Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Anime: Maka-Maka, Volume 2

March 11th, 2005

Maka22After well over a year’s wait, the second volume of Maka-Maka is now available in print. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that this looks like the end of the line. The online version of Maka-Maka hasn’t moved past December 2004, so Volume 2 seems to be it. Unless the printed version is still running, and frankly, I’m too lazy to check. Feel free to do so and get back to me. ;-)

Volume 2 has color posters of Jun and Nene in poses that men seem to find attractive, but leave me wondering why and the usual hidden cover with naked girls underneath.

When we last left them, Jun and Nene were just on the cusp of a nearly monogamous relationship, looking forward to a bright future of lots of lesbian sex. Volume 2 follows our intrepid young protagonists as they gleefully enjoy sex in inappropraite public places and appropriately private ones. It would be all very nice if they didn’t drool so much. I am not a fan of bizarrely leaking bodily fluids, but I guess each to his or her own.

What is striking about this particular volume (other than the playing dress-up quality of it, which focuses as much on their clothes as any other one thing) as just how pathetic all the men in this series are. And yet, we are lead to believe that these two women still occasionally long for “the penor” as my language-impaired l33t young friends call it these days. It was okay, in the first volume, when it seemed Jun and Nene had, quite coincidentally, had miserable lovers at roughly the same time, which made them long for someone, anyone, better. In this volume, it seems as pretty much all their male lovers sucked – all their male lovers *ever* and pretty much every guy in the book comes off as a raging asshole.

But I’m kind of missing something somewhere when, after a string of abysmal encounters with men, they’re still sleeping with guys even though they are having not-at-all-abysmal sex with each other. I’m clearly missing something. Probably the requisite “penor.” If I had one o’them, it would make more sense…I guess.

Anyway, other than the drool and the guys, this was a pretty nice book. LOL I think it’s funny how Nene is such a crybaby, and I quite like Jun’s casual nihilistic style. Plus, she looked really cute in the kimono that Nene made for her. :-) This volume also includes each girl telling an angst-ridden backstory which explains their character. It’s not terribly convincing, but it makes a nice change of pace, and teaches us once again that (shock!) guys are assholes – a lesson about which I retain a healthy skepticism. If they were that awful, I can’t imagine that that many women would sleep with them – or maybe I’m overestimating straight women? I’ll leave that question for the philosophers.

Is it worth getting? If you like almost completely realistically portrayed explicit lesbian sex -yes. If you like sweet romance with flower-laden backgrounds -nope.

For what it’ s worth, I quite liked Maka-Maka Volume 2, even though they never sent me one of the scale figurines from Vol. 1. Boo hoo.





Yuri: Manga: YajiKita Gakuen Dochuuki, Vol. 25

February 4th, 2005

It always gives me great pleasure to be able to discuss one of my favorite series, but in this case, not only does YajiKita Gakuen Douchuuki (YajiKita’s School Diary) have Yuri, this time its not just classic…it’s now.

I have reviewed this series before, once on January 13, 2004 and it even made my 2004 Top 10 of Yuri manga, and yet, hardly anyone knows about it, which is a crying shame, since it is truly a wonderful, wacky and Yuri-filled, girl-gang shoujo manga.

YajiKita originally went for 22 volumes, from 1984 to 1992. The plot was, basically, that two second-year high school students – blonde, cool Shinokita Reiko (Kita) and fiery tempered brunette Yajima Junko (Yaji) – move from school to school fighting corruption, Yakuza, bad gangs (as opposed to the good gangs which, yes, do exist in the story) and running into more ninjas and black-suited, sunglass-wearing men than you could ever have imagined.

Both Yaji and Kita have extraordinary hand-to-hand fighting skills, which they actually work on improving. Yaji’s family runs a dojo, so no surprise there, and Kita’s father is a police captain. They nominally work for the head of the eastern area gang association (Kantou Banchou Rengo no Souchou, for those of you who care) an exceptionally pretty rich boy named Yukiya, who looks like – but does not act or talk like – a girl. (One of the things you can absolutely guarantee in YajiKita is that the boys will often be as pretty as the girls.) Yuikya is served by an even prettier ninja boy named Kotetsu, who is always running around saving an even *prettier* ninja named Sagiri, whom I loathe. (Sagiri whines. Alot.)

In the beginning Yaji and Kita can’t stand each other, but after a dozen or so volumes that disappears. Sometime around the time Kita gets shot, Yaji realizes that she quite likes her partner…and Kita begins to act a little more possessive of Yaji, as well, often acting like her boyfriend. (Kita out of school uniform and without her glasses is seriously bishounen. People constantly think she’s a guy at first.)

There are about 877,636,345 other characters who linger in this series, so it would be hopeless to enumerate them all.

However, on to the Yuri. I’ve already pointed out in my earlier review that Kita is a girl magnet. Sometime towards the end of the original series, the mangaka threw caution to the wind and had Kita get a part-time job at a host bar. As “Rei” she danced with many a woman, and looked damn fine in a tux. Yaji even brought Misuzu, a girl that had honest-to-god fallen in love with Kita earlier in the series, just to watch her drool. Poor Misuzu was *dying* as “Rei” danced with the other women…and when one of them, a rich girl named Ruriko, goes so far as to *kiss* Kita, Misuzu is out of her seat and punching Ruriko faster than you can say “Hey! Get your hand off my Reiko!” :-)

Anyway, that was back in Volume 21 or so. About 12 years ago.

Last year YajiKita picked where they had left off 13 years before. With no interruption, no aging – no change at all, the next collected volume came out…as Vol. 23. In which not a single moment of time had passed. It was really charming and wacky. Not a single change had been made – unlike the New Hana no Asuka-gumi whioch had at least updated to include cell phones.

In Vol. 24, Ruriko, having had her desire for “Rei” thwarted for a decade and a half, (metaphorically speaking,) seemed even more determined to possess poor Kita. She concocted a variety of methods by which she tries to maneuver Kita out of her clothes and into a tux. Of course, I approve.

Which brings us to Vol. 25. Yaji and Kita are rushing around looking for a kidnapped (and escaped, yet still missing) Yukiya, and come across Ruriko and Tamehiko (another one of the many resurrected characters) at a pleasant little cottage in the country. Ruriko locks Kita in a room with her and slinks up to her “Rei” asking her to stay. Kita draws back and apologizes, telling Ruriko that she can’t work for her. At which Ruruiko is appalled. “Employee?” she keeps asking. “What are you saying? I want you to be my lover!”

I have to admit – I applaud Ruriko’s frankness.

Kita excuses herself…she’s not interested in women, at which Ruriko trots out the old chestnut that she doesn’t like girls either…she just likes “Rei.” Kita bails, but Ruriko is unfazed. I’m looking forward to the next plan she comes up with – all the others have been so wonderfully stupid. :-) And maybe we might just get Reiko back in that tuxedo!

In the meantime, however, Kita has been noticeably *there* every time Yaji faces unwanted attentions from men. Maybe Kita isn’t interested in women, but she might just be interested in Yaji. :-)

Okay, not. But I like thinking about it. ^_^

Anyway, despite the fact that you actually *do* have to read this series from the beginning to get what’s going on – Volume 25 offers yet *more* women who desire Kita-san, which keeps it in my top ten, even after 20 years.





Yuri Manga: Eve no Ringo/Eve’s Apple Manga, Volume 2

January 19th, 2005

Now *this* is good trash!

Eve no Ringo, (Eve’s Apple,) tells of the continuing misadventures of high schooler Kirika, an up-an-coming young manga artist, as she tries to break into the professional manga world. You may remember from Eve’s Apple, Volume 1, that she was hired by Blue Velvet, a S&M Ladies Comic.

In Volume 2, Kirika gets a brief chance to move into a much more popular shoujo manga magazine, but the Kind Editor’s offer is quashed by a self-proclaimed evil rival. Not content with simply trashing Kirika’s dreams, her rival, Mio, sends faxes to Kirika’s school, telling anyone who finds them what Kirika is doing in her spare time. Insane rival has fantasies of Kirika being gang-raped by drooling guys who assume that she’s a pervert. Instead, when she arrives, rival girl finds that mostly no one knows Kirika, except her small group of friend who think she’s plenty nice.

Why didn’t the faxes work? *Because*, they were faxed to the Doctor’s Office and the person who found them, the school doctor, LOVES Ladies Comics! She gets no less than 5 titles a month! She was so excited to meet Kirika, one of her favorite artists…and then she indulges in a spot of “seduce my favorite artist.” Apparently the school doctor is doing research on sex and what turns people on – and she gets Kirika right in the erogenous zone. But the doctor was only testing out her thesis, so poor Kirika is left gasping and moaning, but quite unfulfilled.

The crazy hardcore older mangaka Miyamae-sensei from Volume 1 seduces away Kirika’s best pal and “research” buddy Matsuda, which leads to a few moments of agonizing and confusion. And Evil Editor takes Kirika on a ride to explore the tawdry world of car sex. No, they don’t have car sex, you goofs. Although Kirika was worried there for a moment, too. ^_^

And, in the end, Kirika explores S&M with Yumiko, who doesn’t “get” it, but wants to make her boyfriend happy. Kirika ties Yumiko up, but she doesn’t enjoy that at all. However, when she’s got Kirika at her mercy – it all begins to make sense, now! And off Yumiko goes. So, once again, poor Kirika is left alone, gasping and moaning with nowhere to go.

Poor Kirika. That was the refrain all through this volume. This is, as I keep saying, utter, dire trash. But it’s funny and fun, and for crap, it’s pretty wonderful. :-)

I really hope Kirika gets some of her own in the next volume, I’m kind of feeling bad for her!





Yuri Manga: Rose Hip Rose

January 18th, 2005

Rose Hip Rose, by Fujisawa Tohru (creator of GTO,) *should* be great. It has everything I like. So…why did it suck so bad?

Kasumi, aka “Rose Hip Rose,” is a full-time school girl, with a little light special operations on the side. She’s cool, she’s hot, she’s got a tattoo of a rose on her inner thigh and she packs a gazillion weapons. She has a run-in with a regular-guy schlub schoolmate on the train, which guarantees that we will never lose this character, that he will fall in love with her and accidentally find himself involved in nearly every chapter in some exceptionally annoying way. In the end, she’ll probably come to like him, because that’s the way these things go.

But that *wasn’t* why this manga sucked.

Kasumi is also part of an elite force of trained-from-childhood special-ops assassin-soldiers and, of course, they have been split up and many of them are assumed to be dead. As soon as Kasumi lets slip that she’s probably the only one left alive, another one pops up *immediately,* in the way of such things.

Uber-hip cool schoolgirl operative Natsuki (pictured above) is the most annoying lesbian to ever grace manga…ever.

Natsuki is in love with Kasumi and makes no bones about it. (Kasumi is, of course uninterested, saving herself as she is for the schlubby guy, no doubt.) In fact, Natsuki makes her appearance by saving Kasumi’s cute butt and weilding an extra-big gun. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

But, despite being the uber-competent hot lesbo with big gun, Natsuki insists on calling Kasumi “Kasumi-tan.” (You have probably run into this honorific with the ridiculously cute and highly pornographic “OS-tans”. If not, go search the term on Google.) “-tan” is meant to be an ootsy-cutesy version of “-chan” and I, and all people with sense, find it highly irritating. It would be like a high school girl calling a guy named Bill “Billy-willy” all the time. Can you feel your teeth clenching yet? Once or twice it would be irksome, but forgivable. As a habit, it is a hanging offense.

This appalling habit of speech, and the fact that Rose Hip Rose has essentially no plot (running around after a bad guy while he taunts you and kills people is NOT a plot,Tohru!) tanked the series utterly for me. And, of course, the fact that as a lesbian, Natsuki safely only shows interest in the one person she can never have. It may be realistic, but its boring as hell.

If you’re looking for a pointlessly violent and repetitive story, with a lesbian thrown in for service, Rose Hip Rose is your baby.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 4
Character – 4
Yuri -2

Overall – 4

Now, if you’re looking for *good* shounen trash, tune in tomorrow. :-)





Yuri Manga: Yuri Shimai 5

December 28th, 2004

Part 2

More first love, more yuri drama and even a little more than that.

I left you hanging last week halfway through the latest and greatest issue of Yuri Shimai. Well, your wait is ovah!

We left off, just after the most recent installment of Morinaga Milk’s saga. Which brings us to a color insert story, “Uka: Aufbl�hen”, by Chi-Ran. This color insert ran for about 6 pages or so, 4 of which were sealed off as a special “present.” Of course, when you open the sealed section, this undeveloped and trite story of a kohai and her beloved sempai becomes an undeveloped romp in the hay. Unfortunately, all of Chi-Ran’s stories read exactly the same – two girls, no development, kiss. Because of the short page count, it ends up reading like a typical “Plot, what Plot?” sex-fic. I thought it fascinating that they chose to include sex in this issue…but desperately wished it had been part of a better story.

The rest of the sealed insert contains reviews of things that made me laugh. First and foremost was a review of the Marimite parody JAV (something made more amusing by the fact that Carmilla just reviewed it, too.) Following this, were a few popular computer games that have explicit yuri. Some of these games had been reviewed before in previous issues of Yuri Shimai, but this time more explicit pictures were included.

After this amusing interlude comes a really lovely story called “The Whisper Under the Rose,” (but I think if I were translating it for real, I’d call it “Sub Rosa,” since that’s what the story implies.) “Sub Rosa” is the story of Suzu, a student of a traditional girls’ school (and based on the clothes, I’m thinking that this is meant to be set in the early part of the 20th century, Meiji period. Everyone looks like Sakura from Sakura Taisen….) Suzu has returned to the school (after holidays? Graduation? I’m not sure) in part to make sure she sees a particular teacher whom she calls Inori-sama. There’s a plot based around Inori buying a bow for Suzu’s hair. Suzu confesses that she’s always admired Inori, and Inori tells Suzu that she once had a lover, someone Suzu reminds her of…alot…hint hint. The story ends with them having a moment…and the implication that they’ll have a lifetime. It was really quite sweet.

“Strange Umbrella, White Umbrella” was this issue’s story by Takahashi Mako, which I have universally found distasteful. For one thing, her characters look six – something that makes my eyes glaze over with disinterest. Also, her characters appear to be terminally insane, another turn-off for me. And her plots revolve around unbelievably boring non-conflicts – in this case a girl who doesn’t have an umbrella. I’m sorry, but…blecch. This story was this issue’s only real stinker.

The next 4 pages are color reviews of anime. I have to laugh again, because it looks like they’ve been eaves-dropping on the Yuricon Mailing List again, and have reviewed the exact same series we’ve been talking about, all of which I’ve reviewed here, too. :-)

Another yurified re-telling of a fairy tale (all of which I’ve really not liked terribly) text story with silly art is followed by a two-page review of Akaiito a popular new vampires-with-yuri-implication game.

32 whole pages have been given to the second installment of “Koi Shimai” which tells the story of the two characters on the cover of the first Yuri Shimai, Chika and Haruna. This is essentially a re-telling of the story as it was on the Drama CD, with a little embellishment. Haruna is even *more* uptight than she is on the CD, and there’s a new, inconsequential, side character, Chika’s and Akiho’s class president. The art for this story is quite decent – the story itself is okay…but I await with anticipation the manga for the second Drama CD and the arrival of Hiiragi Touko! Yum. :-) In any case, Koi Shimai is really pretty decent, even if Haruna’s got a major stick up her butt.

Koi Shimai manga is followed by a short text story, which simply seems to fill in some of the characters throughts, but doesn’t move the plot along at all.

“Voice” is, by far and away, the BEST manga so far by Nawoko, who has contributed to every issue. Music and singing seem to be a strong theme in her work, but as stories go, this one is really much better than the prevoius examples. Kana-chan is a classic otaku. She tends to stay at home and live vicariously through her computer. Unusually, she decides to go outside and take a walk. With her earphones on, she listens to her favorite artist, Hina (whom she calls her “goddess,”) as she gets a new haircut and buys some sweets, all the time musing on how sad and lonely Hina sounds as she sings. Thinking about Hina, Kana looks up, only to see Hina herself walk by. Kana freaks, and ends up handing her box of sweets over to Hina, saying only, “Please, be happy!”

Hina goes home and has a crisis of conscience. Moved to tears over Kana’s simple words, she eats the girls’ sweets and runs off to place an entry on her online diary (something she’s typically uncomfortable with.) Hina thanks the “daifuku girl” for the sweets, and hopes to see her again. The story ends with Hina and Kana meeting up, and the line, “It’s like a dream, isn’t it? To become friends with a goddess.” Really – not yuri, per se, (although we can certainly project potential if we want,) but I thought it was a truly excellent story and the best so far from this artist.

The last manga, “Testify” is a short, tiresome and IMHO, trite vampire story. I guess its a kind of love to let your best friend suck your blood, but, whatever, its been done about a gazillion times. I’m over it.

The remainder of volume 5 is doujinshi reviews and the usual mail bag and assorted fan art, which I always like to look at.

All in all, 260 pages of exceptional work, with few nose-holders. Yuri Shimai 5 gives me hope for future issues and yuri in general. Definitely a end-of-year thumbs up from me.

One last plug for this – if you’re thinking of buying any Yuri Shimai, let me recommend you go through the Yuricon Shop, and support Yuricon and ALC by doing so.

Next time on Okazu – the stereotypical end-of-the-year-countdown! :-)