Yuri Manga: Concerto (コンチェルト)

September 28th, 2011

I read Concerto under advisement from Yuricon Chief Lackey Bruce. I had no expectations and found myself pleasantly surprised.

Each chapter is a “Plot, what plot?” type story; i.e.. a very thin frame of a story wrapped around a sex scene. And while each and every story had the opportunity to become gross, exploitative or annoying…none of them did. I found myself slow to relax at first, all ready to be grossed out by bodily fluids and no real emotional commitment, but eventually it dawned on me that that wasn’t going to happen. By the final story, I was more or less in a “well, this was kinda nice” headspace.

In each chapter two girls are brought together by pretty typical tropes – mutual love of music/art, a sempai/kouhai story, a student/teacher thing, and the final story, which was worth a synopsis.

Two girls are staying together while the one’s parents are away. The are in love and are lovers, and playing at living together. When the parents come home and find them kissing, Mom is quick to see what was going on. The two girls run away. They take the train to nowhere, and spend what may well be their final night together. When they return the next day, they find Mom perfectly willing to be complicit in their secret relationship, because she also had a same-sex relationship in school, so just don’t tell Dad, ‘kay? It was a meaningless – and if I thought about it for too long, potentially enraging ending. So I decided not to think about it and take it for what it was, a meaningless handwave that gave the final story a happily-for-now ending.

Bruce noted that the artist, Hattori Mitsuru, is someone he’s been following for some time and who has long been just on the edge of a Yuri story. So, he’s really happy to see Hattori-sensei go full bore on the Yuri. I found the art pleasant enough and, indeed, it reminded me of a few doujinshi artists I’ve liked. But what made the book really readable was that all of the characters have or develop genuine affection for one another. It’s “Plot, what plot?” with love and kindness and caring. Not just sympathy sex or some other tortured setup. That makes a huge difference for my enjoyment level. Because what I like to read is stories of girls in love, not in heat. ^_^; I was rather happy that this collection was published by Hakusensha under the Jets Comics imprint. I haven’t seen anything Yuri from Jets in a really long time. Hakusensha is clearly investing in more Yuri these days, which makes me very happy.

In any case, thank you Bruce for this suggestion, it was a surprisingly pleasant read. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – Averaged out at 7
Characters – Same
Yuri- 9
Service – 6

Overall – 7

If you’re looking for a decent Yuri short story collection, Concerto is definitely worth taking a look at.

Posted in Yuri Manga | 4 Comments »


Morita-san ha Mukuchi (森田さんは無口) Manga, Volume 4

September 26th, 2011

Morita-san ha Mukuchi (森田さんは無口) must be a work of genius. It must be, because after 4 volumes of the same sort of daily life-nothing much I’m still reading it, still enjoying it and still giggling at the silly gags. 4 volumes of nothing much and I still like this manga. It MUST be a work of genius, seriously.

In Volume 4, absolutely nothing has changed. Mayu is still a untalkative high school girl, Hana’s family issues are still bad, Miki’s still interested in boys, and the girl who is stalking Mayu is still stalking her. The only difference is that she’s now thinking about actually speaking to her, if only that would work out. That’s one half the Yuri.

The other half is in the form of Yamamoto Ritsuki, who is increasingly popular with the girls. So much so, that on Valentine’s Day, she staggers into class with an enormous bag of candy on her back, like a chapman setting off to sell his goods. The look of exhaustion on her face speaks volumes, and so does the expression of pain with which she offers a single candy to each girl who gave her chocolate, with an apology that they all accept with a nod. If she were to buy real candy for all of her admirers, she’d clearly be broke.

There was one small thing that changed this volume – a change that I, for one, welcomed. Yamamoto, as competent, intelligent and calm as she is, showed that she isn’t as cool as everyone thinks. In fact, while all the girls are watching her…she’s watching them back. Yuridar strikes again! As I suspected, Yamamoto is one of us. ^_^

Like all 4-koma, one should not read Morita-san ha Mukuchi expecting great plot shifts. This series makes great bedtime reading- a few pages at a time, sends you to sweet dreams of the look on Mayu’s face when Hana plays with her hair, and Yamamoto’s secret interest in girls. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 6
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Mayu’s a good friend, and her friends are good friends. Watching the four of them together has not yet ceased to fill me with warmth.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »


K-On! Anime, Volume 3 (English)

September 25th, 2011

(I apparently never watched or reviewed Volume 2 of this series. Woops. I’ll do that asap.)

Summer has arrived for the girls in K-ON!, Volume 3 and, with the arrival of new recruit Azusa, they get to relive all the same moments of their first summer together over again!

And then there’s wacky old Yui, who still knows nothing at all about her guitar. Hee Hee. And let’s never stop mentioning Mio’s underwear, shall we?

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the band goofing off, not practicing, playing ball on the beach, etc,etc, but storywise, you have to admit, it does look a lot like the same episodes over again at this point. The big difference is this time they get a band name at the end of it.

Once again, I did not watching the dub, as I never do, nor did I listen to the interview with Ritsu’s dub actress. I did watch the English dub version of “My Love is A Stapler,” which my wife and I both thought sounded like a high school girl singing a song, so A for verisimilitude, but C on sounding good.

The thing is, the characters hit me in the right places and regardless of how utterly stupid, repetitive, superficial or banal this series is, I’m going to love it. There is no objectivity in me. ^_^

By now you either like the series, or not. If you’re waiting for me to convince you, I got nothing. This series is a feel-good piece of fluff and not a deep philosphical look at the meaning of life. Or, it’s a deep philosophical look at the meaning of life and I don’t care.

Of this series I said once that it is, like Mugi’s treats, refreshment not nutrition. I stand by that. As a day-at-the-beach-with-cotton-candy-and-fireworks of an anime, it just hits the spot every once in a while. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – Seriously? It’s moe. The backgrounds are rendered with loving care and the characters are blob-faced. 5
Story – Either you like this kind of comedic hyper-realism or you don’t. This time, I like it – 7
Characters- Separately, they are all kind of annoying. As a team, they work for me – 8
Yuri – 0, see below
Service – 98%, because Mio’s underwear! and Yui hugging Azusa obviously means they have bodily-fluid filled sex, duh.

Overall – 8

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Eric P. for sponsoring today’s review and making me whistle “Don’t Say Lazy” all day. ^_^

Posted in English Anime, K-ON | 6 Comments »


Yuri Network News – September 24, 2011

September 24th, 2011

Snatches of Yuri

In the June issue of Nakayoshi, magazine “Your Melody (キミノネイロ) starts off with two girls kissing and a chapter-load full of ambiguous feelings…and no real plot. I don’t imagine this is meant to be a “Yuri” series, but you have to admit that Nakayoshi has been turning up the heat these days with lily-scented stories.

Horror comic Naname no Ongaku II (ななめの音楽) looks pretty darn Yuri.

And Machikado Hana da Yori (街角花だより) is scoring high on Japanese Yuri lists.

***

Yuri Manga

On her blog, Morinaga Milk-sensei debuts the cover of Comic High magazine with the first reprinted chapter of Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo.

The 15th volume of Hayate x Blade special edition, will include a HxB doujinshi by Hayashiya-sensei! I’ve been a fan of her doujinshi work as Jesus Drug for ages, so I’m dying to see what she does with her own characters.

Italian Yuri fans have something to celebrate – the Italian language edition of Rica Takashima’s Rica ‘tte Kanji!? is now available from RenBooks. To celebrate, they created this adorable commercial spot:

***

Other News

From Twitter, Deb Aoki points us to the Today Show website’s article  “From Kevin Keller to Batwoman, gay characters take center stage in comic books.” While I think “taking center stage” is obvious hyperbole, it does seem that gay and lesbian characters are more open than previously.

***

That’s a wrap for this week.

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 Hayashiya Shizuru, Morinaga Milk, Yuri Network News | 1 Comment »


Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) Volume 5

September 24th, 2011

I have a problem with Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (ピュア百合アンソロジー ひらり) Volume 5. It’s pretty much the same problem I’ve had since the beginning. It’s a pretty problematic problem for a series called “Pure Yuri Anthology.” The problem is –  there’s pretty much no Yuri in it.

My standards for Yuri are relatively relaxed. But you know…I do actually expect some expression of emotional or physical connection between two female characters. Stories in Hirari do have “emotional” connection, but it almost always tends to be “OMG, she noticed me! We can be friends? Really? She won’t hate me because I’m….?”

Sometimes a story actually strays into “I’m jealous when she spends time with anyone else,” (as in “Salomelic,” Hakamada Mera’s story) territory, but almost any story in the anthology is easier to read as “friendship” than love, romance or desire.

This is probably the last volume of Hirari, I’ll review, because clearly “pure Yuri” is what I see as friendship. Unless something really stands out, I won’t bother mentioning this anthology again.

Overall – 6

I prefer more Yuri in my “Yuri” than this anthology is willing to give. Forget moving past schoolgirls, this magazine hardly gets as far as “I like you.”

Posted in Hirari, Yuri Manga | No Comments »