Archive for the Yuri Manga Category


Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 2

July 29th, 2022

Hello, Melancholic!, Volume 2 is, quite possibly, my favorite single volume of a school life Yuri story ever. ^_^

Minato faces her greatest challenge – performing with the band in public. We understood that she was traumatized by her former bandmates. But here, she is in the unenviable position of facing them down once again. Not only does she rise to the occasion, she excels! Minato, bolstered by Hibiki, Chika, Sachiko and Emma, faces down the fears of her previous self and moves past them.

For that alone, I loved this book. It’s not enough to know what’s held us back – we also have to keep moving forward. Minato takes a whopping huge step forward when she takes control of the audience. It won’t fix all her self-esteem issues, but it puts her in a much better place from which to address the rest.

From there on, this becomes a much more conventional Yuri romance story, but now, here, we’re open to it. The Minato that was terrified of standing out could never have been a partner to anyone, but the Minato that can confidently stand on the stage, can. And so we turn our attention to Chika and Sachiko and find out that there’s a whole lot we don’t know about them.

There’s still a lot for Minato and Hibiki to work through. As I said of this volume in Japanese, “I cannot tell you why, exactly, I want Minato to be happy – although there are a lot of superficially obvious reasons that I might feel that way – but I really want Minato to be happy. If Hibiki can make her happy, I’m all in for them. But I also know that there’s a lot standing between them before they get there…among them Minato herself. She’s a walking bundle of insecurity and hesitation. Ohsawa Yayoi’s come so far in the last few years – Minato’s expressions are really something. ^_^” 

That said, as we get ready for Volume 3 to come out in November, we are right there with them, ready to lend our good wishes. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9 More conflict in this volume is a good thing, as Minato becomes less passive
Characters – 9
Service – 1
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Another fantastic effort from Margaret Ngo, Marykate Jasper, Mo Harrison, H. Qi, Leighhanna DeRouen, B.Lillian Martin, Jenn Grunigen, and everyone on the Seven Seas team! This manga makes me cheer, every time. ^_^





Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ)

July 28th, 2022

Let’s start with the most important thing in Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts, Volume 4 (欠けた月とドーナッツ) – this was the perfect, most exactly correct ending to this series that we could have hoped for. ^_^  I don’t want to spoil this in the least, but I have to say that some of the aro/ace representation that other series teased (and disappointed all of us in the process) is solidly presented here. It’s all handled with a lovely human warmth that suited the characters and the tone of the story.

How we get to the this perfect ending gives us the first few bits of real conflict we’ve had in the series. These, too, are wholly within the main theme of “being human is difficult, and communication is scary, but it’s better for everyone than not communicating.” Fuuka laid out her feelings for Asahi in Volume 3 now, she tells, Hinako, it’s your turn. Easily said, but both Hinako and Asahi have some hurdles they need to get past before they are free to address their feelings. 

Hinako’s mother comes to visit, and Hinako finally tells her something of importance. They have what may have been the only real conversation they’d had to that point. It lifts the burden Hinako has been carrying all these years of being the kind of person her mother wants her to be. This scene held a lot of resonance for me. As I typed this, it dawned on me that I was about the same age as Hinako, too, when I finally shed the last of my parents’ expectations.

Asahi’s burden is a different one, as she’s assumed it for Subaru…who has been clear that she’s ready to carry her own life now. Subaru and Fuuka team up to give Asahi the space to work through her own issues on her own without them to lean on. I’ll leave the catalyst for her revelation a mystery for now, because it was utterly cute and…us. ^_^

And then we get the exactly right ending for this series. ^_^

Watching the art and storytelling develop during this series has been a pleasure. Watching Shio-sensei stick the landing…priceless.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Character – 10
Service – 0
Yuri – 10

Overall – 10

I can’t wait for you all to read this! We’ll be getting Doughnuts Under A Crescent Moon, Volume 4 in February of 2023.

This makes 4 volumes in one week of women building found families and I am just over the moon. With or without doughnuts. ^_^





Comic Yuri Hime August 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年8月号)

July 27th, 2022

Comic Yuri Hime August 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年8月号) begins with a seasonally appropriate colorful travel image that put me in mind of nothing so much as a beach ball. ^_^

In Takeshima Eku’s “Sasayakuyouni Koi wo Utau” Yori and Himari face a crisis of spending an evening alone together without parental supervision. Of COURSE our good girls are adorably sweet and cute about it. Kisses and embraces are shared and we all smile gently at them.

The air conditioning is broken and Ruriko proposes that she and Kurumi camp out in the living room in “Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita” by Usui Shio. Sleeping together in a way that they do not normally do, has Kurumi thinking about their lives together and finding it…nice.

Three for three on sleep-cutes this month, because Haru and Hinoto wake up extra early on their day off and decide to walk around their new home town while it’s empty and dark. They watch it wake up. After breakfast, they head back home for a sleep until noon. I adore this series by Keyyang. I’m all in for people just being happy together. Please…tell me more about your little town and how cute those pajamas are and how yummy breakfast is!

Ru’s “Natsu to Lemon to Overlay” is leaning hard into the “what is her motivation for dying?”  Konno-san is a mystery, but I hope we’re not being oversold on this as a plot.

We continue to wallow with Nene in “Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto Desu!” Her relationships with Sumika and Youko are starting to spiral together. Youko has clearly set them all up for revenge on Sumika, but I hope Nene and Kanako can maybe reverse the trajectory, if only they’d have a conversation.

Aaaahh! “The Scales of Love” arc has begun and Manaria-sama has arrived in “Watashi no Oshi ha Akuyaku Reijou.”! I love Aonoshimo-sensei’s casually boyish Manaria, taking down Rod with a “snap.” I’m ecstatic that this manga has gotten to Volume 2 of thr novels. At the very least, I hope we get through the Revolution arc. I say that, but tomorrow the 5th volume of the Light Novel lands on your digital devices and I cannot *wait* for you to read it! So I really mean- I hope that we get every last piece of this story. Every side thought, every reversed perspective. Everything.

Utatane Yuu’s “Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru” moves past trauma into training! Michiru and Kiki have a long way to go. This issue, they discover how long that road will be.

Sacred Dance by Miko Yuri wasn’t on my bingo card, but…now it is, with “Tsugai Miko no Nijimusubi” by Nanaji Yuuki.

Inui Ayu visits Kon-san’s family in this issue of “Kyou mo Hitotsu Yane no Shita.” In-law visits are fraught, but we are reminded that so is visiting one’s own family. ^_^;

Ohi Pikachi gets a little personal in this issue of “Pillow Talk ha Fuku wo Kite.” ^_^

As always, this is only part of what I read. I’m so excited for the Scales of Love arc, honestly the rest of the magazine could be crap and I’d be happy, but along with cute girls and cute women doing nothing and sex-focused stuff, there’s a lot of strong stories in here and enough to satisfy mostly all Yuri fans. Needs a little more action. And sports. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

The September 2022 issue is on sale now and waiting for me at the store! Speaking of which. The Kinokuniya in Edgewater, NJ has By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga in stock! If you buy it through them, you’ll get a signed bookplate. If it’s not in your local Kinkokuniya, ask them to order it and have them contact me, I’m glad to send them bookplates, as well.

 





Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya (毎月庭つき大家つき)

July 25th, 2022

Suga Asako finds herself alone quite suddenly when her partner decides their relationship is just not working. But her friend Hato isn’t listening because she’s more upset that Miyako, the lead singer of her favorite group, has walked off stage and disappeared.

Asako doesn’t give herself too much time to mope. She finds a new place to live. It’s a cute little detached house, with a garden and a room she can use for her work as a manga editor. The landlady seems super nice, so Asako takes it and gets settled in. Then one day, she notices a ladder to an upstairs room, where she finds her landlady chilling. The landlady calmly points out that,yes, she did not mention she was living in the attic room, but on the other hand, Asako did sign the contract which read, “maitsuki niwatsuki ooyatsuki.” Monthly, with garden, with landlady.

It’s not like the landlady is a creeper. Asako ends up cooking for both of them, as the landlady is fairly useless at that. But that’s not really a problem. Asako is sure, however she’s seen the landlady somewhere. Yep, you guessed it. Her landlady is he former lead singer of Elm, Miyako. This volume wraps up with a whole chapter of a minor conflict that is wrapped up instantly. 

What follows in Maitsuki Niwatsuki Ooyatsuki – Monthly With Ooya (毎月庭つき大家つき) is a nice comic about two people who have had their lives uprooted, trying to set down some new roots for themselves. This makes three books in a row for me with this same theme. ^_^ I swear it’s not on purpose, but I have to say that most of my favorite stories right now are about adult women forming connections with other adult women, not just romantic or sexual attraction, although those sometimes are in the mix. What is appealing to me, specifically, is the idea of intimacy that does not rely on sex. That said, I didn’t pick up this book knowing that this was the story! I picked this book up on the strength of the artist’s name. We seen Yodokawa-sensei in any number of Yuri anthologies. They’ve had at least one collection of short stories, but this is the first serialized book I’ve seen from them and I was totally willing to take a chance on this. So far this is not Yuri, per se. There’s implication and possibility, and Yodokawa is the creator., so we have a high chance of Yuri.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 0
Found family  – 8

Overall – 8

Whether it becomes a romance or stays a found family narrative doesn’t matter to me in the slightest. As it is, my to-read pile is 80% found family, intimacy between adult women – with and without romance and I’m just delighted, frankly. ^_^ More of this please!





I Can’t Believe I Slept With You, Volume 2

July 22nd, 2022

In Volume 1, we met Koduka, unemployed and kind of a hopeless mess. Without a job or money, Koduka strikes a bargain with her landlady – her rent for “favors.” Due to alcohol and desperation, her first “favor” is sex. The landlady is upset with herself for going there, and resets their favors to holding hands or going shopping together. Unbeknownst to Koduka, the landlady is, actually, in love with her.

In I Can’t Believe I Slept With You, Volume 2, a new tenant moves in to the building and in on Koduka. Once Setouchi sees how the landlady reacts to this, she wisely backs off. But now Koduka has a new friend…one she may be able to confide in? Setouchi admits that she missed out on love with a woman due to her own doubts. We learn that one of the major problems here is that Koduka may be interested, but she’s definitely clueless. That said, everyone – Setouchi and Koduka’s best friend, are doing their level best to clue Koduka in. It works! But there’s another hurdle. As a gay woman, the landlady is unwilling to confess to someone she thinks is straight and digging herself further in on not believing Koduka can possibly like her that way.

Koduka’s favors are getting sweeter and more personalized, which has the landlady struggling. She is sure Koduka isn’t interested in her, but Koduka is not sure at all about that. A discussion with her friend Aoi makes her more convinced that she does have feelings for the landlady…but her attempts at honesty are now shrugged off as “favors.”

This series is very much at a turning point here in Volume 2. Either it resolves next volume…or it becomes the worst kind of romantic comedy, where two people who like each other and would be fine together…aren’t, because reasons. The good news is that in this volume Koduka makes a step away from hapless. Now we need the landlady to move away from hopeless. If Volume 3 sets them up for success, I’ll be very pleased. We’ll find out in November when volume 3 hits shelves in English!

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7, but there is a shift here, at least on Koduka’s side
Characters – 7, same.
Service – 5 a breast or two
Yuri – 8 Not just the main couple, either.

Overall  – Still holding at 7

For what is, if we are being honest, a weak set-up, there’s enough humanity in the characters that I want to see that they will be happy.