Yuri Anthology: Yuri + Kanojo Heroine-doushi no Happy End (百合+カノジョ-ヒロイン同士のハッピーエンド-)

August 31st, 2018

The third Yuri + Kanojo Yuri Anthology Yuri + Kanojo Heroine-doushi no Happy End (百合+カノジョ-ヒロイン同士のハッピーエンド-) isn’t about heroines so much as about happy endings.

The first of the series, Yuri +Kanojo, established the first-person aspect of the stories. In  this book, we were the protagonist, as if the stories were all dating sims. In the second anthology, Yuri+ Kanojo Suki ni Nattemoii? (百合+カノジョ 好きになってもいい?), we were introduced to stories of characters that extended past school life into adulthood. 

In Yuri + Kanojo Heroine-doushi no Happy End, we are treated to stories that move through time. The girl we meet and fall in love with in school is still with us in college and the two of us will be together as young adults. The woman we met in college will be the face we wake up to in the morning as we build our careers.  And the woman we met in the office, is there for us when we turn 40. 

Most of these stories are told in three parts  – our earliest days together, a few years later as our relationship is more settled and finally as we are an established couple. The stories once again begin in high school, move backwards to middle school, then progress into adulthood. 

There is no lesbian identity here, but in one of the stories about adult lives, an engagement ring makes an appearance. This volume also includes two stories about “foreign” protagonists, American Diana Lauren and the last story follows Italian Laura Leone. You can tell, because they each say random things in their native tongue. ^_^

Ratings: 

Overall  – 9 I really like the passage of time and the characters growing older.

Of the Yuri+ Kanojo collections, it will come as no surprise that I like this one the best, as it looks into adult life. It’s a fun Yuri anthology that requires no commitment or engagement and passes by in short vignettes. in which the girl always gets the girl.

Posted in Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu Manga, Volume 4 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ )

August 30th, 2018

Here we are at Hirao Auri’s latest attempt to drive me into an early grave. In Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, Volume 4 ( 推しが武道館いってくれたら死ぬ ) nothing happens. Nothing happens in the most dramatic and frustrating way possible, which I grudgingly admit is the creator’s style, after all. A style I named manga interruptus, in between fantasies of strangling the author while reading Manga No Tsukurikata.

On their way to Budokan (which is the end goal, as the title clearly states) the ladies of Cham Jam participate in other group idol festivals, including one in far-off Hiroshima. Tickets are hard to come by and super-fans’ lives are put on hold to make it possible for them to be there to root their special idols on. 

Cham Jam runs into a former member who now has a new act, and we spend time with a few of the idols – Maki gets a lot of page count this time – getting a better idea of their internal lives, so the author can derail his own story and delay any conclusion. Manga interruptus indeed.

Superfan Eripyo and idol Maina are all pained, intense, needy looks from about 8 feet apart, but every time they are standing face-to-face, touching hands for the prescribed number of seconds allowed per purchase, they become tongue-tied and incoherent. That happens several times this volume, so it can be more and more fun as the story creeps along. 

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – Argh
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – Argh

Overall – Argh

I never learn, do I?

Posted in Hirao Auri, Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


Yuri Manga: Galette, No. 6 (ガレット)

August 29th, 2018

I’m running a bit behind now on Galette magazine. I blame the fact that we have so much amazing Yuri and LGBTQ manga and media this year that I’m having trouble keeping up with just the stuff that comes out in English, much less all of it from Japan. It’s a pretty great problem to have, but I want to make time to review Galette, No. 6 (ガレット) before Galette,No. 7 gets old. ^_^

“Philia to Eros no Aida” by Yorita Miyuki seems to be coming close to a finish, unless some new drama rears its head.

Hakamada Mera’s “Fuwafuwa Futashika Yumemitai” has hit the perfect middle ground for this creator and she’s really in her sweet spot of characters feeling feelings that include physical attraction, admiration, and companionship.

Ito has a story about heavy girl finding some one who likes her for her in “Saikau ni Saku.”

Morishima Akiko takes a Yuri story to the one location no one would ever expect it to be set in this chapter of “Motto Hanjuku Joshi,” as Chitose and Yae visit a boy’s school. ^_^

In Takemiya Jin’s “Watashi no Unmei no Hito” an Omega propose to a Beta, and everyone seems okay with that…until she meets an Alpha.

“Toma-kun” by Amano Shuninta gives Toma-kun a rival, but it’s hard to be a rival when the other person makes you swoon. 

And, in Kitta Izumi and Momono Mono’s “Liberty” we find out just why Liz reacts the way she did over the earrings…but it doesn’t excuse her at all. 

This issue has some lovely photographs and more color pages than ever before.  This only downside to this entire volume is that the new soy ink smells like, well, soybeans. I mean, good it didn’t catch in my throat the way soy ink usually does, but the you can always tell what room this magazine is in. ^_^;

Other than this one thing, No. 6 is once again a book chock full of Yuri manga by Yuri creators for anyone who loves Yuri!

Ratings: 

Overall – 9

You can check out previews of the stories on the Galette website on Pixiv.

Galette is available in Print, on US Kindle, JP Kindle or as a PDF if you subscribe to the Gold Course on the crowdfunding site Enty. 

Remember, this is a creator-owned publication, the money you give them goes straight into paying the folks who work on this book. Please, for pity’s sake, don’t read scanlations of this magazine. For only a few dollars you can have a legitimate Kindle version and help support Yuri creators. Use Google translate on your phone, or learn Japanese, but please, stop rewarding people who illegally distribute content they have no right to distribute. 

 

Posted in Galette, Magazines, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


LGBTQ Manga: Shimanami Tasogare (しまなみ誰そ彼), Volume 4

August 27th, 2018

The fourth and final volume of Kamatani Yuhki’s Shimanami Tasogare (しまなみ誰そ彼 ) covers an enormous amount of ground.

What began as a story of a young man being bullied for appearing to others to be gay, (a sexuality he hadn’t come to terms with for himself) quickly becomes a tale of the community and family people who are sexual, romantic and gender minorities create for ourselves. 

Here in Volume 4, we get to experience stories about some of the individuals in Tasuku’s new community. Some of these bring us resolution of one kind or another. 

Haruko comes home to find Saki in hysterics. Her family has learned about her relationship with Haruko and she’s devastated. 

We learn that Chaico’s lover is dying in the hospital and he has only limited access because he is not family.

Tsubaki’s father is outing the folks at the salon all over town and it’ll take an act of bravery Tsubaki isn’t ready for to shut him up. Luckily for Tsubaki, Tasuku is ready to act now and he is at last able to stand up and say “I’m gay.”

Haruko and Saki visit Saki’s family, and facing them together, say that they want to be married. Saki’s mother rejoices, and her father comes to accept the thing he’s never wanted to admit.

Chaico’s lover’s son calls Chaico to his lover’s bedside so he is there when he dies.

And before the wedding Tasuku has a chance to invite Misora, so she can be there with her friends.

But the thing I really want to talk about is Dareka-san. I wondered out loud this morning how Dareka-san’s name will be translated. The character whose fearless leap off a roof begins this story remains a mystery at the end. It’s most likely that Seven Seas will go with a direct use of Dareka-san, and I hope that they will include a note that “dareka” means “Who is it?” or “Who?” This a no-name word, Mrs. Whatsit-like in it’s ambiguity. And while “Who” has entered the lexicon of fictitious name-construction with The Doctor and a Wrinkle in Time‘s Ms. Who, I would hope that rather than use a gendered English honorific, Dareka-san might get something more appropriate to their ambiguity, like Mx. Who. Probably all my thought on the topic is moot, and Jocelyne will just go with Dareka-san, but it’s still worth the mental effort of imagining how it might be rendered in a way that works in English and keeps both meaning and sense.

This volume front and centers issues of homophobia, harassment of and access, equality and representation for sexual and gender minorities in Japan and, while it’s not pointed, it doesn’t let society off the hook. But it probably can’t help itself when it ends with  a smile. This is the second LGBTQ media in a row that ends with a same-sex wedding in two days and this series is doing some groundbreaking of its own in Hibana magazine, side-by-side with Nishio Yuhta’s  After Hours. 

While 4 volumes seems too few, Shimanami Tasogare is a tightly wound, beautifully told story of the LGBTQ community in Japan, with both obstacles and triumphs laid out neatly for anyone to understand. 

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
LGBTQ – 10
Service – 1 on principle, there’s nothing salacious

Overall – 9

I look forward immensely to this series coming out next year in English and getting to hear your opinions!

Posted in LGBTQ | 4 Comments »


LGBTQ Cartoon: Steven Universe, Season 7

August 26th, 2018

Steven Universe, the blockbuster cartoon about a magical boy is groundbreaking in a dozen ways. In previous seasons, it has dealt with complicated feelings about family, shown us both abusive and functional relationships, discussed war trauma, and repeatedly discusses betrayal, trust, loyalty, friendship and love in its many forms. In a cartoon. For children.

In Season 7 (by Amazon’s reckoning,) Steven Universe delves deeply into those concepts of betrayal and trust. Very deeply. Very, very deeply. This season also complete the process of humanizing the Crystal Gems. In the first few seasons, it is very clear that human relationships are genuinely not a strong point for them. We see this even more starkly in flashbacks to their lives before Steven. In this season, we see the Gems resolve and move through a number of lingering issues by taking part in that humanest of excuses to party – a wedding.

The season begins with secrets, chaos and confusion and geas.
The season resolves with love.
The season ends in chaos and confusion and we have no idea what’s to come.

This season was amazing.

There was not one iota of rebuke or snark in Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding. This is not an episode – heck, it’s not a series – that ever thinks to say, “in your face, haters!” As Steven sings clearly for all of us, caught in the middle of interesting times, for just one day, let’s only think about love…

…and Nell Brinkley. And cowboys. And when the next soundtrack album will be coming out. And holy shit that ending! And all the other stuff. What a season. What a series.

I have repeatedly said in public – often on forums for which this is wildly inappropriate – I want a Peridot/Lapis fusion. I want them to become Azurite. And I want to talk about why. So buckle in.^_^

Someonesomewhere commented that they didn’t want a Peridot/Lapis fusion because they felt that fusions were always about “love.” But I want to talk about fusion, because while Sapphire and Ruby’s fusion is absolutely about love, we’ve seen so many kinds of fusion, from Rubies fusing to make a larger Ruby, to Amethyst and Pearl, whose Opal fusion is not once driven by love – but is instead driven by desire to protect Steven. And we’ve seen non-consensual fusion.

For me, fusion is about trust. Garnet’s words bear that out when she tells Greg that to fuse one must have a gem of light at the core of one’s being and a person who can be trusted with that light.

Lapis has been horribly emotionally scarred, from long before we met her and repeatedly after we do. She can’t trust. She’s never seen trust. Peridot keeps trying to trust Lapis, and getting hurt when she betrays that trust. The moment they fuse will be a profound change for a gem who has been our PTSD poster child. And, selfishly, I really want to see that moment. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 8 I love, love, love, the capsule-shaped fog on the Beach City Boardwalk
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – Sapphire in a tux counts for 4
Yuri – 9

Overall – 10

Gahh! January is so far away!

Posted in English Anime, LGBTQ, Steven Universe, Western Cartoons, Yuri Anime | 4 Comments »