* much good yuri in this volume, I’ll have to do this review in two parts…or maybe three.

The only real complaint I ever had about Yuri Shimai was that it was a tad on the young and innocent side for me. Well, Yuri Hime showed some interest in moving away from that into a slightly more adult outlook. And now, with Volume 2, I think Yuri Hime has finally hit the exact right note. It’s adult without being pornographic, and sweet and cute without being lolicon. Just the kind of thing that I’ve been looking for – and the kind of thing we have been publishing at ALC Publishing. In fact, there’s so many good things about this issue that I may sound a little giddy – I apologize in advance. ^_^

Let me start with the cover, because the two smiling faces that grace it are of some significant import. Drawn by Hibiki Reine, the illustrator for the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels, we are greeted by Chika (on the left) and Miyu (on the right). Both these characters are from the ongoing cover stories from the old Yuri Shimai volumes. Once again, let me just remind you that Chika’s story was turned into two Drama CDs entitled “Koi Shimai” which was eventually turned into a manga, that continued in Yuri Hime as “Hatsukoi Shimai.” This all confuses the heck out of everyone but about three people. Just go with it – it makes sense if you just get all the damn books and look at them. :-) I reviewed the Koi Shimai Drama CDs some time ago in 2004: CD 1 review and CD2 review. And now I will leave this topic quite suddenly to move on in an abrupt fashion – don’t worry, we’ll come back to it later.

I won’t go into detail about all the other stories’ histories, since I just went over them in my review of Yuri Hime, Volume 1, last week.

The first story of the book is the second, long-awaited installment of “First Kiss” by Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki. Once again we watch Reiko and Ayano torture each other with Unresolved Sexual Tension. If you remember that the pair who draws this manga is extremely well known for their yaoi manga, it won’t be too surprising. :-) Reiko and Ayano are pining for each other – but inexplicably, neither can see the desire and loneliness in each other’s eyes – perhaps because they don’t really look at each other. Also, I just want to say that while I REALLY like my doctor, if she EVER sucks on my finger that messily, a lawsuit would definitely be in order. I mean really. LOL

This volume also contains some spiffy color pictures of Reiko nekkid and Reiko and Ayano as adults, in bed – a nice parrallel to the younger pair in bed last volume. (And a palpable sign of the maturing of yuri that this volume represents.) Volume 3 continues this story – will they get together? Probably. ^_^

“Shoujo Bigaku” is a second story from Chi-Ran in which an unsuspecting “normal” girl is overwhelmed by the presence of an openly gay, openly amorous transfer student. Only in this case, the so-called normal girl, Yuno, is actually as queer as a three dollar bill. So of course, she does everything in her power to not be discovered by the openly gay Shinri. Shinri pegs Yuno in about 3 seconds flat – just about the time she finishes saying that Japan is a lesbian paradise. It’s hopeless, Yuno. Shinri uses all her magic lesbian skills – and a few well-placed kisses – to make Yuno see things her way. Rabu rabu.

The first essay is on early 70’s Yuri – more specifically Oniisama E, the early yuri classic by Ryoko Ikeda. Great art to support the essay. ^_^

The story of Letty the Witch and Tsugumi the Miko continues the morning after they spend the night in the same bed. Letty freaks – then remembers that it was all platonic, but something is wrong with Tsugumi! She’s coming down with a cold…or something. They go out to enjoy a beautiful day and discuss how they are connected forever by a red string. Tsugumi collapses and a stranger who suddenly appears tells Letty that its because she took Tsugumi away from the shrine. Letty drives off the stranger, but she comes back and tells them that Tsugumi is cursed. Tsugumi apologizes, thinking back on their times together, for having been a bother to Letty. The chapter ends with Letty screaming Tsugumi’s name…. It’s a pretty surprising chapter for what has been so far an innocuous, but pleasant story. I guess we’re anticipating many more volumes of this magazine, if we’re adding in actual plot complications, huh? A good sign, I think.

Takahashi Mako’s story for this volume, “Tiger Lily” is shocking for the radical change in apparent age for her characters. They actually appear to be high school aged for once. The story centers around two students who take on, respectively, the roles of Wendy and Tiger Lily in Peter Pan. “Wendy” remembers everything about “Tiger Lily” because, she says, she remembers everything about the person she loves. But she can’t remember a teacher who has made her his favorite and is surprised whrn Tiger Lilly mentions him. Wendy does remember that Tiger Lily had a thing for that teacher, though. It’s all complicated young love as remembered by an old lady. A surprisingly non-psychotic entry by Mako and one that didn’t make me cringe with distaste.

“Nanami to Misuzu,” the continuing adventures of a rich chibi cat girl and her friend who plays the straight man to her physcal comedy, were marginally amusing this time, with the addition of Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh. Not really – but you know what I mean. She might as *well* be Sakaki. There was one very funny gag and the rest were just…gags.

Last for today’s update came the winner in this half, Morinaga Milk’s sequel to the very first Yuri Shimai story, “Even If We’re Not Friends”. In this story, “When the ring finger is kissed” (or something like that. I’m not great at conditionals) we go back to our original couple, Nana and Hitomi. The first several pages of the story are absolutely beautiful color pages of the two girls kissing and undressing. It’s so well done, so tasteful and sexy at the same time that it may set a new standard for yuri manga. It turns out to be a dream – Nana’s under alot of pressure recently with mid-terms, and she hasn’t been able to see Hitomi at all. But Nana has, once again, been avoiding Hitomi – this time because she’s freaked out by Hitomi’s desire to go further with their relationship. What’s flipping Nana out is the fact that she also wants that, but she’s scared out of her gourd. On the final day of mid-terms Hitomi takes matters into her own hands. She shows up at Nana’s house, armed with sleepover materiel. Nana gets over her bad self and the two make their beautiful memory. Happy sigh.

This story was excellent. Simply excellent. The art on the color pages was breathtakingly sweet, and the story didn’t make one squick. Nana’s behavior, while marginally irritating *was* consistant wth her personality as it was given to us in the first story. And Hitomi’s was, as well – her forthright expression of desire was no less lovely for its frankness. Top o’the Yuri class for Morinaga Milk.