Yuri Manga: Cider to Nakimushi (サイダーと泣き虫)

November 17th, 2015

CtNm-275x401Canno burst onto the Yuri scene in 2014 with her delightful school series Anoko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo. It gained enough popularity that, when Yuri Hime Comics started buying up the back lists of Yuri creators, putting together their previously un-published or doujinshi works, it seemed a natural fit. The resulting collection is Canno’s Cider to Nakimushi (サイダーと泣き虫).

The two main series in the book are completely unalike, which is both good and disconcerting. The first mini-series follows Mifuyu and Natsuko, childhood friends whose relationship has become complicated over time. The series draws in several of their acquaintances, as well, as they all try to parse various relationships (and non-relationships) between them. Mifuyu is the crybaby of the title, her tear-stained face is a common site through the series.

We then turn to a much sillier 4-panel comic strip series about an occult club at school. It is, as most strips are, “heh” funny, not laugh out loud funny.

The collection wraps up with a couple of one-shots and a return to the first series for a gag comic.

If you like Canno’s work, you’ll like this book. If you are not a fan, you’ll find it less compelling, but it’s still a solid, if not necessarily inspiring, Yuri collection.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 1 on principle

Overall – 7

Not a must-have, but it’s a pleasant bedtime read.

Posted in Canno, Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Mebae, Volume 4 (メバエ 4)

November 16th, 2015

download6-e1430358570192 The newest Yuri anthology on the block, Mebae, continues on with a Volume 4, and so I guess I’m going to have to start taking it seriously now. ^_^

The stories vary widely, but there are still clear indications in both contributing artists and content that indicates that, despite the protagonists mostly being schoolgirls, the audience is presumed to be adult men who like reading stories about schoolgirls. Nonetheless, there were a few stories I found appealing. Among these, it was a surprise and delight to read the Kurogane Kenn story which combined the end of the world and girl’s love in a rather romantic way.

The most wonderful story was, IMHO, Matsuzaki Miyuki’s “Duet”, which followed two young ladies doing ballet as friends and rivals, until their relationship is strained by the rivalry. The end, in which they do a pas de deux together as professional dancers made me extremely happy. ^_^ Most importantly, the pas de deux is done both in women’s roles/costumes. That was especially nice.

So, yeah, I’m going to have to stop treating this magazine like a fly-by-night and acknowledge it as the successor to Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari that it is.

Ratings:

Overall – 7, but I’m following a couple of the series now, so maybe 8 since I’m in a good mood. ^_^

Volume 5 hits shelves the end of November 2015.

Posted in Mebae, Yuri Anthology, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Yuri Network News – (百合ネットワークニュース) – November 14, 2015

November 14th, 2015

YNN_MariKLGBTQ Game

Famitsu reports some exciting news – Japanese RPG Lucent Heart will feature same-sex relationships and marriages as options. Check out the link for absurdly cute screenshots of potential couples. ^_^

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Yuri Manga

Japanese Yuri fans are enthused about the Yuri-service of new series Shoujo Kessen Origa (少女決戦オルギア), which is running in Young Magazine. It’s promoting itself as a girls’ battle royale, so we can guess what it’ll be like. ^_^

From Comic Yuri Hime, fans of Sound! Euphonium can look forward to band-themed 12 Minute no Etude by Nakahara Tsubaki, (12分のエチュード).

Fans of Takemiya Jin will be pleased that she has a new collection, See-saw x Game. (シーソー×ゲーム)

Also from Yuri Hime, we have Aoto Hibiki’s school comedy, Prince Princess (プリンスプリンス).

Yuri Anthology Mebae (メバエ) is still cranking out questionable content with a Volume 5. ^_^;

For fans of something completely different, we have the third volume of Hayate x Blade 2, yay! (はやて×ブレード2) and Himawari-san, Volume 6 (ひまわりさん).

The January issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫2016年1月号) hits shelves in Japan this coming week.

Other News

HuffPo has a list of 11 Lesbians in History you should know. The presumption that you don’t know them is irritating, but that’s where we are in the world of clickbait headlines. It’s still worth looking at.

Sam Bosma’s amazing kids’ series Fantasy Sports (of which I reviewed – and adored –  Volume 1,) is continuing in Spring 2016 with Volume 2.

I want to wrap up with something extremely personal. In the US, Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away. I make it a practice of being explicitly thankful all the time, but this year especially so. As many of you know, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis three years ago, but I am holding my own and plan on running a 5K this coming Thanksgiving. For the asthmatic kid I was, this is daunting, but as much as I’ll never enjoy running, it’s a way to make sure my body is still doing what I command it to do, MS be damned. The 5K benefits a local food pantry and literacy volunteers, and since food and reading are two of the most important things in my life, this seems a good fit for me. ^_^

So my point is – if you have a few dollars to spare this Thanksgiving, please donate to a food pantry and/or literacy volunteer group local to you. You will be helping real people – your neighbors – to not go hungry, to find hope or escape in a book, or be able to fill out a form that might get them a job or benefits. That would mean a lot to me. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for your continued support for Okazu and me!

Know some cool Yuri News you want people to know about? Become a Yuri Network Correspondent by sending me any Yuri-related news you find. Emails go to anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com. Not to the comments here, please, or they might be forgotten or missed. There’s a reason for this madness. This way I know you are a real human, not Anonymous (which I do not encourage – stand by your words with your name!) and I can send you a YNN correspondent’s badge.

Thanks to all of you – you make this a great Yuri Network!

Posted in Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


MURCIÉLAGO Manga, Volume 5 (ムルシエラゴ)

November 12th, 2015

81iKv39r5MLIn MURCIÉLAGO, Volume  5 (ムルシエラゴ), we return to the tried and true formula of Team Kuroko helping out little girls who are inexplicably being stalked and murdered by a big creepy old guy. It’s not a particularly exciting formula, but it works for this series.

Somewhat more interestingly, Kuroko takes the opportunity to seduce the mother of one of the missing girls, giving us the opportunity to see that she’s still not a good guy.

Team Kuroko is in fine form and takes out the creepy dude quickly and we turn our attention to the return of the assassin from the deadly maze arc. I’m hoping the next arc wallows a bit in beating the crap out of gang guys, with some light assassination on the side.

I find this manga relaxing in a horrible way. Nothing will be less than vile, I don’t have to worry that it might not be the worst possible thing ever. It will be. ^_^ And it will also be ridiculously silly. Not at the same time, though.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Service – 10
Yuri – 9 Kuroko is very gay

Overall – 8

Hey, did you know that there is a Lamborghini Murciélago? I didn’t know that until a week or two ago. I have no idea if it has any relationship to the manga title but Murciélago is also Spanish for “bat.” In case you were wondering.

Posted in MURCIÉLAGO | 3 Comments »


Western Comics: Valor Anthology (English)

November 11th, 2015

ValorWhether they begin “Once upon a time…” or “Mukashi, mukashi…,” fairy tales all begin some time a long time ago, quite often in places without real names. The kingdoms are feudal, evil mostly comes in the form of magic and/or giant beasts that must be defeated and slayed. And, as so many people have commented so many times, they usually star a young man who achieves greatness…and gets the girl as a reward. If you’re an active, self-willed young lady, this can become irritating over time. You start looking around and you find the story of Vasalisa, who uses wits and luck to overcome the witch Baba Yaga, read Barbara Walker’s Feminist Fairy Tales or more contemporary stories like Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch. In fact, it’s hard to not roll one’s eyes at the idea of reworking fairy tales as, by now, it seems to have been done to death. If you’re a gay girl, there’s even Melinda Lo’s Ash, to give Cinderella a much cooler lover than a prince with a shoe fetish.

In Valor, a Kickstarter funded anthology, 24 creators take a look at stories that we know, unravel them, rethink them, revamp them, reweave them and sometimes just create something wholly new and amazing. The collection spans multiple cultures, with both prose and graphic stories.

Some of the stories are merely riffs on well-known tales, such as the above-mentioned story of “Vasalisa,” retold by Kadi Fedoruk or the “Crane Wife,” rendered here by Alex Singer and Jayd Ait-Kaci, and some are wholly original tales, such as the prose “Finette” by Megan Lavey-Heaton and Ran Brown or the gorgeous no-text graphic “Nautilus” by Ash Barnes and Elena “Yamino” Babarich.

Several stories are reworkings of timeless and well-known stories. Of these, my two favorites were “The Steadfast Automaton” again by Alex Singer and Jayd Ait-Kaci, which was a steampunk/scifi version of the Constant Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson with heavy shades of Offenbach’s opera, Tales of Hoffman…and “Goldie Locks,” by Joanne Webster and Isabelle Melançon, a clever and fun riff on the classic tale of breaking and entering.

So, while it may seem that this anthology has “been done,” I’d argue that there can never, ever be enough versions of timeless tales. Heck, I wrote a series of  Sailor Moon/Arthurian Legend mashups. How can there *ever* be too many reworkings of archetypes?! And in the case of Valor, we have certainly not seen this version of these fairytales done this way before.

There is a nice selection of sexualities in the collection, as well. Some of the heroines get a prince, others get a princess and all get themselves which, in many ways, is the best ending of all.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

You can buy Valor online, and frankly, I think you should. It’s an entertaining collection full of things you’ve never read before – even if you have read them before. ^_^

Posted in English Manga, LGBTQ, Western Comic/Comix | 5 Comments »