Yuri Manga: Himitsu no Kakera (秘密のカケラ)

December 5th, 2014

himitsunokakeraFujisawa Makoto’s Himitsu no Kakera (秘密のカケラ) is the pleasantest thing I have read all week. ^_^

The cover story “Sore wo Omoi no Kakera” features to goat-horned school girls. When one hands over what is clearly a love letter, her love interest eats it. Yuki tries to explain that Yoru’s feelings tasted delicious, but it’s not until Yoru gives her Yuki gives a love letter in return and is immediately driven to eat it that she understands.

This is followed by two very short, average stories. I was getting a bit worried that this would be just another Yuri manga, when we hit “Hontou to Uso to Himitsu.”

The bulk of the book is taken up with this truly delightful story about a witch with a secret identity and the girl she meets one night while out riding her broom. This story was adorable and fun in every way and it made me feel good while reading it.  Even the set up turned out better than I thought it might – at first Sakurako seems like she’s going to be following a step along, but once she and Misors (the witch) meet at school, the story flips the script and she’s  an active participant in their tale. Even Bianca’s apparent tsundere behavior sort of wanders off, so by the end of the story, there isn’t anybody left to not like and one is rooted hard for the protagonists. As I said, a real delight.

Ratings:

Art – 7 Very Comic Yuri Hime house style, not overly infantilized, but still moe.
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Yuri – 7 Like, mostly
Service – 3

Overall – 9

Good, good, good all around. Buy it – read it, look at the pretty pictures, whatever, but do get Himitsu no Kakera!

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 3 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (明日の君に花束を)

December 4th, 2014

AshitanokiminiKatakura Ako’s Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (明日の君に花束を) is a collection of shorts from Comic Yuri Hime and while there are a number of reasonably typical setups – sempai and kouhai with varying levels of complexity – but there is one story that really stood out.

“Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” – which supplies the cover image is a multichapter piece about a girl who falls for her friend’s mother…and another chapter about the friend’s feeling about this. It’s hard to feel completely comfortable with the story, though, as the mother is married and the father is alive and well. This story fills most of the middle of this volume. It both likable and unlikable in mesure – and often for the same reasons. For the feeling of being made uncomfortable by a story one is actually enjoying, this is worth reading. It’s good leavening.

All the stories get one-page epilogues in the final section of the book, and to be honest the epilogue for “Lily Maguerite to Kasumisou” is no less unsettling.

Katakura-sensei’s art is pretty solid, vaguely reminiscent of Konno Kita, without the air of refinement.

Ratings:

Art – 8 YMMV, but I like it
Story – 6
Characters – 6 We have no time with anyone, except Yukuko, through whose eyes we see the relationship between her mother and friend
Yuri – 7
Service – 3

Overall – 7

I probably would not suggest this book to a Yuri beginner, but it’s a decent enough collection.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | No Comments »


Light Novel: Oshaka-sama mo Miteru: Hotaru no Hikaru (お釈様もみてる 蛍のヒカル)

December 2nd, 2014

hotaruThe path splits before you. On the right it goes straight up a steep hill, right through the forest in a direct route. On the left, the path is less steep, but it makes a wide detour. A young man stands in front of the split in the road, with a student notebook with a black cover visible in his pocket.

Kashiwagi Suguru is graduating from Hanadera Academy. Annoying as he is (and he is certainly that) Fukuzawa Yuuki has to admit that “Hikaru no Kimi” as his fans in the school style him, is leaving and Yuuki hasn’t had a chance to say “thank you.” Arisu is knitting goodbye sweaters, and everyone else seems content to let him leave the Student Council without any special  event – in fact, Andre-sempai has arranged a rock-scissor-papers tournament to give Kashiwagi’s stuff away – but Yuuki has nothing to give his important and influential sempai. This is the plot of Oshaka-sama mo Miteru: Hotaru no Hikaru. (お釈様もみてる 蛍のヒカル)

As incoming Student Council President, Yuuki is responsible for the farewell message on behalf of the student body at graduation. He’s warned that the Genji (athletic clubs) and the Heishi (culture clubs) are planning to prank him. As he writes the farewell message, a pressure builds within him to say goodbye to Kashiwagi. He runs around the school, looking for his mentor, at last finding him where they first met. He finally has his chance to say thank you. And to ask Kashiwagi who, exactly, gave him his nickname? Kashiwagi’s response is surprising – he had 4 eboshi oya – the Hanadera version of a sempai. (Just as Arisu has two – both the Yakushiji twins.) It was a former Vice President of the student council who gave him his nickname. As they part, Kashiwagi almost kisses Yuuki, but Yuuki stops him.

The graduation ceremony begins. As it progresses, Yuuki begins to get nervous. When he finally stands up on the dais, he notices that the room has become darker. And, suddenly, the nature of the “joke” the clubs were playing on him is made plain. Everyone has removed the red or white cover of their student notebooks that denote whether they are Heishi or Genji, so they, like him, are bearing a black notebook. Yuuki is moved deeply by this show of support for him. He realizes that this was the student body’s way of letting them know they are 100% behind him. He finishes his farewell and sit, dazed.

As he leaves the school that day, he runs into Kashiwagi once again. Standing just where the road splits, not thinking that he’d be seen by other students, Yuuki gives Kashiwagi the one farewell gift he has to give him – he kisses Kashiwagi. And immediately thinks that was his first and last kiss with a guy. ^_^

A chapter of his life is over, but as the book closes, Yuuki feels like something new has begun.

47 books – novels, short story collections, guides to the series, 8 volumes of manga, 4 seasons of anime and a live-action movie – later, the Maria-sama ga Miteru/Oshaku-sama mo Miteru has finally come to an end. Or has it? In the afterword, Konno-sensei says she’s not sayin’. The story as we know it is over. As Yumi’s story ended with Sachiko’s graduation, it fits that Yuuki’s ended with Kashiwagi’s. But she made no promise that she wouldn’t revisit Lillian or Hanadera in the future.

I had been reading this final chunk of the series a bit out of obligation, a bit because I wanted some connection, no matter how tenuous, but at the very end, Konno-sensei was still able to surprise and move me. In the end, it was worth every minute spent reading this book.

Thank you Konno-sensei, it was a blast. I look forward to your next series. ^_^

Posted in Light Novel, Light Novels | 2 Comments »


Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, September 2014 (コミック百合姫)

December 1st, 2014

CYH1409The September 2014 Issue of Comic Yuri Hime  (コミック百合姫) was the most unreadable issue since Comic Yuri Hime S was re-absorbed into the main publication.

Unless you like sisters in love, animal-eared fetuses in frilly dresses, stories of friends in which no feelings of romance exist at all, and all the other not-two-girls-who are-together-and-the-story-happens possible permutations of “Yuri” there is very, very little for you to enjoy.

There was very little for me to enjoy here. Which is not to say there was nothing. Just not much. Continuing stores continue, there are a few bright spots here and there.

Comic Yuri Hime, having driven away almost all my favorite artists, and having boxed the remainder into “infantile moe schoolgirls” has set the clock back to 2000, with an audience who likes Yuri waiting for someone to publish a decent Yuri magazine. Even as Yuri as a genre is getting serious attention,Yuri anthology magazines have hit rock bottom.

Well, time to shake ourselves off and start again! I will be here when they get back. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 2

I’ll be honest, the continuation of Yuri Danshi and Yuri Yuri enrages me. Enough already. They are not funny, not entertaining and not Yuri. End them already and give that space to something with actual Yuri. Please.

Posted in Comic Yuri Hime, Yuri Manga | 20 Comments »


Yuri Live Action Series: Carmilla

November 30th, 2014

I sat down this week to watch VerveGirl TV’s Carmilla web series. 2+ hours later I finished it up and thought, “Well that was pretty damn good!”

I had a chance to read Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire classic just a few years ago. I liked the idea of the story, just wished someone would execute it better. I’m not sure I’d call this “better”, but it was entertaining and, as you know, that is what I like my entertainment to be.  To help you decide if you might find Carmilla entertaining, I created a little Venn diagram:

CarmillaRight from the first moment, there is a strong hint of the snarky-cute-noir campus dynamic feel of Veronica Mars, particularly with the fraternity, the “Zetas”, (and a flat-out reference to the show) combined with the faux-monster horror-comedy of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. The latter is particularly strong from the moment we meet Carmilla, who anyone watching might see as inspired by Faith from Buffy. There’s a fair dollop of Nightvaleish Lovecraftian  dialogue as well. (You could easily make a case for two more circles in the diagram above reading “Familiar with Lovecraft mythos” and “Listens to Welcome to Nightvale.”  There’s a lot of overlap between those and the above, I imagine and I would not presume at all that I am the only one with all of these in my pocket. ^_^)

One could easily watch this if one knew – and enjoyed – any of these series, but it’s when one has actually read Le Fanu’s story, the whole thing begins to gel. Carmilla is a leather goth, Faith-like in her lack of giving a shit, Laura is an intrepid journalism student who keeps a video blog of events, which is a lovely analogy to the letter-writing diary of the original story. They are joined by dorm floor monitor and her genderqueer friend, who are, in fact, Madame Perrodon and Madamoiselle La Fontaine.

There are other touches that appeal, the visions of the black cat-like creature, or the child in white, the fact that Laura’s father is overprotective. Nothing terribly heavy-handed, just a light stoke here and there.

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Episodes are short – most run about 5 minutes. The budget is low, but the video-log framework means that the story takes place almost entirely as narration from Laura and her friends in her dorm room. Together, the 36 episodes run about 2 and half hours for what is a coherent reworking of Carmilla. I especially liked the puppet show version of Carmilla’s personal history.

At the beginning of the series, right out of the box, Laura develops a crush on her TA Danny. Danny, leader of a Amazonian campus sports group is a good candidate for Laura’s affection and the tension between them is strong. But Carmilla worms her way into Laura’s heart and even before the climax comes, it’s obvious that she’s won the battle for Laura. Neither of these are subtext. I think you could make a good case for Perry and LaFontaine, as well, but there are complications there. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall  – 10

While it’s not the so-sexy gauze and castle version this story really deserves, I’m comfortable giving this Carmilla top marks. It was a lot of fun. Good characters, fun writing, short webisodes, free. And La Fontaine saying what I was thinking about vampires. Yeah, 10. I’m good with that.

Posted in Live Action | 12 Comments »