Yuri Drama CD: @Around Kabukichou Shinjuku 0:00AM ~ Ena Saitou (＠新宿区歌舞伎町近辺午前0時)~ 齋藤恵那

April 26th, 2019

Today we’re looking at a lovely little Drama CD I picked up at Comitia last February. I’ve mentioned a number of times that the Yuri section was pretty large as compared with years past, and this last one, was especially sprawling. As we moved out of た into ち blocks, we came across a number of folks selling really unique items. Among those were circle doyondo (どよんど) who were selling an original Drama CD called @Around Kabukichou Shinjuku 0:00AM ~ Ena Saitou (＠新宿区歌舞伎町近辺午前0時)~ 齋藤恵那 by Taiyaki, Kokoro and Kudo Asa. Kudo-san voiced the main and only character, Ena…and she did a really decent job of it. It could not have been easy with no one to work off of.

The story begins with Ena, a high school girl, finding us, “oneesan” an older woman (maybe early twenties?) on the ground in the Kabukichou in Shinjuku at midnight. She asks if we are all right, but we are crying and Ena, who is a kind girl, says that we’ll make her cry. She picks us up, takes us to a hotel, because she can hardly bring us home and we tell her that we’ve had a bad break up with our girlfriend. Ena handles that with gentleness.

Each scenario is given a time and a place as a title: Shinjuku Kabukichou at a Hotel 2 AM; In front of the College Gates 6PM. As the scenarios develop we learn that Ena and we have kept in touch by text. Ena asks us for advice which she does not take because she doesn’t want to leave us. Eventually Ena tracks us down to tell us she likes us, can we go out? We say yes.

But as time passes, we’re being distant and Ena finds us, once again drunk in Kabukichou (I am not loving us right now….but I think we were just bumming because we were trying to “protect” her,) Ena tells us that she loves us and asks if we can make it more serious. Thankfully we say yes! We take Ena home and settle down together. For the last track “At Home The Future,” We make out a little and Ena asks us very cutely if she can call us by our given name.* This was an incredibly good and bad scene simultaneously, as poor Kudo-san had to make the kissing sound real by herself. She did better than I wanted to hear. ^_^; Honestly, I find listening to people kissing a little repulsive anyway. I skip those bit in movies a lot of the time.

For the cast talk, Kudo-san was joined by one of the writers, Taiyaki-san. They chatted about the creation of the story, and the manga of it, and how they’d like to turn it into an anime, of course! You can read the opening scene on Yuri Navi as part of their online Web Yuri Anthology Yuri “Toile” (WEB百合アンソロジー「トワール」 ).

You can also listen to the opening tack with Japanese subtitles on Youtube. Thanks redfish for the heads up that it’s also downloadable (at least within Japan) from booth.pm.

This was a delightful, well-acted story that was charming and engaging in a short time. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to hear more of circle doyondo’s work!

Ratings:

Story – 8
Character – 9
Voice acting – 9
Service – 4 that one make out scene sounds like exactly what its supposed to be
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

*As I mentioned yesterday in my reviews of Kyuusei End Contents Positive: Encount (九彩エンドコンテンツ), this was a repeated theme I’ve seen a few times recently. Is this…a new trope? /insert meme here/

So. Drunk onee-san are rapidly being set up to become the Yuri:2020 version of the cool upperclassman. It’s not going to make Yuri a queerer genre, but I’m finding it hard to complain. Get back to me in 8 years. ^_^

I’ve linked to the Toranoana e-shop to get this. If you are outside Japan, you probably will need a buying service.
This is unrelated, but I found it remarkable, so I will remark on it – Toranoana has an otaku wedding planning service. I think I like that.

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Yuri Drama CD: Kyuusei End Contents Positive:Encount (九彩エンドコンテンツ)

April 25th, 2019

It’s been a good long while since I had a couple of hours to just sit and listen to a Drama CD. Honestly, it felt really good to stick a giant headset on and unconnect from reality. ^_^ One of the several CDs I had backed up on the to-listen pile was by Fujieda Miyabi, Kyuusei End Contents Positive:Encount (九彩エンドコンテンツ). This independently produced Drama CD is the prequel of his Kyuusei End Contents manga, which has appeared in Comic Cune magazine.

The CD begins with a track of Nagomi with her lover Tsurugi, demanding a little attention. The story then backtracks to how they met. Tsurugi is a clothing designer suffering from creator’s block and Nagomi is a young woman she meets on the street. Nagomi has nowhere to go, so Tsurugi takes her in. Nagomi is blown away by Tsurugi’s work and, it turns out, is a huge fan. Nagomi’s cheerful enthusiasm and her cute look inspires Tsurugi, who has found her muse at last. The block is broken and Tsurugi gets to work.

Nagomi and Tsurugi have an extended conversation about what to call one another now that they are a couple. They settle on Tsurugi-chan and Nago-chan. By itself, this is not breathtaking, but come back tomorrow and we’ll do it again for a completely different CD!

This CD is short and, compared to Fujieda-sensei’s Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to series, thin on content. But as the Kyuusei End Contents manga was itself a series of super-short shorts, it fits in well with the style and isn’t much lighter and fluffier than Ame-iro-Kouchkan Kandan. More than anything, it was just nice to see something new from Fujieda-sensei!

Ratings:

Art – 8 Always cute and sweet
Story – 7 Fairly simple girl-meet-girl, girl-moves-in-with-girl
Characters – 7 We don’t spend long enough with them to get to know them well. I’d like to know more about Tsurugi
Service – 6 We start off with some suggestive conversation
Yuri – 7 Same as above

Overall – 7

I have no idea where I picked this up, though. Maybe at Comitia? Or was it at Comic Zin? I honestly don’t know, but it was one of his Winter Comiket 2018 original works.

 

 

Posted in Drama CDs & Audiobooks, Fujieda Miyabi | 1 Comment »


Revue Starlight RE Live Game

April 24th, 2019

Super quick review today as I’m on the road. And because I am on the road, I am amusing myself with listening to Drama CDs and playing games, because I left my library book on the plane. ^_^;;

So, while I was in transit, the Revue Starlight RE Live game dropped in English. And here I am, pushing buttons almost completely randomly and have gotten all the characters I want, killed a lot of faceless baddies, watched the new characters interact, increased their skills and bonded with the characters, gotten a bunch of original characters, increased skills, developed bonds, bought items, decorated my theater (by adding a tea service), collected Memories,  and a host of other shit I that I’m doing because the game tells me to. ^_^

I only recently attempted to play a game similar to the level of complexity to all the stuff here and gave up as I do when it added one too many thing to do, so I got bored doing the same thing repatedly for very little dopamine. As you know, I’m not the audience for this kind of thing. But…I was trying to give this game a fair chance. After three days, I’m still pushing buttons mostly randomly, but since one of the things you can collect is music, I’m still playing.

Visually, this game is very appealing. I was able to draw most of the characters I care about almost immediately from the gatcha. The fight scenes, which can be played automatically, aren’t engaging – but as I don’t care about the fighting and only do it progress in the main game, that’s fine with me. I enjoy watching the characters fighting techniques and the “revue climax” attacks.  I also like the moments spent with the characters in the “school” tab. I’m less interested in the three new schools that have been added, but as the story develops we find that the Seisho girls have ties to the other schools, which makes the inter-school battles more fraught.

You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t bother with reviewing this if there was no Yuri and there actually kinda is. Tucked here and there in the conversations, there are tidbits. Because the game allows you to focus on various characters of your choosing, I’ve happily prioritized Junna and Banana and Claudine and Maya over Karen and Hikari, which has lead me to see some interesting conversations, including one where Mahiru tells Maya that she feels about Hikari the same way Maya feels about Claudine, at which point, I shouted “Gotcha!” And while I don’t care about the game, particularly, I know in my heart – and in the doujinshi I bought in February at Melonbooks – that Junna and Banana are a couple. A bunch of us also noted that Junna also has tendency to quote Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman in the middle of her dialogue. If she adds a Sappho quote, I will be so happy. ^_^

There are a few other one-sided romances at the other schools too, Mei Fan is in love with Akira, at Siegfeld, and Rui has a crush on Tamao at Rinmeikan.

The game being fully voiced – including the new characters – is a big draw for me. The attacks are awesome and I’m holding out for the final theme. But I don’t know how long I’ll last. I’ve manged level 5 in 3 days, but as soon as I start losing, I’ll give up. I know me. If I do, I’ll just go back to the other book I brought – Yoshiya Nobuko’s Ban-sensei (伴先生).

In the meantime here’s the official game trailer. If you decide to play, look me up at ID: 6783247580, I can use the Friend Points…I think.

Ratings:

Visuals – 9
Characters – 9
Gameplay – 5 It doesn’t need us
Raddom buton-clicking – 10 The menu helpfully tells you to click things, so you don’t miss something important, like getting a gift of Umeboshi that has no purpose. Oh, look at that, it has a purpose. Who knew the girls liked Umeboshi so much.

Overall – 8

Revue Starlight RE Live has held my attention for 3 days! That may be a record.

I loathe Kaoruko even more now. Ugggghhh.

 

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Yuri Manga: Fuwafuwa・Futashika・Yumemitai, Volume 1 (ふわふわ・ふたしか・夢みたい)

April 22nd, 2019

Fuwafuwa・Futashika・Yumemitai, Volume 1 (ふわふわ・ふたしか・夢みたい) by Hakamada Mera is an incredibly pleasant, low-drama story of a high school romance.

Chiyoko was always watching Onuki-sempai, who cut a dashing figure as Andre in the drama club’s version of Rose of Versailles, and on the track. She loves how weak Sempai is for her baked goods and she likes to study with her. There’s always a lingering background doubt about their relationship, but not because Sempai does anything wrong. Chiyoko just can’t imagine someone so cool likes her.

But Onuki-sempai does like Chiyoko. She’s blind to the desire her stage play co-star’s shows for her. She’s pretty much uninterested in anyone other than Chiyoko, in fact.

When a rumor starts to spread that sempai will have to move overseas, Chiyoko begins to panic, but immediately Onuki-sempai asks her over…to her new apartment, where she will be living along while finishing up school. It might only be one more year, but Chiyoko is glad to have her time with Sempai. That is, until Onuki-sempai makes it clear that she hopes they won’t be parted aft graduation. “After graduation,” she asks, will you call me by my given name?”

A few final shorts from the perspective of women whose hearts are broken unwittingly by Onuki’s love for Chiyoko and a final date between our protagonists wraps up what was a sincerely pleasant read.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 5 Yes there is a bit
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

This series  s Hakamada’s-sensei’s best work to date. Her art style has matured, the oversize heads of the past are now in proportion to the  bodies. The note between passionless romance and creepy sex is hit perfectly. This is the book I’ve been waiting for from this artist. And I’m glad as can be that she was able to put it out in Galette.

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Maiden Railways Manga (English)

April 21st, 2019

It’s always a pleasure to welcome a new publisher to the stage and today we have that pleasure. At AnimeNYC 2018, Denpa Books announced a series of very interesting licenses, including panpanya’s Invitation from a Crab (which I included on my Best Manga of 2018 list for The Comics Beat and The Comics Journal)  and Nakamura Asumiko’s Maiden Railways, both collected from comics serialized in Rakuen le Paradis magazine. Each story is connected by the theme of trains – specifically the Odakyu-Odawara Line – and young women. (The original title for this is Testsudou Shojo, i.e., Train Girls.)

I very much enjoyed the individual chapters that made up this volume when they ran in the magazine and am now equally as pleased to review Maiden Railways, as a collected work. That is to say, this is a review that I am both very pleased to be able to write and deeply unhappy that I must write. I should not be reviewing this book for Okazu. That honor ought to have gone to our late friend Bruce P, train enthusiast, Yuri enthusiast and guest reviewer of the original volume in Japanese.

Every story in this volume is…intense. There’s a lot of heightened emotions, often not spoken of. There’s suspicion and tension, and betrayal, but all told from a slightly aloof perspective, as the protagonist is sucked into someone else’s problems and can’t quite extricate themselves without being changed by it. If there is a single overarching emotion that describes the characters in these stories it would have to be nonplussed. As a result, it frequently appears that the characters are creepy, or strange, until you realize they were simply stunned. ^_^ This is very common for Nakamura-sensei’s work and it helps to remember that as you read anything she’s done.  Once you stop waiting for the boot to drop, some of these stories are surprisingly touching.

In Yuri story “Overpass Crossing” our nonplussed character encounters and has her life changed by another woman. And we’re given two color pages to show that it is a change for the better for both of them.

I am also inordinately fond of “Savarin Thursdays” in which a married man has his life changed for the better, as well. I also very much liked “Night After Night”. All the stories do something unexpected, they all involve a young woman, the obvious love Nakamura-sensei has for the Odakyu Line…and then they turn out to be tied up in a neat bow after all.

Denpa Books did a lovely job on this lovely manga. I recommend it for some unusual and fun reading.

Ratings

Art – 8 YMMV, but I like her art
Story – 9 All of them are enjoyable
Characters – Same
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

“The Odakyu Odawara Line (小田急小田原線 Odakyū-Odawara-sen) is the main line of Japanese private railway operator Odakyu Electric Railway. It extends 82.5 km from Shinjuku in central Tokyo through the southwest suburbs to the city of Odawara, the gateway to Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture. It is a busy commuter line and is also known for its “Romancecar” limited express services. From Yoyogi-Uehara Station some trains continue onto the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line and beyond to the East Japan Railway Company Joban Line.”

 

Posted in Bruce P, English Manga | No Comments »