Click on the image for the full size and have fun guessing. ^_^ As usual, the bags on the left are full of the wife’s stickers and paper goods, which would be excruciating to unpack/repack.
Home from Japan
I had every intention of writing posts to let you follow me on my most recent trip to Japan, but Google decided it would NOT let me sign in from a foreign country and I didn’t have the time or energy to fight them, so…sorry, for the blog silence.
We’re home and I’ll do my best to report on Maiden’s Garden, Comitia and our other adventures as the week progresses. In the meantime, here’s what we bought this time, not yet unboxed or unbagged. ^_^
Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 10 (楽園 Le Paradis)
While not unexpected, Rakuen Le Paradis, Volume 10 (楽園 Le Paradis) was full of some fabulous stuff. What is always unexpected is the stuff to which my reaction is “eewwwww.”
For a magazine that has several of my absolute favorite series, by several of my favorite artists, it amazes me how many series it also has which instill in me a violent loathing. Kinda cool, huh? This is a magazine that is utterly unafraid of extremes. For every “Collectors” there’s something utterly vile by Rendou Kurosaki. (And this issue was particularly horrid.) For every miserable, creepy chapter of “Nisemono Honeytrap” there’s a refreshingly realistic chapter of “Kakera no Omoi.”
Reading a volume of Rakuen Le Paradise is a bit bipolar – “Yay!” “Boo!” “Yay!” “Boo!” At least I’m never bored!
Overall – 8
But seriously, this issue’s Kurosaki story was just nasty.
Yuri Manga: Poor Poor Lips, Volume 4 (プアプアLIPS)
In keeping with “books that are entirely unexpected” week, I’d like to talk around the edges of Poor Poor LIPS, Volume 4 (プアプアLIPS). For the very first time, perhaps, in Okazu’s history I am almost entirely sure that you’ll be able to read this in English through JManga, eventually, and so I do not want to spoil any of it.
I will tell you this – Poor Poor LIPS screwed with my head. Not for the plot so much as for the little things stuck in the corners. And honestly, I can’t really even begin to discuss them, without giving anything away. So, I’m going to confine myself to saying that Volume 4 was better than I expected, harder to read than I expected and was almost all entirely, unexpected.
Ratings:
Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – I’m not telling ^_^
Service – 4
Overall – 8
Now, you’ll have to read it, just to find out what happens. ^_^
Yuri Manga: Comic Yuri Hime, November 2012 (コミック百合姫)
Rather than run down each story with a quick synopsis today, I really want to just say this about the November 2012 issue of Comic Yuri Hime (コミック百合姫):
This was quite possibly the most amazing volume of Comic Yuri Hime ever published.
Story after story, I found myself saying, “Wow, what a weird/unusual/unique story.” From the cover, which was a story of its own, a departure from the normal cover art, to a high school Yuri version of Well of Loneliness to a relationship in a war-torn country, to black magic-advice-offering goat-headed net idols, almost no story did what I expected it to do. My eyebrows spent a great deal of time pushed way up toward my hairline.
If you haven’t been reading Comic Yuri Hime, get this volume. It’s half insane, half carefully calulated to sell stuff, and surprisingly out of the normal.
Hot damn.
Ratings:
Overall – 10
