Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Free Soul

October 14th, 2004

Back in June, I reviewed Free Soul, by Yamaji Ebine.

Last week, I received the collected edition of this series and let me just say that it is a definite must-have, all the way around.

The story hasn’t changed since June, but my reading of it has, so please forgive me as I go over it once more. The first time around, I began reading it in Feel Young magazine at the sixth chapter, and so was unaware of several issues. Most importantly, Angie, the black, skinhead, lesbian, jazz singer (very like Me’shell NdegeOcello) whose story fills the book, is not real, but a construct of the heroine’s imagination. Keito is a mangaka who spends much of the book writing and drawing Angie, speaking to her – and learning from her – as she deals with her own real-life problems.

Keito’s story begins shortly after she has run away from home at the age of 22. Her mother, a bitter woman, was extremely unhappy to learn that her daughter is a lesbian, so she has left. Keito meets Rui, an unconventional 80-something author, and is taken in by her. Keito does go back to talk to her mother, but her mother is never fully reconciled to her daughter’s “lifestyle.” Keito’s father, divorced from her mother some time earlier, seems a pale and shadowy man – he appears primarily to be told by Keito that it is not his fault that she is gay.

Keito, despite her less than happy family life, is a pretty cool kid. She gets a job at a jazz music record store and fits in quite happily among the primarily black male clientele.

At the record store Keito meets Niki, a bisexual trumpet player for a funk band. She loses her heart, but Niki explains that she’s not at *all* interested in having a relationship – but is perfectly willing to have sex. Keito’s pain as she fails to win Niki is touching, but not traumatic, and her quiet triumph as she regains Niki is enjoyable, but not ecstatic. As always, Yamaji Ebine’s work slides by comfortably, with a realistic and mature atmosphere – without hysterics or melodrama.

Yamaji Ebine’s art is stellar – everyone who sees it is moved by the simplicity, starkness and fine line work. I have, to this day, never seen anything else like it. As is also usual with a Yamaji story, the background music is jazz and blues.

What can I even say about the “Yuri quotient”? It’s a 100% Yuri story – written by a lesbian mangaka for an audience of adult women, about a young lesbian who falls in love with another woman. Period. With a sub-story about a lesbian jazz singer and her philosophies on life and love.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 10

Overall – a very strong 9.

If you aren’t reading Yamaji Ebine’s work…you are seriously missing out on the best yuri being published in Japanese right now. Run, don’t walk, to Amazon Japan and buy Yamaji Ebine’s work. You won’t regret it.





Yuri Manga: [es] ~ Eternal Sisters Yuri Anthology

October 13th, 2004

Another anthology about schoolgirls, [es]~ Eternal Sisters, is yet another entry in the field of pleasant, harmless and variable Yuri manga that are cropping up all over the place.

Like Yuri Shimai and Yuri Tengoku, [es]~Eternal Sisters focuses on cute, sweet relationships between girls in junior high and high school. Expect lots of blushing, some embraces and few kisses in these 200 pages.

The art ranges from quite professional to “Aggh! What’s that?!” but the stories are vaguely similar – in feel, if not in execution. Almost all of them focus on the moment of revelation, either one character realizing for herself, or both characters realizing the extent of their feelings, but little beyond that is touched upon.

What *does* make [es] stand out are the personalities of the characters involved. The couples themselves bear no relationship to one another. The first story, “Love Lunch” which starts out with two roommates who act like a married couple, gives the anthology a strong beginning. “Croquis,” later in the book, has another stand-out couple – cool, competent and pretty Sada, who is at a loss to understand why she is friends with incompetent, clumsy and plain Hayase. In the end, Sada is forced to confront her feelings – but it is Hayase who forces the confrontation. This was probably my favorite story in the collection.

Of course [es] has one of every usual sterotype necessary to round out such things – hyper-genki best friends, cuddly child-like best friends, wolf-like best friends, reticent, blushing best friends, longing, sighing best friends, etc, etc.

While [es] isn’t going to make any new trends, it’s enjoyable enough for what it is. It has the same layout problems and high quality of publication as Yuri Tengoku, but on the whole the art is a little less loli and a little better. Of the two, I think this one is marginally better. Like YT, if sweet stories of schoolgirls in love that go nowhere is your thing, this is a winner.

Ratings:

Art – 5-9 depending on the story
Story – 5 nothing groundbreaking here.
Characters – 7

Overall – 7





Yuri Manga: Chirality (English)

September 2nd, 2004

chiralityWhat do you say about an artist who likes his women well-endowed, mostly or partially naked, and shiny, as if they have been simonized? I guess you say, “Oh, look it’s Urushihara Satoshi.” (And many thanks to alert reader Tatjana who noticed that I mistyped his name!)

Urushihara has a long history of drawing women with women, from random artbook pieces to full-blown manga stories. Chirality stands out as one of the strongest of his many Yuri-friendly works. Translated by CPM Manga, by 2010 this series wass out of print, but you can still find it, sometimes. It’s worth looking for! As you know, I strongly recommend you actually buy your Yuri and support it in the only way that is meaningful.

The story is shounen sci-fi stuff – in the future humans are being atttacked by GMs, a kind of virus machine produced by an uber-machine whose original job was to protect humanity. To fight (and hopefully reform/uncorrupt) Gaia, several beings were created with that contained all of the DNA of every living creature in the world. These beings were called Adam and Eve.

Of course, nothing is ever easy – Adam became corrupted by Gaia and Eve became bonded to a young human girl, Shiori, in her “immature” form. As “Carol Guardian,” Eve vows to protect Shiori at all costs. Time passes and Carol and Shiori meet once again.

Carol is able to transform into a male form at first to protect Shiori, but when a mishap occurs and Carol accidentally injurs Shiori, she finds herself unable to transform. Meanwhile, Shiori begins to remember their original meeting, and realizes that she is in love with Carol, in any form. In fact, more in her female form.

Yes, they do get together, in a very real sex-filled way. And Shiori and Carol not only protect each other and everyone they love, but they save the world while they’re at it. Plot-wise, the story is a little sketchy, the science is very bad (and mostly organized around the women wearing clothes that make them look naked) but as a fun sci-fi Yuri story, where the story is really a frame for the Yuri, Chirality is pretty good.

CPM published Chirality originally as a series of pamphlet comic books, but you can find it as a set of four graphic novels – unless you obsess about the cover art, the GNs are a better deal and a little easier to find. Despite its age, this particular GN holds up pretty well – the translation is fine, the cost is reasonable.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 9
Service – 8
Yuri – 10

Overall – 8

For hardcore Carol and Shiori fans, Urushihara did do a follow-up story about Rachel Shiori Guardian, Carol and Shiori’s daughter, and her sempai/lover Kaede, in a book called Ragnarock City (link totally Not Safe For Work). It’s mostly torso shots of naked girls – not much by way of story.

Once more, from alert reader Tatjana, Ragnarock City is available in a German language version, for all you Yuri fans who can read German. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Maka-Maka

August 31st, 2004

makamaka1One word – wow.

Maka-Maka is a very shounen, adult, and reasonably mature take on the development of a relationship between two friends, Jun and Nene. The subtitle of the manga is “Love Sex Communication” – this is a major theme right from the first chapter.

Maka-Maka is published monthly by Jive, and is available as a Flash issue on the Maka-Maka homepage every month. The first seven or eight issues have been bound into a print volume which is really quite slick. The volume is all-color pages, with character information and an insert of a “psychedelic” poster – one side is Jun, one Nene. There’s a bonus cover on the inside of the jacket as well. All in all, and excellent design, totally worth the money. There are even Jun and Nene dolls available as a premium for people who return the insert card. I sent it in – we’ll see if they bother to send me a doll. ^_^

The story begins as Jun and Nene both find themselves frustrated and dissatisfied by sex and the lack of connection that exists between themselves and their lovers. In the course of schoolwork, they find themselves playing around and the playing takes a sexual turn. As the subtitle promises, they actually *communicate* and as a result, find themselves more and more interested in each other.

As stated, this is a shounen manga, so expect alot of sexual situations, nudity, fanservice, etc. But for all that, it’s never presented in a cheesy manner – in fact, I found myself getting a little nostalgic at some of Jun’s and Nene’s antics.  There’s a sense of reality about Maka-Maka that’s quite surprising.

Of course, nothing is perfect, so there are conflicts..Jun seems to be more needy than Nene, while Nene tends to be a little more inconsiderate than Jun. This only serves to heighten the versimilitude, not to lessen it. It does mean that there are times when you don’t *like* the characters, but that’s not, IMHO, a weakness here.

By the end of the first volume, if you have a soul, you are hooked. ^_^I read the monthly issues with interest and am looking forward to the second collection – maybe I’ll be able to snag that second doll.

Ratings:

Characters – 9
Story – 9
Art – 8
Service – 9

Overall – 9





Yuri Manga: Yuri Monogatari 2

August 3rd, 2004

Well, Otakon is over for another year. It’s amazingly fun spending all day in the Dealer’s Room, watching the con walk by. I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that ALC Publishing nearly sold out of what manga we brought in three wild, wild days. ^_^

I want to thank all the folks who stopped by – old friends and new – who supported us by buying our manga, getting hugs, stickers, autographs, etc. and generally being the best part of the con. Next year should be even more fun and I promise that I’ll try and get a Yuri panel set up for once. ^_^

Since ALC’s newest Yuri manga premiered last weekend at the East Coast’s largest anime con, I think it’s ony fair to review it first, before I move onto all the other great swag I have to talk about, including a huge shipment from Japan of tons of new Yuri. But first things first.

Yuri Monogatari 2 is ALC Publishing’s second all-Yuri original English-language anthology. In other words – not a translation. The seven stories in this wonderful manga were created especially for this publication, including a wonderfully funny new story by Rica Takashima, author of Rica ‘tte Kanji, our first Japanese translation.

While Yuri Monogatari is by no means perfect, it is still a pretty darn excellent book and well worth your time and money, even if I do say it myself. And I do. Where else are you going to find original Yuri manga in English? Huh? ^_^

This new volume contains seven stories, written and drawn by people from five different countries: Belgium, Canada, Finland, Japan, and the USA. This gives every story a unique characteristic and completely different look and feel. While one story may not appeal to you, there is sure to be something for nearly everyone…

Here’s a quicky synopsis of the stories:

“Joe’s Haircut” – Funny stuff happens when gay girl Joe gets her long locks lopped. When four different girls hit on Joe after the haircut, she’s definitely thinking that too much of a good thing is too much, period. Big, grinny, happy ending for this one

“Toast” – A quirky scifi parody of being sucked into an alternate universe. You never knew what kind of stuff went on in your kitchen appliances…cool girl-gets-girl ending.

“Obenkyo Shinasai” – College student Grace spends more time fantasizing about her lover Miki than studying for her chem exam. This story is hysterical…and pretty hardcore, as Grace fantasizes some *interesting* things happening to Miki. Happy ending, but bad grades on the exam. ^_^

“Passing” – A sort of coming out story. I won’t blow the secret, but the art is really lovely and the girl gets the girl. ^_^

“Short Wish List” – Another parody, this time of action/fantasy stories. The magic genie of the toasters will grant wishes and the wishes aren’t what you think. Happy ending with lots of chocolate.

“Flora” – Angsty, poetic, reflective look at love versus lust. No happy ending, but some seriously beautiful sex.

“Night Out” – Girl meets girl, girl does girl and then the real story begins. A sweet and funny look at relationships. Girl has girl all along.

So there you go. Seven really fun stories, each one with a different focus and art style, characterization and story. And all Yuri, all the time.

And last, but not least, the Ratings:

Art, Character, Story, Plot – all variable depending on the story, as with any anthology. Yuri – 10.

This book is 100% Yuri, through and through. I hope you’ll pick up a copy and see for yourself!

Now that I’ve reviewed the newest Yuri manga from here in the West, I’ll start reviewing some of the fantastic new Yuri coming from Japan!